Recently I was re-reading parts of Santhanam’s “Discoveries & Lessons in Practical Vedic Astrology”. R. Santhanam was one of James Braha’s Indian teachers, and his books are stuffed with some fascinating and little-known interpretations, which I have often found to have something to them. Santhanam lists unusual significations of planets in houses, including:

“The Ascendant occupied by the Sun -  the native will eke out his livelihood in a distant place or will amass wealth in a foreign country”.
That’s certainly unusual - most texts give “authority“, “adventuresome” or “confident“.

Looking through my chart collection I picked a random 22 people with Sun in 1st; excluding people I don’t know enough about and children too young to work.

11 (50%) were instantly recogisable as indisputably foreigners who live/work abroad or spent significant time earning money abroad. That list includes myself (a Brit living in the USA) and other expatriates including some well-known people like Peter Jennings and the Dalai Lama.

Of the other 11, 5 have unconfirmed birth times including my own parents, who did not live abroad. Two people never resided abroad but spent time doing things abroad… eg a pilot who did a lot of flying in South America. There are at least two people who have not worked abroad but are now living significantly distant from their birth places, and would consider themselves to have moved “away from home”.

It’s an interesting question what Indians traditionally meant by “distant places”? If you were born in Kerala and moved to work in Benares would they think that “distant”? Probably. The US is pretty big too, so maybe moving across country counts.

Of my “not abroad” list, less than 25% can be definitely said to be still near their birthplace and never derived work from abroad, (including a nephew of mine who in his thirties is still living in his birth town. Of course, I didn’t move abroad myself until my forties!)

Results: true of 50%, relevant to approx 30%, apparently irrelevant to approx 20%. Wow! pretty good hit-rate!

Of course, there are other factors causing people to live abroad including influences on the 7th and 12th houses. But still, this one is interesting and surprisingly accurate.

One last surprise… couples…. 8 of my 22 were couples, i.e. 4 couples, both partners with Sun in 1st. 

The idea of “detriment” is that a planet is weak in the sign (rashi) opposite those it owns. This is an idea of western astrology - Jyotish doesn’t officially have a doctrine of detriment but, interestingly, vedic astrologers sometimes argue for it on a case by case basis. “Detriment” positions make pairs with swakshetra positions (own sign) in the same way exaltation and debilitation positions are opposites in the zodiac circle.
Here’s the full list of detriment positions:

Saturn weak in Cancer & Leo
Jupiter weak in Gemini & Virgo
Mars weak in Libra & Taurus
Venus weak in Scorpio & Aries
Mercury weak in Sagittarius & Pisces
Sun weak in Aquarius
Moon weak in Capricorn

A planet in detriment is not as bad as a debilitated planet, nor does detriment have as strong a suggestion of malefic action that may come with debilitation:

Moon in Scorpio and Mars in Cancer, for instance, can lead to malefic effects. “Weak” is the nearest description of detriment, tho there may be a touch of “pissy” too in a few cases.

In my personal experience some cases of detriment are undeniably true.

Moon in Capricorn can cause emotional problems.
Saturn gets annoyed in Leo, and is weak in Cancer.
Sun in Aquarius is not as warm and confident as usual.
Venus is less graceful than normal in Aries.
Mars is obstinate in Taurus, rather than active.
Here are tentative characterisations of the rest of the detriment positions:
Venus in Scorpio gives attractiveness, but perhaps is too driven.
Mars in Libra is plagued by scruples about people.

Jupiter appears to me to be weaker in Virgo than Gemini - Virgo is “tighter” & more detail oriented, not Jupiter’s thing. In my experience, Jupiter is more affected by debilitation than detriment. In detriment it simply fails to achieve much.

Mercury is debilitated in Pisces anyway; the fact Mercury is both debilitated and in detriment in Pisces is notable. Mercury in Pisces is almost as unreliable as Mercury retrograde, but in a more spacy way. (Mercury is weak in water signs anyway because it’s so airy by nature).
 
The reasons for this can be worked out from the nature of the planets and signs.

Detriment, like debilitation, arises when a planet is placed in a sign which thwarts the way it wants to express itself. It’s like trying to swim upstream or against a current.

Planets with strong natures are more affected by this situation: Sun, Moon, Saturn and Mars don’t react well to debilation or detriment. Jupiter, Venus and Mercury are more flexible and capable of “going with the flow”.

Last weekend this website was hacked and a number of posts lost. Some will be recoverable and put back when possible. The most notable astrological event going on was Mars move into Gemini, where it approached exact opposition to Pluto. The hacker substituted a skull-&-crossbones image for the usual website home page!

ps. Probably nothing personal against astrology, hackers just go around looking for sites they can get into. We’re trying to beef up security.

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles finally got married! We assume there have to be some aspects between their charts for them to have stuck it out this long… here are their charts. (Data from AstroDataBank).

There are lots of points of contact between their two charts. The most notable are:

They have the same Ascendant, Cancer. This gives them some empathy in their basic outlook and emotional nature.

Jupiter-Moon aspects are commonly found in long-lasting marriages and partnerships; Jupiter-Moon indicates that the Jupiter person understands and supports the emotional life of the Moon person. Interestingly we don’t find Jupiter-Moon conjunctions here, but we do find a double opposition. That is Prince Charles’ Jupiter is opposite Camilla’s Moon, and her Jupiter is opposite his Moon. That means the empathy runs both ways.

