Mental Retardation Analysis — Moon+Mercury in D30, Ketu Dasha Pattern & Venus Dasha Recovery Window

Example chart

The case: a girl, three years old at the time of the class. The parents saw that something was wrong when she was seven or eight months old — September–October 2003, as Ketu daśā began. The students had studied the chart on a tele-meeting the previous Friday and bring it back with questions.

Moon with Saturn Does Not By Itself Say Retardation

The students found Moon with Saturn in D-6 (ṣaṣṭhāṁśa) and in D-30 (triṁśāṁśa). A student asks: why does that show retardation and not depression? And if we had not been told the problem, how would we know to look there?

• For anything negative or any mental problem you go to D-6 and D-30 in any case.
• Saturn or the nodes afflicting Moon is what you expect when the mind is not fully developed. Mars afflicting Moon shows anger and aggression instead.
• But Moon–Saturn in D-6 and D-30 says only "some mental problem". Retrograde Saturn can make the mind very slow; Saturn is also the planet of sadness, so it can be depression; schizophrenia and other things are possible.

"There is absolutely no clear logic that proves to you that this is a mental retardness case. That is a possibility."

Why Mercury Must Be Seen Too

• Sadness is a problem of the mind alone. In retardation the intelligence is not able to connect to the mind — the problem at the mental level is the symptom, not the root.
• Basic intelligence comes from lagna and Jupiter. Learning ability comes from Mercury.
• A child learns by experiment — "if I press this, this happens; if I push this, this falls". All that learning is Mercury. If Mercury is afflicted, the learning ability goes.

"Usually in mentally retarded cases, you find not only Moon but also Mercury to be very badly afflicted. Mercury is very important because Mercury is your learning ability, how you adapt to the surroundings."

Mercury in D-30

D-30 lagna is Aquarius.

• Mercury is in Libra, the 9th house. He owns the 5th and the 8th; the 8th lordship is the stronger here. The 9th is the house of protection and, for a fixed lagna, the bādhaka sthāna. The 8th is the 12th from the 9th — depletion of protection. The planet whose agenda is to deplete protection sits in the house of protection.
• Pāpa-kartarī: Saturn in Scorpio on one side, Rāhu and Ketu in Virgo on the other.
• Two malefics aspect him by graha dṛṣṭi: Mars from Pisces (8th-house aspect) and Rāhu from Virgo (2nd-house aspect).
• Mars is the lord of A8 (A8 falls in Scorpio). Rāhu is in the 8th house. So both malefics aspecting Mercury are tied to the 8th.

The general rule he draws:

• Be wary whenever two or three natural malefics — Mars and Saturn, Saturn and Rāhu, Mars and Rāhu — aspect one planet or one house. They all want to do something to it, and when their time comes something bad happens to it. The śāpa combinations of the rāśi chart are built the same way.
• The śāpas are based on graha dṛṣṭi, not rāśi dṛṣṭi. Graha dṛṣṭi cannot be ignored.

The element that is weak. In triṁśāṁśa, planets in a Venusian sign show weakness in the water element. Mercury, the 8th lord, is in a Venusian sign. Water is what mixes the other elements smoothly — clarity. Rāhu and Ketu are the planets to watch most in triṁśāṁśa; they show the weakness that is hardest to overcome. Here they are in Mercury's sign — the earth element, which is the base, the stability. They are not in a sign of Jupiter (ākāśa), which would have been worse, though they do aspect Jupiter. So water and earth — clarity and stability — are what suffer.

Moon in D-30 and D-6

• D-30: Moon is debilitated in Scorpio with retrograde Saturn — depletion of the mental faculty. Their dispositor Ketu is in the 8th house and is a lord of A8.
• D-6: Moon is again with Saturn.
• In rāśi, Moon is at 29°30′ Pisces — very deep gaṇḍānta — in the 6th house of disease, and he owns A8 (Cancer).

A student asks whether the gaṇḍānta matters once the parivartana with Jupiter gives its results.

