In my earlier post I wrote about how the exalted planets behave in the D1 birth chart and the D9 navamsha chart. Exalted planets are glamorous, they are auspicious, shower you with very tangible stuff. A single exalted planet in your D1 or even in D9 makes you outwardly very happy! But every exalted degree has its counterpart, the debilitated degree. And then no one discusses much on how to interpret planets who get debilitated. So to analyse your debilitated planet, first check out what he is the agent of in your birth horoscope D1.

Natural agents are fixed, eg Venus is for relationships, Moon is for mother etc. This is a standard list. Also the sequence of signs and their planetary owners, eg Leo is the 5^th sign, so the Sun wherever placed will have a subtle say on your ‘genius’ capacity. These will always subtly affect your this part of life.

Chart-specific agents will vary as per the ascendant sign. Eg for Libra ascendant, Cancer is placed in the 10^th house, so the Moon will also indicate the profession. This is an addition to whatever he is the natural agent of. In analysis, always give more weightage to chart-specific agents. Eg such a person’s profession will have Moon-like qualities, eg routine transfers, in natural areas, connected to liquids, import/export, transportation, real-estate, also the actual mother will be a working professional more at the office. So before you start analysing your planet, first get into details what it stands for in your chart. Only after this can you think of consciously modulating its results.

So to analyse the D1 vis-a-vis the D9, let’s focus on the debilitated planets in this post. (I have written about pushkar navamsha and interpreting movements of exalted planets.) Generally it is said that a debilitated planet causes problems and that is it. The basic premise is that the debilitated planets give uncomfortable results generally. But Jyotish is an enabling tool. We want to understand what happens and then intentionally change the direction of energy movement. If the D9 represents the entire potential, we can go to the D9 and trigger some more acceptable physical effect from there.

If a planet is debilitated in your birth chart D1, it means that its energies are completed unsuited to the environment of the sign it occupies. This leads to unhappiness and disillusionment with whatever that planet signifies. Eg a debilitated Mercury, will cause problems with siblings, make you think and choose options which will hurt, doing skill-based jobs will be beyond you etc. (The house placement of such planets will change things, but for this post focussing on the D1 – D9 connect.) But this is 50% of information, so we go to the D9. The background environment will be created by the sign the planet occupies in the D9.

Eg if this Mercury shifts to a more suitable Navamsha eg owned by his own signs, Gemini or Virgo, it is a better placement, he is subtly comfortable. The outward upsets do not penetrate within your inner core. If you do some remedial measures, mantra of Mercury, or give away items of Mercury, ‘activate’ Mercury by life-style changes, or even the all-in-one remedy of sitting in Dhyan regularly, this inner subtle comfort will reflect in the outer world too. Logically, unemotionally analyse what is making you upset. A debilitated planet is always a challenge but know that you are quite capable of rising to it. You have another sign backing you up in the D9 where it really matters.

Eg But if the Mercury shifts to an even more unsuitable navamsha, eg the navamsha of its enemy planet. Then you have to accept that there are going to be problems in the real physical life and consciously avoid or at least try to ameliorate its effects. Mantra jaap or remedies targeted to Mercury will be essential.

Second possibility is that the planet is whatever sign in the D1, but shifts to the navamsha of its debilitated sign. The outer results would be as per the D1 sign eg Mercury in the 3^rd house will grant profits in trade, outwardly good relations with your siblings, skills and choices in life. You will do good materially. But internally there would be no satisfaction in all these things, there will be discomfort. Your siblings might on good terms with you, but there would be no satisfaction in that. The context background will be the D9 sign and the actual physical effect the D1 sign.

Eg If your planet is exalted in the D1 and enters a navamsha of its debilitated sign or an otherwise unfavourable navamsha belonging to its enemy planet, it will reduce the emotional inner aspects of satisfaction. It does not deny the material benefits in any case. But it will clearly impact the subtle expectations and sense of satisfaction.

