Astrology can be divided in two sections: mathematical astrology and predictive astrology.

Mathematical part of astrology mainly contains creation of birth chart. In this part of
astrology, different positions of the planets are calculated on the basis of time and place etc.
On the other hand, predictive astrology is used for foretelling events of future. In this series,
we will discuss mathematical portion later and initially focus on predictive astrology. At the
time of child-birth, a map of the positions of planets in the cosmos is created, and this map
is known as birth-chart or janma kundali. There are various software available in market
these days that can be used to calculate mathematical data required and to create birthcharts.
You
can
start
with
free
online
astrology
software
available
at http://www.MyKundali.com.
Entire astrology is based primarily on nine planets, twelve signs, twenty-seven Nakshatras
and twelve houses (Bhava). Generally predictions are based on permutations and
combinations of these elements. Names of nine planets are as follows:

Planet

Sanskrit Name

Sun

(Surya)

Moon

, (Chandra, Som)

Mars

, (Mangal, Kuja)

Mercury

(Budha)

Jupiter

, (Guru, Brihaspati)

Venus

(Shukra)

Saturn

(Shani)

North Node

(Rahu)
(Ketu)

South Node

Sun and Moon are considered to be a star and a satellite respectively according to the
modern astronomy. But Indian astrology uses word Graha which is translated to Planet in
English and includes Sun and Moon for predictive purpose. Similarly, North Node (Rahu) and
South Node (Ketu) are astronomical points, and also called Graha (Planet) for predictive
purpose.
Indian astrology is earth-centric. Zodiac is a circular belt and all planets seem to be moving
on this belt. If this zodiac is divided into twelve equal parts, each part is known as a zodiac
sign. These twelve zodiac signs are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio,
Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Similarly, when this zodiac is divided into
twenty-seven equal parts, each part is called a Nakshatra. We will discuss about Nakshatras
at length later in this series.
Mathematically a circle is of 360 degrees. Therefore one zodiac sign, which is one-twelfth of
zodiac, comprises 30 degrees. Nonetheless, there is no need to go much into the
mathematical portion and it is enough to know now that each zodiac sign is of 30 degrees.

Each sign is governed by a planet. Let us have a look at it:

Zodiac Sign

Sanskrit Name

Governing Planet

Aries

Mesha

Mars

Taurus

Vrishabha

Venus

Gemini

Mithun

Mercury

Cancer

Karka or Karkata

Moon

Leo

Simha

Sun

Virgo

Kanya

Mercury

Libra

Tula

Venus

Scorpio

Vrishchik

Mars

Sagittarius

Dhanu

Jupiter

Capricorn

Makar

Saturn

Aquarius

Kumbha

Saturn

Pisces

Meena

Jupiter

This is it for this week. In next part of the article, we will discuss the nature of zodiac sings
and planets; and also how they can be used to make forecasts.
In previous article of this series, we learnt about zodiac signs, planets and their ownership.
Those were very important concepts and, if possible, try to memorize those concepts. Now,
we are going to know about categorization of planets and signs, which is crucial for learning
predictive astrology. If you have not read that article, it is recommended to read Part-1,
before proceeding to this part.
Firstly, planets are classified into two groups namely benefic and malefic as follows:
Natural Benefic Planets: Moon, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter are considered benefic by
nature
Natural Malefic Planets: Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu are considered malefic by
nature
Generally, Moon and Mercury are not always benefic. Full Moon i.e. the Moon near Purnima is
considered benefic, while No Moon i.e. Moon near Amavasya is believed not to be benefic.
Similarly, if Mercury is placed with benefic planet, it is considered benefic and if placed with
malefic, it is considered malefic. In other words, nature of Mercury depends upon the nature
of planet influencing it.
It should be remembered that all natural malefic planets do not always produce negative
results. Similarly, all natural benefic planets do not always give positive results. Good or bad
effect depends up on several other factors like ownership, placement and aspects etc. We
will discuss these factors later.

