Mithuna is the third sign of the sidereal zodiac, extending from 60° to 90°, and its lord is Mercury. (BPHS 3.1 · BJ 1.6 · BPHS 3.9-10) Parāśara and Varāhamihira class it as dvisvabhāva, or dual. They also place it among the odd signs, so it is male and krūra. (BPHS 3.5 · BJ 1.11) Parāśara gives it the airy element, and the card of sign qualities gives its humour as the three doṣas mixed. (BPHS 3.9-10 · BPHS 3.6) Varāhamihira assigns it the western direction. (BJ 1.11)

Varāhamihira says Mithuna is śīrṣodaya, rising by the head, and he also places it among the nocturnal signs, strong at night. (BJ 1.10) Bṛhat Jātaka places Mithuna at the chest of Kālapuruṣa, and Parāśara’s body scheme places the third sign at the arms. (BJ 1.4 · BPHS 3.4) The image given by Varāhamihira is a human couple holding a mace and a lute. (BJ 1.5) He gives its colour as parrot-green, and Parāśara describes it as green, with a pale-red tint. (BJ 1.20 · BPHS 3.10)

Parāśara adds further sign marks for Mithuna. It is a male pair, two-footed, airy, harsh-sounding, rural, herd-like, and has well-proportioned limbs. (BPHS 3.9 · BPHS 3.10) The library also places within Mithuna the later part of Mṛgaśīrṣa, then Ārdrā, then Punarvasu. (BJ 1.4) In strength by sign dignity, Mithuna is Mercury’s own sign. (BPHS 3.9-10 · Pulippāṇi 6) The Sun and Venus are friends of Mercury, the Moon is Mercury’s enemy, and Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are neutral to Mercury. (BJ 2.16-17 · BPHS 2.53-56)

No graha is exalted in Mithuna, no graha is debilitated there, and no graha has mūlatrikoṇa there. (BJ 1.13-14 · BPHS 2.46-52) A graha placed in Mithuna therefore gains neither the special height of exaltation nor the special weakness of debility from the sign alone. (BJ 1.13-14 · BPHS 2.46-52) In plain reading, exaltation here would mean a graha reached its sign of highest strength, and debility here would mean it fell in its sign of lowest strength, but the texts in this library do not assign either state to Mithuna. (BJ 1.13-14 · BPHS 2.46-52)

For birth with the Moon in Mithuna, Varāhamihira says the native is fond of women, skilled in love, red-eyed, learned in śāstra, and fit for a messenger’s work. (BJ 17.3) He adds curly hair, sharp wit, skill in jest, gesture, and gambling, sweet speech, fondness for food, song, and dance, a raised nose, and association with eunuchs. (BJ 17.3) Sārāvalī gives a similar picture and adds clever intellect, good fortune, laughter, pleasant speech, broad limbs, sensual attachment, and support from two mothers. (SAR 23.16)

Sārāvalī also gives results when the Moon in Mithuna receives aspects. With the Sun’s aspect, the Moon in Mithuna gives intelligence, wealth, radiance, beauty, and righteousness, along with affliction and little wealth. (SAR 23.17) With Mars’ aspect, it gives heroism, wisdom, happiness, vehicles, prosperity, and beauty. (SAR 23.18) With Mercury’s aspect, it gives skill in gaining wealth, unconquered power, and high intelligence. (SAR 23.19) With Jupiter’s aspect, it gives learning, eloquence, fame, truth in speech, honour, beauty, and pleasures with women, garlands, vehicles, ornaments, and jewels. (SAR 23.20 · SAR 23.21) With Saturn’s aspect, it gives poverty, want of relatives, loss of pleasures from women, and public dislike. (SAR 23.22)

For Mithuna rising as lagna, Sārāvalī says the native has a beloved wife, delights in giving ornaments, speaks words worthy of respect, is eloquent, has two mothers, and is subdued by enemies. (SAR 47.10) It adds that the native is skilled in Gandharva arts and has interest in hearing, scripture, meaning, wit, and poetry, along with gentleness, fondness for adornment, passion, and friendship with good people. (SAR 47.11) The same chapter also gives less easy traits, including intolerance, deceit, few kinsmen, undesirable sons, modest conduct, downcast eyelashes, unusual limbs or feet, fierceness of form, crooked gait, an enmity-destroying temper, and possession of gold and waters or waves of the earth. (SAR 47.12 · SAR 47.13)