There is a conjunction of Camilla’s Jupiter with Prince Charles’ Sun - another good aspect. Jupiter-Sun is a good friendship aspect.. the Jupiter person supports the personality and actions of the Sun person.

The Jupiter-Moon oppositions also take in a Jupiter-Mercury conjunction and opposition; these are not as important in the emotional life, but do show some comfort and ease in communication with each other.

There is also one of the fated aspects we looked at in an earlier posting.

Camilla has a natal Mars-Rahu conjunction, which makes for an active person with lots of energy. This conjunction is opposite Charles Mars in Scorpio, thus Camilla’s Ketu is conjunct his Mars. Since the two Mars are in Scorpio and Taurus with the nodes across them, and affects both their fifth houses, this configuration undoubtedly has a sexual charge to it.

Over all, the chart pattern here shows a lot of comfort and ease between the two, which contributes to their staying power.

I’m writing this a few hours before the funeral of Pope John Paul II, so it’s appropriate to look at his chart. There is some question about his birth time. The date and place of his birth are well known; AstroDataBank now have the time as 17.30 with an A rating (”from memory”), giving various quotes from the Pope himself saying it was between 5 and 6 pm. A 5pm chart has the Ascendant in late Gemini.

Any time after 17.05 has a Libra Ascendant.

Determining exactly when someone was born is called “Rectifying a chart” and is a long complicated affair; we will look at few of the issues here. First, we can see which chart is more likely - this is always easier when the person is older and has lived most or all of their life, and the promise of the chart has been carried out.

#1. Obviously, on purely statistical grounds most of the charts are Libra rising, so that’s the most likely.

#2. The Gemini rising chart Ascendant is 29 degrees, which is weak. It is unlikely, tho not impossible, Wojtyla would have become Pope with a weak ascendant. A Gemini rising chart would have Mercury as its chart lord, which is in Aries in the 8th house, again not a strong public placement. In fact the Gemini rising chart has no strong “career” placements, except perhaps the Sun & Moon in the 9th house, which is good for public relations (politicians often have Moon in the 9th).

#3. The Libra rising chart is ruled by Venus in the 7th, a stronger placement. Ruler of the first in the seventh house indicates someone concerned with partners or other people generally. (And whatever you thought of his church policies, John Paul II was certainly a “man of the people” who loved his flock and a great pastor). Venus in the 7th however is not good for marriage. It is also cojunct Ketu, the south node of the Moon, a karmic indicator… this person would either marry someone foreign, strange or spiritual (as John Lennon did), or not marry at all… or we could see this as “marrying the church.”

#4. In the Libra rising chart Mars is in the 12th house, a typical placement for someone who prays or mediates a lot or in some way sublimates their Mars energies. In the Gemini rising chart Mars would be right on the Ascendant. Although John Paul was certainly healthy and even athletic at times, he did not come over quite as punchily as people with Mars on the Ascendant do. This point however, is a matter of judgment and other astrologers might disagree.

#5. Most important, Jupiter - which represents priests and religion - is exalted in Cancer, a very strong placement. In the Libra rising chart Jupiter is in the 10th house, creating one of the Mahapurush “great people” yogas (such as we saw for the Dalai Lama). With Jupiter this is called Hamsa Yoga, and is a highly appropriate configuration for a famous “high priest” figure. Since we know Wojtyla became Pope, we can reasonably look for some indication of that in his chart. In the Gemini chart this yoga does not occur.

From this evidence, I would favor any chart after about 17.15 with a Libra Ascendant.

To rectify a chart properly one also looks at significant events in a person’s life, especially those that are not entirely under their control, such as accidents. You can also look at important events like moving house (or being elected Pope!). We’ll look at the two charts for the time he was shot by a would-be assassin in 1981, and his death a few days ago.

The bullet that shot him also stopped his watch, so the exact time is known.

And of course, his death time has recently been published.

Assuming these times are accurate, and the charts cast accurately (something one often needs to doublecheck what with timezones and daylight savings time)… it’s interesting that they both have Libra ascendants! However, the important thing is how the planets fall in the Pope’s birthchart.

Assuming John Paul’s chart has a Libra Ascendant, both events have Jupiter in the Pope’s 12th house. The houses concerning health and sickness are chiefly the 6th and 8th, the houses of death the 8th and 12th. The shooting chart has transiting Moon, Jupiter & Saturn in the Pope’s 12th house, and Venus - which we take to be his chart lord - transiting his 8th. It also has Mars in his 7th, which can signify an enemy.

The time of death chart has Jupiter with Ketu in his 12th house, and a bunch of planets in his 6th house of health & sickness. These alone would not make it a death chart but we must always to take into account the circumstances of the person. What would be a recoverable situation for a younger stronger person is more fatal for an older one.

Notice also that Venus - the probable chart ruler - is combust and within a degree of the Sun in the death chart. Although Venus likes, and is strong in Pisces, it is here both combust and between two malefics. It’s worth noting ancient Greek astrologers had the idea that when a planet becomes combust within one degree of the Sun it has a special status called cazimi - “in the heart of the Sun”. Combust is simply weak, cazimi is strong but other-worldly. A cazimi planet becomes invisible in the material world, but its true soul shines out in the other world. We could see this as a way of describing Pope John Paul’s passing.

Here is the chart of the great artist of the 20th Century, Pablo Picasso. The data comes from AstroDataBank with an AA rating (most accurate possible), deriving from Picasso’s birth certificate.

