Lunar New Year Comparison (1900 vs 2005) — Hora Lord, Multiple Calendars & Mundane Patterns

Mundane Chart Homework — 1900 vs. 2005 Comparison

Setup

The homework: compare the US Lunar New Year charts of 1900 and 2005, two years of great destruction by water.

• 2005: April 8, 2005, 3:32:36 PM standard time (5 hours west of GMT; 4:32:36 PM on the summer-time clock), Washington DC — "in the middle of an eclipse". Year of Hurricane Katrina.
• 1900: March 30, 1900, around 3:30 PM, Washington DC. Year of the Galveston hurricane (8 September 1900).

A Lunar or Solar New Year chart is cast for the capital of the country, to see the important events of the country in that year.

Similarities in the Rasi Chart

• Leo rising in both. "But don't expect that there will be a big hurricane whenever Leo rises."
• A big planetary conglomeration in the 8th house: troubles, unexpected problems, tension and anxiety.
• The 8th house shows sudden things, good or bad. It can be a sudden gain — an uncle you never knew leaves you everything. It also shows sudden loss.
• Sun, the lagna lord, and Moon are both in the 8th.

Moon in the 8th — Marana Karaka Sthana

• For every planet the 8th is a bad house, but for Moon it is his Marana Karaka Sthana. He feels helpless there.
• The 8th house is a watery sign (Pisces). Of all the planets there, the one most perturbed is Moon, and Moon is a watery planet.
• Whatever else the many planets show, one common theme is destruction relating to water.

A4 in the 12th

• A4 is the ārūḍha of the 4th: the tangible manifestation of sukha, the happiness and comfort people feel.
• A4 in the 12th house: people in the country do not feel comfortable that year. "They feel as if something is hanging on their head, something is going to fall."
• This is a general reading of A4 in the 12th, not specific to the hurricane.

Hora Lord

• A student brought up the Hora Lord. At the moment of both charts the planetary hour running was Moon's.

"Both the years, Moon was the ruler of the year and he was in Marana Karaka Sthana in a watery sign. So this is the link."

The Lesson

If another year shows the same combination — Leo rising, Sun and Moon in the 8th house, Moon as Hora Lord — suspect destruction relating to water in that year. "Doesn't have to be a hurricane. It can be a tsunami. It can be anything."

Rudramsha (D-11) — Death and Destruction

Rasi shows what happens physically. Rudramsha shows the environment of destruction that people feel around them. Look for the marakas.

1900 Rudramsha (Aries lagna):

• Mars is in the 2nd house, but he is lagna lord. He is not likely to kill. Mars is not the maraka.
• Venus owns both the 2nd and the 7th. He is the maraka, and he sits in Pisces — the watery sign that shows the ocean.
• Rahu is in the 2nd house and has rāśi dṛṣṭi on the 7th (Taurus aspects Libra). A malefic tied to both the 2nd and the 7th becomes a maraka.

2005 Rudramsha (Gemini lagna):

• 2nd lord is Moon, 7th lord is Jupiter.
• Rahu (Pisces) has rāśi dṛṣṭi on the 7th house; Saturn (Scorpio) has rāśi dṛṣṭi on the 2nd house. Both strong marakas are in watery signs.
• Rahu is with exalted Venus in Pisces, so here too an exalted Venus aspects the 7th. With Rahu, Venus — the teacher of the demons with his favourite student — turns a little demonish.

Only rāśi dṛṣṭi is used here: "Graha dṛṣṭi I am leaving because that's just a desire. I am looking at the permanent influence on the house."

Two Observations That Do Not Count

• Moon in Revati in both charts. Take it with a pinch of salt. The Lunar New Year is by definition a Sun–Moon conjunction in Pisces. Pisces has 9 nakshatra padas and 4 belong to Revati, so the probability is 4/9.
• Sun and Moon at the same longitude in each chart (about 25°10' Pisces in 2005). That is simply the definition of the Lunar New Year.
• The lagna nakshatra differs: Magha in one chart, Purva Phalguni in the other. Nothing from that side.

The Rasi Chart of 1900 — 7th and 8th Lords Together

• 7th house is Aquarius. Its lords are Saturn and Rahu. Saturn is alone; Rahu is with Jupiter, so Rahu is the stronger lord.
• Jupiter is the 8th lord. 7th lord and 8th lord are together in Scorpio, a watery sign. "7th and 8th lord together is a bad combination. It's a combination of death."
• Rahu with Jupiter hammers Jupiter. The lord of longevity is hammered by the 7th lord, who wants to remove longevity.
• 12th lord Moon in the 8th is a Viparita Raja Yoga, but Moon is in Marana Karaka Sthana, so it hardly helps. There may be some sudden gains in the year, very minimal. The same holds for Venus as 12th lord in the 6th: Marana Karaka Sthana dominates over the yoga.
• In a person's Tithi Pravesha chart, 7th and 8th lords together like this calls for great caution: death, or, if no maraka dasha runs in the birth chart, a big mishap. Prepare the family or advise remedies.
• A country does not die. The chart shows a big death toll, a disaster that grips the collective mind.

What the National Chart Shows

• The chart shows what the collective consciousness of the country perceives. Ten thousand ordinary deaths across the country in a day do not register; 3,000 deaths in one attack do.
• It need not be people dying. A great building destroyed while empty still feels like a death to the nation.
• Even a disaster that kills many animals should show, with the kāraka of that animal afflicted (Sun for birds). These are hard to predict and easy to justify afterwards.

