Example Chart (1983, Sagittarius Lagna) — Graha Malika Yoga (Spiritual Chain), Parivraj Yoga, Saturn Exalted in A9 for Career & L7 as Wife's Lagna

The Son's Chart — Gaṇḍānta Moon, Graha Mālikā, Navamsa Kārakas, Spiritual Timing

The chart

• Sagittarius lagna. Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury in Leo, the 9th. Sun in Virgo, the 10th. Saturn exalted in Libra, the 11th. Jupiter and Ketu in Scorpio, the 12th. Rāhu in Taurus, the 6th.

An aside on the software

Before the chart, a question on the atmospheric pressure and temperature fields. They matter only if sunrise is defined by the first visible, refracted rays. The teacher's definition — the true centre of the Sun exactly on the eastern horizon — does not depend on them. Altitude matters only for topocentric positions.

Moon in gaṇḍānta

• Moon is at 2° Leo, inside the first 3°20': gaṇḍānta, though not as heavy as his father's Jupiter.
• The father has the 7th lord in gaṇḍānta; the son has the 8th lord there.

"8th lord being in Gandanta is not really auspicious. So when Moon dasha comes, he has to watch out. Moon is a dangerous planet."

• Chandra Vimshottari is used: Moon has three planets with him. Moon daśā runs 2015 to 2025. There is time; he should do a remedy for the Moon then.

Sun daśā, about to start

• Sun is the 9th lord in the 10th, and the 10th lord Mercury is in the 9th: a parivartana and a Dharma-Karmādhipati yoga. A good daśā.
• Sun is in A8. A8 shows sudden changes, up or down. As the 9th lord of fortune his agenda is positive: a sudden, unexpected rise in fortune.

Disposition

• The two signs of Jupiter are empty and sattvic, which gives a sādhu-like disposition. The Sun aspects them. He is a malefic but, in this matter, a neutral one, not like Mars, Saturn, Rāhu or Ketu. The result is a balance between the saintly and the worldly.
• Lagna lord Jupiter is in the 12th with Ketu, co-lord of the 12th and kāraka of the 12th. The 12th is very strong. This makes him quite spiritual.

Graha Mālikā

• All seven planets, Rāhu apart, lie in four consecutive houses, the 9th to the 12th. Very auspicious.
• A student asks whether planets 2nd and 12th from each other are not bad. In general 2–12 and 6–8 planets do not cooperate. But traditional astrologers accept dvir-dvādaśa far more readily than ṣaṣṭāṣṭaka.
• If X is in the 2nd from Y, X sits in Y's house of resources and Y sits in X's house of depletion. One planet is placed to feed the other.
• Here: Jupiter and Ketu give to Saturn, Saturn gives to the Sun, the Sun gives to the four planets in the 9th.

"If my wife is taking away everything I have, I am happy to give her because I earn only for her. Whereas I work hard at my company, I earn a lot of money and some idiot comes and takes away my money, I am unhappy about it."

• Being depleted is good or bad depending on who is depleted, of what, and by whom.
• Mālikā means garland: a chain of resource-sharing, like knowledge passing from teacher to student to the student's student. The two ends matter most. One end is the source of everything, the other is the destination.
• Here the lagna lord and Ketu, the spiritual planets, feed the chain, and the planets in the 9th house of dharma receive it.
• Usual terminology runs the other way — the mālikā "starts" at the Sun and "culminates" in Jupiter–Ketu — but in terms of giving the direction is as above.

Kāla-amṛta yoga? A student asks, since the planets lie on one side of the nodal axis. Views differ: the standard approach also needs the lagna on that side, and here the lagna is on the other; some count planets only; some say a planet sharing a node's sign breaks it. The teacher's view: the yoga is not present in this chart, and even if it were, the mālikā is still a positive yoga.

