Planetary Beacons and Pointers in the Rashi Varga

by
Rohiniranjan 2008
(some old practices of mine that I ran into recently)

As one walks on the long and arduous and lonely path of Jyotish for a few decades at the very
least, many observations, thoughts and ideas arise and get incorporated into one's daily practice;
even become second nature and then suddenly one runs into one's old writings or notes and
realizes the point where the thoughts and ideas in personal practice, originally arose! In this
instance, what I am about to share with you all came to me some 35 to 38 years ago at a time
when I was working away alone at my self-imposed mission of understanding
COSMO-SYMBiOLOGY in general, and through Jyotish in particular. This past Christmas
(2007), I suddenly got connected to those moments after seemingly a very long time and to my
surprise discovered that I had been experiencing without realizing this trend within myself that I
thought was recent but tonight as I pen this article, I realize that it always had been with me!
THAT: After spending some really intense, quality time with jyotish, one way or another,
suddenly the "pattern" emerges and at some time in the past actually got documented, and got
incorporated in my daily practice of jyotish. What triggered this realization was through an email
request for a reading that I got some time ago and only recently could get to it. The young man
was sharing with me his experiences with contemporary jyotish and readings that he had received
from many after paying significant sums of money and some perhaps even for free. He was
lamenting over the fact that most of these jyotishis seemed to use only the rashi chart and did not
seem to be able to go beyond it. In recent years, many vocal leaders and teachers in jyotish had
been stating repeatedly and very emphatically that rashi (signs as opposed to finer divisions or
harmonics) alone does not contain a lot of information and cannot give a serious or
information-rich reading. Others then would voice their opinions from time to time that the other
vargas (harmonics) were not being utilized as the Sages originally intended and the "silicon-oil"
bath-houses (Hot and humid public discussion boards on Internet with their flame wars,
bickerings ad nauseum!) came to be but went nowhere, as usual! Some even questioned, from
time to time, the veracity of using finer vargas (other than the sign chart, the rashi varga) as
horoscopes with houses etc. as opposed to being utilized as indicators of strength or beneficience
(e.g., sun is placed in x numbers of own or exalted vargas); a consideration that is incorporated in
the saptavargaja bala segment of Shadbala, for instance. The debate continues and shall continue
till the proverbial cows come home!
And yet, the rashi varga is not really all that marasmic in terms of information, truth be told. It
holds not only the crux of jyotish with pointers to the relationships between planets, and the
indicators for awasthas, other states, functional maleficience and beneficience and lest we forget,
the Jaimini system is heavily dependent upon or based on rashi vargas. The rashi varga is not
something to be dismissed lightly in my opinion.
Many have written reams and reams on karakattwa (specific significations) and other attributes

of planets and so on but what I share today is perhaps a slightly different view on how I viewed
the indications of the planets, some decades ago in a moment of understanding. Hopefully, it
will be of some help to others.
Translated into english, what I wrote was: The house/sign in which sun is placed, by itself, and
associated with the lords or significators (karakas) and the house in which Leo is placed in the
nativity's horoscope, hold the key to the areas or indications or things that the nativity is pleased
to attend to or accomplish, at the soul level.
A similar algorithm was then followed for the remaining planets {the ones in brackets were later
revelations!}:
Moon, the house it is in, the planets its is associated with and the house in which cancer falls:
The things, areas and activities that please the mind
Mars: The things and activities which the individual will willingly devote efforts and energy
towards
Mercury: Areas of trade {and communication}
Jupiter: {Areas of knowledge, knowing and morals}
Venus: Things without which the person's life becomes bland, insipid and like death.
Saturn: Things and areas which remain 'dead' and absent in the nativity's life or are avoided and
suppressed during the current lifetime (in accordance to the life-plan). Kind of like repressed or
unexpressed 'genes'
Lunar nodes: Things and areas which remain uncertain or where phobias and obsessions arise.
Over a period of time, I have begun to take more seriously the statement in jyotish that goes:
Sanivada Rahu, kujvata ketu (Rahu or north node of moon is similar to Saturn in its nature while
Ketu, the south node of moon is of the nature of Mars). This obviously, in my understanding,
refers to the rulership of Scorpio by mars/ketu and of aquarius by Saturn/Rahu as elaborated in
the conditions prescribed for their utilization as rulers in the Chara Dasha scheme (by Parashara
and Jaimini). When the nodes become rulers of the two signs normally ruled by mars and Saturn,
special attention must be paid to the nodes in such charts in general and for the considerations
given in this article.
These prescribed rules are to be applied sequentially, until one of them is met:
1.
If both are in own sign (e.g., Saturn in Capricorn and rahu in aquarius) then both share
rulership.
2.
If one is in own sign (e.g., Saturn in Capricorn) then Rahu rules aquarius
3.
If one of the contender is in company (in the same sign) of greater number of planets
becomes the ruler of aquarius or scorpio (rahu or ketu respectively)

4.
5.

