What is stress?

I had met a young colleague yesterday for coffee. He has just quit his job and is going into independent practice. Looking for clients, the regular rejection, the travel etc has its own pressures and the young man was very stressed. It set me thinking on what stress is, and why we experience it.

I looked at it logically. The human body, despite being the most fabulous machine in design, evolved in a very wild environment. The primary threat to humans was physical and not mental. Humans could get attacked by wild animals. Humans could get attacked by other humans too! So while the terrain was difficult, it was not complex. i.e. the situations were simple:

If a smaller animal  attacked me, I would fight. If a tiger attacked me, then flight!

So the human body was primarily conditioned for two responses: Fight or Flight.

Here, there is zero stress, only action!

So stress is simply this: Stress is the gap between Fight and Flight.

However as human society evolved (?!), the situations this body finds itself in are infinitely more complex. Things like insults, bullying, abuses, Boss venting his anger at you, Mother In Law taunting you, someone falsely accusing you of something etc etc are common place these days. But the human body does not know how to handle these 'exceptions' to its programming!

For example the Boss is berating you (rightly or wrongly), you can neither Fight (beat him) him nor can you simply run away (Flight). Thus, at at instinctual level body is being forcibly held right in between the only two responses it knows!

This is stress.

The only way to rid us of stress is to move the operation of the psyche from the instinctual level to the conscious level.  This is possible only through Yoga, whether kriya or the classical yogasanas, learnt and practiced the right way.This was my prescription for my young friend.

Thought I would share these nuggets with my readers. Take what you like, discard the rest :)


I credit this post to my Guru, without whose inspiration I could not have written this.

Marriage when?

See the chart below:

The original birth time given to me was 6.21AM when the 7th CSL was Sun. I examined this chart today at 1:46 PM when the Ruling planets were: Ma, Me, Mo, Sa, Ju. Sun was not part of the RPs, so I assumed that some BTR is needed.

If I make the time 6.17AM, the 7th CSL changes to Me, if I change it to 6.23AM then the 7th CSL changes to Mo,both planets of which are in the RPs. Let us look at the significations of each now:

Me 12, 5; Ra Cx, Ax, Me 5, 12, Ju 1, 10 11; Sa 9, 1, 12

Mo 6,8; Ju 1, 10, 11

(original time) Su 1, 7; Sa 9, 1, 12

The first thing I notice is that while marriage is not denied to the native by the 7th CSL, the signification is quite weak. Marriage denying houses 1,10 and marriage hindrance houses 6 8 12 have prominent positions in whichever 7th CSL we take. It will not be wrong to say, that if marriage happens, the couple will have to work on it.

I went with the 6:23 time only because it required the least correction and also other significations do not change much whether you take 6.17 or 6.23.

Native is current in Me dasha. Me significations (shown above) are as follows:

Me 12, 5; Ra Cx, Ax, Me 5, 12, Ju 1, 10 11; Sa 9, 1, 12; Mercury aspects the 7th cusp (but this is a very weak signification)

(Cx and Ax means no planets are conjunct (<4-5 degrees) or aspecting Rahu respectively)

Shahasane ji says: When any dasha lord is not the significator of the prime cusp of any event (7th in case of marriage), and is a weak significator of supporting houses of that event (2 and 11 in this case), and a strong significator of houses denying the event (1/6/10 in this case), then for the expected event to happen in such a dasha, we need to choose a bhukti whose lord is the strong significator of the prime event house (7th). Also, such a bhukti lord should not be the strong significator of event denying houses.

In other words, since Me is only signifying 11 and 7 (that too weakly) and also signifying negative houses, we need to look for the strongest significator of the 7th house. This is done below:

7th house lord is Sun. Sun is the starlord of no planet. Ketu is posited in the 7th house. There are no planets in Ketu's star. So Ketu and Sun are the significators of the 7th house. It should be noted that the bhuktis of Sun and Ketu are already over, so does that indicate marriage is not possible in the current dasha (i.e. up to March 2026)?!

At this point I decided to look at Nadi significators to check if they can offer a better clue as to the possible date of marriage:

Look at the number of 1, 6, 10s in the horoscope, this highlights the weak nature of the chart for marriage as 1 6 10 are the maraka houses for 2 7 11s. The high number of 1s also suggest that the native is like an arrogant and obstinate personality. I understand that Vedic astrologers would have arrived at the arrogance point based on the concentration of planets between the 10th house and 3rd house. But stellar significations of 1st house (self) repeatedly led me to conclude this personality trait. Sometimes obstinate people achieve great things because they can see something, have a vision that others are unable to see. But the repetition of 5 12 with the 1s suggest that this may not be that sort of obstinacy. Remember 5th is buddhi and 12th is loss. I sincerely hope I am wrong in the assessment and that the combinations of 5 9/ 9  10/ 5 10/ 5 11/ 9 11 are able to save the native from any rash decisions.The number of 3 9/ 9 12/ 3 9 12 also suggest the person will travel and live abroad.

Anyway coming back to the question at hand, we can see that only 2 planets are outright strong for marriage (relatively speaking) which are Mars and Venus. Ketu and Moon have full combination (1 6 10) of marriage negation. Notably, after 2026, the 7 year dasha of Ketu starts and this is likely to be a very, trying period for marriage if the native is married then. Worth noting that Ketu is a first rate malefic and a separative planet.

