rising sign

Gemini, the luckiest ascendant

astrologerbydefault3 Comments

Perhaps Gemini ascendant is the luckiest of the lot. If you were born with Gemini rising, you have slightly lesser problems and set-backs in life. Your life is generally average, not much ups and downs. But if your ascendant lord, Mercury, is in an auspicious Budh-Aditya yog or influenced by powerful planets etc you can have a happening life with power and the ability to exercise it. Mercury owns your 1st and 4th houses so check if the kendra-adhi-pati combination applies to you. If so you have to be more careful in life, cultivate confidence and command. Mercury is an impressionable planet, able to adapt himself to any situation. He has skills, logic, intelligence and his primary focus is first survival and then coming first in everything he does. Gemini is a dual-natured, airy, intellectual sign, its Gun is Tama, its Gan/group is human/ Manushya. (I have written about the Gemini-Sagittarius axis in depth do go through those three posts.)

Gemini, the luckiest ascendant

Gemini rising gives you an attractive personality, you stand out in a group. You are considered to be beautiful by the norms of your culture. You have a touch of shyness in your demeanour which makes you even more attractive. You are intelligent and this is reflected in your behaviour, you have pleasing manners and are good company. Interact and exchange are your watchwords.

You are quite skilled at small talk, business talk and in fact all sorts of talk, persuasive, communicative. You are ambitious and bursting with ideas, quite imaginative. You can negotiate or romance with your words, charming, a good sense of humour, fun to be with. You can be a good diplomat or a good host, tactful. You know what to speak and to whom, the master of conversation. You do not speak much, ie you are not a chatterbox but when you speak, others listen. You can influence people with your words, inspire them to achieve heights. You can be a good motivational speaker. (If there are some malefic influences you will go to the other extreme of sarcasm, biting wit and hurt with your words.)

You like travelling, you do travel a lot and have extensive knowledge about humans, habits and cultures. You can be a good tour guide or a history teacher! You like social life and alone cut off from your fellow humans makes you unhappy. In social gatherings you are often the one mingling around, you know everyone and everyone knows you. You like people, interacting with people, analysing people, observing people is your hobby. You can meet and make contacts with strangers very fast. Your special skill is to divine others thoughts and predict their actions. A keen observer of human nature and highly intuitive, you can understand people’s thoughts. And then you influence them with your words. Your style of speech can be very emotional and intense. You know which buttons to push. Thus you can push people in the direction you want them to move in. You have a knack of maintaining relations with important persons who can be of advantage to you. Your social group is very large but you are not deeply attached to individuals.  If you feel that a friendship or relationship has run its course you can easily cut ties without a second thought.

Your typical friends are the bold, outgoing, innovative and interesting types. You will get help from your peers and seniors in life. But do guard against cheats and fake people who can enter your friend circle and cause you problems. You are generally open, unsuspicious and sympathetic so dubious characters can take advantage of you. Your ‘friends’ can also become enemies, so beware about trusting them too much.

You have an aptitude for the stage, you can act. And if you sing, you have a good voice. But in a way you are always ‘acting’. Not much on the stage, you act in real life, you are always performing. You can modulate your personality depending on whom you are interacting with, you generally hide your emotions and your true opinions you always conceal. You do not display strong emotions, you do not strongly support any cause in public, mostly ambivalent to the situation, you take it as it happens. You may have your strong personal opinions but you do not let them come in between you and your business.

You are creative and can be a good writer or poet. You use this medium to express your hidden personal emotions and opinions. And because you are the master of communication you can sway others with your written world also. Gemini is a dual sign represented by two human figures. Thus you too have a dual personality, moody at times, you change your behaviour depending on the situation and your mood. Adaptable. so Generally you are more focussed on the broader society rather than your selfish interests. Your like thinking about higher philosophical things even if you are outwardly in material stuff. (But this can go the other extreme way if malefic planetary combinations exist, then you will be very selfish in your actions and highly self-focussed mentally.)

Gemini, the luckiest ascendant

You like spending time with the opposite sex, girlfriends/ boyfriends are possible before marriage. You marry well, the spouse is generally good-natured and the marriage. After marriage, you can make a good spouse as you have an active interest in domestic life and in the children. But generally family relationships are not always very stable. You travel a lot and are interested in humanity as a whole, so a family to you seems to be a very small group and you can lose interest in it very soon. Your involvement in the family life is rather irregular and relationships may not be very deep. This behaviour can lead to a deep sadness in life as warmth in relationships is reduced. This is also related to a mental or intellectual incompatibility with the marriage partner. Both of you think differently. You or your spouse can go through one major illness after marriage which can affect physical intimacy. But overall the married life is generally satisfactory as both you and your spouse are broad-minded, gentle and overall hopeful about the institution of marriage as such.

