Special Topics in Vedic Astrology

By Alison Bodhani
Table of Contents
Foreword by Michael Laughrin
A Word from the Author, Alison Bodhani
Preface
Introduction
Planetary Potency
Sattva, Rajas and Tamas in the Zodiac
The Influence of the Earth's Moon
Birth Nakṣatra and Personality
Lunarscapes: To the Moon
The Debilitated Moon
Debilitated Planets
The Mutual Aspect of Saturn and Mars
Yogas of Spiritual Intensity
Skill and Dexterity in Jyotish
Five Opera Singers
On Considering Jupiter
Planetary Configurations that Make a Good Psychic
Mental Illness and Jyotish
The Differences Between the Two Nodes
Kāla Sarpa Yoga
Venus-Rāhu Conjunction
Lagna Lord in the Twelfth
Marital Harmony
Fertility
The Lakṣmī Yoga: Wealth
Foreword by Michael Laughrin
I first met Alison Nielsen around 16 years ago. She called me up for a
reading. At that time, I was visiting in Iowa for about a month. She, if
memory serves me, was staying with her mother in Minnesota. There
was some issue as to Alison's correct time of birth. Even though she
gave me many, many events (at least 18), there was still some doubt as
to the exact birth time. I wanted to see her thumbprints (the right
thumbprint is supposed to show the correct Ascendant), so I convinced
her to drive down to Iowa to see me in person. This was a trip of about
200 miles.
She did come and I did rectify her chart. She was a very bright,
attractive redhead who was full of questions. She seemed to "grok" the
essence of Jyotish very quickly, so I proposed to teach her the basics in
3 days. She was an amazingly quick student with a very flexible mind
and a sharp intellect.
As I have always said, "I only ask for 3 things from prospective
astrology students:
Brilliance
Enthusiasm
Obedience"
However, it has amazed me that I have found so few students who have
all 3 qualities. It is even rather rare to find students who exhibit 2 out of
3 of these qualities.
Alison, however, has always, right from that fateful meeting in
Fairfield, Iowa, embodied extreme brilliance and quickness of mind; she
has always loved Jyotish and continues to adore the Craft; and she
honors her teachers and the whole Vedic tradition.
Furthermore, she has spent hundreds of hours in classroom study (far
more than I have). In addition, she is one of the very best rectifier of
charts that I know of. She is to be especially commended for her
mastery of the Right Thumbprint Method of Rectification taught to us
by Narendra Desai. I seem to remember that Narendra said that one
American girl seemed to be the only one who really "got" the method.
I feel pretty sure that the young lady he was referring to was, and is
Alison Nielsen.
Finally, Alison has been invaluable to me as an author of advanced
topics, such as special yogas, nakshatras, and debilitated planets, for my
online Jyotish newsletter "North American Jyotish".
She is a master of Vedic Astrology and I, personally, even though I am
her first astrology teacher, have learned a great deal from her.
If you like this book, you can receive more articles by Alison by signing
up for my free newsletter, "Michael Laughrin's North American Jyotish
Newsletter" at my website, http://www.jyotish.ws.

Michael Laughrin
http://www.jyotish.ws
About the Author, Alison Bodhani

Alison lives in Taos, New Mexico from where she practices and
teaches jyotiṣa and develops her other intellectual and creative pursuits.
She has studied jyotiṣa with Hart deFouw, Narendra Desai, Michael
Laughrin and Mantriji.
Her website is: http://www.somadhara.com
Save 10% off Your First Jyotish Service from Alison Bodhani!
If you would like to schedule a Jyotish consultation with Alison, just
email her at premavratini@yahoo.com. Mention this offer to receive
10% off your first service! She offers natal chart analysis, astrolocation,
microcosmic astrolocation, prashna, muhurta, rectification, relationship
capability. and ongoing Jyotish counseling. Learn more on her website:
http://www.somadhara.com/consultation.html
Preface
I fell in love with jyotiṣa the day I first encountered it. Standing in the
commissary at the Ayurvedic Institute I saw a brochure for a seminar in
Hawaii and was instantly smitten with an intense desire to know the
subject. It took me a year to locate my first teacher, Michael Laughrin,
who after teaching me foundational jyotiṣa, introduced me to my next
two major teachers, Hart deFouw and Narendra Desai. My love for the
subject has been a constant in my life since.
Those of us who study and practice ancient vidyas know that we work
to become suitable containers for the knowledge and are grateful
recipients of its wisdom. The knowledge itself remains alive so long as
it is passed from living being to living being relatively whole and intact.
Thus whatever I have gleaned of jyotiṣa is due to the power and grace
of the beings who taught it to me and to the living vidya itself. May all
beings be free!
Introduction

Some years ago, I began to write articles for Michael Laughrin's

newsletter, addressing various jyotiṣical topics as they arose to me, with
a beginner to intermediate audience in mind. It was Michael's
inspiration to collate these articles and publish them as an e-book.
Because they were written over a number of years as separate entities
they do not have a cohesive theme nor are they intended to give a
complete picture of jyotiṣa. They address a smattering of subjects that
provide some insight into the subjects themselves and whose style of
analysis can be extrapolated to similar themes to help reveal the
essential nuances of astrological analysis. Please enjoy!
Planetary Potency

Jyotiṣa has complex systems for assessing planetary strength or potency

but several components of planetary strength can be assessed simply by
looking at a horoscope. Factors of strength can be divided into two
main categories, those that are evident through observing the sky
directly, and those that are made evident through the system of
meanings applied in astrology's symbols. An instance of the first
category would be a very bright or full moon. The potency of such a
moon can be felt by all who look up at her alluring beauty on a full
moon night. Babies blessed to be born on such a night usually possess
an abundance of the positive traits associated with the moon. All other
factors being equal, they tend to be more emotionally resilient than
those born with a dark moon; they tend to assimilate life's opportunities
better and to recover from its difficulties more easily. An example of the
second category of strength lies in the concept of planetary dignity,
where a planet's capacity to deliver results is weighted by what its
placement in a given constellation represents. This is a symbolic
construction that is not directly observable in the sky.
Conditions influencing planetary potency include the following:
exaltation, own sign, sign of a friend or enemy, debilitation,
retrogression, combustion, dik bala(directional strength), vargottama,
condition of the dispositor and for the moon, brightness and the waxing
phase
Each planet has one constellation in which it is thought to function with
supreme potency, known as exaltation. An exalted planet is said to be
able to deliver things that a person wants even if they are normally
outside that planet's scope. In order for an exaltation to deliver full
results, the dispositor of the exalted planet should also be strong and
ideally, the planet should be near its point of maximum exaltation, a
particular degree within the constellation.
The following is a list of planets, their sign of exaltation and degree of
maximum exaltation. Sun - Aries - 10 degrees, Moon - Taurus - 3
degrees, Mars - Capricorn -28 degrees, Mercury - Virgo - 15 degrees,
Jupiter - Cancer - 5 degrees, Venus - Pisces - 27 degrees, Saturn - Libra
- 20 degrees.
The next best thing for strength and sometimes better for results is own
sign. The sun and moon each own one sign and the five true planets
each own two signs. When they are in their own sign, they are both
strong and comfortable, just as we are when we find ourselves in our
own home, provided no unpleasant relatives are visiting. A planet in its
own sign, if unafflicted, will usually take good care of that sign whether
it is malefic or benefic. The Achilles heel of own sign planets is that
when they are afflicted, both the house and its lord become afflicted,
which creates a double effect for potential trouble with that house. This
is something people are often deceived by, and they end up expecting
better results than are delivered by the own sign planet. If such a planet
is only influenced by benefics, it becomes quite potent.
Third, in terms of strength by constellational occupation, is sign of a
friend or enemy. While not up to the potency of exaltation or own sign,
whether or not a planet occupies the sign of a friend or enemy can be an
important consideration. At the very least people tend to be very
uncomfortable with the significations of planets in the signs of enemies.
For instance, people who have Venus in the sign of Leo, ruled by the
Sun, who is Venus's enemy, may be very uncomfortable discussing sex
(Venus) because they feel it is undignified (Sun).
Fourth is debilitation, the opposite of exaltation where planets tend to
function poorly and are inclined to be weak, vulnerable and deranged.
Another category of strength is retrogression, which is when a planet
appears to be moving backwards in the sky. Retrograde planets are
considered especially strong for two reasons. In the case of the outer
planets, they are the closest to the earth in their orbit, which causes them
to shine more brightly in the sky (just as the bright moon is a noticeable
object, so is any bright planet). The second reason is that any retrograde
planet is moving more slowly than usual producing a more thorough
result. The opposite of retrogression is combustion when a planet is so
close to the sun it is lost in the sun's rays. As planets draw nearer to the
sun their motion increases so such planets are also moving very fast.
Retrogression and combustion represent the far ends of the spectrum of
planetary strength by speed.
Next is dik bala or directional strength. Directional strength is a feature
of diurnal, or daily motion. Each planet will occupy its position of dik
bala for an hour or two every day because it is a position in the heavens
as related to the spinning of the earth. Mercury and Jupiter achieve dik
bala in the first house. Mars and Sun in the tenth. Saturn in the seventh,
and Moon and Venus in the fourth. The first house is the eastern
horizon, the tenth is directly overhead, the seventh is the western
horizon, and the fourth is directly below our feet.
Vargottama, varga + uttama, which means "best division" is another
strength consideration. A planet is said to occupy the best division when
it occupies the same constellation in the navāṃśa as it does in the birth
chart. It is sort of like having only one marriage. That person becomes
the sole focus of one's energies. Just so the planet's energies are focused
twice in the same place, producing a deeper result.
When considering any planet it is important to weigh in its dispositor,
the planet who owns the constellation the planet inhabits. Like a
landlord or a ruler of a country, its condition affects its tenant.
This is not a comprehensive list of conditions of planetary strength and
weakness but it is a quick overview of types that are readily observable
in a chart.
Sattva, Rajas and Tamas in the Zodiac

Most students of Indian spirituality and philosophy are familiar with the
three guṇas, or fundamental qualities, of all manifest existence, sattva,
rajas and tamas. Each guṇa has both positive and negative attributes
depending on the state in which it is functioning.
Sattva guṇa is positively characterized by purity, kindness, contentment,
forgiveness, harmony, order, knowledge, stability and truth. It is
negatively characterized by attachment to those things for themselves
rather than as a way to draw nearer to Spirit and/or by inertia and
complacency. Sattva is the energy of knowledge and its color is white.
The sattvic planets are Sun, Moon, and Jupiter. The sattvic rāśis are the
dual rāśis.
Rajas guṇa is the energy of energy, kriyā śakti, and its color is the red of
dynamic activity. It is characterized by activity, dynamism, desire,
passion, emotion, change, enthusiasm, pleasure seeking, goal
orientation and active selfishness. When it slides into negativity, it
becomes insatiable desire, undue attachment to likes and dislikes,
unnatural tenacity, cunning, greed, hardheartedness, fickleness, and
irritability.
The rajasic planets are Mercury and Venus. The rajasic rāśis are the
moveable rāśis.
Tamas guṇa is the energy of fixity, or dravya śakti. Its color is black.
Positive qualities include constancy, rigidity, mass, structure, the bliss of
ignorance or non-awareness, and inactive selfishness. Negative qualities
include laziness, helplessness, refusal to change, stinginess, mechanical
behavior, dullness, chronic negativity, and non-awareness of others.
The tamasic planets are Mars, Saturn, Rāhu and Ketu. The tamasic rāśis
are the fixed rāśis.
In order to establish the predominant guṇas in an individual's nature,
one can look at the primary influences on the lagna, lagneśa, sun and
moon. Planets that are strong will usually produce the positive qualities
of the guṇa with which they are associated, and positive results as well.
Planets that are weak will usually produce negative qualities and results.
A person with weak rajasic planets may become increasingly distrustful
of generating new projects because they are likely to have a history of
disastrous results. People with a strong and influential Saturn may grow
increasingly stubborn as they age because they find that tenacity usually
produces positive results.
A simple look at the guṇas can become a profound tool for insight and
suggestions for productive shifts in attitudes and behaviors.
The Influence of the Earth's Moon

The sun and the moon are the two brightest objects in our sky and
appear, uncannily, to be the same size when viewed from Earth. They
are a manifestation of the primordial Śiva and Śakti, Yang and Yin,
masculine and feminine forces that underlie our Universe.
The sun has a tremendous constancy and predictability. He is self-
luminous, shines continually and moves through the sky on a
predictable path at a constant rate of speed. He is regarded as a symbol
of our essence because of these qualities of consistent presence and
radiance.
By comparison, the moon is a very inconstant being. She moves
through the sky at a variable rate of motion, changes shape and size
swiftly and continuously, and moves quickly against the background of
stars. She does not generate her own light but reflects that of the Sun.
She represents the Divine Feminine, the chaos that underlies seeming
order, the randomness that gives rise to the beautiful, yet not quite
predictable patterns in Nature. She is a curvy fickle body.
The moon also represents the manas or habit body of the individual, the
inner contents of our minds, conscious, subconscious and unconscious.
A Vedic astrologer will draw conclusions about a person's
predominating vāsanās based in part on the condition of the moon at the
time of a person's birth. Like the moon, the minds of human beings are
in constant flux, rotating through psycho-emotional states, attentions
and desires within the framework of a certain fixity. The person who is
prone to optimism generally resorts to happy thoughts or to thoughts of
happy outcomes while the person who is prone to glumness does the
reverse. Although both will experience the opposite, they will return
again and again to the same state. Modern neuroscience remarks that in
the brain "what fires together, wires together." This means that the same
state becomes more and more deeply ingrained and more easily
produced by the brain with time. Thus human perception can diverge
greatly from the circumstances of the moment if the brain produces a
state that reflects its history by frequency or intensity, a phenomenon
referred to in the common parlance as projection, but that has other
components as well since humans often tend to gravitate to or recreate
circumstances that trigger their deepest "wiring." Manas is memory,
because memory is a collection of habits. What a person remembers as
being significant will largely be composed of things that confirm the
predominating habits/wiring of the personality. Experiences that feel
even remotely similar will produce the identical state in the brain
reinforcing a particular psycho-emotional frame.
Additionally, the moon represents rasa, or the juice of life, what
Chinese systems refer to as jing. The moon produces deep cool sweet
nectar that nourishes life on all levels. The moon is tender and can never
burn up life as the sun can. The sun has a relentless quality to him but
the moon is ever embracing, like a loving mother whom never tires of
her baby.
People born under a strong moon generally have a good capacity to
recognize and digest the nutrition that life offers to them. They are
healthy eaters not only physically but also psychically. Those with a
strong moon tend to naturally see good in things and have good things
come their way.
People born with a weak or afflicted moon often have a darker turn of
mind and are inclined toward depression. They are disinclined to
partake of life. This is often fueled by negative experiences that set up
their habituated patterns of perception and interaction. A weak or
afflicted moon can also give rise to asceticism, because it disinclines a
person to tasting life all the time.
The moon's orbit varies in speed because the moon is subject to two
gravitational forces, the Earth and the sun. Depending on the
relationship of these three objects in space, the moon speeds up or slows
down, just as our minds are often pulled in two directions. The moon
takes approximately 27.3 days to complete an orbit around the earth, but
because the earth is also moving in space, it appears from here that it
takes approximately 29.5 days for the moon to orbit. These orbital rates
can vary by as much as 12 and 7 hours respectively. This is why the
two halves of the lunar month do not always have the same number of
days.
A lunar year is eleven days shorter than a solar year. It takes nineteen
years for the two cycles to meet; thus, every nineteen years, the moon
will be at the same phase and position on the same day to within two
hours. Ancient cultures knew this and kept track of this nineteen-year
lunar cycle, the moon slowly dancing up and down in the sky.
The moon's gravitational pull on the Earth causes the Earth to bulge
toward the moon. Because water is more flexible than land, the oceans
bulge more noticeably than the land, giving rise to higher tides and
more unpredictable waters when the moon is closer to us in her orbit.
Human beings are two-thirds water and our brains are mostly water,
which means that moon's gravitational pull also affects us strongly.
Water as an element corresponds to all desires, tastes, and emotions.
With each month, as the moon draws nearer to us and becomes full and
bright, we experience her effects upon our minds and bodies and can
see our condition more fully expressed. If we pay attention to this cycle,
we can work with the moon and learn to accumulate rasa or jing, in
order to become more youthful and more content. Just as the moon pulls
on the Earth, people born with an influential moon will often have a
type of charisma that pulls our attention to them. Like the moon, this
charisma may wax and wane.

