Ashtakavarga in SC Dasha: Level 1=Find Raj Yogas+Own Sign+Exalted; Level 2=Ashtakavarga Reinforcement; Exalted/Own Sign Overrides Weak AV; Friendly Sign Needs AV Support. JHora PAV: Alt+PCV→Reverse AV Checkbox Shows Benefic Planets From Reference Position. Analysis Priority: Occupants→Aspectors→Lord. Rule: Exalted/Moolatrikona Trumps AV; Lagna+Sun in Same Sign=Primary Reference

SC Dasha — Where the Antardasha References Come From

A student opens with a question on the previous class: for the 11th antardasha, the 11th house is counted from what?

The teacher's answer:

• At birth Lagna, Moon and Sun each sit in a sign. Each is progressed one sign per year. That gives the three dasha signs of a year.
• The year is judged from the Dasha Pravesha Chakra — the positions of the planets at the moment the year's dasha begins — read from the three dasha signs.
• For the divisions inside the year, see where Lagna, Moon and Sun stand in that Dasha Pravesha Chakra and take those three signs as the references. For the Nth antardasha take the Nth sign from each, and judge the chart cast for the start of that antardasha from them.
• The same step is repeated below: for the Nth pratyantardasha (2.5 days), count N signs from Lagna, Moon and Sun of the Antardasha Pravesha Chakra.

"Just like the natal chart was the controller for finding the mahadashas, the Dasha Pravesha Chakra becomes the controlling chart for the further division within that particular year."

Status of this method: it is the teacher's own. He first progressed the antardashas from the dasha sign and found nothing consistent.

"This is not really explicitly granted by Parashara, but this does not really violate what Parashara said, because what Parashara said about antardasha computation is kind of vague. Once I did this, this gave far more consistent results for the monthly and two-and-a-half-day divisions."

Other points from the opening questions:

• All calculations in this class use Surya Siddhanta, not Drik. The antardasha method is not part of Surya Siddhanta; it is a conclusion drawn while calculating with it.
• SC Dasha can be run in any divisional chart — D10, D24, D20 and so on. The examples so far have all been in divisional charts (D10, D24, D16), none in D1.
• Further divisions: year, month, 2.5 days, 5 hours, 25 minutes — each one twelfth of the one before.

Why Parashara gave this dasha

A student asks how this differs from Vimshottari or Chara Dasha.

• Every dasha throws light on the trends of a phase of life. But judging one means balancing many factors. For a rasi dasha Parashara gives rules from the dasha sign, its occupants, its aspectors, the house it falls in, the sign its lord is in, who joins and aspects the lord, the lord's strength (exalted, debilitated, combust), and the arudha pada of the dasha sign. Vimshottari has as many.
• If different parameters are picked in different charts, anything can be justified afterwards, and nothing can be foreseen.
• Parashara saw this. In Kali Yuga men will find it hard to balance so many contradictory factors; even Brihaspati would find it hard. For them he gave a simple technique for annual, monthly and daily results: progress Lagna, Moon and Sun one sign a year and see how the planets stand from them at the start of the year; the same at the start of the month.
• He also said Ashtakavarga can be combined with it.

What the technique is for

• It is not fine enough to tell exactly what will happen. It tells whether a period is good or bad, and with respect to which houses there will be good results or tension.
• At each level it shows the focus area of that divisional chart for that period.

"This is basically like seeing the forest. Seeing the trees is a different matter, but at least you are in the right ballpark."

• Example given: Jon Huntsman's Vimshottari showed the dasha and antardasha of yoga-giving planets, a good time, so Vimshottari alone could not say whether he would become president. The teacher concluded he had no hope from the SC Dasha.

A finer technique, announced

The teacher mentions a special annual chart he has found — not in any classic, a simple extension of known ideas — to be taught in a few weeks. It needs the birth time right to within about 10 seconds. With the right time the chart shows the year's event clearly in almost every case and its dasha in about 75% of cases; half a minute off and the picture vanishes. Because the contrast is that sharp it is meant for rectification, not for prediction straight away.

---

Combining Ashtakavarga with SC Dasha

Parashara says to use Ashtakavarga together with SC Dasha. Earlier classes used SC Dasha alone.

The idea

• Every planet has good and bad positions counted from each reference. Of the eight references only three are needed here: Lagna, Moon and Sun, because SC Dasha has a progressed Lagna, a progressed Moon and a progressed Sun.
• Use the progressed reference in place of the natal one. From the progressed Lagna (the Lagna dasha sign) apply the Ashtakavarga rules of Lagna; from the progressed Moon, those of Moon; from the progressed Sun, those of Sun.
• Count the house each planet occupies in the pravesha chakra from that dasha sign. The table says whether the planet is benefic or malefic there.
• The words to use are benefic and malefic in Ashtakavarga, not "strong" and "weak".

Two levels of analysis

Level 1 — when looking at a year blind:

• Find exalted planets, planets in own sign, planets aspecting their own sign.
• Find the yogas, good and bad (lagna lord with 9th lord is good; 8th lord with 9th lord is bad).
• Note the signs they occupy and aspect, and look for the factor common to two or all three references.

"If something is showing up with respect to all the three references, that means there is something going on there."

