Author – Bijesh Menon

Part III of a 4 part article. Part I is published here - Profession and Downfalls - Part I (Rahu-Ketu Axis) and Part II is published here - Profession and Downfalls Part II – Sun’s effect in the horoscope. Part 4 will be published VERY SOON.

In a Vedic horoscope, Saturn is feared and has a bad reputation of a planet showering adversities in life. The duties assigned to Saturn are all bad if seen from the materialistic life point of view, but what should we note here is the way Saturn acts in a horoscope.

Every astrologer or jyotishi will tell you that Saturn causes delay not a denial. Being the slowest planet among navagraha, Saturn imposes this trait on whatever he influences. In Vedic Astrology, Saturn is the greatest teacher. Saturn has the responsibility to give troubles to one to make the native understand his/her faults and fall back to the right path. Hence, whenever Saturn is causing a difficulty in one’s life, there is a deeper meaning behind it. There will be a positive outcome in the future, if one can learn from one’s mistakes. Only when Saturn acts with the combined influence of other malefic planets, things take an ugly turn. Otherwise when Saturn alone imposes a struggle on somebody, the situation will lead to successful and fruitful situation in future.

In a horoscope, if Saturn is influencing the 10th house, no matter how much benefic he is in the horoscope, Saturn will give struggles to the native to come up in life. Saturn causes trouble to one’s career when he is either posited in the 10th itself or in the 4th house in the horoscope. For such natives to have an initial breakthrough in career they will have to cross many hurdles. But they will slowly get into the rhythm and will rise to a very strong position in professional life. They will have to put extra efforts  to achieve success. But as stated above the trouble is only in initial stage and that experiences will help the native stand hard as a rock against any odd situations in career in the future. If Saturn is posited in the lagna then his aspect over the 10th also will create problems in the same passion as stated above but such persons will be slightly lucky with lesser amount of struggles.

However, Saturn’s position in the 8th house in a Vedic horsocope and the 3rd aspect/drishti over the 10th house is a bad yoga. In such cases the person will have to go through all adversities in life to get settled in career. Instability in career will be the most worrying factor for the native irrespective of the line of profession. Such natives may be having great abilities in their profession but will have to face frustrations in life because of the lack fortune they may have. Likewise, when Saturn’s dasha is on even though he has no role to do with the 10th house one may face many hardships regarding profession. But if he is a benefic for that horoscope then there will good rewards for the native for his hard work towards the end of the dasha especially in the sub period of Jupiter.

The combined influence of Sun-Saturn in the 10th house is bad for career. Special reference has to be made about the influence of Saturn over Sun who is in the lagna or the 10th house in a horoscope by the means of aspect or yoga. If Saturn is influencing Sun as above, one will have a downfall in career at least once in life adversely affecting the name and respect of the native in the society. Interestingly, such natives will face this downfall most likely when transit Saturn affects the natal Sun. Sun’s or Saturn dasha or sub period is immaterial and just the transit is enough. Other planetary combinations have to strong enough in horoscope, especially the position of the Lagna and 10th lords and this combination will help the native to sustain in the situation and have a recovery from the pitfall.

While considering the transit of Saturn, special reference has to be given about Saturn’s transit over the 10th, 4th and 8th houses in a horoscope. While transiting through 10th and 4th house, Saturn brings in change for the native. Many will have a transfer or change in place at this time. For some, there could an opening to go abroad. The entire period of this transit will cause uneasiness and struggle in profession. Pressures from the superiors, inability to perform well and lack of recognition are the results of these transits. Many will face difficulties to get the deserved promotions and elevations at this time. The transit of Saturn through the 8th house will be causing all the above said problems but with much more intensity and obstacles causing insurmountable situations for the native. If such a transit of Saturn influencing the 10th house is conjoined with transit Rahu or Ketu then the situation will be worse and only the transit Jupiter’s strong influence over this conjunction could help the native to have some reprieve.

The website is reaching couple of milestones – there are close to 200 followers on Twitter and there are close to 1000 Astrology enthusiasts that are subscribed to email delivery of articles.

Thanks to one and all for helping reach these milestone… I know that we are a still a minuscule setup compared to other Astrology sites, but we do feel good about it.

I am trying to reverse this trend though – I have just added a review article about Dashaphal Darpan and planning to add articles about Jaataka Paarijaat and Saravali early next week. Please go through them and let me know what you think about it.

On this day, longitude of Sun and Venus would be almost the same, approx 21°40′ in the sign of Taurus. By definition, Venus would be combust. This is the period of deep combustion, but it would remain combust from May 30th to June 12th. Venus is retrograde throughout this period, and there are many opinions about the degree of combustion of retrograde Venus and hence the period mentioned here is approximate.

