Pope John Paul II — Tapasya Yoga, Lakshmi Yoga & D10 Dikpala Analysis

Eclipses and Important Transitions

The class opens with a student asking whether the eclipse has an effect.

• Eclipses, comets and similar events do affect celebrities, countries and societies. Classics such as Brihat Samhita give guidelines, but how to read them is not obvious. PVNR says he is not an expert in this.
• Method: make a chart for the beginning of the eclipse at the capital, just as you make a lunar or solar New Year chart. Events triggered by the eclipse are read from it.

Papal transitions

• He looked at when the popes of the recent past died. The transition from one pope to the next came within a month of successive solar and lunar eclipses — one solar and one lunar, within two weeks of each other, in either order — caused by Rahu and Ketu in dual signs.
• Five times in the last century it happened with Rahu and Ketu on the Virgo–Pisces axis. Four other popes passed away in similar situations.
• A student notes the nodes return there every nine years. PVNR: the condition recurs, but a pope does not change every time. Of the changes that did happen in the last 190 years, 80% met this condition.
• So there may be something special about Pisces and Virgo in the chart of the papal institution itself.

"The few changes that happened in the last 190 years, out of those cases when Pope changed, 80% of the times this particular condition was satisfied. So that is interesting. It is statistically significant."

Eclipses and an individual's chart

• This eclipse falls in Revati. A world leader born in Revati, or with lagna, lagna lord, Moon or Sun in Revati, may see important events.
• In general: compare the chart of the person, country or institution with the positions of Rahu, Ketu and the luminaries at the eclipse.
• A student asks whether solar eclipses hit leaders and lunar eclipses bring natural disasters. PVNR is not sure of that classification. Sun is the karaka of powerful people, which may be the reasoning, but at new moon or full moon both luminaries are afflicted by the nodes, whichever eclipse it is.

"When eclipses happen, especially if they happen on important constellations and important signs in a person's chart, some important events can happen to that person. That's basically what we can say."

Pope John Paul II — Chart Analysis

Birth data: May 18, 1920, 5:30 PM, time zone 2 hours east of GMT, 19°30'E, 49°53'N (Wadowice, Poland).

Lagna: Libra.

Step 1: Rasi Chart — Lagna, Lagna Lord, Yogas

Rasi is the physical existence, the basis of everything. Look first at lagna and lagna lord.

• Rahu is in lagna, but far from the lagna degree.
• Lagna lord Venus is in the 7th house, the house of desire, in Aries with Mercury and Ketu.
• Venus 22°06', Mercury 25°48' — under 4° apart. Less than 6° apart counts as close.
• Venus 22°06', Ketu 22°17' — about 11 minutes apart, less than a quarter of a degree. An extremely close conjunction.
• A student wants to measure from the end of the sign. PVNR: that is only for chara karakas. To see how close two planets are, use the actual longitudes.

Lakshmi Yoga

• Venus (1st lord) and Mercury (9th lord) are together in a kendra, and both aspect lagna from the 7th.
• Lagna lord and 9th lord together is a Raja Yoga called Lakshmi Yoga.
• Lagna and its lord show existence and intelligence; the 9th lord shows the sense of dharma. The two meet.
• Result: very intelligent and very dharmic.

Tapasya Yoga

"Venus, Ketu, and Saturn — all the three either being together or being in mutual konas, mutual trines, constitutes tapasya yoga."

• Here Venus and Ketu are extremely closely conjoined in the 7th house (Aries) and Saturn is in the 11th house (Leo), a trine from them.
• Swami Chandrasekhara Saraswati, the late pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, had a very similar, very strong Tapasya Yoga.

What Tapasya Yoga gives:

• A saintly person, and more than saintly: one who works hard, a workaholic.
• Like a rishi doing tapasya. A student offers "selfless service"; PVNR says service is not quite the word. It is the selfless, austere pursuit of something — it could be science, it could be religion.
• Material comforts and physical happiness are ignored. There is austerity, dedication and selflessness toward one cause, one goal.

Where the Tapasya Yoga falls

• The Kama Trikona houses show attachment and desire.
• A Tapasya Yoga formed in the 8th house is tapasya done for moksha.
• So whatever selfless, austere, disciplined pursuit he engages in, there is some desire behind it. It need not be a selfish desire, but desire has not been overcome.

