Example Chart (2010) Developmental Delay: Moon Gandanta(Ashlesha=Sarpa Nakshatra+Sarpa Drekkana)+Subhapati(Double Importance)=Mind Afflicted; Both Moon+Mercury in Sarpa Drekkanas; Lagna Lord in 8H+Debil Mercury; 15-Degree House Rule(Moon in 1H Not 12H); D30 Moon Debil in 8H; D27 Rahu in Own Sign Dominates Moon; Prashna Papakartari by 2 Retrograde Malefics; Remedies: Gandanta Shanti+Chamunda+Naga Abhishekam

A two-year-old with developmental delay (Leo lagna, 2010)

The question

• The boy is two. He does not talk, repeats actions, does not interact with other children, and is scared of people. In some areas he is like a six-month-old. He has been placed on the autism spectrum, towards the higher-functioning side. Physical hearing is fine.
• The mother asks about the chances of improvement.
• The teacher notes that some children do not speak until 3 or 4 and then start suddenly, and that autism is a spectrum, not a point.
• He casts a praśna for the moment of the question and reads it beside the natal chart.

Weaknesses in the rāśi chart

Leo lagna at about 4°30'.

Lagna lord in the 8th

• Sun is in Pisces in the 8th with debilitated Mercury. Mercury is the 2nd lord, a maraka, and the planet of communication and intellectual development.
• This shows some problem in that area, but it does not by itself show autism. Sun is in a friendly sign and there is a lot of distance between Sun and Mercury. The teacher does not treat it as the main cause.

Longevity — a separate matter

• 8th lord Jupiter is in the 7th. 7th lord Saturn is in the 2nd, aspecting the 8th (graha dṛṣṭi, 7th aspect). Lagna lord is in the 8th with the 2nd lord.
• These three do not ensure long life. There is some danger to life that needs care. It has nothing to do with the developmental problem.

Moon with Mars — not the problem

• A student points to Moon with debilitated Mars in Cancer. The teacher rejects it: they are about 20° apart, and Mars is the yogakāraka for Leo. A debilitated yogakāraka can reduce or delay fortune; he is not likely to give a great suffering.

Moon in gaṇḍānta — the main problem

• Venus is in gaṇḍānta, and so is Moon. Moon is at the end of Cancer in Ashlesha, a Sarpa nakshatra, and in a Sarpa drekkāṇa.
• Moon and Mercury are both in Sarpa drekkāṇas. The planets of manas and buddhi are both there, and Moon is the worse afflicted.
• Moon is doubly important here. He is the planet of the mind, and he is also the Śubhapati, the lord of the Moon sign. Normally we look at the dispositor of Moon and give him importance; here Moon is in his own sign and is his own dispositor. For such a Moon to be in gaṇḍānta is terrible.

"So the main problem, if you ask me, is Moon's Gandanta."

Lagna ±15° is the first house

• Moon is in Cancer, the 12th sign from lagna, but the teacher places him in the 1st house. Moon is at 28°30' Cancer and lagna at 4°30' Leo, only 6° apart.
• One house is the lagna degree plus or minus 15°. Moon is the only planet in the 1st house. A gaṇḍānta planet in the 1st house shows a problem in overall development.
• The same rule is applied later in the class to Ketu. The teacher first reads Ketu as the 4th lord in the 11th and asks about hearing: the 3rd house shows the ears, the 9th from it (the 11th) shows hearing, Ketu is there and the 11th lord Mercury is debilitated. The mother says hearing is fine. He then checks the degrees: Ketu is at about 25° Gemini and lagna at 4° Leo, so Ketu is in the 12th house and the 11th is empty.
• He says this is his present view, not a quotation from a classic. In class he usually reads houses by sign, and goes to the degrees when things do not add up.

"My view at this point of time is that Lagna is the middle of a house, not the start of a house, and then it is ±15°."

D-30: Moon debilitated in the 8th

Trimśāṁśa is the chart of sufferings, evils and punishment. For a problem of the mind, look for affliction to Moon or Mercury there.

• Aries rises. Mercury has nothing terrible.
• Moon is debilitated in Scorpio in the 8th.
• Saturn, the bādhaka lord, aspects Moon with his 3rd aspect (graha dṛṣṭi from Virgo).
• Lagna lord Mars is in the 6th with the bādhaka lord Saturn, and the maraka lord Venus is in lagna. These are afflictions, but not serious ones for intellectual development.
• In both the rāśi chart and the Trimśāṁśa the afflicted planet is Moon.

An aside on mṛtyu bhāga

• Mṛtyu bhāga is normally applied in the rāśi chart. Nothing says it cannot be applied in a division, if degrees within a division are taken as valid.
• By one of the two versions, Moon's mṛtyu bhāga in Scorpio is the 14th degree. With the software option that maps each 1° of the rāśi to 30° of D-30, Moon falls at 13°02' Scorpio, inside the 14th degree.
• The teacher offers it as an observation only: "This may or may not mean much."