I turned to standard Vedic Astrology text books to learn more about combustion in general and Venus in particular. Combustion is not studied separately and is seen along with other parameters that indicate strength of planet in a janma kundali, i.e. a Vedic horoscope. I have observed in the past and would like to bring to your notice some inconsistencies in these texts.

Saravali and Jaatak Paarijaat

These books say that a combust (one that is lost in the radiance of Sun, अस्तंगत) planet is in a Vikala state (विकल अवस्था). Vikala is a sanskrit word that essentially carries these meanings “agitated”, “miserable”, “full of worries”. However, what needs to be notices is that both the books that I own are from Ranjan Publications, New Delhi and from the same editor/commentator Dr. Sureshchandra Mishra. Such a planet is supposed to make a person wander in far off lands and have a difficult life. He would be devoid of strength and have many enemies.

Brihat Parashara Hora Shashtra

The version that I have has a state “kopa” (कोप अवस्था) for a combust planet. This word means “angry” as well as “agitated”. In this book, Vikala (विकल) stands for a planet that is conjunct with a malefic.

A strong Venus is representative of material pleasure in a Vedic horoscope. A Venus, devoid of radiance and under a strong influence of Sun would turn the other way around and reject material pleasure, sensuality and sense of beauty. In other words, for male nativities, we are looking at deep disregard for the other sex. If married due to other factors, there would be an attitude of indifference towards the spouse. It is not a good combination for married life. It also indicates material loss, i.e. losses in business.

On this day, during the transit though, despite deep combustion, Venus is not completely devoid of shadbala in the janma kundali. If I am not wrong, it is reasonably powerful during the sunrise when the transit would occur in India. The overall bad effects would be muted. This combination will give health problems to children born during the transit, because Venus would be the lord of Lagna.

PS: Washington Post covers this event from a pure astronomical perspective…

On June 5 or 6, depending on the time zone, millions of people around the globe will watch Venus glide across the sun in a rare celestial event that won’t happen again until 2117. Because the planet is just 1/32nd the diameter of the sun, its silhouette will appear as a black speck during its six-plus hour passage.

I was going through Express Star Teller for month of April 2012 and saw a comment on an article on 7th house. The name of the article is “Seventh house and its implications”. The author, Dr. E.S. Neelakantan states that:

Conjunction of Venus with Rahu will also predispose a person to opt for a life partner of his/her choice.

I would like to draw attention of astrologer community online to this statement and invite comments on the site. For providing comments, please use Mozilla and/or Chrome browsers only because the site has some major problem with all flavours of Internet Explorer.

Please put on your thinking caps and bring on the comments…

In a horoscope, 12th house is said to signify the following with respect to money:

• Losses
• Expenditure

Essentially, we are talking about going away of money, either benefiting the individual (the pleasure of spending) or causing grief (losses). If there are benefic influences, the effect is former, where the individual spends the money on good deeds. If there are malefic or cruel influences, the effect is that either the money is spent in a questionable way or the wealth is frittered away.

The placement of the 12th lord is important. The following houses cannot be considered good for placement of 12th lord:

1. 2nd house and 11th house: lack of money of out of control expenditures
2. 4th and 7th house: no property

In general placement of 12th house lord is considered bad in trines or quadrants. However, according to How to Judge a Horoscope, Volume 2, 9th house is considered excellent placement for 12th house lord provided there is other benefic influence on the house/planet.

Good placement of 12th lord and good placement of planets in 12th lord, make a person generous. Benefics in 12th make a person thrifty.

A placement of afflicted planets will fritter away the wealth. Dr. Raman provides a set of guidelines as to how the money would be spent:

This is how we should start the study of a horoscope for diseases. Look up the reference body part, study the association with an agent and then predict diseases during the dasha period of all the planets involved.

Reference body part:

• Understand that organs and body parts are referenced by a house (bhava), rashi and a planet.
• The planet representing an organ in their natural tendencies are the Karakas. The planets that represent an organ through house ownership are the Lords.
• Bad aspect/association of both these type of planets shows up as a disease.
• E.g. Sun is the natural Karaka for heart. In a horoscope, 4th house represents heart. Hence to judge for heart disease, we should look at influence on both Sun as well as lord of 4th house. If one of these factors is strong, the effect of the disease are not likely to show up. If both are weak, then the problems will be worse.

Agents causing disease:

• In a horoscope, association of the Lord of 6th house with any of the planets will show up as a disease. If both the Karaka and Lord are associated with 6th lord, then problems will be magnified.
• Position of planets in 6th house in the horoscope causes problems.
• The planet Mars signifies wounds and injuries due to accidents, etc.
• Rahu is responsible for suddenness.
• Saturn represents chronic diseases.