The most immediately astonishing thing about this chart is that it contains no less than four debilitated planets! And that’s if you don’t count the nodes. Sun, Moon, Venus and Saturn are all debilitated, and none of the remaining planets are in ideal places.

Debilitated planets can either be simply weak or badly behaved trouble-makers, depending on the planet and the circumstances. On the face of it they are likely to give bad results. But they also induce the person to focus on their house area psychologically, so that by working with the energy people improve the results, altho results are always liable to be mixed.

Picasso’s ascendant sign is Cancer, with its lord the Moon in the 5th house in Scorpio, where it is debilitated. However, being in the 5th house is good and its close conjunction with Rahu gives it considerable power. Further, the Moon (and Rahu) are aspected by Jupiter, which adds some grace and strength it would not otherwise have. This is by far the strongest pattern in Picasso’s chart.

There are two notable things about this - first, that altho the arts in general may be signified by the 3rd house, painting has its special place in the 5th house. Picasso started painting as a child and never stopped.

The second thing about the Moon-Rahu-Jupiter pattern is Picasso spent his life around women; his childhood with his mother & sisters, and his adult life with not only his wives but numerous mistresses and lovers. There were also many problems in those relationships, and he was by all accounts a controlling and difficult partner.. in this we see the bad side of his Moon.

Picasso was a great painter but not always an admirable character - hardly surprising with so many debilitated planets! His biographers describe him as manipulative, one of the possible effects of 12 th house Mars. A 12th house Mars can signify a yogi or contemplative, but when it doesn’t produce someone with spiritual awareness it often produces manipulation and behind-the-scenes conniving.

Notice Venus debilitated in Virgo. Venus represents the arts generally, here in the 3rd house it adds weight to Picasso’s immersion in art. Its debilitation is slightly ameliorated because it receives an aspect from Jupiter (a trine); but it’s also less beneficially aspected by Mars, so it’s a mixed bag.

It’s interesting that the art Picasso became famous for was Cubism and his modernistic style. He abandoned traditional forms and proportions of art in favor of a more spiky, less aesthetically graceful, but strong style. In this may be seen the influence of all those debilitated planets, especially Venus. You could say this was a case of making lemonade out of lemons!

Saturn in the 10th obviously signifies Picasso’s fame and pre-eminent position in modern art, altho again we notice it’s a debilitated Saturn; he became famous above all for breaking the mold in art. Saturn also rules his relationships with women, and Picasso was notorious for them too.

Saturn with Neptune is not a “pattern” in vedic astrology, but it is recognised in western astrology, and there we find it in the charts of people who try to build an ideal.. Saturn represents the desire to construct, and Neptune the dream. John F. Kennedy had it, and from it springs the idea of the “Kennedy Camelot”. Here it perhaps suggests an artistic dedication, a constant pursuit of ideal artistic expression.

To make the difference between tropical and sidereal clearer, as related to the positions of the actual stars, here is a chart.

On the outside edge are written the names of the actual constellations. They are shown in their real positions in space related to the time of year as the earth orbits the sun. The zodiac in green is the tropical zodiac, which starts wherever the vernal equinox points to on March 20th/21st. This is currently a point in the constellation of Pisces.

Each astrological zodiac systen uses a “normalized” or regularized set of zodiacs of thirty degrees each, so once you determine the starting point you just count around 30 degrees to find the next “zodiac sign”.

The tropical zodiac doesn’t correspond to the stars. Most tropical zodiac signs are not located in the constellation whose name they borrow; at most they touch by a few degrees.

The sidereal zodiac (which Jyotish uses) is shown in blue. It attempts to make its regularized zodiac signs line up with the real stars as much as is consistent with equal sign sizes. It’s more accurate, tho the need to create 30 degree signs means it’s off a bit in some places from the constellations. As you can see, even in the sidereal zodiac, zero Aries is actually at the end of the constellation Pisces!

There are a number of different ideas of exactly where sidereal zero degrees Aries should start in order to have the least amount of inaccuracy. The definition of where zero Aries is placed is called the Ayanamsha (a Sanskrit word). Many ayanamshas take the fixed star Spica as a starting point for zero Libra (since it’s very close anyway). A sidereal zero Aries point never moves; it is in the same place every year.

But the ayanamsha is often stated mathematically as the number of degrees from the tropical Aries point on a specific date. Defined this way an ayanamsha changes its value slightly every year, since the tropical zodiac Aries point moves constantly with reference to the stars. A sidereal ephemeris will give the ayanamsha value for each year, which enables us to easily calculate the offset between the two zodiacs. So it’s useful to have it stated in this form.

The most commonly used ayanamsha is called Lahiri. The offset of the tropical zodiac from the zero Aries point of the Lahiri sidereal zodiac is currently almost 24 degrees.

Today is 31st March. Western astrology says the sun is rising in Aries; Jyotish says the sun is rising in Pisces.

Bill Levacy’s book “Beneath A Vedic Sky” published in 1999 is a very workmanlike introduction to Jyotish. For beginners its sections are well laid out and for those with some familiarity with western astrology it’s a very accessible way to learn how Jyotish differs.

It has what few Vedic Astrology books have, which is “recipe book” sections giving an idea of appropriate interpretation for planets in signs, planets as house rulers and dispositors, two-planet combinations and the effect of transits. These are obviously only general as you have to know see the whole chart to see how the various influences will play out, but they are extremely helpful for beginners. And Bill Levacy’s seem very good descriptions to me - I have more than once looked them up when slightly puzzled about someone’s chart and found his description included useful reminders of the possible range of meanings.