 Your health is generally average. You might suffer from some typical life-long chronic diseases. Nervous or skin related diseases and minor surgeries are possible in life. Some of your aliments will be more of the psychological planes. You always try to keep an overall cheerful personality, so possibly repress your negative emotions, do not give them a healthy outlet. Also you cannot relax easily as your mind is always active. You need to come up with some solution which can silence the mind, only then you will be able to relax thus recover from your illesses. (Soham mantra is a good option as the mind cannot concentrate on two things at once!)

You are analytical, logical, very practical, trade and business can be your expertise. Quite powerful, courageous and ambitious, you can achieve professional heights. You have to earn money by your own hard work and sincere efforts. Initially you may be in service in some routine job, but this does not suit your mindset. You need some profession where you can be personally active, going about and actually doing stuff. You might change jobs from time to time.  Some professions suited to your personality are journalism, architecture, engineering, software, TV, medicine, education, law etc. Any field where public relations are important is yours, as you are characterised by harmony and helpfulness. You can work in groups also as you easily get along with your teammates. You like money and tangible wealth and you earn well in your chosen field. You may also have secret sources of income. But take care and invest your money properly, as maintaining the bank balance can be an issue.

Gemini ascendants have some aptitude for the occult. How this actually develops will depend on the other combinations in the horoscope. There is considerable potential for spiritual progress too. (planets placed in the 9th house will give more pointers). You have a religious bent of mind and follow conventional philosophies and morals. You like getting involved in charitable causes. You are already a student of humanity. When you observe people, you also cryptically infer why they are like that or why typical things are happening to them. You analyse and infer. This sensitivity of the perceptions is a valuable tool enabling spiritual progress. You have the rare knack of leaping to correct inferences even without insufficient data. In a way you are sensitive to ‘other/inner’ cues and pick up hints which others cannot. If your 9th house planets push you towards the inner spiritual you can progress quite fast. Intelligence ie mental ability is a requirement of the student of the occult/ spiritual/ esoteric.

Your most significant drawback is that you are impatient. You cannot sustain interest in one thing for long and are not persistent in your efforts. This denies you your true successes in life. There is a lot of restless energy in you which demands release, so you engage yourself in so many activities that focussing on one of them, pursuing one with full focus is a challenge. You are unpredictable because of your dual nature, you can change course mid-stream and be  happy about it. This can come across as being fickle-minded, as you become indecisive and change your mind frequently. You are light-hearted and do not fully appreciate your responsibilities in life. This does not mean that you will ignore your commitments but just that you do not appreciate their seriousness. You can get argumentative at times and generally these arguments are about small juvenile issues. One thing you must guard against is trusting anyone beyond limits, you are a gentle soul at heart and this can be used against you.

So overall Gemini is a good and easy-going ascendant to have, a bit of everything, from the material to a possibility of the spiritual. This sign of duality in the 1st house grants you choices and also the boldness to choose. So make the most of it.

 

6ef85f0647cbecc6e7a7d20064a3614b

Ascendants and functional malefics

astrologerbydefault9 Comments

There was a question on the luckiest ascendant, so a quick post. This logic is based on the ‘functional malefic’ concept.

  • A planet who owns the 6th, 8th or 12th house counted from the ascendant sign, in a chart will act as a functional malefic for the horoscope. Especially so if its Mooltrikon sign falls in any of these turbulent houses.
  • Rahu and Ketu are functional malefics for all ascendant signs.
  • The lord of the 3rd house, if badly placed, will act as a functional malefic, so check out the individual horoscope for this factor. The 3rd house is a very typical house, can go either way.
  • The ascendant lord cannot overtly be a malefic for a chart, this is applicable for Aries, Libra and Aquarius ascendants. But if you get a chart with these ascendants, do evaluate the power of the ascendant lord to get a clear idea of what results he is going to confer. eg I have noticed that for Aries and Libra, the rate of change is very high, the personality goes through periodic cycles where there is severe disturbance, followed by a mini-melt-down, followed by an astonishing rebound and growth. For Aquarius ascendants, there is an undefinable loss of personality in the sense that they are always defined by their background groups. Alone, without his social support, an Aquarius ascendant seems a shadow of his self.

