This area has been created to respond to the demand recognized by us while answering technical questions at www.astroexpert.com in the "Please Explain" area. We generally avoid giving readings in that area since the astroexpert site has other areas catering to such requests. There are also quite often individuals asking very basic questions so it seems that either people are not taking the trouble to read a basic book on jyotish or perhaps the available books are not making sense or are too difficult to follow. Hence we have prepared these files with the basic instructions and rules in jyotish outlined for easy instruction. A more organized PDF file will become available for being purchased soon; please write to: [email protected].
Jyotish has been presented as something very difficult, very mysterious -- an unattainable goal by individuals with personal agenda. This is deplorable. Most of the sciences have many more rules and complex structure and are relatively easily handled by students all over the globe. Surely, any of these individuals, if they are interested can learn jyotish. It is true that all of those who study would not become accomplished jyotishis, but then not every engineer becomes an electronics expert, nor every doctor ends up becoming a neurosurgeon -- but the basics can be learned by most. A big deal is made about mathematical expertise and how in the pre-computer era (40s 50s 60s!) astrologers used to master the math behind horoscope casting. This is a myth because most individuals used ephemeris and used interpolation math or proportional logarithm which are essentially very simple math operations and somewhat imprecise and crude compared to the output generated by modern software which actually calculates the terms and quantities from scratch and derives planetary longitudes using fairly sophisticated algorithm that have benefitted over years by data produced by the NASA jet propulsion laboratory observations. Besides, once a software has been tested and debugged, it would give consistent results, whereas, if you are calculating by hand, there is the probability of your making mistakes each time and in different places during the calculations. Software is on the whole superior provided it has been properly designed, tested and debugged.
When a child is born or a question is formulated or a new venture begun, the moment is believed to hold valuable information regarding the 'fate' and characteristics of that child, question or venture, like the seed holds all that is required to make a tree. This is the simple premise of astrology. In jyotish, the moment or epoch is associated primarily with ten indicators. These are the seven visible bodies, sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter and saturn, the two lunar nodes, rahu and ketu, and the point on the zodiac or ecliptic belt that intersects with the local horizon. For ease of understanding, think of the zodiac as the rainbow. The point where the 'rainbow' -- that is the zodiac of constellations and signs --meets the horizon gives the rising degree. This rising degree forms the mid-point of the first house. For practical purposes, the entire sign is taken to represent the first house and the next sign (to rise) then becomes the second house and so it continues till we come to the sign that has risen completely above the horizon and this forms the 12th house. The tenth house, is the sign that is right above our head or at the zenith. There is no logical reason behind the signs or why they are each 30 degrees long. There is a parallelism between the planetary rulership and the order of the signs, though. The sign rulerships that are clustered around the signs (assumed or axiomatically known to be) ruled by sun and moon are based on the orbits of the planets arranged around the sun, so we have gemini and virgo ruled by mercury, taurus and libra ruled by venus, aries and scorpio ruled by mars, pisces and sagittarius ruled by jupiter and aquarius and capricorn ruled by saturn. When viewing and measuring the signs, we come across some signs that are of long ascension and rise over a longer period of time in the northern hemisphere (the opposite is true for the signs in the southern hemisphere, what is long in north is short in southern hemisphere). This is caused by the obliquity of the ecliptic (in reference to the earth's plane) and leads to the observation of phenomena such as interception of the signs with some of the signs not rising at all at certain times during the year. In the higher latitudes, therefore, some recommend the use of house systems, something that is not very clearly or strongly indicated in jyotish texts. Some argue that this is because jyotish developed in regions of earth near the equator and interception of signs is not observed there. The jury is still out on this one. One can think of the signs as being the product of the orbit of the earth around the sun and the houses as being the product of the rotation of earth around its axis. The daily and monthly/annual motion of earth in the sky lead to the creation of sign and houses. The perspective of astrology is, therefore, geocentric or perhaps more precisely, geotopocentric, as some might like to emphasize.
So, when we look at a horoscope, the first house defines the eastern view towards the horizon at the place and time of birth or of the epoch that the horoscope is cast for. If we face the 7th house, we are facing the west, the 10th house would represent the roof of the sky (as if we are looking upwards) and the 4th house would be under our feet. The observer is, in other words, placed with his head pointing towards the 10th house, feet towards the 4th house, and eyes turned either towards east or west depending on which way he is facing. The typical western horoscope circle with the first house placed in the 9'O clock position assumes that the observer is standing up. The north indian horoscope assumes that the observer is placed horizontally. This is just descriptive for ones orientation and nothing more needs to be made out of this!