Anyway, with a weak dasha lord for marriage (Me), we will need to select the strongest bhukti as per Nadi principles. Since Venus bhukti has already passed (8/8/12 - 9/6/15) with the marriage not being fixed (despite Venus being a strong significator of marriage house-wise and also being a natural significator of marriage). That leaves us with the Mars dasha from 14/9/2017 to 11/9/2018. I am considering Mars dasha partly through hope against hope and partly due to the fact that Me is (however weakly) signifying the 7th cusp and Mars finds place among the RPs as the Asc starlord.

So the three periods one can look at at:

Me-Ma-Ma (14/9/2017 to 5/10/2017)

Me-Ma-Me (14/3/2018 to 4/5/2018) *

Me-Ma-Ve (25/5/2018 to 25/7/2018)

* Due to presence of Saturn in the RPs at the time of judgement, I let the first period go and concentrate on the second period i.e. Me-Ma-Me. It is not possible to fix transits using Nadi principles as they require atleast 3 planets to be positive for an event, and in this case we have just 2. So I am constrained to use the transit of Sun through the strongest significator of the 7th cusp, ie. the untenanted Ketu's nakshatras. Ketu nakshatras are in Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. Of these, in the time frame alloted the only possible one for Sun to transit through is the Ketu star in Aries. That date comes to 14th April to 28th April 2018.

However, given the overall status of the horoscope w.r.t. the event of marriage, this jyotish feels (with a heavy heart) that the chances will be faint. If the marriage happens it is likely (but not compulsorily) to be within similar social community (no Sa/ Ra/ Ke in DBA) and marriage is unlikely to be a love marriage (7th CSL Mo does not signify 5th cusp). The couple will have to work on the marriage.

The 5th CSL of the native is Me and signifies the 12th house. This suggests that the native may have been involved in (multiple? - Mercury) relations earlier but called it off on own accord. (5th CSL signifies 12th which is house of loss to Asc). The signification of the 4th cusp along with 5 12 suggests that the native may have kept the romantic involvement secret from family. While the current dasha lord signifies 4 5 12, there is no signification in the bhuktis from Aug 2012 to Sept 2017, so unlikely that the native is involved with anyone currently.

As a general note of caution, the presence of 1 4 10 combination in four planets suggest that the native must take care of health as such combination gives resistance to medicines. Also since this combination is maraka combination to the child bearing combination (2 5 11), there may be some hurdles in that avenue of life.

The importance of Grace

So a horoscope is simply this, it is a reflection of the accumulated karmas of your past births. The Sanskrit word 'Karma' means action. Action can be mental or physical and its origin lies in a action in the past and is itself the progenitor of another action in the future. The 'Balance sheet' as on date and time of birth of each individual is the horoscope chart. Rishis believed that this balance sheet can be read, and that is the basis of astrology. From my limited knowledge and experience, I have observed that traditional or vedic astrologers use planetary characteristics and sign characteristics to divine the results. For example, Jupiter is said  to represent self, Sun the father etc. But this requires a superhuman level of intellect, as each sign or planet has multiple connotations. Stellar astrology, almost completely ignores the planet and sign but concentrates on the house significations of each planet. As readers must have figured out through the months from reading my posts. 

In general terms, for most people  90% or more of our life is fixed in my experience. Usually, the dominance of  houses 4 6 7 8 12 indicate the fixed aspect of our lives while houses 1 5 9 10 11 indicate the availability of free will. In terms of planets, I have read that Jupiter indicates free will while, the hard taskmaster Saturn shows a fate dominated person. Even in terms of free will, I sometimes give a slightly facetious example (but one that drives home the point): Lets say I slapped you in a past life, you swore revenge. And in this life, our horoscopes put us in a position where you can slap me. Whether you will slap or you will forgive and walk away will be determined by whether the 4 6 7 8 12 dominate or 1 5 9 10 11 dominate. If you choose to walk away, that karma, that runanubandha is broken. If you choose to slap me, I will swear revenge and the story continues!

This is also the reason why I do not prescribe remedies to everyone who comes. Whether the remedy will work or not can also be seen from the horoscope. I have touched upon the conditions (for remedy to be effective in my post on Cursed or Baadhit horoscopes). But if Karma is Karma then why should one prescribe remedies in any case at all?

Karmas are classified as Drudha karmas (fixed), Adrudha karmas (malleable) and  Drudha-Adhruda karmas (mixed). Fixed karma represents actions that  inexcusable (say, murder), such karma cannot be altered by any remedy or shaanti. Even in such cases, as the act of remedy is also a karma, it will have effect but to an negligible extent as the size of the karma is so huge. For Drudha karma it is best that people accept the pain, it is not a loan to be repaid but it is a process that must be undergone. 

KSK says that people who have done Drudha karma, the Dasha lord, the Bhukti lord, Lagna and Moon will be devoid of the beneficial aspect of Jupiter and from the 9th cusp lord (as 9th cusp is poorva punya sthan - good deeds of past lives).

Drudha-Adrudha Karma is an excusable mistake committed in the past life. Say, a mistake was committed, but it isnt grave or was committed through ignorance. In such cases, KSK says either the lagna or the Moon or the Dasha lord or the Bhukti Lord will receive favourable aspects from Jupiter or 9th lord or both. 

Adrudha Karma is one where the sin committed is very negligible. Maybe, the actual action was not committed but it ended only at planning stage. In such a persons horoscope, Jupiter or lord of 9th will be in Ascendant (lagna) or conjoined with Moon or Dasha lord or Bhukti lord. Such people usually sail through life without much shocks whether they do remedies or not. In fact such people can use their life for spiritual pursuit but due to lack of discomfort, they seldom do. Such is the game!