"It may not be selfish desire, but it's not like he has overcome the desire. There is a certain desire in what he is doing."

Atmakaraka's role in Tapasya Yoga

The second difference from the Swami: in the Swami's chart the Atmakaraka is involved in the yoga. In the Pope's chart it is not directly involved.

But:

• Mars is Atmakaraka.
• Mars (in Virgo) and Mercury (in Aries) have a parivartana. So Mercury acts as if he were Mars.
• Venus and Ketu are in Aries, the Atmakaraka's house, and Mercury, who is with them, acts as the Atmakaraka.
• So there is an Atmakaraka influence on Venus and Ketu.

Rule: In a Tapasya Yoga, see whether one of the three planets is the Atmakaraka, or the Atmakaraka joins them, or — at the least — the Atmakaraka aspects Venus, Ketu and Saturn. If so, the soul is involved in the tapasya. It comes from the desire of the soul over several past lives.

So far: he is a tapasvi. Lagna lord so closely joined with Ketu, the planet of spirituality, makes a spiritual person likely; lagna lord with 9th lord makes a dharmic one.

Step 2: Arudha Lagna — Public Image

Arudha Lagna shows the image and status of the person in the world.

Arudha Lagna = Cancer, a sattvic, Brahminical sign.

Jupiter exalted in AL:

• Not the image of a king. The image of a pious, wise, learned, humble man.
• George Bush called him "a humble, wise, and fearless priest". That is the image Jupiter in AL gives.

Mars in the 3rd from AL:

• He is not seen as a sadhu who just sits. He is seen as bold, brave, fearless — someone willing to fight.
• If he believes in a cause he can take issue with the whole world, speak out and fight for it.
• The same Mars in the 3rd from AL can give the image of a materialistic, selfish person. But the basic image comes from the planets in AL, and exalted Jupiter is there.
• For the overall image, do not judge from one house. Look at AL, and the 3rd, 6th, 9th and other houses from it, and form a composite.

Saturn in the 2nd from AL:

• Normally bad. Parasara calls it a bad combination: the person is poor and without resources.
• Saturn is the planet of depletion, austerity, discipline, the lack of everything. The 2nd from AL is the food and resources the person is perceived to have. With Saturn there he is seen as having nothing. That is the image; it may not be the fact.

Rule: Saturn in the 2nd from AL:

• In the chart of an ordinary materialistic person — seen as poor and impoverished.
• In the chart of a saint — seen as very austere, one who does not care for material pursuits or resources, who impoverishes himself. His resources may be the downtrodden. His resources may be monks; Saturn also shows monks.

House ownership is not counted from AL. A student objects that Saturn is badly placed and a bad lord from AL. PVNR: lordship is always from lagna. For Libra lagna Saturn is the 4th and 5th lord, the yogakaraka. Even in an inimical sign he gives only good results, whether he sits in the 2nd from AL, the 12th from AL or in AL. But the results follow his nature, and his nature is not to give a lot of money. So the Pope is seen as austere, not chasing material things, living a simple life.

Step 3: Navamsa — Dharma, Abilities

Navamsa is the chart of dharma, and the Navamsa lagna is the seat of dharma. It is the most important chart for spiritual people.

Planets in trines from Navamsa lagna show the abilities — the actual abilities, not the image. Navamsa lagna is Scorpio. Mercury is in lagna, Moon in the 5th (Pisces), Saturn in the 9th (Cancer).

How dharmic is the person? Take the 9th lord of the Rasi chart and see how he is placed in Navamsa — own or exaltation sign, friendly or inimical sign.

• The 9th lord is Mercury. In Navamsa Mercury (in Scorpio) and Mars (in Virgo) have a parivartana.
• By the exchange Mercury gives the result of sitting in Virgo, the 11th house: the result of exaltation.
• A very dharmic person.

Kartari on Navamsa lagna:

• Jupiter is in the 2nd; Venus and Ketu are in the 12th.
• Venus and Jupiter are benefics. Ketu, judged for dharma and sitting in the 12th house of moksha, is also practically a benefic here.
• The three cause Shubha Kartari Yoga on Navamsa lagna.

Kartari means scissors. Planets on both sides of a house (in the 2nd and 12th from it) enclose it like scissors and behave as if they were in that house. This applies to every house.