Ascendants and functional malefics

So this is the list of functional malefics for each ascendant sign,

  • Aries- Mercury, Rahu, Ketu
  • Taurus- Mars, Jupiter, Rahu, Ketu
  • Gemini- Rahu and Ketu
  • Cancer– Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu (possibly Mercury as per individual chart)
  • Leo– Moon, Rahu, Ketu
  • Virgo- Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu
  • Libra- Mercury, Rahu, Ketu (possibly Jupiter as per individual chart)
  • Scorpio– Venus, Rahu, Ketu
  • Sagittarius- Moon, Rahu, Ketu
  • Capricorn- Mercury, Sun, Jupiter, Rahu, Ketu
  • Aquarius- Moon, Mercury, Rahu, Ketu
  • Pisces- Sun, Saturn, Venus, Rahu, Ketu

Here we have followed the concept that the mool-trikon sign of the planet should fall in the 6th, 8th and 12th houses for it to be classified as a full blown functional malefic. But do remember that even if a planet’s regular sign falls in these 6th, 8th and 12th houses of turmoil, he can be an agent of pain in your life. (For Moon we do not consider his Mooltrikon sign Taurus, but his own sign Cancer)

  • I have added one possible malefic for Cancer ascendant, ie Mercury. And Jupiter as a potential malefic for Libra ascendant. Their mool-trikon sign falls in the 3rd house for these ascendants. The 3rd house is a rather typical house, can go either way so always check it from the individual chart.

If you look at this above list critically, Virgo and Pisces ascendants have a whopping five planets as clear-cut functional malefics. People born under these ascendant signs have more happening and traumatic events in their life. The influence of the three houses of turmoil is more in their lives and more unfavourable incidents associated with the keywords of these houses occur. Broadly diseases, debts, enemies, losses, stress, catastrophic transformation etc can occur with more frequency. (Cancer will fall in this list, if in the individual chart, Mercury is unable to give auspicious results. eg If Mercury is aspected/ conjoint Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu)

Now whenever the Sun is a functional malefic, you should analyse his proximity to Mercury too. Mercury is more often combust than other planets. So if in the chart, a malefic Sun consumes a beneficial/ neutral Mercury, Mercury is unable to give his results and you have one less positive/neutral planet in your chart. Second possibility is Venus being combust by a malefic Sun, as he too remains rather close to the Sun. This scenario is possible for Virgo, Capricorn and Pisces ascendants, so check this in the individual chart.

Second possibility is if the Sun combusts a functional malefic planet then he too becomes a malefic! The Sun can combust all the 5 tara-graha, but this possibility is more for Mercury and Venus as they are the inner planets, closer to the Sun.

  • Aries, Cancer, Libra and Aquarius have Mercury as a functional malefic so if such a malefic Mercury is swallowed up by the Sun in combustion, the Sun will take on all of Mercury’s attributes including his this functional malefic nature.
  • Then Scorpio and Pisces have Venus as a functional malefic so if the Sun combusts a malefic Venus, he too will become a composite Sun+Venus malefic power.

In the horoscope, check if the ascendant lord is influenced by these functional malefics. This reduces his power to adjust your personality and your environment with each other. Also check if the birth Moon is under malefic influence, as this directly affects the mind, emotions and mental processes.

  • eg for Cancer ascendant, Moon (ascendant lord) conjoint Jupiter is not a very auspicious combination. Even if Jupiter is considered to be beneficial, he is a functional malefic for this ascendant.

Taurus, Capricorn and Aquarius ascendants, have four planets as functional malefics. (Libra can come in this category if in the specific chart, Jupiter is under the influence of even more malefics and is incapable of giving auspicious results.) And Aries, Leo, Scorpio and Sagittarius ascendants, have three functional malefic planets. Finally Gemini ascendant has only two, ie the common Rahu/ Ketu as the functional malefic energies in the chart.

So I would say that Gemini ascendant is the luckiest ascendant to have, as it practically has no functional malefics. Except Rahu and Ketu who are astral planets entrusted with the express job of creating turbulence in our life. The remaining 7 planets are either neutral or beneficial so this ascendant has a relatively smoother life compared to the remaining eleven signs of the zodiac.

The toughest would be Cancer, Virgo or Pisces ascendants.

  • Virgo and Pisces because of the five planets who work directly as functional malefics.
  • Cancer because he has four (five, if Mercury also afflicted), but these include Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu, the slowest planets. If something goes wrong in a Cancer’s life, it can take ages to first suffer through the problem and then ages to recover from it.