*********************************************************** * * _ 2nd house _ * ^ * _ 12th _ * * * * _ _ * * _ _ * * * _ * _ First house _ * _ * * _ * * _ _ * * _ * * _ * * _ _ * * _ * * * _ 4th _ * _ 10th _ * * * * _ _ * * _ _ * * * * _ _ * * _ _ * * * _ * _ 7th _ * _ * * _ * * _ _ * * _ * * _ * * _ * * _* ***********************************************************
This is the North Indian chart which looks like a collection of diamonds and triangles in a square or rectangle frame. The first house or ascending sign or lagna sign is always placed in the top diamond, labelled here as the First house. The 'number' in it represents the sign, a 1 denotes aries or mesha rising, a 5 denotes leo rising and so on. Some people (programs) replace the number with an zodiacal glyph which would feel more familiar to some. The organization of the signs is counterclockwise and would represent the visual progression of signs through the day, if someone were looking at the zodiacal circle from a Northern view, with east on the left hand side and west to the right. The 12th house would represent the sign that has already risen in the east and the first house being the sign that is rising now, while second house would be the sign that would rise in the east, next. In this format, therefore, the place for houses is fixed, but those for signs vary from chart to chart.
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| | Pisces | Aries | | Gemini | | | | | | | Meen | Mesh | Vrishabh| Mithun | |---------------------------------------| | Aquarius| ^ | | | | | | lagna | | Kumbh |==Jaimini aspect== | Karka | |---------| | |---------| | | | /| | | Makar | | / | | | | V / | Simha | |---------------------------------------| | Sagitt. | | | Virgo | | |Vrishchik| tula | | | Dhanu | | | Kanya | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is the South Indian format of the chart in which the signs are fixed in location but houses vary in position from chart to chart. A planet in the upper right corner would always be one in gemini or mithun. For orientation, the lagna is indicated in words or simply by a diagonal line drawn in the square which represents the ascending sign, in cancer or karka, in this illustration. The progression of the zodiac is clockwise and it represents the viewpoint of someone who is viewing the zodiac from south, with east falling towards his right hand and west towards his left hand. This arrangement or format is probably better suited for those following Jaimini system, since the opposite signs (such as gemini to sagi, pisces to virgo, aries to vrishchik, Aquarius to cancer, and libra to leo shown in the example above) represent some of the sign aspects used in this system. There are other ways of drawing the charts as well, the lotus formation, the circle (similar to western, though with ascendant in the pie-slice at 12'O clock, rather than to the one at 9'O clock. It is not too difficult to be familiar with any or all of these formations, though most people prefer to use one kind.
Jyotish uses the sidereal zodiac. The tropical zodiac is yoked to the declinational journey of the sun (actually the earth wobbles; this gives rise to the apparent movement of the sun, which gives us the seasons. Tropical zodiac considers the spring equinox (first day of Spring in Northern or of autumn in the Southern hemisphere) as the 1st point of aries with the other signs in tow. The sidereal zodiac utilizes the star-based zodiac as the orientation for the signs and thus is yoked to the visible constellations (the ram, the bull, the scorpion, as they are visible in the sky). The sidereal zodiac moves backwards very slowly (about 2000+ years per 30 degree sign) giving rise to the "precession of equinoxes". A correction, named as 'ayanamsha' when applied to the tropical longitudes of a planet gives rise to the sidereal longitude. The current difference between the two zodiacs is approximately 24 degrees. Different values of ayanamsha in vogue include, Lahiri, Raman, Yukteshwar, Fagan/Bradley, etc. This raises some confusion and uncertainty but in practice is less of a difficulty than often made out to be. Many of the indian ephemeris makers have now chosen Lahiri ayanamsha, but it is very difficult to estimate how many jyotishis in India or the entire world actually use this or that ayanamsha. Such a huge poll has not been conducted and is probably impossible. The choice of ayanamsha can have significant impact on the finer varga charts used in jyotish or in some time-sensitive dashas such as Kalchakra dasha, but there are also other uncertainties, including inaccurate birthtimes and different opinions/interpretations about calculating some of these dashas, or whether to use the 365 day year or 360 day year, to use geo- or topocentric position of the moon, etc. I would strongly urge beginners to first focus on the basic techniques that have been widely used, are effective in most cases and less subject to the various sensitivity factors, before they move on to some of the finer divisions or other dashas, and rectification, or other advanced techniques.
