So far we've read one chart at a time. Compatibility, which astrologers call synastry, lays two charts on top of each other and looks at where one person's planets touch the other's. It uses the same aspects you learned in lesson 6. The only new part is that the two ends of each aspect belong to different people.
To practice, Maya needs someone to be compared with. Meet Leo. Like Maya, he's made up, and his chart was computed by the same engine.
Leo was born August 2, 1994, at 6:15 pm in Seoul. We'll only need a few of his placements:
Before comparing anything, you'd read Leo's chart on its own with the four steps from lesson 8. Synastry only makes sense once you know each person separately. Here we'll skip ahead to the comparison.
A magazine would put Pisces next to Leo and give you a line about water and fire: he's bold, she's sensitive, it's steamy or it's hard work. Maybe you've read columns like that about your own relationships.
Look at how little that uses. Each person has ten planets plus a rising sign. The sun-sign match compares one point from each chart and throws away the rest. It also ignores whether those two points make any aspect at all. It's a bit like judging two people's friendship by their birth months.
The contacts between the charts tell a much fuller story, so that's where we'll spend our time.
The method is simple. Take one person's personal planets and rising sign, and check each against the other person's planets using the five aspects. Tight orbs count most, just like in lesson 7.
Write each contact with a direction, because it's felt differently from each side. "Maya's Sun opposite Leo's Venus" is Maya's core drive meeting Leo's way of loving. Leo experiences it as his affection meeting her whole presence.
Here are the main contacts from Maya's planets to Leo's:
Look at that list before reading any of it. Leo's Venus shows up three times. Maya's Sun, Mars and Moon all reach it. When one planet collects several contacts, it's the busiest point between two charts, the way a stellium was the busiest spot in one chart.
Start with the busy point. Leo's Venus is how he loves and what he finds beautiful. Maya's Sun sits right across from it. An opposition is a pull between two ends (lesson 6), and between people it often feels like attraction: each notices the other clearly. Her Mars is also across from his Venus, which adds heat and some friction. Her Moon trines his Venus, and both are in earth signs, so her need for steadiness and his way of showing care speak the same language. Three contacts, three flavors, all landing on the same planet of his.
Now the squares. Maya's Venus squares Leo's Sun within a degree. Her slow, sensual Taurus taste rubs against his Leo need to shine, and a square asks both people to adjust. Her Mercury squares his Moon, also within a degree. Her Pisces way of talking, in images and moods, meets his Gemini Moon, which feels safe through quick words and lots of them. They might misread each other in small daily conversations, and they might also keep each other interested.
Maya's Venus sextile Leo's Saturn is quieter. Saturn is commitment and structure, so this contact could lend the relationship some staying power, if they use it.
The last one is striking. Maya's Moon sits almost on Leo's rising degree. Her deepest needs land right on the part of him people meet first. He may feel she sees him easily, and she may feel at home around him. Leo's Neptune sits nearby, and Neptune blurs and idealizes, so there's a chance each sees a slightly softened version of the other at first.
You'll notice we never added these up. Some apps turn contacts into a percentage, and it's tempting. The trouble is that the same contact can go very different ways. An opposition can be magnetic in one couple and exhausting in another, depending on who the people are and what they do with it.
A synastry reading describes the dynamic: where two people light each other up, where they'll rub, where they'll need patience. What they build with that is up to them. So the honest summary for Maya and Leo is a description, with Leo's Venus at the center and a couple of daily-life squares to work around. No verdict.