Davison Chart Placements

The calculation in chapter nine of Synastry begins with the instant halfway between two births and the arithmetic mean of their latitudes and longitudes. Davison then adjusts the time so the relationship Midheaven equals a midpoint of the natal Midheavens. The preliminary clock time selects which of the two opposite Midheaven midpoints applies. That adjustment is part of his procedure.[1]

Augurine follows the common software convention of retaining the UTC midpoint instant. It averages the latitudes and uses the shorter arc between the birth longitudes. It applies no adjustment to match the natal Midheavens. The resulting planets belong to one actual moment; the calculated location can fall in an ocean.

The longitude choice also differs from the book. When the signed birth longitudes are more than 180° apart, the shorter-arc midpoint and Davison's arithmetic mean lie about 180° apart. The local sky is roughly inverted, so a Sun high above the horizon under one convention can fall below it under the other. This is a material change for a house reading.[1]

Augurine's calculator uses whole sign houses: the rising sign is the first house, and each following sign is the next house. The clock descriptions in all twelve Sun-in-house articles follow the quadrant-house solar path: the first before sunrise, the twelfth after sunrise, the tenth in late morning, the seventh before sunset, and the fourth around midnight. Those precise house correspondences apply to quadrant houses. In whole sign houses, the clock descriptions are approximate, with a spread of several hours, because the Midheaven can fall in the ninth, tenth or eleventh sign from the rising sign.

The Sun above the actual horizon gives a day chart; below it gives a night chart. In whole sign houses, a Sun in the second through sixth sign from the rising sign is below the horizon, and one in the eighth through twelfth is above it. A Sun in the first or seventh can be on either side of the horizon, depending on its degree relative to the Ascendant or Descendant. Use that actual position to establish sect. Venus is the nocturnal benefic: a night chart supports its promise of affection and accord. Mars also belongs to the night sect, which moderates its excess; in a day chart its aggression is harder to contain. The Sun and Jupiter belong to the day sect, so Jupiter's support tends to work more readily by day.[3]

Similar birth clock times can yield a midpoint twelve hours away from either. Davison's footnote on the time calculation calls for a 48-hour period when the interval between birth dates leaves a half-day remainder.[1]On a common time basis, two noon births an even number of days apart have a noon midpoint; an odd number of days puts it near midnight. Longitude and the conversion from local birth times to UTC also shape the local solar time at the midpoint place.

The Moon has an actual phase and direction of motion in this sky. Mercury stays within about 28° of the Sun and Venus within about 47°, so their houses constrain the Sun's region of the chart. Morning or evening visibility, and a planet's retrograde motion, add conditions that belong to the midpoint date itself.

The Sun gives a shared aim its center. The Moon describes instinctive response and habit. Venus brings affection and attraction; Mars brings desire and the force used to pursue it.[1] Sign condition and aspects decide how readily those functions work together.

Domicile places a planet in a sign it rules; exaltation gives it an honored position in another sign. Both are traditional strengths. Detriment is the sign opposite a domicile, and fall is the sign opposite an exaltation. These are more difficult conditions for expressing the planet's nature. Ptolemy gives the domicile and exaltation scheme and calls fall depression; detriment uses the traditional opposite-domicile convention.[3] A strong planet can pursue a difficult house subject forcefully, so strength alone supplies no promise of harmony.

Davison recommends comparing the relationship horoscope with both natal charts.[1] Saturn aspecting the Moon inside the shared chart describes a pattern in the bond. One partner's natal Saturn aspecting that Moon describes their individual connection with it. A comfortable shared pattern can still press hard on one partner's natal configuration.

These articles are Augurine's interpretations. The planetary meanings on pages 98 and 99 belong to Davison's chapter on comparing nativities; the house meanings on pages 161 through 163 introduce natal overlays. He gives no catalog of these 48 relationship-chart placements. These readings apply those general meanings to a real midpoint sky, with traditional house doctrine from Houlding where stated. The placement judgments and timing examples are Augurine's synthesis.

Shared reading conventions belong here: reliable birth times are needed for houses, angles and sect; a house position supplies neither a sign nor an aspect; an angle conjunction requires proximity by degree. Davison used Placidus and treated a planet within about five degrees before the next cusp as chiefly active in that next house.[1] In these whole sign readings, the five-degree allowance applies only to the Ascendant degree. A planet within about five degrees before it can carry a first-house influence while retaining its calculated house. These symbolic tendencies are interpreted alongside the relationship's lived circumstances.

In the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's relationship chart, the Moon applies to conjunction with the Sun, and Venus conjoins Mars in Leo. Davison reads both as classic indications of sexual compatibility and a pointer toward marriage. A close Sun-Saturn trine supports endurance, while Uranus square Venus places disruption inside the same strongly attractive chart.[1]

Saturn also rules the tenth and squares Mars in Leo. He reads that configuration through the British Establishment's opposition to the marriage. The nodes fall across the Duchess's natal meridian, and the relationship Moon lies close to the Duke's Jupiter and the Duchess's Venus-Neptune midpoint. Fortuna opposes the Duke's Uranus and the Duchess's Saturn.[1] The shared sky gains personal and public stakes through its contacts with the two nativities.

Another worked male-female chart makes equally definite judgments. A Saturn-Mars opposition across the fifth and eleventh suggests disagreement about having children or difficulties involving children. Sun opposite Pluto brings tension and depth of feeling, with self-transformation needed to sustain the bond.[1]Attraction remains strong in his reading even where the partnership has serious difficulties to negotiate.

The midpoint date is the chart's epoch. Secondary progression takes one day after that date for each elapsed year; converse secondary directions count backward by the same day-for-year measure. Davison allows the chart to be directed by any preferred system and also discusses other progression rates and transits.[1]The age is measured from the midpoint, so a chart is usually already years old when the couple first meet.

At the Windsors' first meeting in 1931, the converse relationship Sun trines its radical Midheaven and the progressed Venus approaches a trine to the Ascendant. At their marriage in 1937, the progressed Sun reaches the Venus-Mars midpoint. At the Duke's death, converse Venus forms a T-square with its radical position and Uranus.[1] Davison's retrospective study reads timing through the configurations that already characterize the bond.

A transit uses the sky of the date being studied against the midpoint positions. A progression or direction develops the original sky on its chosen scale. The calculator supplies the starting chart; the timing examples in these guides describe a further study of that chart and both natal charts.

A midpoint composite combines each pair of natal planetary positions. The resulting set can contain positions that never occurred together in a real sky. A Davison chart takes every planet from one calculated moment. Both charts have house methods, and both are read for relationships. Each full placement reading covers both charts, and its Davison section gives the real solar path and planetary motion a central place in the interpretation.