Astrology Trivia - Find the Planet and Nakshatra from Layers of Dimensions

With a quiz being framed on the basics of Divisional Chats, an idea struck to extend the theory further and make it a wee bit more complicated than the earlier one by adding some extra spicy masala elements on top of the Basic Divisional Chart Rules.

This quiz is also about finding the planet and the Nakshatra space which it occupies in the zodiac. The complexities however come with bringing along extra zonal layers with concepts such as exaltation, debilitation, aspects etc spruced up in to the mix. Hence here goes. Let's see who strikes this brain teaser 🏆

Set of Clues:
1) I sit in a fixed sign in Hora (D2), Drekkana (D3), Chaturthamsa (D4), Sapthamsa (D7) and Navamsa (D9)
2) In all of the above Amsas mentioned, I sit in a Fire sign except in the Navamsa.
3) 3 planets get exalted in the Navamsa when they sit in my Nakshatra padas (3 out of 4 padas)
4) 3 of the planets when they sit in the Mool Trikona or Exalted signs in Rasi, their aspects will tend to fall in the sign where I'm placed.
5) I'm neither of the planets mentioned in Points 3 and 4 above in addition to not being the planet owning the Navamsa sign in which I'm placed. Also I'm not a node.

Answer to Trivia:
Nakshatra : Magha - 2
First up, we need to deduce the sign in question and the best way is to target the clues in D3 and D4. We know that planet in D3 and D1 will always end up in same element of Fire, Earth, Air or Water and here it's clearly given that planet sits in fire sign. So it can only be either of Aries, Leo or Sagittarius in Rasi chart. Next we know that in D4 and D1, planets will always map in a kendra and needs to be of same nature sign be it movable, fixed or dual. It's mentioned Fixed & Fire and hence the only planet which rules a Fixed sign and a Fire element happens to be Leo. Hence we can be rest assured that whichever planet it is, it can only be placed in Leo sign. We can derive this without even using the D2, D7 and other D9 charts.

D2 is important to know which zone the planet is placed whether in the first half or second half. In an odd sign only when a planet sits within the first 15 degrees it will be placed in Leo otherwise it will make it's way into Cancer. So this clearly establishes that since the planet is in fixed and Fire sign, it definitely is within the range of 0 to 15 degrees and we clearly know that only the 4 padas of Magha end up falling within this designated zone.

Now how do we know which of the 4 padas of Magha it is in? Here the use of D9 will come in handy as it's told that it does not sit in a fire sign in Navamsa. We know the first pada of Magha will map into a fire sign in Navamsa and hence it's ruled out. So the options available are Pada 2,3,4. Now is where the Saptamsa enters as it's a chart that divides 30 degrees into 7 equal parts and hence each of the parts will be about 4 degrees and a bit or 4°17' to be precise. The counting of D7 in an odd sign starts from the same sign and goes forward till it finishes up to 7 parts. We know Nakshatra is already Magha and the first part gets placed in Leo itself for 4°17', then next 4°17' will be in Virgo followed by Libra and so on. To reach the next fire sign of Sagittarius which is the 5th sign from Leo, it should have at least elapsed beyond 17 degrees (4°17'*4 is greater than 17) in the rasi chart because only then it can go to next fire sign. But we know it's within the first 4 padas of 13 degrees 20 mins and in a fire sign so in D7 it has to be within first part of 4°17' to remain in a fire sign. It is not in first pada of Magha because its clearly said that it is not in fire sign in D9 and hence it can only be within that space between 3°20' to 4°17' which clearly indicates Magha Pada 2 😃

Planet : Mercury
Sun, Moon and Jupiter gets exalted when they are placed in Magha - 1,2,4 padas. So we need to rule out these 3 planets. It's already mentioned that it's not a Node hence Rahu and Ketu also get eliminated. Another clue mentions that when 3 of the planets sit in exalted or Mool Trikona signs, their aspect fall on the sign of Leo. We know Jupiter's Mooltrikona is Sagittarius, Mars exaltation sign is Capricorn and Saturn's Mooltrikona sign is Aquarius. Jupiter's 9th, Mars 8th and Saturn's 7th aspect all end up falling in Leo. Hence along with Jupiter which is already withdrawn, Mars and Saturn also get rejected. So it just leaves us to either of Mercury or Venus. In the last clue, it's mentioned that it is not the ruler of the sign lord in Navamsa. We know that Magha pada 2 ends up mapping in Taurus in the D9 which is ruled by Venus. Hence Venus also gets vetoed out and finally we deduce and arrive at the result which is Mercury 😃.