The moon loves adornment and beauty. It is always best to look nice
when worshipping the moon. The moon loves sweet flowers, seashells
and perfumes, white rice, milk, coconut juice and other sweet cooling
things. In astrology she rules the mind, emotions, the mother, food,
nutrition, the night, women, fashion, water, memory, imagination,
habits, receptivity, sensitivity, and changeability.
The moon corresponds to ida nāḍī, the left and more internal nāḍī. In a
healthy state, this nāḍī gives a state of balanced equilibrium and a soft
receptivity towards others and ourselves. When this channel is clogged,
depression and inertia develop along with a chaotic and weird internal
dialogue.
The moon influences us in so many ways. Whenever you walk outside
on a clear night, look at our sweet moon, and give thanks.
Birth Nakṣatra and Personality
A potent indicator of individual personality is the nakṣatra the moon is
located in at the time of birth. Seven categories of nature apply to the
nakṣatras, plus many other qualities and associations. These are aids in
assessing personality.
The seven categories of nature are: fixed; moveable; sharp; tender;
fierce; light; sharp & tender.
Category 1: Fixed. The fixed nakṣatras, like the fixed signs, tend to
indicate stability and permanence in a person's nature. The fixed
nakṣatras are Rohinī, Uttara Phālgunī, Uttara Aṣāḍhā, and Uttara
Bhadrapadā.
Category 2: Moveable. Moveable nakṣatras incline a person to
movement, travel and change. The moveable nakṣatras are Punarvasu,
Svati, Śrāvaṇa, Dhaniṣṭha and Śātabhiṣa.
Category 3: Sharp. The sharp nakṣatras are Ārdra, Aśleṣā, Jyeṣṭhā and
Mūla. They give success in attacks and torture, punishment and
separation. These nakṣatras can often indicate a surprising streak of
nastiness in a person when they are influential in a horoscope.
Category 4: Fierce. The fierce nakṣatras, who rule over all forms of
destruction, can also result in a negative streak: Bharaṇī, Māgha, Pūrvā
Phālgunī, Pūrvā Aṣāḍhā, and Pūrvā Bhadrapadā. This tends to be
particularly true of Bharaṇī, Pūrvā Aṣāḍhā and Pūrvā Bhadrapadā
because these nakṣatras occur in warlike constellations and/or have
other associations with aggressive or cruel behavior.
Category 5: Tender. Conversely, the tender nakṣatras can impart a
remarkable streak of sweetness, softness, love and devotion for others to
an individual that also may not be apparent on the surface. The tender
nakśatras are Mrigāśirṣa, Citrā, Anurādhā and Revatī.
Category 6: Light. The light nakṣatras are also pleasant. They are
beneficial for trade, commerce, sensuality, learning and medicine. They
are Aśvinī, Puśya and Hasta.
Category 7: Sharp & Tender. The two nakṣatras in the combination
sharp & tender are Kṛttikā and Viśākha. They display both the qualities
of the sharp nakṣatras and the tender nakṣatras.
In addition to the nature of a nakṣatra, investigating the things it rules
and the associated deity is extremely worthwhile. The nakṣatras
occupied by the lagna and the moon tend to be the most significant,
although all planetary placements will bear out to one degree or another.
These can be another aid to understanding an individual's complexity
and seeming contradictions.
Lunarscapes: To the Moon
Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the
earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different
birth, And ever changing, like a Joyless eye That finds no object worth
its constancy?
- Poem By Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Moon is so indicative of a person that in classical India, all charts
were read from the position of the Moon. In many parts of India, this
remains the tradition. No other planet gives as much direct reflection
into the state of a being. Some texts state that it is the Moon who is the
giver of happiness or misery because the Moon is the emotional mind
and the comforts that a person receives in life. A person with a good
Moon will tend to be given both comforts and the emotional capacity to
make the most of them. Those with "bad" Moons usually have plenty of
lemons and a poor idea of how to make lemonade.
The Moon is "rasa," the taste and nectar of life and the foundational
tissue of the body, from which all the others are made. Rasa is the
essence imparted to a baby from a mother's breast milk. Rejuvenation in
Ayurveda is called "rasāyana," or the path of juice. The Moon is
indicative of the sweetness, the juiciness and the comfortableness of a
person. Even in an otherwise blessed life, a bad Moon can so ruin the
person's mind that they live as if they were a homeless person. A perfect
example of this is the legendary Howard Hughes who, despite being
insanely wealthy, spent years dirty, naked, alone, in the dark, peeing on
the walls. A suit had to be purchased for him when he died. His Moon
is dark, debilitated and aspected by Saturn.
The Moon is the space body nearest to the earth. It is much, much
nearer than anything else; it is practically hugging us. The Moon is near
enough to manifest its gravitational pull in the rise and fall of the ocean's
tides. Its effect can be directly seen and sensed by even the least subtle
of persons. The Moon is "here" in a way no other planetary body can
be said to be.
The Moon has an extra parameter of strength and weakness that
humans are keenly aware of too. It waxes and wanes. While this can be
said to match the true planets' cycles of retrogression, which bring them
nearer to the earth and therefore brighter, the intensity and variability of
the Moon is much greater and more frequent. The Moon rotates
between being stunningly bright when it is full to diminishing to
absolute nothing. This tremendous variability of strength is one huge
factor in the variability of the quality of a human life and the
inconstancy of experience which perpetually fluctuates from good to
bad.
The Moon is unique amongst the grahas in another very important way.
It is VERY easily influenced. The Moon is a luminous sponge. It
absorbs influence and radiates it back out, deeply affecting the state of
everything that it touches. The Moon is the true King Midas, turning a
life to gold or to ashes depending on its condition.
Phaladīpika declares in Ch.19, Shl. 8, "Before declaring anything,
examine the strength of the Moon in a nativity."
Factors making the Moon strong include the following:
1. Brightness - the Moon should be at least 72
degrees from the Sun and is better when brighter
2. Exaltation, Own Sign, Sign of a Friend - the
Moon is exalted in Taurus, it owns Cancer and its friends are
Sun, Mars and Jupiter
3. Aspected by benefics
4. Waxing cycle

Factors diminishing the strength of the Moon include:

1. Darkness - Moon within 72 degrees of the Sun
2. Debilitation, Enemy Sign
3. Aspect of malefics
4. Waning cycle
5. Eclipse
One place to look at the effect of the Moon is in those charts where it is
placed in the first house, making the inhabitant very much possessed by
its luminosity.
In Chapter 2 of the Bhrigu Sūtram, several ślokas are devoted to the
Moon in the first house. Most state that its effect depends on the
strength of its dispositor and the nature of the aspecting grahas.
Elsewhere in śāstra, it is oft repeated that the Moon's brightness is
crucial in determining its effect. Keeping those factors in mind, let us
see what can be gleaned from analysis of 1st house Moons.

Fullish Moon: Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton, like Madonna, has a Leo ascendant with a nearly full
Moon within five degrees of the ascendant. She embodies multiple
lunar qualities. She has huge female charisma and beauty. She is one of
the most successful country singers of all time. She has a good sense of
humor, a strong orientation towards God (the Moon is a sattvic planet),
a history of philanthropy, and a very flashy style of dress and
presentation. She has a reputation for being a very nice person. Her
Moon is in the sign of a friend. It is aspected by a Rx Saturn who also
throws the aspects of Mars and Rāhu onto her Moon. I would attribute
her extensive plastic surgery and her slightly over-the-top "look" to the
aspects of these three malefics. However, they are all softened because
an unafflicted Jupiter gazes upon them. Furthermore, her lagna lord sits
in the sixth house closely conjunct Venus. This adds to her feminine
power and her aspect of "niceness" which helps to overrule the
otherwise detrimental gaze of Saturn. She grew up extremely poor in a
one room shack in rural Tennessee because Moon in the 1st is a
bālāriṣṭa yoga and has Saturn's influence. He also disposits her lagna
lord who sits in the sixth house which has caused her to manifest the
high side of Saturn, humility, a remembrance of others' suffering and
the desire to be of service.

Fullish Moon: Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball has an almost Full Moon in her Sagittarius ascendant. It is
unaspected. Like Dolly Parton, she was known for being over-the-top.
Dolly has bleached blonde hair; Lucille Ball had bright red hair. Both
share a great sense of humor and significant charisma, as well as
business sense. Both women grew immensely wealthy over the course
of their careers. Ball also has Saturn, Mars and Rāhu together but in the
fifth house instead of the eleventh. Her combo is also aspected by
Jupiter , but who is this time afflicted. While Parton's marital life has
been extremely sedate, Ball's was full of turbulence. Additionally,
Moon in the first can contribute to health issues and Lucille Ball had
rheumatic fever that left her in bed for a couple of years.
Both performers have a kind of "energetic largesse" to them that is easy
for audiences to bask in, much like the full moon.
Fullish Moon: Charles Chaplin
Charles Chaplin has a very bright Moon within one degree of his
ascendant. It is opposed by the exalted Sun, own sign Mars, and Venus
who are, in turn, aspected by Saturn from the tenth house. Chaplin was
such a bright star that he remains legendary to this day. He was one of
the biggest film stars of all times, the winner of multiple awards, one of
the progenitors of United Artists and a director and composer as well.
He is often considered unparalleled as a comedian.
Darkish Moon: Friedrich Nietzsche
What can be said of Nietzsche? One of the most quotable and arguably,
one of the most exciting philosophers, his life had more than its share of
suffering. It has been postulated that he was manic depressive and he
was plagued by undiagnosable health problems for most of his life. He
was the youngest person to ever be appointed to a philosophy chair at
the University of Basel and he remains widely read (in philosophy
classes) today. His is a deeply nihilistic philosophy that nonetheless
frequently radiates a dark exuberance -- in keeping with the quality of
Beethoven's music, a fellow manic depressive. "What doesn't kill you,
makes you stronger" is Nietzsche's line. I would attribute the fact that
there is artistry in his philosophy to the presence of the Moon in his
ascendant. His Moon is dark, debilitated and closely conjunct Rāhu.
Mercifully, it is also aspected by a swa, Rx Jupiter from the fifth which
would account for his philosophical power that was clearly colored by
his emotional stance towards life. Nonetheless, the Moon filled his life
with physical and mental suffering.

Darkish Moon: H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft is a classic horror fiction writer whose popularity has grown
posthumously. His writing is dark and pessimistic. He was sickly as a
child and suffered from night terrors, believing he was haunted by giant
ghosts. He has a dark saṃdhi Moon in his ascendant with debilitated
Venus. (Moon rules imagination.) His lagna lord is in the twelfth house
conjunct malefics Sun and Saturn. His Moon is aspected by debilitated
Jupiter from the fifth. One of the meanings of debilitated planets is that
they are easy to pierce, thus such people often feel themselves to be
prey for other realm beings and to be physically afflicted in ways that
are hard to pin down. Another meaning is that of being overwhelmed.
Lovecraft's books are filled with characters who must deal with horror
beyond their control that they, for one reason or another, cannot get
away from. His influence on popular culture has been huge but his life
was miserable.
In these dramatic examples it is easy to see how much the state of the
Moon determines a life. Both Charlie Chaplin and Dolly Parton were
born into extreme poverty and both rose to create a great deal of success
for themselves as well as an acceptable measure of personal happiness.
On the other hand, for Nietzsche and Lovecraft the nature of their
bodies and minds drove them into misery and despair.
May the Moon bless us all with a good manas.
The Debilitated Moon

All debilitated planets require a careful and thorough analysis to assess

their impact in a life. Not all debilitated planets are created equal -- some
offer tremendous gifts and some offer only suffering. One has only to
contemplate the fact that Picasso had four debilitated planets to
understand that their implications can vary widely.
When analyzing a debilitated planet, it is very important to consider the
strength and position of the dispositor, any compensatory strengths the
debilitated planet possesses, any aspecting planets, and whether or not
the planet has nīca bhaṅga or nīca bhaṅga raja yoga and if so, how
many nīca bhaṅgas operate, and the condition of the bhaṅga granting
planet(s). In the case of the Moon, one must also consider whether the
Moon is waxing or waning and whether it is bright or dark. Because the
condition of the Moon is so crucial to the wellbeing of an individual
generally, it requires a particularly careful analysis when it appears
debilitated.
The Moon debilitates in Scorpio. One can ascribe a general flavor to
Moon in Scorpio, but whether the qualities of that flavor will work well
or poorly for an individual depends on all of the above factors as well as
the house rulership and position of the Moon in a given rāśi. Scorpio is
the natural ruler of the eighth house and as such is associated with
eighth house themes -¬death, the occult, things which are hidden,
scandal, sex, power, other people's money, deep grief, trauma, loss,
inescapable difficulty, secrets and a certain capacity for vengeance. The
scorpion is a creature that lives alone mostly in dark underground
places, who surfaces at night. Scorpions are not particularly aggressive
except when acquiring prey, when surprised (in which case they will
deliver a nasty sting before running off,) and when having sex.
Sometimes scorpions sting their mate to death during the sexual act.
These qualities add the themes of ingestion of drugs and other poisons,
loaded sexuality and a capacity for lashing out.
Scorpio is a fixed water sign. Water and fixity do not go well together
except in the case of ice, which is very cold. Otherwise "fixed water" is
stagnant water, producing rot, algae and mosquitoes. Water is the
element most closely associated with emotion. Emotions must flow
gracefully in order for a life to be successful. Both water and emotion
produce rot when they stagnate, which in turn attracts the kinds of low
level beings and energies that are drawn towards rot. The Moon
debilitates in Scorpio because it rules the emotional mind.
All other factors being equal, the Moon in Scorpio will cause a person's
emotions to become deep, dark, mysterious and very hard for a person
to let go of or change. Also, because debilitated planets have a certain
inherent vulnerability, in the Moon this translates into exceptional
emotional sensitivity which then translates into grudge holding over
pain. The classic debilitated Moon archetype is just that, a deeply
sensitive person given to great emotional intensity which they attempt to
hide or disguise who is often brooding over perceived hurts, the general
sadness of the world, or dark sexual fantasies.
On the high side, this kind of emotional awareness can be transmuted
into tremendous compassion for the suffering of other beings, a great
forgiveness for self and others, an acute awareness of the feelings of
other beings, a willingness to sacrifice the self for God or others - the
bodhisattva mentality, and/or great artistic sensibility. On the low side,
the debilitated Moon can represent madness, sexual depravity, sexually
transmitted diseases, murderous vengeance, prostitution, the Mafia and
the like. Below are chart examples.
Vincent Van Gogh
Van Gogh, one of the most famous artists the world knows now,
embodies many debilitated Moon themes. Were his birth time to be
moved forward four minutes, his ascendant would become Cancer,
making the Moon the ruler of is chart. Whether or not that is the case,
he could be the poster child for the debilitated Moon. Before he was a
painter, he was a pastor of great religious sentiment who tried to live in
a truly Christian way, sleeping on the floor on straw and preaching to
miners. In his late twenties, he took up painting. He was plagued all his
life with deep despair and episodes of mental illness. He was
chronically poor, often smelly and dirty, and drank far too much.
During his lifetime, he sold only two of his paintings. He depended on
his brother Theo for financial support. He is famous for having cut off
his own ear. He eventually died by his own hand. He shot himself in
the chest and died two days later. His brother reported his last words as,
"La tristesse durera toujours" - the sadness will last forever.
His debilitated Moon resides at 28:55 of Scorpio, making it very nearly
gandanta. It is aspected by no planet and there is no planet in an angle
from it. It is bright but waning. If the ascendant were Gemini, the Moon
would have three nića bhaṅgas, but if it were Cancer, it would have
none. The dipositor, Mars, is in the sign of a friend with and exalted
benefic, but unfortunately, it does not aspect the Moon.
Picasso, Raphael, O'Keefe, Corot, and Rembrandt also had debilitated
Moons.