At the end of the book there are short introductions to various associated topics, including muhurta (choosing charts for special events like weddings) and mundane astrology (charts of cities and nations). He includes some remarks about horary astrology too (answering a question from the chart of the time it was asked).

Like all books there are always one or two things one disagrees with, and in my case I’m not convinced there are so many mitigations of kuja dosha as are suggested. I personally have kuja dosha on the Leo/Aquarius axis, and there is no doubt it’s affected my life. But you can niggle about any book… this is a great introduction and reference and deserves a place in any beginning or intermediate jyotishis bookshelf.

Buy Beneath A Vedic Sky at Amazon.com

If you haven’t got the flu you’re probably feeling Mercury. Mercury is currently debilitated, retrograde and afflicted. The only thing it isn’t is eclipsed - that comes in a couple of weeks time, but fortunately Mercury will be half a sign away by then so may escape the worst effects.

Mercury is debilitated because it is in the sidereal sign of Pisces, where it is at its weakest. All the planets have locations where they’re strong and locations where they’re weak. Mercury is a quick and airy planet, it dislikes water. It’s never at it’s best in any water sign, it’s rather fuzzy in Cancer and Scorpio, but it’s most weak in Pisces, the vaguest of the water signs. Mercury in Pisces is like a bird trying to fly underwater.

Retrograde is when a planet appears to go backwards due to the relative motions of earth and the other planets. Planets don’t really go backwards, but from our viewpoint they sometimes appear to and it has the same effect. Things don’t work properly, events which were proceeding on track get stuck. Mercury is the most notorious retrograde in astrology since Mercury rules business, communication and computers and so lost phone calls, computer and network down time, and failed contracts are all symptoms of Mercury retrograde.

A planet is afflicted when aspected by malefic planets. This generally weakens them. Mercury is currently aspected by Saturn and Ketu, (and conjunct Rahu), and although its also aspected by beneficial Jupiter and Venus, so far that isn’t cancelling out the weaknesses.

Recently I was asked: are the positions of planets in an astrological chart real? Do they correspond to what’s in the sky? How accurate is it?

The short answer is Yes, these days charts are quite accurate with respect to planetary positions.

In my friend’s chart Saturn is located at 27 Capricorn, using the sidereal zodiac. Or approximately 54 degrees from the galactic center. Or on a western astrological chart it’d be labelled as located at 21 Aquarius, using the tropical zodiac. They all mean the same place in the sky…. X degrees measured along the ecliptic plane (the plane of the solar system, that arc in the sky) from their own starting point.

Usually we don’t measure how far above or below the ecliptic plane a planet is, because they’re never far away from it. But the programs can tell us that too. Saturn’s declination was -15 degrees that day, which means 15 below the ecliptic plane.

If we went back in a time machine to the day my friend was born and looked into the sky we would see Saturn located at the far end of the constellation Capricorn, slightly below the ecliptic plane, i.e. in the position the charts give. As long as we knew approximately where the ecliptic plane was in the sky, or what the constellation Capricorn looks like, we could find Saturn just fine using the information from the astrology program. The location the astrology program gives us corresponds to the correct position in the sky.

Astrology programs work out the position of the planets using an ephemeris. I have an ephemeris in book form (more than one actually). It has tables listing the positions of the planets each day at midnight. If you want to know where a planet is any time inbetween you do arithmetic to extrapolate between midnight of one day and the next. The computer software that calculates charts contains a similar table and an arithmetic routine to do the calculation. The arithmetic program is very accurate. (Before computers astrologers had to do the arithmetic by hand and very tedious it was too! Used to take me an hour just to work out the positions of the planets).

The tables in the ephemeris get their information about where the planets are on each day by starting with known observed positions in the past and projecting future positions from those, using specific mathematical formulae for the orbit of each planet. The maths of planetary orbits was first worked out by Galileo & Kepler back in the 17th century, so ever since then we have been able to project where the planets are going to be with reasonable accuracy. Planetary orbits are very stable. Since the invention of super-computers we’ve been able to calculate orbits with very good accuracy. Also the space program motivated NASA to do some extremely accurate computation of planetary orbits.

So, when we cast a chart for someone, the program is projecting where the planets would have been (or will be) but these days it’s doing it with such mathematical accuracy that there is virtually no doubt it’s correct - so long as it’s fairly respectable astrological software… the ephemeris data and math formulaes are publicly available so there’s no reason not to calculate correctly. In recent years astrology programs have incorporated NASA calculations.

There’s a limitation to the accuracy. Doing charts for people or events within the last couple of centuries (or projecting them for the next couple) is extremely accurate. If you start doing charts for people like Jesus or Buddha who lived a couple of thousand years ago, it’s a bit trickier, because even very small errors in the calculations can add up into large errors in planetary positions over a large number of years. Especially for fast-moving bodies like the Moon. Good astrology programs tell you what span of time they’re accurate for. I have a couple of programs that I would trust back or forward at least a few hundred years… eg I’ve looked at Shakespeare’s chart.

Before computers made it easy to do accurate calculations astrologers used to watch the sky a lot. Now it’s temptation for people not even to know if the moon is full or new today, because they never look at the sky, just at their computers. Myself, I think to do astrology well you need to stay in touch with what the actual planets and stars are doing up there! Not because the computer calculations are
incorrect, they’re not, but because of something more subtle… a need to stay connected to the real world.

