Example Chart (1981): Chaturshasiti Dasha (10L in 10H), Mercury = Primary Marriage Giver (D9 LL + UL Lord + Exalted), TP 2010-11 Venus Hora = Peak Year, Prasna 3-Level Reading & Emerald on Little Finger

Marriage Timing Revisited — Natal Chart and Daśā

The situation

• The class had read this chart about two years earlier and expected marriage in the 2008–09 year, around April 2009. It did not happen. In July 2009 she was unmarried and still looking.
• PVNR does a post-mortem of the earlier reading, then revises it.

Which daśā

• The 10th lord Mercury is in the 10th house. That is the condition for Chaturaśīti-sama daśā, so that is the daśā to use here.
• Chaturaśīti-sama: Mars mahādaśā 1998–2010; Moon antardaśā May 2008 – February 2010. Mercury mahādaśā begins about February 13, 2010; Mercury–Mercury runs to November 2011.
• Vimśottarī: Saturn–Mercury.

Why Mars–Moon looked possible

In the navāṁśa:

• Mars is the 9th lord and the yogakāraka for Leo lagna, and he is with both 7th lords, Saturn and Rāhu. Against him: debilitated in Cancer, in the 12th house, afflicted by Rāhu.
• Moon is in the 7th house, in parivartana with the 7th lord Saturn.
• Vimśottarī gave the same hint: Saturn is the navāṁśa 7th lord, and in the rāśi he is the Upapada lord sitting with the 7th lord Mercury.

So the period could not be ruled out. Either way the running lord had a link to the navāṁśa 7th house.

Why Mercury is the stronger candidate

"Planets having to do with lagna or 7th house or 9th house can give marriage."

• Rāśi: Mercury is the 7th lord, exalted in his own sign, with the Upapada lord Saturn.
• Navāṁśa: Mercury is in lagna, and he is the lord of the navāṁśa UL.
• From Venus, exalted in the navāṁśa (7th from Venus shows marriage just as 7th from lagna does), Mercury is the 7th lord.

Post-mortem

• The Tithi Praveśa year did carry a strong signal (Part 9). Expecting the event in Mercury's period of that year was logical.
• The error was in the nakṣatra daśā: either Vimśottarī was used, or Chaturaśīti-sama was used but the class did not want to wait for Mercury daśā. Mars's weaknesses — debility, Rāhu, the 12th house — were set aside because he was 9th lord and yogakāraka with the 7th lords, and Moon's antardaśā was picked.
• "We were probably in a hurry." A prediction made two or three years ahead looks only at the next two or three annual charts; a much better one may lie just beyond.
• On the basis of Tithi Praveśa alone you cannot predict. The natal daśā has to agree.
• Techniques are mixed in the hope that their confluence gives the answer. Even then it is a percentage — 90% in some kinds of prediction, 95% in some, 60% in others.

Three Tithi Praveśa Years

She was born on Śukla Pratipadā of Kārtika. The ruler of the year is the hora lord at the Tithi Praveśa moment.

TP 2008–09 — the year of the failed prediction

Cast for October 29, 2008, 1:19:12 PM IST. Capricorn lagna; navāṁśa lagna Leo. Hora lord: Mercury.

• Rāśi: Mercury is exalted in the 9th house and is the UL lord placed in UL. He has nothing to do with the 7th house, but much to do with the 9th and with UL.
• Navāṁśa: Mercury is in lagna and is the UL lord — just as in the natal navāṁśa.
• Moon is in the navāṁśa 7th house as in the natal chart, but here he is the 12th lord in the 7th and shows nothing for marriage.
• The planets that could give it: Mercury, and the 7th lord Saturn. With this chart the class would have picked Mercury's period, about February–March 2009. Something came very close then and did not happen.
• The remaining periods of that year — Rāhu, Venus, Sun:
  • Venus is the kāraka but shows nothing for marriage in this chart.
  • Sun is the navāṁśa lagna lord, but in the 6th with Ketu in an inimical sign. The 6th is separation, not marriage.
  • Rāhu, as 7th lord, has some potential and has argala on lagna. But he is in the 12th house, in an unhappy parivartana with his enemy Moon, and in the 12th from the hora lord: "like somebody who wants to do a project but the CEO doesn't pay attention to him."
• Conclusion: marriage in the rest of that year is unlikely. Nor is the fag end of Mars daśā the likely time; Mercury daśā is. Allow a few weeks either side of February 13, 2010 — the birth time may be a few minutes off.

TP 2009–10 — Jupiter's year

Tithi Praveśa on October 18, 2009. Aries lagna; navāṁśa lagna Virgo, which holds only if the birth time is right within 1 minute 43 seconds. Hora lord: Jupiter.

• Navāṁśa: Jupiter is the 7th lord and the UL lord, exalted in the 11th house with Ketu. The 11th is a Kāma-trikoṇa and the 5th (pūrva-puṇya) from the 7th.
• Ketu shows continuing the lineage: Jupiter with Ketu gives an arranged kind of marriage rather than a love marriage.
• Rāśi: little to do with marriage. Jupiter is the 9th lord, debilitated in Capricorn, with Rāhu — a Guru-Chāṇḍāla yoga, but 22° apart. By graha dṛṣṭi he aspects the 7th lord Venus in Virgo.
• Vivāha Saham is at 25° Taurus. Jupiter at 23° Capricorn aspects it (graha dṛṣṭi) within 2°.
• Jupiter's daśā of that year falls in April–June 2010. By then Mercury mahādaśā will have settled in, even if a birth-time error of 3–4 minutes shifts its start by a month.

TP 2010–11 — Venus's year

Tithi Praveśa on November 6, 2010. Aries lagna; navāṁśa lagna Libra. Hora lord: Venus.

