Mrityubhaga (Death-Inflicting Degree) — Definition, Controversy, D30 Root & Mundane New Year Charts: Hora Lord vs Vara Lord

Mrityubhaga (Death-Inflicting Degree)

Definition

• In each rāśi there is one Trimsamsa — one-thirtieth of the sign, one degree — that is fatal for a given planet.
• The degree differs from sign to sign and from planet to planet. There is a table: every planet against every sign. (The teacher has not memorised it and gives no figures.)
• The classics agree on the table except for the Moon. Jataka Parijata gives one set for the Moon; another classic gives another. Jagannatha Hora codes both; the default is the one Sanjay Rath holds to be right.
• In Jagannatha Hora: right-click in the main basics window (where the longitudes are) → "show planets in Mrityubhaga". It shows how far each planet is from the middle of its Mrityubhaga.

The Controversy: What Is "the nth Degree"?

The teacher's reading: the nth degree runs from (n−1)° to n°. 0°–1° is the 1st degree, 1°–2° the 2nd, 29°–30° the 30th. "18th degree" = 17° to 18°.

"Whenever Parashara or any classic writer refers to a particular degree, the nth degree, they meant n minus 1 degree to n degrees. You divide the rāśi into 1st degree, 2nd degree, up to 30th degree. That is the only logical and tenable interpretation."

K.S. Charak's reading: "18th degree" is the point 18°, taken with half a degree either side: 17°30′ to 18°30′.

• Credit to Charak: Mrityubhagas were in the classics but nobody used them. He found them useful in medical astrology — planets in Mrityubhaga give terrible diseases, sometimes death — and made them known through his books on medical astrology.
• His reading sometimes works, because the two ranges overlap. Sometimes it does not. It is not logical.
• On his reading, a 30th-degree Mrityubhaga would run from 29°30′ to 30°30′ — into the next sign.
• Jagannatha Hora offers all three options: 17°–18°, 17°30′–18°30′, and 18°–19°. As a teacher he says which is right; as a software writer he supports them all.

A student's objection: the Sun is at its peak at noon, and it is strong for half an hour either side. Could the Mrityubhaga be like that? The teacher's answer:

• Noon is a point. A Mrityubhaga is not a point.

"This is not a point, this is a part. Bhaga literally means a portion. So this is a death portion. When you are talking about a portion, there is an inference of a length."

• The classics say "12th degree, 13th degree". 11°30′–12°30′ cannot be "the 12th degree".
• The root is Trimsamsa (D-30), the chart of the sufferings one must go through as a result of past evils. A Trimsamsa is one-thirtieth of a rāśi: 0°–1°, 1°–2°, and so on. Which degree is fatal for which planet follows from the Trimsamsa it falls in. So the boundaries are at exact degrees.

How to Use Mrityubhaga

In a Tithi Pravesha chart:

• The first things the teacher looks at are the Hora lord and whether any planet is in Mrityubhaga.
• A planet in Mrityubhaga that also has another negative link — in the 8th house, with the 8th lord, aspecting the 8th house, in A8, or under some other bad influence — gives a bad daśā that year, invariably.
• It is not death. "You cannot die every year or every few years." It is suffering.

In the natal chart:

• Far more serious. That daśā can bring huge suffering or death-like situations.
• Mrityubhaga alone is not enough. Mrityubhaga plus links to undesirable factors — then the daśā or antardaśā will almost surely be bad.
• The daśā of an 8th lord with the antardaśā of a planet in Mrityubhaga associated with the 8th lord: expect a big problem.

"I know cases where during such antardashas people even go into coma, or suddenly cancer is discovered and they fight against cancer."

The Teacher on Charak's Medical Astrology Book

• A systematic, thorough book by a gifted author, a doctor trained in modern medicine. It reads like a well-written scientific textbook. Worth buying.
• It leaves out Shashthamsa (D-6), the key chart for disease.
• It treats D-12 as a disease chart because the 12th is a bad house. For Parashara D-12 is the chart of parents. It matters for disease only where the disease is inherited, and only to a minor extent.
• Its foundations are flawed. Medical astrology has to be joined to Ayurveda: Jupiter and Venus are kapha planets, the Sun and Mars pitta planets, and disease has to do with the guṇas in the body.
• D-30 is fundamental. It shows subconscious vulnerability, and all physical disease comes from subconscious vulnerability. Every disease example in these classes has been read from D-30 and D-6. Charak hardly uses D-30.
• Graha means "that which takes hold" — the planets are forces that take hold of consciousness. Without Ayurveda, which understands disease from the side of consciousness, planets cannot be linked to disease well.