"If a planet is in gaṇḍānta, that mark is there on the forehead of the planet irrespective of any other parivartanas or any other combinations."

• The gaṇḍānta result is Moon's result. It may be delivered in a Jupiter period, but it belongs to Moon.
• How gaṇḍānta gives its result depends on Moon's afflictions in the other charts. Since Moon is afflicted by Saturn in both D-6 and D-30, the gaṇḍānta makes that more dangerous.
• A gaṇḍānta-doṣa śānti should have been done when the baby was small. It can still be done.

The Rāśi Chart — What the World Sees

People do not see your triṁśāṁśa; the parents and doctors see the rāśi. A big disease or developmental problem is discovered only through the 6th or 8th house or A6 or A8.

• Mercury is the 9th and 12th lord in the 3rd with Venus, the lagna and 8th lord. For Tulā lagna the 8th and 12th are neutral lordships next to the lagna and the 9th, so Venus–Mercury is not a bad combination. They touch neither A6 nor A8, and they are in the 11th from ārūḍha lagna. Mercury shows no big weakness in rāśi.
• Ketu is in the 2nd, in Scorpio, with Mars. The 2nd is a māraka sthāna. The 2nd lord in the 2nd is a strong māraka. Mars–Ketu, like Mars–Rāhu and Mars–Saturn, is a bad pair. A6 is in the same sign, so there is a tangible disease. The teacher adds that Māndi and Gulika are there too.
• Rāhu and Saturn are in the 8th. The four worst malefics hold the 2nd–8th axis.

"It's basically a big gang in the māraka sthāna. It's not just Mars and Ketu. Māndi, Gulika, everybody is there."

What can be read without being told: at the onset of Ketu daśā there is some tangible disease. That it is a mental disease cannot be guessed from this.

"When it comes to health, Ketu shows undiagnosable problems. Not like, oh, he got this bacteria, so give this antibacterial. These are problems that are tough to diagnose. You don't know why it happened."

Ketu with any link to the 6th house, 6th lord, A6, 8th house, 8th lord or A8 is happy to give a problem.

When It Began

• The daśā at birth was Mercury — the 8th lord of D-30 in the bādhaka sthāna, "inexplicable problems that just come". The teacher's guess is that the problem was there from birth, in Mercury daśā.
• It was noticed when Ketu daśā began (September–October 2003). Ketu is a māraka with A6 in rāśi; in D-30 he is in the 8th, disposits Moon and Saturn, and helps hem in Mercury.

Prognosis by Daśā

Jupiter. Any physical improvement has to show in the rāśi chart.

• Without the parivartana: Jupiter is the 6th lord, in Cancer, which is A8 — linked to two duḥsthānas, so he gives some suffering. He is exalted and retrograde. The 6th lord exalted is bad; exalted and retrograde is like the 6th lord debilitated, which is good — a reversal of the 6th-house effect. It starts badly and ends with some relief. (For a 9th lord it would be the other way: exalted and retrograde is like a debilitated 9th lord.)
• With the parivartana: Moon is in Jupiter's sign and Jupiter in Moon's sign. Jupiter gives results as though he were in Pisces — the 6th lord in the 6th. That is Harṣa yoga.

Venus. Lagna lord. The 8th lordship is admitted, but he is a benefic for the chart, has good yogas with Mercury, and has no link with the 6th house, A6 or A8. In D-30 he is the bādhaka lord in lagna — a problem — but again has no link with A6, A8, the 6th or the 8th.

"Ketu–Jupiter, there is some promise, but I am looking more towards the Venus daśā. The girl can make a lot of progress and then start behaving in a much more normal way when the Venus daśā comes."

Harṣa Yoga

• The 6th lord in the 6th is good for any planet. It is Harṣa yoga.
• A natural benefic giving it is better than a malefic. Mars in the 6th in own sign is always strong — you fight wars — but Harṣa yoga is not about fighting wars. It is about being happy and cheerful, and that shows more when the 6th lord is Venus, Jupiter or Mercury.