The rough chart we constructed in part 1 shows the planets in approximately the positions they were in the sky.

A rough chart

But it doesn’t allow us to state their positions precisely. Astrology is an old subject, it is thought the Sumerians divided the circle into 360 degrees around four and a half thousand years ago. 360 is a useful, divisible number and is close to the 365 days in a year. The invention of degrees will allow us to start pinpointing planetary positions more accurately.

Circular chart

When planets move across the sky, they don’t simply move through degrees, they move against the background of the stars. From earliest times people have grouped the stars they saw into patterns we now call “constellations”. Even though we now know those stars may be at very different distances, constellations are still compelling patterns in the sky. There’s many constellations over the night sky, like Draco, the Dragon, right overhead in the northern hemisphere, but the most familiar ones are those located around the plane of the solar system - the zodiac constellations.

Zodiacal constellations

By marking these constellations around the edge of our chart we can easily divide up our chart into sections.

Chart with zodiac

However, there is absolutely no universal consensus on how those positions are numbered or named! Where do we start numbering from? A circle has no beginning or end - so you can start anywhere at all! And that’s what the different systems do.

Three starting points

SIDEREAL ZODIAC
Jyotish uses the sidereal zodiac, which means it counts using the real constellations - sort of! Currently we use zero degrees Aries as the beginning of the zodiac; in past times it probably started at zero Taurus, Gemini or Cancer.

However, the sidereal zodiac used in astrology is not in fact an exact mapping of the real constellations, although it’s a lot more accurate than the tropical zodiac. The star maps shown here are not accurate to scale or position, but they do reflect the fact some constellations are bigger than others. Virgo, Scorpio and Pisces are larger than 30 degrees, Libra and Aries are smaller. So astrologers “tidy up” - they even them all out, creating 12 zodiac signs of 30 degrees each. Because Aries is a small constellation and Pisces is a large one, the start of the sidereal zodiac, nominally 0 degrees Aries, is in fact in the end of the actual constellation Pisces. There’s a debate about where exactly to start counting; the most common choice is the Lahiri system (”Lahiri ayanamsha”).

GALACTIC CO-ORDINATES
Astronomers often now use “galactic co-ordinates”, which count the degrees from the the galactic center. Radio-astronomy has established the center of the galaxy is in Sagittarius.

TROPICAL ZODIAC
Western astrology uses the “tropical zodiac”, which has a completely different way of calculating where to start counting. It does not start from any actual stars (even tidied-up ones). It uses the first day of spring as the start of the solar year, and projects that position in orbit out against the stars and calls it the zero point. This day is the spring (or “vernal”) equinox, when day and night are equal lengths. Currently this point is at about 6 degrees of sideral Pisces.

The tropical zodiac

On the first day of spring we can look to the east just before sunrise and see the constellation of Pisces, against which the sun will rise. Just to be really confusing, the tropical zodiac calls that the “Aries Point”. Then count off twelve sections of 30 degrees around the circle and call them by the names of the true zodiac constellations. You could call these “virtual constellations” as they don’t correspond to any actual constellations at all. The first 24 degrees of “tropical Aries” are in the constellation of Pisces; only the last 6 degrees are really in Aries.

So the tropical zodiac “signs” and starting point are defined by the earth’s relation to the sun, not it’s relation to the stars.

There are two problems with this system:
1. Lots of people confuse tropical zodiac signs with real constellations.
2. The start point moves slowly but constantly.

Due to a very long-term cycle in the earth’s movement, the “Aries Point” moves by about 1 degree every 72 years. Over thousands of years each constellation in turn will be home to the this point. Around 200 AD the “Aries Point” was at zero degrees sidereal Aries, but it won’t be again for another, oh twenty-six thousand years or so.

There is nothing wrong per se with the idea of a tropical zodiac; things would just be a lot simpler if it could be more easily distinguished from the sidereal zodiac.

PLANETARY POSITIONS ARE ALWAYS THE SAME
The position of the planets at any specific time are accurately described in all the systems - as long as you know which system is being used. In my natal chart, the planet Jupiter is at 2 degrees 08 minutes of sidereal Sagittarius. Or 26 degrees 03 minutes of tropical “Sagittarius”. Or approximately -1 degree or 359 degrees from the Galactic Center. They’re all describing the same position - Jupiter was almost conjunct the Galactic Center.

DO THE ZODIAC DIFFERENCES MATTER?
Early astrologers experienced different results as the planets moved through the zodiac constellations. The combination of planets positioned against the zodiac constellations is perhaps the most fundamental feature of astrology.

If you think the constellations themselves, or the powerful fixed stars within them - eg Regulus in Leo - are actually exerting or transmitting an influence on the planets then it matters that we represent these stars adequately. If you think the chief influences are planetary movements within the solar system, then the zodiac is just a picturesque way to describe planetary positions and inaccuracy is not significant. We’ll explore this issue soon.

By request, here is an explanation of how horoscope charts are derived from the actual planets and stars, and how there come to be different zodiacs. It’s a complicated subject so there are simplifications here.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM - ORBITS & SPIN
Our solar system contains a number of planets orbiting the sun. The planets are all approximately in the same plane (due to centrifugal force, I believe [check this!]). Our calendar year is derived from the sun, and equals one complete revoltion of the earth around the sun. Other planets take more or less time for one orbit, depending on the speed they are going.

