I am putting this up as consolidated post so that you can get a glimpse of the various techniques that are used in analysing charts. I get several questions on this, so this practical post. You can use techniques like these to gain more information on how the planets in your chart work.

I will use the birth details of Aleister Crowley, 12th Oct 1875, 11: 42pm, Leamington Spa, Britain. He is dead and has a reasonably well-known life, happening on several levels, so is a good study subject. In this, let’s examine the power of Jupiter.

First the basic birth chart

Jupiter is the lord of the 6^th and 9^th houses. 

This fact sets the tone for the entire reading. Here the 6^th house is his Mool trikon sign. So though he is a natural benefic, he cannot be considered to be totally auspicious for the Cancer ascendant. As ruler of the 6^th, he controls debts, enemies, diseases, servitude, etc which are generally responsible for turbulence in life.

As the ruler of the 9^th he is in control of the luck, blessings, support of peers and patrons, religion, philosophical foundations etc. It is a conducive environment for Jupiter as he is the owner of the natural 9th sign. Every planet connected to the 9th house gives favourable results. But here we must factor in the dual ownership of the 6th house before coming to conclusions about Jupiter.

The 6^th house is vacant nor aspected by any other planet. The 9^th has Rahu and Moon in it and is aspected by Saturn from the 7^th house and Sun from the 3^rd house. So there are several influences modifying Jupiter’s environment ie, Pisces sign here. So the results that the 9^th can give will be improved by the presence of Moon here, he is the ascendant lord himself in a very favourable house. Though Rahu will add his typical overreaching behaviour, still the 9^th house can give good results with these two planets. 

You can go into more depth by analysing the nakshatra which make up these two houses. The nakshatras in the 6^th house are not hosting any planets. But the 9^th house has Moon in Poorvabhadrapada and Rahu in Uttarabhadrapada nakshatra. You can add more insights using their attributes in respect to these planets.

Jupiter is placed in the 4^th house. 

So he will be modifying the environment of the 4^th house presented by Libra sign by adding his keywords of philosophy, luck, mediation, hope, benevolence etc to it. He will also add some energy of the 6^th and 9^th houses to the 4^th house results.

Venus is the owner of Libra and considers Jupiter as a neutral. But Jupiter considers Venus as an enemy as per the natural tendency for relationships. But as per the concept of temporary relationships a planet is enemies with other planets placed in the same house. So Venus in this chart, considers Jupiter as an ‘enemy’ and Jupiter considers Venus as a ‘great enemy’. Jupiter is placed in the sign of his great enemy and with this great enemy, thus is not comfortable. Thus the attributes of the 4^th house,  Libra sign and Jupiter will also seem uncomfortable to the overall personality and be a cause of friction in life.

Jupiter is conjunct Mercury and Venus. In this, Mercury has won the planetary war, graha yuddha and dominates over the other two. So Mercury has a comparatively larger say over the results expressed by Libra/ 4^th house. 

As Jupiter is conjunct Venus and Mercury, he will naturally influence both these planets and the houses they are in charge of in the chart to some extent.

Jupiter is aspecting 8^th 10^th and 12^th houses. 

Jupiter, the 6^th lord, aspecting these important houses, ensured that Crowley was miserable, did not receive social recognition of the positive sort, was infamous, without money, without social standing etc in life. Also it is possible that the so-called occult experiments he performed caused him more trauma than is publicly known. And I think that his death too was by unnatural reasons, caused by enemies of some sort. As the 9^th lord, Jupiter aspecting these houses, did give him insights into the working of the occult and the mysterious. Plus helped him make his Thoth deck, write books, develop new philosophies and a cult. So there was something positive. All in all a mixed bag of results from his aspects over these critical houses. 

Jupiter is in Swati Nakshatra.