• Rāśi: Venus is the 7th lord in the 7th house in mūlatrikoṇa (6° Libra), with the 4th lord Moon and the 5th lord Sun.
• Navāṁśa: Venus is the lagna lord, the 8th lord and the UL lord, in the 3rd house (Kāma-trikoṇa), aspecting the 9th. The 7th lord Mars is in lagna.
• A student objected that he is the 8th lord. PVNR: for a woman the 8th is the house of saubhāgya. The 7th-lord-in-8th kind of break applies after marriage, and here he is lagna lord as well.
• Vivāha Saham is at 2°–3° Aries. Venus at 6° Libra aspects it exactly as Jupiter did the year before.
• Venus is also the kāraka. He controls both rāśi and navāṁśa with none of the weakness Jupiter had in the 2009–10 rāśi. This is the stronger year.
• Venus's daśā of that year: August 12 – October 21, 2011 — Śrāvaṇa māsa of 2011.

Both remain possible

"This chart is based on the karmas as frozen at the time of the birth. In addition, the free will has been exerted from the birth till now by her, her parents, everybody around her."

• How that has shifted things — pulled the event in or pushed it out — cannot be known. Nor is it certain whether it will be a love or an arranged marriage; the natal chart allows both.
• There is also the few minutes of uncertainty in the birth time.
• "Astrology is basically an intelligent and educated guess." So a praśna is cast to choose between the two years.

The Praśna — Navāṁśa, Rāśi, Drekkāṇa

Cast by the astrologer (the native was not present) on July 13, 2009, 8:28 PM, Dracut, Massachusetts. The question: will there be more delay — is it the earlier window or the later one?

The class computer's clock was wrong (8:33 PM) and gave a different chart. The lagna is right at the start of Capricorn, so the time had to be corrected first.

Can the praśna be taken up?

• Jupiter must influence lagna or the lagna lord for the praśna to give an answer. This is judged in the rāśi only.
• Lagna has no influence of Jupiter; it has Rāhu. But the lagna lord Saturn (Leo) is aspected by Jupiter (Aquarius) by graha dṛṣṭi, though not closely. The praśna is taken up.

The three levels

"Navāṁśa shows what has gone on until now. It is the background of the praśna, the history of the praśna. And the rāśi is what is going on now, and the drekkāṇa is the future."

Lagna is taken as the native, not the astrologer.

Navāṁśa — the past

• The 7th lord Moon is with Jupiter. Jupiter shows astrologers: an astrological prediction was given about the marriage.
• Jupiter is retrograde: what was predicted did not happen.
• Ketu has dhanārgala on the Moon–Jupiter pair. Ketu is the kāraka of mistakes: an astrologer made an error.

That is exactly the history of this question.

Rāśi — the present

• Rāhu in lagna, Ketu in the 7th house; the 7th lord is Moon. The nodes on the 1–7 axis show delay and confusion. There is no clarity at present.

Drekkāṇa — the future

• The 7th house again holds Ketu, and the 7th lord Moon is in the 7th.
• Moon in his own 7th house can show a very quick result — the next month or the next few months.
• But Moon is eclipsed by Ketu. Rāhu and Ketu show delay; Ketu shows the distant future.
• So it is either very soon or quite late. Very soon had already been judged unlikely from the annual chart. The praśna says later rather than sooner.

Verdict and Remedies

Verdict

• "If I were to pick one date, I will pick 2011" — Venus's period in the 2010–11 year, August–September 2011, Śrāvaṇa māsa. She will be about 30.
• PVNR's odds:
  • up to October 2009: no chance to speak of; to the end of 2009, 10–20% even with best efforts;
  • April–June 2010: 60–70%;
  • if that passes, 2011: about 95%.
• The 2010 window has conducive factors too. If the family tries hard it can happen then.
• He quotes the verse printed at the head of the Astrological Magazine editorial: the learned try to predict, but nobody except Brahmā knows what will happen.
• He notes the family will think the class always predicts two years ahead.

Remedies

• Fast on Saturdays (already advised by the student; "Saturday is the correct day") and pray to Sadāśiva. Jupiter is the 2nd lord from UL.
• Kārtikeya (Subrahmaṇya). The Dārakāraka is Jupiter. In the navāṁśa the 7th lord from Dārakāraka is Mars. Mars would mean Hanumān, but praying to Hanumān for marriage is not a good idea. Kārtikeya or Narasiṁha are the choices. Mars is with Saturn and Rāhu, and Rāhu's serpent influence is strong both here and in the Tithi Praveśa chart of the wanted year — so Subrahmaṇya.
• Yellow sapphire — rejected. A student proposed it to strengthen Jupiter for 2010. "You don't look at the Tithi Praveśa chart and say I want this planet to give marriage, so wear that ring." Jupiter is the natal lagna lord, so it would help health; in the navāṁśa he is the 5th and 8th lord and does nothing for marriage.
• Emerald. Mercury is the strongest link to marriage in the chart — 7th lord, exalted, with the UL lord in the rāśi; in the navāṁśa lagna as navāṁśa UL lord. The chart is waiting for Mercury daśā. Wear an emerald set in silver or platinum, preferably not gold, on the little finger of the right hand.
  • Why the little finger: the fingers are assigned to dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa. The little finger is kāma, and Mercury as 7th lord owns a Kāma-trikoṇa house.
  • It may not be necessary. Praying to Kārtikeya and the Saturday fast with prayer to Sadāśiva are the main thing.
• For the job the emerald is good too. In the Daśāṁśa Mercury is in the 10th house with the Sun — the 5th and 6th lords together in the 10th, a Dhīmanta yoga. For best results in career the finger would be the middle finger (artha).