Signs, Houses & Planetary Dignities

Puranic Stories as Astrological Keys

Parasara links each avatara of Vishnu to one planet's energy: Vamana to Jupiter, Kurma to Saturn, Parashurama to Venus, Varaha to Rahu. Each story also unfolds within us. The previous class read Vamana as humility, born of Jupiter's intelligence, wisdom and discretion, ending the reign of Bali, our proud generosity. Two students asked for Parashurama and Varaha.

The Parashurama Story (Venus)

Parashurama is a misunderstood avatara. People take him for an angry man who is happy to kill. The inner reading:

• The king steals the cow: when arrogance of achievement touches the spiritual sadhana, the sadhana is robbed of its purity.
• Parashurama kills the king and all Kshatriyas: the supreme happiness born of sadhana does not tolerate this. It cuts off every warrior-like quality. These may be good qualities elsewhere; in the context of sadhana they are bad.
• Parashurama kills his mother and she is brought back to life: when the practised sadhana has a small temptation in it, the fire within ends that sadhana and makes it live again in a pure form. It does not represent a papa.
• Parashurama is a Chiranjeevi: once sadhana reaches its peak and Vishnu is born within as that ecstasy, it lives forever and fixes whatever other drawbacks you have. He is waiting to be one of the Saptarshis of the next Manvantara.

The link with Venus: Venus stands for happiness, the spirit of enjoyment. Spiritual rapture is a form of that enjoyment, just as humility (Vamana) is a form of Jupiter's intelligence and wisdom.

A student asked whether this ties to Lakshmi being the deity of Venus. It does not. A deity assigned to a planet is the one you pray to for results from that planet; it does not mean the deity carries that planet's energy.

The Varaha Story (Rahu)

Rahu and Ketu are two polarities.

• Ketu = moksha, the state of being above desire. Even the desire for moksha is not moksha.
• Rahu = being caught in desires. Deceit is one form of Rahu, but more importantly he is strong desire. Parasara teaches that Rahu is the cause of rebirth.
• In the Shashtyamsa (D-60), the chart of the last life and its karma, Rahu's position shows the strong desire behind this birth. It can be negative (to become rich, to take revenge) or positive (to spread a knowledge one failed to spread before). It can even be the desire to get moksha.

The symbolism:

• The animal is a boar, not a horse, a lion or a tiger, because the desire that makes us take birth again and again is, so to say, silly. But without it there is chaos in the embryo.
• The soul (Sun) does not want to be born again; it wants moksha. Rahu forces it. Sun and Rahu are enemies.
• Vimshottari Dasha for life after birth is computed from the Moon. Scholars teach that a compressed Vimshottari for the nine months in the womb, counted from conception, is computed from the Sun: Moon is mind and Sun is soul, the mind is not yet developed in the womb, and it is the soul that decides to stay.

Questions from the class:

• Is the embryo not viable when Rahu is weak? It needs the conception chart. The Sun must be strong too, and above all it depends on the mutual relationship of Sun and Rahu in that chart — whether Rahu sits where he can exert influence on the Sun. Charakarakas matter too. The terms are left for later classes.
• A strong Rahu usually gives a lot of comforts and fulfilled desires. With a weak Rahu the person struggles.
• Rahu and Ketu are always opposite each other. Depending on which planets associate with which node, spirituality or materialism is stronger at a given time. We are always torn between the two, especially if Rahu and Ketu are strong.

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Planetary Relationships

Natural (Permanent) Relationships

Each planet has fixed friends, neutrals and enemies. They hold in every chart:

Rahu and Ketu: Parasara gives no relationships for them. Some people use Saturn's relationships for Rahu and Mars's for Ketu. The teacher calls this arguable. Ignore the nodes in the exercises.

Temporary Relationships

These depend on where the planets sit in one particular chart:

• Temporary friend: a planet in any of the three signs before or the three signs after the planet in question (the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th and 12th from it).
• Temporary enemy: a planet in the same sign or in any of the other five signs.

Why is a planet in the same sign an enemy?

"You are good with your neighbors, but you are not good with your wife or the people who are in the same house. If you are close, that is good, but too close, that is bad."

Compound Relationships

Add the two scores:

• A planet in a sign owned by its Adhimitra is strong. A planet in a sign owned by its Adhishatru is badly placed.
• A planet that is not a temporary friend does not automatically become an enemy. The two scores are combined: a natural friend who is a temporary enemy is +1 −1 = 0, a Sama.