Eg Now if the planet is in its debilitated sign in the D1. And in the D9 also it gets allocated to the same debilitated sign. You might think this to be doubly bad, but there is a difference. This would be a ‘vargottam’ situation, same sign in both charts. The planet is highly uncomfortable but the expectations of the subtle and the reality of the physical will match. There will be typical issues, overall unfavourable on the material side, but the mind-set will accept them! Your expectations are not optimistic and neither is the situation. Things are as you expect it to be, thus you are satisfied. You will consciously and subconsciously avoid getting entangled in situation’s heavy with this planet’s energies so remain better off.

Now let’s consider the planet’s deepest debilitation degree, the Param-neecha. What happens to them in the D9? Here is some basic analysis to help you trigger your thought processes.

The Sun is made to work against his fundamental nature in Libra where he has to learn partnerships and to share equitably. He reaches the limit of his discomfort when he is in Sagittarius in D9, the unwavering hope, humanistic philosophy, dogma and benevolence to all living beings. So he needs to learn this life lesson that divine creativity too has to learn to give, share, balance and live in harmony. This is a life-lesson in fast-track, as the situation is so far off balance that desire to learn/rebalance is most intense.

The Moon is a curious case, his deepest debilitating degree falls in D1 Scorpio but in D9 in his own sign Cancer. Scorpio is the psychological drilling into one’s own self. (Moon is the summation of your entire personality.) Here you are brought face to face with all the deepest aspects of yourself which make you so uncomfortable that you have locked them into your deepest sub-consciousness. When the D9 is Cancer, you feel most emotionally secure when you are under your own microscope. You want to discover every secret about yourself, irrespective of the consequences. So do explore your internal self, but try to not hurt yourself too as the subtle hurts can go in deep.

Mercury is also understandable, Pisces D1 and Scorpio D9, both watery signs. Amorphous Pisces gives him zero foot-hold, there is no data where he can anchor himself, he doesn’t know where to start with this database’s management, confusion reigns. He is adrift in dreaminess. And when the D9 becomes Scorpio, it is like being forced from the background to delve into deep (Mercury is by nature superficial) and pull out esoteric secrets. He is an adolescent and often these secrets about the self require adult-understanding to overcome. A highly practical planet placed in vagueness, forced to search, learn secrets, understand from this vagueness frustrates him. But if you take this as a challenge, maybe you can use his energies, however against your nature it may seem.

Venus is the only planet who retains the same sign for his deepest debilitation degree in the D1 and D9. The load of karma on your soul is the reason you are bound. Attaining Moksh means to get rid of this karma. Venus is the real Moksh-karak, the agent of the Ultimate illumination. Venus dislikes imbalance, and this combo of Virgo D1/ Virgo D9 is imbalance of the highest degree. He is most uncomfortable here, but the desire to come out of this discomfort is also the most intense here. If you can divert his energy of discomfort in actively rebalancing karma you can achieve great progress. But if you allow its misery to sweep you off, this placement is conducive to addictions and immoral behaviour which will increase karma exponentially.

Mars in D1 Cancer and D9 Pisces, his deepest degree of discomfort. A vigorously active planet, full of initiative, desiring to conquer, compete and what does he get here? Psycho-babble! He does rule a watery Scorpio so he is not unfamiliar with the astral and the ‘other’. But now he is required to intelligently use the energies not just conquer endlessly. He is required to build a foundation in the astral realms. Mars cannot be bothered with use and build type of work, it is uncomfortable. But think of it this way, here he is to be a strong yet benevolent protector of the bridges to the other dimensions and he is required to guide the astral self safely across to the ‘other’ dimensions. You might have loads of astral travel, work to be done in the spirit dimensions, sleep will not give rest. The overload of the psychic can damage the physical body and the energy flows. Do be aware.

Jupiter in D1 Capricorn and in the D9 Aquarius suffers from restriction of the highest degree. The constraints, legal duties, regulations, social obligations, karmic service in the background as well as the foreground grates on his hopeful, expansive, benevolent nature. Jupiter’s wisdom, philosophy and teaching is irrelevant. Here the service demanded is of the highest magnitude. You have to reconcile yourself to this aspect of your life. You are going to have to work. But your internal expectations and outer reality are both linked to Saturn so there might be a strange acceptance of the situation. A gloomy sort of satisfaction that you have performed your job. And Saturn is strict but fair so you will get your due returns on the social/money fronts. Satisfaction? Now that is a different thing.