The sun and planets of our solar system

Most planets also spin around, like a top. On earth one spin is one day. The axis of spin on earth is through our north and south poles. A planets axis of spin is not straight up (right angles) to the plane of the solar system, different planets tilt every which way. Uranus is spinning on its side! The earth’s axis is tilted at 23.5 degrees to the (imaginery) straight up-down line.

Earth’s tilt gives us a sideways view

THE VISIBLE ARC
Because the earth spins we’re privileged to see a huge amount of the solar system and visible universe during the course of a day! By day we see the sun move across the sky - we can’t see the stars because sunlight blots them out (except the moon, which is very close). By night we see any stars and planets currently to earth’s nightside. Because of the 23 degree axis tilt the sun and stars appear to move in an arc across the sky.

We see the sun move along the arc by day

We see planets move along the arc by night

We can’t really see Saturn and Jupiter that well at night without a telescope, but I wanted to make a clear picture. Our view of this arc (”the ecliptic plane”, to be explained elsewhere) changes from summer to winter - when the earth is at different points on its orbit around the sun the arc appears higher or lower. It also looks more up or down depending where on earth you live.

TURNING IT INTO A DIAGRAM
The fact that all the planets move around in approximately the same plane makes it much easier for us to make a 2-dimensional map of where they are. To make a simple chart we can ignore the height of the planets, since they’re all relatively close. Pretend you’re sitting above the solar system, over the sun.

Looking down from above the sun

But we aren’t living on the sun, we’re living on earth - the cosmic forces come towards us from all around the earth. So we need to put down where everything is with respect to earth. To make our chart simple we’ll ignore how far away from us everything is, and draw them all at about the same distance.

Looking down from above the earth

This is the basis of an astrological chart. In real life the planetary orbits are not lined up quite exactly with the solar system plane; some astrologers note the height variations on their charts (”declination”) and treat it as significant. Also, there are reasons why it might be OK to ignore the differences in distance, but that’s a subject for a future post.

In part 2 we’ll look at how those zodiac signs get into the act and why there are different zodiacs.

Books and websites give a variety of ascendants for the Dalai Lama; however there is clear evidence he was born at sunrise. In Kundun Mary Craig says “He came into the world by the light of a single mustard-oil lamp, at daybreak on the fifth day of the fifth month of Wood Hog Year (6 July 1935)”. A sunrise birth is attested by his mother and other family members, although we do not have an exact time.

A sunrise birth by definition puts the sun close to the Ascendant, ie in the first house. So the Dalai Lama must have a Gemini Ascendant. The time of the chart used here is the one given in Lois Rodden’s Astrodatabank, with a Rodden Rating of A.

In fact, a sunrise birth may be regarded as a plus indication when identifying a reincarnation - Sun in the 1st house tends to confer “presence” and authority, something Tibetans expect to see in high lamas.

Mercury at 2Gem33 is in the 1st house, creating a Mahapurush = “great person” yoga. The Mercury form (Bhadra Yoga) indicates someone of great intellect, respected by the learned, and good at speeches. A powerful Mercury in this position makes for a great public communicator, and this is one great service the Dalai Lama has done for his people - he has continually spoken on behalf of Tibetans and taught Buddhism all over the world.

His chart also has signs his fame would be in the spiritual/religious field. Ketu in the 1st house indicates a religious destiny and a spiritual seeker; although it can also suggest sudden changes in life. The 10th lord is Jupiter, which rules priesthoods among other things, and it’s located in the fortunate 5th house, which rules both intellect and purva punya - past life karma… which from this placement must be good!

Saturn in its own sign of Aquarius in the 9th, and Venus, the Moon, and Neptune together in the 3rd, are on the teaching & communication axis. Many public figures have strong 9th/3rd houses. Saturn’s placement gives the Dalai Lama great authority as a teacher; being aspected by Moon & Venus gives also a kind of sweetness and ease to his teaching.

Note that this is not the chart of a yogi or contemplative, which would show more emphasis in moksha houses, e.g. the 12th. Although the Dalai Lama does of course meditate and pray at least a couple of hours each day, he himself says the pressure of his work for Tibet and his teaching engagements mean he cannot spend as much time on spiritual practise as he would like. It’s the chart of someone with a strong spiritual bent who lives their life to teach and help in the world…. or, we might say, one who is like Chenrezig, the bodhisattva of Compassion.

A relationship between two people is usually reflected in their charts. A planet in one person’s chart may be in the same place (conjunct) a planet in the other person’s chart. Typical conjunctions vary according to the type of relationship, and with different people. Venus-Mars conjunctions signify romance and sex. Marriages often show Sun-Moon conjunctions, and sometimes Jupiter-Moon. Jupiter-Moon aspects are also found in the charts of close friends, as are Jupiter-Sun aspects.

Certain people feel or behave as if they are fated to be together. They think of themselves as “soulmates” or they stick together through extraordinary circumstances, even when it’s to their extreme disadvantage. Sometimes they fly in the face of social rules and the relationship is considered highly unethical by others. Sometimes they cause great damage to themselves or those around them.

In these relationships we often see an aspect between the nodes of the Moon and personal planets - usually Venus or Mars, occasionally also the Moon or Sun. The nodes of the Moon are the points where eclipses happen… the astronomical points where the plane of the orbit of the Moon cross the plane of the earth’s orbit around the Sun. They are plotted onto a horoscope and in both western and eastern astrology are regarded as karmic points. In Jyotish thinking the nodes exert slightly mysterious influences, and Rahu in particular can lead to obsessions.