Astrology Trivia - Find the Planet & Nakshatra from Clues of Divisional Charts

With lock down fever reaching a frenzy, the mind was racing for some action albeit of a different kind. Some music based quizzes were conducted and then the thought came as to why not extend the principles to Astrology also and hence these trivia based quizzes ended up taking shape. This is largely based on basics of Divisional Charts and also provides a feeble opportunity to sharpen the skills in trying to derive the answer. It is more about using deductive methodologies to figure out which Planet is being referred and the Nakshatra space of the zodiac that the planet is placed in.

So here goes. Time for some trivia in the days of Quarantine. Let's see who strikes gold 🏆
Rack your brains and find out Which Planet Am I and also the Nakshatra that I'm actually placed in the rasi chart? 🏹🎲⚽🎱🥅🏓

Set of Clues:
A) I'm placed in the sign of Scorpio in Navamsa (D9)
B) I get myself into Suns territory of Leo in Hora (D2)
C) I jump into a watery sign in the Drekkana (D3)
D) I go to that spot in Taurus where fellow Navagraha mate Moon gets exalted in Chaturthamsa (D4)
E) I am placed in the middle zone in Rasi Chart (D1) within 10° to 20° and not in a Mercurial sign
F) I don't own any of the signs that I've mentioned above and also I am not a node (Common)

Answer to Trivia:
Planet : Saturn
Scorpio in D9 is ruled by Mars so that gets eliminated. Hora ruler is Sun so we strike that also off. Also it's mentioned that planet goes to Taurus in D4 whose ruler is Venus so that's also not correct. It's also mentioned that it's not the nodes hence both Rahu & Ketu are off the list. Additionally it's said that it's not a ruler of a water sign. We know the 3 water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces ruled by Moon, Mars and Jupiter so all these get ruled out. Also it's not in a Mercurial sign. Hence finally we are left with the big boss Sir Saturn. Hence Saturn is the answer 😀.

Nakshatra : Anuradha - 4
Coming to the Nakshatra, if a planet sits in Scorpio in Navamsa the mind should immediately correlate that it can only be a Venus, Mars or Saturn Nakshatra. All other planets are ruled out. Now within these 3, it's specifically mentioned that placement is between 13°20' to 16°40' which automatically rules out the Mars Nakshatras since it's always between 23°20' to 6°40' in next sign. So now it's a battle between Venus and Saturn. The next thing to note is in Drekkana D3 chart, planets will always sit in same triplicity or in effect 1,5,9 from rasi chart. It's said that it's a water element in D3 so it automatically ensures that it should be a water sign in D1 also. We know that all Venus Nakshatras sit in fire signs and all Saturn Nakshatras only sit in water signs and hence Venus gets voted out. Now among the Saturn Nakshatras of Pushya, Anuradha and Uttara Bhadrapada which one is it could be a point to ponder. Here the basics of D4 come in handy. Like in D3 chart which ends up always falling in the same element as the Rasi chart (1,5,9 or Fire/Earth/Air/Water signs), in D4 chart planets will always end up being in a kendra or square placement from rasi chart. (Movable in D1 means Movable in D4, Fixed in D1 means Fixed in D4 and Dual in D1 means Dual in D4). Hence only for Anuradha Nakshatra placed in Scorpio in a fixed sign, Taurus will also be a kendra in fixed sign whereas for both Pushya and Uttara Bhadra, sign of Taurus in D4 explicitly indicates that it won't end up being in a kendra. Hence finally we derive that Anuradha is the Nakshatra. Anuradha runs from 3°20' to 16°40' but it's said that it's in middle zone from 10° to 20°, so first 2 padas automatically are crossed out. Also to fall in Sun's hora it needs to cross 15° which obviously means Pada 3 also goes out from the equation. Hence Anuradha Pada 4 is the final correct answer 😊.

