Special Lagnas: The Engines of Rise and Fall

by Sat Siri Khalsa, Board Member, Council of Vedic Astrology

This month the Council of Vedic Astrology is instituting a new feature for the delectation of members and visitors. Each month we will provide a guest article by a CVA member on a topic of general interest to practicing jyotishis. Articles can be on technical aspects of jyotish, on maintaining a practice as a jyotish consultant, or on current affairs as seen through the lens of jyotish. Your comments or questions about the pieces are welcome and may be posted. We invite members to submit articles for publication on the website. Please email to satsiri_khalsa@yahoo.com.

Often when we try to read a horoscope we are both overwhelmed with the amount of information available and underwhelmed with guidance as to how to pick out the right indicators revealing the exact answers we need.

One of the neglected treasures of Parashara’s adamantine classic Brihat Parashara Hora Sastra is the so-called Special Lagnas, including the Bhava Lagna, the Hora Lagna, and the Ghatika Lagna. Getting familiar with these points allows us to draw arresting profiles of wealth and talents for the chart native and predict the periods of rise and fall in a life or an event.

Most Vedic astrology software calculates the Special Lagnas for you, but it helps to understand the principle used in finding them. Normally the speed at which the Lagna, also known as the ascendant, traverses the different rashis throughout the day varies, as the path of the Lagna along the ecliptic is elliptical. Parashara advises us to derive the Special Lagnas from the archetypal 360-degree circle without allowing for the elliptical irregularities of physical reality. Simple math divides the arc the ascendant has traveled from the moment of sunrise until the birthtime of the chart, by 12 for the Bhava Lagna, by twice that, or 24, for the Hora Lagna, and by five times 12, or 60, for the Ghatika Lagna, and projects them from the point of sunrise. The timing of sunrise is considered to be the “upper limb” of the sun, before the disc of the sun arrives; the moment of dawn when songbirds break out in their morning chorus. From sunrise, the Bhava Lagna moves 15 degrees per hour, until the moment of the birth or event; the Hora Lagna 30 degrees per hour; and the Ghatika Lagna 75 degrees per hour.

The Bhava Lagna is found 30 degrees or less from the normal Lagna; based on a multiple of one sign, the Bhava Lagna represents the concept of self, the fixed, unchangeable dharma or life purpose of the chart native. The Bhava Lagna may be in the 2nd or 12th house instead of the 1st, in which case the life purpose may be at variance from the apparent views and presentation of self shown by the normal Lagna. The Hora Lagna, based on a multiple of two signs, represents the concept of wealth ⁽¹⁾; what is desired and valued for sustenance and prosperity, and how much money is available. It may fall in any house, and for each house, the motivation for gain is different. The Ghatika Lagna, based on a multiple of five, represents the drive for mastery and authority; how much power and status a person attains (one of the inherent meanings of the 5th house and 5th sign Leo.) It also may fall in any house and shows the area where the person has special skills and shines with confidence.

The planets of the chart gain in effectiveness the more of these Lagnas they aspect, join, or rule, and the dasa cycles of the most effective planets bring the periods of greatest success and wealth.

Let’s see how this works in an example chart. I am using a rectified birthtime for J.K. Rowling, the lionized author of the Harry Potter series about struggling magicians. Ms. Rowling has the Bhava Lagna (BL henceforth) in the second house, showing a life purpose quite different from the apparent projection of the ordinary Lagna in Libra. Instead of a person centering life around friends and social engagements, as expected with Libra rising and Venus in the 11th house, we find a woman with a deeply concentrated purpose of expressing unusual and otherworldly speech, apt for the BL in hermetic Scorpio in the 2nd house of oratory, joined with mystical and mysterious Ketu. Her books teem with Ketuvian characters, e.g. Nearly Headless Nick, or the Dementors.

The intensity of the purpose can be gauged by how many planets aspect a Special Lagna