Al Pacino
Al Pacino's debilitated Moon has expressed itself mainly through his
acting career. He is known as "smoldering" and "sensitive. " His single
mother was ill when he was a child, and in the early years of his
stardom, he did go through a period of drug excess, but mostly he has
portrayed an endless series of characters that embody eighth house
themes: Mafiosos, drug lords and even Satan himself.
His debilitated Moon is at 28:39 of Scorpio. It is waning but very bright
and it is opposed by own sign Venus in Taurus and Mars, who is its
dispositor.
These combinations make some very powerful yogas and provide a lot
of protection to the Moon, greatly softening its impact. Expanding the
definition of nīca bhaṅga raja yoga to include placement of the
debilitated planet in a trine, Pacino's Moon also has two good nīca
bhaṅga raja yogas.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet

Elizabeth Clare Prophet was the head of a New Age religion of some
renown. Starting as a child, she had visions, and went to every single
church and synagogue in her town looking for spiritual answers. She
eventually married a man who had started his own religion and took it
over for him. She ran a huge outfit in Montana that required austere
living for all of its constituents, including early rising, hard work, lots of
prayer and meditation, strict limits on sexual behavior and the gift of all
assets to the church. She claimed to be able to foretell the apocalypse.
Ardent church members built huge bomb shelters on the ranch in
Montana. She was frequently beset by scandal. Her Moon is at 21:00 of
Scorpio. It is unaspected and hemmed by malefics, but it does
participate in a weak Keśāri yoga by virtue of the fact that Jupiter is four
signs away and it does have a nīca bhaṅga formed by Mars who is in
the sign of a friend.

Candraśekhar Sarasvatī, the Sage of Kanchi, 68th Jagadguru in

the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam
A very famous Indian saint and guru. An astrologer read Candraśekhar
Sarasvatī's chart when he was a child, and fell at the boy's feet. The
astrologer told the parents that the whole world would bow before their
son. He has a very nearly full debilitated Moon in the fourth house. His
Moon is at 14:00 of Scorpio, putting it in the nakṣatra of Anuradha, a
nakṣatra with deep spiritual leanings. Because it is at 14:00 it is also
very, very close to the very bright red star Antares which resides there.
His fullish Moon is opposed by the Sun, Jupiter and Mercury. Moon
thereby participates in a powerful Keśāri yoga. Plus the Moon is
aspected by Saturn, it is vargottama and again aspected by Saturn in the
navamśa. Moon in a navamśa of Mars aspected by Saturn is a very
powerful spiritual yoga. This chart represents the very high side of the
debilitated Moon.
Debilitated Planets
The Sanskrit term for a debilitated planet is nīca which can be variously
translated as: mean, insignificant, low, dwarfish or depressed. Other
names for debilitated planets include epithets that suggest vulnerability
and fear. Such planets are excessively weak in some way and the areas
of a chart that they rule are usually vulnerable to puncture, destruction,
overwhelm or dissatisfaction. However, they may have other
compensatory strengths that vary their results, such as dik bala -
directional strength, kendradibala - angular strength, nīca bhaṅga -
modification of debilitation, strength in multiple aṁśas, or, in the case of
the Moon, being full. Thus, all debilitated planets are not created equal
and a careful analysis is required to determine what the effect of a
debilitated planet will be in an individual chart. A consistent quality of
debilitated planets is that with or without compensatory strength, they
will behave in an unusual fashion. The fundamental planetary energy is
going to express in an at least slightly abnormal way.
The most important compensatory mechanism for debilitated planets is a
bhaṅga. Bhaṅga is usually translated as cancellation of debilitation. It
can be translated as breaking, abatement, paralysis or failure. The best
word may be abatement, because a debilitated planet is going to remain
a different creature even with the best of ancillary supports, just as
Wolverine remains different from the rest of us, despite his super human
skeleton and fantastic clawing ability. Clawing ability is another good
analogy for debilitated planets. Because they are, in some way,
weakened or diminished, people who possess them will usually have to
do some scrabbling after success in the arena of life that they represent,
even if that success ends up being considerable. If a debilitated planet is
located in a kendra or a kona, a bhaṅga confers a raja yoga. The
debilitated planet is placed in prime horoscopic real estate and its
bhaṅga confers a special type of power, analogous again, to Wolverine,
in which an abnormality becomes a source of exceptional strength.
Bhaṅgas universally depend on the strength or accessibility to the chart
owner of the dispositor of the debilitated planet. Planets are strong by
virtue of being exalted or own sign and they are accessible by virtue of
being in an angle. Planets in angles deeply influence a horoscope.
Bhaṅgas are formed by: the dispositor being in an angle from the Moon
or ascendant, the lord of the debilitated planet's exaltation sign being in
an angle from Moon or ascendant, the dispositor aspects the debilitated
planet or the planet who would be exalted where the debilitated planets
sits is an angle from Moon or ascendant. While not technically a
bhaṅga, I would add that if the debilitated planet's dispositor is in its
own sign or exalted, this will be very good for said planet.
While results vary depending on individual charts, it can be useful to
analyze the fundamental energy gone awry of each planet when it is
debilitated and why it is regarded as functioning most poorly in a given
constellation. Sun debilitates in Libra. The Sun is the symbol of
universal consciousness and generosity. It gives its light and heat to all
alike. The constellation of Libra is ruled by the merchant's scales in
jyotiṣa, NOT the scales of justice. This sign loves to weigh and measure
value gained versus value given. Librans often apply this soulless
weighing to things that other beings naturally find it offensive to
measure in such a way, like love and friendship. This makes them good
at choosing everything from a strategic standpoint but it is not a place
where the energy of the generous Sun can express in a beautiful and
harmonious fashion. Laura Bush has just such a Sun in her seventh
house of spouse. Because the Sun does not accord well with Libra, its
own expression will be weakened and will become vulnerable. This
means that the areas that the Sun rules will suffer including government,
leadership, vitality and authority. A classic debilitated Sun problem is
pain from the government. Bill Gates, who was embroiled in a huge
antitrust suit with the federal government, Larry Flynt, who fought for
his magazine all the way to the Supreme Court and Spiro Agnew, who
was forced to step down as vice president, all have debilitated Suns.
Moon debilitates in Scorpio. Moon rules rasa - taste and emotion, and it
represents the emotional mind. Scorpio is a fixed water sign. The
qualities of fixity and water do not blend well together, one reason
Scorpio rules swamps and sewers. Emotions are best when they are
sweet and when they flow along easily without too much force. Scorpio
is a sign of great fixity and great intensity and darkness. These qualities
do not lend themselves easily to good emotional relating, a problem
Scorpios often face. When the Moon resides in Scorpio, a person may
be prone to great sensitivity and great intensity of emotion that is often
hidden within them. On the high side, the fixity of a Scorpio Moon can
produce a great bhakta, someone who always remembers God with
devotion. On the low side, it can produce a vindictive grudge holding
tendency or a tendency to consort with those filled with dark emotion,
like drug dealers and horse thieves, or a tendency to be too easily
affected by the feelings of others since the manas is extra vulnerable,
which may cause such persons to start hiding out like scorpions. Moon
rules mother and the emotions and both these arenas typically suffer
when the Moon is debilitated. Al Pacino's chart is ruled by a debilitated
Moon. He dropped out of high school to work because his mother was
sick. His Moon has a powerful nića bhaṅga raja yoga so his association
with darkness has been in the medium of film where his debilitated
Moon has expressed itself perfectly playing dark smoldering characters
that are frequently from the underworld. He has even played Satan. He
is a very private character who is described as very sweet and
compassionate.
Mars debilitates in Cancer. Mars represents icchā śakti, individualized
will. Cancer is the home of the Moon, the manas or emotional mind.
Mars in Cancer gives rise to some version of compromised expression
of personal will. In many people this may show up as a conflict
between softer feelings and the need to express their will. They may
then learn to develop a certain pigheadedness as a desperate
countermeasure to their own softer feelings. Alternatively, if Mars is
debilitated and suffering from multiple other afflictions, the will may
turn on the self in some way or may become irascible, unpredictable
and violent, or the person may suffer such qualities at the hands of
others. Both Moon and Mars debilitate in the sign of a mutual friend
which often creates a tenable avenue for a person to deal successfully
with their nića planet.
Mercury debilitates in Pisces, the most dual of the dual signs. Pisces
symbol is that of two fish swimming in opposite directions. Of the other
three dual signs, Virgo and Sagittarius are rules by single creatures.
Gemini is also symbolized by two beings, but in jyotiśa that symbol is a
pair of twins, one male and one female. At least the individual sexual
identity of each being is clearly demarcated. In Pisces two identical fish
swim in opposite directions. Pisces is also a mute sign. Mercury
represents buddhi, intellect and communication. Being of two minds is
rarely good for practical decision making and Mercury's ability to
communicate is hindered by its location in a mute water sign. Pisces is
ruled by Jupiter, the planet of wisdom. Mercury is the planet of intellect,
and while rare people are able to apply their intellect to the cultivation
of wisdom, wisdom is both something more than and something less
than intellect. Wisdom is holistic knowledge, the integration of multiple
ways of knowing conjoined with a refined understanding about what to
do or say in a given situation. Intellect, on the other hand, tends to be
about pure know-how, rather than intelligent application of know-how.
Intellect is to brass as to wisdom is to gold. A debilitated Mercury with
a good nića bhaṅga may give rise to an inspired form of knowledge that
bridges into wisdom, but it will still not deliver practical know-how in
day to day living. Witness Albert Einstein, ruled by debilitated Mercury,
he had inspiring insights into space and time but still could not locate his
own house or dress himself.
Jupiter debilitates in Capricorn. Capricorn is the quintessential sign of
structure, security and ambition. None of these qualities accord well
with Jupiter's pure wisdom nature. Wisdom has no structure. Wisdom is
Ati or Now, thus it operates outside of Time and the structures
permitted by Time. Efforts to structure wisdom in time never fail to
produce an ultimately banal result. Anthony Robbins, success guru
extraordinaire has debilitated Jupiter in his ascendant. His entire mission
is to have people use knowledge to obtain success. This is known as
spiritual materialism.
Venus debilitates in Virgo. Virgo is the sign of the Virgin, the sign of
purity. Venus is the guru to the asuras, the demonic beings. Venus is the
only Being who knows the Sanjivinī Vidya, the method of returning the
dead to life, and can always restore his disciples, the asuras, after they
have been killed. Venus is called Śukra in Sanskrit, which means
"white, shining and semen." Being the planet of sexual energy,
naturally it disaccords in the sign of the Virgin. But it also disaccords in
this sign because of the notion of purity which is at odds with Venus's
indications of sensual worldly pleasure. Venus in Virgo usually creates
some oddity around sexual energy. The person may be gay or they may
be lustful and crude. Because Venus is blocked they may be unable to
develop refinement and taste in the enjoyment of worldly pleasures. Bill
Clinton has debilitated Venus in his ascendant.
Saturn debilitates in the sign of Aries. Aries is everything that Saturn is
not. It is youthful, fiery, energetic, brash, speedy and impulsive. Saturn
is slow, cold, methodical, strategic, contemplative and disciplined.
Perhaps there is no greater zodiacal clash than Saturn in Aries. Aries is
ruled by the malefic Mars and Saturn is a natural malefic and neither
planet accords well with the other. The dissonance of Saturn in Aries,
barring softening factors, brings out a hideous combination of the traits
of the constellation and planet, a ghoulish twisted limping offspring,
impatient and slovenly. Saturn in Aries gives rise to trouble with
Saturnian themes of discipline, responsibility, structure, respect, work
and death. Because Saturn in turn afflicts Aries, such people may
struggle with head issues such as clear thinking, headaches, fits of rage,
phobias or compulsions such as trichotillomania. Muhammad Ali, who
developed Parkinson's has Saturn in Aries, as did Hyppolite Blot,
inventor of special scissors for performing craniotomy during difficult
labors. Jacques Cousteau had Saturn, his 5th lord of children, debilitated
in the eighth and he had a tragic loss of a child.
Rāhu and Ketu debilitate in the sign of Taurus. Rāhu and Ketu are so
mysterious that jyotiṣis do not agree on their signs of exaltation and
debilitation. Continuing the logic of the debilitation and exaltation
system in which planets debilitate and exalt in opposing pairs, Rāhu and
Ketu, who are two parts of the same being, debilitate and exalt opposite
the Moon. Rāhu and Ketu are therefore exalted in Scorpio. This makes
sense. Just as two negatives in math equal a positive, the same happens
with Rāhu and Ketu in Scorpio. Scorpio is the natural 8th house of the
zodiac, ruling over deep transformation, kuṇḍalinī śakti and poisons.
Rāhu and Ketu, who are subtle grahas, perform well in this sign,
enhancing people's understanding and experience of the great mystery
of life and often making great alchemists and magicians of one sort or
another. They debilitate in Taurus. Taurus is ruled by the bull and is
associated with cows and agriculture generally. It is a fixed earth sign
ruled over by the sensual Venus. Taurus deeply embodies earthly
comforts. The subtle, complex energy of the nodes conjoined with
Taurus creates an unnatural grasping after and distorted participation in
earthly pleasures. One node will always be exalted and the other
debilitated, making it necessary to suss out which theme will gain
primacy. Frequently, Ketu gives a better result in Scorpio and Rāhu
gives a worse result in Taurus. David Copperfield has exalted Rāhu in
the third house of hands and skills. He is a tremendously gifted
magician. Conjuring is ruled by Rāhu. Jacques Cousteau, who gave us
the mystical experience of the ocean depths has exalted Ketu. Walter de
la Mare, a novelist of supernatural short stories and Francis Desmedt,
the Belgian Wiccan Grand Master also have exalted nodes. Robert
Downey Jr. has Rāhu debilitated in Taurus. He is famous for his forays
into addiction. Ernest Gallo, famous maker of cheap wine, also has
Rāhu in Taurus; he tills the earth to produce a type of poison.
Debilitated planets can be powerful and can powerfully positive results,
but these results will still be unusual. Debilitated planets can give
unusual and unusually terrible results as well. They are almost always
worth taking extra note of in a horoscope.
The Mutual Aspect of Saturn and Mars
Saturn and Mars are very different energies.
Saturn is dark, cold, old and slow. Mars is bright hot, fierce, intense and
impatient.
They share one thing in common. They are both tamasic planets.
Saturn is a difficult planet to read in a horoscope. This is because he
represents both the shadows in the self, the overgrown vāsanās, the
aspects of ourselves we stubbornly cling to and refuse to change. He
also represents the forces that will force us to change. He is both the
disease and the cure. We all, in some way, bang our heads against a
metaphorical wall until the pain causes some learning to take place and
we adapt our behavior.
Mars represents icchā śakti, the force of personal will. When Saturn and
Mars are in mutual influence, there is a curious intermingling of shadow
and will. This becomes stubbornness on stubbornness, blind spots
reinforced by a deadly certainty. Each planet amplifies the tamasic
nature of the other. This gives rise to a being with tremendous drive,
tremendous personal will and a distinct tendency to fail to include the
rights and needs of others in their reckonings. With heat (Mars) and iron
(Saturn), steel is forged. So are steely personalities, people capable of
tremendous effort and possessed of the potential to overcome
tremendous odds. Such people always display exemplary effort, but an
exemplary result will be dependent on other configurations in their
horoscopes.
Because planets in angles tend to have a huge effect in a horoscope, this
combination acquires extra potency when the planets in questions are in
angles. People dominated by this combination share a number of traits:
1. Great personal energy and the ability to keep on going
and going in pursuit of a goal despite obstacles. This can
manifest as great success in external life, but the same
dynamic applied to personal relationships leaves the other
person feeling exhausted and disrespected.
2. They exhibit crusadership both, personal and social
 3. Are very focused on their personal freedom and feel
others' needs as interfering with their freedom
4. Exhibit tremendous internal tension leading to fighting
and/or addiction
5. Show supreme effort, with or without supreme results
6. Exhibit harshness, self righteousness and mercilessness
towards others
7. Their body is frequently damaged by injury or degraded
through overwork
8. Have a tendency to love the militaristic and use will to
oppress others through dictatorialness
9. Exhibit courage and a willingness to break with the
status quo and forge ahead with innovation, and
10. Will to death through homicide and/or suicide.
Below are chart examples.
Muhammad Ali
The most successful boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali was a
tremendous fighter and a man of great personal energy who also fought
against the Vietnam War and joined Islam. After his retirement from
boxing, he traveled over 200 days a year in support of humanitarian
causes. He has been married four times and said he feels women should
remain in the background. His first marriage ended because his wife did
not want to wear Muslim dress, the second because he cheated on her,
etc. He has Sa Rx and conjunct Mars in the 10th house in Aries, so the
expression of his incredible drive has been largely visible to the world.
Patch Adams
Patch Adams is famous as a social activist, medical doctor and clown
who founded a completely free medical clinic that has been open since
the 1970's. He has devoted his life to changing healthcare. His 340 acre
free hospital with complementary medicine in West Virginia is known
as the Gesundheit Institute. Adams travels tirelessly to bring humor and
health around the world. He has a Scorpio Lagna with Mars in the fifth
and Saturn in the eighth, combining the fourth lord of humanitarianism
with the sixth lord of health and the fifth house of teaching and the
eighth house of deep struggle.
Jim Jones
Jim Jones convinced 909 out of 914 followers to drink his suicidal
poisoned Kool-Aid. A religious/crusade leader, his organization was
founded on Christianity and socialism. All the members turned over all
their belongings to the organization. Due to the result of scandal and
increasing paranoia and drug addiction on the part of Jim Jones, his
organization moved to Guyana, where followers were held against their
will. Jones grew increasingly insane and drug addicted and eventually
commanded all his followers to commit suicide. His vision started out as
one of idealism and social utopia through cooperation and hard work,
but his paranoia, dictatorialness and suicidalism literally drove his
movement into the ground.
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was a famous dictator and the father of Italian
Fascism. He was the head of Italy's military and was killed for his
crimes against the people. A rebellious man who started out with
idealistic social visions, Mussolini served in the Italian military and was
decorated for meritorious service. He originally espoused the ideas of
socialism, but then decided socialism was unworkable and created
Fascism which was supposed to be a doctrine of Nationalism that
transcended class. His rise to power caused his simultaneous descent
into dictatorship, and as power corrupted, he began to commit heinous
crimes to suppress opposition including torture and slaughter of
civilians. Please note that Mussolini has three planets in the 8th house
(known as the house of death, sudden change and transformation) --
Moon, Mars and Saturn. We see that the Moon here is exalted and rules
the house of career. This explains why he had such a hugely successful
career as head of state. However, his rise to power was largely through
the death of others, war and subjugating his own people. Furthermore,
his wonderful Moon is conjunct two malefics--Mars, a violent planet,
and Saturn, the planet of sickness and death. Also, Mussolini's own
death was very violent. He was killed by his own citizens. So we see in
this chart how heinous Mars and Saturn can be, particularly when
placed in the 8th house (house of death) without the aspect of any
benefic.
Yogas of Spiritual Intensity
Once one gets a taste of God, there will be a burning fire to realize Him
totally. Nothing else will ever compare. The rate at which that fire turns
a limited human personality into Divine Ash can be understood in part
by an analysis of the yogas of spirituality contained within a horoscope.
The most famous class of such yogas are called prāvrājya yogas, often
translated as "yogas of renunciation." They usually indicate the formal
joining of a religious order. Other factors that are important are the
strength and position of the trines and trinal lords, the twelfth house and
lord, Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, Moon and Ketu.
Prāvrājya yogas include the following:
1. Moon in a dreṣkāṇa of Saturn aspected by
Saturn or Moon in a navaṁśa of Mars or Saturn aspected by
Saturn.
2. Saturn or Moon in the ninth unaspected
3. Jupiter, Moon and Ascendant aspected by Saturn
with Jupiter in the ninth
4. Four planets in the same sign with none being
combust and one being the tenth lord.
5. 3 planets in the tenth with the tenth lord strong
6. Saturn aspects the Moon's dispositor or the 1L
7. Sun, Moon or Jupiter without strength in the 1st,
10th or 12th aspected by Saturn
8. Saturn or the 1st lord aspects the Moon's
dispositor
Three other yogas that are not classed as prāvrājya yogas but are
powerful spiritualizing yogas are:
1. Śrīkaṇṭha Yoga - Lagna lord, Sun and Moon
exalted, swa or in a friend's sign in an angle or a trine
 2. Virinci Yoga - 5th lord, Jupiter and Saturn
exalted, swa or in a friend's sign in an angle or a trine
3. Śrīnātha Yoga - 9th lord, Mercury and Venus
exalted, swa or in a friend's sign in an angle or a trine
As you can see from a glance above, Saturn and the Moon figure
prominently in spiritual intensity. While, from a worldly standpoint,
Saturn's influence on the Moon is regarded as unfavorable since it is not
conducive to worldly happiness and success, it is a dynamo trigger for
spiritual greatness. Saturn often gets a bad rap, but Saturn is both the
ground we stumble on and the means by which we pull ourselves up
from it. The moon is our manas, our emotional mind. Saturn can give it
an otherworldly focus which is the only real succor to be derived from
such an aspect.
Here are some examples.

