An Astrologer's Difficult Moments

By K.N. Rao, from Timing Events Through Vimshottari Dasha

- ch. 10
There are sometimes very difficult moments I have to face like any other astrologer.
There is a prayer in my heart and deep concentration on the horoscope before me.
So listen to this story.
Sometime in August 1992, doctors in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi had examined the
second son of a friend of mine, who in desperation, being very much junior to me in
the service from which I retired, was initially hesitant to consult me. But perhaps, his
wife insisted that he should do that and he came one day with the son's horoscope.
While I was examining the horoscope I asked him suddenly where the boy was.
"Outside in the car with his mother," was his reply. I felt bad and said that they
should come in.
The boy was brought in and was in a near unconscious condition where he could
neither walk nor sit. What was it? The doctors had only said that he had damaged
some part of his brain, perhaps once when he had it dashed against the wall of a
swimming pool where he went almost everyday. No treatment worked. There was a
sense of desperation.
The parents did not know how and when all that had occurred but had only noticed
the condition of the boy in August, 1992. So the transit of planets on the
sarvashtaka should also be seen.

Natal Chart
The Static (Natal Chart) Analysis
Now come to the strikingly negative points in the horoscope:
1. The lagna lord, Mercury, is with Ketu exactly on the same degrees. The fourth
aspect of Mars fall on this.
2. The lagna has two malefics, Saturn and Mars, the 6th and the 8th lords.

3. The Moon is ill-placed in the 6th house.

4. The only benefic in kendra is Mercury which is so heavily afflicted.

The Dasha Analysis

1. The dasha is of Jupiter who is in the 2nd house (a maraka house) and is also the
2nd lord from the Moon but has no affliction either in the birth chart or in the
navamsha.
2. The sub-period is Mercury, the lagna lord, which is why the trouble to the body
which occurred in this period is serious.
3. Mercury is heavily afflicted and is also the 8th lord from the Moon.
4. The sub-sub-periods are successively bad. The Sun, the 12th lord, is heavily
afflicted, and the Moon in the 6th house is badly placed.
5. Mars as the 3rd and 8th lord is a malefic for Virgo lagna.
6. Rahu in the 10th house aspected by two benefics, Mercury and Jupiter, offers
some hope of recovery in its sub-sub-period.
7. Then will come the sub-sub-period of Jupiter who can offer the best relief because
he is aspecting the Moon of the child.

An Example of Ashtakavarga for Transits

Natal Chart
Transits
8. The most significant factor is the beginning of the sadhe-saati of the child with the
Saturn in the weakest house in sarvashtaka, in which he would remain until March 5,
1993.
9. Equally bad was the transit of Saturn in Capricorn in the Binnashtaka of Mars, the
3rd and the 8th lord, where there is no positive point at all (0 points).

These nine points are unfavorable. (See the other 7 points from the previous article
An Astrologer's Difficult Moments.)

Transits on August 18, 1992

Sarvashtakavarga

Binnashtakavarga of Mars
Saving Factors
1. It is a night birth of the bright lunar half, shukla paksha. The Moon must,
therefore, protect the child like the Goddess Mother as the astrological classics
emphasize.
2. The Moon well aspected by Jupiter was another point.
3. Some astrological classics state that if in a night birth there are malefics in the
lagna, they too offer protection.
The most important point is the Jupiter is aspecting the Moon of the child. Prayers
must be offered. Jupiter is Lord Shiva, lord Tryambaka of the great Mrityunjaya
mantra.
I made them recite Mrityunjaya mantra with me and asked them to do so regularly
and assured them that, in April 1993, the child would become normal.

Transits on April 1, 1993

After Saturn transited into Aquarius in March 1993, the child started improving and
in April 1993 he became normal in the sub-sub-period of Jupiter in the major period
of Jupiter and the sub-period of Mercury.
This is the story of the second son of Sri C.V. Avadhani, of the Indian Audit and
Accounts Service from which I retired in November, 1990.

