Mundane Charts & Arudha Padas — Bhava vs. Pada, A8 Mrityupada, 3rd from AL

Mundane Astrology — Framework for Country Charts

Homework carried over

• Compare the Lunar New Year chart of Washington, D.C. for 2005 with the one for 1900 (new lunar year in March/April). In 1900 a hurricane almost destroyed Galveston; in 2005 Katrina killed many in Louisiana and Mississippi. Both years had destruction by water — look for links between the two charts.
• Nobody had done it. One more week given.

The question that started the class

• A student: about 200 people died in a train accident in India, a bomb blast killed about 100 the previous morning, Saturn and Mars are in a 4th/10th placement, and a solar and a lunar eclipse have just passed. What is going on in India?
• Approaches the teacher lists:
  • The Lunar New Year chart of the country.
  • The independence chart. India has an accurate one, tested by many successful predictions. For the US the founding moment is disputed, so the date and time have to be settled first.
  • From the independence chart: either daśās, or the annual (Tithi Pravesha) chart.

Why Annual Charts (Not Vimshottari Dasha) for Countries

• Vimshottari assumes a nominal life of 120 years. That is true for human beings.
• The classics give the expected length of life for some animals too (elephants, dogs…). For a cow or a fish you can compress Vimshottari from 120 years to that species' paramāyu.
• For a country no paramāyu is given. It may be 360 years, it may be 1,000 — nobody knows.
• Great astrologers do use Vimshottari on India's chart, treating the country as a human being with 120 years. The teacher's view:

"In my opinion it is very suspect. The theoretical foundation behind that practice is highly suspect."

• Until the paramāyu of a country is known, use the annual chart. Every year is a new beginning; that holds for a country, an institution or a person.
• The daśā that goes with a Tithi Pravesha chart is Tithi Ashtottari.

India's Tithi Pravesha 2005

• Natal chart: August 15, 1947, midnight — when August 14 ended and August 15 began — Delhi (77°13'E, 28°40'N). The published class notes write it as 00:01 hrs.
• Tithi Pravesha 2005: August 3, 2005, 3:48:45 AM IST, Delhi. Gemini lagna.
• Hora Lord = Sun. Always look at the Hora Lord of a Tithi Pravesha chart: he is the ruler of the year, like the king for that year.
• Daśā running when the accidents, floods and blasts came: Venus.

Arudha Padas — The Bhava-Pada Distinction

Bhava and Pada

• The Sanskrit word for a house is bhāva — a concept, a thought, the meaning of a word.
• The Sanskrit word for an ārūḍha is pada — a word, a symbol.
• Houses are the meanings; padas are the words that express them.

"If I want to express a concept that is in my mind, it is only in my mind. You can't see it, you cannot feel it. Whereas when I use a word to express that concept, you understand what I mean."

• Intangibles of a house: read the house. Tangible manifestations — what can be seen, heard, touched: read its pada.

• A house lord is the intelligence of someone acting on that house. The ārūḍha of the house lord (graha ārūḍha) is the actual thinking, feeling person acting in your life.

Project Analogy for a House

• House = a project
• Lord of the house = the manager of the group working on it
• Planets in the house = people in that group actively working on it
• Planets with Argala = people from other groups with a significant role
• Planets with Rasi Drishti = people with some role, not necessarily significant
• Planets with Graha Drishti = people who have a desire to contribute
• Primary argala on a house comes from planets in the 2nd, 4th and 11th from it. Argala means intervention.

A8 — Mrityupada

• The 8th house is death and longevity both. Strong, it shows life; weak, it shows death.
• A8 = Mrityupada. A planet associated with it can bring death as a tangible event.
• Many people die in India every day and nobody notices. When 100 die in a blast, it is in the news and sits in people's minds. That is why the event is read from the ārūḍha of the 8th and not from the 8th house.
• A student's objection: the 8th is also sudden gains. The teacher agrees — A8 can equally be an unexpected inheritance or a lottery win:

"Because I know it, I am justifying it. If I was making a prediction ahead, just because it is A8, I cannot be confident and say there is a lot of water-related destruction."

India 2005 — What Venus Dasha Can Give

• Venus owns the 5th (Libra) and the 12th house (Taurus): losses, compromises, dealings and secret deals with faraway countries. That alone does not explain death.
• A8 is in Libra. Venus owns it.
• Venus is in Leo, a fixed sign; Libra is movable. Venus aspects A8 by rāśi dṛṣṭi.
• Venus is in the 11th from Libra, so he also has argala on A8.
• Lord, sign aspect and argala: Venus has a lasting hold on A8. In his daśā he can give tangible destruction.
• What kind:
  • Venus (like Moon) is a jala-tattva planet — destruction through water.
  • Venus is the kāraka for patriotism and passion; he is Parashurama — people with strong ideas, passionate about them. Someone's patriotism, for India or for another country, can turn into destruction. With Rahu and Ketu this shows terrorist activity.

