Davison Chart

What it is

A Davison chart is composite's alternative: an actual chart calculated for the midpoint date between the two birth dates and the midpoint geographical coordinates of the two birthplaces. If A is born in 1990 and B in 1992, the Davison chart is for a date in 1991. If A is from Istanbul and B from Berlin, the Davison coordinate is the midpoint between them. Difference from composite: composite is a "mathematical" chart (the planets weren't actually in those positions); Davison is an "astronomical real" chart (the sky genuinely was that way at that date and place). For this reason a classically-leaning astrologer may prefer Davison. Ronald Davison developed it in the 1970s. Modern astrology uses it alongside or instead of composite.

How to read it

Read a Davison chart like a natal — but as if "the relationship was born on that date." An astrologer often casts both composite and Davison; the two charts read as layered meanings together.

Themes

• real chart
• time and place average
• classically valid
• astronomically real