Paramahamsa Yogananda
Famed author of "Autobiography of a Yogi," Yogananda's horoscope
abounds with spiritual yogas. He has a Śrīkaṇṭha Yoga formed by the
Sun as both the Sun and the lagna lord in the fifth in the sign of friend
Jupiter and Moon in the ascendant in the sign of friend Sun. Plus the
Moon is the twelfth lord. He also has Moon in a navamśa of Mars
aspected by Saturn. And the fifth and ninth lords are conjoined in
another mokṣa house (the eighth) aspected by Saturn. He also has a
Virinci Yoga from his Sun ascendant. All three of his ascendants
participate in his spiritual yogas and all three are trined to one another,
giving him the one pointed focus necessary to achieve spiritual
greatness.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Another great saint who also has all of his ascendants in accord with
one another, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa achieved nirvikalpa saṃadhi at
a young age. He has Moon in a navaṁśa of Mars aspected by Saturn.
He has Saturn in the ninth and although it is aspected by Jupiter, it is
also retrograde and exalted and so is its dispositor. This also makes a
Maha Lakṣmi Yoga and while Lakṣmi is in this Kali Yuga mostly
associated with worldly wealth the root of Her name, laksh, means goal.
She can also give spiritual realization if that is someone's goal. He is
very near to having a Virinci Yoga as well. Fifth lord Mercury is
retrograde and in the lagna in the sign of friend Saturn, Saturn is exalted
in the ninth and Jupiter is retrograde in the fifth but it is in the sign of
Mercury who is only neutral towards Jupiter but not actually friendly.
Ketu, mokṣa kārakā, is exalted in Viśakha, a nakśatra renowned for its
fixation on goals. And both Sun and Moon are in the ascendant
disposited by exalted Saturn from the ninth. His spiritual potency still
resonates today.

Anandamayi Ma Anandamayi
Ma was one of those rare individuals born with only a small remnant of
work left to be done in the spiritual realm and she initiated herself and
achieved full realization in her twenties and lived out her days as a saint
sought by all. One glance at her image fills even the most stubborn heart
with a tender feeling. She has four exalted planets: Sun, Venus, Jupiter
and Saturn. Her chart evokes both a Śrīkaṇṭha Yoga and a Virinci
Yoga. The lagna lord is exalted in the fifth house, the Moon is in the
tenth in Jupiter's sign and Sun is exalted in the second. Technically Sun
is not in the right place but the second is a positive house. The same is
true for Virinci. The fifth lord Moon is in the tenth in a friend's sign,
Jupiter is exalted in the fifth, and Saturn is exalted but in the 8th house.
She also has Moon in the tenth aspected by Saturn, a prāvrājya yoga.
The eighth lord is exalted in the 1st and the twelfth lord is exalted in the
eighth - both are mokṣa houses. Saints show man what is possible for
him, that, as he suspects, he is meant for something finer than earthly
life. Rather than aspiring to locate Heaven in earthly things, he should
undertake the process of locating the Divine within and try to keep the
earth in such a state that others might be able to do likewise.
Skill and Dexterity in Jyotish
A famous quote from śāstra states, "Yoga is skill in action." The
American Heritage Dictionary defines skill as: 1)proficiency, ability, or
dexterity 2) an art, trade, or technique, particularly one requiring the use
of the hands or body.
A dexterous person is usually able to acquire a wide base of skills with
relative ease. Such people often display proficiency in a number of arts
and crafts simultaneously; they may be good martial artists as well as
great cooks and musicians with a facility for math or weaving. Each
skill learned makes future additions easier to acquire because more and
more connections between neurons in various areas of the brain are
developed and the habit of holding a multifactorial awareness in the
midst of intense activity becomes second nature.
In many systems of spiritual development, it is standard to have all
acolytes develop a skill because of the way it grounds awareness in the
physical body, which later prevents meditation from becoming mere
mentation. There are several planetary yogas that point to a person
likely to be innately dexterous and therefore adept at acquiring skills
and skillful in any vocation or avocation they choose to pursue.
The number one planet of skill is Mercury. He is associated with
swiftness and grace of both physical and mental varieties. And most
yogas describing skill include the involvement of Mercury. His
association with another planet often gives skill in an area governed by
that planet, because Mercury will take on the character and nature of
any graha that influences him and add his own quickness to that planet's
qualities.
The number one house of skill is the third house, which also rules the
hands, the tools most commonly used in the application of skill. In fact,
śāstra states that when the lord of the horoscope goes to third house, the
person will be "endowed with all achievements."
Another important house for skill is the house of intellect and creativity,
the fifth house.
And perhaps the consummate raśi of skill is Gemini, the natural third
house of the zodiac, owned by the adept Mercury and an air sign,
which also gives a certain swiftness. It is also the sign of artisans and
entertainers. Any yoga involving skill that appears in Gemini will be
distinctly enhanced.
Important yogas for the display of dexterity are Sarasvatī Yoga,
Kalānidhi Yoga, and the combination of Mercury particularly with
Jupiter, Venus or Mars. His combining with the Sun or Moon may also
give some intellectual or imaginative brilliance. However, that is not the
same as the ability to be skillful, which usually involves both mind and
body. Sarasvatī is the goddess of knowledge and learning. This yoga
consists of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury in an angle, a trine or the second
house while Jupiter is exalted or in his own or a friendly raśi. Such a
yoga usually produces a person of great erudition who will display
tremendous knowledge and will usually have a gift for musical arts,
singing, and any other skill that involves wisdom or aesthetics.
Venus and Jupiter are the two guru planets. They contribute greatly to
the display of skill, creativity and intellect. Mercury's appearance with
either one of them will give some of the effect of a Sarasvatī Yoga.
Such people excel at graphic arts, interior design, drawing etc.
Kalānidhi means "treasure of digits." This yoga literally describes
having a "treasure" in one's fingers and it implies skill with the use of
the hands. It consists of Jupiter in the second or the fifth associated or
aspected by Mercury and Venus, or Jupiter in the second or the fifth in
the rāśi of Mercury or Venus. By loose extension, we can conclude that
when these three planets interact with each other in a horoscope in a
positive house, the person will be likely to display skill, provided other
indications do not negate it. The combination of Mars and Mercury also
produces dexterity in a person, often of a physical and/or a fighting
nature. Because of Mars's contrary nature and Mercury's facility for
speech, this combination can also produce biting comedians and/or
gifted liars and media people.
Mercury displays his gifts very well in all of the air signs, particularly
his own of Gemini. He can also do well in the fire signs, in Virgo, and
in Capricorn. But he tends to stumble in the water signs, all of which
are mute. It easy to see that a light graceful airy talkative fellow like
Mercury would struggle in the heavy dense element of water. While his
placement in such signs may not dim a person's intellectual brilliance,
people with this configuration may still appear as bumblers, saying the
wrong thing at the wrong time and often lacking in physical grace.
Below are example charts of both yogas.

Steve Jobs
Inventor of all things i, Jobs has a potent Kalānidhi Yoga. Jupiter is in
Gemini, it is Rx and it aspects the fifth house from the eleventh. Venus
sits in the fifth aspecting back onto Jupiter. Plus Jupiter aspects the Sun
in the seventh, who is the ascendant lord, thereby tying the yoga
directly to Jobs.
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg is one of the most successful, renowned Hollywood
directors of all time. The gross receipts on his movies exceed 8 billion
dollars. His movie, Jaws, was a huge innovation in film style that had
not been seen before. He has made many of America's iconic films,
including Jaws, E.T., and The Color Purple. He also has a great
Kalānidhi Yoga. Jupiter is in Venus sign with Venus in the fifth house
and Jupiter aspects the first house, tying this yoga directly to the person.
The fifth house is the premier house of creativity and also the house of
the intellectual mind. When these two abilities conjoin with skill in a
person not otherwise afflicted the results can be marvelous.

Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso has a Kalānidhi yoga formed by Jupiter Rx in Taurus in
the eleventh and aspected by Mercury from the fifth house, where the
lord of his chart, the Moon, is sitting. Because his fifth house contains
Mercury, the debilitated Moon and exalted Rāhu who conjoin with the
Kalānidhi Yoga his renowned skill was also highly unusual.

Raphael
Raphael is another painter of nonpareil status with a beautiful Kalānidhi
Yoga. He has Jupiter Rx in the eleventh in Virgo with exalted Rx
Venus in the fifth with Jupiter aspecting ascendant lord Mars. Both
Venus and Jupiter are strong, Venus is just reaching its exact degree of
exaltation (27). Venus is totally combust but this can enhance the inner
qualities of a planet and Raphael's painting was a very high expression.
Britney Spears
Britney is no Raphael, but she is a successful singer and she does have
a weak Kalānidhi Yoga formed by Jupiter in no special condition in
Libra in the second house. The averageness of this yoga makes her
popular for the masses but not a producer of timeless masterpieces.
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is one of India's legendary saints. He has a
Kalānidhi Yoga formed by Jupiter Rx in Gemini in the fifth house. In
his case, multiple yogas indicating great spirituality turn his Kalānidhi
Yoga into spiritual skill.
Some other people renowned for skill with a Kalānidhi Yoga include
Fred Astaire, Roger Abbott, Hank Aaron, Igor Stravinsky, Henry Ford,
Carl Jung, Alexander Graham Bell, and Ammachi.
Sarasvatī Yoga is defined in Phaladīpika CH.6 as "Highly intelligent;
skilled in dramatics, prose composition, versifying accounts, poetry,
narrative descriptions, and the exposition of sacred lore. Will be world-
renowned, prosperous, and blessed with wife and progeny. He will be
fortunate and respected by even the best of rulers."
Below are example charts of Sarasvatī Yoga.
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco has been described as a "colossus of learning." He is an
Italian writer, teacher, and researcher. He holds thirteen honorary
doctorates, he speaks five modern languages and has a good grasp of
classic Greek and Latin. He is one of only a few hundred people
regarded to have mastered semiotics, the study of signs and symbols.
He has written several enormously large and successful books and he
lives with a library of over 30,000 books. He has a lovely Sarasvatī
Yoga formed by exalted Rx Jupiter in the ascendant, Venus in the
seventh and Mercury in the fifth. Mercury conjoins his lagna lord in the
fifth, which Jupiter aspects. And Venus aspects his ascendant, so all
three elements of his Sarasvatī Yoga are tied to the ascendant or the
ascendant lord.
Omraam Aivanhov
A Bulgarian mystic, philosopher and teacher, he was a leader of the
Universal White Brotherhood, which taught timeless spiritual precepts
with a predominantly Christian flavor. His Sarasvatī Yoga is formed by
Jupiter in the second, Mercury in the fourth and Venus in the fifth.
Because Jupiter conjoins Rāhu on his Kāla-Sarpa Yoga axis, forming a
Guru-Candala Yoga his organization was not always well respected.
Enrico Fermi
A Nobel Prize winner in physics, Fermi discovered nuclear fission,
invented the nuclear reactor and created the first controlled nuclear
fission reaction. He was a child prodigy in math and physics and
received his doctorate at the age of 21. His Sarasvatī Yoga is formed
by Mercury and Venus in Libra in the seventh and Jupiter in Sagittarius
in the ninth. The presence of Rāhu and Mars with his Mercury and
Venus is probably what made him take up the pursuit of nuclear fission.
Bertrand Russell
Another Nobel Prize winner (in Literature), Bertrand Russell is
considered one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century.
He was a mathematician, logician, social critic and philosopher with
strong humanitarian leanings. He wrote over 3000 publications and 40
books. He is standard fare in any liberal arts education.
His Sarasvatī Yoga is formed by exalted Jupiter in the tenth and Venus
and Mercury in the seventh. His Sarasvatī Yoga is completely
unafflicted and Jupiter is in the tenth, making him a strong
humanitarian.
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest universal geniuses of all time.
He remains legendary today for his painting, his mathematical abilities
and his inventions, but he was also skilled in numerous fields including
writing, music, botany, sculpture and architecture. He has a Sarasvatī
Yoga formed by Jupiter in the fourth, Mercury in the fifth and Venus in
Taurus in the seventh. His Jupiter is in Aquarius, only the sign of a
neutral planet to Jupiter, but Jupiter can function like it is exalted in
Aquarius so it is a special exception. Mercury is debilitated but it has
nića bhaṅga from both Venus and Jupiter. Mercury in Pisces can
represent a diversified thinker because fish, the symbol of Pisces, breed
in hordes, so often the mind of a debilitated Mercury person has hordes
of thoughts. This can make someone ditsy and disorganized or
multifaceted and brilliant depending on other indications in the chart.
Albert Einstein also had a Sarasvatī Yoga with Jupiter in Aquarius and
Mercury in Pisces. One difference between Einstein and da Vinci is that
da Vinci's lagna lord is Mars exalted in the third house of skills whereas
Einstein's chart is ruled by debilitated Mercury, so da Vinci had hands
on practical skill as well as diversified intelligence, whereas Einstein
was primarily a thinker and not at all practical in his own life.
Five Opera Singers

