Birth Time Rectification via Navamsa
A recorded birth time always has a window, and the dependable way to close it is to test known events against the divisional charts. The Navamsa lagna holds a sign for about 14 minutes, so the first check is how close it is to a border. In the example, an 8:15 PM chart with Aries Navamsa cannot explain divorce proceedings in Venus antardasha; three minutes earlier, with Pisces Navamsa, Venus is the 8th lord sitting in A8 and Saturn in Upapada explains the marriage. The page also separates 7th house, A7, Upapada and 7th from Arudha Lagna, and gives the 8th-from-7th rule for a second marriage.
Key principle
Whenever somebody gives you a date and time, never assume that the time is right, even if they give it up to seconds. If you can’t make sense of things, the chart is not right.
Birth Time Rectification
The Recorded Time Is Never Certain
A student asks whether hours and minutes without seconds are enough.
- Seconds being given does not make the time right. 5:43 may be 5:40 or 5:45.
- In old days the time was often rounded to the nearest 15 minutes, or recollected afterwards by someone who was in the room.
- Some people know only "between 9 and 10", or "sometime in the afternoon, after lunch".
"When my daughter was born, I was in the hospital. I had a calibrated watch. The time that they noted in the birth certificate is wrong by a minute and a half."
- The definition of birth is itself unsettled: when the head is seen, when the baby falls on the earth, when the cord is cut, when the baby first breathes. One view in the classics gives a different definition for each yuga. He noted all the times for his daughter and does not claim to know which is right.
"Whenever somebody gives you a date and time, never assume that the time is right, even if they give it up to seconds."
There is always a window — sometimes big, sometimes small.
Rectify From Events
- Correlate the events of the life with the divisional charts.
- If they do not make sense, see whether they make sense with the varga lagna moved by a sign, or a couple of signs.
"If you can make sense, then you can be sure that the time is right. The bottom line is, if you can't make sense of things, the chart is not right."
Formula Techniques — Why He Does Not Rely on Them
A student asks about Nadi techniques, Pranapada, Kunda.
- His belief: the ideas may have been right, but what has come down is highly corrupted.
- Some techniques divide time into quanta — born possible for half a minute, impossible for the next four minutes. That cannot be right: septuplets and quadruplets are born a minute and a half apart.
- Pranapada Lagna (PP in the software): for a human birth it should be with the Moon, in the 7th from the Moon, or in a trine from the Moon — in the Navamsa. Moon is the karaka for a human being (for a fish Ketu, for a bird Sun).
- Some astrologers apply it in the Rashi chart. He saw a birth time of 2:10 "rectified" to 1:05 on that ground, against the native's father's own record. Used in the Navamsa the error is much smaller.
- Even so, Pranapada depends on the sunrise time; a small change in sunrise changes it completely. About Kunda he is very skeptical.
- A genuine technique would have quanta of half a minute or less. That is useless when the uncertainty is five minutes.
"Practically, even though there are techniques, you must use events to come to the right ballpark. Once you come to the right minute, maybe to get the right second, you can use those techniques. But those techniques are not reliable at this point of time. So I use only events."
How Long Each Varga Lagna Lasts
- Navamsa lagna stays in a sign about 14 minutes.
- Dasamsa lagna about 10 minutes.
- Siddhamsa (D24) lagna about 4 minutes.
- D60 lagna about 2 minutes.
Each varga whose events are explained narrows the window further.
Student Chart Case Study (Navamsa)
A chart a student had been working on that morning — a man known to him.
First Check: How Close Is the Lagna to a Border?
Before reading any varga, check how near the varga lagna is to changing sign.
- At 8:15 PM the Navamsa lagna is Aries.
- 2 minutes 55 seconds earlier it becomes Pisces. 11 minutes 43 seconds later it becomes Taurus.
- An error of 3 minutes is common. Eleven minutes is unlikely for a recorded time, though a baby that breathed late could make even that possible.
- So the Navamsa lagna is Aries or Pisces.
Events to Explain
- Married: May 1997 — Rahu mahadasha, Saturn antardasha
- Divorce proceedings began: 2004 — Venus antardasha
Rahu must have a link too, but the antardasha is examined first.
Aries Navamsa (8:15 PM) — Does Not Fit
- Lagna lord Mars is exalted in the 10th (Capricorn), a kendra.
- Venus owns the 2nd (family) and the 7th (spouse) and is with Mars.
- Lagna lord (counted as a trine lord) with the 7th lord (a quadrant lord): Raj Yoga.
- The yoga is in Capricorn, the 2nd from Sagittarius, so it has argala on the 9th. The purpose of marriage is to uphold Dharma together, so the 9th matters in Navamsa.
- Reading: Mars and Venus are enemies, so the couple are somewhat incompatible and will fight — but they stay together, do pujas, do their Dharma in society.
- A student points out Mars is also the 8th lord. He is lagna lord too; it does not change the reading.
- Another suggests the 7th is a maraka sthana. Not in Navamsa — "getting married itself is killer" is not good logic.
"Breaking of marriage in Venus dasha — can you make sense of it in any way? No, absolutely not. Venus will give marriage, not break. So something is wrong."
Which Parameter for Marriage and for Divorce
| Parameter (Navamsa) | What it shows |
|---|---|
| 7th from Lagna | The relationship itself — how the marital life actually is |
| A7 | The marriage as a tangible fact: the world knows this person is married to that person. Not the wedding ceremony |
| Upapada (UL) | The ceremony of getting married |
| 7th from Arudha Lagna | What kind of marriage he has in people's view |
| 8th house | 2nd from the 7th — sustenance of the marriage, or its breaking. The house of Mrityu |
| 6th house | Fights with the spouse |
- 6th and 8th are the houses to see for divorce, struggle or quarrels.
