Kismet uses one method, from one tradition, the way it has been used for centuries. Here is what happens between your birth details and your score.
Most horoscopes go by your Sun sign, one of twelve. Jyotish, the astrology of the yoga tradition, reads a match by the Moon instead. The Moon moves fast, so the sky it sits in on the day you were born is far more specific: one of 27 birth stars, each split into four quarters. That is 108 positions for you, and 108 for them.
The matching method is called Ashta Koota, "eight parts." Each part asks one question about the pair of you and gives points for the answer. The points add up to 36. That is the whole system, and it is the only thing Kismet uses.
Your city gives us the time zone that was in force on your birth date, including old daylight saving rules. Your local birth time becomes a universal one.
We compute the Moon's exact position for that moment using standard lunar theory, then shift it to the sidereal zodiac the tradition uses, the one that follows the actual stars.
That position lands in one of the 27 birth stars and one of its four quarters. Each carries fixed attributes, the same ones a reader in India would look up. Now the two of you can be compared.
The tradition weights them unevenly on purpose. The first asks for a single point. The last is worth eight. Together they add to one number.
Are you the same kind of person, or opposites? Everyone falls into one of four natures. This asks whether yours sit comfortably together.
Who pulls whom. Each birth star has a pull type, and some pairs fall into step without trying while others are always one step behind.
Counting from your star to theirs, and back again. Some distances are read as lucky, some as testing. Both directions count.
Every star has an animal, fourteen in all. Same animal scores full marks. Friendly animals score well. Natural enemies, like cat and rat, score nothing.
Each Moon sign has a ruling planet. This reads whether your two rulers are friends, neutral, or rivals. Friends keep finding each other interesting.
Your temperament group: godly, human, or fierce. Same group runs at the same speed. Some mixes clash in the classical reading, and this is where couples feel it in arguments.
The angle between your Moon signs. Certain angles are read as nourishing and score all seven; a handful are read as difficult and score none. No middle ground.
Your basic energy, one of three. The tradition wants two that differ, so you steady each other. Different scores eight. The same scores zero.
The tradition has always read the total in bands rather than as a ranking. Kismet keeps those bands and puts one line on the card.
A near perfect total with one weak dimension gets a note: "with one thing to watch." That one thing is usually the most useful part of the reading.
Birth stars, called nakshatras, each about 13 degrees of sky. The Moon spends roughly a day in each one, which is why the day you were born matters so much more than the month.
Each star has four quarters and the Moon crosses about four quarters a day. Without a birth time, your quarter is uncertain, and sometimes your star. That is why we ask.
Animals in the intimacy table: horse, elephant, sheep, snake, dog, cat, rat, cow, buffalo, tiger, deer, monkey, mongoose, lion. Snake and mongoose are the classic enemies.
Balance, the last dimension, is worth more than any other and it is all or nothing. In the tradition it is the one families argued about most.
Clocks change. In 2007 the United States moved daylight saving to start three weeks earlier, so a March 20 birth in 2006 and one in 2007 sit an hour apart on the real clock. Kismet uses the rules that applied on your birth date, not today's.
The old tables were written for a bride and a groom. For two women, two men, or anyone who chooses "Either," Kismet reads in both directions and averages every dimension.
Yes. We use noon in your birth city and mark the reading as approximate. The score is usually close, but the quarter of your star may be off, so if you can find the time on a birth certificate or from family, add it later for a full reading.
No. Everything is read from the Moon's position at birth. Two people with the same Sun sign can have completely different birth stars and completely different readings.
For a woman and a man it is read once, the way the tables were written. For any other pair, or anyone who picks "Either," it is read both ways and averaged, so the result does not depend on who entered their details first.
No. A reading is a beginning, not a verdict. The eight dimensions tell you where a pair comes easily and where it takes conversation. Plenty of long marriages sit in the middle bands. The number is a place to start talking, not a place to stop.
No. The total is the eight dimensions and nothing more. No planetary positions beyond the Moon, no extra doshas, no remedies to buy. Same method every time, for everyone.
They are used to compute your chart and saved to your account so you do not have to enter them again. Readings you invite someone to are private to the two of you. See the privacy policy for the full picture.
Two birth dates, one minute. Free for your first reading, no account needed.
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