Singing is a skill, a complex and flowing talent involving coordination

of hearing and sound production, of speed, evocation and largesse.
Traditionally singing has always been about emotion and beauty. Today
certain modern musical genre are so cacophonous, dissonant and
jarring, they resemble a sonic assault more than an aural revelation.
Leaving those Kali Yuga diaspora aside, singing is the beautiful
evocation of stirring emotion.
As such, to find a skilled singer in a jyotiṣa horoscope requires the
analysis of a confluent interplay of multiple factors.
1. Yogas of skill:
a. Sarasvatī Yoga - Jupiter, Venus and
Mercury all in angles or trines or the second
house with Jupiter exalted, own sign or in the
sign of a friend
b. Kalānidhi Yoga - Jupiter in 2nd or 5th
associated or aspected by Mercury OR Jupiter
in a rāśi of Mercury or Venus
2. Association between the first lord or bhāva and the
second lord or bhāva.
3. Association between the third lord or bhāva and the fifth
lord or bhāva
4. Association between the first lord or bhāva and either the
fifth lord or bhāva or the third lord or bhāva
5. A prominent Moon and Venus
6. Lagna, lagna lord, Moon, Sun or other strong placements
in nakṣatras with a strong theme of creativity, music and/or
skill. One could include others but definitely Aśvinī, Rohinī,
the two Phālgunīs, Hasta, Citra, Svati, Uttara Aśaḍḥa,
Śravana, Dhaniṣtha
 7. A strong and/or influential Saturn. Saturn rules over
práṇa, and over wind and stringed instruments.
8. No other pressing yogas that supersede a singing career.
9. A daśā sequence in which the majority of planets are tied
to the combinations for singing.
This pro forma is broad enough that some elements will appear in
nearly every horoscope. That is why it is necessary to establish a high
degree of confluence amongst the possible factors to elucidate a singer.
Many things could be said about the differences between opera and
other styles of singing, but one thing is for certain - opera is about the
singing. In order to be able to sing opera one must have a big and well-
trained voice. There can be no fudging with electronic support and back
up singers. Unlike some pop singers whose success may be tied to
personal charisma, glitzy stage presentation, dance ability etc., inasmuch
as it is tied to singing ability, the opera singer's career depends on a full
embodiment of vocal skill.
Analysis of five leading opera singers provides eminent confluence of
the above factors.
Frederica von Stade
1. Relevant Yogas: Her horoscope contains a Sarasvatī
Yoga, Ve in 1B, Me in 2B, Ju in Leo in 5B. This Sarasvatī
Yoga occurs in three houses very relevant to singing. The
first is the person themselves, the second rules the voice, the
fifth rules both creativity and entertainment.
2. 1L or B tied to 2L or B: The second lord is Venus who
is sitting in the first house.
3. 3L or B tied to 5L or B: The 3rd and 5th lords are
conjunct in the second house making a Budhāditya Yoga and
Mercury participates in the Sarasvatī Yoga as well.
4. 1L or B tied to 3L or B or 5L or B: The first lord is tied
to the third bhāva because of the mutual aspect between Mars
in the twelfth and Saturn in the third, plus Jupiter disposits
lagna lord Mars and sits in the fifth as part of the Sarasvatī
Yoga.
5. Prominent Moon and/or Venus: Both von Stade's Moon
and Venus are prominent by virtue of being in angles,
particularly the 1st and 10th house. Moon is also in its own
star.
6. Nakṣatras: Lagna and Venus are in Aśvinī, Moon is in
Śravana and Sun is in Rohinī. Plus Jupiter is in Pūrvā
Phālgunī.
7. Influential Saturn; Saturn is influential because he is in a
yoga with the first lord, 1st and 10th lords in mutual aspect
and he disposits the Moon. Plus Saturn is conjunct Rāhu in
the third house of skill. Rāhu has the tendency to expand
whatever planets he influences.
8. Von Stade has an Amala Yoga formed by the bright
unafflicted Moon in the tenth.
9. She is born into the Moon daśā. She then runs Mars up
until the age of ten at which point she starts Rāhu who is
placed in the third house of skill. At 28 she starts Jupiter in
the fifth house of creativity and entertainment and who is part
of her Sarasvatī Yoga. She then runs Saturn, also in the third
and then Mercury in the second. She debuted at the
Metropolitan Opera in 1970 during her Rāhu dasha and Sun
bhukti.
Luciano Pavarotti
1. Pavarotti also has a Sarasvatī Yoga. Venus is in the
second, Mercury is in the 4th and Jupiter is in Scorpio in the
fifth. Two out of the three planets are in singing related
houses.
2. The first lord, the full Moon, is opposite the second lord,
the Sun
3. The third lord/bhāva and fifth lord/bhāva are not
mutually related but the fifth lord is in the fifth bhāva and the
third lord is in an angle strong because of retrogression
4. The first lord is tied to the third house by sitting in the
ninth opposite the Sun in the third. It is also linked to the fifth
house because it forms a saṃbandha with Jupiter in the fifth,
by virtue of being in Jupiter's sign aspected by Jupiter.
5. The Moon is prominent because it is full and it is the
lagna lord. Venus is reasonably prominent because it is the
second house in its own star.
6. Venus, Sun and Mercury all occupy relevant nakṣatras.
These are important placements because both Venus and
Mercury participate in the Sarasvatī Yoga and Sun makes an
important yoga with lagna lord Moon.
7. Saturn is doubly strong because it is in its own sign and
it is retrograde. While it does not directly aspect the lagna or
lagneśa, it does make an important Anaphā Yoga (true planet
in 12th from Moon), important because both planets are very
strong and Moon is the lagna lord.
8. Pavarotti has a strong fifth house. Mars is there forming a
Rucaka Yoga and both a powerful rajayoga and a powerful
dhana yoga with Jupiter. The fifth house is the house of
teachers and counselors and Jupiter is the planet of teachers
and counselors. Pavarotti worked for a couple of years as an
elementary school teacher. Saturn is also notably strong in the
8th house opposite Venus and during his serious musical
training which began in Venus-Venus he worked as an
insurance salesman.
9. Pavarotti undertook serious musical study at the
beginning of his Venus Mahadaśā. He runs twenty years of
Venus, six years of Sun, 10 years of Moon, seven years of
Mars, and 12 years of Rāhu who is in Jupiter's sign and
Venus' star before dying in Rāhu-Venus.
Andrea Bocelli
1. Bocelli does not have a Sarasvatī Yoga although
Mercury and Venus do occupy the ascendant. But he does
have a Kalānidhi Yoga because Jupiter is in Libra in the third
house
2. The first lord is in the second house and the second lord
is in the first house.
3. The third and fifth bhāva are related because fifth lord
Jupiter is in the third bhāva making a Kalānidhi Yoga.
4. The first bhāva is tied to the third because third lord
Venus occupies the lagna.
5. Venus is prominent here by virtue of occupying the
ascendant less than three degrees from the ascendant degree.
Moon is not particularly prominent because it is sandhi in the
sixth house although it is tied to Jupiter in a Keśari Yoga.
6. Lagna, Venus, Mercury, lagna lord Sun, Rāhu, Ketu,
Jupiter and Moon all occupy relevant nakṣatras. That makes
seven out of nine planets and the ascendant.
7. Saturn is influential because he occupies the fourth house
and thereby aspects the lagna, and he disposits and aspects
the Moon.
8. Bocelli does have a big yoga unrelated to singing.
Saturn, lord of the seventh sits opposite Mars, lord of the
ninth. Saturn is also lord of the sixth in Mars sign aspected by
Mars from the tenth. Before becoming a famous singer
Bocelli went to college and law school and worked as a
lawyer for a while. It was only in 1992, at the age of 34, that
his rise to international stardom began. He really took off in
1994, during Rāhu-Sun, the same period that ignited von
Stade. This is interesting because both have Rāhu in the third
with a true planet and Sun in the second. Perhaps the
presence of the true planet empowers Rāhu with a Veśi Yoga
like effect.
9. Bocelli's career only began relatively late in Rāhu and
has continued well through his Jupiter period. Both planets
are clearly tied to his singing combinations. We will see what
becomes of him when Saturn starts in 2014.
Placido Domingo
1. Placido Domingo has a near miss on a Sarasvatī Yoga.
He has both Venus and Jupiter in trines and Jupiter is in the
sign of a friend. Mercury is conjunct the lagna lord, Sun,
forming a Budhāditya Yoga, but it is in the sixth house so
technically there is no Sarasvatī Yoga, but it is Sarasvatī
Yoga-esque.
2. The first and second lord are conjunct.
3. The third and fifth bhāva lords are in a saṃbandha.
Venus, the third lord, is in the fifth in the sign of and aspected
by fifth lord Jupiter who in turn aspects the third house.
4. The first lord is not too deeply tied to either the third or
fifth, but the fifth lord does aspect the first bhāva and the first
lord is aspected by Saturn who conjoins fifth lord Jupiter and
thereby throws Jupiter's aspect onto the Sun. Venus, 3rd lord
in the fifth, forms a Vośi Yoga because it is in the twelfth
from lagna lord Sun.
5. Venus and Moon are prominent because Moon is in the
third forming a strong Keśāri Yoga opposite fifth lord Jupiter
and Venus is in the fifth in its own star.
6. Lagna, lagna lord, Mercury, and Rāhu in the second all
occupy relevant nakṣatras.
7. Saturn is influential because it aspects the Moon and
disposits and aspects the Sun who is the lagna lord.
8. Placido Domingo has a Rucaka Yoga in his fourth house
that is not tied to his combinations for singing, but it is a solo
planet and he doesn't run its daśā. Instead he is one of those
people born in the right family and daśā sequence for a
smooth glide to his destiny.
9. He enters life in Jupiter-Venus. Conveniently, his family
owns and operates a musical theater company. At the age of
seven he begins his Saturn dāśa who is located with fifth lord
Jupiter in the ninth aspecting the third where Moon resides.
His career begins and rises during Saturn. Then he runs
Mercury, lord of the second with the first and again his career
holds steady. Ketu in the 8th offers a bit of diversion by virtue
of an enormous earthquake that wipes out many of his family
members. He spends a year doing benefit concerts for the
survivors, but since Ketu is in the sign of Jupiter and star of
Saturn, his career still holds fast. Next he runs Venus, also
part his plethora of singing combinations. And of course then
comes Sun and Moon. It is no wonder that he has performed
more operatic roles than any other male tenor.
Maria Callas
1. Callas has a Sarasvatī Yoga. Venus is in the second and
Mercury and Jupiter are in the lagna in Scorpio.
2. The second lord is in the first house with dik bala. Jupiter
here is also the fifth lord making him doubly relevant.
3. The third and fifth bhāva are not connected other than
that 5th lord Jupiter is in the star of 3rd lord Saturn.
4. The third lord is conjunct the first lord and the first lord
aspects the 3rd bhāva. Plus the third lord is exalted and
aspects the second bhāva.
5. Moon is not particularly prominent but it does aspect the
fifth bhāva and it enhances the Mars/Saturn combo in the
twelfth because they then make a Sunaphā Yoga(and of
course a Vośi Yoga) Venus is in the second as the dispositor
of the lagna lord.
6. Lagna lord Mars, 3rd lord Saturn and Moon all occupy
relevant nakṣatras.
7. Saturn is strong and influential as it is the exalted third
lord.
8. Callas does not have any yogas that send her chart in
another direction. She does have a full blown Kalā Sarpa
Yoga with all planets moving toward Ketu. Ketu is in the
sign of exalted Saturn, the planet most controlling her
horoscope and the star of Rāhu. Rāhu is in the sign of the
Sun, conjoined with two elements of her Sarasvatī Yoga and
the star of Venus, who falls in the second house of voice.
9. She begins life in Sun. At the age of 5, as her Moon daśā
begins, her mother forces her to start singing. Moon dāśa
activates the powerful Saturn in the twelfth because of the
Sunaphā Yoga. Her life with her mother is a battle as her
mother is unkind and controlling. This is no surprise given the
planetary war between exalted 4th lord Saturn and lagna lord
Mars. This difficult yoga also drives Callas to develop a range
and repertoire unmatched by any other singer. After Moon
she runs Mars, in Citra, a major singing nakṣatra with 3rd lord
Saturn. Her public debut occurs at the start of Mars, her
professional debut a couple of years later. In 1953, during
Rāhu-Saturn and/or Rāhu-Mercury, she lost a large amount of
weight after which her voice was never the same.
On Considering Jupiter
One cannot extol the extraordinary beneficence of the planet Jupiter
enough. Jupiter is the protector, the giver, the wisest one, bestower of
grace, destroyer of a thousand ills, the heavy one, the teacher, the one
who enlightens. No other planet in a horoscope demonstrates the
capacity of human beings to behave in a truly divine way as Jupiter
does. Jupiter is goodness (without ulterior motive), love, grace and
unconscious sacrifice personified. Both Lord Rāma and Lord Kṛṣṇa had
extremely powerful Jupiters. Lord Rāma had exalted Jupiter in the
ascendant, contributing to his incredible commitment to right action, as
did Thomas Huxley, the famed biologist who said, "Perhaps the most
valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the
thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or
not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a
man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns
thoroughly."
Lord Kṛṣṇa had Jupiter in its own sign in the eleventh house. One
jyotiṣa guru lineage says that if Jupiter appears in a horoscope in the
eleventh house, no matter what happens, the person will always be
saved. Kṛṣṇa was so successful, so beloved by all of creation that He
had to arrange the līlā of His death Himself.
Jupiter's astrological significations are reflected in modern astronomy.
Jupiter, whose Sanskrit names include Bṛhaspati, the preceptor to the
gods, and Guru, which means both "teacher" and "heavy," has 2.5
times the mass of all the other planets combined. His gravitational field
is intense. Both his force of gravity and his size cause him to serve as a
giant blockade against incoming comets that would otherwise rock the
earth. Jupiterian people are known for having large bellies, and the
force of Jupiter's rotation causes him to form an oblate sphere, with a
noticeable bulge at the equator. Jupiter rules the color gold and appears
to be a golden color. Although Mars occasionally exceeds him, he is
frequently the third brightest object in the night sky, after Moon and
Venus, with a potential magnitude of -2.8.
Jupiter is the great purifier. Whatever he touches in a horoscope will
grow in integrity and generosity. Even the sorriest horoscope with a
good Jupiter will allow for redemption when his period runs.
One sees the quality of one's own Jupiter best when one either runs the
daśā or sees the transit of Jupiter over its natal position. At this time, the
blessings Creation has in store for you will be given.
In jyotiṣical mythology, Jupiter was so wise and good that his wife,
Tārā, got bored of him and ran off with the Moon and became
impregnated. Then, in classic fashion, Tārā discovered the Moon was a
very flighty and unreliable lover, and not the man she wanted to raise a
child with, so she returned to Jupiter, who in his beneficence reaccepted
her and her unborn child, no questions asked. That child turned out to
be Mercury, the planet of intellect, who is Jupiter's (wisdom's) stepchild
and the child of the Moon, the emotional mind. In a horoscope, if
Jupiter does not influence Mercury or the Moon, the person may have a
tendency to waste their intellect rationalizing their emotions, rather than
use their intellect in the service of wisdom. Jupiter's attitude toward his
wife is the attitude that we, as human beings, would do best to hold
toward each other. Forget all wrongs done. Remember only the
blessings of life. Be kind and thus goodness will multiply.
Planetary Configurations that Make a Good Psychic

There are two essential planets involved in creating a good psychic and
three secondary ones that provide support.
The most important houses to look to are the first (the person
themselves) and the fifth (the mind.)
The most essential planet for proper intuition is Jupiter.
This is illustrated by a Jupiter yoga mentioned in Sarvartha Chintamani
called Trikāla Jñāna Yoga. It says the proprietor of this yoga will have
knowledge of the past present and future. The yoga's definition is the
following: "Jupiter in Mrudvamśa, own navamśa or Gopuramśa
aspected by a natural benefic."
This yoga appears in the chart of every example below.
In addition, the other planet that is nearly always involved in creating a
psychic is either one of the nodes, which gives access to unseen realms
and non ordinary modes of perception.
Supporting planets are Mercury, the Moon, the Sun and to a lesser
extent Venus. A psychic is likely to be better if these planets are
reasonably strong and unafflicted, especially Mercury and the Moon. If
Mercury is afflicted, they may lack the ability to successfully translate
between other realms and may become confused about what they are
perceiving. Moon rules the manas, the emotional mind and if Moon is
afflicted, their psychic abilities may simply push them over the edge into
some type of madness. The Sun rules consciousness itself and light so it
can illuminate both visions and allow for things to surface from Pure
Consciousness.
The following combinations are frequently present in the charts of good
psychics:
1. A powerful Trikāla Jñāna Yoga
2. Ideally, either the first house or first lord or the
fifth house or fifth lord should be involved with Jupiter, or
 Jupiter should be involved with the nodes.
3. Ideally, either the first house or first lord or the
fifth house or fifth lord should be involved with the nodes, or
Jupiter should be involved with the nodes.
4. Mercury and Moon should be reasonably strong
and unafflicted
5. The Sun or Moon should be involved in one of
the combinations

Here are some examples.

