Type a name in any script, a term, a question, or a combination such as “Saturn in the 7th”.
These pages explain what a chart is. They cover the nine grahas, the twelve signs and houses, the 27 nakṣatras, the divisional charts, strength, daśās, yogas and transits, and how to put them together. Each page explains the topic in plain English, then gives the verses it rests on.
This section explains how each method on the board works and how to read a chart with it, starting with which to use for what.
A chart records where the grahas stood among the twelve sidereal signs at the moment and place of birth.
The nine grahas are the bodies whose positions make up a chart. The word graha means “seizer”.
The rāśis are the twelve signs, each 30° wide. Each sign has a quality, an element, a lord and a part of the body.
The bhāvas are the twelve houses counted from the lagna. Each covers an area of a person’s life.
The nakṣatras are 27 lunar mansions of 13°20′ each. They are older than the twelve signs. The daśās count from them.
A varga divides each sign into equal parts and maps each part to a sign, producing a separate chart for one area of life.
A graha’s ability to give results depends on its dignity, its relations with other grahas, the aspects on it and its measured strength.
The daśās divide a life into periods, each ruled by a graha, and are used to time the results promised in the chart.
A yoga is a combination of grahas, signs or houses that is named in the texts and assigned a result.
Gochara compares the present positions of the grahas with the birth chart, counting from the natal Moon.
The board measures each graha by six strengths and each sign by its bindus.
The almanac describes each day by the tithi, vāra, nakṣatra, yoga and karaṇa. Each limb has its own reckoning and its own uses. Sunrise names the day.
A chart can be read through the stars its grahas occupy. That reading stands beside the house reading.
The Jaimini method is a second way to read a chart. It works with signs rather than grahas. The Jaimini sūtras and several chapters of Parāśara teach it.
These points in the chart are not bodies in the sky. They are reckoned from the Sun, the parts of the day and the moment of birth.
The texts add these refinements to the table of good and bad houses from the Moon.
Bṛhat Jātaka 24 gives the rules for a woman’s chart. Most of the reading is the same as for any chart.
The Tājika texts read one year of life from a chart cast when the Sun returns to its place at birth.
The texts read a chart cast for the moment of a question for that question alone.
KP is a 20th-century method that the board offers beside the classical reading. It uses Placidus houses, the sub lord of each cusp, and four levels of significators.
The Tamil texts judge whether a watch of the day or night favours a matter by five birds and their five activities. The source is Agastya’s Pañcapakṣi Śāstram.
The texts reckon the moment of conception back from a birth. They also state rules that link the conception chart and the birth chart.
The texts describe a set order for reading a chart. It moves from the whole to the parts, then from the promise to its timing.