Divisional Charts Ayanamsa Distance Factor - A Mathematical Mishmash!

The earlier article on Divisional Charts emphasizes on the fact that the role of time actually does not have such a big bearing when casting of varga charts as there is a sufficient time frame to play around with respect to planets actually changing signs within the zodiac. The biggest deterrent however with respect to Divisional Varga charts easily happens to be with respect to the Ayanamsa.

Ayanamsa is defined as the angular distance between vedic first point and vernal equinox. The sidereal ecliptic of a celestial body is less than the tropical ecliptic longitude. But there was a point in time when the sidereal zodiac and tropical zodiac coincided which is taken as the starting point. Different years are taken in contention viz Lahiri (285 AD), Krishnamurthy (291 AD), Raman (397 AD), Yuktheshwar (499 AD), Vakya Siddhantha (522 AD) etc. All of these happen to be roughly around 20 to 24 degrees away from the tropical zodiac. The sidereal zodiac value or the ayanamsa is deduced by deducting the relevant respective degrees from the tropical zodiac value to arrive at the ayanamsa.

In Vedic Astrology, the most popular ayanamsa in vogue happens to be the Lahiri Chitra Paksha Ayanamsa. KP astrology practitioners use an ayanamsa which is slightly off from Lahiri. Another ayanamsa endorsed by noted astrologer BV Raman happens to be the Raman Ayanamsa which is based on a computation by the great mathematician of yesteryear Bhaskara. In recent times, a new Ayanamsa has been supported by the inventor of the astrology software Jagannatha Hora based on Nakshatra Pushya being the Yoga Tara which is anchoring the zodiac and is termed as the Pushya Paksha Ayanamsa. This apart there are plenty of other Ayanamsas almost touching a half century in number.

Degree and Time Difference between Ayanamsas:
We will look at a comparison between the 4 ayanamsas listed above and see how much away they are from one another. The table listed below would tell how much is the difference in Degree Arc (Degrees-Minutes-Seconds) as well as difference in minutes duration between all these Ayanamsas.

For knowledge purposes, in order to know how these values are derived, I shall narrate it through a small illustration between Lahiri Chitra Paksha and Raman Ayanamsa.
Go to JHora astrology software and input date as Jan 1st 2019, time as 6:00 AM and place as Chennai. Select Lahiri as well as Raman Ayanamsa and note down the degrees of Lagna. Alternatively you can also scroll downwards on the natal chart details and witness a number value in Degrees-Minutes-Seconds known as Ayanamsa. The values obtained are as witnessed:

Lahiri Chitra Paksha:
Lagna : 8° 4' 51
Ayanamsa : 24° 6' 23

Raman:
Lagna : 9° 30' 39
Ayanamsa : 22° 40' 35

Subtract the Lahiri Chitra Paksha Lagna from Raman Lagna or else reduce the Raman Ayanamsa value from Lahiri Chitra Paksha Ayanamsa value and in both cases you get 1° 25' 48. Same way one can compute difference in values between any two ayanamsas.

Impact in Divisional Charts:
Now, we will see the impact or rather distortions the ayanamsas create in the Divisional Varga charts.
Listed below is a table taking into account 5 types of horoscope charts viz Rasi (D1), Navamsa (D9), Dasamsa (D10), Shashtyamsa (D60) and Nadiamsa (D150). The degree arc span for each of these are given along with the time taken to traverse in duration of minutes. (Eg. 1 degree = 60 mins and hence a Navamsa part of 3° 20' will be 3*60+20 = 200). Also mentioned are the comparisons between various Ayanamsas by pointing out the time in minutes span of which they are off from each other and also the % of change of impact that would be seen in the respective divisional charts. For eg as reckoned above taking D9 as illustration, a Navamsa pada spans 200 minutes and the difference of minutes off between Lahiri and Raman is 86 minutes meaning there would be about 43% chance (86 divided by 200) of a planet shifting to the next sign as per Raman and about 57% chance (100%-43%) that they end up within the same sign.