The Chart Does Not Give the Location

• Once you know some water-related problem will hit the country, pinpointing the area from the country's chart is very difficult. "Let us not even try that."
• A student noted that New Orleans and Washington DC give nearly the same rising degree. There are slanting lines on the globe along which the ascendant is the same at a given moment; the two cities may fall close to one such line.
• A single tornado that hits one town may not show in the national chart. In the chart of that town's incorporation it is a huge event and will show clearly.
• A year or month with a great many tornadoes should show in the national chart. For tornadoes expect airy planets and signs to dominate, as watery ones do here.

New Orleans Research (A Student's Profection Study)

A student researched the founding of New Orleans and gave the data in class.

New Orleans incorporation: August 25, 1718, 5:46 AM, New Orleans. Probably local mean time — there were no time zones then; it differs from zone time by only 16 seconds.

He also took the Louisiana Purchase: April 30, 1803, at sunrise (5:25 AM).

His Method — Annual Profection

The ascendant is progressed 30° (one sign) per year.

From the 1718 chart:

• 1957 (Hurricane Audrey, which he named as the worst for fatalities) and 2005 (Katrina): both 11 signs from the ascendant. He noted both are "ruled by the Moon".
• 1965 (Hurricane Betsy): 7 signs.
• 1900: 8 signs.
• 1915 (an unnamed hurricane): 4 signs.

From the 1803 chart, 1957 and 2005 both fall 10 signs from the ascendant.

His impression: the rulers of these houses tie back to Moon and Cancer in the natal chart, and to planets in Pisces.

The Teacher's Assignment

"Good research." Then the homework on this chart:

• Use the 1718 chart with Tithi Pravesha, the yearly lunar return. Look at the chart active at the time of each hurricane — Audrey 1957, Betsy 1965, Katrina 2005 — and see if there are links.
• Do not use dashas. For people we take 120 years and divide it into dashas. The expected longevity of a town or a country is not known. "That's based on assumptions that could be flawed."

Hora Lord Debate — When Does the Year Start?

A student asked: in a personal Tithi Pravesha chart the ruler of the year is the Hora Lord. Is it the same in the national Lunar New Year chart?

The Traditional Practice

• The chart is made for the moment Chaitra Shukla Pratipada starts.
• But for the ruler of the year, tradition goes to the next sunrise and takes the lord of that weekday.
• In 1900 the New Year began on a Friday afternoon. The next day is Saturday, so every Ugadi reading takes Saturn as ruler of the year.
• The weekday lord is nothing but the hora lord at sunrise. The first hora of a day always belongs to the weekday lord.

The Teacher's Position

• The next sunrise is the civil start of the year. In old days everything was celebrated in the morning, so the festival was rounded to the next morning.
• In Shadbala, the strength of a day, a month or a year is always based on the hora at which it starts. The first hora controls the quality of whatever period is starting.
• In Tithi Pravesha charts — personal Lunar New Year charts in the same tradition — the Hora Lord is given great importance.
• So the original practice was probably the Hora Lord at the exact astrological moment the year starts. Later it was shifted to the next sunrise for the celebration.

"It is my strong feeling that that's basically a corruption that came in the last few hundred years."

"The hora lord at the time the New Year starts is very important, and I take that planet to be the ruler of the year."

He states this as his strong hunch, not as settled tradition.

Multiple New Years — Each Has a Purpose

Solar and Lunar

• Solar calendars: Sun is the planet of politics, power and kings. Solar New Year charts show political matters, how the rulers deal with each other.
• Lunar calendars: Moon is the mind, the masses, the collective consciousness. For things that affect the masses, use the lunar calendar.
• There can be one lunar New Year for each sign (Sun–Moon conjunction in that sign) and one solar New Year for each sign (solar entry into it). Each has a role of its own.

What Each Sign Shows

• Pisces: the 12th sign, the sign of the maharishis, of bliss and tranquility. "If you want tranquility, Pisces is the sign." For aggression and getting things done, it would have been Aries. He adds that he is not 100% sure of the reason.
• Libra: the 7th house of the natural zodiac — business, desires, the marketplace. In praśna it shows malls and business places. Do people feel good about the price they get for what they sell?
• The Pisces chart still reflects war, disaster or a market crash to some extent, because all of them make people unhappy. For clarity on one matter, use the chart for that matter.

The Diwali Accounts Custom

In Gujarat and some other parts of India people worship Mahalakshmi at Diwali, close their accounts and open new books. The books start fresh when Sun and Moon join in Libra, because that is the chart for financial matters.

Not Contradictions

"It's not that one lunar calendar is right and all others are wrong. All the lunar calendars that are prevalent in various parts of the world are correct. They have a meaning of their own."

• The charts are not interchangeable. Each has its own role.
• Different regions of India hold different things dear — spirituality, business, politics — so a different New Year became popular in each. All of them cast the chart for the capital, New Delhi; they differ only in the date.
• A clue survives in the traditional planetary cabinet: the ruler of the year, the minister, the army chief and the rest are each taken from the weekday lord of a different Sun–Moon conjunction or solar entry during the year. So defence matters, for instance, have a chart of their own. Most of that knowledge is lost.
• "I will not tell you exactly what is to be used for what, because I myself am not sure." The one he is sure of is Libra for finance.

His Market Prediction From the Libra Chart

• 2006: a good, slightly bullish year.
• From Diwali 2006 (November 2006) to November 2007: a bad year, a recession-like situation. "I expect 2007 to be a bear year."

Which Place?

• Mundane charts are cast for the capital, where the executive that decides the country's fortunes sits. For the US that is Washington DC, even though the stock exchange is in New York.
• This chart does not give the index level. It gives the mood of the people about finance and business.
• For a particular exchange or index, use its own chart (the NYSE chart, or the birthplace of the index).