• Papa Kartari — malefics on both sides. They hammer the house. Example: Saturn and Rahu in the 2nd and 12th from lagna.
• Shubha Kartari — benefics on both sides. It is as if they occupy the house and bless it. Example: Venus in the 3rd and Mercury in the 5th bless the 4th — comforts, vehicles, good houses.
• The inherent nature of the planet matters. If Venus and Ketu flank the 4th, you cannot promise comforts: Ketu is not a planet of comfort.

Atmakaraka vargottama: a student points out that Mars, the Atmakaraka, is vargottama (Virgo in Rasi and in Navamsa). PVNR: Atmakaraka in vargottama is good, but the Mercury–Mars parivartana in Navamsa spoils the effect. Vargottama is judged mainly in Navamsa.

The parivartana in Rasi is between the 7th and 12th houses — the house of desire and the house of giving up, of moksha. PVNR calls the switch interesting and declines to comment further.

Step 4: Jupiter and Ketu — the Mark of Parampara

Rule: In great spiritual people, and in people who keep a lineage alive, you commonly see the influence of Jupiter or Ketu or both on the lagna or the lagna lord — in Rasi, Navamsa or Shashtyamsa (D-60). They can be together there, aspect it, or form a kartari on it.

• Ketu is the karaka of parampara. It applies to any subject with master-to-disciple succession over generations: religion, astrology, classical dance.
• Jupiter joins when the knowledge is Vedic knowledge, knowledge of God, of Brahman.
• The tradition is always judged from lagna, the seat of intelligence, and from Ketu. Only the other planet changes with the subject: Jupiter for a Jyotish tradition, Moon or Venus (or another) for a music tradition.
• In Navamsa or Shashtyamsa the parampara meant is a yogic or religious one, not just a family line.
• Rasi is the least important of these. It is a secondary factor beside Navamsa, Shashtyamsa and Dasamsa.

Examples given:

• The Pope: Jupiter and Ketu have kartari on Navamsa lagna. He belonged to a lineage — the lineage of Peter.
• PVNR's guru: Pisces lagna with Jupiter in it, and Ketu in the 10th aspecting it. In another chart of his (the recording is unclear which) Jupiter is in lagna and Ketu in the 9th, a Jupiterian house.
• PVNR himself: Virgo lagna, Jupiter in the 2nd, Ketu in the 12th — a kartari on lagna, but that is Rasi and secondary. In his Shashtyamsa Jupiter and Ketu are together in the 5th and aspect lagna.

Is Ketu a benefic or a malefic in such a kartari? It depends on the purpose.

• Continuing a Jyotish parampara: Jupiter and Ketu are both very benefic.
• Marriage and growing the family: Ketu is benefic.
• Career success: Ketu is a malefic.

Step 5: D-10 (Dasamsa) — Work

Dasamsa is the chart of work. Its lagna is the true nature of the person in work; its Arudha Lagna is the perceived nature.

D-10 lagna: Scorpio, with Venus and Ketu in it. Rahu is opposite in the 7th.

• Venus owns the 12th and the 7th. Ketu owns lagna.
• Lagna lord and 7th lord together in lagna is a Raja Yoga: lagna is both trine and quadrant, the 7th is a quadrant.
• PVNR knows no special name for it (a student asks, since 1st–9th is Lakshmi Yoga and 9th–10th is Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga).
• Meaning: the 7th is desire, the 1st is existence. In work, his existence is led by certain desires.
• Venus and Ketu are the very planets that give Tapasya Yoga in Rasi. The tapasya is tied to his work.

Which Dikpala amsa? Venus, Ketu and Rahu — all three planets on the lagna axis — are in Ishana dasamsa.

• Ishana is an auspicious form of Shiva, the giver of all knowledge.
• So the desires and the work are about studying religion and making people religious — making people fear God and love God.
• Even without knowing whose chart it is, so many planets on lagna in Ishana amsa say: some kind of priest.

The ten Dikpalas of the Dasamsa — review

Ishana is not Ananta

"Ishana is religiousness and Ananta is spirituality. They are not the same."

