This is a continued post from part 1 here. Do read it first so that this continuation makes sense.

If you have 5 or more planets in this ‘bright’ half of the zodiac you have the option to choose. You are not running on auto-pilot, you can do some course corrections or take advantage of the situations presented to you. Here if your ascendant lord, Sun and Moon are also in the bright half you also have the intelligence and awareness to choose the better path. You will be put in situations where you will be required to choose. It is like a test, if you can choose well you get a one up but if you choose the worse option, you have created more karma to work through.

Now let’s add one more interpretation of the ‘dark/bright’ halves.

• The sub-conscious half was chosen by your higher self at the moment of birth. The higher self controls this half and works through it. And its exclusive goal is the spiritual, it wants to work towards the higher consciousness. Every action by the dark half is directed to this ultimate goal. You might feel it to be happy or unfavourable as per your conscious perceptions, but you can’t do much about it. It is something like an avalanche, once triggered at birth, there is nothing much that one can choose about its course.
• The bright half gives the conscious mind the option of choice. This can be considered as a course-correction or an opportunity to grab at options which will be presented to you in life. The background potential will be supplied by the dark half as usual. And the background always wants to move towards the higher consciousness. But here you have the conscious choice of playing the Game of creation some more or going Home. Free will does exist. There is nothing wrong/ right just the action and its inevitable consequence.

We have seen how individual choice is made possible in the 7^th house. The typical nature of the 7^th half-dark and half-bright, makes this house rather dangerous. Its choices must be navigated carefully. The mind wants to consciously choose in the current moment but the inherent choice of the birth moment cannot be ignored. The moment of evening twilight, generally malevolent energies influence the conscious mind. But the sub-conscious is always alert, it wants only those influences which will take it higher spiritually. This is a very subtle conflict with very high stakes. That is why we astrologers get so many questions related to partnerships -marriage and business!

Then we reach the 8^th house. The house of sudden catastrophic transformations, surgeries, serious diseases, reproductive organs, accidents, the process of physical death, occult etc. If there are benefics here they are subdued, as overtly auspicious things cause you to change internally in unexpected manner. But if there are malefics here they give unpredictable results, cruelty coupled with occult?, war linked with spirituality?, almost always an unsatisfying marriage/business venture, but an endurance for the spiritual. Here you have the background of the sub-conscious as chosen at birth but now you can do something about it. If your chart shows the possibility of accidents, maybe you can train yourself to drive safely so as to reduce the intensity/chances. Or if you know you might get in-laws who will try to use you, you might keep them at a distance from the start. Or if you know that you have a potential for the occult, maybe you can actively learn more about it. If you know that death will be in a certain way, you can keep yourself calm and make the most of the energy of the transformation. The 8^th is ultimately a part of the Moksh trikon.

The 9^th house, this is a part of the Dharma trikon, 1-5-9 houses, so should be analysed carefully. This house will give all material necessities for a comfortable life, at whatever level you have chosen. The expectation here is if you are materially comfortable, you will naturally gravitate towards the spiritual. Optimism, benevolence, divine blessings, luck, your past lives ‘auspicious benefits’ etc. You have this backup with you but how to express it and work with it can be your choice. Changes in your inner most psyche as per your karmic back-up, slowly change you on the outside too, more philosophical, more mature, more kind, you become an enabling senior, a patron yourself. Here benefic planets give very auspicious results but malefics also do not harm much. You will receive spiritual gifts and you are expected to give them onward. (Highest possibility exists for Cancer ascendant. If exalted Venus occupies the 9^th house Pisces. If the rest of the chart supports and the person chooses this path. This person can realise Himself and help others too.)

The 10^th house is your link to your society, profession, salary income, birth father, social mobility, etc, Arth trikon. Some of this is naturally as per your background’s dark half. But here you will be put into situations where you will have to choose and act, work, perform, produce, labour, do your karmic obligations. This action is obligatory as per your past lives, but if you are in a karma-yoni you do have some option on how you want to do it. If you choose to avoid doing it altogether, then you will have to complete the pendency in some future life, as it is your obligatory action. Any planet in this house will increase scope for action. They will add their power to the house, ‘activate it’, giving you more platforms and opportunities to work. Any planet in this house generally performs well. This is the zenith, the degree at the top of the head. Any action you take here will have its effect on your current and future lives. You can gain the highest goals here. And since it is the bright half, you can do some course corrections, the action does not percolate immediately into the subconscious like the 7^th house.