Malcolm Bessent
Malcolm Bessent has undergone extensive scientific study and has been
rated the most accurate psychic in the world. He has all of the
combinations above in toto. A Capricorn ascendant, his lagna lord is
placed in the fifth house of the mind. He has a strong Trikāla Jñāna
Yoga form by exalted AND retrograde Jupiter in the seventh house
who is also in his own sign in the navamśa and in his own sign or
exalted in 6 amśas (subsidiary chart). Jupiter is with the full Moon who
is in its own sign and with Rāhu. In the ascendant are the Sun and
Mercury forming a Budhāditya Yoga (a yoga of intellect) with Ketu.

Peter Hurkos
Peter Hurkos developed psychic abilities after a severe head injury that
left him in a coma for three days. Volatile and moody, he could speak in
foreign tongues when asleep but also did psychic work when awake.
He is just shy of a true Trikāla Jñāna Yoga because Jupiter is not
aspected by a natural benefic, but it is Rx and in its own or exaltation
sign in four amśas. The head injury tie to being psychic is apparent in
the placement of the lagna lord in Aries in the eleventh where it is
associated with a parivartana yoga between Mars and Saturn. The
psychic combinations are potentized by having Jupiter with Ketu in the
fifth house in mutual aspect to the lagna lord in the eleventh who is with
Sun and Rāhu while having the fifth lord in the ascendant. He also has
a Budhāditya Yoga in the eleventh giving support. His Moon is
somewhat afflicted by virtue of occupying an enemy's sign associated
with Mars which is, no doubt, why he was moody.

Judith Richardson
Another famous psychic, Judith Richardson successfully sued for
damages after a CAT scan that she claimed terminated her psychic
abilities. She has a Trikāla Jñāna Yoga formed by an exalted Rx Jupiter
in the sixth house aspected by Venus from the twelfth. Jupiter is in its
own amśa three times. While Jupiter is not involved with the fifth
house, it is very strong and it is situated with Rāhu in the sixth. The fifth
lord is in the ascendant as Mercury forming another potent and
unafflicted Budhāditya Yoga. Her Moon is very bright and unaspected
by any malefic. The lagna lord, Saturn, is in the fourth where it aspects
both Jupiter and the ascendant. She lost her psychic powers during the
tail end of Rāhu-Ketu or the very beginning of Rāhu-Venus while
Saturn was transiting over Rāhu and Jupiter.
Mental Illness and Jyotish
Mental health and illness exist on a broad spectrum and cover a wide
range of states. Thus to analyze someone's mental health or lack thereof
in a horoscope requires a detailed analysis and synthesis of a number of
factors. These factors include the 1st, 4th, and 5th houses, Mercury, the
Moon and any afflictions to these particularly by the nodes or Saturn.
The 1st house is important because it governs the person and the
general condition of their mind-body apparatus. It is also a crucial house
in determining the nature of childhood including in utero experience
and early trauma, which both ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience
posit as a chief cause of mental disturbance. The fourth house is
important because it governs mother, not just in the sense of chief
caregiver but also in the sense of formative environment (home) and
manas (the emotional mind), which will largely take its shape through
these factors. The fifth house is important because it governs the
intellectual mind or buddhi. Confusion or debilitation in either the
manas or buddhi may be counterbalanced by the sound operation of the
other portion of mind, but if both are afflicted matters become very
troubling.
Mercury also rules the buddhi as well as the nervous system particularly
as it relates to the flow of prāna. The Moon rules the manas. If one
analyzes bālāriṣṭa yogas--yogas pertaining to afflictions of early
childhood--nearly all of them involve the poor placement of the Moon
because foundational experiences will determine so much the health of
the emotional mind. Modern neuroscience reveals the enormous impact
of early trauma on brain function. Especially when such experiences
occur preverbally and exist only in implicit memory, they can drive the
manas in a very pernicious way. The manas accords to what is called
the limbic system, the portion of the brain that governs our primal
responses to environmental threats and needs and our arising emotions.
This part of the brain does not respond to logic or reason. It responds to
image and emotion and has to be worked with accordingly. Once it
establishes neural grooves they can be difficult to change.
Although Mars can certainly play a role in mental affliction, the planets
that figure in much more substantially are the nodes and Saturn. All
three of these can give rise to fear, confusion and skewed perception.
All three also govern the flow of prāna in the body, which deeply
affects the state of the nervous system. The nodes particularly can cause
people to form perceptual realities that almost no one can relate to and
can cause very strange aberrations of which it is difficult to determine
either the diagnosis or the cure. Saturn gives rise to deep fear and
anxiety usually as a result of neglect, abuse or cruelty in the
environment.

Chris Costner Sizemore - 3 Faces of Eve

This woman had multiple personality disorder, now called dissociative
identity disorder. The movie, "The Three Faces of Eve" is based on her
life. Her lagna (1st house) is mixed. It is afflicted by a potent Rx Saturn
from the fourth house, but it is also aspected by Mercury and Jupiter,
both benefics; however, they are in a planetary war and located in a
nakśatra associated with cruelty and difficulty. And the 1st lord, the
Sun, is in the 8th house. The rising nakṣatra belongs to Ketu who is
located in the fifth house creating an affliction there. The fourth house is
afflicted by Saturn and its dispositor, Mars, is extremely saṁdhi and
located with Rāhu, in the 11th house, eight away from the fourth. The
fifth house itself contains Ketu who is aspected by the weak Mars.
Mercury is in a planetary war in the sign of Saturn. The Moon is located
with Venus in the ninth house, a fairly benign placement except that its
dispositor is also Mars, the extremely weak and afflicted fourth lord and
it is in a nakṣatra ruled by the Sun who is in the eighth house.
Up until the age of forty she suffered from MPD. She felt that she came
in with multiple identities but then early trauma intensified their separate
existences, a view in accord with modern trauma research. She was
born into Sun daśā and then ran Moon, Mars and Rāhu, all of which
participate in a complex pattern of mental affliction. At age 40 she
started her Jupiter daśā and found a therapist, her sixth, with whom she
did intensive therapy for four years. This reintegrated her personality so
that she no longer experienced MPD.

Virginia Woolf
Author Virginia Woolf suffered from debilitating bouts of depression
and mental illness that included hearing voices. These problems came
on during her teenage years with the death of her mother and would
culminate in her eventual suicide. Interestingly mental illness began in
Venus-Rāhu and she took her own life in Rāhu-Venus.
Woolf has Taurus rising with Ketu in the ascendant within five degrees
of the rising degree. The ascendant is hemmed by malefics on either
side. Her lagna lord is Venus in the ninth house mildly combust the Sun
with 2nd and 5th lord Mercury. This is a well placed combination with
a number of good yogas which allowed her considerable success as an
author. However, it is afflicted by the aspect of a debilitated Saturn from
the 12th house and an Rx Mars from the second. Her fourth house is
unafflicted, but its lord is the Sun who is aspected by Saturn and Mars.
The fifth house is aspected by Mars and so its lord Mercury who is also
aspected by Saturn. The real trouble in this horoscope stems from the
twelfth house combination of Saturn and Moon. Having the Moon in
the 12th house is a bālāriṣṭa yoga which can give affliction up to the age
of 24. This is made worse by the presence of a debilitated Saturn who
afflicts not only the Moon but the Sun and ascendant lord as well.
Furthermore Saturn unilaterally aspects Mars which is a combination for
suicide. It is felt that a substantial portion of Wolf's mental troubles
stemmed from the sexual abuse she suffered from her half brothers
during her childhood. On the ascendant she has the nakṣatra Rohinī
which is strongly associated with sexual abuse. The ruler of that
nakṣatra is the afflicted Moon in the twelfth house.
Tennessee Williams
Playwright Williams is another author who suffered from lifelong
mental disturbances, chiefly deep states of depression. He had a very
abusive father, a weak mother, and a sister who was diagnosed
schizophrenic and given a lobotomy after years in an institution.
Williams became very dependent on drugs and alcohol in an effort to
manage his mood states, and died of choking on a bottle cap in a state
of drug induced confusion.
Williams has Moon and Mars in his Capricorn ascendant. Śāstra states
that Moon in the ascendant can make a person mentally disturbed. The
lagna lord is Saturn debilitated in the fourth house creating both a
weakness for the ascendant and an affliction to the fourth house and its
dispositor Moon. Rāhu is also in the fourth house creating another
affliction. This is somewhat softened by the presence of Venus in the
fourth and Jupiter in the tenth allowing him to survive within his
difficult family structure. The fifth lord is Venus in the fourth with
Saturn and Rāhu. Mercury is debilitated in the third house. And the
chart has a Kalā-Sarpa Yoga.

Vincent Van Gogh

Artist Van Gogh is another artist famous for the intensity of his life-long
suffering which took its roots in a difficult childhood. He also
committed suicide. Posthumously many people have tried to diagnose
his mental illness with over 30 ideas given. His ascendant is saṁdhi at
29:21 of Gemini, a condition considered not good for mental stability.
He has Rāhu in the ascendant but it is also aspected by a swa Jupiter
from the seventh. This helps somewhat but Jupiter is also afflicted by
virtue of being within one degree of Ketu. The ascendant lord is
Mercury in the 11th house with a debilitated Saturn. Mercury doubles
as the fourth lord so it is thrice afflicted by Saturn, in its capacity as 1st
and 4th lord and as significator of the buddhi. The fourth house is
aspected by the combination that made him a great painter, exalted
Venus who is the fifth lord, Sun and Mars.
Most crucially here, in addition to an afflicted saṁdhi ascendant and the
presence of debilitated Saturn with the lagna lord, is the saṁdhi
debilitated Moon in the sixth house making a bālāriṣṭa yoga in one of
the worst places of the zodiac for the Moon. His brother said his last
words were, "The sadness will last forever."

Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosopher Nietzsche is a perfect example of someone with a
startlingly immense and clear intellect (buddhi) who nonetheless
suffered greatly on account of his manas. He has a Scorpio ascendant
occupied by the debilitated Moon and Rāhu. There are no afflictions to
either the fourth or the fifth house other than that the fourth lord Saturn
is 12 away from the fourth although in its own sign. The only other
noticeably weak planet is the Sun who is saṁdhi and debilitated, and
Nietzsche's father would die when he was around six. The fifth house
contains Jupiter in its own sign making a beautiful yoga with exalted
Mercury and lagna lord Mars in the eleventh. Nonetheless, Nietzsche
suffered a difficult childhood and would eventually go mad, spending
the last ten years of his life in a stupor despite the extreme brilliance of
his writing and philosophy.