Ascendants and functional malefics

Now a bit more on how to use this concept.

  • If the functional malefic in the birth chart is on the exact central degree at the house he is placed in, he exerts more negative influence on the matters of this house. eg if your birth rising degree is 3deg Leo, the middle of the 1st house is at 3deg Leo. Look out for the planets transiting around 3deg in any sign and their effects on you.
  • If the functional malefic is closely conjunct or aspects any other birth planet, he will affect their power to give auspicious results.
  • In transit too, these planets give their worst results when they are passing through the center of a house or conjunct/ aspecting any birth planet.

Finally one more aspect of this list must be considered. Check which ascendant has slow moving or fast moving planets as its functional malefics.

Leo and Sagittarius have only Moon as their functional malefic. Moon is the fastest planet going at 2.25days/sign. So the trials in their life will pop in suddenly, maybe an acute attack of some problem in life and then as suddenly pop out. There can be more frequent problems as the Moon transits around the zodiac in about 28days. But perhaps this is better as you do not have to endure under a problem for years.

  • eg If you know that the next 2.25days are going to be typical, you can do something about it, eg re-arrange your work schedule etc or just sit through knowing that it will end in 2.25days.

Aries, Libra, Scorpio, Aquarius have the Sun, Moon, Mercury or Venus as their functional malefic. These ‘inner planets’ are also fast moving, approx a month in a sign. So the problems faced by these people do not last for long, though may have a yearly sort of periodicity. Here a problem can last for about a month (might resurface maybe a year later if the dasha/other transits permit.) However note the combustions of these planets in your birth chart and in transit which can modify results.

  • eg If a Cancer ascendant at birth has Mercury conjoint Sun and both aspected by Saturn. Then those periods when Mercury goes combust in the skies (three times a year) wil, inflate his ego, affect his thought processes, make him temporarily selfish, unable to accepts others views, create even more misunderstandings because of this, might cause severe fights with siblings or teammates or neighbours, or extended family members, losses in trade etc be especially problematic for him.

For Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Capricorn and Pisces ascendant people, the outer planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn figure in the list. These take longer times to transit signs, Mars can take 2-6 months, Jupiter 1 yr and Saturn 2.6yrs, per sign. So for these people, troubles in life will last for a longer period, they will have to endure under problematic situations for months/ years. And recovery from these episodes will be slow. However periodicity will be lesser. Mars completes one round of the zodiac in 2yrs, Jupiter in 12yrs and Saturn in 30yrs.

  • I have mentioned in my previous posts, that Cancer ascendants should take special care and try to focus on their spiritual growth than material objects during the next few years. Now you see, Jupiter, Ketu, Saturn, are/ will be transiting their 6th, 7th, 8th houses back to back. Two houses of turmoil, 6th and 8th and 7th is a very cryptic house, decisions taken here convert to karma very quickly.

You must have read about functional malefics in your studies on astrology, so this is how you gain more information using this concept. Astrology is about seeing patterns and linking them together with common sense and a bit of intuition. You must study your sample horoscopes of your family/ friends and see how your ideas and concepts really play out in life. This is how you learn with every chart you read.

Ascendants and functional malefics

Shortcuts for analysing a chart and Happiness

astrologerbydefault2 Comments

I have had my share of strange questions from clients but yesterday on this blog I got this one ‘(planetary configurations), and will I be happy in my old age?’. This was a first. ‘Happiness’ is very subjective definition. Eg I go and buy a car for Rs 20 lakh and seeing the car in my garage makes me happy. But then the next week I see an advert saying that this car’s price has gone down and now its available for Rs 18lakh. Immediately I regret buying the car and am unhappy because I bought it!

So what is happiness?

Your horoscope can grant you material stuff, a house, vehicles, a good job, one-one relations and the rest of it. If your kendra houses are powerful your pillars of life are assured. 1st house will give a confident personality well adjusted in the environment which suits it best. The 4th house will give nurture, home, security and comforts. The 7th house will give you successes in one-one relationships. These partnerships may be with other humans or with your inner soul. A strong 10th house will ensure that the you are able to use the resources of your chart to perform the work you are karmically supposed to. In addition if the kona houses, the angles, the 5th and 9th are capable of giving good results you will feel fulfilment. The 5th house represents personal genius and creativity. The 9th house represents the auspicious benefits which you have activated from your past life karma and in this life these are your luck, your divine blessings and the one-off event in your life which propel you onwards on higher trajectories. The three dusham-sthan, the 6th 8th and 12th houses are responsible for all the turmoil that you go through in life. If you are protected by benefics from their onslaught your life will be less turbulent.