Worked Example: the Moon in Sri Rama's Chart

The chart traditionally used for Sri Rama is the one students in India start with. The teacher does not vouch for it: Rama is said to be born on Chaitra Shukla Navami with the Sun exalted in Aries and the Moon in Punarvasu, and that combination does not work. Some argue Punarvasu is the nakshatra of the lagna and the Moon is in Pushya. In some parts of India it is held auspicious to write this chart down and keep it in the puja room.

The chart as drawn: Cancer lagna with Moon and Jupiter in it; the other planets as tradition places them.

The Moon has no natural enemies, yet in this chart three planets become its enemies.

Homework: list the Adhimitras, Mitras, Samas, Shatrus and Adhishatrus of Mars and of Saturn in this chart, among the seven planets. The teacher's hint, given from memory: for Mars the Sun should come out Adhimitra and Jupiter perhaps Sama.

His advice: when you hear it you feel you understood it; once you try it on a chart you get confused. Work examples.

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Houses (Bhavas)

Start from a reference sign and count: that sign is the 1st house, the next is the 2nd, and so on to the 12th. The sign you start from is always counted as the first.

• In the chart format used in class the signs run clockwise, so the houses are counted clockwise from the reference.
• The reference can be anything — Lagna, Moon, Sun, Jupiter, Venus. A different reference gives a different chart.
• The default reference is the Lagna, because Lagna is the entire you. Moon is only your mind, Jupiter your intelligence, Venus your spirit of enjoyment.

Why the Classics Give Long Lists

Books give each house a long list. The 2nd is money, family, speech. The 4th is education, mother, heart, house, vehicle, sukha. A student asked why relatives are scattered over different houses instead of being grouped. Because they do not all have the same impact on you; house meanings are based on impact on you.

The exact meaning of a house depends on two things:

• Which chart: Rasi (physical existence), Dasamsa (career), Siddhamsa D-24 (learning), D-7 (children), D-12 (parents).
• Which reference: from Lagna, from Moon, from Jupiter. What the body, the mind and the intelligence are interested in differs.

Parasara gives the whole list and all the parameters, and expects you to work out which meaning applies where. So the teacher gives the axiom from which the lists are derived.

The Four Purusharthas Mapped to Houses

Purushartha = purpose of a being. The 12 houses fall into four triangles (Trikonas). The houses of each triangle are five houses apart.

In each Trikona the three houses are the seed, the focus point (the activity) and the culmination.

Dharma Trikona — 1, 5, 9

• Dharma is not constant. In Kali Yuga the dharma of Mars is popular: Nyaya, one uniform law for everybody. In earlier yugas the law for a peasant, a king and a learned Brahmin differed; the same sin was a graver offence for the learned man.
• 1st — seed: who you are. The rules that bind you depend on who you are.
• 5th — focus: your abilities. Purva punya, intelligence, scholarship. They stem from who you are.
• 9th — culmination: your dharma. The rules to obey, the principles to uphold, righteousness, religion. Your abilities decide your dharma: one who knows astrology has the dharma of spreading it.

Artha Trikona — 2, 6, 10

• 2nd — seed: resources. Family, money, speech. For teaching a class, speech is the only resource.
• 6th — focus: the obstacles to be overcome. Resources alone do not produce karma. A student called it the to-do list, and the teacher agreed. It need not be a bad thing — arranging a room for the class is an obstacle. It can include big obstacles and enemies, so it is also the house of enemies.
• 10th — culmination: karma. What you finally do and discharge. The Karma-sthana.

Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga: the 9th (Dharma-sthana) and the 10th (Karma-sthana) are extremely important. If their lords are together in any house, aspect each other or exchange signs, it is a great Raja Yoga. The person's karma involves dharma and his dharma involves karma. It is much stronger if it forms in the 9th or 10th itself. For Aries Lagna the two lords are Jupiter and Saturn.

Kama Trikona — 3, 7, 11

• 3rd — seed: initiative. Boldness and bravery are forms of it.
• 7th — focus: the desire you nurture.
• 11th — culmination: gains. What you get. An important house along with the 9th and 10th. Bad influences on it mean no gains.
• A student objected that desire should be the seed of initiative. The teacher: it is cyclical — gains give more initiative. He took one part of the cycle.
• What kind of gain depends on the reference and the chart: 11th from Jupiter is gain for the intelligence, 11th from Moon for the mind; 11th in D-24 is gain of knowledge, 11th in D-10 is promotions and extra income. For how much money a person has, the 11th from the Arudha Lagna is the important one.