So if very few things can be changed, then what is the point of Jyotisha? Let me illustrate this with an example. Let us say you are travelling by car to a distant location. The road seems to be good so you rev up the engine, go into the 6th gear and enjoy the speed. Suddenly the road becomes bad and that can damage the car or even worse the driver! Alternatively, you are driving on an extremely bad road, you get sick and tired of the slow and bumpy ride and want to simply stop the car, or continue on with a scowl. This is an equally bad scenario, death by a thousand cuts!

Jyotisha and indeed, Jyotishi is that person who you may meet on this journey who may warn you of the road turning bad ahead. Alternatively he may tell you that the current patch is bad but it will become better as you travel on. In both cases you can either be exercise caution or take heart and limit the damage to yourself. In both cases the road cannot be changed, maybe a few big potholes can be avoided, but largely the status of the road will remain the same, but what the native can do is limit damage. What I meant about free will and fate above is that those who with more fate centric horoscopes will never meet jyotisha or an honest/ intelligent jyotisha in their life. Or if they do they will not heed his advice! Such is the human nature!

Which brings me to the subject of Grace. What is Grace? Grace is nothing but lubrication. Lubrication of the individual with the rest of existence. If you imagine yourself to be a small cog of this machine known as reality, the more lubricated you are the less friction you will experience with life.While you will still face the vagaries of your karmas they will operate in a different manner.

A recent example of grace is my experience with the traffic policeman.My 8th house could have operated as a minor accident or a fine. Afterall my Dasha lord was Saturn and Bhukti lord was Rahu (responsible for sudden events). Two malefics and the 8th house. But Grace allowed the 8th house to operate as a fine and a minor insult rather than an accident (which may not have been physically bad but certainly financially and in terms of time wasted and blood boiled would have been infinitely worse). In fact those who have read An Autobiography of an Yogi by Swami Yogananda may remember the story where Yogananda's guru Sri Yukteshwar was sitting with a disciple at a yagnya and suddenly took a  burning wood from the havan kunda and singed his disciples foot with it. To an in-pain,  irate disciple he explained that his karma was satisfied by this burn which had otherwise planned on a proper fire on him. 

There is another story I have read in a book but I cannot remember the name (I think the author was a Parsi gentleman who is a Sai Baba Bhakta). The story goes something like this: A young man comes to this person and says that he is in love with a girl who is of a completely different financial status (extremely poor) and his family is unlikely to agree, so what should he do. The protagonist asks the boy if he truly loves the girl? The boy says yes,of course, they are virtually married already. The next question is can you prove that love to me by making a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakhs on her name? The boy agrees to do that the next day. After that the man says you are a devotee of Swami Samartha of Akkalkot, do his sadhana for 40 days and you will be benefited. After the boy leaves the protagonist explains that the boy is slated to be in a very bad car accident after 40 days and will become a vegetable all his life. The sadhana for 40 days is to invoke the 'grace' of Swami Samartha to take his life in the accident instead of the indignity of being a vegetable for decades to come. The reason for demanding he give 50 lakhs to the girl, is she she completely loves him and will remain alone her entire life after this incident. This monetary will ensure that she is not forced into anything without her will. The couple is destined to unite in the next life. I do not recall the details of story, but this is substantively correct, if memory serves. This again uses (maybe a morbid) example to highlight the importance of Grace. As long as you are in Grace, its operation may be secret to you, but it will operate and lubricate your life in many ways. In fact it reminds me of the verse:

Jananam Sukhadam Maranam Karunam

Milanam Madhuram Smaranam Karunam

It means, to be born is happiness, death is compassion. 

To unite is sweet, the memory of it is compassion. 

So how does one gain this Grace. One way could be being in the protective shade of an authentic, realised Guru. Someone like a Sri Yukteshwar who could reduce his disciples karma enough to save his life. The other could be through devotion to God, like the example I gave above of the boy who was asked to do a Sadhana of Swami Samartha of Akkalkot.

Another way to be in Grace is through practicing some spiritual process. Whether it is reading of a pothi, or chanting of a mantra or something like that. However, I believe that best results are possible only if someone with spiritual authority tells you to do something like this. A person on his own cannot hold someone as a 'manas guru' and make up his own spiritual path. The basic thing you have to understand is that in this culture, the Guru chooses his disciple and not the other way around. I have seen most people using the spiritual process to add to their ego and identity when it is supposed to do the exact opposite. I have seen people make modifications to yogasanas too (extremely dangerous), so the ability of ego to delude people is infinite!

A simple way of getting into Grace is to try and learn authentic classical yoga and practice it daily. It need not be kriya, even something like Suryanamaskar, if learned EXACTLY the way it is to be done, can align ones existence in such a way that Grace will naturally flow. The person will recognise it within a year of practicing it daily. There will be situations when the native himself to say "normally this situation would have ended this way for me...but wow...it didn't get that bad!" That is how you know you are in Grace. We are all part of this universe. Grace is a state of being, it is not strictly a favour done by someone to us. If you keep yourself in a certain way, it will flow to you. And when it does, you will know. Your horoscope will operate, but it will not give the worst possible outcome. Like I said in my case, 8th house could have meant accident or fine, and it went with fine. That too a small one. The policeman was exceedingly polite to the point I was surprised! He could have just as easily slapped or abused me and extorted money for what was clearly an honest mistake on my part. This is Grace!