The attributes of this lunar mansion will influence the results linked to Jupiter. Jupiter will work through the energy filter that Swati is and affect Crowley especially at the subconscious and astral levels. Generally Jupiter functions reasonably well in Swati and grant a sense of balance, adjustment, potential for spiritual, esoteric, religious activities, development of philosophy etc.

Now if we see the birth Moon, he is in Uttarabhadrapada nakshatra. Using the Janma navtara chakra, we see that Swati lies in the ‘Mitra’ group. So the things that Jupiter represented must have seemed friendly to Crowley’s mind. He would have got some significant gains from friends or from unknown people and especially when he were out of his homeland, ie while travelling etc.

If we draw the Ashtapadmadala chakra, we see that Swati is at point no. 17 in the chakra. A very basic interpretation would be that Jupiter is lying on the Durgantar boundary with his energy moving inwards. So in some way or the other, the energies, activities, people and achievements represented by Jupiter, helped enhance Crowley’s personality, nourished his individual soul. And these keywords of Jupiter were expressed by Crowley in a rather private manner, only his close associates knew what he was really upto here.

Jupiter is neither retrograde nor combust nor exalted nor debilitated etc. If any of these conditions would have existed we would have added their modifying results. 

Jupiter matures at the age of 16yrs but here his maturity is being held back by Mercury till the age of 32yrs. Planetary results are more comprehensible and useful after maturity so Crowley would have been better able to use the power of Jupiter after this age. Also the 4th house matures at the age of 40-45yrs, so the activities represented by this house would have become more clear after this age.

Now lets get into the numbers

Sthan Bala – Jupiter has a value of 223.53 which is quite high. He will give solid results, whatever they may be. Wrote a post on Sthan bala here.

Dig Bala – Jupiter has a neutral sort of value of 30.30, so he may not have always been able to convince Crowley to follow his directions, ie Crowley may have found it difficult to move in the direction indicated by Jupiter in life, may have had self-doubts or low expectations of success from these endeavours.

Kaala Bala is at 124.06. This is an average sort of a value, so the quantum of change that Jupiter would have brought in would have been an average sort. Neither too high nor too low. Kala is time. Time measures change. So Kala Bala is a measure of change caused by the graha. 

Cheshta Bala at 11.43 is low compared to the others. So the effects brought in by Jupiter would be slower, expected results would be delayed, or weaker than expected. 

Drig Bala is -4.43. This is a measure of how the planets aspect each other including the partial aspects which we do not consider in our regular readings. So here Jupiter is more aspected by malefics and naturally this will hit his capacity to do whatever good can. He is also the 9^th lord so is responsible for good too in this chart. Another way of putting it is that the malefic results of Jupiter overall are going to be enhanced and the benefic results diminished. 

Overall Shad Bala is at 419.46 which is quite low as compared to the other planets. As Jupiter is a functional malefic for this chart, 6^th house lord, this is good in a way. But as the lord of the 9^th house, having low power is a cause for concern. 

Finally his Kashta phala is 40.96 which means that, Jupiter, despite everything, will in the final summary give Crowley pain and suffering. 

Next let’s see the Vimshopak Bala for Jupiter 

As Crowley was a regular person, we will use the Dasha varga. Here Jupiter has a score of 15 points. So Jupiter should give good results in his life. The advice for Crowley would have been to do come spiritual practice and channel the energy of Jupiter as the 9^th house lord. (I had read somewhere that he lived in Bharat for a few years and had a guru here.)

Now the Avastha of Jupiter

Jupiter in Sushupti – When a planet is in deep sleep state, the everything related to this planet seems to go by in a haze. One is not really aware of these things. But the plus point here is that the activities seem to be directed by some internal divine force for some greater good, which is not evident at the time of the action. 

Jupiter in Yuva avastha – this is said to bring ‘prosperity’ to the house he owns, ie the 6^th and 9^th houses. So from his life, its quite clear that he had quite a happening life in terms of the keywords of these two houses. Crowley performed several activities linked to these houses. But if you analyse the quality of these activities, its evident that most of them resulted in suffering for him and some of them did not reach their logical conclusion while he was alive. 

