Transits (Gochara) — Philosophy, Murti System & Vedha Obstruction

Transits (Gochara) — Introduction and Philosophy

Static and Dynamic

• Reading the AV of the natal chart is static analysis. Transits are the dynamic use.
• Gochara: go = graha, chara = movement. Planetary movement.
• When Saigal was born Jupiter was in Pisces. A year later he was in Aries, a year after that in Taurus. From where the planets are now, relative to the natal positions, you judge what events are possible.

Dasha, Annual Chart and Transit Together

• Dashas and transits are to be correlated before predicting.
• A dasha fit for imprisonment may run for a couple of years. When within it? Look at the annual Tithi Pravesha charts, and look at the transits.
• Transit results are gross and approximate. The same transit comes again and again, so by itself it does not let you say something will happen.
• Asked which makes the other work: "This is like whether the plant comes from the seed or the seed comes from the plant." Both work together; the result comes when there is a confluence.
• Given a choice, PVNR gives priority to dasha. Transits repeat too often — Mercury and Venus are well placed about half the time. "You cannot make predictions just based on the transits."
• The dasha tells when a result is likely. The annual chart narrows it. The transit confirms it and sometimes narrows it further.

"If you see something in the dasha and the annual charts also, and if you see it in the transit, it's a triple confirmation. Then you can predict."

Transit Reference Points

Moon First

• In the Indian tradition the most important reference for transits is Chandra lagna.
• Moon is the mind. Transits from Moon show how the moving planets impact the mind.
• A traditional priest uses only Moon nine times out of ten: "You have Guru in Bhagya, you will get excellent results. You have Guru in Shashtha, you will lose to your enemies." That is sufficient.

Lagna, Arudha Lagna and Sun

• Lagna: some astrologers give it more importance, and that is also good. See health from lagna as well as from Moon.
• Arudha Lagna: the third reference. Transits from AL show what happens to the image. The auspicious and inauspicious houses from AL are totally different from those from Moon.
• Sun: the soul. Transits from Sun are harder to read. The 2nd from Moon, from lagna and from AL is money; the 2nd from Sun is not money. It needs a more advanced understanding, so leave it for now.
• A student: Sun gives power. PVNR agrees — power of that order, a following of a million people, comes from the level of the soul.
• Parashara does say Sun, Moon and lagna are all three important: the tripod of soul, mind and body.
• India has hardly any tradition of transits from Sun. Western astrology kept Sun and forgot Moon — perhaps because the Sun sign can be found from the month of birth.

For Now

Focus on Moon. Take the list of good and bad houses from Moon from PVNR's textbook (first chapter of the section on transits), from Dr. Raman's Ashtakavarga book, or from the software. The transit rules from Moon are based on Moon's Ashtakavarga.

Transit Rules — Good and Bad Houses from Moon

Jupiter

Mars, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu

Good in the 3rd, 6th and 11th from Moon. The other houses are bad.

The published class notes put the Sun with the malefics here: 3rd, 6th and 11th from Moon are his good houses too. In the transit calendar shown in class the Sun's 5th is red and his 6th green.

Mercury and Venus

• The 4th is good for Mercury and Venus, and for Jupiter. They give sukha: peace, comfort, happiness. Mars or Saturn in the 4th gives discomfort and trouble.
• The 2nd is good for Mercury and Venus.
• The 6th is good for Mercury and Venus — not for Jupiter.
• The 12th is bad for every planet except Venus. Venus's good houses are "a little tricky, counterintuitive sometimes".

Saturn, House by House (from the class exercise)

• 8th, 12th, 1st, 2nd, 4th: terrible.
• 8th = Ashtama Shani: ill health. Worshipping Hanuman helps.
• 9th: bad, not terrible.
• 5th: average. Panchama Shani gives udara badha — digestive trouble. Watch what you eat.
• 10th: slows the career.
• 11th: a lot of gains.

Why Jupiter in the 10th from Moon Is Bad

A student asks. The classics only list good and bad houses; the reasoning is PVNR's own understanding.

• The guru sthana is the 9th. Jupiter in the 9th from Moon guides the mind — tells it what to do. That is his job.
• The 10th is the house of doing. Jupiter in the 10th does the mind's work for it. That is interference.
• A student who smokes asks whether he should stop. Telling him "stop smoking" is guidance. Pulling the cigarette out of his mouth is not.
• The natural order: Jupiter tells Mercury; Mercury appreciates it, decides, and tells Moon; Moon is willing and acts. Jupiter in the 10th short-circuits these layers.
• "Undigested information is poison", like undigested food.
• In practice: not a good period for career. The person turns too idealistic at work and starts preaching to everybody — "that is not how you do it". Friction follows. Do your job without telling others what to do.

"Jupiter's job is just to tell the mind what to do, not go and do it for the mind."