Then the 11^th house of gains. A part of the Kama trikon. Here you will be granted opportunities to gain in every way possible. Wealth, friend-circle, like-minded groups, good-will, etc are linked here. This gain is essentially the gain linked to your personal essence, it feels good on all levels. You come out of your personal limitations, the limits defined by your personal ego here. As you socialise, make friends, join like minded groups, interact, accept every sort of gains from the 11^th, you realise that you are much more. You expand in every way, become socially conscious to begin with and later this consciousness expands even more as it gains more directions. The choice from the material to the spiritual is very much available here. Practically every planet here gives favourable results. If you have more planets here you will be given that many more and diverse opportunities to gain.

The 12^th house is a rather cryptic house. The planets which have risen a couple of hours before your birth. You can interpret this house in two ways. One it represents the influence of the energies of the journey to pitrulok to martyalok, ie the journey your soul made from the dimension of the spirits to the dimension of the living. Or the impact of your immediate past life on your current life. Second it represents the immediate position of your soul after your physical death, the route you will take back to the pitrulok (Moksh trikon). All kinds of outward travel, expenses, the genius and creativity of the dying moment, the meditative states and also the moments which you spend dreaming and in deep sleep. You have no conscious control over how these energies work. But you can direct these energies. At the moment of death, you can consciously propel yourself to higher energy states. You can harness the energies of the other states to complete your karmic baggage. You can do meditative practices with the intention of achieving Moksh (this is why Venus is exalted in the natural 12^th house of the zodiac). You can increase your intuitive power and use your sub-conscious actively. This is naturally dependant on the potential of your sub-conscious half but you do have some choice in the matter.

If you do a quick analysis with the trikons. Arth trikon is more in the subconscious side. Moksh trikon is more in the conscious side. Dharma and Kama trikon are equally placed half/half. (The 1^st and 7^th houses are different).

• Dharma trikon – 1-5-9 houses
• Arth trikon – 2-6-10 houses
• Kama trikon – 3-7-11 houses
• Moksh trikon – 4-8-12 houses

Arth trikon – The things which give your life meaning are more linked to the sub-conscious programming, your past lives decide this more. Two houses out of the three lie in the dark side. Eg if you have been doing intense spiritual practice for 90% of your past lives, then in this life too this will give most meaning to your life. Or if you have been a soldier for 80% of your past lives, then in this life too the army will beckon. You cannot dismiss these ‘arth’ ‘meaningful’ things so easily as they are connected to your past lives inevitable results, you can maybe modulate them a bit, eg if not a soldier, you can be an army doctor?

Moksh trikon – The final release from illusions is more on the conscious side. If you want to release yourself from anything, it requires conscious efforts. 33% will be your back-up from the sub-conscious of the past lives but remaining effort has to be consciously put in. This applies to Moksh, the final release but also the release from other things. Eg you have never been given maternal love in 80% of your past lives, it is a negative binding. So to release yourself from this baggage, you have to consciously try, one way is helping orphaned children. Another example, if you didn’t find a good Guru or were exploited by someone who pretended to be one, it is a negative baggage, so try to teach others as you wanted to be, learn the highest knowledge and give it to others, this will set you free.

Dharma trikon – I have written a lot on the 1^st house in my past few posts so not repeating all that. The personal essence, subconscious tendencies/ genius and karmic ‘auspicious benefits’ make this trikon.

Kama trikon – I have written a lot on the 7^th house also, its inherent danger, its half dark/ bright sides etc so not repeating this either. It is the evolution of the narrow definition of ‘desire’ into the expanded infinite ‘highest desire’, via a treacherous illusion of free will and choice.

There are so many ways of pulling information from your horoscope, do explore them all, you will get to know yourself better. We generally use astrology to know about our education, business, wealth, health, family/children etc. This is the simpler way of using this Ved-ang Jyotish. The ultimate objective of Jyotish is always Self-illumination.