Level 2 — Ashtakavarga:

"Ashtakavarga is used to reinforce strong combinations. So go to Ashtakavarga in the second level of analysis. First level of analysis, just identify strong planets, also strong yogas."

• An exalted planet aspecting its own sign already gives excellent results. If it is also benefic in Ashtakavarga, that is "icing on the cake".

How much Ashtakavarga is needed:

"When a planet is exalted or in Moolatrikona or in own sign, that really trumps. The planet is really strong. Whereas if a planet is just in a friendly sign or adhimitra rasi, then you also insist on good score in Ashtakavarga."

• Parashara did not say both must be present. He said combine the two for better clarity.
• A planet that is exalted but malefic in Ashtakavarga: one side strong, the other weak; it compensates and is not bad.
• A debilitated planet that is benefic in Ashtakavarga: the benefic placement partly compensates.
• A planet only in adhimitra rasi and malefic in Ashtakavarga "doesn't cut it".
• A dusthana lord benefic in Ashtakavarga gives good results coloured by its house: the 8th lord in lagna, benefic there, shows a sudden good event; a 5th lord in the 8th, benefic there, gives 5th-house results that come unexpectedly.
• A yoga formed by a planet that is malefic in Ashtakavarga and has no dignity is "not that useful" and can be ignored.

The lookup table in JHora

Ideally the good and bad positions of each planet from Lagna, Moon and Sun are memorised. The teacher uses the software as a shortcut:

1. Ashtakavarga Strengths (upper tab) → Ashtakavarga (lower tab) → Show PAV of Lagna (the last entry).
2. Preferences → Related to calculations → Ashtakavarga calculation options (Alt+P, C, V).
3. Check the first box: "Reverse the Ashtakavarga meaning as far as references are concerned."
4. Uncheck it afterwards. This is a convenience, not the normal mode.

Normal meaning (box unchecked): the count in a sign in a planet's BAV is the number of references from which that planet is benefic in that sign. In the Moon's table, "Sun, Mars" written in Aries means the Moon is benefic in Aries counted from natal Sun and natal Mars. Used for transits: if Jupiter's sign has 6, he is benefic from 6 of 8 references and the transit is good; the PAV names which references he is enriching.

• For a given matter one reference counts most: for marriage the transit must be benefic from Venus, for education from Mercury, for children from Jupiter. A transit benefic from 6 of 8 that leaves out Venus may not be good for marriage.

Reversed meaning (box checked): the table shows which planets are benefic in each house from the chosen reference. The sign of the reference is shown in grey. Take the grey sign as the 1st house and read each house's list.

• Lagna's table, as read out: 1st house — Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. 2nd — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. 3rd — Lagna, Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus, Saturn. 5th — only Jupiter and Venus. 12th — only Sun.
• So if the Sun stands in the 12th from the Lagna dasha sign in the pravesha chakra, he is well placed from that reference.
• Sun's table: 1st and 2nd from Sun — Sun, Jupiter, Saturn. 3rd — Lagna, Moon, Mars, Jupiter. 4th — Lagna, Sun, Jupiter, Saturn.
• The reversed table is the same whether the software is set to Rasi or to D24. It has nothing to do with the natal chart.

"This is just a table, lookup table."

• A student asks whether a PAV could be drawn from the progressed Lagna, Moon and Sun. It can, but that is a different matter from what is done here.
• Prastara Ashtakavarga is the full spread: the complete list of planets that are benefic from a reference, or of references from which a planet is benefic.

---

Order of Judgment in SC Dasha

To judge a house from a dasha sign:

1. Occupants — most important.
2. Aspectors — when there is no occupant, give importance to them. The teacher prefers full aspects; three-quarter aspects can be taken when there is no full aspect.
3. Lord — last.

"The regular order is occupant, then aspectors, then lord. But somebody who comes later in the order, if he is really so negative or so positive, he can dominate."

• Apart from the lord, look at how the house itself is: every planet in it or aspecting it, and whether each is well or ill placed there.
• Bad occupants with a sound lord: the house is damaged but not ruined (the D10 example in Part 7).

---

When Two References Agree

Two of three showing the same thing:

• Look for what is common to two or all three references. In the D7 example the 5th house stands out from Lagna and Sun and only moderately from Moon.

"That is good enough. Out of three, two references are really powerful."

• A student asks whether Jupiter with Rahu in a pravesha chart always means trouble. It is possible, but it must show from all three references or at least two. If it does not, things are fine.

Two references in the same sign:

• In the D7 Dasha Pravesha Chakra of 1998–99 Lagna and Sun are both in Capricorn, Moon in Sagittarius. Capricorn becomes the more powerful reference; judge mainly from it.

"When two references are together, you can give a lot of importance to that. Even ignore the other reference. That is what Parashara indicated."

---

Ashtakavarga Positions Named in the Class

Only what the teacher read out or used. The full table is in the software (Part 2).

By planet:

• Venus from Lagna: benefic in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11; not in 6, 7, 10, 12.
• From Moon, as known from gochara: Mars and Saturn benefic in 3, 6, 11; Jupiter in 2, 5, 7, 9, 11.
• Mars from Sun: the recording is garbled; what can be made out is 3, 5, 6, 10 and 11.
• The 11th is usually a good place for any planet from any reference.

---