Worked Example: Moon in Aries, April 2005

• Saturn in Gemini = 3rd. Good.
• Jupiter in Virgo = 6th. Not good, whoever he is with.
• Ketu in Virgo = 6th. Good.
• Mars in Capricorn = 10th. Bad by the standard rule. He is the lord of the Moon sign and exalted, so not so bad — a qualitative judgment; for now stay with the standard rule.
• Four planets in Pisces = 12th (five with Moon a few days earlier). Bad.
• Rahu is in gandanta and sits very close to the Sun. From Aries the Moon owns the 4th (peace) and the Sun the 5th (emotional stability, judgment); both are eclipsed by this Rahu.
• Gandanta: the last navamsa of Pisces and the first of Aries; likewise the Cancer–Leo and Scorpio–Sagittarius borders — the borders between water and fire. The last degree is the worst.
• For these couple of months: lack of peace, worry, tension, anxiety. The 12th is also confinement and loss — hospital, prison, loss of money, taxes; it can also be a long journey.
• Of the Aries-Moon people PVNR knows: one had a heart attack and was hospitalised, one made a long journey, and nothing happened to two. Not everyone gets it — only if the dasha is also conducive.
• Out of the four slow planets two (Saturn, Ketu) are well placed. From a long-term view the period is good.

Slow Planets for the Year

• To say how a year will be, look at Saturn, Rahu, Ketu and Jupiter. They stay put.
• Mars may turn good in two months, Mercury in about twenty days, Sun and Venus in a month. Use them only to find the ups and downs within the year.

What the Good Result Will Be

• By shastra Saturn well placed gives sampada — wealth, success.
• The exact nature depends on what Saturn stands for in the natal chart. Saturn in the 3rd from Moon: if he is the 7th lord, marriage in that year; if the 10th lord, a promotion.
• Everyone with that Moon sign has a good time. What kind depends on the individual chart.

The Murti System — Four Forms of a Transiting Planet

Source

• Not from the Sri Jagannath tradition — Pt. Sanjay Rath and his gurus do not use murtis.
• Very popular in South India. PVNR's father and the elder astrologers he knows use them heavily, so he does too. He had used them the day before at the new-year Panchanga Shravanam.

Rule

At the moment a planet enters a sign, see where the transiting Moon is. Count that sign from your natal Moon. That decides the planet's murti for its whole stay in the sign.

• Swarna murti: gives its results easily. Bad results are reduced; good results are excellent.
• Loha murti: gives its bad results easily and happily; gives its good results only after much difficulty and hard work.
• A planet in a good transit as Loha murti: you get the benefit, but you must work hard for it — and do pujas.
• The house of the transit and the murti are two separate things. Combine them.

"He is told to be bad to you, but he is willing to be good to you. So as a compromise, he will be a little bad to you."

Class Exercise: Saturn Enters Cancer

The software gives Saturn's entry into Cancer as May 25, 2005, 8:34:30 PM. Allow some hours either way for a small error in ayanamsa. The Moon is then in Sagittarius. Saturn stays about 2.5 years.

Do not mix up the two counts: the house Saturn transits, and the house the Moon was in when Saturn entered.

Vedha and the Transit Calendar

Transit Calendar in Jagannatha Hora

• Give a start date and time and an interval (every day, every 10 days). The calendar draws each planet's transit.
• Yellow figure = Swarna murti, white = Rajata, reddish = Tamra, the fourth = Loha.
• The number in the rectangle is the house being transited. Green background = good, red = bad.
• A small crescent in the bottom-left corner marks the house counted from Moon. The one without it is the house from lagna. The calendar does not show the house from Arudha Lagna.
• It also shows the tara — the nakshatra counted from the birth star. The class has not covered taras yet.
• In "show transit calculations" you choose the natal reference: rasi or a division, and Moon, lagna or Arudha Lagna.
• The colours can be changed (Alt+P, D, C).

The Student's Chart in the Calendar (April 2005)

Natal Moon in Scorpio, lagna Sagittarius.

• Jupiter in Virgo: 11th from Moon — green, good. He stays there until September 27.
• The same Jupiter is 10th from lagna — red, not a great transit.
• He is in the 6th tara, sadhana tara, which shows achievement. He is Tamra murti, which is not so good.
• Saturn in Gemini is 8th from Moon: a bad transit; Saturn makes him work hard.
• Rahu was in Aries, 6th from Moon, until a few days earlier: good.
• Two of the four slow planets were auspicious. Overall a good period.

Vedha

• Vedha = obstruction. When a planet has a good transit, another planet transiting a certain house causes vedha to it.
• For each good house there is one vedha house.
• The calendar marks it with a small red dot at the top right of the house number. Jupiter's green 11th carries the dot: the transit is "not so good".
• At the beginning of January 2005 Jupiter had no vedha. It began on January 14.
• PVNR does not remember the vedha houses in class. He first says the 5th causes vedha to Jupiter in the 11th, then "probably it is the 3rd house", then guesses that Mars is causing it. Take none of these as the rule — look up the table.
• He finds he did not give the vedha table in his own textbook. It is in Dr. B.V. Raman's book on Ashtakavarga — a thin book that also gives the basics of transits.