A sidereal sign is 30 degrees long and is divided into 3 sub-areas. These represent the asterisms. There are 27 asterisms or nakshatras in the 360 degree zodiac and each 800 min or 13d 20m segment represents an area ruled by a planetary ruler (other rulers are also prescribed for these and have metaphysical and mythological significance. These can also be treated as menemonics for memorizing the properties of the nakshatras and its attributes). Aries or mesha, for instance, contains Ashwini ruled by ketu, bharini ruled by venus and the first quarter of krittika ruled by sun. Krittika then continues in vrishabha or taurus, followed by the asterisms of moon and mars. There being 9 'planets', ketu, venus, sun, moon, mars, rahu, jupiter, saturn and mercury, the roster of asterisms ruled by these planets in the stated order, repeats thrice giving 9 x 3 = 27 asterisms. Asterisms ruled by all 9 planets form three sequential sets, each of which begins with a fire sign (aries, leo or sag), progresses through the earth (taurus, virgo, capricorn), air (gemini, libra, aquarius) and ends with the water (cancer, scorpio, pisces) signs. More details can be studied in other articles on this site elsewhere.
Deg min Deg min Deg min Asterism ruled by 000 00 120 00 240 00 Ketu 013 20 133 20 253 20 Venus 026 40 146 40 266 40 Sun 040 00 160 00 280 00 Moon 053 20 173 20 293 20 Mars 066 40 186 40 306 40 Rahu 080 00 200 00 320 00 Jupiter 093 20 213 20 333 20 Saturn 106 40 226 40 346 40 Mercury
A sign or constellation in jyotish is called a rashi or a heap (of stars). The names are given below:
SIGN RASHI Aries Mesh Taurus Vrishabh Gemini Mithun Cancer Kark Leo Simh Virgo Kanya Libra Tula Scorpio Vrishchik Sagittarius Dhanu Capricorn Makar Aquarius Kumbh Pisces Meen
MALEFIC/BENEFIC: Jyotish uses two kinds of labels for a planet or in some cases houses, malefic/benefic and strong/weak. The two are separate qualifiers. Planets such as jupiter, venus, waxing moon and mercury are intrinsically benefic and are blessed with softer, gentler natures, even-keeled disposition, happy, generous and kind. Planets such as saturn, mars, sun, nodes, waning moon are malefic and are of harsh, cruel, brusque, hard-hearted and selfish nature. One should not apply these labels too literally. Not all individuals with moon or jupiter in lagna are kind or gentle or even moral, necessarily. A benefic planet can be weak or strong and this would tend to make its 'impression' strong or weak in a chart, and vice versa. Moreover, planets that are exalted are benefic while those that are debilitated are malefic, regardless of their natural benefic or malefic disposition. The strength of a planet can be determined in many ways, and is a technical matter that is based partly on math using systems such as shadbala, etc. and are based on certain sign or house and time-based factors, as well as the number of own or benefic divisions that a planet obtains in the varga chart. Most beginners would be using the 'ready-made' values that most programs generate. Many books are also available on this somewhat advanced topic. It is good to familiarize oneself with the details of these methods and these sources of strength. A simplified system based on five factors has proved to be quite helpful as a quick primary approximation. I have published this in The Astrological Magazine in 1980 and in 1992 in a slightly modified manner in the NCGR memberletter. This is taught as part of the Crystal Pages course.
RELATIONSHIPS: One would often come across concepts in jyotish such as, a planet being afflicted, or fortified by another or being associated with another planet. This is a very important thing to understand and remember since much of the jyotish synthesis is based on these sambandhs or relations between planets. One form of relationships is based on friendships, permanent and temporal. The other form is based on aspect, placement and dispositorship. A planet that is located in a house has a very strong influence on such a house. A planet that exchanges positions with lord of another house (lord of 1 in 5 and lord of 5 in 1) create strong zones of mutual influence. Some have taken such mutual reception as being similar to each planet being in its own sign and hence strong. A planet that is placed with a lord of a certain house also has association with the said house. Similarly, a planet aspecting a house or its lord has a relationship with that house too. There are finer relationships based on dispositorship of a sign and asterism which must be considered for a fuller picture. A planet occupying a sign would influence its lord (dispositor) as well as the planet in whose asterism (nakshatra) it is located. The effect would be strongly felt during the planetary period (generally vimshottari dasha) or subperiod of the dispositor.