Navamsa — maraṇa kāraka sthāna from lagna and from the Ātmakāraka

• Navamsa lagna is Virgo. Maraṇa kāraka sthāna (MKS) can be taken from the lagna, or from a house for its own lord. Both are valid and both are bad, with different meanings. The lagna-based one is the classical statement; "the 10th lord in MKS from the 10th" is a derivation.
• From lagna: Moon in the 8th and Jupiter in the 3rd are in MKS. Mercury, the 10th lord, is in MKS counted from his own sign.
• Jupiter in the 3rd is not so bad here. He is the 7th lord in the 3rd: the lord of one kāma trikoṇa in another. In the dharma chart, with a dharma planet, that gives strong determination and desire in dharmic matters.
• From the Ātmakāraka. Mercury is AK, in Sagittarius. The kārakāṁśa is as important a reference as the lagna. From it, Venus, Mars and Rāhu are all in MKS. This is of more concern than the lagna count.
  • Venus is Putrakāraka: strife with children at the level of the soul — delay, children not behaving as wished, or being inimical.
  • Mars is Pitṛkāraka: a deep problem relating to the father.
  • A problem shown through chara kārakas is deep, not a surface one that is easily fixed.
• Mercury is also the bādhaka lord of the rāśi chart. A bādhaka lord who is the Ātmakāraka is the inner self: whatever he gives, good or bad, happens on a big scale. Where he strikes depends on the divisional charts.
• Venus–Mercury brought an injury and turned his mind inward. In the rāśi Venus is the 6th lord and Mercury the bādhaka lord, together with the 8th lord Moon. In the Trimsamsa Venus as 6th lord joins the 8th lord again and Mercury aspects them. The class also cites the Shashtiamsa.

Drig Dasha

• Aries daśā woke his spiritual interest; he dates it to an injury in mid-2006 that made him ask why we are born.
• From Leo, the 5th from Aries, taken as lagna: several planets sit in lagna, at the start of the Graha Mālikā; the 12th lord is in lagna; the 8th lord is with Ketu.

"In the Drig Dasha progressed lagna, if there are multiple planets in lagna, it is almost sure to give a new beginning in the spiritual life."

• Compare Aurobindo, with three planets in Leo and great changes in his Aries daśā, and Swami Sivananda, who left Singapore, went on pilgrimage and took sannyāsa in his Aries daśā.
• Virgo daśā next is even more useful. The progressed lagna is Capricorn. From it all the Leo planets fall in the 8th, the house of sādhana, and Moon is the 7th lord in the 8th, in MKS and in gaṇḍānta: powerful experiences.
• Around 2013 his spiritual progress enters a new phase.

Vimshamsa (D-20)

• D-20 lagna is Cancer. Jupiter in Leo (2nd), Saturn exalted in Libra (4th), Sun and Mercury in Gemini (12th), Rāhu, Ketu and Mars in Taurus (11th).
• Kula Devatā from the 2nd, Grāma Devatā from the 4th. The 2nd is the family; the 4th is the place where the house stands.
  • Jupiter in the 2nd with Sun as 2nd lord fits a family worshipping Shiva. The 2nd lord with a strong Mercury, and exalted Saturn aspecting the 2nd, fits worship of Vishnu, especially Venkateshwara: Saturn and Mercury show Venkateshwara.
  • The Grāma Devatā of his birthplace is Durgā, so Rāhu must touch the 4th. Saturn is in the 4th, and Rāhu, Mars and Ketu aspect him by rāśi dṛṣṭi.
• Checking the D-20 lagna with an event. He expects mantra upadeśa from his mother's guru on a fixed date that July. In the Narayana Dasha of the Vimshamsa he is in the first third of Virgo, which gives the sign's own result. Virgo is the 3rd house, 7th from the 9th: interaction with the Guru, Guru upadeśa. The antardaśā is Scorpio, the 5th house of mantra. In Vimshottari it is Venus–Ketu, and Ketu is co-lord of the 5th and the kāraka for such things. The Cancer lagna is probably right.
• Ātmakāraka in the 12th from lagna in the Vimshamsa is excellent. The 12th is the house of mokṣa and the ātma is there. And the lagna is then the 2nd from the AK — the resource the soul feeds on. The Amātyakāraka matters in the Dasamsa, not here.
• The teacher's closing advice: he has a powerful D-20 and should attend to his spiritual life, but balance it with practical life.

The Son's Chart — Business and the Stock Market (Dasamsa and Hora)

He does not want a job. He wants business, and he likes the stock market.

Dasamsa (D-10)

• D-10 lagna is Taurus. Lagna lord Venus is in Virgo and the 5th lord Mercury is in Taurus: a parivartana between lagna lord and 5th lord, who are also Putrakāraka and Ātmakāraka. An excellent yoga.
• Venus–Ketu, running now. Ketu is the 7th lord in the 11th, and the 11th lord Jupiter is in the 7th: a parivartana. Ketu acts as the 11th lord in the 11th. From the daśā lord Venus the 3rd and 7th lords are again exchanged. Good for initiative and strong desire. Ketu antardaśā in Venus daśā is what makes the wish for business strong, but it is a passing period.
• Sun daśā, from next August. Sun is with Mars in the 6th, so Sun gives the results of Mars. Mars is the 7th lord (business) and 12th lord (investment), but he occupies the 6th: his resources are hard work, obstacles, service.
• So he is unlikely to start a business as soon as Sun daśā begins. Expected: work somewhere, gain experience, and start a business a few years into Sun daśā.
• The 8th lord Jupiter in the 7th, in Scorpio, makes him a gambler with his career.