Let us start with first factor i.e. sign placement. Generally, any planet gives positive results
in exalted sign (uchcha rashi), own sign (swa-rashi), and friendly sign (mitra-rashi) in this
order. In other words, exalted planets give best results, planets in own sign give second best
results and planets in friendly sign gives third best result, if we want to quantify. On the
other hand, if a planet is positioned in debilitated sign (neecha-rashi) or enemys sign
(shatru-rashi), it is not capable of giving good results
This table summarizes exalted, debilitated and own sign of planets -

Serial No.

Planet

Exalted Sign

Debilitated Sign

Own Sign

Sun

Aries

Libra

Leo

Moon

Taurus

Scorpio

Cancer

Mars

Capricorn

Cancer

Aries, Scorpio

Mercury

Virgo

Pisces

Gemini, Virgo

Jupiter

Cancer

Capricorn

Sagittarius, Pisces

Venus

Pisces

Virgo

Taurus, Libra

Saturn

Libra

Aries

Capricorn, Aquarius

Rahu

Sagittarius

Gemini

Ketu

Gemini

Sagittarius

Some points to be noted from above table:

1. Exalted and debilitated signs of a planet are always seventh from each other, e.g.
Sun is exalted in Aries, the first sign of zodiac, and debilitated in Libra, the seventh
sign of zodiac.
2. Sun and Moon are lord of just one sign. While Rahu and Ketu are not lord of any of the
signs. Other planets are lord of two signs each.
3. Rahu and Ketu dont have their own signs. Even exalted and debilitated signs of Rahu
and Ketu are not well-accepted by all the astrologers.
It is also required to understand friendship and enmity of planets for predictive astrology.
Planets are neutral, friendly or inimical to other planets as follows:

Planet

Friend

Enemy

Neutral

Sun

Moon, Mars, Jupiter

Saturn, Venus

Mercury

Moon

Sun, Mercury

None

Rest of the planets

Mars

Sun, Moon, Jupiter

Mercury

Rest of the planets

Mercury

Sun, Venus

Moon

Venus, Saturn

Jupiter

Sun, Moon, Mars

Venus, Mercury

Saturn

Venus

Saturn, Mercury

Rest of the planets

Jupiter, Mars

Saturn

Mercury, Venus

Rest of the planets

Jupiter

Rahu, Ketu

Venus, Saturn

Sun, Moon, Mars

Jupiter, Mercury

This is very important table and should be memorized. If you find it difficult to memorize
initially, there is no need to get frightened. Eventually with the time and practice, you would
learn it automatically.
I am sharing a simple but rough formula to memorize above table. Roughly we can classify
planets into two groups that are inimical to each other:
Group 1: Sun, Moon, Mars and Jupiter
Group 2: Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu
As I said earlier, this is just a rough formula and there are some exceptions to it which you
can note down from above table.
How to use above table? Those planets, which are placed in the signs of friendly planets or
located with friendly planets, produce positive results. Similarly, if a planet is situated in sign
of enemy planet or positioned with an enemy planet tends to produce diminished positive
results.
Let me take an example. You can see from above table that Saturn and Sun are inimical to
each other. So if Sun is posited in sign of Saturn i.e. Capricorn or Aquarius or Sun is situated
with Saturn, it will not be able to give its good results. In other words, Sun will be weak in
giving its results. On the other side, if Sun is with Moon, Mars or Jupiter who are friendly to
Sun or in their signs, it should generally give good results.
That is all for this week. In next article, we will discuss about birth-chart, signification of
planet/ house/ sign and their use in astrology.
If you have any question, you can ask at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hindu-astrology.
Please restrict your question to this tutorial only.
Exercise:
Find out what all planets are posited in exalted sign, own sign, friendly sign, debilitated sign
and enemy sign in your own chart and your family members chart.
This week we will learn how to interpret diagram of a birth chart. We will also get to know
concepts like ascendant and house etc.
A birth-chart (also called Kundli or Horoscope in India) can be called a map of planetary
positions at the time of birth. There are several different ways of portraying birth-chart in
different parts of India. Mainly horoscope is drawn in three major ways north Indian style,