• Ishana — conforming to tradition, following its rules, gaining religious knowledge.
• Ananta — free thinking and spiritual rise. Spirituality is discovering the God around and the God within.
• Ramana Maharshi and the Kanchi Swami have important planets in both Ishana and Ananta amsas: religious people who conform to tradition, and at the same time free thinkers who are spiritually very advanced.
• In other charts Ishana dominates and nothing is in Ananta. Such people are very religious and conform to tradition, but spiritual rise is not what their karma is focused on.
• PVNR will not rank them. For moksha, Ananta is definitely the more important. But both are needed. Even Nirriti is needed in the world.
• If the 9th, 10th, 1st, 5th and 12th lords of the Rasi chart all sat in Ananta amsa, the person would be a great spiritual person and might never go to a temple.
• Going to a temple is a step in the right direction, but temple, daily puja, lamp and Gayatri are not what make one realize God. "It can help, but you don't have to." Someone may realize God without any of it.
• Praying daily at the feet of an idol of Mahalakshmi and being happy is also good. "You may not get moksha, but you are on the right path."

The Pope: three planets on the lagna axis, one of them a lagna lord, in Ishana. Not a single planet in Ananta.

"Here you don't see a single planet in Ananta dasamsa, but Ishana is very strong. So this is a religious person, not a spiritual person."

A student asks whether Ramana Maharshi has Tapasya Yoga. PVNR does not see it in his chart. What Ramana has is planets on the lagna / lagna-lord axis in Ishana amsa, as here — and Ananta as well.

Arudha Lagna of D-10 — a normal priest or a powerful one?

Mars and Sun are in the Arudha Lagna of D-10 (Aquarius, the 4th).

• Mars is lagna lord, Sun is 10th lord: two important lords in AL, a trine lord and a quadrant lord. A Raja Yoga in AL — very auspicious.
• Both are karakas of politics. Sun is the karaka of power, influence and authority.
• The image is that of a king, not just a rajaguru: a leader.

Rule: Sun or Mars in Arudha Lagna — the person is seen as some kind of leader. It may be a leader of Jyotishis, of religious people, of monks, but a leader. Saturn in Arudha Lagna — the image of a servant.

• Sun, 10th lord, in Brahma amsa: the work is organizing, planning, breaking things down.
• Mars, lagna lord, in Indra amsa: power.

Rule: A planet in Indra amsa that is associated with lagna, Arudha Lagna or Ghatika Lagna gives a lot of power.

• Mars is the lagna lord, the Ghatika Lagna lord, and sits in Arudha Lagna. Lagna is the whole existence, Ghatika Lagna the source of power, Arudha Lagna the status. Mars joins all three, and he is in Indra amsa.
• Conclusion: a very powerful priest. You cannot say from the chart whether a cardinal, an archbishop or a pope. That accuracy is not available. But very powerful, for sure.

Step 6: Timing — Which Dasha Made Him Pope?

He became Pope on October 16, 1978.

• Before opening the dasha, guess: Mars or Sun, the planets in the Arudha Lagna of D-10.
• Vimshottari was running Saturn dasha. Saturn is the dispositor of Sun and Mars in D-10, so perhaps — but it is not a clear-cut case. You would have expected Mars, maybe Sun.
• Is Vimshottari the best dasha for this chart? No. Lagna lord Venus is in the 7th house. That is the condition for Dwisaptati Sama Dasha.
• A student notes the condition is met in D-10 too (7th lord Venus in lagna).

Rule: The conditions for conditional dashas are technically read in the Rasi chart. But you can also check a divisional chart for a different condition and try that dasha for the matters of that chart — for example, lagna lord in the 7th in Rasi but Sun in lagna in D-24: Shashtihayani Dasha, used only for education, gives good results. PVNR has no clear-cut rules on this yet. One thing is certain: when the same condition holds in Rasi and in a divisional chart, that dasha is the best one for that divisional chart.

Dwisaptati Sama Dasha in October 1978: Mars–Venus.

• Mars is the lagna lord and Ghatika Lagna lord of D-10, sits in its Arudha Lagna giving a Raja Yoga there, and is in Indra's dasamsa.
• He made the native very powerful in his dasha.

Homework

• Take his biography from the Vatican site (vatican.va, under "Holy Father").
• Use Dwisaptati Sama Dasha only, and perhaps Narayana Dasha of the Rasi chart.
• Explain at least 10 events: mother's death, brother's death, father's death, becoming a priest, becoming a cardinal, and so on.
• The chart is to be discussed again the next week.