Mundane Astrology — New Year Charts and the Planetary Cabinet

The 2007 Lunar New Year Charts

The chart is cast for the moment the Sun and Moon are exactly together in Pisces (the start of Chaitra — here the year named Sarvajit, 18/19 March 2007), for the capital of the country. The moment is the same all over the world; the lagna changes with the capital, so each country gets a different chart.

Iran (Tehran):

• Sun and Moon are at the start of the 5th degree of Pisces, 4° and some minutes. Lagna is at the same place.
• That is an Amavasya yoga on the lagna. An Amavasya yoga on the lagna of any divisional chart is bad; here it is in the rāśi chart, almost to the degree and minute.
• They will go through a dark period. They may feel belligerent, but it is not the time for them to take on the giants of the world order.

Iraq (Baghdad):

• Aquarius rises. Lagna lord Rahu is in Aquarius, which is not bad.
• But the 8th lord Mercury is also in lagna with him, in Mrityubhaga — and Mercury is the Hora lord, the ruler of the year.

"The 8th lord in lagna with lagna lord, and he is in Mrityubhaga, the death-inflicting degree, and he is the ruler of the year, he is the hora lord."

• Death and destruction for another year. No return to normal life in Iraq this year, with trouble in Israel on one side and Iran on the other setting the whole area burning.

United States (Washington DC):

• Libra lagna. Saturn, the yogakāraka, is in the 10th house of power. A decent chart; they will exercise their power in the world.

The site's charts reproduce all three: Tehran — lagna 3°20′ Pisces, Sun and Moon 4°11′ Pisces; Baghdad — Aquarius lagna with Rahu and Mercury in it, Mercury at 6°40′ (the 7th degree) and Hora lord; Washington — Libra lagna, Saturn in Cancer in the 10th. The site does not compute the Mrityubhaga table.

Saturn and Ketu Together in Leo

• Saturn and Ketu come together during this year. Such conjunctions are explosive and not good for the world. (If Venus joins, briefly, it is a Tapasvi yoga — good or not depending on one's own chart.)
• Ketu is the planet of sudden, explosive events that lead to mokṣa. He is headless, like an Aghori sādhu. He does not sort events into good and bad for the world; he wants all māyā gone and only Nirguṇa Brahman left.
• Saturn is the planet of suffering. Together: sudden suffering.
• The sign is Leo: people in the ruling class can turn headless and take weird decisions.
• Leo is an enemy's house for both. Ketu wants to eclipse the Sun; Saturn hates his father the Sun. Two crazies in the house of their worst enemy can be ruthless.
• He had sugar-coated this at the function. He is very concerned about the next 12 months.
• On prayer: do your own sādhana. Do not pray for a specific outcome — no war, nobody dying — because something that seems bad can be good in the long run, like vomiting that relieves an upset stomach. Pray only lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu.

The Traditional "Planetary Cabinet"

A student asks how the king and minister of the year are found. The teacher gave them at the function only out of respect for tradition. The method is in some books but not from an authority such as Parashara.

• Take the Lunar New Year (Sun and Moon conjoined in Pisces). Do not take the moment itself: take the next sunrise, because that is when the celebration starts. Even if the conjunction is at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Monday is counted as the first day.
• The lord of that weekday (the Vāreśa) is the king of the year. Monday → Moon.
• The minister, the commander-in-chief, the lord of clouds and the rest come the same way from Sun–Moon conjunctions in other signs (he thinks Aries for the commander-in-chief), again by the weekday of the next sunrise.
• Each of these planets is then judged by its placement in the Pisces New Year chart. Some do not even do that: Saturn is bad, Jupiter is good.
• That is the practice in Andhra. Dr. Raman follows the Tamil approach: the year begins when the Sun enters Aries, and the cabinet comes from the Sun's entry into the various signs — again the weekday lord of the next sunrise. Sun into Aries at 11:45 p.m. on Monday → Mars is king.
• Some take the next noon instead of the next sunrise.
• The cabinet comes out the same for every country, or one weekday off.

The teacher's verdict:

"It is, in my view, totally suspect. This is a corruption of Kali Yuga."

• He has never seen an accurate prediction made from the cabinet. Say one thing from the king, another from the minister, another from the commander-in-chief, and together they cover the whole spectrum.
• These are "modern" authors — by which he means the last 1000 years, the period of the invasions, when the knowledge was corrupted.
• "Especially taking the weekday lord and taking the next sunrise is basically nonsense." What he said at the function from the cabinet was entertainment. What he said about India, the US financial markets, Iran, Iraq and Israel came from the New Year charts.