Planet Owns Exalted Moolatrikona
Sun (SU) Leo Ari (10d) Leo (0-20d)
Moon (MO) Can Tau (3d) Tau (4-30d)
Mars (MA) Ari Sco Cap (28d) Ari (0-12d)
Mercury(ME) Gem Vir Vir (15d) Vir (16-20d)
Jupiter(JU) Sag Pis Can (5d) Sag (0-10d)
Venus (VE) Tau Lib Pis (27d) Lib (0-15d)
Saturn (SA) Cap Aqu Lib (20d) Aqu (0-20d)
Note: There are variations in different texts for the moolatrikona degrees.
The ones shown here are from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, the authoritative reference
in jyotish.
Planet Friend Neutral Enemy
Sun (SU) MO MA JU ME SA VE
Moon (MO) SU ME MA JU SA VE None
Mars (MA) JU MO SU SA VE ME
Mercury(ME) SU VE SA MA JU MO
Jupiter(JU) SU MO MA SA ME VE
Venus (VE) ME SA MA JU MO SU
Saturn (SA) VE ME JU SU MO MA
Natural friends of a planet are lords of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th and 12th, from its moolatrikona sign and the lord of the sign where it is exalted; natural enemies are lords of 3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th and 11th sign from its moolatrikona. Temporary (or temporal, tatkalik) friends are planets placed in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th and 12th sign from a planet.
PREVAILING PERIODS: Timing of events and figuring out the current dominant trend or theme from an astrological perspective is an extremely important part of doing astrology. In jyotish, many types of periods, dashas, transits etc. are described and prescribed for general and specific conditions. Most individuals follow the vimshottari dasha system which is based on the 'progression' of the natal moon through the zodiac of asterisms. There are 27 asterisms, each of which ruled by one of the nine planets. Starting at Aries zero in the sidereal zodiac, each segment of 800 arc minutes or 13d 20m is ruled by ketu, venus, sun, moon, mars, rahu, jupiter, saturn and mercury in the stated order which repeats itself twice, giving rise to three sets of 9 *star-clusters* each, spanning the zodiac. A person with natal moon in the asterismal zone ruled by venus would begin life in venus dasha followed by the dasha of sun and moon, etc. The arc-segments (slice in the pie of zodiac) for each asterism is the same (13d20m) but the dashas are of different durations (7,20,6,10,7,18,16,19 and 17 years for ketu to mercury) which can be thought of as the natal moon progressing through the stars at different rates of motion, with its relative speed (of progression) being twice as much in its own asterism than when progressing through the star of venus!
ketu venus sun moon mars rahu jupi satur merc |=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======| 7y 20y 6y 10y 7y 18y 16y 19y 17y
It is interesting to think of the progressing moon speeding up and hurrying under the influence of ketu, sun, mars and slowing down under the influence of jupiter, rahu, saturn, mercury and venus. Another interesting observation that has appeared in some writings that divides the periods into two sets of 60 years each, with the inner and outer planets and nodes separated into two groups. So, moon+sun+merc+venus+ketu=10+6+17+20+7=60; mars+jupiter+saturn+rahu=7+16+19+18=60. Half of the maximum human life span belongs to the inner bodies and half is under the sway of the outer bodies.
It is generally expected that any special yogas or combinations in a chart, and many such are indicated in classical texts in jyotish, would manifest during their periods in life or in those of planets that are related to them in the chart. Oftentimes, the "relationship" is through stars. In other words, if mars is in rahu's star, the dasha of mars would produce results attributed to rahu. A child may be born during the period of a planet which is placed in the star of another planet ruling or located in the fifth house (progeny). This forms just one of the many considerations and it is always a good idea to look for many different factors in a chart and building up the 'weight of evidence of indicators' before pronouncing a prediction.
Although quite a few levels of periods and subperiods are possible (mahadasha, antardasha or bhukti, pratyantar dasha, sookshma and pranadasha), most beginners should perhaps focus on the first two levels and then add more as they progress along the path of proficiency. It is always a good idea to not get tangled in a net of too many variables, regardless of ones capabilities to handle these. Even with two levels of dasha, one can generate so many combinations of factors that it could prove to be quite involved.