Moksha Trikona — 4, 8, 12

• 4th — seed: direction (gati). Comfort is one aspect of direction; direction is the root meaning.
• 8th — focus: effort. Not the effort of finishing a to-do list. It is selfless effort, effort without desire, tapasya. Tapasvi Yoga involves the 8th house.
• 12th — culmination: giving away. The 11th is the house of getting and the 12th the house of giving. A donation is a moksha of that money. It is also the house of loss — being robbed, misplacing something — and finally of moksha.

A student asked about Rahu in the 12th:

• Rahu in the 12th does not give moksha; he confuses, like a sceptic brought in to teach an astrology class. Ketu in the 12th does give progress towards moksha.
• The Rasi chart is not the chart for final moksha. See the 12th from the Atmakaraka in Navamsa, because the final giving up is of the atma, not the body. The 12th from Lagna can be one step. The teacher has Ketu in the 12th from Lagna and does not expect moksha from it — only some progress.

No single house decides anything. A person with plenty of resources (2nd) and a weak 6th is too lazy to go through his to-do list and achieves nothing. All the houses must be in harmony. If one house must be picked as the most important, it is the Lagna.

A House Is Not Judged Only by Its Occupants

Whether a person handles the matters of a house well depends on the planets giving results there. Occupation is only one way, and not the most important:

• planets in the house,
• the lord of the house — like the owners of the classroom, who are absent but contribute,
• planets aspecting it,
• planets causing Argala (decisive intervention) on it.

"Somebody doesn't have to be in this room to contribute to this class."

Kendras (Quadrants) and Trikonas (Trines)

These can be counted from any reference, not only Lagna.

• Vishnu shows the effort you put in. Lakshmi shows the fruits you get out of it.
• A person with great punya from past lives is healthy, able and has a high dharma to follow. One without it has a low existence, low abilities and a low dharma.
• Kendras strong → a doer. Trikonas strong → a blessed person who gets things easily.

Raja Yoga: Parasara's Raja Yoga chapter calls Kendras Vishnu-sthanas and Trikonas Lakshmi-sthanas. When the lord of a Kendra and the lord of a Trikona join together in a house, Vishnu and Lakshmi join in that house. Effort and fruit are in synergy, and the result is great prosperity.

• The yoga holds for the whole life. When it gives its results depends on the dashas of the planets involved.

"This yoga doesn't necessarily mean money or power or being a great political leader. Those are one aspect of it. This can also make somebody a great spiritual leader. It basically shows being an achiever in some area of life."

• Which area, and what level of achievement, is judged by other factors Parasara gives in the same chapter.

Upachaya Houses

Dusthanas

They are called Dusthanas because they show things most people do not want. The thumb rule: if these houses are strong the person is unlucky. But it can also mean he is always working hard.

The teacher's own chart. He has seven of the nine planets in the 6th, 8th and 12th of his Rasi chart. Only Sun and Jupiter are elsewhere.

• Two or three astrologers, one of them well known in Hyderabad, went by the thumb rule: very unlucky, will pass his exams with some difficulty and probably become a teacher.
• What happened: three degrees by the age of eleven (two in Sanskrit, one in Hindi), first in Intermediate, then IIT Madras.
• His father, a very good astrologer who did not go by thumb rules, was sure he would be an engineer and would do well — so sure that he told him not to waste money applying for the state engineering entrance, since he would get into IIT.

What the others missed:

• The planets are in Dusthanas in the Rasi chart, the chart of physical existence. That can show a person physically always working hard.
• Career and learning are seen in other charts. In those his charts are decent, and even thumb rules would have given a decent prediction.
• 80–85% of astrologers in India do not even make those charts. They make Rasi and Navamsa and judge all of life from the Rasi.

The rule: do not be scared of many planets in Dusthanas in your own chart. Whether those planets do good or bad is judged from who they are, who they are with, who influences them, who their lord is, and how they relate to the karakas. For now remember the 6th, 8th and 12th as the negative houses.

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Planetary Ownership of Signs (Graha Swamitva)

The Story of Sun and Moon Distributing Signs

The zodiac was once divided into two halves. The Moon owned all six signs of one half and the Sun all six of the other. The other planets had no houses and started fighting for one — a property dispute. Like a zamindar distributing his land, the Moon gave one sign and the Sun gave one sign to each planet, symmetrically, in the order of the planet's distance from the Sun:

Sun and Moon are left with one sign each; every other planet has two. The ownerships fan out symmetrically on both sides of Cancer–Leo. Draw the picture, stare at it, then test yourself until "whose house is this?" is answered at once.