Hora — luck with speculation

The teacher reads his software's Hora chart, in which Saturn is exalted with Rāhu in the 11th, Mercury is in the 8th, Ketu in the 7th, and Moon, Mars and Venus in the 9th. The site's D-2 uses a different hora scheme and shows other placements.

• Sudden gains: Sun, the 9th lord of fortune, is in A8. One good factor.
• The 9th holds Venus, the 6th and 11th lord, and Mars, the 5th lord. The 5th and 6th lords together make a Dhīmanta yoga: intelligence used to overcome obstacles in money matters.
• The spoiler is Moon, the 8th lord, in the 9th. Something has to be done about the Moon.
• Mercury is the 7th lord in the 8th.

"He is actually a killer. He can actually ruin the finances of the person."

• Stopping the trading when he did was right. Mercury is also the main planet of the stock market: business, emotion, intuition. Moon, the mind, is badly placed too. Quick intuitive judgments are not for him.
• Saturn is excellent: the 2nd lord of the rāśi chart (the kāryeśa for wealth) and 3rd lord, exalted in the 11th, in the Bhāgyapada (A9), and a malefic exalted in the 3rd from Arudha Lagna, which gives terrific financial success.
• So Saturn's fields will pay: oil, steel, iron, commodities. "Saturn is the opposite of stock market."
• Pharma. Sun is the surgeon, Moon the one who nourishes, Rāhu the main kāraka for medicines; Venus shows the chemicals prepared for medical use. Rāhu is the 3rd lord in the 11th with exalted Saturn, in a sign of Venus. Taking the 7th house of the Hora as the business: Rāhu is the 9th lord in the 5th with exalted Saturn, and Venus the 5th lord in the 3rd. Pharmaceuticals look good.

The advice

• When he has money to invest, keep it out of the stock market. Commodities and oil will return more. Even a petrol pump is good for him.
• He asks if he may manage the few stocks the family still holds. "You have no option, so do it. But in general, try to get out of stock market as much as you can."

The Son's Chart — Parivraj Yoga, Marriage, Wife, Children, Parents

Parivraj Yoga

• Moon is in a navāṁśa of Mars and is aspected by Saturn in the rāśi. The 12th is strong.
• The 10th lord Mercury is in the 9th with three planets: Moon the 8th lord, Mars the 5th and 12th lord, Venus the 6th lord. The 10th lord in the 9th with the dusthāna lords.
• The 10th lord with four planets is a very powerful Parivraj Yoga. Here he is with three. "Had there been one more graha in Leo, it would have been very difficult to stop."
• Against it, from the Navamsa: Dārakāraka Moon is in the 8th, but in a trine from the Ātmakāraka; AK and DK in mutual trines is good. The 7th lord Jupiter sits in the Upapada.
• In the rāśi the Upapada is Aquarius: the 2nd lord from it, Jupiter, is with Ketu, showing continuation, and the UL lord Saturn is exalted in the 9th from UL.
• Verdict: there is an interest in renunciation, but it is not that strong. He will be a householder and stay quite spiritual.

The real sannyāsa

"The real sanyasa is not of objects, like wife, children, career. The real sanyasa is in the mind. Whatever you are doing, you are constantly telling yourself, I am not doing, Shiva is doing through me. So whatever phala comes because of it belongs to Shiva, not me."

• Praise for success is Shiva's līlā too; one is a pawn on the board.
• Stop sorting acts into pure and impure. Do what prakṛti has placed you to do at that moment and think "this is Shiva" each time. Then you are, as Vivekananda says, the drop of water on the lotus leaf.
• Giving up objects is only a practice. It is neither necessary nor sufficient.
• To be a householder and a businessman and still a sannyāsi is very hard, not impossible, and it is the goal to hold.

When to marry

His family is looking for a match; he would rather wait.