Ms. Rowling’s BL is in a fixed sign and aspected from fixed signs by three other planets, Saturn, Rahu, and Jupiter. Sun also aspects the BL by a rashi aspect. It is extremely interesting to differentiate the types of aspects that planets make to the Special Lagnas, as they reflect different types of involvement. Graha drishtis, or planetary aspects, are the aspects planets themselves cast when desiring to achieve certain things, as a child looks longingly into a shop window at a doll she wants. The graha drishtis have several varieties, but to keep the chart as simple as possible to read, we stick with Parashara’s simplest planetary aspect scheme: every planet aspects the place 7th from itself; additionally, for planets who orbit outside Earth’s orbit, Mars aspects the 4th and 8th from itself (looking for places it must fight to defend-- home, seen in the 4th from Mars, and longevity, seen in the 8th from Mars); Jupiter aspects the 5th and 9th from itself (looking into houses that value wisdom, seen in children and students found in the 5th from Jupiter, and gurus and bodies of law and higher knowledge, seen in the 9th from Jupiter); Saturn aspects the 3rd and 9th from itself (looking for where the most effort is demanded-- willpower, seen in the 3rd from Saturn, and perseverance without illusions, seen in the 10th from Saturn); Rahu aspects the 5th and 9th from itself (seeking to falsify or glamorize those truths that Jupiter seeks to see), and the 2nd from itself, (looking at the house it has just left in its ever-backward march through the zodiac, sending a glance of ingratitude to its antecedents); and Ketu, who being headless and blind, is the unique possessor of no aspects, even no 7th aspect. Ketu has no desires and no drishtis; this is why it is called the moksha karaka, giver of enlightenment.

Rashi drishtis, or sign aspects, are another fascinating concept of Parashari jyotish. If the shop window where the child was gazing wistfully at the doll had not been next door to the local bank, the child would never have seen the doll because her mother’s only reason for going past the toyshop was to do some banking that day. The child paid little attention to the bank, but the bank provided the necessary condition for the child getting close to her desire. The geometry of fate--is something within or totally out of reach?--is laid out by the rashi aspects. Cardinal signs have sign aspects on all fixed signs and vice versa; the exception is the next-door neighbors like Aries and Taurus, Cancer and Leo, Libra and Scorpio, Capricorn and Aquarius, who keep coldly turned back to back from each other and do not have sign aspects. The sattvic dual signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, all look fully cooperatively at each other. J.K. Rowling has a rashi aspect from Sun in Cancer to the BL in Scorpio-- Sun in the 10th house represents government, and without government assistance during the writing of the first Harry Potter novel she could not have managed to raise her young daughter single-handedly and find free time to write.

The house where each Special Lagna is placed has a bhava karaka ⁽²⁾ , and the condition of that house significator in the chart will support or weaken the Special Lagna.

Ms. Rowling’s second bhava significator is Jupiter, aspecting the BL itself with urgent desire from the difficult circumstances of the 8th house.

The significations of house placements for the Hora Lagna (HL henceforth) can be briefly summarized:

For each of these placements, the natural house significator should be strong to ensure the HL being able to succeed.

The HL is in Ms. Rowling’s 7th house in the trailblazing sign of Aries. It receives rashi drishtis from 5 grahas and only two graha drishtis, from Saturn, seeking a reward for willpower, and Mars, driven by necessity to fight for survival. Money was not the primary desire in Ms. Rowling’s drive to write, but certainly massively came as a byproduct of the huge audience attracted to her books. The house significator of the 7th house is Venus, and Venus is very prominent as Lagna lord in the 11th house flanked by Moon and Mercury. The rashi drishti givers are these same Venus, Moon, and Mercury—children-- from Leo, Ketu from Scorpio, and Saturn, who has both the passive rashi drishti and the desiring graha drishti on Aries.

For the Ghatika Lagna (GL henceforth), the attainment of worldly success is the focus.

Just as for the HL, the placement of the GL through the different houses exposes the specific area in which power is sought, and the strength of that house’s significator gives evidence as to whether the goal is achieved.

Ms. Rowling’s GL is in the 8th house, showing a drive to gain power over the occult world. This is precisely what her pupils at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are undertaking. The GL is joined to Rahu and Jupiter, showing both destructive and constructive forces at work, and has one rashi drishti, from the Sun. Sun, the natural representative of Soul and True Religion, shows the tacit and sidelong approach to religion in the moral sphere of the books. Rahu and Jupiter’s struggle between forces of Darkness and Light is clearly weighted toward the victory of the good, but never is spirituality explicitly addressed (or called on for help). The 8th house significator is Saturn in the 5th house of students in Aquarius, showing the collective consciousness of Hogwarts School moving on inexorably toward ever higher if hidden status in wizardry.

Now that we have seen each of the Special Lagnas, we measure the planets that are Movers and Shakers, or Kartas and Yogadas, by interacting with the Special Lagnas.

The planets relate to the Special Lagnas in only three ways:

1. Being ruler of a Special Lagna

2. Being joined to a Special Lagna

3. Aspecting a Special Lagna by ...

   a. Graha drishti, pursuing with desire, or

   b. Aspecting by rashi drishti, pursuing as a byproduct or in the natural course of things.