Some of the considerations have to do with the role of the primary and secondary dasha rulers (dasha/bhukti lords or mahadasha/antardasha lords as some prefer to call the first two levels), their strengths, their benefic/malefic nature, their relationships with each other in general and in the specific chart, their placement from their own houses and from the houses that they signify (or are karakas of) as well as from the lords of the houses they signify. And example would involve the studying of the placement of the period-lords from jupiter and lord of 5th for progeny-related matters.
Another important consideration is what Sage Satyacharya calls the asterismal principle ('nakshatra siddhant'). This is also called the tara-maitri (asterismal relationship/friendship). Essentially, the star where moon is placed is the orientation point (though Satya also recommends taking the lagna or ascendant should that be stronger than the moon, but let us first go with the moon for now). The subsequent stars, in sequence, alternate between good and bad relationships, and the series of friendships/enmities repeats again with the next two sets of stars.
Let us consider that the moon is in aries 2d and thus in the star of ketu in a chart The sequence of star-relationships in this specific example would be: RULER STAR # NAME EFFECT Ketu Star #01 Janma + moderately positive Venus Star #02 Sampat + moderately positive Sun Star #03 Vipat - negative results Moon Star #04 Kshema + moderately positive Mars Star #05 Pratyari - negative results Rahu Star #06 Sadhaka + moderately positive Jupiter Star #07 Vadha - negative results Saturn Star #08 Maitra + moderately positive Mercury Star #09 Param maitra ++ excellent Ketu Star #10 Janma' + moderately positive Venus Star #11 Sampat' + moderately positive The relative positions from sign (rashi) and in stars would be an important factor to consider. A planet that is the bhukti-lord and in the 3rd star from the dasha-lord might find it difficult to facilitate positive results fully, for instance. The effects are modulated by the intrinsic or chart specific qualities of the planet such as strength, beneficience and participation in a particular yoga or arishta (-) as well as mutual location of major and sublords in the chart, etc.
Readily available software enables one to generate charts with ease by simplifying all the intricate calculations that jyotish requires, but is a mixed blessing for the jyotish student. There has not come out a significant amount of published work that has clearly shown the relative merit of all of the techniques now available at the press of a button. Small samples have been reported in articles and some recent books, and anecdotal claims have been made of their having been tested in thousands of charts. Some of the published work has erroneous data which could be partly due to typographical errors. Traditionally, the divisional charts have been associated with certain special roles or jurisdictions (e.g., navamsha for marital and sexual relationships, saptamamsha for progeny, dashamsha for occupation, etc.). There is a concordance between the jurisdiction attributed to the houses and to the divisional charts, the dasham or 10th deals with ones work, but of the many divisional charts or varga kundalis, the navamsha has always been held in special esteem. The divisional charts have, of course, been routinely employed in strength determination (saptavargaja bal and vimshopaka strength determination) and navamsha seems to be the favorite divisional chart for all jyotishis. Navamsha is in a sense a link between the two zodiacal divisions used by vedic astrologers. It links the zodiac of the signs and the zodiac of the asterisms. Although, the navamshas are named after the signs (Aries, Taurus, etc.), each navamsha is identical to one of the four quarters or padas (step) of each nakshatra. These latter, as you recall, cover an arc of 13d 20m each. Each pada or quarter or navamsha, thus, is 3d 20m wide. The 13d 20m arc that is called a nakshatra roughly represents the arc distance traveled by the Moon in one tithi or one luni-solar day, the primary diurnal unit used in vedic astrology and in vedic times. A tithi is slightly longer than a regular day and represents the synodic luni-solar transit through 12 degrees. Starting at new Moon, with Sun conjunct Moon, by the time the luni-solar arc interval moves from zero degrees (new Moon) through 12 degrees, the Sun has moved approximately one degree and the Moon about 13 degrees, which is very close to the arc-length of a nakshatra (13d 20m). The nakshatra, therefore, links the essence of the Moon and the Sun, the two lights!
In practice, navamsha charts give important insights into the nature and strength of planets in a chart and also in the delineation of transits. If one was to just look at the radix (rashi kundali or chart) and the navamsha -- this probably would cover a large proportion of what there is to know about the charts through astrology. Unfortunately, not much is clearly laid out in traditional texts and many jyotishis, new or experienced, are deprived of tapping into this gold mine.