Please note that association and aspect by an agent is essential. Weakness of the Karaka/Lord is important. General Weakness, but not amounting to disease should be looked at very carefully. If a planet is debilitated or is associated with other inimical houses, e.g. 12th and 8th, it will not cause disease by itself. However, it will signify general weakness and lack of development for that body part.

Sun the Royal planet, causes downfall in career

Part II of a many part article. Part I is published here - Profession and Downfalls - Part I (Rahu-Ketu Axis)

Author – Bijesh Menon

Many principles of astrology regarding down fall in one’s career has been discussed in the past by many savants of astrology, but reference to Sun’s role in doing so has been discussed by only a few and that too in a very imprecise form. In many case, the Sun’s Dasha or sub period brings the real downfall in one’s career. Whenever the sub period or dasha of Sun starts, there is tendency to leave his/her job. In my experience, I have seen many cases where people holding a high position in an organisation take up sudden decision and quit their jobs at the beginning of Sun’s dasha or sub period. This could be viewed as a need of being independent by doing something on their own and wants to see an end to the slavery they were subjugated to till date. Others will have a story to tell with a list of incidents touching their pride. One thing is sure, the tendency behind these downfall is created by the false pride, ego and aggression these people experience when Sun dasha starts operating. The important fact is that most of them will go through a period of struggle till the Sun’s period comes to an end and will remember this experience as a black mark in their career. Rarely, towards the end of Sun’s period some may have some salvation in career but most of them will keep wondering throughout the dasha regretting about the act they have committed.

Few years ago when I was a budding astrologer, I happened to meet one person approached me for consultation. He was in his early thirties. He was particular about his career prospects. Nothing much was revealed and after studying his chart I started off with his nature of profession and general strength of the 10th house. I noted that the transit of Saturn and Jupiter were both over his natal 10th house and which cause tension in profession according to the first principles of astrology. Based on this reading, I predicted that he might be going through a tough situation in profession. There was no other strong backing for my predictions from his horoscope except for the above said transits. In fact, he was born in Leo Lagna and was in the middle of Sun’s dasha. But when he narrated his story, I was clueless, astrologically. He was working with a leading daily newspaper before Sun’s dasha. He joined that company soon after his education and had a good growth. He reached up to the position of senior editor within the company just in 5 years time. When his Sun’s dasha started he started having a saturated feeling since further promotions and elevations were far for him as he had already achieved many at such a young age. He decided to quit the job and planned to join a new field thinking that he could achieve success in anything since he is capable of doing things.  His condition become a lot adverse ever since then as he couldn’t even secure a decent job after that. Humiliation was obvious when he told me that how bad he feels when he has to roam around the city the whole day as a marketing executive for an herbal product company.

This incident made me look back to the study several horoscopes and to go through all available books in astrology to find out the reason why he happened to face such an adversity that too in the dasha of Lagna lord who is very well posited in the horoscope? The Sun’s intentions to cause damage to one’s profession caught my attention then onwards.
Having said so let me make it clear to the readers that the above said tendencies of Sun to create down falls in one’s career has reference only to his Dasha or sub period. A powerfully posited Sun in a horoscope always promotes one to the desired heights in career. Sun well posited in lagna, 9th, 10th or 11th helps one to achieve fame, respect and prime positions in life.

He has no idea of the black money economy in India. It is not about the money stashed in Swiss bank accounts abroad. It is about the parallel economy that is in operation all around us: the economy that deals only in cash, where shopkeepers do not pay any VAT or ST to the Government, where rich farmers show their illegal earnings as coming out of the agriculture and hence escape taxation and where politicians/babus construct multi story complexes from the money fleeced from general public as bribe.

If Ramdev wants to really fight corruption, he should go back to his followers and ask them to act ethically, not to ask or pay bribes and ask them to pay taxes honestly. His followers in IAS should stop seeing a development project as a money making opportunity. His followers in the corporate world should stop bending rules and not bribe politicians to get their job done.

Can Ramdev not create one yogasana that rinses the body of toxic thoughts that lead a person to ask for bribe? This is how Ramdev should strive to be effective. What is happening in the Ramlila Ground in Delhi is a farce.

Quoting from the article..

… has earned his place in a potentially great organisation because he happened to be there at the right time at the right place and because he happened to say the right things in the interview to the right people. Luck is not a logical factor and so ignored in the rational corporate world. We want to explain everything and attribute it to human control.

Very interesting thought indeed…