I would like to bring to the readers’ attention this paper on Indus Valley Civilization and a blog in New York Times. It talks about the collapse of the Harappan civilization and how it was affected by the changes in climactic conditions thousands of years back. The article talks about how the changes in monsoon pretty much destroyed the agriculture as the agricultural process were based not on irrigation channels like canals/dams, but on monsoon and monsoon only. Over a period of time,

Hydroclimatic stress increased the vulnerability of agricultural production supporting Harappan urbanism, leading to settlement downsizing, diversification of crops, and a drastic increase in settlements in the moister monsoon regions of the upper Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

As time passed, the monsoons continued to weaken until the rivers no longer flooded, and the crops failed. People began abandoning the cities and moved eastward toward the Ganges basin, where rains were more dependable (though not dependable enough to sustain urban metropolises). The civilization dispersed, fracturing into small villages and towns.

This demonstrates two very important points. First, that there is a continuity of civilizations and Aryan invasion theory is bogus. The same people who lived in Indus valley were the ones who moved to the plains of Ganga and other rivers. Secondly, we are still living the same nightmare where we are depending on periodic monsoons. We had a prime minister who talked about linking rivers and so called intellectuals laughed at him.

It was brought to my notice that the HTML format horoscope is not working on this site. It seems that the server where this application was hosted has deleted my account. The astrology chart was made using a perl script and I seem to have lost the source code for it I am still trying to search.

This script has some sentimental value for me. This site has been up for 11 long years now and this is the first script that I wrote that would essentially print the astrology chart given right input. I wanted to host this on a friend’s university account that did not allow running CGI. As a result, this perl script was converted to a java applet that still appears on the site. I absolutely must find the code and put it back on… rewriting is not an option.

Over the years, a lot of people have asked me how this software was written. Let me share the story behind it.

This knowledge comes from astronomy text books. The one I referred to is “Practical Astronomy with your calculator”. It deals with the problem of calculating the position of planets in the sky for a given date, time and place. The author wrote the book for budding and amateur astronomers who were interested in finding out position of planets in the sky and asked themselves this question - “I wonder where I can see Mercury this month?” Back in 1980s and 1990s, an app like Google Skymaps wasn’t available to just enable someone with an iPhone or Android phone to point to the sky and look for planets. Astronomers had to use old fashioned way of using a calculator or a computer. I purchased this book back in 1999 and used to write the 1st version of the software.

Anyway, lets move forward…

A date in such calculations is always converted to “Julian day”. It is denoted by number of days after Jan 1st, 4713 BC. I do not know why this particular date was chosen, but it seems to be a norm for all date/time calculations. This Julian day number is one of the inputs for the planetary position equations. One of the very first chapters dwells on the importance of Julian day.

All the planets revolve around the Sun in an orbit whose parameters are well known. Earth too revolves around the Sun in one such orbit. To understand how these planets will appear from Earth, we need to transform the coordinates from Sun (heliocentric) to Earth at the centre (geocentric). This is explained very well in the book mathematically.

Other mathematical concepts like precession (ayanamsha), aberration (motion of Earth causing apparent direction of a planet to shift slightly from its true direction), refraction (Earth’s atmosphere bending the light coming from a planet) and parallax (the observer is on surface of Earth and not at the centre) are also explained. The formulae are tweaked to give a precise calculation of orbit of planets around the Sun. In the end, these formulae can be put in an equation that takes the Julian day as a parameter to calculate latitude and longitude of a planets – this is what is required and used in computing a horoscope.

There were couple of posts asking for how to start learning Astrology. Please refer to the list below:

Beginner: For beginners, I would suggest to go through the books in the order given below. Once you have gone through the list, you could move to the reference book section and then so on.