On this International Day of Yoga, I wish my readers 'Grace' and acceptance. May you all find your paths. This will not appeal to everyone, I know. Because their own horoscopes will drive their mentality. But for those with 5 9 10 11 or any combination thereof, needing a push from destiny, this is it.

In passing, what is Yoga?

Sage Patanjali describes Yoga as "chitta vritti nirodhah". In other words, yoga is the interruption (nirodhah) of the tendencies (vritti) of the mind/ psyche (chitta). When the natural restlessness of the psyche is interrupted, the person is said to be in yoga. 

Yoga is not something you do, yoga is a state you become. The asanas are what prepare you for that state.

May Bhairavi give everyone, whatever is the best for them!

When will marriage happen?

I received a letter from a parent understandably concerned about the marriage of a daughter. The time of birth given to me was 23:36, and I cast the chart accordingly at 13:19 Pune on 19th June 2016. Since the question related to marriage, I looked at the 7th CSL, which was Venus. I then looked at the ruling planets at the time of examination of this query, they were as follows:

Asc starlord: Moon

Asc signlord: Mercury

Moon starlord: Mercury

Moon signlord: Mars

Day lord: Sun

The 7th cusp falls at 1:12:52 in Sagittarius sign. The sub level  earlier is of Ketu which does not appear in the RPs, the next sub level is of Sun, which appears in the RPs, so I rectified the birth time to 23:44 to make Sun the 7th CSL. The rectified chart is as follows:

Sun is in its own star, so its sub (Me) will take the position of its Starlord as per Shahasane ji. The significations are as follows:

Sun: 4; Me: 1, 4, 2 5 Sun aspects 11

Sun is thus signifying two of houses of the 2 7 11 combination required for marriage. So marriage is not denied to the native. 

Regular readers may have noticed that I did not use the phrase "marriage is promised" instead have stated "marriage is not denied". There is a reason why I have said it this way. The term "promise" has come down from old teachers of K.P., better men than me. But I have humbly changed the phraseology here, as the "promise" my seniors talk about is qualified by the DBA allowing the event. And IMHO a promise cannot be qualified thus. Hence I  rather use the term "event not denied" rather than "promised", to ensure that new readers are not confused by this phraseology. 

The current Dasha lord is Rahu. Its significations are as follows:

Posited: 11

Aspect by Sun: 4; Me 1 2 4 5

Aspect by Me: 1 2 4 5; Mo 3 11

Aspect by Ma: 6 8; Su 4

Conjunct with Nil

Starlord (Me): 1 2 4 5

Signlord (Ju): 9 7 8 11; Sa: 6 9 10^ 

Special signification (strong): 7*

As we can see Rahu signifies both marriage positive houses and marriage negative houses strongly. So marriage is possible (but maybe after marriage there is some fights etc) in this Dasha, 

*Another important thing, I looked at the 7th cusp, the prime cusp of marriage. It is empty. Its signlord  is Jupiter. Jupiter does not appear as the star lord for any other planets. In such cases, we need to see which planets Jupiter appears as sublord for. Those are Rahu and Ketu. So Rahu and Ketu become strong significators of the 7th house, more stronger than Jupiter.

Whenever analyzing an event, it is good practice to look at the houses that allow and deny an event. If any of those houses are empty, then it makes sense to check if any planets are becoming significators to those houses using a special significance, like in the case of Rahu and Ketu here. Lets carry out this exercise here for 2 7 11 (marriage) and 1 6 10 (no marriage).

We have already seen the 7th house above. Both 1st and 2nd house are empty and fall in Me's sign. Me is tenanted, so question of special signification does not arise. The 6th house is not empty, so again the question of special signification does not arise. The 11th house is also not empty, so no special signification possible. The 10th house is interesting:

^ The 10th house is empty. Its house signlord is Saturn, which is untenanted! So special signification will be there. Saturn appears as sublord for Jupiter! So Jupiter is a strong special significator of the marriage denying 10th cusp! It is not wonder then, that marriage of the native was not possible in Jupiter Bhukti that ran from June 2011 to October 2013 despite the family looking out for a suitable groom since 2012.

 Now we look at the current Bhukti, Saturn. Saturn is in its own star, so its sub will act as its star. Through its sub (Mo), Sa signifies the 11th house, but marriage has not happened so far. In any case the only Antara remaining in Sa bhukti is that of Jupiter, we have already seen Jupiter is a strong significator of a marriage denying house and as such marriage cannot happen now.

So we have to look at the next Bhukti, which is Mercury. Mercury also appears in the Ruling Planets, thus increasing my confidence that marriage will get fixed in this bhukti (4th Sept 2016 to 24th Mar 2019). 

Now to pick a suitable Antara to narrow down the time frame, I turn my attention to the Ruling Planets again. 

Mars signifies houses  4, 6, 8. So marriage is not possible under Mars. 

Moon signifies marriage as well. However it lies in the Sub of Mars which denies marriage.

Mercury is appearing twice, and we know Mercury is positive for marriage. 

Sun too allows marriage. 

So the two Antaras when marriage can get fixed is Me and Su. ie:

Ra-Me-Me (3 Sept 2016 to 13 Jan 2017)

or 

Ra-Me-Su (12 Aug 2017 to 26 Sept 2017)

Both dates ranges are equally likely, but since all the Ruling Planets are fast moving, there are good chances of the marriage being fixed till 13th Jan 2017.

