Last Updated on July 30, 2020 by astrologerbydefault

The Vimshottari system is the most commonly used system for timing events in a chart. It might seem complicated to analyse but it is not! If you can remember a few keywords of each house/sign and each planet you are off to a good start.

Any Vedic software can calculate which planet’s Mahadasha/ main-period is operating at the present. The planets follow a fixed order, Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury. The lengths of the Main-periods and sub-periods of the planets are fixed. (There are sub-sub periods too, upto 5 levels, but you can ignore those for now). The period of the ruler of a house, activates the house.

So as a first simple step, find out which planet’s main-period you are currently in and locate which houses in your chart are ruled by this planet. e.g if you are in Moon Mahadasha and you have a Cancer Ascendant, your 1st house is ruled by the Moon. So your 1st house will be in focus during this Moon Mahadasha.

This is a good way to check if the time given to you by your client is correct. Events in a lifetime should match the periods else the birth data is incorrect.

Time periods of the 1st house/ ascendant lord generally grant increase in physical vitality, strength and health. You are more active in your social group, you are more known. Your environment is conducive and you act with confidence. You feel energised. You mature, grow up, take on new responsibilities. Learning opportunities, new profession, marriage, birth of children is possible. You are on the move, you explore new things, travel, meet new people, you can take calculated risks which will pay off. It is a new you, more visible. Use this period wisely.

The details will depend on the nature of the planet involved. e.g. for 1st house, Aquarius sign the ascendant lord is Saturn. Saturn will always make you work hard. He is your ascendant lord so will be favourable to you, but that won’t stop him from making you work hard with discipline.

The periods ruled by the lord of the 2nd house are the possible Marak periods. You might leave your physical body if the longevity of your chart has reached its limit. The 2nd and 7th houses are the houses of Value or Maya. If you have saturated your capacity to accumulate, you leave this physical body and come back with a new one. The owners of these two houses decide the timing of the physical death. On the material side this period is about solid tangible things. You can use this time to generate wealth, investing sensibly, buying assets and making yourself financially secure. As the 2nd is also about the family you will get time to be with the family, connect with your family members, and also furthering your family interests, eg investing the family’s combined wealth. You will benefit in your profession, your social standing will improve and your birth father will also benefit through you.

The results will depend on the power of the house to give results. e.g. if you have a separative malefic planet like Ketu placed here, he will work to separate you from all that the house signifies. Thus it will be a difficult period.

Periods of the lord of the 3rd house are busy with communications. You communicate more or receive more communications. You might write, explain or teach skills. You will talk, interact. For writers, this will be a productive period as your work will be published and appreciated. Trading and gains will be possible. Brothers and brother-figures, fellow teammates will support. If you are married, this period will be favourable for your spouse as the 3rd house is in the favourable 5/9 axis from the 7th house. If the 3rd house is well-disposed this period can be quite active and fruitful.

As a general rule, the houses placed in the 5/9 axis, 1/7 axis and 4/10 axis from the house under the spotlight fare well. The houses placed in the 6/8 axis are always adversely affected, the 3/11 and 2/12 axes are also negatively impacted to some extent.

Time periods of the lord of the 4th house are obviously linked to the home, the homeland, traditional activities and customs. You are ‘rooted’ in some way or the other. You might acquire things which give you security, e.g buy a new house, new car, landed property, orchards etc. Your parents, especially the mother will give you affection and you might feel more deeply about her. If this period occurs in the childhood, it can be better for nurture/nourishment as the mother is more available. During this periods, protection and shelter is more available. You will receive parental love in one way or the other. You might also complete your schooling, pass exams successfully etc. This period is a good one.

A lot depends on the placement of the house owner planet whose period is on, e.g if this planet is himself placed in the 12th house, then this period will cause pain and abandonment. In case you are predicting a negative result, do check if the planet concerned has matured. The intensity of the planet becomes more reasonable after this age. e.g if this is Mars, he matures at the age of 28yrs (unless his maturity is held back by late maturing planets conjunct). Before this age, he expresses himself as aggression, physical dominance, fighter, challenger, rash, ready for a physical fight. But after he matures he can become cooly competitive, impersonal, coldly calculative, business-like, focussed, the cold rage variety, a more ‘grown-up’ way of expression.

Time periods of the ruler of the 5th house are full of creativity, a whirl of bright lights, the focus on the self. Birth of children is almost always a result, or you gain students, children of your soul. This period is favourable for all sorts of activities. Gamblers, politicians, creative people, actors, celebrities, etc are all benefitted. Even for common people like us, there are gains in health, confidence, money flow, investments and overall luck. Now if your 3rd or 6th house allow breaking of rules, you might commit petty crimes and get away with them.  If the self-ego is very high these crimes may not even be considered as ‘crimes’. Actively use this time to create lasting benefits for yourself.

Some placements are more challenging and some are pleasurable, but we cannot call them bad/ good. They all just Are. Each placement helps you resolve karma and was chosen by you at birth. How you go about them is your choice always. If you resist the events unfolding around you, it will create more conflicts. But if you actively participate in them with full awareness they become more manageable.

Now the period of the ruler of the 6th house are always difficult. Karmic payback big-time! If there are planets placed here it can get worse. There is bodily illness or injury, social conflict, accusations, cheating, servitude victimisation, exploitation, addiction, crime, poverty, financial problems, problems in marriage, business, partnerships. You might have to face court proceedings. If this period occurs in childhood there might be neglect by the parents/care-takers. You are bound to experience stress during this period one way or the other. Whatever you go through, it is karmic in nature. You will feel a lot of things, try to think objectively. Physical pain, emotional pain, something painful in your family/ social/ inter-personal relationships, little things which add up and make you uncomfortable. It can become so stressful on the outer levels that you are unable to think on the internal root cause. You think in loops, you go over the details but never look beyond them into the causes. Then finally you lose faith, you doubt that there is anyone looking out for you. You feel lost and alone and this pulls you down a negative spiral. So instead, think this as a problem which you have to solve, try to be analytical rather than emotional, this would be more helpful.

This was the first step in analysing the Vimshottari dasha. The keywords from the houses 1st to 6th, will write about the 7th to 12th in my next post.