• Venus–Ketu (now). Venus is the kāraka, sits with the 7th lord Mercury, is the dispositor of the UL lord and is 7th from the UL, aspecting it. In the Navamsa he is the 9th lord in the 9th. Ketu is in the 12th in the rāśi and is the UL lord in the Navamsa. The bhoga counted from Venus to Ketu falls in Scorpio, which in the Navamsa holds the 7th lord and the UL.
• Sun daśā (next). Sun is 8th from the UL in the rāśi. In the Navamsa he is in the 9th but is the 12th lord, in an inimical sign with an enemy. An average daśā for marriage.
• Narayana Dasha of the Navamsa. Cancer is running: 9th from the UL, aspecting it, and holding the Darapada. Aquarius, starting next year, is the 6th house, though it holds the UL lord. Virgo, from 2010, is the lagna and not bad at all.
• Tithi Pravesha 2007–08. Hora lord Mars is in the 7th house, in the 10th degree of Gemini, closely aspecting the Vivāha Saham at 10° Sagittarius. In the TP Navamsa Mars is the yogakāraka 9th lord in the 5th, opposite the lagna lord Sun. The 7th and 9th lords of the TP rāśi, Mercury and Sun, fall in the 7th and 11th of its Navamsa. There is a chance this year.
• Tithi Pravesha 2008–09. Hora lord Mercury. Jupiter, the 7th lord, is in the 7th in Sagittarius and owns the UL. Vivāha Saham is in Taurus. In the TP Navamsa Saturn, the 9th lord of the TP rāśi, is exalted in the 7th with the lagna lord, and the 7th lord Venus is in the UL in the 9th.

"If you ask me quite honestly, this seems like a better year."

• Conclusion: between September 2008 and the start of Sun daśā a year later, at the end of Venus daśā, is the better time. Marrying now is better than waiting.
• The site casts both Tithi Pravesha moments a few minutes before the teacher's software. The rāśi placements and Hora lords agree; the TP Navamsa lagna comes out one sign earlier (Cancer for Leo, Pisces for Aries).

The wife

• A spiritual wife can go along with him and help his sādhana. A non-spiritual wife is even better: she will test him, and he needs testing.
• Take L7 in the Navamsa as her lagna. The 7th lord Jupiter is in Scorpio and L7 falls in Cancer.
  • The 8th from Cancer has Ketu. The 12th is owned by Mercury and aspected by Mercury. Some basic spirituality is there.
  • Jupiter is strong in the 5th.
  • Lagna lord Moon in the 10th could give an active career, but the 10th lord Mars is in the 12th, which takes it away. Mars strongly suggests a housewife.
• Will she help his spiritual progress? Look at Ātmakāraka and Dārakāraka in the Vimshamsa. DK Moon is in the maraṇa kāraka sthāna from AK Mercury. The answer looks a little negative, though she herself is likely to be spiritual.

Children — Saptamsa (D-7)

• D-7 lagna is Aries. Lagna lord Mars is in the 6th: bravery and overcoming obstacles, but not a smooth ride with children.
• Mars is also the kāryeśa (5th lord of the rāśi), and a malefic in an upachaya is well placed. A student proposes Jupiter instead, counting the 5th from the strong Jupiter of the rāśi; the teacher accepts that too. Jupiter is in any case the kāraka, and he is strong.
• The 5th has Jupiter and Moon in Leo: a Gajakesari yoga. At least one child, a very good one, probably a boy; regal, perhaps haughty, with some fame.
• The one flaw: Putrakāraka Venus is in the 8th from Ātmakāraka Mercury, repeating the Navamsa finding. Some relationship problem with a child is to be watched for.

"Different souls have different rinas with each other. … You can experience them and at the same time tell yourself, well, this is just karma."

Parents — Dwadasamsa (D-12)

• D-12 lagna is Cancer.
• Father. Sun, the Pitṛkāraka, is in the 9th in Pisces, eclipsed by Rāhu, the 8th lord. Within Sun daśā there may be bad news about the father, possibly sudden. Pisces is sattvic: whatever dharma he owes his father will be done in a sattvic way, with much sadness.
• From L9 = Aquarius: Venus, running now, is in the 8th with Ketu but is the 4th and 9th lord — suffering, hard to diagnose, not death. Sun is the 7th lord in the 2nd with a malefic: the strongest māraka. The same thing the father's own chart showed.
• Mother. L4 = Scorpio, with Mars in it — the Sun–Mars–Scorpio link again, pitta and heat in the body, matching the headaches.
  • Sun daśā: Sun is the 10th lord in the 5th with Rāhu. Some trouble in her activities, but very good for mantra sādhana. Moon daśā: 9th lord in the 10th, excellent. Mars daśā: lagna lord in lagna.
  • Mercury is her bad planet: the 8th lord in Cancer, the bādhaka sthāna. Moon is his dispositor and the bādhaka lord, so Moon can give blood-pressure trouble. She should take care in Mercury periods, such as Sun–Mercury in 2013–14.
  • No terrible suffering is shown. Her health is decent.

A good astrologer

• The teacher's parting remark, from the chart then on screen: lagna lord in the 2nd, Jupiter in the 8th aspecting the 2nd. He can be a good astrologer if he keeps at it.