The likely date is in September 2016 itself when Sun transits the Me-Su combination in Gemini.

Whether the marriage will be love or arranged?

As per Shahasane ji, if the 7th CSL is the significator of the 5th cusp then there is possibility of love marriage. In this case, the 7th CSL does signify the 5th cusp and therefore it is possible that love marriage will happen. Even using Nadi significators...

...suggest the possibility of love marriage with 4 planets (Ke, Ve, Ra, Me) indicating combinations of love (5 8/ 5 12/ 5 8 12/ 5 11). Regular readers may have also spied the '4' coming with all these 'love combinations'. 4th cusp is that of secrets and it is possible that the native has fallen in love on earlier occasions but has kept the same a secret (or will keep it a secret when love does happen). Recognizing this possibility, it will be good if the family can create a comfortable environment where the native will be able to share such feelings with a sibling or an elder so accordingly they can proceed.

Normally the presence of the combination 5 6 8/ 5 6 12/ 5 6 8 12 causes the break of the love affair in the DBA or Ra/Ke/Sa but in this case the presence of 9 11/ 11 along with this combination means there is only a temporary break. 

Will groom be from the same community?

The presence of Rahu in the DBA, as the Dasha lord and also the prime significator of the 7th cusp, suggests that the husband may be from a different community. Rahu's other signification is the groom being much older than the norm of the culture. However, the presence of Mercury (which typically gives younger partners) as Bhukti and Antara suggests to this jyotisha that the impact of Rahu will likely be on the community of the groom than the age. But one should remember, this is the probability.

Will groom be from family or outsider?

The signification of 4 suggests that the groom will be from the same city or district of the native. However it is not clear if the person will be from the family, the reason being my answer to the question above, given the chances of the groom being from outside the immediate community, the groom is likely to be an outsider. 

     

In passing my only advice to the family, is that marriage to the right person is important. Someone who is most compatible with the native. As such the timing of marriage is key rather than these other details.  Keep an open mind, dont reject the right person because he is from your family circle. 

Recent incident in my life: Astrological analysis

I was driving between cities the last Friday in the afternoon. At one point, I was standing at a signal and mechanically drove off behind the car in front of me. To my discredit, I did not see that the light had just flipped from orange to red and I was stopped by the policeman who was waiting a little ahead. 

He was extremely polite to me and as I got out of the car explained that I had broken the signal. As at least one my my blog readers who has been driven by me will attest, I am a very good driver and indeed this is the first time in my life I have ever broken a traffic rule. 

Anyway, I got out of the car and agreed that I had committed an mistake and offered to pay the fine. At this point he told me that I need to pay the fine at Kalanagar police station as the police can no longer accept cash for tickets. This was a problem for me that I did not live in the city where this mistake had occurred. I explained this to the policeman and he let me off without having to pay a fine. I do think policemen can tell who is a repeat offender and who isn't. 

About a few minutes after this episode as I was continuing my drive, I wondered what might have been the planetary combination at the time all this transpired. Since I was driving I made a rough note of the time, it was 3:11 PM, so I back calculated and estimated that this entire episode might have happened around 2:50 to 3:05 PM.

Now I normally do not discuss my own horoscope, indeed I normally do not even see my own horoscope, but I thought I can share this in a limited way here with my reader-friends.

I conjectured what houses might have been in play for this occasion to come to pass. The 8th cusp was the most important one, since it was an insult to be stopped in middle of the road, accept my fault and then negotiate with the police to let me off with a warning as it was physically impossible for me to stay in the city to pay the fine. Also, the stopping caused a delay and it was disappointing, which all comes under the 8th house.

Secondly, the houses 3 and/ or 9 and /or 12 might be in play as I was in a journey. Lastly, because the negotiation was smooth and in a polite atmosphere I figured some combination of 5/9/5 9 must be in play as well.

Now to see the primary result givers as per KP: Sun, Moon and the Ascendant.

Sun was in Mars starat the time this happened (I have taken an average estimated time of 3 PM). Moon was in Ketu's star and the Asc that was rising was at 29 degrees 8 minutes and 21 seconds in Virgo, that means the Ascendant was also in Mars star.

First off, the presence of Mars suggests, the police or uniformed personnel. Both Sun and Asc are in Mars owned nakshatras.

Now what houses in my horoscope does Marsand Ketu represent:

Mars 3, 8, 9; Ju star 11, 4 7

Ketu represents: 

House: 5

Asp (Sa): 11, 5 6; 2, 9, 10

Conj: Nil

Star (Ra)*: 11

Sign(Sa): 11, 5 6; 2, 9, 10

Rahu

House: 11

Asp: Nil

Conj (Sa): 11, 5 6; 2, 9, 10

Star (Ve)*: 2 9 10

Sign(Su): 10, 12; Sa, 11, 5 6

What I surmise is that the presence of both the Sun and the Asc being in Mars' star caused me to make the mistake that led to delay (8) in my car (4) journey (3 9) due to the police (Mars). However, the presence of 10 at the star level protected me from too much insult. Indeed the entire episode lasted for less than 4-5 minutes. Interestingly 10 also means competent authority. The 10 also ensured that the policeman did not insult me but was in fact extremely polite to the point that even I was surprised. What also saved me was my immediate verbal (2) admission that it was indeed I that made the mistake and that the mistake was an inadvertent one. This paved the way for a smooth negotiation 5 9 that ended in my favour (5 9 + 6 10 11). 