Here are example charts. Most charts are cast for noon as there’s no birth-time; for this technique that’s usually acceptable.

Bonnie and Clyde certainly stuck together through their criminal spree. Clyde Barrow did most of the killing and robbing… one wonders why Bonnie stayed with him long enough to die with him. Their chart shows a Jupiter-Moon conjunction, as you find in good friends or partners who understand each other. But it also has a Moon-Rahu conjunction, a more obsessive connection. (Moon will have been in Aries all day in Bonnie’s chart so not knowing birthtime doesn’t invalidate this).

Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson are one of the most famous couples of the 20th century, since Edward gave up the throne of England to marry her. There are a number of nodal connections here… 3 out of 4 possibles! Wallis’s Rahu is with Edward’s Moon, and her Ketu with his Mars. Edward’s Rahu is with her Sun… he treated her perhaps as something of an authority. Mars & Sun connections are harsher than Venus or Moon, and there is some evidence their relationship was odd and strained at times.

More recently, in 1997 Mary K LeTourneau, a high school teacher, was jailed for her relationship with her 13-year old student Vili Faulaau. They have two children together and now she is out of jail and Vili is 21 they are about to get married. Opinion is still fiercely polarized as to whether she was guilty of the statutory rape she was jailed for or whether it is a true romance “soulmate” relationship that was “meant to be”.

We can guess their charts are likely show a strong obsessive connection, and so they do - a classical “obsessed with each other” Rahu-Venu aspect… LeTourneau’s Rahu to Faulaau’s Venus (the Rahu partner is usually the most obsessed). Note this is doubly strong, firstly, because it is almost exact - within half a degree - and, secondly, it is powered by almost every planet in LeTourneau’s chart, as with one exception all her planets are in Capricorn. The single exception, her Moon, is in an even more exact conjunction with Vili’s Jupiter.

“Fated” is how people in these relationships tend to describe them. We are not making ethical judgments, neither condoning these relationships nor condemning them. But simply, as astrologers, we recognize indications of karmic forces at work.

Light On Life by Hart de Fouw & Robert Svoboda is one of my most-valued and most-thumbed astrology reference books. The two main reasons for this is that it’s firstly a fabulous reference book, and seconly, perhaps more than any other Jyotish book, it gives me a sense of what Jyotish is like as practised in India. And although we aren’t in India, that insight is very valuable.

Light On Life packs an enormous amount of information into a Penguin paperback. If you need to know which planets associate with which metals, vegetables, human constitutions, tastes, colors or whatever, this is your book! It’s bound to be in here somewhere. It contains a brief rundown of most major topics, including dasas and nakshatras, tithis and yogas. Among its most useful sections (for me) are those on types of karmas indicated in a chart, and chart interpretation principles. Every time I look at this book again I find something useful.

It’s also stuffed with stories giving glimpses into Jyotish in India. Discussing Gaja Kesari Yoga (a chart pattern involving the Moon and Jupiter): “On a business trip to Bombay, the owner of this horoscope [with Gaja Kesari Yoga] was approached on the streets by a strange sadhu (a wandering Hindu holy man), who announced with great force that our man (let’s call him K) must have a Gaja Kesari Yoga in his chart. Knowing his own chart well K was naturally amazed to to hear this, and asked the sadhu how he could possibly know. The sadhu replied that K’s strongly formed, round, vividly lustrous forehead indicated a powerful Gaja Kesari Yoga, and then forcefully suggested to K that this yoga would permit him to walk unharmed among poisonous cobras. The sadhu compellingly invited K to accompany him to a live cobra pit to prove the yoga’s power, but K adroitly extracted himself from this trial by serpent”.

If you are a total novice to Jyotish and like gentle introductions without being overwhelmed this may not be the place to start - although you will surely learn a lot! For students wanting to go a little further, or for novices who like to jump in at the deep end, it’s a terrific read.

My minor whinge about the book is it uses the North India triangular style charts, which I’m not good at as I use the square South Indian style. But they give the data for chart examples so I can re-create them in my charting software.

Buy Light On Life at Amazon.com

The Nature vs Nurture debate has been going on a long time. The debate is about whether we are more influenced by our genes than our upbringing (or not). Biological determinists favor influence by genes (”nature”); those of a psychological bent tend to favor upbringing (”nurture”).

This issue is sometimes politicized. Liberals often favor maximum influence by upbringing: for instance in the debate about women’s abilities at math & science, also the question of whether being gay may be a genetic predisposition.

This simple opposition has never seemed persuasive to me. If the two serious influences on people are genetics and upbringing then family members should be more like each other than they are. Many families have members who are manifestly different in some way that is out of the run of family genes (even counting “throwback to Uncle George”!), and certainly not easily accounted for psychologically as some kind of reaction against their family.

To these two influences I believe we should add a third - astrological influence. That family member marching to the beat of a different drum is often the odd one out astrologically too, their chart showing significant differences from other family members.

If we were only seriously influenced by genes and upbringing it should be easy to recognize the field of influence of each of those forces. I suspect there would be a tendency for one influence to have “won out” and become dominant over the other. However, the presence of a 3d force - susceptibility to being influenced by cosmic forces - creates a triad in which all three forces balance each other. A 3-legged stool is more stable than a 2-legged one.

How astrological forces might exert this influence is a subject for another post, but possible mechanisms include influencing gene expression during embryo development and after birth, and ongoing influence of thought pattern & behaviour via neurological effects.

