Simple Astrology Calculations

Hi Friends,

As I was driving my motorcycle on the way to office I was collecting some thoughts that people say regarding Astrology. The issue was more with the calculation part; people say it’s very difficult to calculate the position of planets etc. Then a thought struck to me whether there are some simple ways present to approximately arrive at the planetary positions based on the velocity of the planets. The following idea came to me and any one reading this particular article should be in a position to understand the ease with which the calculations can be made.

Please read properly, patiently, and try to remember this after some more re-readings on your part.

HOW TO CALCULATE DEGREES OF THE SUN AT BIRTH APPROXIMATELY WITHOUT REFERRING EPHEMERIS (Panchanga)

1) Every Planet is moving for us who are on Earth as we see them. So is The Sun (Actually not a Planet but treated like one. Its actually a star or Luminary). All these planets when they move within each sign, the starting point is measured at 0 degrees and ending at 30 degrees Which means that if we count the 12 signs and multiply by 30 degrees we get the figure of 360 Degrees. Don’t we say that My Moon is at 6 degrees Sagittarius or Jupiter is at 25 degrees Cancer etc… Well, all these planets have their daily motions, like we know that each planet travels daily at this speed (This knowledge comes from past observation from Observatories and astronomical Statistics) some planets have very fast speed like The Moon which
takes around 2 and a half days to enter and leave a sign., some have very slow speed like Saturn which takes two and a half years to enter and leave a sign. We will come to the daily motions of the Planets in our
Forthcoming articles.

At the moment we will concentrate on The Sun. The Sun travels approximately at speed of daily motion of 1 Degree. It takes therefore one month to stay in a sign and cross over to next sign. (Remember this)

The Sun changes sign every month approximately on 15th or 16th 0r 17th (Remember this).

Which also means that on 15th the Sun would be at 0 degrees, in any sign which it has just entered,
and 1 degrees on 16th and 2 degrees on 17th and so on till next 15th when it is at 30 degrees and
then has to cross over to the next sign and again would bestarting at 0 degrees. For example a native born on the28th of January of any year would be having Sun at approximately 14 degrees ( 0 degrees on 15th +14 days ). In this way one can know the degrees of the Sun at birth approximately.(Calculate Your own Sun degrees first in mind then check Your Chart).

HOW TO KNOW THE SUN SIGN WITHOUT REFERRING EPHEMERIS (Panchanga)

Giving below the Dates each Month when The Sun normally changes and to which Sign? (The best way to remember this is to first remember your Own Sun sign and start from that month )

Jan 15th to Feb 15th - Sun enters and remains in Capricorn
Feb 15th to March 15th -Sun remains in Aquarius
March 15th to April 15th- Sun remains in Pisces
April 15th to May 15th - Sun remains in Aries
May 15th to June 15th - Sun remains in Taurus
June 15th to July 15th - Sun remains in Gemini
July 16th to Aug 15th - Sun remains in Cancer
Aug 16th to Sept 16th- Sun remains in Leo
Sept 17th to Oct 16th - Sun remains in Virgo
Oct 16th to Nov 16th - Sun remains in Libra
Nov 16th to Dec 15th- Sun remains in Scorpio.
Dec 15th to Jan 15th -Sun remains in Sagittarius.
(The above are approximate dates -maybe not exactly same days as mentioned 1-2 days here n there)

(The above position would be shown in Charts made for all those staying in India or who have made their charts calculated here-for western people the Sun sign may be one sign ahead and they have to deduct the ayanamsha to get the above Sun sign)

Example - if I am born on June 28th as per above table, my Sun sign would be Gemini.
Note- (When any of Your friends is born on say 15th or 16th don’t predict his Sun sign without referring the Ephemeris)

HOW TO PREDICT WHICH HOUSE SUN WOULD BE WITHOUT REFERRING TO THE ACTUAL CHART OR EPHEMERIS (Panchanga).

(Remember this By Heart) If the Birth is at time of-
Sunrise- then Sun would be in 1st House or Ascendant.
At Noon - The Sun would be in 10th House
At Sunset - The Sun would be in 7th house
At Midnight - Sun would be in 4th house.

(In above, take the movement of The Sun as clockwise and not anti-clock wise)

In India when the Sunrise is almost at same time throughout the year (Except at winter time nearing December when it may be late by 1 hour or so), we can roughlytake the following slots as position of Sun for Local birth time.
Local Mean time or LMT we would be talking in later lessons – But will explain in short. Though the clock will show 4.30 am for a person in Bombay and for a person in Calcutta too, but the sky would show Sunrise for a person in Calcutta in summer, and still night for a person in Bombay. That is known in crude language as local Mean time.