Now where that '12' got used, I leave it to my readers to figure out.

#PoliticsPost Battleground Uttar Pradesh: The case for Smriti Irani

या देवी सर्वभुतेषु शक्तिरूपेण संस्थिता 

नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः 

With the Uttar Pradesh polls slated for 2017, it is time for the Bookkeeper to turn attention to this key electoral state. With a state assembly of 400+ seats and sending the largest contingent of MPs to the Lok Sabha (80), it is impossible to overstate the importance of winning in U.P. Especially so, for the BJP which is seen to be on an resurgence and winning here will be key to the political position of Narendra Modi, and his bid for 2019. It should not be forgotten that in 2014, U.P. contributed 73 out of its 80 Lok Sabha seats towards Modi.

The Bookkeeper is disturbed on learning of rumors that the top bosses in the BJP are considering going into this battle without a general, i.e. without nominating a Chief Ministerial candidate. While this strategy (if one may call it that) may have worked in Maharashtra, one needs to remember that Maharashtra polls were right on the back of the Modi wave sweeping the Delhi Durbar. A more cogent example would be of Bihar where this farce of collective leadership failed so miserably that BJP nearly halved even its (then) current strength. It is not for nothing that the Bookkeeper is opposed to such a flaccid move of going without a leader.

Prima facie, the BJP can take two routes if it chooses to go with declaring a CM candidate (and the Bookkeeper ardently hopes they do). Either they go with a hardline face that will appeal to the core or then with a consensus candidate who will be a pacifist among various factions of its structure. The Bookkepper however, feels that U.P. polls are too important to risk on hardline Hindutva alone or a pure developmental agenda (as a pacifist is likely to do). These polls offer a unique opportunity for the BJP to pull an Ace out of its pack and stump its opposition on multiple fronts at the same time.

Smriti Irani, the Bookkeeper believes, is this Ace. The most important advantage of Smriti is that she is not typecast as a caste leader. In fact, it is not easy to forget her moving statement from Lok Sabha, "…mera naam Smriti Irani hai,meri jaat bata kar dikhao…” (My name is Smriti Irani, try and guess my caste). In a state that is arguably that has the most caste-ridden voting patterns, putting up a candidate like Smriti makes it very difficult for opposition to garner votes on a pure identity basis. Samajwadi Party with its Yadav-Muslim combination, or the Bahujan Samaj Party with its primarily Dalit mandate will find it hard to counter someone like this. The Bookkeeper writes this, not based on hope, but on fact. In 2014, Narendra Modi was able to fire the imagination of Uttar Pradesh and win the Varanasi seat despite technically being an outsider to the state. While Narendra Modi is an OBC he did not use his caste in any of his campaigns and an analysis of voting pattern shows that he was able to garner broad based support across castes (table taken from CSDS studies):

The presence of Smriti Irani as the leader of the campaign will no doubt attract the women voters of the state. Women voters are increasingly making their presence felt and voting independently of their husbands or fathers. In fact in the last Bihar assembly elections it was said that Nitish Kumar had been successful in carving out a “women’s constituency”. There is no reason why with Smriti Irani as the face of the campaign cannot do the same for BJP in Uttar Pradesh. On a more political note, she will be a perfect pre-emptive strike to reported plans that Priyanka Gandhi may be the fulcrum of the Congress campaign in the state. With her ambiguous caste, Smriti will also be a handful for Mayawati’s “dalit ki beti” line. It is needless to add that Smriti will serve as an inspiration to women in Uttar Pradesh that is currently ruled by Samajwadi Party whose patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has (in)famously described the heinous crime of rape as "Ladko se galti ho jaati hai" (Boys will make mistakes). The Bookkeeper believes that nominating Smriti as the CM candidate will take the thunder out of three opposing campaigns in one fell swoop.

It is not as if the Bookkeeper only sees circumstantial benefits of nominating Smriti Irani, but he is also cognizant of her abilities. She has shown herself to be an able politician. She has managed to hold her own, whether it is in TV studios v. a hostile media, or it is on the ground in Amethi, or even in parliament where she has been needlessly personally targeted on several occasions. It is noteworthy that despite having just a few weeks to campaign in the Gandhi family bastion of Amethi, Smriti managed to reduce Rahul Gandhi victory margin to just about 1 lakh votes, from 3.7 lakhs in the last elections. 

In conclusion, the Bookkeeper sees Smriti Irani as the perfect face to represent BJP in the UP assembly polls. She will enable people to vote above caste, she has enough Hindutva credentials without being seen as hardliner, as a woman she will appeal to the ‘silent vote’, that too across religious spectrum.  She will provide a great opponent to faces like Priyanka Gandhi, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav. Most importantly, with her ‘screen presence’ on the political spectrum, BJP will finally be able to make this election about their local leader (Smriti) vs. local leaders of other political parties, instead of having to make Narendra Modi the face of every campaign. Being the last major election before the general election of 2019, it is a political necessity to have this buffer. The Bookkeeper hopes that good sense prevails in the BJP and they seriously consider nominating a CM candidate, and that candidate is Smriti Irani.

The Bookkeeper is not associated with Smriti Irani in anyway, indeed she does not even follow me on twitter as  on date, but writes this piece as an observer of Indian politics.