1. Astronomy and Mathematical Astrology
2. The Astrology of the Seers
3. Uttara Kalamrita
4. Art of Prediction
5. Astro Sutras
6. How to Judge a Horoscope (Volume I and II)
7. Esoteric Principles of Vedic Astrology

Reference Books - Used frequently

• Jataka Parijata
• Brihat Jatakam
• Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra

Advanced

• Chamatkar Chintamani
• Dashaphal Darpan
• Notable Horoscopes
• Three Hundred Important Combinations

Special Topics

• Gems and Astrology
• Graha and Bhava Balas
• Ashtakavarga System of Prediction
• Medical Astrology, a Rational Approach
• Muhurta (Electional Astrology)
• The Nakshatras, The Lunar Mansions of Vedic Astrology
• The Stars and Your Profession
• Determining Profession and ups and downs in career
• Analyzing Horoscope through Modern Techniques
• Mahadeva’s Jataka Tatva
• The Art of Matching Charts
• Marriage Matching Astrologically
• Varshaphal - Hindu Progressed Horoscope

Profession and Downfalls Part III

Author – Bijesh Menon

Part III of a 4 part article. Part I is published here - Profession and Downfalls - Part I (Rahu-Ketu Axis) and Part II is published here - Profession and Downfalls Part II – Sun’s effect in the horoscope. Part 4 will be published VERY SOON.

In a Vedic horoscope, Saturn is feared and has a bad reputation of a planet showering adversities in life. The duties assigned to Saturn are all bad if seen from the materialistic life point of view, but what should we note here is the way Saturn acts in a horoscope.

Every astrologer or jyotishi will tell you that Saturn causes delay not a denial. Being the slowest planet among navagraha, Saturn imposes this trait on whatever he influences. In Vedic Astrology, Saturn is the greatest teacher. Saturn has the responsibility to give troubles to one to make the native understand his/her faults and fall back to the right path. Hence, whenever Saturn is causing a difficulty in one’s life, there is a deeper meaning behind it. There will be a positive outcome in the future, if one can learn from one’s mistakes. Only when Saturn acts with the combined influence of other malefic planets, things take an ugly turn. Otherwise when Saturn alone imposes a struggle on somebody, the situation will lead to successful and fruitful situation in future.

In a horoscope, if Saturn is influencing the 10th house, no matter how much benefic he is in the horoscope, Saturn will give struggles to the native to come up in life. Saturn causes trouble to one’s career when he is either posited in the 10th itself or in the 4th house in the horoscope. For such natives to have an initial breakthrough in career they will have to cross many hurdles. But they will slowly get into the rhythm and will rise to a very strong position in professional life. They will have to put extra efforts  to achieve success. But as stated above the trouble is only in initial stage and that experiences will help the native stand hard as a rock against any odd situations in career in the future. If Saturn is posited in the lagna then his aspect over the 10th also will create problems in the same passion as stated above but such persons will be slightly lucky with lesser amount of struggles.

However, Saturn’s position in the 8th house in a Vedic horsocope and the 3rd aspect/drishti over the 10th house is a bad yoga. In such cases the person will have to go through all adversities in life to get settled in career. Instability in career will be the most worrying factor for the native irrespective of the line of profession. Such natives may be having great abilities in their profession but will have to face frustrations in life because of the lack fortune they may have. Likewise, when Saturn’s dasha is on even though he has no role to do with the 10th house one may face many hardships regarding profession. But if he is a benefic for that horoscope then there will good rewards for the native for his hard work towards the end of the dasha especially in the sub period of Jupiter.

The combined influence of Sun-Saturn in the 10th house is bad for career. Special reference has to be made about the influence of Saturn over Sun who is in the lagna or the 10th house in a horoscope by the means of aspect or yoga. If Saturn is influencing Sun as above, one will have a downfall in career at least once in life adversely affecting the name and respect of the native in the society. Interestingly, such natives will face this downfall most likely when transit Saturn affects the natal Sun. Sun’s or Saturn dasha or sub period is immaterial and just the transit is enough. Other planetary combinations have to strong enough in horoscope, especially the position of the Lagna and 10th lords and this combination will help the native to sustain in the situation and have a recovery from the pitfall.

