Timing of events and figuring out the currently dominating planetary influence or theme from an astrological perspective is an extremely important part of doing astrology. In jyotish, many types of periods, dashas, transits etc. are described and prescribed for general and specific conditions. Most individuals follow the vimshottari dasha system which is based on the 'progression' of the natal moon through the zodiac of asterisms. There are 27 asterisms, each of which is ruled by one of the nine planets. Starting at zero degrees Aries in the sidereal zodiac, each segment of 800 arc minutes or 13d 20m is ruled by ketu, Venus, sun, moon, mars, rahu, Jupiter, Saturn and mercury in the stated order which repeats itself twice, giving rise to three sets of 9 *star-clusters* each, spanning the zodiac. A person with natal moon in the asterismal zone ruled by Venus would begin life in Venus dasha followed by the dasha of sun and moon, etc. The arc-segments (slice in the pie of zodiac) for each asterism is the same (13d 20m) but the dashas are of different durations (7, 20, 6, 10, 7, 18, 16, 19 and 17 years for ketu to mercury) which can be thought of as the natal moon progressing through the stars at different rates of motion, with its relative speed being twice as much while progressing through its own asterism than when progressing through the star of Venus.

ketu Venus sun moon mars rahu jupi satur merc

7y 20y 6y 10y 7y 18y 16y 19y 17y

It is generally expected that any special yogas or combinations in a chart, and many such are indicated in classical texts in jyotish, would manifest during their periods in life or would come to fruition in the periods of planets that are related to them in the chart. Often, the "relationship" is expressed through the asterismal connectivities. In other words, if mars is in rahu's star, the dasha of mars would produce results attributed to rahu. A child may be born to the individual during the period of a planet which is placed in the star of another planet ruling or located in the fifth house (progeny). This forms just one of the many considerations and it is always a good idea to look for many different factors in a chart and building up the 'weight of evidence of indicators' before pronouncing a prediction.

Although it is possible to calculate many levels of planetary periods and sub periods (mahadasha, antardasha or bhukti, pratyantar dasha, sookshma and pranadasha), most beginners should perhaps focus on the first two levels and then add more as they progress along the path of proficiency. It is always a good idea to not get tangled in a net of too many variables, regardless of ones capability to handle these. Even with two levels of dasha, one can generate so many combinations of factors that it could prove to be quite a daunting list of considerations. Some of these considerations are: the role of primary and secondary dasha rulers (dasha/bhukti lords or mahadasha/antardasha lords as some prefer to call the first two levels), their strengths, their benefic/malefic nature, their relationships with each other in general and in the specific chart, their placement from their own houses and from the houses that they signify (or are karakas of) as well as from the lords of the houses they signify. For example one could be studying the placement of the period-lords with reference to Jupiter and lord of 5th for progeny-related matters, because both Jupiter and the fifth house deal with the issue of ‘issues’.

Another important consideration is what Sage Satyacharya calls the asterismal principle ('nakshatra siddhant'). This is also called the tara-maitri (asterismal relationship/friendship). Essentially, the star where moon is placed is the orientation point (though Sage Satyacharya also recommends taking the lagna or ascendant should that be stronger than the moon). The other stars, following in sequence, alternate between good and bad relationships, and the series of friendships/enmities repeats again with the next two sets of nine stars each.

For example, if in a chart the moon is in Aries 2nd degree and thus in the star of ketu. The sequence of star-relationships in this specific example would be:

and so on ...

The relative sign position of a planet in a chart and its occupancy in a given star would be an important factor to consider. A planet that is the bhukti-lord and in the 3rd star from the dasha-lord might find it difficult to facilitate positive results of the dasha lord (or itself) fully, for instance.

The effects are modulated by the intrinsic or chart specific qualities of the planet such as strength, beneficence and participation in a particular yoga (+) or arishta (-) as well as mutual placement of major and sub lords in the chart, etc.

These days, readily available software enables one to generate charts with ease by simplifying all the intricate calculations that jyotish requires, but can prove to be a mixed blessing for the jyotish student. There has not come out a significant amount of well-documented or published work that has clearly shown the relative merit of all of the techniques now available at the press of a button. Small samples have been reported in articles and some recent books, and anecdotal claims have been made of their having been tested in thousands of charts. Some of the published work has erroneous data which could be partly due to typographical errors. Overall, the picture is somewhat muddied by these uncertainties.

Traditionally, the divisional charts have been associated with certain special roles or jurisdictions (e.g., navamsha for marital and sexual relationships, saptamamsha for progeny, dashamsha for occupation, etc.). There is a concordance between the jurisdiction attributed to the houses and to the divisional charts, the dasham or 10th deals with ones work, but of the many divisional charts or varga kundalis, the navamsha has always been held in special esteem. The divisional charts have, of course, been routinely employed in strength determination (saptavargaja bal and vimshopaka strength determination) and navamsha seems to be the favorite divisional chart of all jyotishis. Navamsha is in a sense a link between the two zodiacal divisions used by vedic astrologers. It links the zodiac of the signs and the zodiac of the asterisms. Although, the navamshas are named after the signs (Aries, Taurus, etc.), each navamsha coincides with one of the four quarters or padas (step) of each nakshatra. These latter, as you recall, cover an arc of 13d 20m each. Each pada or quarter or navamsha, thus, is 3d 20m wide. The 13d 20m arc that is called a nakshatra roughly represents the arc distance traveled by the Moon in one tithi or one luni-solar day, the primary diurnal unit used in vedic astrology and in vedic times. A tithi is slightly longer than a regular day and represents the synodic luni-solar transit through 12 degrees. Starting at new Moon, with Sun conjunct Moon, by the time the luni-solar arc interval moves from zero degrees (new Moon) through 12 degrees, the Sun has moved forward by approximately one degree and the Moon by about 13 degrees, which is very close to the arc-length of a nakshatra (13d 20m). The nakshatra, therefore, links the essence of the Moon and the Sun, the two lights.