While due care has been taken in compiling various data points, the Bookkeeper does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the numbers

Stability in Job?

Please see the below chart. The native is a very well qualified person who has seen numerous job changes over the years. Around 9 or 10 so far and is currently staring in the face of another job change. Let us examine why this is the case:

The native is currently in the Jupiter Mahadasha. Before this was the Rahu Mahadasha. A majority of the job changes happened in the Rahu dasha and are continuing now. So first let us look at Rahu dasha to see why this is was the case then, after that we can turn our attention to the current Dasha.

Significations of Rahu:

House posited: 1

Aspected by Mars: 7, 2 9; Mo 5, 6

Conjunct with Nil

Star Ketu: 7*

Sign posited (Mars): 7, 2 9; Mo 5, 6

*Significations of Ketu: 

House posited: 7

Aspected by Nil

Conjunct with Nil

Star Rahu: 1 (see above for rest of significations)

Sign posited (Venus): 4, 3 8; Ra 1

Since we are primarily looking for the reasons of job change, let us look at the two houses necessary for job change to happen:

5 (As it is 12th from the 6th house, primary cusp for employment)

The house lord of the 5th house is Moon. Mars is posited in the star of Moon. 5th cusp is empty. So Mars and Moon signify the 5th house.

9 (As it is 12th from the 10th house, cusp for professional status)

The house lord is Mars. There is no planet in the 9th cusp, nor is there any planet in the star of Mars. Interestingly, there is not planet in the sub of Mars either.  Thus Mars is an extremely strong significator of the 9th house. Mars being posited in the star of the house lord of the 5th house makes it an even stronger giver of job change (not just role change).

Since Rahu is posited in Mars' sign (Mesha) and also aspected by Mars, it became a strong significator of the 9th house as well. In addition, it was a strong significator of the 5th house as can be seen from the signification list above.

However, along with the 5th house, it was also strongly signifying the 6th house of employment. So the changes the native made were for better opportunities. Through a weak signification of the 8th house (also since Rahu is a malefic), there would have been some disagreements, disappointments etc, but nothing serious at all. In fact the native tells me that his past employers still have a lot of respect for him. 

Thus Rahu gave the native job changes, but due to strong significations of the 6th house, gave him a quick employment and also better opportunities. Through its signification of the 1st house, I am sure a lot of self efforts were also involved.

Now let us look at the current Dasha, Jupiter. Significations: 4, 1 10;  Sa 11, 11 12

While I normally do not see uccha and neecha grahas, it has been an observation that uccha grahas (despite their name) are not conducive to a native. Since the native has a uccha Jupiter (Jupiter posited in Cancer), Jupiter's dasha will be a difficult period for him. People with a uccha Jupiter have some issues with their married life as well, however the native informs me that married life is good. But I digress, lets get back to the matter at hand.

Jupiter Dasha does not have strong significations for job change, but the native has changed two jobs since it has started. The first job was changed in Feb 2012, when the DBA was Ju-Sa-Ke.

Saturn's significations: 11, 12; Ju: 4, 1, 10

However the job change occured as Ketu (Antara lord) is in the star of Rahu, which we have seen earlier is a extremely strong significator of the 9th house and a strong significator of the 5th house. Again, getting another job was not a problem for the native as Dasha and Bhukti are positive for job and antara too is a strong significator of employment. Notably, the native was asked to leave the job due to an disagreement with the employer. Which can again be seen from the 8th house signification of Ketu and that the DBA is dominated by two malefics (Sa and Ke).  

The 2nd job change in Jupiter Dasha happened in Oct 2012, which is the Ju-Sa-Mo period. Moon is a significator of the 5th house and this was again a voluntary change for better opportunities. But I must admit that this one has stumped me a little bit. As per my 2-3 research pieces earlier, change of employer happens when the Dasha/ Bhukti lord is in the star of a planet that is either posited in or owner of 5/9 cusps. The only conjecture I can make at this time is that the birth time is off by 5-10 minutes which would bring Venus as the antara for this job change. Venus is in the star of Rahu, which represents Mars, an extremely strong significator of the 9th house.

It may be suggested by some readers that Jupiter being in proximity of the 5th house may have caused these job changes. Quite possible, but I am not convinced. This brings us to the realm of the Four Step theory which I have studied but do not agree with in its entirety. Extending rules to suit one or two anomalies leads to such theories where every planet becomes a significator to almost every house by behaving like a node itself. IMHO, proximity can transmit characteristics, not significations. E.g. proximity of Jupiter and Mars can cause Jupiter to give property ownership, but only if Jupiter signifies the relevant houses, and not just Mars. i.e. Mars can transmit its property karakatva to Jupiter, not the houses it owns and occupies.

Currently the native is facing a similar situation as the first job change of this Dasha. The employer has asked the native to resign, which he has, but then seemed to change his mind and wants to fire him. This does not make sense as the native is willing to leave, and seemed like an unnecessary step to insult the native and mar his future employment possibilities. 

The current DBA is Ju-Ke-Mo. The native has already resigned in mid April and his three month probation will end in mid July. But he is being asked to leave immediately. The native wants to know if he will be allowed to leave with his head held high (resign) or will be fired. 