Birth time at :-
Morning 5am to 7am - Sun would be in 1st House
Morning 7 - 9am - Sun would be in 12th House
Morning 9 to 11am - Sun would be in 11th House
Morning 11 to 1 Noon - Sun would be in 10th House
Noon 1 - 3 pm - Sun would be in 9th House
Evening 3pm to 5 pm - Sun would be in 8th House
Evening 5pm to 7pm (Sunset)- Sun would be in 7th House
Evening 7pm to Night 9 pm - Sun would be in 6th house
Night 9pm to 11 pm Sun would be in 5th House
Night 11.00pm Midnight to 1.00 am after midnight - 4th house
Late night 1 am to early morning 3 am - Third House
Early morning 3am to 5 am - Sun would be in 2nd House.

Thus if someone says, that ' I was born on February 28th at 10am morning, in Bombay', you can immediately tell him safely that Your Sun is in 11th House. The above is a very crude method of predicting, not to be used unnecessarily, but when you are traveling or sitting in a group with no means of equipment like Ephemeris, Computer etc. or once in a while when You are sure about the results,
You may try out making a chart on a piece of paper, filling in whatever you know or have found out, and then ask your contact to open his chart and match the same. That would really amaze him and make him
a fan of Your prowess. But do not forget certain countries and places have bizarre (A wrong word actually) Sunrise and sunset timings, not as per India, so better avoid predicting mentally for those cases.

- For those people in whose country/place and that particular season or time of the year, if the
Sun rises late, or early, then you have to shift the timings backward, or the Sun forward accordingly after some study. (The foreign Citizens (i.e.non Indian) can check their Sunrise and Sunset timings throughout the year, in their cities of residence, and prepare such a chart for themselves, after little bit deductions or additions in timings, for their use).


One more advantage - When you happen to see the chart of the native, and check the position of The Sun, you also immediately realize whether the chart is printed rightly or wrongly, as per the time of birth he mentions, cause at times people forget to say rightly- am or pm to the computer chart maker or he does not listen properly and feeds in wrongly, and then the poor native shows around the wrong chart to all astrologers, with nothing matching his own life. I have myself detected a few wrongly made charts by this method.

Okay, now to the last part of thisArticle.

HOW TO FIX ACSENDANT WITHOUT REFERRING TO THE CHART OR EPHEMERIS.

I do not think that this is necessary to explain, You should be able to guess this one for yourself by now, but let me explain, yet.

Once you know the position of the Sun, finding the Ascendant is easy, solving a childs puzzle and gaining
The same happiness and joy.

Suppose one was born at 10.30 am in month of June of say day 20th. Therefore Sun would be in Gemini and in 11th house. Now count anticlockwise till you reach the 1st house.
You will count thus-
11th house Gemini - Sign No. 3
12 th house Cancer - Sign No.4
1st House Leo - Sign No.5
Therefore the ascendant is Leo.

You can do this in your mind without the use of Writing Pad or Pen.

Take another example-
Birth on 10th February Time 10.00pm night.
Sun would be in Capricorn as per previous table given.
Sun would be in 5th house as per previous table given.
Start counting anticlockwise.
5th House Capricorn
6th House Acquarius
7th house Pisces
8th house Aries
9th house Taurus
10th house Gemini
11th House Cancer
12th house Leo
and There You are
1st House Virgo.

Follow the above procedure some amount of practice shall make it more easy for you to calculate.