Although, experienced jyotishis study many divisional charts and other techniques routinely, imagine the complex weave of information that would result from such an approach for the beginner! I, therefore, strongly urge the new student to actively refrain from doing so! Firstly, master the natal chart or radix and then navamsha, and combine the two in your routine practice. In many cases you will not miss much beyond that! By all means, use the other charts as supplementary material to be looked into and in the strength determination, but not as primary interpretive tools. You might avoid a lot of confusion and the resulting discouragement that turns many people away from jyotish who begin to think of it as a complex approach, which it is probably not.
Much of astrology is really an exercise in discerning astrosymbolic connectivity, logically. If multiple indications are pointing in one direction, the likelihood of such an influence occurring is more than likely. There is no need to wait with baited breath for some mysterious secret to be unearthed or a magical yoga to appear from some weathered document lying buried in someones ancestral library! A judicious weighting of pros and cons must always be carried out. Canned phrases extracted from books or incorporated into 'interpretive' programs may be used as guidelines or 'starting material' but cannot serve as useful material, if used willy-nilly, without giving some thought to the matter.
FROM TOP DOWN OR BOTTOM UP?: There are basically two approaches to studying a chart, the first involves a thorough study of the status of indicators in a chart and their connectivity, the primary ones being, mutual exchange of signs, or mutual reception (Venus in Gemini and mercury in Libra), placement in the same sign (yuti or loose conjunction), mutual drishti or aspects, connection through dispositors and other more subtle connections in asterisms or in divisional horoscopes, etc. This is then followed by the examination of the planetary periods ruling over the different life periods. Planets that indicate certain influences, effects, attributes, often do so in the periods of their own, or in the periods of related planets who are friendly or neutral to them. Common sense tells that such effects would not fructify easily during the periods of planets that are inimical to the planets under study. The exception to this is when the planets that represent the effect are extremely strong. Strength is, at times, not readily represented by shad-bal or similar numerical measures of strength and may need a deeper and more judicious analysis.
While ideal, such an intensive approach is time-consuming. Hence, in some cases, it pays to use the opposite approach. If a client asks you to examine the current period or near future, one starts out by determining the major and minor period that the client is experiencing. In vimshottari dasha system the duration of a minor period (bhukti) ranges from 3 months and 18 days (SUN-Sun) to 3 years and 4 months (VENUS- Venus). At the cost of increasing the complexity, one could work with three levels of dashas, but anything smaller would require that the birth time be very accurate! Between the inaccuracies in recorded time, and uncertainties regarding which ayanamsha to use and whether to use solar or savana year, the use of very small periods can be a veritable exercise in futility! Also, mentally prepare yourself to eventually move on towards adding more dashas and other techniques as you progress, but there is no need to do it all at the same time, right away.
So, having determined the planets ruling over the time period under review, one then works back to determine if these planets are involved in a yoga/combination or represent relevant areas in the horoscope and so on so forth. I must caution that this is not a good way to adopt during early studenthood. One can miss a lot of information that would be relevant to the reading as well as for personal learning.
THE TRANSITS!: So, where do the transits fit into all this? In most cases, transits must be looked at within the framework of the planetary periods. Transits have a 'personal' significance when one is experiencing the periods of relevant planets. These planets are not limited to the ones whose dasha period one is undergoing, but also their friends, enemies and those planets connected to them through the nakshatras. Planets that are placed in the stellar segments of the period-lords, planets transiting in the stellar segment of the period-lords are very important for timing.
Moreover, one must not lose sight of the fact that vimshottari dasha is a form of lunar progression, the natal Moon progressing through the asterism at an unequal pace (compared to the western counterpart, vimshottari dasha is still a progression that involves progressing the Moon through 120 degrees in 120 years, but not at a rate of a degree-a year!). Regardless of the dasha, or the horoscope-specific role and rulership of the Moon, lunar transits must be paid particular attention when studying vimshottari dasha. The lunar transits often help a lot in pin-pointing the timing during a dasha or bhukti and can work as the 'second' hand in a watch! The Moon's transit through relevant signs, stars and its associations in transit with relevant planets must be paid heed to.
To summarize, in order to experience an effect, an influence or situation, one must have the relevant indications in the chart, preferably, several of these pointing in the same direction and, should have the relevant periods and the relevant transits. Unless one is overly suggestible, it is a good learning exercise to keep an eye on the transits of the dasha/bhukti lords and the Moon, at least, and examining any correlation with actual experiences in ones life.
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