Denzel Washington and Ashtakavarga

By Marc Boney, M.A., from the Jyotish-List Yahoo Groups Archives
Satish has asked me to elaborate on my reference to having used ashtakavarga in
the Denzel Washington prediction (see the article - Denzel Washington's Nakshatra
Exchange.) I will do so, but it should be understood only in the context of dasha. I
once heard Shri Rao make the point that it was not without reason the Parashara
Hora gives five levels of the Vimshottari dasha.
1st maha dasha
2nd antar dasha
3rd pratyantar dasha
4th sookshma dasha
5th prana dasha
If you have good reason to believe that the birth time is precise, giving an accurate
set of divisional charts....then the finer timing of an event comes down to
coordinating these deeper levels of the dasha with transits.
In regards to the latter, ashtakavarga should...and must...be used to assess the
strength of transits. To quote our departed friend Richard Houck, "it is nearly
criminal to do otherwise."
Denzel's birth certificate gave a time of 00:09 (12:09 AM). Based on a number of his
life events I have adjusted this time four minutes to 00:13. The main reason was the
change of the dashamsha lagna (D-10) from Virgo to Libra.

Denzel Washington's Natal Chart

Presuming this adjustment is correct, on the day he won the Oscar the Vimshottari
dasha on all five levels was: Saturn-Saturn-Mercury-Saturn-Venus. Note that this
entire sequence includes nothing but trine lords for his Virgo lagna.
Recall also that he has the 5th lord Saturn exalted and with Venus in its own sign
Libra. From the Chandra lagna, Capricorn, these form a spectacular raja yoga
involving the 1st lord in the 10th with the 10th lord and Yogakaraka planet. This
picture really appealed to me.
As to transits (gochara) I very much follow principles given in Phaladeepika in the
chapter so entitled. One of these is that events portended in a particular dasha
sequence will precipitate during the favorable transit of the dasha lords.

Transits March 24, 2002 - night of the Academy Awards.

Transiting Saturn (Denzel's maha, antar, and prana lord at the time of the event) is
transiting the sign Taurus, which is the 9th house from his birth lagna Virgo, and the
5th house from the Moon. And this is where ashtakavarga comes in. The sarva
ashtakavarga for his 9th house Taurus is a very healthy 32 benefic points (anything
over the numerical average of 27-28 is considered good.)....although Saturn's
individual binnashtaka in Taurus is only 2.

Denzel
Washington's Sarvashtakavarga (total points)
The pratyantar dasha lord Mercury (the 1st and 10th lord) was transiting Aquarius,
the 6th house from the birth lagna and 2nd from the Moon. This does not look that
favorable until you see that Aquarius has a sarva ashtakavarga of 33 benefic points,
and that Mercury's individual binnashtaka is a substantial 6 bindus.
Venus, the planet I believe to be the sookshma dasha lord (4th level) at the time of
event, was within one degree of its highest point of exaltation at 27 Pisces and in the
7th house (kendra)....though the ashtakavarga values were unremarkable.
These transit conditions of the dasha lords also appealed to me.
Also, although Jupiter does not configure in the dasha sequence, the transit of the
Greater Benefic must always be considered in any prediction. As noted in my original
post, Jupiter is transiting his 10th house and on that night (March 24th) was
applying by two degrees to a full aspect of his 10th lord Mercury. This further

appealed to me.
Lastly, the Moon is the finest timer of events since it is the fastest moving of the
graha. Shri Rao shows in his book, Planets and Children, how his mother taught him
to time birth within 72 hours using the Moon's transits.
Washington received his Oscar at a time when the Moon transited its own sign
Cancer, in his 11th house of honors and awards. It is just recently crossed his
supremely exalted Jupiter, activating the Gaja Kesari Yoga.
But now the clincher. Cancer has a respectable 28 benefic points in its sarva
ashtakavarga, but the Moon's individual binnashtaka here is a substantial 7 bindus.

Denzel
Washington's binnashtakavarga for the Moon
The use of the Moon's transit was the final stage of this prediction....and in the
context of everything else...it looked like a winner to me.
With regards to using the finer levels of dasha, three critically important issues
should be kept in mind.
1. Accuracy of the birth time
2. Ayanamsha
3. Length of dasha years
Of course, the later two are very controversial within the world of Jyotish, and it is
an issue that every student must grapple with and determine for themselves.
I used chitrapaksha ayanamsha (Lahiri) and 365.25 dasha years originally on the
basis of Shri Rao's strong recommendation. Now, after nearly 10 years of my own
researches, it is the only thing I can recommend.