• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Also, I keep making changes both to the birth chart software as well as to the horoscope compatibility software. E.g. I have fixed bugs in nakshatra calculation for ascendant, Vimshottari dasha display etc. in the kundali software. The other day, I was trying to match horoscope for a prospective alliance and realized that the overall nakshatra match value for the pair of charts was being displayed as 10, when there was no nadi dosha in the charts (8 points if there is no nadi dosha) and the graha maitri score was also perfect (5 points for graha maitri). This was clearly an error that needed to be fixed.

For these reasons, please continue coming to this website and continue running the applications from within the appropriate web pages.

I am still looking to enhance the online kundali software as well as the panchanga software where I need to add a module to display the Hindu tithi along with the Gregorian date. I am still trying to work on it, but for all the excuses I make, the truth remains that reading and understand lisp code is not my cup of tea.

Why am I ranting about WordPress installation and size of a table instead of writing a post on Astrology? This is because of spam comments, which I realize are almost 80% of all the comments that I receive. I had to undertake a massive cleanup exercise and while I have taken all precautions, I am afraid I might have deleted some genuine comments. If it was one of yours, I apologize.

In the past one week, how many of you have seen the following error message on the blog?

I believe that things should be fine now, but if they are not, please let me know by dropping a line.

We regret to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, the publication of The Astrological Magazine will stop with the December 2007 issue. All unexpired subscription amounts will be refunded shortly. We thank all our subscribers for their kind co-operation in this matter.

Cynics may find satire and irony in this statement, but its very sad indeed for the followers of this magazine.

In my knowledge, The only place gana factor is referenced in within horoscope compatibility. This factor requires that the gana of the woman (refer to the nakshatra where the Moon resides in the kundali) should be better than the man she intends to marry.

I have not seen anyone referring to this factor while interpreting a chart or while making any predictions. I went back and re-read some of the books and notes that I have and could not find anything to this effect.

Thoughts?

Traveling to new places, meeting new people either for purpose of business or just for pleasure helps gains knowledge and broaden our horizons and perspective. It makes us wiser. For a long time now, Indians have chosen to go abroad for the same of employment - to avail of opportunities for professional satisfaction and to make more money. Arguably this trend is reversing in the last few years as the economy revives in India but visiting other countries is still considered as desirable and a source of excitement for a lot of people.

There are various reasons why people move from one place to another:

• Journeys within a geographical region due to nature of work - what we colloquially call “traveling job”.
• Business travel to a foreign land.
• Tourism or pilgrimage.
• Change is residence due to profession or after marriage if the spouse is settled in a different place.

Astrologically, the rules to be considered for predicting travel are:

• 12th House: In a horoscope, 12th house shows separation. Malefic influences on 12th house make a person wander from place to place.
• 3rd and 9th House: While 4th house represents comfort of a house, 3rd and 9th being 12th (causing separation) and 6th (alien-ness) from 4th denote journeys. 3rd house should be considered for short journeys and 9th for long journeys. I think this is due to the fact that from 9th house we also look at religion and hence pilgrimages, which usually were very long in olden times. Moreover, malefic influences on 4th house, by way of occupation will make one leave his/her birth place, i.e. travel to a foreign location.
• 7th House: A lot of sages have mentioned in their works that residence in foreign countries should be looked at from seventh house.
• Movable and Watery signs: Position of lords of above mentioned houses in these signs indicates travel.
• Rahu and Saturn: These planets influence travel in their dasha and antardasha. Rahu signifies the foreign element in the chart, something that is unconventional and out of ordinary.
• Sun: While positioned in any of the houses - 3rd, 7th, 9th and 12th, Sun influences journeys.

To understand the conditions that lead to foreign travel, combinations between these planets and houses are important. Ascendant lord in moveable or watery sign along with 9th and/or 12th house lord would indicate foreign travel. Combinations with 3rd house lord would indicate short travels instead of long, overseas travel.

Influence of 7th house lord is necessary for settling in a foreign country. Influence of Rahu or other malefic planets on 4th would give the same result by causing estrangement and would show a person leaving the comforts of residence. These combinations along with other combination of journeys would mean a one way ticket to a foreign country. Correspondingly, beneficial influences on 4th house in combination with 9th house would indicate increased attachment with the original place of residence and the person would come back home.

The timing of journey is always governed by 9th or 12th house lords and planets influencing these houses either though aspect or occupation of the house. Influence of lord of difficult houses - 6th house and in particular 8th house would indicate problems with travel, e.g. an unfavourable Mars in a chart in this scenario would indicate possible accidents while traveling.

All comments are most welcome.