Explanation and Observations:
1) Rasi Chart (D1):
Taking the Rasi chart into account with the assumption that a planet may have an equal likelihood of being located in any of the degrees between 0 to 30, we figure that there is very less difference between Lahiri and KP. In 99.7% of cases both will have the planets posited in the same sign. Only in case of a planet being in 29° 55' or more in a sign in Lahiri will it end up moving to a different sign as per KP system. However comparing Lahiri with Raman, we find that there is about a 5% chance of planets being in different signs. If a planet is in 28° 34' or more in a sign in Lahiri, then it will end up moving to the next sign in Raman. Anything lesser in degrees, they would be stationed in the same zodiac sign. On the whole however, we find that the Rasi chart isn't really sensitive to the impact of ayanamsa as it is observed that there is very minute chance of planets tumbling in to different zodiac signs.

2) Navamsa (D9) and Dasamsa (D10):
It however starts getting trickier when viewing important varga charts such as D9 and D10. Between Lahiri and KP, the difference is only 3% but when comparison is between Lahiri and Raman, there seems to be a probability of close to 50% chance that the planets would involve change of signs. For instance, any planet within the range of  6° 40' to 10° in Aries sign will fall in Gemini Navamsa. If the planet is 8° 34' or more in Aries as per Lahiri, then as per Raman it'll end up being beyond 10° and end up falling in Cancer Navamsa. Thus, there is not a lot to play with and plenty of chances arise that your planetary positions won't be the same when using different ayanamsas.

3) Shashtyamsa (D60) and Nadi Amsa (D150):
Things get far more murkier and out of hand when using intricate divisionals such as D60 or D150. Here by default, the planets will fall in different signs when you take Lahiri or KP and compare it with Raman or Pushya Paksha. The difference between Lahiri and Raman in D60 amounts to a whopping 287% meaning planets will end up being 3 signs away from one other. For instance say a planet is in 1st house or sign in Lahiri, the same planet will be in 4th house or sign in Raman. When taking the minute level Nadiamsa D150, it hits ground breaking level with the difference exceeding 700%. So, in essence a planet will be 7 signs from each other, for eg say if its in 3rd zodiac sign in Lahiri, it'll end up being straight opposite in 9th zodiac sign as per Raman Ayanamsa.

Conclusion:
Thus, it is clearly visible that the playing field gets constricted with too many restrictions when involving Ayanamsa and it becomes an extremely dicey proposition. This issue cannot be bridged or resolved unless there is a uniform ayanamsa. If not, only the Rasi D1 chart would be looked at majorly and only a surface level image of D9/D10 will be used and the employment of more minute charts will end up being virtually obsolete. Those who don't however believe in Ayanamsa and are content with whatever they have been using, it is brought to light that these plaguing issues will always be inevitable and different ayanamsas will surely end up in yielding different predictions especially when more finite divisional charts are being implemented.

Divisional Charts Time Clock Approach - A composite computational cockpit!

Divisional Charts are supremely important with respect to Vedic Astrology. From the term 'division', it could be deciphered that these are divisions of the main rasi chart to see specific areas of one's life or rather take a deep dive or zoom into a particular pigeonholed path in which one would want to vision the journey of life from a microscopic perspective. Divisional or Varga charts aren't looked at in much depth by most and one of the significant reasons for that is because it happens to be extremely time sensitive. There is however another issue as well relating to the Ayanamsa but let's leave that for now and consider it at a different space and time.

I will now focus mainly on the time theory with regard to Divisional Charts and at what frequency of intervals they tend to change signs. It shall not however be about the placement of the planets in the different zodiac signs where various rules are laid out and which need to be followed in arriving at the positions of all the planets. I am listing herewith a small snapshot of how long on an average the Ascendant and 9 planets take to transit from one sign to another in the rasi chart.

