The following rituals should be followed while wearing gemstones as per Astrology:

• The ring with the gemstone on it should be kept immersed in fresh milk (milk that was not used before and is not boiled) overnight. Avoid pasteurized milk that we get in the packets for daily consumption instead, try to get cow’s milk from a milkman.
• The ring should be worn in the first hour after the sunrise.
• It should be worn on the day of the week belonging to the planet, e.g. Ruby should be worn on Sunday, Neelam on Saturday and so on.
• Gomeda (Rahu’s gemstone) should be worn on a Wednesday, Cat’s eye (Ketu’s stone) should be worn on Thursdays.
• The mantra of the planetary deity should be chanted 108 times and the ring should then be worn.

The mantras for various planets are:

Although Rahu, Ketu and Saturn are malefics, stones for them are prescribed if they are yogakaraka elements in a person’s horoscope. Astrologers do not prescribe stones for lords of 6th, 8th and 12th house lords, the planets which become functional malefics on account of ownership of these houses.

Thanks, “Interested in Astrology”. I have corrected a typo as pointed out by you on the help page.

Just wanted to point out a typo on the below link - maximum points is 36, not 38 as you have indicated in the line “For a 100% match, the value would be 38”. Please do correct when you get a chance.

All, the page is horoscope-compatibility-matching-help.

When I faced database problems on my website, I must have missed a lot of comments. This was an important one, made by Basab Roy on the post on foreign travels and journeys. While going through comments today, I figured that somehow this comment got deleted.

Basab, with apologies, here is the comment in its entirety. Please let me know if I missed anything.

1) Dual signs signifies foreign travel.

2)12th house is a house of foreign residence. I guess the logic behind it is the 12th house is the 4th house(residence) from the 9th house(foreign travel). It is also 9th from 4th.

3) Ketu and Jupiter are also the significators of foreign travel. I guess the logic behind Jupiter being a significator of foreign travel is Jupiter is the lord of 9th (Sagittarius) and 12th (Pisces) signs of the Kalpurush zodiac.

4) Malefic influences on the 2nd house of family can result in either of the following:

• Foreign travel: If malefic influences on the 2nd house are supported by other strong connections for foreign travel in the birth chart then the native will leave his/her family and travel abroad.
• Short journey: If malefic influences on the 2nd house are supported by other strong connections for short journeys but not foreign travel then the native will leave his/her family and make short journeys.
• No travels but conflicts with family: If malefic influences on the 2nd house are not supported by other strong connections for foreign travel or short journeys in the birth chart then the native will have conflicts with his/her family but won’t leave them for foreign travel.

5) Malefic influences on the 4th house of home can result in either of the following:

• Foreign travel: If malefic influences on the 4th house are supported by other strong connections for foreign travel in the birth chart then the native will leave his/her family and travel abroad.
• Short journey: If malefic influences on the 4th house are supported by other strong connections for short journeys but not foreign travel then the native will leave his/her home and make short journeys.
• No travels but conflicts with family: If malefic influences on the 4th house are not supported by other strong connections for foreign travel or short journeys in the birth chart then the native will have an unhappy domestic life but won’t leave his/her for foreign travel or short journeys.

6) The dasha of the 7th lord or planets in the 7th house can give foreign travel.

7) If the lagna makes connection with 7th house, 9th house or 12th house but these connections happen in fixed signs then the person will make short journeys within the country and not to a foreign land.

I have updated the Vedic astrology reference book page with a small description of each book. I hope to keep this list current as and when I get new books on this subject.

Update - This page of reference books will be phased out. I will be gradually moving it to this page.

My primary language of learning astrology is Hindi and I tend to think in this language whenever I look at a horoscope. Therefore, I try to purchase books in Hindi and you would a lot of Hindi books here. English editions of these classics are available most of the time, from the same publisher, although editors and/or translators would be different.

My opinion of these books should not be thought of as their review because one can not pass judgement on ones gurus and teachers. While reading any book on any subject, it is not just the subject matter that affects me. I get affected by the style of writing, lack or abundance of examples on the subject being presented, language and even a simple thing like typeset affects me and an opinion is formed. That said, even if the style of a teacher does not suit the student, the student still learns something and gains from the association.

This post, although being posted late, should be read before any other posts under Yoga category. In a Vedic horoscope, planets are said to be in combination if:

1. They exchange location and occupy each other’s rashi. E.g. Venus in Leo and Sun in Taurus.
2. They affect each other through full aspect or drishti,
3. A planet located in a rashi under full drishti of the lord of the house in a horoscope
4. The planets occupy the same rashi in a horoscope.

These rules are numbered because the strength of effectiveness of the yoga reduces as we move from (1) to (4).

Further, location in houses 4th and 10th from each other are also considered as a combination from any of the planets. This is most evident in case of various Panch Mahapurusha yogas.

The combination of the planets should be seen in both rashi and chalit chart. If a planet moves in position between rashi and chalit chart, the combination would be rendered ineffective.

Full Aspect - Drishti

To explain (3), let us take an example of Venus in Pisces and Jupiter in Scorpio. In this case, Jupiter influences Venus through its 5th sign aspect, which means that we do not always need to look at 7th full drishti for this combination to be effective. The special full aspect of planets other than the usual 7th sign aspect are as follows:

• Mars: 4th and 8th sign
• Jupiter: 5th and 9th sign
• Saturn: 3rd and 10th sign
• Raku and Ketu: 5th and 9th sign

Sun, Moon, Mercury and Venus do not have any other special aspect.