From an astrological point of view we should also note the implication - obvious but sometimes overlooked by astrology enthusiasts - that astrological forces are not the only thing influencing people. Astrological “twins” may have many things in common, but they also have significant differences depending upon their physical (genetic) heritage, environment and upbringing.

Jyotish or Jyotisha, is a Sanskrit word meaning “the science of light”. It refers to the practise of Astrology, sometimes known in the west as “Vedic Astrology” or “Hindu Astrology”.

Jyotish differs from western “Sun Sign” astrology (”I’m a Leo!”) in various ways. Here’s a brief run-down.

Jyotish considers all planets important; but the Moon and Lagna (aka Rising Sign, Ascendant) are more important than the Sun.

Traditional Jyotish uses the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and the nodes of the Moon, Rahu (north) and Ketu (south). It does not use the outer planets, although it’s sometimes claimed ancient jyotishis knew of them. Some modern Jyotishis, including myself - often called “neo-Jyotish” practitioners - do use Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, although they do not assign them rulership of zodiac signs. Jyotishis use the traditional rulerships of Scorpio-Mars, Aquarius-Saturn, Pisces-Jupiter.

Jyotish uses the sidereal zodiac not the tropical. ie it refers to the actual constellations visible in the sky. If I tell you your moon is in Taurus, then at the time of your birth your parents could have looked up into the sky, found the constellation of Taurus (if you were born at night) and seen the Moon shining among those stars.

The tropical zodiac is based on the solar year, it always starts at the spring equinox - the first day of spring, on the 20th or 21st March. Tropical Taurus is not the same as the constellation Taurus. Think of the tropical zodiac as a kind of virtual zodiac, shifted from the constellations by a certain number of degrees (which changes over time). Both zodiacs have validity, although those of us who do sidereal or jyotish astrology think using the real stars is more powerful.

Jyotish normally uses an equal house system based on the zodiac signs. Each house is one zodiac sign. If your Ascendant sign is Pisces the first degree of your ascendant is one degree Pisces.

It does not use as many aspect relationships as western astrology. And each planet has preferred or strong aspects specific to itself. Jupiter throws trines, Venus doesn’t. Saturn throws a forward sextile, Mars doesn’t.

Jyotish is more blunt than western astrology with respect to malefic and benefic influences. Although all planets are good for something, Jyotish says more openly that certain planets tend to be malefic: Mars, Saturn and Rahu (the Sanskrit name for the North Node of the Moon). Their transits often bring troubles.

House meanings are slightly different from western astrology’s, although there is some overlap.

Jyotish has various techniques unknown to western astrology, including dasas (pronounced “dasha”). The idea is that during your life the planets take it in turn to be influential in your life. Sort of like a revolving Head of Department in a University… or even the President of the United States. Every few years a new boss planet takes over. In Jyotish you can’t elect that planet, it’s identified according to a formula. The current Head of Department planet (”mahadasa” ruler) is highly influential. Planets bring about their strongest results in their periods of influence.

The result is often summed up as: western astrology is good at psychological profile but Jyotish is better at prediction.

Mount St Helen’s erupted into life this afternoon after being quiet for weeks. I don’t study earthquakes and eruptions in detail like some astrologers, but it’s not a surprising event, coming on the heels of the current Mars-Saturn opposition.

Mars represents action and movement, but Saturn stands for constraint and limitation. They are not very compatible forces! The oppositions or conjunctions tend to lead to frustration and bottled-up energy.

Often, with a Mars-Saturn opposition it feels like the pressure builds us for weeks as the opposition moves slowly toward exactness. As the opposition is passed the pressure releases, either gradually, or sometimes - as in this case - abruptly.

Today at Carkeek Park, a north Seattle park at the edge of Puget Sound, there is a new log on the beach. It must be fairly recent - no barnacles, and still has bark in places. The wood is brown & deep red; it looks like madrone. One point of the root end is dug deep into the sand, creating a pivot. The crown is in the sea. When waves come in the log rocks.

I tried to rock the log back and forward, but can’t move it at all. Then I sat on it. The sea still rocked it - my weight made no difference. The small waves don’t look big enough to be moving the log, but they are.

Just sitting there on the log not paying attention to the sea gets me bumped up & down, like sitting a trotting horse out of sync. Keeping an eye on the waves I rise and fall easily with the log.

In Jyotish (Vedic Astrology), the planets are called “grahas”, which means “seizers”. Despite our desire to totally determine our own destinies, we actually operate in a grey area where we can decide what to do within the space determined by certain external forces - including transiting planetary influences.

Currently we have a configuration western astrologers call a “grand cross”. Saturn and Mars oppose one another, and at right angles to them Jupiter (with Ketu) opposes Mercury (with Rahu). Rahu and Ketu, the nodes of the Moon, are at right angles to Saturn, as they are in my natal chart. Maybe it has something to do with fate….

The sign of Pisces is aspected by all the malefics: Mars, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. Whatever Pisces does in your chart may be under stress, or you’re being forced to focus on it.

In my chart that’s my 2nd house. At first it was cash flow problems demanding my attention. But the 2nd house also rules writing, according to James Braha, and for ages I’ve been considering starting to write again but haven’t got around to it. Writing is hard work. Maybe today, the day Mars exactly opposed Saturn, is the time to focus on a different 2nd house issue. So I’ve installed blog software on my website and here we go!

Welcome to SingingSun! I’m going to start a Vedic Astrology blog today. -Gilly