While considering the transit of Saturn, special reference has to be given about Saturn’s transit over the 10th, 4th and 8th houses in a horoscope. While transiting through 10th and 4th house, Saturn brings in change for the native. Many will have a transfer or change in place at this time. For some, there could an opening to go abroad. The entire period of this transit will cause uneasiness and struggle in profession. Pressures from the superiors, inability to perform well and lack of recognition are the results of these transits. Many will face difficulties to get the deserved promotions and elevations at this time. The transit of Saturn through the 8th house will be causing all the above said problems but with much more intensity and obstacles causing insurmountable situations for the native. If such a transit of Saturn influencing the 10th house is conjoined with transit Rahu or Ketu then the situation will be worse and only the transit Jupiter’s strong influence over this conjunction could help the native to have some reprieve.

Some time back, I activated Feedburner feeds on this Astrology website. It allows for two services – (1) a RSS reader that RSS savvy readers can read on the web and (2) mailing list and twitter delivery for new Vedic Astrology articles that appear on this page.

The website is reaching couple of milestones – there are close to 200 followers on Twitter and there are close to 1000 Astrology enthusiasts that are subscribed to email delivery of articles.

Thanks to one and all for helping reach these milestone… I know that we are a still a minuscule setup compared to other Astrology sites, but we do feel good about it.

I hadn’t found time to work on the website for quite some time now. This was very evident from the frequency of posts, not allowing comments etc. During this time, I did purchase a lot of books, but hadn’t reviewed them on the site under this list – Vedic Astrology Books.

I am trying to reverse this trend though – I have just added a review article about Dashaphal Darpan and planning to add articles about Jaataka Paarijaat and Saravali early next week. Please go through them and let me know what you think about it.

On June 06, 2012, in a very rare astronomical phenomenon, Venus will move across the disk of Sun and can be seen as a black spot if viewed properly through a telescope. It will be visible in India as per this map from NASA. It is a rare phenomenon because the frequency is very low and although the last transit happened in 2004, the next one would happen only in 22nd century – on 11th Dec 2117 to be precise.

On this day, longitude of Sun and Venus would be almost the same, approx 21°40′ in the sign of Taurus. By definition, Venus would be combust. This is the period of deep combustion, but it would remain combust from May 30th to June 12th. Venus is retrograde throughout this period, and there are many opinions about the degree of combustion of retrograde Venus and hence the period mentioned here is approximate.

I turned to standard Vedic Astrology text books to learn more about combustion in general and Venus in particular. Combustion is not studied separately and is seen along with other parameters that indicate strength of planet in a janma kundali, i.e. a Vedic horoscope. I have observed in the past and would like to bring to your notice some inconsistencies in these texts.

Saravali and Jaatak Paarijaat

These books say that a combust (one that is lost in the radiance of Sun, अस्तंगत) planet is in a Vikala state (विकल अवस्था). Vikala is a sanskrit word that essentially carries these meanings “agitated”, “miserable”, “full of worries”. However, what needs to be notices is that both the books that I own are from Ranjan Publications, New Delhi and from the same editor/commentator Dr. Sureshchandra Mishra. Such a planet is supposed to make a person wander in far off lands and have a difficult life. He would be devoid of strength and have many enemies.

Brihat Parashara Hora Shashtra

The version that I have has a state “kopa” (कोप अवस्था) for a combust planet. This word means “angry” as well as “agitated”. In this book, Vikala (विकल) stands for a planet that is conjunct with a malefic.

A strong Venus is representative of material pleasure in a Vedic horoscope. A Venus, devoid of radiance and under a strong influence of Sun would turn the other way around and reject material pleasure, sensuality and sense of beauty. In other words, for male nativities, we are looking at deep disregard for the other sex. If married due to other factors, there would be an attitude of indifference towards the spouse. It is not a good combination for married life. It also indicates material loss, i.e. losses in business.

On this day, during the transit though, despite deep combustion, Venus is not completely devoid of shadbala in the janma kundali. If I am not wrong, it is reasonably powerful during the sunrise when the transit would occur in India. The overall bad effects would be muted. This combination will give health problems to children born during the transit, because Venus would be the lord of Lagna.