Jupiter in Kshudit Mudit avastha – Kshudhit means that Jupiter is in the sign of an enemy or conjunct an enemy or aspected by an enemy. Here he is all three. So its a very highly Kshudhit. The reading is that this makes a person miserable and also adversely affects the profession, social standing etc, especially as Jupiter aspects the 10^th house. 

Mudit literally means happy and in astrology it means that Jupiter is with or aspected by a benefic, I don’t think that this really applies to this Jupiter, but the software has given this. I think they are indicating Mercury or Venus to have some effect as natural benefics on Jupiter. 

Jupiter in Khala avastha – Khala means wicked. being in the sign of an enemy is the Khala avastha. This avastha amplifies the effect of the above Kshudhit avastha. 

Jupiter in Netrapani avashta – Netrapani means putting the hands over the eyes. ‘lustful and diseased’ is the classical interpretation and its obviously true in this case. 

Next here is the Navamsha chart

If you are an advanced student, you should at least analyse the navamsha chart. Jupiter moves to the Aquarius sign navamsha. Aquarius is the 8^th sign in the original birth chart, a Dusham sthan. Any planet in the navamsha of a dusham sthan is drawn into its vortex of turbulent energies. Any result that Jupiter gives will subtly have this turbulence of the 8^th house at its core. Aquarius is the mool-trikon of Saturn, so gains more power because of this basic fact. Thus Jupiter is not comfortable here. If he were just the 6th lord this position would have been manageable. But as the 9th lord his ability to give pleasing results is further compromised. 

(You can do a detailed analysis of the Navamsha using this post as a guideline)

The Ashtak varga

If you have read my earlier posts you can do a basic analysis using the Samudaya ashtakvarga like this. 

Jupiter has 5 points in Libra sign. Whatever Crowley wants to do with his Jupiter related things, he will get cooperation from the other forces operating in his life. So let’s open the Prastara ashtakvarga of Jupiter to know exactly what kind of forces. Look for the score, either 1 or 0, that the planet contributes to Jupiter’s score in Libra sign, ie the first column.

• So the forces represented by Mars, Sun, Mercury, and the ascendant degree/ Lagna will support Jupiter in his positive endeavours in Crowley’s life. 
• And the forces represented by Saturn, Moon and Venus will be neutral or hinder the favourable activities connected to Jupiter in this chart. 

Jupiter in the birth Moon chart

Jupiter is in the house counted 8^th from the Moon in the birth Moon chart. He is in charge of the emotional component of all traumatic changes in identity that Crowley will undergo in his life. Also it is a clear case of the Shakata yog with its typical interpretation and its effects are evident in his life.

In this post, we have seen very briefly how each technique contributes to an understanding of the planet in its own way. Now if we had to pull all of this together we would need a question from Crowley. Suppose he had asked, ‘what are the positives that I can expect from my Jupiter?’, then we would present a summary of these results oriented towards this specific question. We would then use the running Mahadasha and Antardasha at that time to give specific observations for using Jupiter’s energy. eg Jupiter would be more active in his life during the dasha periods related to the 6th 9th 4th houses. We would then use the transits to fine-tune these recommendations.

This is a very basic and cursory examination of a planet in a chart. Obviously there are so many things that could have been written, but then it would have been a needlessly long post. There are even more techniques, eg to find out important years, the time when certain events will occur etc. Jyotish has an absolute plethora of techniques. And these are important as they either reinforce your predictions or show that there are mitigating factors which will reduce the intensity of the predicted event. 

Use this sort of analysis as a starting point for your own chart and your study subject’s charts. And do use Jyotish as a tool for answering questions rather than a random study. Eg how will this person’s married life be like?, or how will my professional life be like? etc. This will give you a focus point for your study and will be more helpful in learning the subject.