south Indian style and Bangla (East Indian) style. To keep it simple, we will restrict our
discussion to north Indian style only.
A birth chart tells about the position of planets in houses and signs. We have already
discussed about the planets and zodiac sings, and we will talk about houses a little bit later.
In north Indian diagram of birth chart, ascendant sign is written on very first place and then
signs are shown from right to left. It means signs are depicted anti-clock wise and the
number corresponding to zodiac sign is shown in each box. It can be understood better with
following example chart:

Houses (Sanskrit: )
To understand what is house, we will have to forget all the numbers and names of planets in
above example chart for a while. Above birth chart diagram can be decamped in 12 boxes,
out of which eight are triangular and four are rectangular in shape. In these four rectangles,
topmost rectangle is considered to be ascendant or the first house. This It has been
depicted in gray background in above example chart. Position of ascendant is always fixed in
the birth chart. So when we have to find out ascendant, we look at the position of grayed
box above. Anything written in that gray box will be called in first house.
When we start counting anti-clock wise from first house, the next position arrived thus is
known as second house. The next one from second house is called third house and so on. In
Sanskrit, house and ascendant are known as bhaav () and lagna () respectively.
House-lord (Sanskrit: )
As we know, house and sign are two different concepts. The numbers written in
horoscope denote zodiac signs, e.g. 11 can be seen written in first house, which shows
that eleventh sign i.e. Aquarius is in ascendant or first house. Similarly, the 12th sign or
Pisces is situated in second house. We have studied in previous lesson that lords of Aquarius
and Pisces are Saturn and Jupiter respectively. Therefore, in astrological language we will say
that lord of first house is Saturn (because 11 is written in first house). In same manner, lord
of second house is Jupiter.

The lord of first house is also known as ascendant-lord. Similarly, lord of second house is
called second-lord, lord of third house is called third-lord and so on. So in example chart we
can say that Saturn is the first house lord, Jupiter is the second house lord and so on.
Position of planets in houses
If we start counting from gray rectangle to the house where Venus and Rahu are placed in
example chart, we will count up to 5. Thus, we can say that Rahu and Venus are posited in
fifth house. Similarly, Moon and Mars are in sixth, Saturn, Sun and Mercury are in seventh,
and Jupiter and Ketu are in eleventh house. This is known as position of planets in different
houses.
Position of Planets in signs
It is comparatively easier to determine position of planets in zodiac signs. The number
written in the box where planet is posited shows position of the planet in sign. In above
illustration, 3 is written in the box where Venus and Rahu are placed, so we can say that
these planets are in 3rd sign i.e. Gemini. In similar fashion, Moon and Mars are in Cancer
sign because 4 is written in the box where they are posited.
Before finishing this weeks lesson, I would like to repeat it that position of planets in houses
and signs are two different concepts. When it comes to houses, the topmost rectangular
house is considered the first one irrespective of the number written there. The numbers
written are not important for determining the position of planets in houses. These numbers
convey zodiac signs and therefore they are used to ascertain the position of planets in
different signs.
In astrology, predictions are based on nature and significations of planets, signs, houses, and
their inter-relations.
Astrology treats planets as living being; signs and houses are like those areas, where planets
travel. Relationships of planets with each other, with zodiac signs and with houses etc.
determine the predictions.
Just like living beings, planets have nature in astrology. Other than this, planets also have
significations. It is of utmost importance to understand the difference between nature
and signification. I have observed several times that even many famous astrologers do not
understand this distinction clearly and thus commit mistakes in predictions.
In simple words, nature tells about how and signification answers
what. Let us understand it more clearly with the help of an example. Suppose that Sun is
posited in 10th house in Aries. In such situation, what results will Sun give? A table depicting
the significations of houses is given below, which tell us that tenth house signifies business
and trade. So what will Sun give? is answered with Sun will give business. And how is
this business or trade going to be? It is going to be in accordance with the natures of Sun
and Aries. Sun is an aggressive planet and Aries is ruled by Mars that is also aggressive. It
shows that the business can be of aggressive nature. In other words, native can either be in