Rahu and Ketu were ignored in the distribution. Later they too demanded houses. Saturn shared Aquarius (Kumbha) with Rahu and Mars shared Scorpio (Vrishchika) with Ketu, without the permission of Sun and Moon. Exaltation and debilitation signs are also given for the nodes, but there are two versions and the teacher leaves them for a later class.

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Moolatrikona Signs

Out of the signs a planet owns, one is its Moolatrikona — the one where it is stronger than in the other. A student put it as "the house the planet likes most"; the teacher corrected him: not likes, but where it is stronger.

The Analogy

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Exaltation (Uccha) and Debilitation (Neecha) Signs

• The degree is the point where exaltation is at its maximum.
• The debilitation sign is always the sign opposite the exaltation sign.

Rahu and Ketu

From the published class notes; this part is not on the recording.

On the recording the teacher says only that two versions exist and leaves the nodes for a later class. The class notes record one version:

These choices are not arbitrary. Everything in astrology is derived from a few basic axioms.

Kalapurusha: the Natural Zodiac

Take Aries as the Lagna of the Kalapurusha. Each sign then carries the meaning of a house — not in anybody's horoscope, but in the natural zodiac:

• Aries (1st) = self
• Taurus (2nd) = resources
• Gemini (3rd) = initiative
• Cancer (4th) = direction, comfort
• Leo (5th) = abilities
• Virgo (6th) = overcoming obstacles
• Libra (7th) = desire
• Scorpio (8th) = effort
• Sagittarius (9th) = dharma
• Capricorn (10th) = karma
• Aquarius (11th) = gains
• Pisces (12th) = moksha, giving

Why Jupiter Is Exalted in Cancer

• Jupiter's signs are Sagittarius (9th = dharma) and Pisces (12th = moksha, giving). He is a Brahmin: he does not want to accumulate, he wants to give.
• Moolatrikona = Sagittarius, his office. He is the priest of Indra, a Rajapurohit in a king's court. Upholding dharma is his duty and he is strict about it.
• Own sign = Pisces. Giving things away is not his duty; it is his natural inclination. Here he is a relaxed rishi doing tapasya for moksha — contented, not excited.
• Exalted in Cancer. He is the Guru. What he likes most is giving gati, direction, to a person's spiritual pursuit. Cancer is the 4th of the natural zodiac: direction and peace.
• Debilitated in Capricorn. The 10th of the natural zodiac is karma, and the sign belongs to Saturn, a tamasic planet: tamasic karma. Jupiter is a purohit, not an army leader or a minister. He does such karma if he must, but he is not comfortable doing it.

Why Venus Is Exalted in Pisces

• Think of Parashurama. Venus is happiness, but passionate happiness — a rajasic graha. He is also a Brahmin, the teacher of the demons.
• Venus's signs are Taurus (2nd = resources) and Libra (7th = desire). Jupiter is not concerned about resources; they come to him. Venus is concerned about resources and desires.
• Moolatrikona = Libra, his office. He rules enjoyment, and for enjoyment desire is essential. His allotted job is to create desire in people. He makes people marry; he is the karaka of marriage.
• But Venus is a great tapasvi. He did tapasya standing upside down. Shiva gave him the Sanjeevani mantra, which only he has. He advises the demons to keep them in check, not because he likes them — as our own spirit of enjoyment keeps the demons within us in check.
• Exalted in Pisces. What he really wants is moksha, but in a rajasic way: not relaxed contentment but rapture, ecstasy, like Parashurama. The 12th of the natural zodiac is his dream.
• Jupiter is contented in Pisces; Venus is excited there.

The teacher derives only these two in class. The same method — own sign, Moolatrikona and exaltation read against the house meanings of the natural zodiac — applies to the other planets.

Order of Strength by Sign Placement

From strongest to weakest:

1. Moolatrikona — he is at the office, not at a party, so he is obliged to give the result
2. Exaltation (Uccha)
3. Own sign
4. Adhimitra Rasi — a great friend's house
5. Mitra Rasi — a friend's house
6. Sama Rasi — a neutral's house
7. Shatru Rasi — an enemy's house
8. Adhishatru Rasi — the worst enemy's house, the worst place to be

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