Charles Samuel Addams

Creator of the Addams family and other semi macabre cartoons, Charles
Samuel Addams suffered a number of nervous breakdowns despite
enjoying tremendous success with his art; however, he did not "go
mad" or commit suicide.
His ascendant holds Rāhu and debilitated Saturn. His fourth house is
unafflicted. The fourth lord Moon is in the fifth, a positive house,
aspected by Mars and in the nakṣatra of Ketu. Mercury is in the ninth
with the Sun aspected by Mars. The heavy affliction to his lagna was
enough to prompt several instances of loss of equilibrium.
The Differences Between the Two Nodes
People are often confused about the differences between Rāhu and
Ketu, the north and south nodes of the moon. This is natural, since these
two planets were once one being and they share many meanings in
common. But they also have very important distinctions in personality
and significations that can cause their manifestations in a horoscope to
be dissimilar. Because they are chāyā grahas--shadow planets--their
nature is shifting and cloudy, which contributes to the confusion
surrounding them.
They share in common being portals to other realms of existence,
shamanic doorways that can open our minds and expand our visions of
reality. They rule over Kundalini and extrasensory perception, and
shamans and witch doctors. They both rule foreigners and outcasts, the
strange and unusual, poisons, obsessions, disguise, eccentricity,
psychism, magic and the sudden and unexpected.
To understand how they differ, one can begin by contemplating the fact
that Rāhu is a head without a body and Ketu is a tail without a head.
The head in Vedic thought is always the symbol of all forms of ego and
grasping. It is also the seat of the intellect and the personality. This gives
to Rāhu a heedless ambition and acquisitiveness (which is largely
missing in Ketu's personality), as well as striking inventiveness and
originality and often a pronounced charisma. Because Rāhu is the top
part of the body, he rules the hands, whereas Ketu rules the legs. We
generally commit far more selfish acts with our hands than with our
legs. Rāhu figures much more strongly in combinations that give rise to
legerdemain (a show of skill or deceitful cleverness) and to visible
siddhis.
Ketu, being a tail, is entirely lacking in a head, which makes him
associated with confusion (state of headlessness), universality (a more
positive view of confusion), and mokṣa (liberation from all ego and
grasping). While Rāhu may be the most materially seeking graha, Ketu
can be the least. Ketu knows not of this world and is possibly the worst
planet for trying to get along in capitalist society. The detachment and
confusion associated with him often leads to people being very spaced
out and directionless, unable to establish the position of things relative
to one another. Also, because Ketu rules the legs, he is associated with
the acts of sitting for meditation and walking around to go on
pilgrimage.
Their brand of psychism tends to be different as well. Rāhu tends to
produce striking visions whereas Ketu tends to produce intuitive
feelings.
Additionally, it is said that Rāhu behaves like Saturn, and Ketu behaves
like Mars. Rāhu shares with Saturn in being a vata planet-¬cold and
windy--whose effects can be pernicious. Ketu shares with Mars in
being a pitta planet prone to explosive violence, mishaps with fire and
fanaticism.
Kāla Sarpa Yoga
Kāla Sarpa Yoga -- The Great Serpent of Time Yoga -- is formed when
all the planets sit in one half of the horoscope between the north and
south nodes of the moon, Rāhu and Ketu. The nodes are magnifiers and
intensifiers of everything that they influence. When the Kāla Sarpa
Yoga exists, this effect applies to the entire life; therefore, whatever else
is going on in the chart will be heated up, in the same way that you can
start a fire by focusing sunlight through a magnifying glass. This means
it is crucial to assess all other yogas in such a horoscope to determine
what is going on.
In order to understand the effect of Kāla Sarpa Yoga on an individual,
one should understand the direction of the destiny pattern indicated by
all the other planets. In a chart with strongly positive indications, Kāla
Sarpa will increase those indications. The reverse is also true, making
this a yoga both of very great heights and very low depths. To
understand the nodes, it is useful to contemplate the nature of snakes
which the nodes rule. Snakes are pictured with a number of important
Hindu deities. Vedic snake associations are very rich. Snakes are
regarded as a potent form of power; they are associated with Kuṇḍālinī
Śakti, with powerful memory, with the primordial energy of the
Universe. The ability to be with snakes is a sign of transcendence.
Snakes are also feared and can be very dangerous, especially when one
happens upon them unexpectedly. This is particularly true in India,
where king cobras grow up to 18 feet in length and can raise themselves
five feet in the air. If you happen upon a snake as long as a bus rising as
tall as a human, there is no possibility of escape. It is not like the much
more benign rattlesnake of North America, which grows only a few feet
long and warns you as you approach, giving you the opportunity to
politely move out of the way.
The eyesight of snakes varies from minimal to good enough to track the
movement of prey. Cobras are amongst the snakes that can and do track
movements with their eyes, giving them renown for focus, another
important quality of the nodes and of Kāla Sarpa Yoga in particular.
Many snakes also have an infrared sensing mechanism that allows them
to "see" in the dark, making them feared night hunters. Think the movie
"Predator." These qualities -- power, intensity, focus and uncanny
abilities that seem to transcend normal limits -- will show up for good or
ill in the charts of those with Kāla Sarpa Yoga.
After assessing other yogas in the horoscope and other important factors
of strength or weakness, especially the three ascendants and their lords,
one wants to analyze what domains of life will be most profoundly
affected by the yoga. A common way to do this is to look to themes of
the pair of houses that Rāhu and Ketu occupy, expecting exaggerated
results tied to those themes.
Another important element to look at is the planets influencing the
nodes. The nodes give their own effect as well, but they very
dramatically give the effect of the planets in whose signs and stars they
sit and those that aspect them. The significations of these planets are
another very likely place that the chart owner will deeply experience the
power of the nodes, as well as in all other yogas because the Kāla Sarpa
Yoga implicitly affects the whole horoscope.
Should any planet sit in the same sign as either node, there is still a Kāla
Sarpa Yoga but it will be very important to look carefully at such a
planet. Such a planet's negative indications are often powerfully
enhanced as the full power of the Sarpa is upon such a planet. It may
very well operate as if it has a very poisonous snake bite.
Much is also made over whether all the planets are moving toward Ketu
or all the planets are moving toward Rāhu. Various sources will
describe each variant as being the more difficult of the two. It very well
may depend on the individual case and the relative strength, quality and
placement of each node. What can be said generally is that Rāhu
represents egoic selfishness -- it being the head of the body and Ketu
represents selflessness, it being without a head. The egoic quality of
Rāhu may increase egoistic tendencies when all planets move toward
Rāhu whereas all planets moving toward Ketu may produce greater
surrender or greater confusion and chaos.
Kāla Sarpa Yoga works like an amplifier. If the music is beautiful, the
amplifier will be a great enhancement. If the music is terrible, the
amplifier will be a torture.
The Low Side -- Charles Manson
Cult leader and mass murderer Charles Manson's Kāla Sarpa Yoga is of
the negative kind. His lagna lord is in the sign of a friend but its
dispositor is debilitated. He has a combination of four planets in the
seventh house which are likely to produce some raja yogas; however,
the dispositor of these planets is Venus who is totally combust with a
debilitated sun and the other constituents rule out three of four possible
dussthanas. The whole combination is aspected by Saturn, who sits
with Rāhu in the tenth. The Moon, who is the fourth lord, is also
posited with Rāhu and Saturn, indicating a very sick mind since Moon
is the kārakā of manas and the 4th lord who also represents manas on
the Kāla Sarpa Yoga axis with Saturn. Narendra Desai always
remarked that Saturn in the tenth creates a dictator. Here the fact that all
planets are moving towards Rāhu enhances the insanity and egotism --
the "head" problems. Both the nodes are heavily influenced by Saturn:
Ketu is in Saturn's star aspected by Saturn and Rāhu is in Saturn's sign
conjunct Saturn. Ketu's sign dispositor Moon is also with Saturn. This
makes this a situation with no relief.
The High Side -- Donald Trump
Financier and famous businessman Donald Trump has a mostly positive
Kāla Sarpa Yoga. This is an instructive example because Moon also sits
on the nodal axis in this chart. Trump's Moon is debilitated; however it
is very full and it is with an exalted Ketu and all planets are moving in
the direction of Ketu. Rāhu is debilitated in the eleventh house and
conjunct the Sun. Sun and Moon opposite each other make a very
powerful dhana yoga, lord of the 2nd and 1st on the 5/11 axis. (Trump
was born on an eclipse.) Rāhu is in the sign of Venus who is the further
lord of real estate posited on the ascendant with Saturn, the 7th lord of
independent business and a natural kāraka of real estate. Rāhu is in the
star of Mars who is the raja yoga kāraka in a friend's sign in a money
house. Rāhu is aspected by Rx Jupiter who is the lucky ninth lord, a
powerful natural benefic and a mutual friend of lagna lord Moon. Ketu
is in the sign of Mars amplifying this effect as well. Ketu is in the star of
Mercury who is the twelfth lord in its own sign. Mercury is protecting
against the theme of loss. This is not to say a few problems do not exist.
Saturn is the 8th lord in the ascendant and it is sandhi. This is a poverty
yoga amongst many good yogas but Trump has had some financial up
and downs.
Primo Levi
Primo Levi was a very famous Italian author and chemist. He was
imprisoned in Auschwitz from 1944-1945 and he died in 1987,
generally thought to have been a suicide. He has a full Kāla Sarpa Yoga
with all planets moving towards exalted Rāhu in the sixth house, which
means he possesses a debilitated Ketu in the twelfth house. His lagna
lord Mercury is conjunct 5th lord Venus and ninth lord Saturn in the
third house, making some lovely raja yogas. This combination gave him
skill as a writer. However, this combination also forms a number of
ariṣṭa yogas. Levi's health suffered a great deal, physically in his youth
and mentally after his Auschwitz experience. This is particularly the
case because 8th lord Saturn is in a planetary war with Mercury. They
are only fifteen minutes apart and therefore will travel together in almost
all divisional charts.
The most pivotal point in Levis' life was his imprisonment in Auschwitz
which began in February of 1944 during his Rāhu-Jupiter period. Rāhu
is in the sixth house in the sign of Mars who is the sixth lord in the
ascendant, another unfavorable yoga. He is in the star of Saturn who is
the 8th lord in a planetary war with the lagneśa and he is aspected by
Jupiter, a markeśa exalted in the second house. Ketu is in the star of the
Sun, in the sign of Venus and aspected by Saturn. At the time of his
imprisonment, Rāhu and Jupiter were both transiting Cancer and Saturn
was transiting Taurus. Ordinarily, one would think of exalted Jupiter in
the second house as producing largely positive results; however, Jupiter
is mildly combust and situated with the Sun who is the star lord of Ketu
in the twelfth house where Saturn was transiting at the time. Saturn may
be the most pivotal player here, as it alone influences both ends of the
Kāla Sarpa Yoga. Levi's life was spared at the end of the war because
he had fallen ill with scarlet fever and was left behind as all the other
prisoners were forced to go on a death march that left almost none alive.
Here we see the clear and intense activation of both sides of his nodal
axis as imprisonment is a twelfth house indication and illness, especially
acute, is a sixth house indication.

Johnny Carson
Talk show host Johnny Carson has all planets moving towards Ketu in
the fourth house. He has a number of powerful raja and dhana yogas in
his ascendant including lords of 1,4,5,9, and 11 all conjoined plus a
Śaśa Yoga with Saturn ruling only good houses and a Budhāditya
yoga. His lagna lord is unafflicted in the second house and his Moon
makes a good Keśari yoga with Jupiter in the third. Certainly, Mercury
is the twelfth lord in the ascendant indicating some financial loss (minor
compared to the dhana yogas), which took the form of charity in
Carson's life. Rāhu is in the sign of the Moon and in the star of Saturn
aspected by Saturn. Levi also had Rāhu in the star of Saturn aspected
by Saturn -- this is why it is important to consider exactly what a planet
means in a given horoscope. Ketu is in the sign of Saturn and in the star
of the Sun. Here we have a reinforcement by star placement of Rāhu
and Ketu of the dhana yoga formed by Sun and Saturn together in the
ascendant. He was a billionaire. Carson had an uncomplicated career
and a mostly uncomplicated life, other than marital difficulties which are
seen easily by the placement of the seventh lord in the twelfth.

Ava Gardner
Famous actress Ava Gardner has a Kāla Sarpa Yoga with Rāhu in the
third and Ketu in the ninth. Saturn, lord of the seventh and eighth
houses, sits with Rāhu. The lagneśa Moon is in Saturn's sign in the
eighth house with Mars. This is a case where the planet sitting with a
node definitely "bitten." Gardner was famous for her extremely
passionate tempestuous love life. This would be an indication given by
Moon and Mars in the eighth but it is dramatically enhanced by having
the seventh and eighth lord located with Rāhu who sits in Uttara
Phālgunī, a passionate nakṣatra.
Jennifer Aniston
Actress Jennifer Aniston has a Kāla Sarpa Yoga with three planets on
the nodal axis, JuR with Ketu and Venus and Saturn with Rāhu. While
some aspects of the "bitten" quality operate here, the quantity of yogas
formed by the participating grahas also provides a nodal enhancement
to those yogas. Aniston was estranged from her mother (4th lord is
Saturn) for a decade and was profoundly affected by the death of her
therapist (8th lord Venus) and it remains to be seen what her experience
of children will be (5th lord Saturn) but we know of her because of her
career success as an actress. She has some nice yogas formed by her
exalted lagneśa Venus and 4th and 5th lord Saturn, which are aspected
by the Rx benefic Jupiter who is also the third lord of the house of skill.
She also has a Candra-Mangala Yoga and a very nice dhana yoga
formed by Sun and Mercury in the 4th. She is purported to have a bit of
an obsession with body maintenance and she did not achieve career
success until losing thirty pounds. Such an obsession would be another
form by Rāhu "biting" lagneśa Venus.
Venus-Rāhu Conjunction

By Michael Laughrin and Alison Bodhani

Venus, as we all know, is the second-most-powerful benefic. (Jupiter is
the strongest benefic.) In Vedic mythology, Venus is the teacher of the
asuras--the worldly-minded spirits. Venus rules beauty in all forms: sex,
love, marriage, painting, dancing, music, writing, sculpture, flowers,
etc. Venus is called Śukra in Sanskrit. Śukra is also the name for sugar,
e.g., that which is sweet. Venus owns Taurus and Libra, and is exalted
in Pisces. Venus has Dik-bala (directional strength) in the 4th house.
Venus is a Brahmin.
Rāhu, on the other hand, is out of the caste system altogether. Rāhu--
and, to some degree, its other half, Ketu--stands for foreigners, weirdos,
drop-outs, hippies and people who are extremely materialistic. I
sometimes jokingly say that Rāhu rules fast cars, fast women, flashy
clothes, and lots of cash that comes easily, whether by legal means or
not. Rāhu is a rule breaker. Rāhu rules the rough, the tough, the low
class. It rules poisons like alcohol and drugs--both legal and illegal. It
also rules junk foods, swearing and street language - SLANG. Rāhu
also is a multiplier ¬it vastly increases the strength of any planet with
which it is conjunct.
On the more positive side, Rāhu represents the future just as Jupiter
represents tradition. Rāhu, in a sense, represents freedom of thought. It
represents creativity that knows no boundaries. It is the new, the Now.
It is what's happening. We can say that computers, the Internet and
electronics are all ruled by Rāhu. Some astrologers have even said that
the U.S.A. is ruled by Rāhu.
So, what do we get when we combine Venus and Rāhu in the same
sign and same house?
. As far as sex and romance are concerned, they may indicate
homosexuality or bisexuality. They also rule pornography and illicit or
multiple sexual liaisons. In any case, usually one with a strong Venus
conjunct Rāhu will break the rules of normal middle class morality or
go beyond the rules.
. Concerning the arts, Rāhu and Venus conjoined will give us an
artist who embraces the new at the expense of the established.
. In music, this combination indicates jazz, rap music, rock and
blues. Also, electronic music may be indicated. Venus-Jupiter
combinations, though, indicate Classical music, traditional music, and
harmonious music. Venus-Rāhu may also indicate dissonance.
. In painting, Venus-Rāhu indicates non-representational art.
. In dance, they indicate modern dance, jazz dance, rock and roll
dance
. pretty much everything except ballet and ballroom dancing.
. In poetry, Venus-Rāhu may be excessively sensual, but poetry
with a strong Rāhu influence will generally not rhyme nor will it have a
fixed meter.

In summation, Venus and Rāhu (and, to some extent, Venus with

Ketu), rule the underworld, the "shadow" self, the forbidden and the
hidden. They may rule the ugly, the weird, the outcasts (following the
idea that "ugly is the new pretty"). Venus-Rāhu individuals will never
be dull, they will always break new ground in their activities, and they
will break the rules in love and marriage.
However, it seems to me that they are often extremely self-absorbed
and, in matters of love and creativity, are often petty tyrants who only
look after their own interests.
Here are some examples.
Tennessee Williams
America's most famous playwright Tennessee Williams was also an
avowed homosexual who struggled with addiction especially in the
latter part of his life. As a child he had severe diphtheria which left him
crippled and delicate, causing his father to refer to him as Miss Nancy
because of his weakened condition. He wrote from very early on and
had great success. His sister was mentally ill and was given a full
lobotomy that rendered her utterly incompetent. Tennessee feared his
entire life that he would also go insane and said that his mental
instability drove his feverish need to write. He died under mysterious
circumstances at the age of 72. He has Venus conjunct Rāhu in the
fourth house.
Douglas Adams
Best known as the author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,"
Adams was a prolific and unusual creative writer, a staunch atheist, an
environmental activist and a great lover of technology. He has Venus
conjunct Rāhu and the Sun in the ninth house. Venus is the fifth lord of
creativity, Sun is the third lord of skill and Moon, another creative
planet aspects from the third house.
Elvis Presley
Presley is a superlative embodiment of the Venus-Rāhu combination.
Considered one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, there was
nothing like Elvis in his day. In addition to his unprecedented personal
and artistic style, he was renowned for his incredible sexual charisma
and liberal engagement with sexual behavior across multiple partners.
Georges Braque
Braque, along with Picasso, is considered the inventor of Cubism. The
two spent many years collaborating together. The interesting thing,
astrologically, is that Picasso has several debilitated planets and so does
George Braque. Furthermore, George has such a huge conjunction - 5
planets - in the 7th house of public recognition that he pretty much had
to be famous. He is as famous as Picasso. Also, Rāhu, the planet of
"new-ness" and "breaking new ground" thinking, sits prominently -
exalted! - in his 1st house of the self. Also, Mercury conjunct Venus
often indicates a very skilled and creative individual. Saturn in the 6th
house aspects the 3rd house of the hands and gives a highly disciplined
person who works with his hands. Jupiter with Ketu gives a person
who takes the old rules (Jupiter) and utterly breaks them or transcends
them.
Lagna Lord in the Twelfth