defense or in sports, where aggression is a necessity. Similarly, a prediction is made by

combining the nature and signification of planets, signs and houses.
All the living and non-living things are signified by planets and houses. Because all these
things cannot be discussed here, therefore we will discuss only some important
significations. Let us first have a look at different houses and their significations:
First house: It signifies birth, head, nature, body, organs, age, looks, height and caste etc.
Second house: It shows money, monetary gain, eyes, face, voice, economical condition,
family, food, tongue, teeth, death and nose etc.
Third house: It depicts younger siblings, courage, fear, ears, strength and mental balance
etc.
Fourth house: It indicates pleasure, education, vehicles, heart, property, house, mother,
relatives, domestic animals and buildings etc.
Fifth house: It suggests progeny, intelligence, laudable actions or work, charity,
entertainment and gambling etc.
Sixth house: It points at diseases, bodily deformity, troubles caused by foes, tension,
wound, litigation, brothers of mother and depression etc.
Seventh house: It stands for marriage, wife, sex, travel, death, business and partners etc.
Eighth house: Age, misfortune, vice, loan, enmity, sudden death, problems, suffering,
pleasure or pain in this life as per karmas of previous lives and afterworlds etc.
Ninth house: It tells about father, luck, guru, praise, effective work, religion, donation and
virtues of past births.
Tenth house: It describes occupation, business, trade, fame, class, rank, authority,
domination and family business.
Eleventh house: It is used to contemplate benefit, elder brothers, profit, jewelry, fulfillment
of longing, monetary gain and success etc.
Twelfth house: It denotes spending, agony, moksha, poverty, actions out of enmity,
charity, loss in theft, bondage, left eye, bed pleasure and leg etc.
Time-constraint forces me to wrap up here. More for next week. Chao!
In last lesson, we studies about signification of houses. We also learnt the difference
between signification and nature. This week, we are going to learn about planets. The
signification and nature of planets are as follows:

Sun
Nature: It is square shaped, short height, dark red color, man, warrior (Kshatriya) caste, vice
planet,
Satwa
guna,
fire
element
and
Pitta
nature.
Signification: It controls king, father, copper, trees with fruits, small trees, wheat, bones,
head, eyes, brain and heart.
Moon
Nature: It is spherical, woman, Vaisya (business-class) caste, Sattva Guna, Vaat-Kapha
nature.
Signification: It controls white color, mother, mind, art, white tree, silver, sweet, rice, chest,
saliva, lungs and eye sight.
Mars
Nature: It has muscular body, square, cruel, aggressive, man, warrior (Kshatriya) class,
Tamo-guni,
Fire
element,
Pitta
nature.
Signification: It shows red color, siblings, war, arms, thief, wound, daal, Pitta, blood, muscles,
operation, ears and nose etc.
Mercury
Nature: It is thin, impotent, business class (Vaishya), neutral planet, Rajoguni, earth element
and
consists
of
all
three
Vaat,
Pitta
and
Kapha
natures.
Signification: It indicates green color, grams, mothers brother, mathematics, trade, speech,
tongue, voice, sex related diseases, dumbness, laziness and skin diseases.
Jupiter
Nature: heavy fat body, man, Brahmin, pleasant, Sattva Guna, space element and Kapha
nature.
Signification: It depicts yellow color, Vedas, religion, devotion, gold, wise, guru, fat, Kapha,
swelling, home, education, sun, progeny, marriage and kidney etc.
Venus
Nature: It is beautiful, female, Brahmin, charming, Rajoguni, water element and Kapha
nature.
Signification: It signifies white color, beautiful clothes, beauty, wife, love affair, sex, nuptial
bliss, poetry, singing, eyes and women etc.
Saturn
Nature: It has black color, strange eyes, thin and tall body, cruel, impotent, Shudra class,
vice,
Tamoguni,
Vaat
Kapha
nature
and
air
element.
Signification: It shows back color, fathers brother, jealousy, roguishness, thief, beasts,
servants, age, moles, physical strength, practice of Yoga, luxury, renunciation, service and
heart diseases etc.
Rahu
&
Ketu
Nature: They are Vice planets, Chandaal, Tamoguni, Vaat Pitta nature and impotent.
Signification: Dark smoke-like color, grandfather, grandmother, deception, accident, quarrel,
theft, snake, abroad, skin diseases, legs, hunger and difficulty in progress etc.