The Teacher's Approach: Hora Lord at the Exact Moment

He states that this is his own thinking, not from any śāstra.

"When that exact event happens, the New Year started. Forget about the next noon or sunset or sunrise. At that time, don't look at the Vara lord, look at the Hora lord, the planetary hour at that time."

• The hint comes from the individual New Year. In Tithi Pravesha the chart is cast for the exact return of the Sun–Moon angle and the Hora lord is taken — and it works. Nobody takes the next sunrise and its weekday lord.
• If your Tithi Pravesha falls at 6 p.m. today, you may hand out sweets tomorrow, but the pūjā or meditation for the New Year is done at 6 p.m. today. Sunrise is for celebration.
• So for Iraq: "Mercury is the king" means the Hora at the moment the year began in Baghdad was Mercury's.
• The Hora depends on how much time has passed since sunrise at the place. Close neighbours such as Iran and Iraq may share a Hora lord (their Navamsa placements still differ); a country further away has another. Different countries have different kings.

Different New Year Charts for Different Purposes

• Full Moon charts in particular signs are also used for particular purposes.
• One can define 12 New Moon charts, 12 Full Moon charts and 12 solar ingress charts — 36 — plus the Sun's entry into the nakshatras. Tradition itself has 27, 30 or more nāyakas, not nine.
• Each is its own New Year chart. Do not place its ruler in the Pisces chart. The Hora lord of the Libra chart is the "Secretary of Finance", and he is judged in the Libra chart. For Iraq's finances, see the Hora lord of the November chart, in that chart.

"The king comes in March and goes in the next March, but the finance secretary may come in November and go on till next November. So these are all basically non-aligned events."

• Ardra is in Gemini, and the Ashadha chart is the Gemini conjunction. Both bear on rain. He notes the link without explaining it.
• This is an area open to research. Study charts without bias and find what each is good for.

Country Charts

A student asks about country charts.

• A country like India has existed forever, but in its present form — these borders, this constitution — only since midnight of 15 August 1947. A new consciousness formed then. Cast the chart for that moment and treat it like a human chart.
• The teacher does not use Vimshottari daśā for a country. Vimshottari assumes a full human life of 120 years in Kali Yuga. A country's span is not 120 years; the daśās would need to be compressed or, more likely, stretched. The same holds for a dog, an elephant, a crow. K.N. Rao and Sanjay Rath do use daśās for countries; he finds it unscientific.
• He does use the country's Tithi Pravesha chart and transits. Both are logical for any being.
• Where there is no agreed birth moment, there is no reliable chart. For the US some ten charts have been floated from the events of 1776. He tried each and was satisfied with none, so he uses none.
• In such cases use the New Year chart — Lunar New Year or the Sun's entry into Aries — cast for the capital: Washington DC for the US, London for the UK, New Delhi for India.
• It changes every year: a different date, a different time, a different chart.

Annual Chart vs Natal Chart

The teacher explains Tithi Pravesha to a newcomer and then says when to use which chart.

• The lunar birthday: the Sun is back in the natal sign, and the tithi is back to the same fraction as at birth (born with 70% of Shukla Dashami elapsed → the moment when 70% of Shukla Dashami has elapsed). That moment is the start of your year. The chart for it differs every year.
• A natal antardaśā lasts some two and a half years. It says "marriage in these years" or "a rise in career in these years". It does not give the month.
• The annual chart gives the month, sometimes the week. Students in the class have found the month or week of a promotion, a new job, a marriage from it.

"I can say that 80% or more of my successful predictions in the last 7 or 8 years were made using this technique, the annual chart."

• People ask about the next two or three years, sometimes the next two or three weeks. Nobody asks whether he will be Prime Minister in 15 years.
• A week of frustration at work may not show in the natal chart at all. Within the frame of one year it is a big matter, and the annual chart shows it.

The annual chart is a ripple on the natal level:

"Annual chart is like a ripple. Water is at this level, ripple is at this level. So you have to look at the overall level and then the ripple."

• "I am frustrated at work; when will it ease?" — a bad daśā now in the annual chart and a good one in three weeks: say three weeks. The natal chart is not needed.
• "Should I change jobs? Will I get the manager's post? Will the marriage happen?" — events that will still matter in 10 or 20 years. Confirm from the natal chart first, then fix the time from the annual chart.
• If the natal chart does not show marriage in those two and a half years, a marriage shown in the annual chart may not happen.
• The first decision with any question is whether it is a major event or a secondary one. (Never tell the person his question is minor.)