Not meeting the above requirements, the planet is stronger in the following order:
Movable, Fixed, Dual. The planet in dual sign is the strongest contender.
If both are in the same triplicity, then utilizing the Jaimini Chara order of counting, the
planet that is farther away from the sign under consideration (aquarius or scorpio)
becomes the ruler.

The prescribed order of counting is normal (aries, Taurus, Gemini) for Aries, Taurus, Gemini,
libra, scorpio, and Sagittarius, and in reverse order (cancer, Gemini, Taurus) for the remaining
signs. The order alternates in clusters of three signs.
Now to illustrate, let us take a chart well-known to jyotishis, that of the modern Rishi: Dr.
Deepak Chopra.
Here sun is placed in its sign of debility in the ninth house and leo is placed in the 7th house.
Though a fairly accomplished modern medicine specialist who received education in an Ivy
League institute in India (AIIMS) and then did pretty well abroad, obviously there was something
that the 'soul' of the good doctor was finding amiss. The spiritual linkage between the healing
system and the patient was missing and the ninth house sun was calling out to Dr. Deepak with
all its might. And the soul wanted to bring all of this out in the open, in plain view for all to see,
which is what the 7th house (in this case the natural home of sun) is all about. Deepak Chopra
found a spiritual teacher who brought together the missing pieces in Dr. Chopra's life and then a
wonderful journey began. And now about the planets associated with sun? Jupiter's wisdom,
mercury's skilled writing and allegorical presentation, presented with the brilliant energy depicted
by the mutual exchange between Venus (lord of 9th) and mars (lord of 10th) is not happenstance.
The presence of ketu with Venus in the mysterious Scorpio adds the depth of wisdom that is not
coming from what someone read just in the last few years and is regurgitating but comes from
many lifetimes of observations, and comprehension, deep comprehension. An interesting trait
that Deepak has is of giving a whole string of keywords and examples in a rapid succession when
he is discussing something. A benefic mars and mercury in the presence of Jupiter (energy,
wisdom, verbosity) in the 9th through their rulership of the relevant houses, 2nd for speech, from
the mind (5th), and the 3rd for thoughts communicated and 7th (to the masses). The sign of an
excellent teacher who loves to teach! Obviously there are many classical yogas in this chart and
those do help further.
What pleases the mind of Deepak? His moon is placed in virgo in the 8th house. His primary
profession, as the world sees him is as a doctor and healer. His writing, teachings, guru status
comes afterwards. The sixth sign virgo is often seen prominently in the charts of doctors. In this
case, Deepak always seems to be concerned about the inability or limitations of modern medicine
to deal with chronic, lifetime illnesses, generally indicated by the 8th house. The lord of 6th
moon is placed in the 8th giving a vipareeta rajayoga. Health, definitely is something that will be
of great interest to Deepak's mind, and fortunate is he who has found what pleases his mind to
unite with what pleases his soul, earlier described, and turned it into a mission in this lifetime.
Virgo is also the sign of writers and authors and Deepak has himself mentioned that he always
wanted to write and share his experiences and knowledge with others in a simple and pleasing
manner (the Venus and ketu helped too!)