Rahus nature is like Saturn and Ketu has Mars-like nature.

Let us have a look at the nature of signs after learning nature and signification of planets.
Aries: Odd, Fiery, Movable, Barren, Violent, Quadruped, Short ascension, Male, Bilious,
Forest, Hilly Areas, Head, Brain
Taurus: Even, Earthy, Fixed, Semi Fruitful, Quadruped, Short ascension, Female, Windy,
Agricultural Land, Face, Eyes
Gemini: Odd, Airy, Dual, Barren, Human, Double-bodied, Voice, Short ascension, Male, Bile,
Wind and Phlegm, Bedroom, Throat, Shoulder, Arms, Lungs
Cancer: Even, Watery, Movable, Fruitful, Mute, Long ascension, Female, Phlegm, Chasm
with water, Chest
Leo: Odd, Fiery, Fixed, Barren, Human, Long ascension, Male, Bilious, Forest, Heart, Upper
Abdomen
Virgo: Even, Earthy, Dual, Barren, Human, Long ascension, Female, Windy, Mountain, Lower
Abdomen, Spleen
Libra: Odd, Airy, Movable, Semi Fruitful, Voice, Long ascension, Male, Bile, Wind and
Phlegm, Entertainment Places, Genetelia, Kidney.
Scorpio: Even, Watery, Fixed, Fruitful, Mute, Violent, Centipede, Long ascension, Female,
Phlegm, Underground, Excretory Organs.
Sagittarius: Odd, Fiery, Dual, Semi Fruitful, Double - bodied, Quadruped (Second Half),
Long ascension, Male, Bilious, Military Places, Thighs, Liver.
Capricorn: Even, Earthy, Movable, Semi Fruitful, Quadruped, Short ascension, Female,
Windy, Watery, Knee.
Aquarius: Odd, Airy, Fixed, Human, Voice, Short ascension, Male, Bile, Wind and Phlegm,
Porter House, Shin.
Pisces: Even, Watery, Dual, Fruitful, Mute, Double- Bodied, Centipede, Short ascension,
Female, Phlegm, Sea, Feet
You have gained enough astrological knowledge by now. Now you are ready for making
predictions. We will learn next how this information is used to make future forecasts.

Now, we have studied about houses, planets and signs. Let us have a look at our illustrative
birth-chart again.
Suppose that we want to know about the looks of native. We are aware that ascendant or
the first house determines ones looks. Here, ascendant lord is Saturn because 11 is written
in 1st house indicating the sign Aquarius and it is ruled by Saturn. It shows that the Saturn is
affecting natives looks. Saturn is posited in seventh house along with Sun and Mercury in
Leo sign. Sun is the lord of Leo too, thus Sun will also affect natives looks. Saturns nature is
black, strange eyes, thin and tall body, cruel, impotent, Shudra class, vice, Tamoguni, Vaat
Kapha nature and air element. And Suns nature is square shape, short height, dark red
color, man, warrior class, vice, Sattva Guna, fire element and Pitta nature. So, the native has
influences from both these planets.