- When the court annuls the marriage, that is a break in A7. Time the divorce decree from A7.
- Here the decree had not come. The proceedings had just begun: the relationship is in tatters. So he reads the 7th house, the seat of truth. In marriage and divorce truth and maya usually agree.
Pisces Navamsa (about 3 minutes earlier) — Fits
The software moves the time just enough to take the Navamsa lagna to Pisces — roughly 3 minutes. The lagna is on the border of Pisces and Aries. The published class notes record the rectified time as 8:12 PM.
Placements from Pisces lagna: Sun and Moon in lagna; Saturn in the 3rd (Taurus); Jupiter and Ketu in the 6th (Leo); Mercury in the 8th (Libra); Mars and Venus in the 11th (Capricorn); Rahu in the 12th. Arudha Lagna and A8 are in Capricorn. Upapada is in Taurus.
Venus antardasha — divorce proceedings:
- Venus now owns the 3rd and the 8th.
- He is with Mars, who owns the 2nd and 9th. Mars is not a dusthana lord, so there is no Vipreet Raj Yoga. In India's Navamsa — the same lagna, Venus in the same sign — Venus was with Saturn, and there was one.
- The lord of the house of instability spoils the lord of Dharma. Not a Raj Yoga of any kind. Bad results.
- Venus is in A8, the Mrityu pada. The 8th is an end or a change; A8 is the tangible change. In Navamsa it can show divorce.
Venus antardasha — the image:
Venus is also in Arudha Lagna, so the image changes in his antardasha.
"The functional nature of the planet is always from lagna, never from Arudha Lagna. But what kind of impact it has on the status or image — from Arudha Lagna."
- Mars (2nd and 9th lord from lagna, a functional benefic) in AL: the image of someone a little forceful but very dharmic. That holds for marriage and dharmic life; at work or in learning the image may differ.
- Venus (3rd and 8th lord) in AL: the image of an unstable person, immature in relationships — whether or not the divorce is his fault. It comes in Venus antardasha.
- Mars antardasha, 2007–2008: the good image returns.
The parivartana of Venus and Saturn (raised by a student):
- Venus is in Saturn's sign, Saturn in Venus's sign. Venus gives results as if he were in the 3rd; Saturn as if he were in the 11th.
- Venus acts like Saturn placed in Capricorn. Whatever changes come in Venus's period come with suffering, hard work and pain.
Saturn antardasha — marriage:
- Saturn is not usually a planet that gives marriage. But he is in Taurus, where the Upapada is — and the ceremony of marriage is seen from Upapada.
- By the parivartana he acts like Venus placed in his own sign, in Upapada.
- From lagna Taurus is the 3rd, the house of initiative. 3, 7 and 11 are the houses important for marriage.
Both events are explained. The given time is wrong by at least 3 minutes.
How Is the Marriage Overall
Lagna:
- Lagna lord Jupiter is in the 6th; the 6th lord Sun is in lagna. A parivartana. Jupiter gives the results of Sun placed in Leo; Sun gives the results of Jupiter placed in Pisces.
- The lagna is strong: a strong foundation for his dharmic life. That is not the same as a good marriage.
- The 6th is strong too — Sun as if in his own house — and Ketu is there. Ketu is the worst enemy of the Sun; he eclipses him. The 6th lord in the 6th in a troubled state: easily troubled, prone to quarrels in following his Dharma in marriage.
4th and 7th — the two houses that matter most:
- 4th (Gemini) = comfort; 7th (Virgo) = the relationship. Mercury owns both.
- Mercury is in the 8th — a maraka placement for the 7th lord, and the house of instability.
- Marital happiness is unstable. The indications are not good.
Remedy:
- For stability in marriage, the cause is Mercury. Propitiate Mercury, or his deity Vishnu — read Vishnu Sahasranama on Wednesdays.
- For the quarrels, pray to Sun or Shiva.
- Which one depends on what is to be solved.
Second and Third Marriage
"This is not a dictum found anywhere in the classics, but this is what I was taught by my guru and he was taught by his gurus. So I am not sure if it is right, but it seems to work in practice."
- First marriage: the 7th house. Its break: the 2nd from it (the 8th).
- Second marriage: the 8th from the 7th. Its break: the 2nd from that.
- Third marriage: the 8th from the house of the second. And so on.
In this chart (Pisces Navamsa):
| Marriage | Break | |
|---|---|---|
| First | Virgo (7th) | Libra |
| Second | Aries | Taurus |
| Third | Scorpio | — |
- The second marriage is read from Aries. Its lord Mars is in the 11th from lagna, the house of gains, a good house for Mars, and he is a functional benefic. Mercury, the 7th lord, is in the 8th. Mars is far better placed, so the second marriage will be better than the first.
- First wife, from Mercury: analytical, knowledgeable, inquisitive — and changeable, fickle-minded.
- Second wife: Mars is exalted in a kendra from Aries. Aggressive, commanding, dynamic.
- Timing, keeping to Vimshottari alone: a Mars period is the good candidate, because Mars is the lord of Aries.
- A student notes Mercury aspects Aries (graha drishti from Libra), so Mercury colours the second marriage too. Agreed.
- Upapada does not change from one marriage to the next. Only the house changes.
"The first marriage is the most important thing. The 7th house is the seed of all your marriages. If the 7th lord and 4th lord are bad, overall marital happiness is bad."
So there is some instability in every marriage of this chart, and praying to Vishnu stays advisable. But the second will be much happier than the first.
Deva, Manushya, Rakshasa
Asked in passing; he does not go through them. Navamsa is Dharma, and these show which Dharma a person follows:
- Deva dharma — giving, daya, kindness
- Rakshasa dharma — arrogance, following selfish ends
- Manushya dharma — in between
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