D-6 and D-27

D-6 shows external diseases. Moon is in the 12th there with some affliction, but nothing terrible. The problem does not show in D-6; it shows in D-30.

D-27 shows strengths and weaknesses at the instinctual, subconscious level.

• Moon in D-27 shows how stable the mind is. Afflicted Moon: an unstable mind. Strong Moon: a lot of manobala.
• The D-27 lagna changes if the birth time is 52 seconds earlier (Leo becomes Cancer), so the teacher does not use houses. He reads only placement, conjunction and aspect.
• Moon is in Aquarius, an inimical sign, conjoined by Rahu in Rahu's own sign. Rahu dominates. Moon is very weak; the mind is not a strong mind.
• Had Moon been strong here, it would have helped a little.

So in the chart of strengths and weaknesses and in the chart of suffering Moon is badly afflicted, and in the rāśi chart he is in gaṇḍānta.

The praśna chart: is there hope

Is the praśna fit to read?

• Lagna is not aspected by Jupiter. But the lagna lord is in a sign of Jupiter, and Moon, in own sign, has Jupiter's aspect (about 80%). The teacher goes ahead.

Afflictions (Virgo lagna)

• Lagna lord Mercury is debilitated in the 7th. The question concerns intellectual development.
• Mandi and Gulika are in lagna.
• Lagna has pāpa kartari from Saturn in the 2nd and Mars in the 12th. They are natural malefics and also functional malefics, the 6th and 8th lords. Both are retrograde.

"So 2 retrograde malefics having Kartari on lagna, that is a bad affliction."

What saves it

• Moon is in Cancer, in the same nakshatra as at birth and still in a Sarpa nakshatra and Sarpa drekkāṇa, but not in gaṇḍānta. He is the 11th lord in the 11th, stronger than in the natal chart.
• Lagna lord Mercury, though debilitated, is in a benefic sign of Jupiter and aspects lagna.
• Jupiter and Venus are together in Aries in the 8th, within 7°. Jupiter is the 4th and 7th lord and Venus the 9th lord: a rāja yoga between two benefics.
• They aspect not the lagna but the two planets causing the kartari (graha dṛṣṭi). Jupiter aspects Mars (85%) and Saturn (65%). Venus aspects Saturn (90%) and Mars (30%). Each closely aspects his own friend: Jupiter aspects Mars, Venus aspects Saturn.
• The rāja yoga can counter the pāpa kartari.
• Conclusion: there is some potential for hope.

Remedies

The main solution is to strengthen Moon.

1. Gaṇḍānta śānti. BPHS gives a śānti for gaṇḍānta birth. For Ashlesha gaṇḍānta the nakshatra deity, Sarpa, is installed and a homam is done.
2. Chamundeshwari. The deities for Moon are Krishna and Gauri. Here Moon is with debilitated Mars, in an evil nakshatra and an evil drekkāṇa, so a slightly fierce form is useful: Chamunda. Chamundeshwari stotra, or the Navārṇa mantra, daily or every Monday.
3. Abhishekam to a nāga. Moon is in Ashlesha, Moon and Mercury are in Sarpa drekkāṇas, and Moon is in Scorpio in D-30. Keep a small silver or copper idol of a snake in the puja room and pour milk on it every morning for a minute, with a short nāga mantra. Those who can chant Vedic mantras can chant Sarpa Sūktam, or the mantra for Sarpa found in the Navagraha Sūktam, while doing the abhishekam. Then the Chamundeshwari stotra.

• Nobody can predict how much effort is enough. More effort gives a better chance.

"More dough, you get more bread. Similarly, more effort you put, better chance of success."

Moon is the observer: stimulate the mind

• Mercury is buddhi, the analytical and intellectual ability. It shows no major weakness here.
• Jupiter is dhī-śakti, discrimination. That is fine too.
• Moon is the observer, the mind that interacts with the world. The problem is in that mind.

"Moon is the observer, the mind which interacts with the world. So the problem is in that mind."

• A baby stares at a face, hears sounds, sees expressions change, and learns to correlate them. The mind is bombarded with images and sounds, and putting the cues together is a complex process. Where Moon is very weak that process is weak.
• In the old days parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts all talked to a baby who understood nothing. That is how the mind is stimulated. Today there are two parents, busy with jobs, television and computers.
• The teacher's reading: there is probably no fundamental intellectual problem or structural problem in the brain. The weakness is in reception of stimuli and interaction with the world.
• So overstimulate. Talk a lot. Expose him to many situations. Do not let him go into his shell.

"Bring the kid out of the shell and bombard him with a lot of stimuli."

• Moon is sensitivity to the environment. A very weak Moon is oversensitive: too scared of some things, too drawn to others. Now it is people; later it may be a new subject or a new book.
• Such children get trapped in routines because they do not want to deal with the world. Break the routine and challenge them.
• Be strict and kind together. Break the shell open gently. Work with experts.
• Parents of such children tend to console themselves by dwelling on what the child already does well. Work on what he is bad at.