In practice, navamsha charts do provide valuable insight into the nature and strength of planets in a natal chart and also in the delineation of transits. If one were just to look at the radix (rashi kundali or chart) and the navamsha -- this probably would cover a large proportion of what there is to know about the charts through astrology. Unfortunately, not much is clearly laid out in traditional texts and many jyotishis, new and experienced, are deprived of tapping into this gold mine.

Although, experienced jyotishis study many divisional charts and employ a variety of techniques routinely, imagine the complex weave of information that can result for the beginner following such an approach! I, therefore, strongly urge the new student to actively refrain from doing so! Firstly, master the natal chart or radix and then navamsha, and combine the two in your routine practice. In many cases you will probably not miss a lot beyond that! By all means, use the other charts as supplementary material to be looked into and in the strength determination, but not necessarily as primary interpretive tools. You might avoid a lot of confusion and the resulting discouragement that turns many people away from jyotish who begin to think of it as an overly complex approach, which it need not be.

Much of astrology is really an exercise in discerning astro-symbolic connectivity. If multiple indications are pointing in one direction, the likelihood of such an influence coming to pass is more than likely. There is no need to wait with baited breath for some mysterious secret to be unearthed or a magical yoga to appear from some weathered document lying buried in someones ancestral library. Unfortunately, jyotish has its share of sensationalism with expectations like this - some of which is quite candidly baseless and tenuous. A judicious weighting of pros and cons must always be carried out. Canned phrases extracted from books or incorporated into 'interpretive' programs may be used as guidelines or 'starting material' but will never serve as useful material, if used willy-nilly, without giving some thought to how one is using the information in preparing a reading.

FROM TOP DOWN OR BOTTOM UP?
There are basically two approaches that may be followed when studying a chart, the first involves a thorough study of the status of indicators in a chart and their connectivity, the primary ones being, mutual exchange of signs, or mutual reception (Venus in Gemini and mercury in Libra), placement in the same sign (yuti or loose conjunction), mutual drishti or aspects, connection through dispositors and other more subtle connections in asterisms or in divisional horoscopes, etc. This is then followed by the examination of the planetary periods ruling over the different life periods. Planets that indicate certain influences, effects, attributes, often do so in the periods of their own, or in the periods of related planets who are friendly or neutral to them. Common sense tells that such effects would not fructify easily during the periods of planets that are inimical to the planets under study. The exception to this is when the planets that represent the effect are extremely strong. Strength is, at times, not readily represented by shad-bal or similar numerical measures of strength and may need a deeper and more judicious analysis.

While ideal, such an intensive approach is time-consuming. Hence, in some cases, it pays to use the opposite approach. If a client asks you to examine the current period or near future, one starts out by determining the major and minor period that the client is experiencing. In vimshottari dasha system the duration of a minor period (bhukti) ranges from 3 months and 18 days (SUN-Sun) to 3 years and 4 months (VENUS- Venus). At the cost of multiplying the complexity several fold, one could work with three levels of dashas (9x9x9 or 729 bits of information instead of 9x9 or 81 bits of information), but anything smaller would require that the birth time be very accurate! Between the inaccuracies in recorded time, and uncertainties regarding which ayanamsha to use and whether to use solar or savana year, the use of very small periods can be a veritable exercise in futility! Also, mentally prepare yourself to eventually move on towards adding more dashas and other techniques as you progress, but there is no need to do it all at the same time, right away.

So, after having determined the planets ruling over the time period under review, one then works back to determine if these planets are involved in a yoga/combination or represent relevant areas in the horoscope and so on so forth. I must caution that this is not a good way to adopt during early student hood. One can miss a lot of information that would be relevant to the reading as well as for personal learning.

THE TRANSITS!
So, where do the transits fit into all this? In most cases, transits must be looked at within the framework of the planetary periods. Transits have a 'personal' significance when one is experiencing the dasha periods of relevant transiting planets. These planets are not limited to the ones whose dasha period one is undergoing, but also their friends, enemies and those planets connected to them in the natal chart. Planets that are placed in the stellar segments of the period-lords, planets transiting in the stellar segment of the period-lords are very important for timing. Moreover, one must not lose sight of the fact that vimshottari dasha is a form of lunar progression, the natal Moon progressing through the asterism at an unequal pace (compared to the western counterpart, vimshottari dasha is still a progression that involves progressing the Moon through 120 degrees in 120 years, but not at a uniform rate of a degree-a year as utilized by western astrologer). Regardless of the dasha, or the horoscope-specific role and rulership of the Moon, lunar transits must be paid particular attention when studying vimshottari dasha. The lunar transits often help a lot in pin-pointing the timing during a dasha or bhukti and can work as the 'second' hand in a watch! The Moon's transit through relevant signs, stars and its associations in transit with relevant planets must be paid heed to.

To summarize, in order to experience an effect, an influence or situation, one must have the relevant indications in the chart, preferably, several of these pointing in the same direction and, should have the relevant periods and the relevant transits. It is a good learning exercise to keep an eye on the transits of the dasha/bhukti lords and the Moon, at least, and examining any correlation with actual experiences in ones life.

DIRECTIONS
FOR USE IN HORARY AND OTHER APPLICATIONS OF ASTROLOGY

(Gemini = North-East, Lib and Sco = West)

EAST