For other grahas in Mithuna, Bṛhat Jātaka says the Sun there gives learning, astrology, and wealth. (BJ 18.2) For the Sun in Mithuna, Sārāvalī adds skill, fortune, modesty, and two mothers, along with troubles from enemies or quarrels under certain aspects. (SAR 22.19 · SAR 22.20 · SAR 22.21) Sārāvalī says Mars in Mithuna gives intelligence, righteousness, benefit to sons and friends, and many activities, while some verses add deformity, disease, life in others’ houses, and prosperity under Jupiter’s aspect. (SAR 25.6 · SAR 25.7 · SAR 25.34) Mercury in Mithuna gives learning in scripture, ritual and arts, poetry, independence, generosity, sons and friends, along with talkativeness, fickleness, and attachment to women and pleasure. (SAR 26.6 · SAR 26.7) Jupiter in Mithuna gives honour, good repute, learning, beauty, strength, fame, and wealth. (SAR 27.6 · SAR 27.7) Venus there gives wealth through song and dance, friends, devotion, affection, wisdom, pleasure, and good conduct. (SAR 28.6 · SAR 28.7) Saturn there gives deceit, anger, excess in action, bad conduct, imprisonment or wandering, poverty, childhood disease, gentleness, and affliction. (SAR 29.6 · SAR 29.7)

A graha in Mithuna is first judged through Mercury, the sign lord. The method given in the library grades a graha by its dignity. The dignities are exaltation, own sign, mūlatrikoṇa, friend’s sign, neutral’s sign, enemy’s sign, and debility. (BJ 1.13-14 · BPHS 2.46-52 · BJ 2.16-17 · BPHS 2.53-56 · Sārāvalī 4.28-29) Since Mithuna is Mercury’s own sign, Mercury placed here has sign strength from ownership. (BPHS 3.9-10 · Pulippāṇi 6) The Sun and Venus do better here by friendship to Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are neutral, and the Moon is in an enemy’s sign. (BJ 2.16-17 · BPHS 2.53-56) A benefic in Mithuna tends to express through speech, learning, exchange, and art, as the sign descriptions and placement verses show. (BJ 17.3 · SAR 26.6 · SAR 27.6 · SAR 28.6) A malefic here still acts through Mercury’s airy, dual nature, so results mix activity, craft, wit, and instability with the graha’s own harsher effects. (BPHS 3.9 · BPHS 3.10 · SAR 25.6 · SAR 29.6)

By whole-sign houses, Mithuna is one complete house in every chart, and the topics named for that place are read from the lagna. (BJ 1.15-16 · BJ 1.17-18) Its outcomes depend greatly on Mercury, because the lord’s house, sign, and dignity show the condition of that house. (BJ 1.15-16 · BJ 1.17-18) If Mercury is strong by sign, house, or support, the topics of the Mithuna house can come through with more coherence and gain. (BJ 1.15-16 · BJ 1.17-18 · SAR 26.6) If Mercury is weak or afflicted, the same house can show scattering, quarrels, nervous movement, or divided results, which fits the dual and airy nature of the sign. (BPHS 3.5 · BPHS 3.9 · BPHS 3.10) When Mithuna is the lagna, Mercury becomes lagneśa and carries the body, conduct, and general direction of life. (BJ 1.15-16 · BJ 1.17-18 · SAR 47.10 · SAR 47.11) When Mithuna is the Moon’s sign, it becomes the janma rāśi and colours mind, habits, and transit reckoning from the Moon. (Phaladīpikā 26 · Gochara (transits), 26.2 and 26.24 · BJ 17.3 · SAR 23.16)

The transit method in this library counts gochara from the Moon sign, the janma rāśi. (Phaladīpikā 26 · Gochara (transits), 26.2 and 26.24) If the natal Moon is in Mithuna, every transit is judged from Mithuna as the first sign. (Phaladīpikā 26 · Gochara (transits), 26.2 and 26.24) Saturn’s passage through the 12th, 1st, and 2nd from Mithuna, namely Vṛṣabha, Mithuna, and Karka, is the span called sāḍe sātī. (Phaladīpikā 26 · Gochara (transits), 26.2 and 26.24) The texts cited here define that procedure, though they do not give a separate special rule for Mithuna within sāḍe sātī. (Phaladīpikā 26 · Gochara (transits), 26.2 and 26.24)

In Jaimini’s Chara daśā, each sign receives a period counted from the lagna, so Mithuna can become the active daśā sign in its turn. (BPHS 50 · Jaimini Sūtras 1.1.28) The classical rule gives a sign-based sequence for these periods. (BPHS 50 · Jaimini Sūtras 1.1.28) Mithuna daśā is read through the sign and its condition, with Mercury included in the judgment as its lord. (BPHS 50 · Jaimini Sūtras 1.1.28) When Mithuna daśā runs, results are read from Mithuna’s place from the lagna, the condition of Mercury, and planets placed in or aspecting Mithuna. This includes the special mutual aspect of dual signs given by Parāśara. (BPHS 50 · Jaimini Sūtras 1.1.28 · BPHS 4.13) A modern reading by Vishwanathan treats the star lord as a second layer under the sign lord when timing results, but this is a modern extension beyond the classical sign-period rule. (BPHS 50)

The verses to open first: BJ 17.3 · SAR 23.16 · SAR 47.10 · BJ 18.2 · SAR 26.6 · SAR 29.6.

Related pages: Its lord Mercury; its stars Mṛgaśiras, Ārdrā, Punarvasu; the signs either side, ♉︎ Vṛṣabha and ♋︎ Karka; the sign opposite, ♐︎ Dhanus.