Chart Analysis Methodology — Varga, House, Influences

The Method — Varga, House, Influences

Step 1: Pick the Divisional Chart

"The first key is: identify the divisional chart based on the matter you are interested in." The list of what is seen in which chart has to be known by heart eventually.

Parashara's word for D-24 is vidyāyā: for vidya, see the Chaturvimsamsa. When people say just "amsa" they usually mean Navamsa; D-24 is another of Parashara's sixteen vargas.

Step 2: Pick the House

The 4th house carries a long list: mother, vehicles, house, land, immovable property, motherland, childhood, education, relatives, happiness, comforts, peace, state of mind, heart.

What binds them: the 4th is the seed of the Moksha Trikona. At the basic level it shows comfort, harmony, the sense of well-being. A mother soothes and comforts. A good car, a house where one can relax, a sound heart — all are things needed for comfort.

Each meaning applies in one divisional chart:

"If you apply all of them in the Rasi chart, you just get confused."

The Saturn–Rahu example. Suppose Saturn and Rahu are in the 4th house of someone's Rasi chart. At the physical level he does not have comfort. He always has some worry; he lacks mental harmony and peace. "That is all it shows." Where does the unhappiness come from — a bad relation with the mother, poor learning, no good house or car, a heart problem, bad neighbours? One of them is right, not necessarily all.

"To see that more clearly, you have to go to the corresponding divisional chart. Then you will get a better idea."

Occult learning is the 8th, not the 4th. A student points out that the D-24 example was left unfinished. In D-24 the 4th is the main house of learning. Occult learning is the next step: the 8th house — the house of hidden and secret things, of tapasya and siddhi.

"If you open a book and read it, you do not get occult knowledge. It is hidden knowledge, and only with tapasya and with sadhana you understand it."

For knowledge like astrology the 8th house is more important than the 4th.

Step 3: See Who Influences the House

Ownership. The owner has command over all the resources of that house. "He is the boss" in that matter.

Occupation. The occupants exert the maximum influence on a house — more than the owner.

"Somebody owns this room. But if we conduct classes in this room every day, we become the occupants. The condition of this room is decided more by us than by the owner. He can set some rules — you can't smoke here, you can't throw food on the floor — but still it is us who decide how this room will be."

So if Saturn and Rahu sit in the 4th, they spoil it whoever the 4th lord is. They rob the person of sukha.

Then the three influences from outside the house. All three are important in their own right, and they are different:

• Graha Drishti: a man has a desire to learn astrology but does not always learn it. When the right time comes he starts, and after some time the desire may go.
• Rasi Drishti: the typist on a high-tech project. She attends every meeting, takes the notes, mails them to the team. A permanent influence, but not a big role. Whether a planet's Rasi Drishti counts for much depends on whether it also has Graha Drishti or Argala on the house.
• Argala: the physical-design engineer in chip design. Whether or not he understands the whole project, at the last stage he must come in and do the physical design. The project cannot finish without it.

Finding the Argalas, Rasi Drishtis and Graha Drishtis on a house is slow and confusing at first. With practice one sees them at a glance.

Step 4: Predict

Find the varga, find the house, see the influences on it, and predict from the nature of the planets involved (Part 3).

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Nature of the Planets

What each planet does when it influences a house:

• Saturn, Rahu and Ketu are the evil planets.
• Moon vs Venus: both give happiness. Moon's is comfort (sattvic). Venus's is excitement and pleasure (rajasic). Related, not the same.
• Jupiter is not always safe. Whether he is good or bad in a chart, he brings some role of wisdom. But "sometimes wisdom can be bad for you also" — even Jupiter can destroy a person in the material sense. Examples are promised for later.

Rahu — Cheat or Be Cheated?

A student asks whether Rahu makes the native a cheat or the victim.

• It can be both. It depends on which house Rahu influences and how. Graha Arudhas and Bhava Arudhas (not yet taught) show whether it is you or somebody else.
• "If you cheat somebody, you will be cheated later." People in fields where cheating is common both cheat and get cheated.
• A student says he is honest, yet has repeatedly lent money and not got it back. The teacher: it is possible. Being cheated once or twice may be a passing dosha. Being cheated regularly very likely shows a dosha in D-60, the past-life chart.

"Dharmo rakshati rakshitah. If you follow Dharma, it will save you. If somebody does Adharma in one life, it will not leave him. In the next life it will come back to bite him."

• Some good, God-fearing people wonder why everything goes badly. They may be carrying a karmic weight they have to get off. Good karma never deserts one; it saves one some day or other.

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Rahu and Ketu in Divisional Charts

A student asks whether Rahu and Ketu can be in the same house.

"There are some areas of life where Rahu and Ketu are together and some areas of life where they are totally different."

• In the charts where they are together, Rahu is not necessarily a bad planet. In Vimsamsa, the chart of spirituality, Rahu is auspicious along with Ketu; the two work together.
• Homework: go through example charts in the software, note in which vargas the nodes are always together and in which always opposite. That teaches the nature of the two planets.

Which of the two is stronger when they are together?

1. In a chart where they are together they are working together anyway.
2. Otherwise compare friendships — but the friends and enemies of Rahu and Ketu are more or less the same, as for Saturn, and opinions differ.
3. If that does not separate them: in a house of bhoga, take Rahu to dominate. In a house where moksha is the theme, take Ketu to dominate. Rahu is more interested in the material houses, Ketu in the spiritual houses.

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Key Principles of This Class

1. One meaning per chart

A house has many meanings. Each applies in one varga. Rasi shows only the physical fact; the reason is in the corresponding divisional chart.

2. House = influence; lord = the person

Rasis are inanimate places. Planets are animate. The 9th house is the guidance received; the 9th lord is the guru.

3. Occupants over owner

The owner is the boss and sets rules. The occupants decide the condition of the house.

4. Desire, permanence, destiny

Graha Drishti = desire, shown in a dasha. Rasi Drishti = permanent, not necessarily large. Argala = decisive, destined, triggered in a dasha or transit.

5. Kendras are effort, trines are blessings

Kendras (1, 4, 7, 10) are Vishnu Sthanas — effort. Trines (1, 5, 9) are Lakshmi Sthanas — blessings and fruits of past good karma. Lagna is both. A house lord placed in a Kendra or a trine is well placed.

6. Raja Yogas have sub-themes

• 4th + 5th lords: Vishnu's blessings. If blocked, worship Vishnu.
• 1st + 5th lords: following. In the 1st or 5th itself: Parashara's Maharaja Yoga.
• 5th + 9th lords with a strong lagna lord: Maharaja Yoga.
• 9th + 10th lords: Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga.
• A Yogakaraka (Venus for Capricorn and Aquarius lagnas, Mars for Cancer and Leo) owns a trine and a quadrant by himself.
• Yogas between friends work better than between enemies.
• A Raja Yoga in D-24 makes a Maharaja of learning, not an emperor.

7. A yoga needs a trigger

The right dasha — or prayer to the right deity in a roughly favourable dasha. Once triggered it lasts for life; the main material fruits come in a particular dasha.

8. Graha Malika Yoga

Four or more consecutive houses each holding one of the seven planets (not the nodes). Rare. Where it starts is the trigger; where it ends is the culmination.

9. Neecha Bhanga Raja Yoga

Debilitated planet, owner of the sign in a Kendra. Struggle first, then great success. Timed by the planet causing the cancellation.

10. Tapasvi Yoga

Venus, Saturn, Ketu together, in mutual trines or opposite. Strongest in the 8th, then the 12th.

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