In jyotiṣa, the twelfth house is called the vyaya bhāva, the house of loss.
This house is a dussthana, a house of suffering, and thus tends to carry
heavy negative connotations. There is a general rule in jyotiṣa that when
the lord of a positive house goes to a negative house it will increase
negative results for the positive house. However, this is not always so,
and in practice, the result can vary widely and will depend on a
concordance of factors. A study of the lagna lord in the twelfth house
reveals how widely variant a negative result for the first house can be.
Loss itself is a concept with negative connotations but when looked at
from multiple angles loss can be a source of tremendous positivity as
well. While the twelfth house is about loss, when the lagna lord resides
there, the person will develop a distinct relationship with loss and
expenditure that is often quite imaginative and unique and may actually
generate prosperity through a creative relationship with the notion of
loss. When we contemplate loss we also contemplate how to avoid it or
minimize it and a powerful twelfth house can grant the ability to avoid
loss as well. One thing that does seem to hold true across the spectrum
of results of the lagna lord in the twelfth is the notion that such people
think odd thoughts, ones that often seem very misguided to others.
Another thing that seems to hold true is that people who have the lagna
lord in the twelfth often are an interesting mix of introversion and
extroversion; just as saving and expenditure become a dominant theme
elsewhere, they can also become a dominant theme in personality
expression.
Here are some examples of Lagna Lord in the Twelfth.
Henry Ford
A potent example of a creative relationship with the notion of loss is
Henry Ford who amassed, in his time, one of the largest fortunes held
by anybody. Ford was famous for many things and efficiency was one
of them. He was obsessed with the notion of efficiency and with the
notion of making his automobiles less and less expensive. When the
Model T first appeared in 1908 it cost $865, which would be about
$21,000 today. Through increases in efficiency that price fell every year
and by 1918 had reached $360. Ford's focus on efficiency included
designing the pallets that transported parts to be the right size so they
could double as the floor in his cars. Efficiency is a type of loss
avoidance. In a revolutionary move Ford also chose to pay his workers
an unprecedented $5 a day when the going rate was often $2. In today's
money that is about $120 per day or $15 an hour. From a twelfth house
perspective and from the minds of his cohorts this was a big and
unnecessary expenditure, but Ford had the clarity to see that well-paid
workers would be able to afford not only his cars but other consumer
goods that would drive increasing prosperity in the whole economy. He
wasn't without his odd thinking foibles either, chief among which was
his anti-Semitism which he propagated through the purchase and
distribution of a newspaper.
He is a Leo rising with Sun in the twelfth in the sign of the Moon. Sun
is conjunct Mercury forming two powerful dhana yogas as well as a
nice Budhāditya Yoga. This combination is aspected by a benefic full
Moon from the sixth who is of course protecting the twelfth house as its
strong dispositor. Significantly, the lagna lord is also in the sign of a
friend here. Mars who is rajayoga kārakā for this ascendant is in the
ascendant unafflicted and the ascendant itself is surrounded by benefics.
That is still not to say that his life was ideal. Having the lagna lord in a
dussthāna did also bring about some heavy losses for him. Like Leo
Madonna, Ford lost his mother at a young age. He loved her extremely
and she died when he was 13 years old. Secondly he also suffered the
loss of his considerable mental faculties (indicated by his 12th house
Budhāditya Yoga) in his later years.
Ross Perot
Ross Perot is another person whose 12th house lagna lord may surprise
some given that he is a billionaire, proving that loss, like so many
things, is a relative concept. Perot is a Gemini ascendant with Mercury
in the twelfth in the sign of its friend Venus. Perot's horoscope is loaded
with yogas. He has the llth lord in its own sign, a good placement for
prosperity. The location of fifth lord Venus in the second also supports
prosperity but the big yogas fall on his 1/7 axis. He has a powerful raja
yoga formed by the opposition of Jupiter and Rx Saturn. He has a nice
Gaja-Keśāri yoga as well as another dhana yoga formed by Moon and
Saturn. The lagna itself is supported by benefics within and on both
sides of it. Perot amassed a fortune with his company Electronic Data
Systems; however, there was a day in the seventies when the company's
stock dropped so much that Perot lost 450 million dollars in a single
day, making him (at the time) Wall Street's biggest loser. He also lost a
lot of his reputation, perhaps undeservedly, in his presidential
campaigns. This loss ties into the theme of introversion/extroversion that
tends to play in the twelfth house. His presidential bid could be
regarded as a large extroverted move in which he found himself talking
to millions of people and spending millions of his dollars. After the loss
of his reputation he has since refused entirely to speak on political issues
at all.
In only one case does the lagna lord go to the twelfth in its own sign.
While one might be inclined to think of this as a more desirable
placement, preliminary investigation seems to indicate otherwise. For
Aquarius lagna Saturn rules both the first and the twelfth, but this
happenstance seems to more firmly impregnate the horoscope with the
stamp of loss. Three famous Aquarian ladies with the lagna lord in the
twelfth are Whitney Houston, Sylvia Plath and Demi Moore.
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was a brilliant but tortured writer who killed herself. She
has Saturn in the twelfth house opposite debilitated Mars. Mars is
doubly weak by virtue of being nearly sandhi. There is a node in the
ascendant. The Moon has gone to the eighth house with debilitated
Venus and Sun is debilitated in the ninth. Having Venus, the rajayoga
kārakā, be so weak increases the level of affliction in this horoscope.
While Plath's odd thinking certainly drove her creativity, it also drove
her suicide, a case of ultimate loss.
Whitney Houston
Singer Whitney Houston has the same lagna with a Rx Saturn in the
twelfth opposite combust Venus and 7th lord Sun. Mo and JuRx form a
powerful Keśāri Yoga in the second house. Those two planets also
gave her her singing ability. Unfortunately, Mars sits in the 8th house, a
place where Mars's risk- taking behaviors seem to amplify. From there
he aspects both the Moon and Ketu in the 11th. 8th lord Mercury
aspects the ascendant. Despite her many raja yogas, Houston died an
early death from drug overdose. Here the placement of the lagna lord in
the 12th as a marring factor is very evident. The lack of ability to
exercise clear judgment and the inevitable psychic pain caused by being
ruled by a dussthana SaRx contributed heavily to her drug-related Mars-
driven death in Moon daśā, Ketu bhukti.
Demi Moore
Actress Demi Moore has Saturn in the twelfth with Ketu opposite
debilitated Mars and Rāhu in the sixth. Like Houston, she has become
notorious for her drug related misdeeds - a loss of reputation as well as
of health. Her chart is counterbalanced by the presence of Jupiter in the
ascendant and a strong Venus in the ninth which may be enough to
save her life as she goes through her Jupiter daśā. While Jupiter is a
benefic in the ascendant, it also sits in the nakṣatra of the sixth house
Rāhu. The nakṣatra lord contributes a big percentage of a daśā's effect
as is apparent in the life of Moore.
Marital Harmony
Is there such a thing as marital harmony? Many of us wonder.
In order to establish if a person will have marital harmony, one analyzes
all factors influencing Venus, the seventh house and the first house.
Four planets primarily promote the sense of being happily adjusted to
marriage. They are the Sun, Moon, Mars and Jupiter. In the case of the
Sun, Moon and Mars, they must not rule a dussthana for the principle to
apply. In the case of Jupiter, it does not matter. When they influence the
seventh house or lord or Venus, and/or the seventh lord or Venus falls
in a positive house in a constellation owned by the Sun, Moon, Mars or
Jupiter, it promotes the sense of being happily adjusted to marriage.
Ideally, the seventh house, lord and Venus are also all free of major
affliction, particularly combustion, planetary war and rāśi saṁdhi (being
at the very beginning or very end of a sign).
If the vāsanās supporting the sense of marital harmony are strong
enough, it will matter less whether there is good compatibility with the
spouse or whether the spouse is difficult because the person in
possession of the harmony vāsanās will incline in the direction of seeing
that reality and therefore establishing it despite evidence to the contrary.
The rest of us have to rely on good compatibility, proper karmic ties and
similarity of socio-cultural background to help our relationships flourish.
And perhaps most importantly, we must keep a keen eye on our own
shortcomings and blind spots so that we do not unconsciously destroy
our relationships.
(Note: Of course, the proper application of will power and paying off
ones karmic debts through intense spiritual practice can vastly improve
the probabilities of marital harmony. - Michael Laughrin)
Fertility

Fertility can be considered separately from whether or not someone will

become a parent. While it is a closely allied subject, there are other
issues that come to bear on the likelihood of producing progeny, and
fertility as a concept is something that can be applied to any house in a
horoscope. Someone with a very fertile fourth house may own many
homes or vehicles. Someone with a very fertile seventh house may have
had many wives, lovers, or business partners. Someone with a fertile
tenth house may be blessed with a multitude of career opportunities.
One thing to look for in locating fertility in any area of a horoscope is
water. The ancients knew it, modern science knows it, and anyone
living in the rainforest knows it. Water produces life in abundance. It is
no coincidence that the water raśis, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, are also
the three rāśis classified as "fruitful" or fully fertile. And they are the
three rāśis symbolized by creatures that give birth in hordes. Mammals
give birth to one or two offspring at a time but crabs, scorpions and fish
give birth to many, many offspring at once. The next sources of water
are the watery planets who also happen to be the zodiac's natural
benefics. Natural benefics are anabolic -- they support increases of all
kinds. The three primary benefics are Jupiter, Venus and the bright
Moon, all of whom are affiliated with the water element to one degree
or another. The Moon and Venus actually rule the water element and
Venus rules śukra dhātu, the actual tissue that produces offspring. While
the mighty Jupiter governs space, he also rules kapha doṣa, which is
composed of the water and earth elements.
There are also five rāśis described as semi-fruitful. They yield fertility
but not with the same magnitude as the fertile rāśis. They are Taurus,
Libra, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius. We can surmise that
Taurus, Libra and Sagittarius are semi-fertile because Venus and Jupiter
rule them, and Taurus has natural associations with fertility since it is an
earth rāśi and its symbol is the life-giving cow. In the case of Capricorn
and Aquarius, they are both ardha-jala rāśis, which means "half-water."
The symbol for both rāśis includes water--Capricorn's symbol is a
makara, a crocodilian creature that inhabits water and Aquarius's
symbol is that of a man holding a pot of water.
One other source of "fertility" is the neuter Mercury, because he rules
multiplicity.
In any chart where one sees a powerful benefic or Mercury in a water
rāśi, there is the possibility of great fertility tied to the houses owned and
occupied by that planet. Telling instances of such abundance exist in the
horoscopes of Elizabeth Taylor, Albert Einstein and Hugh Hefner.
Elizabeth Taylor had her seventh lord Venus exalted in Pisces in the
fifth house aspected by exalted Jupiter from Cancer in the ninth house.
She had over a dozen marriages.
Albert Einstein had exalted Venus in Pisces in the tenth house conjunct
debilitated Mercury and third lord Sun. Venus rules his fifth house of
the mind and the tenth house rules the sky. His was one of the most
fertile minds for understanding the physics (3rd house) of the Universe.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has debilitated Mercury in the seventh
house in Pisces and has spent most of his life surrounded by a multitude
of women.
May we all be blessed with the fecundity most suited to our respective
natures!
The Lakṣmī Yoga: Wealth

In order to properly assess a horoscope, analyzing the yogas therein is

of primary importance. Yogas trump house analysis. They give rise to
the preeminent themes of life. They influence the level of attainment in
arenas such as knowledge and wisdom, wealth, spiritual power,
governmental leadership, musical skill, etc. Certain yogas may also be
indicative of other qualities such as strength of moral character (or lack
thereof).
When assessing yogas, it is also important to assess the strength of the
lagna and any ties it may have to existent yogas. The stronger the lagna
and the more the yogas are tied to it, the greater the person's capacity to
utilize them.
Yogas are like a home and its furniture: they provide a structural
framework in which a life will operate. Like furniture, yogas are not
created equally. If a yoga were an armoire, for example, well, armoires
range in quality from a particle board self-assembly unit from Wal-mart
to a perfectly preserved antique made of rare wood by an exceptional
furniture maker. So, to simply remark that a person has an armoire
reveals almost nothing except that they at least own a piece of furniture.
If one discovers that the armoire is a priceless antique, the armoire starts
to become a piece of furniture worth talking about. And just as a single
priceless antique in someone's home is unlikely to arouse much talk, but
a house full of priceless antiques becomes noteworthy, a single yoga is
unlikely to elevate a life to an exceptional level. But a horoscope full of
good yogas, in decent condition, will elevate that life, provided there is
not a relevant yoga bhaṅga present.
With those caveats, one of the premier yogas of wealth is the Lakṣmī
Yoga. Śāstra offers two definitions of this yoga. Bṛhat Paraśara Hora
Śāstra states the yoga is formed when the ninth lord occupies a kendra
in its own, exaltation or mulātrikona rāśi and the first lord is strong. This
yoga cannot be formed in Gemini, Libra, Sagittarius, Capricorn or
Pisces ascendants. This form of Lakṣmī Yoga will be considered in a
subsequent article.
The second form of Lakṣmī Yoga is defined in Phalādīpika as the ninth
lord and Venus in kendras or konas in their own or exaltation raśis. This
yoga can be formed in any ascendant. Some astrologers include Venus
in the second in its own sign or exaltation for this yoga since the second
is a money house.
The yoga is described: "Will always enjoy the company of young and
amiable women, be free from ailments, wealthy, sharp, blessed by the
goddess Lakṣmī, and protector of his people. He will have the best of
transport, like horses, elephants and palanquins. As ruler, he will be the
most pleasing to all his subjects and liberal in his gifts."
Lakṣmī Yoga is not the only wealth yoga and one will not find it in all
wealthy horoscopes; however, its presence is a strong indicator of luck
and prosperity because it is a rare yoga. A refined analysis of the yoga
can give some clues as to the level of prosperity it may bring. Below are
five example charts with comments.

Christophe Auguin
Auguin is the poorest of our Lakṣmī Yoga contenders. He is one of the
world's best sailors and has won multiple sailing prizes. Unfortunately,
sailing prizes tend to be smallish, only thousands of dollars. His chosen
vocation is teaching, which is not a giant moneymaker either. However,
one indication of Lakṣmī Yoga that does hold true for him is that of
"best vehicle." He asked for and received a boat especially built for him
in which he won two around-the-world races. His Lakṣmī Yoga is
weak for a number of reasons. First of all, it is formed by only a single
planet because Venus is the ninth lord for Aquarius ascendant.
Secondly, Venus does not participate in any other yogas, and while the
chart does contain some other nice dhana yogas in the tenth house, they
are not tied to the lagna lord who is Saturn and who is also all by
himself. And lastly, Aquarius people often do not successfully orient
around money because Jupiter is the lord of two money houses, the
second and the eleventh, and Jupiter prefers wisdom to money.

Eddie Arcaro
Eddie Arcaro was America's richest jockey. He rode to victory 4,779
times with winnings totaling over 30 million dollars. He parlayed those
winnings into good investments, successful oil speculation and part of a
saddle business. His net worth was probably in the neighborhood of
100 million dollars. His Lakṣmī Yoga is beautifully formed with exalted
Venus and swa Jupiter in the ninth house. Plus, his lagna lord Moon is
in the second house, making a good dhana yoga opposite Sun in the
eighth. However, the blight on both these yogas that capped his
prosperity at 100 million is the aspect of Rx Saturn from the 12th house.
Saturn's aspect is potent because he is Rx, plus he is the lord of the bad
eighth house and he is aspecting from the twelfth house of loss.
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire, one of America's best known dancers, was worth
somewhere between 50 and 100 million dollars. His Lakṣmī Yoga is
formed by exalted Venus in the fifth house and exalted Moon in the
seventh. His wealth capped at this level because, although there is no
affliction to Venus or the Moon and the chart does contain other dhana
yogas, neither Venus nor the Moon is involved with any other planet,
nor is Mars, the ascendant lord, who is debilitated in the ninth house.

Stephen Bechtel
Stephen Bechtel is one of the 793 billionaires in the world, the third
generation leader of Bechtel corporation. But he is a poor billionaire.
He has only 2.5 billion dollars. His Lakṣmī Yoga consists of Jupiter
swa in the ninth house and Venus in its own sign in the second, which I
mentioned before is sometimes included in the yoga (although it is not
part of its technical definition). This is one of those charts where there
are many, many yogas, most of which directly involve the ascendant or
its lord. Nearly every planet in the chart must contribute something to
wealth promotion for such a good outcome. And this is the case in this
horoscope. Firstly, the lagna lord Mars sits opposite Jupiter in the ninth,
directly involving it with the Lakṣmī Yoga. Secondly, the fifth lord and
eleventh lord sit opposite each other on the 1/7 axis. The lords of 5 and
11 are another huge dhana yoga. This one is especially strong because
both Sun and Saturn are exalted, plus Saturn is Rx. This Saturn is also
special because it rules only positive houses, so although it aspects the
ninth house and lord, as did Eddie Arcaro's, it is an entirely different
Saturn, because it makes yogas and owns only positive houses.
Nonetheless, it is still a Saturn aspect. Plus Mercury is in the ascendant
as the sixth lord aspected by Saturn, which is a poverty yoga. These
two factors weighted against all the good yogas are keeping him in the
low billions. Also, Venus participates in another dhana yoga with the
Moon in the eighth house. And there is a parivartana between Mars and
Mercury, further strengthening the lagna.

Bill Gates
The mother of all money charts, the richest man in the world does have
a Lakṣmī Yoga. His yoga consists of Venus and exalted Saturn in Libra
in the fifth house. Because Saturn is a direct participant in the yoga, his
association with Venus does not diminish the yoga. In addition, the
ascendant lord Mercury is exalted and participates in multiple dhana
yogas with Mars and the Moon, who also form a Candra-Maṅgala
yoga, another prosperity yoga. This yoga really counts in this horoscope
because both Mars and the Moon rule money houses, the Moon is
almost full, in a watery rāśi, in the sign of a friend and the whole yoga
conjoins the lagneśa who is powerful. All of his yogas are unafflicted
by harassing planets with the exception of the Sun, lord of the third who
mildly afflicts his Lakṣmī Yoga; however, it is the Sun, who is cruel but
not really malefic, and is only the ruler of the third, a mild dussthāna.
Nonetheless, Gates did lose money when the US government (a
signification of the Sun) sued him over monopoly issues.
Thank you to my jyotish gurus who have taught me what I know and
understand about this vidya. The gifts of their knowledge and their
blessings are everything.