Daśā and D-24: learning

Vimshottari in the rāśi chart

• Mercury daśā ended very early. Mercury is a maraka, debilitated, influencing the lagna lord: stunted growth fits.
• Ketu daśā has begun. Ketu is the 4th lord, and the 4th shows learning. It is not a bad daśā.
• A student objects: Ketu is alone in a sign of Mercury, so he gives Mercury's results, and Mercury is a malefic here. The teacher agrees it is not a great daśā, but it is much better than Mercury's, and a 4th lord daśā runs when the time for learning comes.

D-24 (the lagna changes with 2 minutes later or 4 minutes earlier; Scorpio assumed, Sagittarius the next most likely)

• Lagna lord Mars is exalted in the 3rd.
• The 4th house of learning has Jupiter, the 2nd and 5th lord. He is afflicted there by the 8th lord Mercury. Saturn, their dispositor, aspects them. Overall it is fine.
• Moon is in the 6th.
• With Sagittarius lagna, Saturn in lagna is not great, but 4th lord Jupiter in the 3rd is acceptable.
• No major weakness shows in the chart of learning.

Vimshottari of D-24

• Mars daśā runs now: lagna lord exalted in the 3rd. A good daśā.
• Rahu daśā follows at about age 7, when formal learning begins. Rahu is the 4th lord in the 6th, the house of struggle, with Sun (an eclipse), and not in a friendly sign. Problems in learning during Rahu daśā.
• Jupiter daśā looks very good but comes much later.

Assessment

• The chart shows potential. What is seen now may not define the person; the weakness is exaggerated at this age. The intellectual ability to learn may be sound.
• He has a disorder, but he is not a terrible case.

Remedy deity from the D-20 of the praśna

• The teacher says this is his own practice, not from a classic.
• D-20 is the chart of sādhana. A praśna is about one particular issue. In the D-20 of the praśna, the 5th house is the upāsana that can help, and the 9th house shows how God's help can come through a remedy for that issue.

"For remedies, when I am using a prasna in addition to the chart, I look at the 5th house or 9th house in the D20. D20 is the chart of sadhana."

• In the D-20 of this praśna Scorpio rises. 5th lord Jupiter is debilitated.
• 9th lord Moon is exalted in the 7th and aspects lagna. So go with Moon: worship of Gauri or another form of Moon.
• Rahu and Ketu aspect Moon (rāśi dṛṣṭi from Libra), so it can be Chamunda. Chamunda, or simply Gauri or Parvati, is sufficient.
• The natal chart pointed the same way.

Praśna D-24 and the last word

• Because the question also concerns learning, the teacher reads the D-24 of the praśna. Lagna holds Moon, Saturn, Mars and Mercury. So many planets in lagna, and the Moon–Saturn combination above all, show a serious issue. There are good yogas and bad yogas together.
• Jupiter, the 5th lord of intelligence, aspects lagna and protects.
• Learning will not be smooth, but it is protected. He will be able to learn.
• It may turn out to be a specific syndrome within the spectrum, recognised as he grows. It looks extreme now and may not be.

Where the site's chart differs (2010 chart)

• Moon is at 26°40' Cancer on the site, 28°30' in the class. He is in Ashlesha in both.
• Venus is at the very end of Pisces on the site; in the class Venus has just entered Aries. So the site's D-30 shows Venus in Scorpio in the 8th with Moon, not in lagna.
• The nodes are about 2° earlier on the site (Ketu 23° Gemini, not 25°). Ketu is in the 12th house by degrees either way.
• D-27: the site shows Cancer lagna and Moon with Rahu in Sagittarius, not Aquarius. They are still conjoined.
• D-24: the site shows Jupiter in Capricorn in the 3rd with Mars, not in the 4th with Mercury, and Rahu in Aquarius, not in Aries with Sun.
• Praśna D-24: the site shows only Mars and Saturn in Scorpio lagna; Moon is in Libra and Mercury in Aquarius.

D-27: what each planet shows

The teacher uses this chart to illustrate D-27. The lagna is not certain, so the planets are read first.

"So you see all those and see which are strong, which are afflicted."

For this student:

• Mars is in mūlatrikoṇa: a charged-up person with a lot of initiative.
• Venus is exalted, with Moon: subconsciously there are forces that make him happy. Cheerful and optimistic.
• Mercury is in a friendly sign and aspected by his dispositor. A planet aspected by the lord of its sign is strong. A good learner.
• Ketu is in Moon's sign, which gives an inherent detachment, but he is with Sun and afflicted, so it may not show.
• If the lagna is accurate, more can be said: Mercury in lagna gives an intellectual person, Saturn's aspect a hardworking one, Venus and Moon in the 3rd a very creative one.
• This is the subconscious make-up of the person.