Your ascendant lord is of especial importance. He is the basis of your life. His position and power can single-handedly improve the quality of the horoscope. He is especially beneficial in the kendra and kona houses. The 5 tara graha, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are responsible for these things as they are linked to each one of the five lower chakras and everything that these chakras signify. All material stuff is from here. If these planets are powerful enough you will get all material things in life. Now the luminaries, the Sun and the Moon are the subjective forces operating at the deepest levels of the consciousness. Sun at the Sahasrara chakra and the Moon at the Ajnya chakra. These two do not ‘give’ anything material thing as such, but power the experience. So to analyse them also consider the houses/signs/planets they are influencing. The only job of these luminaries is to take you onward towards the non-material inner reality. All spiritual stuff from here. And finally the two chhya graha, the astral planets, Rahu/Ketu. These are Life. These push our perfect energy out of balance and the entire effort of getting them back in balance is called ‘Life’. They are responsible for the illusion called life. As per the story/allegory of Samudra manthan, they were one but separated into two, the head and the body of one being. They create motion, they disturb the tri-gun, they are responsible for manifestation. They create. They too operate through the houses/signs/planets they are linked with. They are the direction of your desire to experience. All karmic stuff from here.

If these things in your horoscope are powerful or capable of giving auspicious results then you will not want any essential thing related to life and living. The timings, when will you get these things is dependant on the transits and Dasha periods of the planets. If you have more planets exalted or in their own houses or having good ashtakvarga scores or shad-bala/power, good navamsha placements etc your soul has evolved significantly. You are internally more mature, more able to bear the strain of completing your karmic balance. And often your trials are of the emotional/ spiritual nature than the mere physical.

Shortcuts for analysing a chart and Happiness

No one enjoys a life with continuous happiness on the material front. The events of life are a series of struggles, achievements and failures. Life experiences highs and lows and ultimately averages out to a straight line. Over the lives you have lived, you have gained tools, skills which are manifest in this current life. You use these tools to complete your quota of karma. Karma is mysterious. (Suppose you have two choices; the first is to marry, but this marriage will be marked with a short-lived spouse, no progeny and emotional/physical stress with delay in the spiritual progress or become a sanyasi stick to the spiritual and reject the material. Which one of these would make you happier?).

A chart always shows its typical nature, the energy going outwards, pravrutti towards the material or going inwards nivrutti-spiritual. Can you fathom these energies playing around you? For this the relationship between Sun, Moon and the ascendant lord are examined. (Thus for Leo and Cancer ascendants it is sometimes a short cut to the spiritual, if they choose to take it.)

There are 9 graha. If most of the planets in your birth chart are concentrated below the horizon, (ie center of the 1st house to the center of the 7th is the sunrise-sunset axis. The 4th house is the nadir/midnight. The 10th is the zenith/midday) you are more into rebalancing past karma. Things are not much in your hands as you are buffeted by the winds of your own past karma (good or unfavourable effects both), you are reaping what you had sown. Here you are more focused on the karma you have generated already, you cannot change them much but have to accept them. Eg you cannot change your mother or your family. You are holding the fruits of your past lives in your hands.

If majority of your birth chart’s planets are above the horizon then you have the option of taking decisions on the situations which are being presented to you. You have the luxury of choice, and choose well as this will give your current and future lives a totally different direction. This is an opportunity use it well. This is the life where you have the possibility of generating new karma. Eg the 7th house, you have the choice of directing your energy, this is the time of the sunset, dusk, the setting sun, here energies are concentrated in very strange manners, do choose your one-one relationships very carefully so as to make the most of these 7th house energies do not waste them however strong the provocation. (Even if your birth planets are placed equally, they still will be 5 planets in one half and 4 in the other, so one of these two above conditions will be seen)

So where is the happiness? In the material or the spiritual or the karmic? Find it out for yourself.

Real happiness? That is another story. My Sat-Guru would often discuss happiness. It is the state of ‘unsupported’ happiness – Anand, we all desire this in our deepest hearts. The constant state of ‘Anand’ also called Param-anand, cannot be linked to something else, material, spiritual or karmic. If it is so linked then it is not the Param-anand. When the linked thing changes or our perception about this linked thing changes the happiness will get destroyed, like the car example above. So for the infinite happiness you need to find that internal connect to your deepest self, the starting point is a regular spiritual practice.

 

ca0d7d79f2a8de6cad264bf22bd0a97c