Saturn is most uncomfortable in D1 Aries and D9 Virgo. He is the faceless public, the nameless servitor, the worker in constrained circumstances. Going exploring, challenging, conquering, expending loads of energy is not his style. He needs to discipline, regulate, order, serve. He cannot manage in an environment full of exuberance and aggression. And added to this, he has in the background the full understanding of karma and the step-wise work needed to balance out this pending karma. Imagine his plight. He has the overriding awareness of his karmic load, he wants to systematically work through it, not create more. But the physical environment is such that he will create more unless he is very aware of his entire personality and environment. And he prefers remaining faceless. A existential dilemma for the dour Saturn.

Finally Rahu/ Ketu the energies of desire and apathy for experience. The flow of energy of your chart. Look at Rahu/Ketu combined. If one is debilitated the other will also be. So in a horoscope if these two are placed in a environment completely unsuited to their fundamental nature, do counsel the person carefully. All aspects of the physical and the spiritual life are going to be very deeply impacted.

Rahu is param-neech in D1 Scorpio D9 Sagittarius. He is required to function in a situation which is most conducive for Ketu. Scorpio is secrets, no social recognition here. If he tries to over-reach it will be actually dangerous. Scorpio is the movement of vital energy/pran in your energy channels/nadi! You cannot gamble or take risks here. Things have to be very precisely worked out in this environment. And in the background the expansive hopeful Sagittarius. This misplaced hope in a dangerous environment is the worst combination. Rahu tends to take wild risks in this placement which invariably causes deep harm. If you have this placement think twice, logically, reasonably before doing anything risky.

Ketu is max debilitated in D1 Taurus combined with D9 Gemini. Ketu is set up in a environment tailor-made for Rahu! Ketu is dissociation and disinterest. Here you are required to be bold, speak out, think, logically analyse, choose, act, create options for yourself. These are your public faces, Taurus and Gemini, your reputation and behaviour in your family/local reputations.These are your sources of income and fame. And Ketu! You will not bother about all this and suffer very deeply on all material aspects of life.

I use Tarot cards sometimes when I feel too lazy to look at the horoscopes. The Thoth cards are my favourite, I love them. (But my first love remains Jyotish). Thoth is real magic, you open the cards out and the energy just pours out. These energies change the energies of the situation. If the Reader is good enough, the mere act of going for a divination changes your energies. It is the same with Jyotish. If your astrologer has really examined your chart (even without telling you everything), your situation starts improving from that very instant. (It is the same with genuine doctors, you just visit him and you start feeling internally better. The karma of giving away energy, every healer, doctor, astrologer, Tarot reader is required to do this.)

If you want to get into more depths on these exalted and debilitated signs tables, check out the associated Nakshatra (and its pada/the one-fourth part of it) and their characteristics. You will get pointers on how to best divert their energies so that you benefit on both physical and subtle levels.

If you have any debilitated planets in your horoscope D1 or D9, or if they are not comfortable, unable to give sensible results, do perform some remedial measures. Astrology is not fatalistic, you can always change things. Intend that the remedies work, it can be as simple as putting some flowers in running water or as complex as a full-fledged puja. But you have to intend, you should want to make its energies more enabling for you. You are working the magic. You are your own horoscope and the placements, you are regulating your own energies. These planets are you, these are your own energies. The planet is not outside in the sky. Well, it actually is! but you are the planets, you are the lunar mansions, you are everything. Try to be more aware of yourself. Keep your power within you, give yourself strength, do not fear the planets or their placements. If you are afraid of an aspect of yourself, things will never work out.

So, if you have your correct birth time, do check-out your D9 Navamsha. You can use its energies to trigger changes in your physical environment. If you use the top-most layer, just the D1, you won’t be wrong, but there will be lesser depth in your analysis. Jyotish is like layers within layers, loops within loops, fractals. The real use of Jyotish is to understand yourself for your personal self analysis and self-healing.