Parivartana — Two Rules

• Degree after the exchange. A student asks what degree to give a planet in its exchanged sign. Take the degree it had. If it was far advanced in its sign it is still far advanced. Here Moon is read at 29° Cancer — still in gaṇḍānta.
• Not for choosing the daśā. Vimśottarī is used here because no special daśā applies. A student asks whether a parivartana can make a conditional daśā applicable (the exchanged Moon becoming "10th lord in the 10th"). No — do not use parivartana to decide which daśā to use; use it when interpreting the daśā you have chosen. He calls the idea non-standard and "on a little shaky ground", but worth testing on charts with many events.

Two Side Points

• Sun in the 12th from ārūḍha lagna (a student's observation). It means the image of an authoritative, big person will not be there — something lacking in respect in society. Nothing more. It does not reflect on mental stability, which is the domain of Moon and Mercury.
• Are there śāpas here? No. The malefic gang on Mercury is in triṁśāṁśa. "Śāpas you see in rāśi. Not in any other chart."

A Strong Māraka

A student asks whether a 2nd lord in his own sign in the 2nd is a "double māraka". Not double — a strong māraka, "a killer who is really strong". He then asks about Saturn in Capricorn for Dhanur lagna, his own chart. Saturn there is in the 12th from his ārūḍha lagna, which is a rāja yoga materially — and he is still a māraka. When Saturn daśā comes he has to be careful.

D-24 — How the Learning Will Go

D-24 lagna is Aquarius.

• Lagna has Sun in an inimical sign — not strong. One lagna lord, Saturn, is in a kendra (the 4th). The other, Rāhu, is in the 2nd with Ketu and exalted Venus.
• 4th house (primary education): A6 and A8 are both in Taurus, with Saturn. Saturn as lagna lord in the 4th would be good, but he is retrograde and he is the kāraka of the 6th and 8th. Sitting on their ārūḍhas he acts more as their kāraka than as lagna lord — "he says, okay, let's do it". Many obstacles in basic learning. A student recalls that Saturn is not a great giver; he depletes.
• Venus is the 4th lord (and 9th lord) exalted in Pisces, in A11. A student objects that Venus is with two malefics. Yes — but those are a lagna lord and the 10th lord with the 4th and 9th lord, so it is a rāja yoga too. When Venus daśā comes in 2010, expect the education to accelerate. Until then it may be slow.
• 9th house (bachelor's level): Mars, the 10th lord, is in the 9th — a professional, engineering kind of education is possible.
• 2nd house (master's level): strong.

"Even though this girl may start off very poorly, she may do reasonably well at the end of the day."

Remedies

A student proposes Durgā; another says Kālī. The teacher's reasoning:

• The main weakness is Moon — in gaṇḍānta in the 6th, owning A8, with Saturn in D-30 and D-6. Moon's blessings are needed, so a form of the Divine Mother: Pārvatī, Durgā, Kālī, Caṇḍī, Cāmuṇḍā, Bhuvaneśvarī.
• When Moon's main trouble is Saturn, Kālī is the best — here Moon–Saturn in Scorpio. The family already worships Kālī, so it fits. If someone is put off by her imagery she is not the right deity for them.
• Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa for the lagna lord Venus, who is with Mercury. You pray to the deity of the planets giving the disease and also to the planets giving relief.

"Kālī will kill the weakness, and Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa will increase the strength. It is a two-fold process."

• A diamond for the child — accepted (see Part 3). Reading the Nārāyaṇa Kavacam will help very much.
• A student mentions Āyurveda. The teacher's answer is only that they need not wait for Venus daśā — keep trying; some improvement may come in the Jupiter antardaśā.
• The father does not believe in God; the request comes from the grandfather. As long as someone who cares for her and believes can do it, the remedy can be given.

Rules — Mind, Disease and Daśā