Depending on how frequently they do the above things, grahas can be ranked in the following hierarchy. (It should be noted also that the same classifications hold for the seventh houses from the Special Lagnas.

Planets that interact with the 7th from a Special Lagna show powers coming indirectly to the native through the spouse or other close associate, but these are not being considered in this article.)

Kartas, or Doers, are planets that interact with only one Special Lagna.

Yogadas, pronounced YoGAHdas, or Givers of Achievement, are planets that interact with BL and HL or with BL and GL. A planet that gives wealth by connecting the BL and HL can also be called a dhanada, granter of prosperity. A planet that gives authority by connecting the BL and GL can also be called a siddhida, granter of gifted abilities.

A planet that connects only HL and GL is stronger than a Karta, but not as focused for self-driven accomplishment as a planet that gets involved with the BL.

Maha Yogadas, or Supreme Givers of Achievement, are planets that interact with all three Special Lagnas.

Kevala Karta, Kevala Yogada, Kevala Maha Yogada or Exclusive Doer, Exclusive Giver of Achievement, Exclusive Supreme Giver of Achievement, is the name for a planet that is lord of the Moon’s sign as well as a Karta, Yogada or Maha Yogada. The Moon is the mind in the world, and its sign lord has the duty to provide for sustenance in the world; when it interacts with the Special Lagnas they have an even greater fertility and prowess.

Applying these to Ms. Rowling’s planets as they appear through her rashi chart:

• Ketu is in BL, has rashi drishti on HL, thus a dhanada.
• Saturn has graha drishti on BL and HL, as well as rashi drishti on HL, thus a desiring fortified dhanada.
• Rahu is in GL and has graha drishti on BL, thus a desiring siddhida
• Jupiter is in GL and has graha drishti on BL, thus a desiring siddhida
• Sun has rashi drishti on BL and GL, and is lord of Moon sign, thus a Kevela siddhida
• Mercury has rashi drishti on HL, thus a Karta
• Venus is lord of GL and has rashi drishti on HL, thus a double Karta
• Moon has rashi drishti on HL, thus a Karta
• Mars is lord of BL, lord of HL, and has graha drishti on HL, thus a doubly strong desiring dhanada

Every planet is at least a Karta, and this is an unusually strong profile, although you must try for yourself profiling several charts before you get the feel for how rare or common these strengths are.

Now we may think we have gone all through Parashara’s principles on Special Lagnas, but no! we have some time traveling to do. Even after seeing all the above we are assigned to examine another two dimensions by Parashara: the rashi chart is the Life of the Present; but the sage tells us to investigate as well the Navamsa chart, the Life of the Past, and the Drekkana chart, the Life of the Future. The status of planets as Yogadas in these two divisional charts shows how much momentum a planet carries as it operates into and beyond the present. The Navamsa is the chart of innate abilities and shows the soul’s development through previous lives which now must bear fruit in the current life. Jaimini ⁽³⁾ devotes many sutras explaining the capacities for different paths in life shown in the Navamsa. The Drekkana, in contrast, and the best one to use for the current purpose is the Drekkana given in Phaladeepika, (more on this to come) shows the leap to new levels, higher or lower, that our efforts in this life eventuate in. Evaluating the strength of a planet in all three of these charts gives the true picture of the planet as a dynamically developing entity.

For Ms. Rowling, Rahu in the rashi chart is right on the GL; the drive for accomplishment is focussed, fortified by Jupiter and by Sun, the Moon’s sign lord. Still, Rahu is not particularly brilliant, in the 8th house. How can such worldly results as the explosion of an obscure, impoverished neophyte into one of the world’s best known authors be accounted for in jyotish terms? ---which happened in Rahu dasa. In fact it was in Rahu/Rahu, in the summer of 1990, that the fully formed idea of Harry Potter “fell into” her head while she was on a long train trip. And during Rahu/Jupiter, he bloomed on the page.

The momentum comes from the Navamsa. The present is only the child of the past. It is fully in J.K. Rowling’s Navamsa chart that we find the blockbuster assemblage of Yogadas that tells the story of the rags to riches trajectory of her life, as well as showing the chassis of the characters who are the vehicles for this transformation. The power of this Navamsa chart is in the kendras, the four central houses where the dramas of life are staged. Here Rahu in its knowledge-devouring exaltation sign of Gemini sits as a Maha Yogada in the 4th house with the GL and HL. All four kendras have mutual rashi drishtis. The BL is in the ordinary Lagna in Pisces, and is aspected by its lord Jupiter with both graha and rashi drishti. Jupiter is lord of the Moon sign and thus qualifies as Kevala Maha Yogada, intensely desiring and endowed with abundant capacity to fulfill its purpose in life. It ranks a notch above Rahu as it is Kevala and Rahu is not; still the tension between the demonic/devic forces is exquisite here, since Jupiter is in the 7th house where it is weak in directional strength, as well as being in an enemy’s sign, while Rahu is exalted. This tension comes to a head in the Rahu-Jupiter conjunction in the Rasi chart.