A4 in the 12th House

• A4 = the tangible happiness, comfort and peace of the country.
• An ārūḍha in the 12th or 8th from lagna: some loss or giving up of what it stands for. Tangible signs of unhappiness and restlessness during the year.
• Here the 12th is Taurus, a sign of Venus, the kāraka of happiness — not a sign of Mars or Saturn. "So it's not that bad."

The 3rd from Arudha Lagna — How Death Comes

• According to Jaimini, the 3rd from Arudha Lagna shows the death: the place, the circumstances.
• In the Shashtyamsa (D-60) the 3rd from AL shows how the person died in the past life, and the phobias carried from it. Moon there: probably died in water last life; hydrophobia possible in this one.
• In the Rasi chart it shows how death is likely to come in this life.
• The sign gives the place:

• The planets in or aspecting the sign give the circumstances: violent or pleasant, sudden or known months ahead.

• Each combination has ten or fifteen possible readings. Picking the right one is the difficult part.

3rd from AL versus the Marakas

• A student: death is usually read from the 2nd and 7th. Why only the 3rd from AL?
• From lagna the 2nd and 7th are the maraka sthānas. Planets in the 2nd, 7th or 8th from Arudha Lagna also become marakas.
• Which daśā brings death: look at all the marakas — 2nd, 7th, 8th — and the links between them.
• How the person dies — the surroundings and circumstances: the 3rd from Arudha Lagna alone.
• If the 3rd from AL also holds A8, or its lord is in A8, that sign or planet can bring death or death-like suffering in its daśā.

India 2005 — The Giveaway

• Arudha Lagna is in Leo. Libra is the 3rd from AL and also holds A8. Venus owns it.
• Venus himself sits in Leo, with Arudha Lagna: the lord of the 3rd from AL is on AL. He can give loss of life.
• Apamrityu Sahama — the point for bad, unexpected, sudden death (apa = bad, undesirable) — is at 9° Libra in this annual chart. Same sign again.
• Sahamas in an annual chart: planets that occupy, aspect or own the sahama, and also have links to the relevant houses and ārūḍhas, can bring its result. A student asked about starting from natal sahamas; the teacher knows of no such method.

"There are hundreds of factors which collude together to bring an event… We know maybe three or four, or maybe ten factors. So using them, we are trying to predict. That is why sometimes we go wrong."

Divisional Charts for Suffering and Death

Which Charts

• D-11 (Rudramsa) — the chart for mass deaths. Rudra is not the bringer of death; he is the bringer of protection, and when he withdraws there is death.
• D-30 (Trimsamsa) — the suffering and unease in the country.
• D-6 — ill health; for a country, strife, enmity with other countries, litigation in a world court, war.
• D-16 — vehicles and pleasures. A student suggests it for the train accident; the teacher has not tried it.

India 2005 — Rudramsa

• Virgo lagna. The 11th house, Cancer, dominates: Venus (2nd lord), Mars (3rd and 8th lord), Ketu (3rd lord), and Sun. Several marakas in one house. A8 is there too.
• The 11th is the 6th from the 6th: the 6th is the struggle to overcome obstacles, and the 11th is giving up that struggle — surrender, death or great suffering.
• It is called Hara sthāna: the house through which Hara acts and kills.
• Cancer is a watery sign: water-related deaths — rain, flash floods — are quite possible in the year.

Whose Results Does Venus Give?

When several planets are together:

1. Arrange them in decreasing order of beneficence.
2. The first and the last exchange results; the second and the second-from-last; and so on.

• General order of beneficence: Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Sun, Saturn, Mars, Rahu, Ketu. There are no firm rules in the classics; it is a judgment.
• Here: Venus, Sun, Mars, Ketu. Venus and Moon are in parivartana, but Venus acting as Moon does not change the order — both are more benefic than Sun.
• Mars or Ketu last? The teacher goes back and forth in front of the class:
  • Ketu is in general the more malefic.
  • But Mars is debilitated in Cancer — maybe Mars.
  • A student: they are all combust. That settles it. Mars is the army chief and a friend of the king; near Sun he is not afraid. Ketu is a terrorist, an underground man; when the king comes close he is terrified. Ketu and Sun are bitter enemies.
• Final judgment: Ketu is the most malefic here, so Venus exchanges with Ketu.
• Venus gives his own result — death and destruction by water — and Ketu's: terrorism, explosions, bomb blasts, ashes and smoke. Mars or Ketu giving results means bloodshed and violence; Ketu in particular means explosions.

India 2005 — Trimsamsa

• Lagna in D-30 is the self from the point of view of subconscious suffering and restlessness.
• Venus, the 5th and 12th lord, sits in lagna, with Moon. Venus Dasha can bring the feeling in the country that things are going badly.
• The 12th in D-30 is untold, secret pain from very deep inside.
• Venus owns the 12th, which holds A4 and A8 together. So Venus is tied to Mrityupada in Rasi, Rudramsa and Trimsamsa.
• But the teacher stops there. What is the tangible manifestation of a subconscious feeling? He cannot explain it in words:

"Let us leave Arudhas in all charts above D-24. Mind we know, body we know. Subconscious, we don't really know."

Key Arudha Rules Summary