Assuming, that the current birth time is correct, then the native is in Ju-Sa-Mo period. Mo antara will continue till June 17, 2016. The native will be safe till end of this period as Mo is in the star of Venus, and Venus is neither owner nor occupant of 5 or 9. After Moon antara period the Mars antara will start, which will go on till July 7, 2016. Given that Mars is an extremely strong significator of the 9th house, and also in the star of Moon that is the owner of the 5th house, the native will likely lose his job in this time frame. Moon is a significator of the 8th house, hence the fear and insult will continue till the end of its antara. But if my theory holds, then Moon will not give job loss. 

As we have seen earlier, Ketu does signify the 8th house of insults, albeit weakly. Mars itself does not signify the 8th house, and neither does Jupiter the dasha lord. Both Ketu and Mars signify the 5 9 combination. This combination means negotiation, ie. when people settle matters 'out of court', this combination is in operation. As such I feel, that the native will be able to negotiate his early resignation instead of termination and both parties will walk away with less animosity than otherwise.

Notably, If time is rectified to 3.18, (that brings Ju-Sa-Ve DBA to 5th Oct 2012), then the Ju-Ke-Mo dasha will be extended to 25th July 2016. In which case the native is absolutely safe from embarrassment, as since he is not going to lose his job till 25th, it can be concluded that the native will be able to leave normally at the end of his notice period in mid July.

In either case, I feel while the native will fear loss of face, in the end this will not happen. The native must only be prepared to negotiate. While the presence of 8 means the native may have to compromise on something, but in the long run it means a face saving resignation, the native should.

The native has so far has had a fairly successful career, but he does not seem to be financially in place he wants to be in. Maybe as per his own aspiration or when compared to his friends. The reason for this is quite simple  to analyse:

The 2nd cusp is the prime cusp of accumulated wealth. The houses 1,2,3,6,10 and 11 are considered houses that give wealth. But not all are equal,

If the 2nd CSL signifies 6,11, then the native is extremely wealthy

If the 2nd CSL signifies 2,10, then the native is well off and can lead a respectable existence

If the 2nd CSL signifies 1, 3 then the natives financial situation is weak

Wealth depleting houses are 5, 8, 12. If the 2nd CSL signifies one of these houses then the native will spend. Usually if its the 5th house then native spends on leisure, entertainment, fun travel, fashion, etc. If its 8 then the native spends on medicines, court cases, loss due to theft etc, on items that he/ she cannot disclose to others etc. If it is 12, then the native is compelled to spend suddenly and many a times unnecessarily.

Lets look at the current native's 2nd CSL. It is Mercury. It is signifying: 2, 4 7; Mo: 5, 6

The combination of 2 and 6 is indicative upper middle class status. 

For sake of education, if we take the 3:18 AM time, the 2nd CSL changes to Saturn. Saturn signifies 11, 12; Ju: 4, 1 10

This one has a combination of 10, 11, which is better than 2, 6 but not as good as 6 11. So here also I can say slightly better than upper middle class status, but below rich class.

So whatever time one takes, the native does not come into the extremely rich category. So he will do well, be respectably well off but I do not seem him breaking into the rich class. 

The native can now tell me, if he spends more on 5th related activities (as shown by the 3:25 AM birth time) or more in 12th related activities (which is shown by the 3:18 birth time).

Now if the native loses his job, when can he find the next one. I suspect it will be during the Ju-Ke-Ra period. Which means:

If birth time is taken as 3:25 AM, then between July 8 and August 27, 2016

If birth time is taken as 3:18 AM, then between 14 Aug and 4 Oct 2016

While the native did not ask me this question, there is a suggestion, since he is required to shift workplaces so often, perhaps the native should consider working with a firm that consults different clients, instead of working on the client side. This way the native can make use of the 5th and 9th houses, instead of being harassed by them. Also, this avenue will allow the native to keep his opinion firmly without being bogged down too much by what his employer thinks.

May Bhairavi give him, whatever is the best for him.

Marriage Q (again)

As I was telling someone the other day, 80% of the charts that come to me for consultation pertain to marriage. i.e. either marriage is not happening or it has happened but serious issues between the husband and wife.

It set me thinking that we might be in the midst of a change of Age. For so many people to have marriage problems today, their charts had to have been decided 20-30-40 years back at the moment of their birth. I wonder how the institution of marriage will do 30 years hence. Or will birth rates come down rapidly? Too much to discuss, maybe I will do a separate post another day.

Anyway, see the chart below:

I took up examination of this chart at 11:18 AM this morning, when the RPs were as follows:

Asc star: Ketu

Asc sign: Sun

Mo star: Sun

Mo sign: Venus

Day lord : Saturn

Since the question pertained to marriage, I looked at the 7th CSL, which was the Sun. Since Sun forms part of the RPs, I concluded that the chart time is accurate enough for my reading.

Sun signifies the following houses: 3, 4; Ve:5, 12. Sun aspects the 10th house.

So, none of the necessary houses of marriage, ie. 2/7/11 are signified by the 7th CSL. As such, in the 'file' of the 7th house, destiny has not attached the 'document' of marriage event for the native. 

As such, marriage is not possible for the native, it is best if he looks for his goal in life elsewhere. 

This is always a difficult answer to give to someone. But I believe in giving a factual reading of what I see in the chart. By asking the native to do remedies that cannot change anything, astrologers ensure that the native becomes an atheist as well! Why do that? Whatever remedy the native does, even if he does Khanda Manda sadhana, how can he inject 2 or 7 or 11 in 7th CSL (Sun)'s signification, that was already fixed at the moment of his birth?! 

Even if there was a slight chance I would have suggested some remedy to see if that chance can be exploited. But the answer is clear.