Additionally, Moon is dramatically placed in the 10th house with exalted Ketu, and both are Maha Yogadas. The Moon not only has rashi but graha drishtis on the GL and HL thus having unassuageable yearnings for wealth and knowledge that force it to face off with its mortal enemy Rahu. In the ancient writings of the Vedic rishis, Moon was the graha who alerted Vishnu that Rahu had stolen the nectar of immortality, and at every lunar eclipse when Moon conjoins Rahu it is really not Moon, but Rahu, who gets eclipsed. There is a tradition not to look at the Lunar eclipse because someone is dying—even though it’s Rahu, it’s not advisable to stare at the ashes while the doorway to heaven is opening. When the Moon takes on Rahu, it gives Jupiter the chance to shine with unimaginable brightness.

With these four Maha Yogadas, two of them exalted, one the Lagna lord and one the Moon sign lord, all in the central pillars of the Navamsa, we see the genesis of the battle between Voldemort, the Rahuvian, and Harry, the Jupiterian, somewhat quaky, yet lifted high on his broomstick by the magical skills of Moon with exalted Ketu in dikbala. It is a battle over who must die, but the outcome must be glimpsed in the chart of the future, the Drekkana.

The efforts of the present, the Rashi chart, go toward the direction seen in the Drekkana. The present is the parent of the future. The Drekkana recommended by Phaladeepika and by the Candrakali Nadi differs from the one Parashara uses to describe health and siblings. The Phaladeepika Drekkana is similar to a Navamsa in construction in that each sign of a certain element has its first division in the cardinal sign of that element. The pattern looks like this:

Again Yogadas are assessed just as for the Rashi chart. In Ms. Rowling’s Drekkana, Rahu is reduced to a simple Karta. Rahu is vargottama, or in the same sign that it occupies in the Rashi chart, in Taurus, where biological viability is very strong, so it seems unlikely that Voldemort can be annihilated by the end of the series, although his powers may be severely curtailed. Jupiter is in danger in the 8th house of death accompanied by a vargottama Mars. Mars is a dhanada and Jupiter is a Kevala siddhida, both with gazes intent on the BL. Mars is in a mutual exchange with Mercury, a Karta in the 3rd house, the 8th from the 8th. This is not a salutary exchange; it can be phrased as death after death. Can it be Harry’s loyal friend Ron who gets killed off by the author? While trying to save Harry? Or while not speaking to Harry? If Mars is Ron, Ron has an unsolid foundation: Mars is a double strong dhanada in the Rashi chart, but has no Yogada powers in the Navamsa. Could Harry himself be dispensable, with Jupiter in the 8th and afflicted? Given Jupiter’s strength in Rashi and absolutely pivotal role as Kevala in both Navamsa and Drekkana, I find it unlikely to be more than a threat. Jupiter dasa has begun in 2006, and the 8th house pedigrees of Jupiter probably mean the end of Harry the project but not of Harry the character.

Death is the key theme in the Harry Potter books, perhaps one reason why children are so enthralled by the stories and why some adults so disquieted. The 8th house figures strongly in Ms. Rowling’s Rashi and Drekkana, and the sign of Scorpio is important through all three of the charts. Given this as the unsolved knot in the Drekkana as well (the prickly 3rd house-8th house exchange shows an unsatisfying conclusion to any morbid discussion!), we can predict that this author’s future development after Harry Potter will lead her to some more ultimate wrestling with some perplexing opponents. Thanks to the Special Lagnas for untangling some of these tangled thoughts; may these wizards’ implements serve you in the many charts that magically unroll on your lab tables.

¹ See “Hora Lagna,” pp. 101-54, in Collected Papers in Vedic Astrology, Sanjay Rath, Sagittarius Publications, New Delhi, 2006

² Bhava karakas: 1H Sun, 2H Jup, 3H Mars, 4H Moon, 5H Jup, 6H Sat, 7H Ven, 8H Sat, 9H Jup, 10H Merc, 11H Jup, 12H Sat

³ See Maharishi Jaimini’sUpadesa Sutras, trans. Sanjay Rath, Sagar Publications, New Delhi, 1997