PS: Washington Post covers this event from a pure astronomical perspective…

On June 5 or 6, depending on the time zone, millions of people around the globe will watch Venus glide across the sun in a rare celestial event that won’t happen again until 2117. Because the planet is just 1/32nd the diameter of the sun, its silhouette will appear as a black speck during its six-plus hour passage.

After a lot of research and fight against spammers, I have been able to reopen the comment section on the blog. And what contentious topic than love marriage!

I was going through Express Star Teller for month of April 2012 and saw a comment on an article on 7th house. The name of the article is “Seventh house and its implications”. The author, Dr. E.S. Neelakantan states that:

Conjunction of Venus with Rahu will also predispose a person to opt for a life partner of his/her choice.

I would like to draw attention of astrologer community online to this statement and invite comments on the site. For providing comments, please use Mozilla and/or Chrome browsers only because the site has some major problem with all flavours of Internet Explorer.

Please put on your thinking caps and bring on the comments…

This post may please be read alongside two other posts on the same topic: Expenses and Spending Money - 12th and 2nd house and Money Matters.

In a horoscope, 12th house is said to signify the following with respect to money:

• Losses
• Expenditure

Essentially, we are talking about going away of money, either benefiting the individual (the pleasure of spending) or causing grief (losses). If there are benefic influences, the effect is former, where the individual spends the money on good deeds. If there are malefic or cruel influences, the effect is that either the money is spent in a questionable way or the wealth is frittered away.

The placement of the 12th lord is important. The following houses cannot be considered good for placement of 12th lord:

1. 2nd house and 11th house: lack of money of out of control expenditures
2. 4th and 7th house: no property

In general placement of 12th house lord is considered bad in trines or quadrants. However, according to How to Judge a Horoscope, Volume 2, 9th house is considered excellent placement for 12th house lord provided there is other benefic influence on the house/planet.

Good placement of 12th lord and good placement of planets in 12th lord, make a person generous. Benefics in 12th make a person thrifty.

A placement of afflicted planets will fritter away the wealth. Dr. Raman provides a set of guidelines as to how the money would be spent:

Before we begin, I would suggest going through some of the good books on Medical Astrology. Medical Astrology, A Rational Approach is a good book, so is Jyotish Aur Rog  (ज्योतिष और रोग), written by Pt. Kisanlal Sharma. This book is published by Manoj Pocket Books and should be available everywhere. The language and style of writing is very good. These books have a table for planets/rashi/bhava in relation to most common diseases and it makes for a good reference.

This is how we should start the study of a horoscope for diseases. Look up the reference body part, study the association with an agent and then predict diseases during the dasha period of all the planets involved.

Reference body part:

• Understand that organs and body parts are referenced by a house (bhava), rashi and a planet.
• The planet representing an organ in their natural tendencies are the Karakas. The planets that represent an organ through house ownership are the Lords.
• Bad aspect/association of both these type of planets shows up as a disease.
• E.g. Sun is the natural Karaka for heart. In a horoscope, 4th house represents heart. Hence to judge for heart disease, we should look at influence on both Sun as well as lord of 4th house. If one of these factors is strong, the effect of the disease are not likely to show up. If both are weak, then the problems will be worse.

Agents causing disease:

• In a horoscope, association of the Lord of 6th house with any of the planets will show up as a disease. If both the Karaka and Lord are associated with 6th lord, then problems will be magnified.
• Position of planets in 6th house in the horoscope causes problems.
• The planet Mars signifies wounds and injuries due to accidents, etc.
• Rahu is responsible for suddenness.
• Saturn represents chronic diseases.

Please note that association and aspect by an agent is essential. Weakness of the Karaka/Lord is important. General Weakness, but not amounting to disease should be looked at very carefully. If a planet is debilitated or is associated with other inimical houses, e.g. 12th and 8th, it will not cause disease by itself. However, it will signify general weakness and lack of development for that body part.