Ascendant : 2 hours (1/12 of a day)
Moon : 2 and half days (roughly 1/12 of a month and can span between 54 to 60 hours)
Sun : 1 month (Avg 30 days)
Mercury : 1 month (Can be between 14 to 30 days)
Venus : 1 month (Can range between 23 days to almost 2 months)
Mars : 1 and half months (There are however rare occasions where it stays put for 6 months in a sign)
Jupiter : 12 months (1 year)
Rahu : 18 months (1.5 years)
Ketu : 18 months (1.5 years)
Saturn : 30 months (2.5 years)

Now coming to the zodiac, it is an area of the sky that extends approximately 9 degrees north or south of the ecliptic. The zodiac is shaped like a spherical belt spanning 360 degrees divided into 12 equal parts of 30 degrees each which are named as Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.

Thus the 30 degrees constitutes one zodiac sign or bhava or house of your horoscope rasi chart. Each of these signs are further compartmentalized into different fragments to get various divisional charts. There are some mathematical numbers which would be good to understand at this point of time.

Total Zodiac = 360 degrees or 21,600 minutes of arc (1 degree = 60 minutes)
Each Sign = 30 degrees (360 degrees/12 signs) or 1800 minutes of arc (30 degrees*60 minutes)

From the above, it is witnessed that it takes roughly 2 hours for the ascendant to move from one sign to another. The 2 hours is not fixed and can range between 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours depending on the zodiac sign in question. For instance in a long ascension sign like Cancer it takes more than 2 hours but for a short ascending sign like Capricorn it mostly takes much less than 2 hours. However more or less the average time taken to transgress a sign is knocking around the ballpark figure of 2 hours or 120 minutes. In other words, we say that it takes 120 minutes to cross 30 degrees for the ascendant to transit from one sign to another. Simply to outline and have it nailed in the head, refer the below:
Time taken by Ascendant to transit a zodiac sign : 120 mins = 30 degrees = 4 minutes per degree

Once we know this theory, it is about re-engineering of the rasi chart to fit into different pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and analyse part by part the various sub divisional varga charts. Listed below is the various list of Divisional Charts and the range of degrees as well as the time taken by the Ascendant to transit a sign in every one of these sub charts.

Expounding this mathematical computation to the fastest moving planet Moon which is approximately 30 times slower in transiting than the Ascendant sign (Ascendant sign avg 2 hours, Moon sign roughly takes 2 and half days or 60 hours), we find that the the D9 Navamsa of Moon changes every 400 minutes or 6 hours 40 minutes. Looking at a more subtler chart such as the D60 Shashtyamsa, the Moon seems to change every 60 minutes or 1 hour. Going even more intricately to the D150 Nadiamsa chart, it changes only once every 24 minutes.

We shall now stretch to the other end of the horizon and apply the same tactics to the slowest moving planet Saturn and see how much time it takes to transit signs in the Divisional charts. Saturn takes 2 and a half years to cross a sign which makes it 30 months to cross 30 degrees. Taking D9 Navamsa chart when we divide 30 months into 9, it ends up staying for about 3 months 10 days in a Navamsa sign. Going to D60 Shashtyamsa which is 1/2 of a degree, it'll be constant for 15 days (Since 1 degree = 1 month, half a degree = half a month). Applying it at D150 Nadiamsa level, it will be stationed for 6 days since Nadiamsa makes up 5 parts of a degree or 150 parts of 30 degrees.

It is thus easy to figure out that we are dealing with extensive sub components of time. The divisional charts are indeed sensitive to time but the take away is that it is well and truly a level playing field. Even when we dig deep down to the most intricate level of Nadi Amsa, it is clearly seen that at least the Moon sign changes only within a third of an hour. And let's not forget, Moon is also considered an important reference point when charting out horoscopes. Thus it is seen with concrete evidence that impact of time isn't so sensitive after all considering we have a reasonable ground frame of time to play with since most of the planets don't change at a rapid duration as generally envisaged. Hence if one does possess profound knowledge and wisdom in analysing the divisional varga charts, various facets and attributes can be unearthed and brought to light.