Happy Calculations

Ashtakvarga Basics

ASHTAKVARGA

BasicsMaharshi Parashar says, "if the 12 Bhavas, including Lagna, are occupied by, oraspected by benefic Grahas, they yield auspicious results, according to theircharacteristics, but this happens, where the Grahas concerned are in theirexaltation Rashi, own Rashi, or posited in a benefic Bhava. There will be nogood effects, if such Grahas are in depression, or posited in an inauspiciousBhava. Similarly the Bhavas, associated with, or aspected by malefics indepression, or posited in malefic Bhavas, yield adverse results, according totheir characteristics. This is how the general effects have been described by theDaivajnas. I have only repeated those effects. The main purposes of this JyotishShastra are to determine the longevity and joys and sorrows of the people, butbecause the movements of the Grahas are so subtle, even sages, like Vashistaand Brihaspati, have not been able to be quite definite in this respect. Then howcan a common man, particularly in Kaliyuga, do so".With this background he reveals this system of Ashtakvarga. The meaning ofAshtakaVarg is literally the group or division of eight. In other words it is thecombination of the good and bad positions of a Grah with reference to theseven Grahas and Lagn. So it is the combination of the benefic and maleficpoints in a planet's chart with reference to the position of the eight other Grahas(here Lagn is to be treated, as a Grah). The whole system revolves on the basisof transiting positions of planets and their natal position -- which is basicallytransiting position at birth and forms the fixed point of analysis.Those who are not well versed with this system, could go through any classiclike BPHS, Horasara, Phaldeepika, Jatakdeshmarga, etc. to become familiarwith the preparation of ashtakvarga charts and the effects of transits of differentplanets in houses based on number of auspicious bindus.The total auspicious Bindus given by planets is 337. Divided by 12, it gives anaverage of 28 bindus per rashi. Therefore, we can roughly say that for averageresults of a house, we need at least 28 Bindus in samuday ashtakvarga of thathouse. Due to the difference in rising period of rashis, the short ascension signsmay give good results at 26 and long ascension may be favourable when theyare with 30 bindus. One has to keep that in mind. Amongst the 12 Bhavas morethan 30 bindus advance the effects of a Bhava, between 25 and 30 bindusproduce medium effects and the effects of the Bhava, and which contains lessthan 25 bindus, get inauspicious effects.In order to get a complete picture of effects of various planets in a house, onehas to see within the rashi, the contribution given by various planets(Bhinnashtak varga). The planets can contribute anywhere between 0-8 bindusin any rashi or house. Without going into technical details, I am just mentioninghere that Mars and Saturn can give 0 points whereas other planets give aminimum of 1 point in a rashi.Basically, Ashtakvarga is made to see transit effects of planets in relation to theirnatal strength. The favourable or unfavourable results are because of the transitof planets in the signs having different number of auspicious bindus in SAV ofsign and BAV of planet. A sign and house having, say 37 bindus in SAV wouldmean that most of the planets have contributed auspicious points to this signand house in relation to other planets and lagna. Hence whenever planets willtransit on this sign, native will get mostly auspicious effects of the houseconcerned.So we can say that for any house to prosper, it should have minimum 28(preferably 30) bindus, the more the merrier. If simultaneously, its karak and lordare associated with more bindus, the good effects are multiplied. If the transitingplanet to such a house, has also given an above average number of bindus inits own Bhinnashtak, the results will surely be very auspicious.We may say:• When a benefic transits a sign with less bindus, native gets littlehappiness, in proportion with the no. of bindus.• When a malefic transits a sign with less bindus, it causes great agony inreverse proportion of bindus• When a benefic transits over a sign with greater no. of bindus, the nativewill have more favourable results of the house.• When a malefic transits over a sign with greater number of bindus, it willgive luck and not auspicious effects.Even during the much dreaded Sade-sati, it is seen that if the 3 houses (2,1,12)transited by Saturn have more than 30 points, the adverse effects are not there.In the same way saturn's transit to other houses including 4th and 8th may bejudged.Various effects of planets transiting in different signs and houses with differentno. of bindus are given in classics. These may be referred to for interpreting theresults of transits. E.g broadly, when Jupiter transits sign where he has givenmaximum bindus in his bhinnashtak, it invariably gives good results of itssignifications such as wisdom, progeny, etc.Of course, as I have said earlier, these effects must be moderated with intrinsicworth of the natal chart and dasha bhukti. Antar of a planet associated withmore benefic bindus is auspicious.Some ExamplesCase 1: a native 22.3.1936/17.15/AhmedabadThe ascendant has 21 bindus, LL sun is associated with 20 bindus and karaksun also has only 20 bindus, Thus first house is inauspicious. Native died in his29th year.Case 2: Male 16.10.1930/22.55/Virpur (Saurashtra)Here ascendant has 36 bindus, LL mars has 35 bindus, and karak sun has 32bindus. The native is well built, enjoys sound health with no major health trouble.Case 3: 6.2.1927/7.19/AhmedabadHere the 5th house becomes weak. It has 24 bindus, 5L venus has 24 bindusand karak Jupiter is also with 24 bindus. He had no child at all.Case 4: 18.2.1940/21.00/Surendernagar7H has only 15 bindus, with lord Jupiter and karak venus also therein, with 15bindus each. The native could not get marriedCase 5: 26.10.1952/4.00/PatnaThe person has 27 points in 4H, 4L Jupiter is with 22 points, Karaks Moon,venus etc. are all with lower than average bindus. The person has marriedthrice, still never got domestic happiness. 7H with 30 points has given himmarriage.Case 6: 2.6.1933/13.15/BombayNative had great gains when Saturn was transiting through Gemini with 38bindus. The moment it entered cancer, he lost all what he'd earned.Case 7: Female 18.2.1974/9.55/Delhi Her 5H and leo is associated with only 22benefic bindus. Saturn has given only 2 bindus in his BAV. In February, whileSaturn was in leo, she faced a near fatal occurrence of pnuemonia while shewas pregnant, and doctors had to take out a premature baby. Both mother andbaby have still not recovered from the misery.