Mars as earlier pointed out is placed with sun, mercury, Jupiter in the 9th and rules the 3rd and
10th. Through communication and actually remaining connected to his original profession
through the Chopra Healing Center, Deepak has managed to devote his enormous internal energy
towards meeting his personal life-goals (physical, mental and spiritual) and in a rather effective
manner.
The pivot of spirituality, of higher learning which through the martian-venusian energies feeds
into and is expressed through the mercurian modalities (speeches, workshops, writings) and all of
these bringing a rather lucrative return in a worldly sense in terms of riches of all kinds are what
mercury is all about when he smiles on the nativity. What the sun lacks in terms of uchchabala
(exaltation strength), is more than made up through cancellation (presence of mars with sun, and
Venus being in kendra from lagna) which then energizes the budhaditya yoga (sign association of
mercury and sun) in the ninth and a spiritually-minded teacher-healer was born.
Jupiter has been described earlier and the thematic link between Jupiter in 9th, Jupiter owning
the 2nd (speech and family) and 11th (earnings and gains) can be seen in Deepak's experience.
One thing to point out here is that jyotishis, particularly beginners tend to focus on one factor.
While this is the only way to discuss or absorb the astrological factors, due to our linear thinking
and communication, this is a good example where one must not think of Jupiter without
simultaneously thinking of mars, sun and mercury all in 9th house and then synthesize the
energies into one reading!

And finally, Venus, Saturn and rahu:

So what is it that our good doctor would feel bleak without? Or which remained unexpressed as
per our hypothesis to serve as the key behind Saturn in this chart? With Saturn in the sixth, and
Saturn being lagnesha and lord of 12th, his profession and association with illness and suffering
in others are very key drivers without which none of this would have been possible. And without
which (Venus in 10th) his message, his life would have remained unaccomplished. Venus rules
the 9th and 4th in this chart. Without the spirituality and home/peace of mind that he has
obviously gained from many lifetimes of good deeds, as evident from his 9th house situation,
Deepak would have not arrived in the grand way that he has! There are people who can switch
careers drastically with no link to what they did before or were trained for. Ironically, it is true for
many foreign-trained medical doctors in North America. Only Deepak knows and can confirm,
but this is one area that he has always felt strongly about but has probably not addressed in terms
of bringing about a change in the attitudes of native health-care administrative bodies. Now what
about Rahu? What are the doctor's fears and inner trepidations? Deepak has experienced at
some point in his life a great fear of losing someone very dear, close to home and it could be
related to his experience about his children during the 9/11 experience as he has shared publicly,
as well as the period when he was being ostracized by the North American Medical community
for his extremely brave step to speak out against established medicine in a country that was not
his own! An interesting thing to note in this chart is the fact that Rahu and not Saturn is the
lagnesh in this horoscope! This has been a personal research of mine based on the rather
well-accepted premise of kujawata ketu and sanivada Rahu that all jyotishis are aware of

(described earlier in this article)! Where does this statement come from? I think it arises from
the segment of astrology described by both Parashara and Jaimini when they tell us about the
dual rulership of Scorpio and aquarius rashis which jyotishis accept as being co-ruled by
ketu/mars and rahu/Saturn respectively. These are in most instances not co-ruled, but ruled by
one or the other based on some very clear guidance given by both Rishis. In this chart for
instance, both Saturn and Rahu are placed singly in two houses, however, Rahu is placed in a
fixed sign while Saturn is placed in a chara sign. The dual signs are considered stronger than
fixed signs and the fixed signs are stronger than the movable or chara signs. Rahu is in a fixed
sign, taurus, in this chart and thus becomes the lagnesha. The visible proof for this is the
physical appearance of Deepak Chopra. His youthful looks, pleasant and gentle demeanour, the
shape of forehead, the dimple on his chin, his love of aesthetics and attention to beauty in any
project he takes on are crying out aloud: Venus! Venus aspects Rahu from the 10th house and
taurus also arises in navamsha. Although Deepak will age gracefully, I am certain that he is
probably not looking at it with welcoming arms. He loves integrity and particularly of the
mind-body-spirit working well in a coordinated manner throughout the lifetime and that he has
turned into a lifelong quest as we all know from his writings and thoughts shared with all of us.
Since the Rahu ketu axis sits in the 4th and 10th houses, a major concern had been that pertaining
to home life and its balancing with a very productive professional life and a great deal of effort
has gone into making sure that the two areas remained well-attended and integrated.
I hope I have been able to present my thoughts in a cogent and hopefully veritable manner.
Several things are obvious and easily confirmed from facts that we know, but there are certain
things that can only be confirmed by Dr. Deepak Chopra. In the absence of such confirmation or
feedback forthcoming (unless Dr. Chopra reads this article on this wonderful website, AND I
hope he does!), my research must continue on this hypothesis that came to me at an opportune
moment. You, readers and hopefully serious and sincere astrologers will join me and help by
becoming 'testers' or as was the term in homeopathy (Heilkunst), "proovers"!

-=<O>=Rohiniranjan 2008-01-05