What Ways does Kairon 3 offer to Compare two Charts?

• Transparent Overlay Charts (chart data must be in two different files)
• Synastry (chart data must be in a file list with at least the two entries to be compared)
• Composite (like Synastry - Book Tip: Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (The Planet Series))
• Combine (like Synastry)

Transparent Overlay Charts

Ever seen an astrologer hold and rotate two printouts against a sun lit window and wondered how this cool kind of comparison could be done using a computer? - The answer would have been: "Wait until July 2004, buy an Apple Macintosh and grab yourself a copy of Kairon 3 ;-)

The key to success in creating transparent overlay charts is to successfully have turned on the buttons of the toolbar and to possess the two chartfiles to be overlayed. To show and hide the toolbar is accomplished by clicking ont the button on top right of your window (above the Prefs icon on the image you see here) or to use the "Show Toolbar" or "Hide Toolbar" command from Kairon 3's "View" menu. To add more items to your toolbar or to remove some you don't want to see any longer hold down the "Ctrl"-key while clicking the toolbar with the mouse (The "Ctrl"-key is to the extreme left of your keyboard's spacebar), select an option from the context menu and follow the instruction. If you can see the "Transparency" and "Angle" Controls as shown above you can already use them. Just take care that the transparent window is not too transparent, otherwise you will loose it. In that case simply choose "Close" from the "File" menu and then reopen your window which will then be visible again. If you find it difficult to set back the angle to exactly zero after you are done, simply close your window and open it again via the "Open Recent" menu of your "File" menu. The last opened item is always on top.

The Transparency setting is also very convenient to quickly create some Artistry based on your chart by means of overlaying it to an image (or simply your desktop) and performing a screenshot (apple-shift-3 viz. apple-shift-4).

Get Ready for Synastry, Composite, Combine

You might first wish to click on the "Charts" Icon in the Toolbar or choose "Radix" from the "View" menu, to better see what is going on by having the chart displayed as graphic rather than text.
To get ready for either of the above methods for chart comparison, open a file with more than one chart entries (like the tutorial example file) choose "Friends…" from the "Method" menu or navigate there by using the tabs of you drawer.
In any case the main chart will always be the one you have selected from the "Charts" menu. The title of your window will always show either the name of your last selection from the "Charts" menu or it will show the filename immediately after saving or opening a document (until the next choice is done from the "Charts" menu.

What you select from the "Methods" charts popup menu will be compared to your selection from the application's menu bar's "Charts" menu, as soon as you click the "Show" button. The "Show" button will be renamed to "Hide" to indicate, that now it will turn off the selected method rather than turn it on.

Special about Synastries

The inner chart is always the one selected from the "Charts" menu of the menu bar. To define which objects will be shown inside and which objects will be shown outside go to the objects section of the Preferences dialog. In Versions less than 3.03 you need to click "OK" for your changes to take effect in the Preferences object's dialog. So, if you change the settings for "synastry" click "ok" before you go to "inner", or your new settings on "synastry" will be lost. This is not so with later versions.

Special about Composites

Composites will unlock the location's latitude fields and the search field. They can be localized. The ascendent object is the composite ascendant which is the midpoint between both chart's ascendants, while the first housecusp is the ascendant according to the chosen house system and the chosen latitude. Both normally differ from each other. Find out more on this in Robert Hand's famous classic: Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (The Planet Series)

Special about Combines

Combines are time - space - midpoint charts. They point at the exact center between both locations, no matter if this is under water or not, and mark out the chart that would have taken place in the exact second between both births. What is interesting about them is, that when a planet is on retograde, is slowing down or whatever, the midway in time is not the midway in degree. So, while on one hand the method is more artificial than the composite method, on the other hand it isn't.

Composites and Combines have quite a number of lovers and opponents that often accept only either method and swear on that while hating the other. Yet, there are also a number of people who stick to both methods and many of these tend to say that a composite is more on the surface, more about what gets into a kind of first impression, while the combine hints at the more subtle, deeper rooted relation. Probably there is not a really straight way out of this. It seems more like a Koan, and truth, while being neither nor, can yet pointed out by both .. . ;-) ((meaning: people think differently, so they also understand differently... and so they also need different hints suiting their individual approach more. What properly guides one definitely misleads an other ... ))