Your cosmic blueprint

Lagna (Ascendant): the foundation of your chart

The Lagna is the zodiac sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. It becomes the first house of the chart, and every other house is counted from it, so it sets the frame for everything else.

Vedic astrologers give the Lagna as much weight as the Moon, and more than the Sun sign. It is traditionally linked with the body, temperament and the general direction of life, and the same planet can act very differently for two Lagnas: Mars rules the first house for an Aries Lagna, but the second and the seventh for a Libra Lagna.

A new sign rises about every two hours, so the Lagna is the most time-sensitive part of the chart. Your result shows the Lagna’s sign, its exact degree and the nakshatra it falls in, and every chart marks it Asc.

Rashi (Moon sign): your mind and moods

Your Rashi is the sign the Moon occupied when you were born. Jyotisha associates the Moon with the mind: feelings, habits, memory and the way you respond to the world, so the Moon sign is central to a Vedic reading.

It is also the sign most Indian horoscopes are written for. Daily and weekly rashiphal, Sade Sati and the traditional matching of two charts all start from the Moon sign rather than the Sun sign.

Your Vedic Sun sign may differ from the one in a Western horoscope. Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, fixed to the stars, which today sits about 24° behind the tropical zodiac used in the West, so many people move back by one sign.

Nakshatra: your birth star

Beside the twelve signs, Jyotisha divides the zodiac into 27 nakshatras, the lunar mansions, of 13°20′ each: roughly the distance the Moon travels in a day. Each is divided into four padas of 3°20′.

The nakshatra the Moon occupied at birth is your Janma Nakshatra. It decides which planetary period your life began in and how much of it remained at birth, and its pada gives the traditional first syllable for a name.

Each nakshatra has a ruling planet, a deity and a character of its own. Your result shows the Moon’s nakshatra and pada, the nakshatra of the Lagna, and that of every planet.

Navagrahas: the nine planets and their role

Jyotisha works with nine grahas. The word means “that which seizes”: each is read as a distinct influence that colours the houses it occupies, the houses it rules and the planets it looks at. These are the themes traditionally linked with each:

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  Sun (Surya): the self and vitality, authority, confidence, the father and leadership.

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  Moon (Chandra): the mind and emotions, the mother, nurture, intuition and peace of mind.

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  Mars (Mangal): energy, courage and drive, siblings, land and property; also anger and conflict.

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  Mercury (Budh): intellect and speech, learning, trade, writing and adaptability.

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  Jupiter (Guru): wisdom, teachers, faith, growth, children and good fortune.

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  Venus (Shukra): love and beauty, comfort, the arts, partnership and luxury.

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  Saturn (Shani): discipline and time, endurance, duty, service, and lessons that come through delay.

• Rahu: ambition and desire, the unconventional, foreign lands and sudden change.

• Ketu: detachment, spirituality, the past, research and sudden insight.

Rahu and Ketu are not physical bodies: they are the two points where the Moon’s orbit crosses the Sun’s apparent path, always exactly opposite each other, and eclipses happen near them. A planet marked (R) in your result is retrograde: seen from Earth it appears to move backwards, which astrologers read as its themes turning inward or returning to unfinished matters.

The twelve houses (Bhavas)

The chart is divided into twelve houses, each a field of life. Stella uses whole-sign houses, the older Vedic method: the Lagna’s sign is the first house, the next sign the second, and so on around the zodiac.

A planet’s house shows where its themes play out, and the sign on each house shows their style. These are the areas traditionally given to each house:

• 1

  First house: self, body, appearance and temperament.

• 2

  Second house: family, wealth, speech and food.

• 3

  Third house: courage, siblings, communication and short journeys.

• 4

  Fourth house: home, mother, comfort, property and inner peace.

• 5

  Fifth house: children, creativity, learning, romance and past merit.

• 6

  Sixth house: health, daily work, service, rivals and debts.

• 7

  Seventh house: marriage, partnerships and open dealings.

• 8

  Eighth house: longevity, sudden change, inheritance and what is hidden.

• 9

  Ninth house: fortune, faith, teachers, long journeys and dharma.

• 10

  Tenth house: career, status, action and reputation.

• 11

  Eleventh house: gains, friends, networks and hopes fulfilled.

• 12

  Twelfth house: expenses, sleep, foreign lands, letting go and liberation.

North and South Indian charts

The same Kundli can be drawn two ways, and the calculator shows either. The information is identical; only the layout differs.

North Indian (the diamond): the houses stay fixed. The top diamond is always the first house, the Lagna, and the houses run counter-clockwise from it. The small numbers name the signs, from 1 for Aries to 12 for Pisces.

South Indian (the square): the signs stay fixed. Pisces is always the top-left square and the signs run clockwise; the Lagna is marked in whichever square it falls in, and the houses are counted from there.

Choose the style your family or your astrologer reads. Stella remembers the choice on this device.

Divisional charts (Vargas)

Each sign can be cut into smaller parts to build a divisional chart, or varga, that looks at one area of life in more detail. The Navamsa (D9) divides every sign into nine parts of 3°20′ and is read almost as carefully as the birth chart itself, especially for marriage, dharma and the inner strength of each planet.

Stella calculates the sixteen charts described by the sage Parashara. Pick any of them to sit beside the Rasi chart, or open the table to see them all:

• D1

  Rasi: the birth chart: the whole of life.

• D2

  Hora: wealth.

• D3

  Drekkana: siblings and courage.

• D4

  Chaturthamsa: home, property and fortune.

• D7

  Saptamsa: children.

• D9

  Navamsa: marriage, dharma and the strength of each planet.

• D10

  Dasamsa: career and status.

• D12

  Dwadasamsa: parents.

• D16

  Shodasamsa: vehicles and comforts.

• D20

  Vimsamsa: spiritual practice.

• D24

  Chaturvimsamsa: learning and education.

• D27

  Saptavimsamsa: strengths and weaknesses.

• D30

  Trimsamsa: misfortunes and difficulties.

• D40

  Khavedamsa: good and bad effects inherited through the mother’s line.

• D45

  Akshavedamsa: character, and what comes through the father’s line.

• D60

  Shashtiamsa: past karma: the finest division of all.

The finer the division, the more exact the birth time must be: the Lagna of the D60 changes about every two minutes.

Vimshottari Dasha: the chapters of your life

A dasha is a planetary period. The Vimshottari system gives a lifetime of 120 years to the nine planets in a fixed order: Ketu 7 years, Venus 20, the Sun 6, the Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17.

Your sequence starts with the ruler of the Moon’s nakshatra at birth. How far the Moon had already travelled through that nakshatra decides how much of the first period remained: the balance of dasha in your result.

Each mahadasha divides into nine antardashas, and each of those into nine pratyantardashas, in the same order and in proportion. Astrologers use them to discuss when themes in the chart are likely to come forward. Your result lists all three levels, dated by your birth place’s clock, and marks the one running now.

Stella measures dasha years as true sidereal solar years, the time the Sun takes to return to the same point among the stars, as Jagannatha Hora does by default.

Birth details (Avakhada)

The Avakhada chakra lists traditional classifications of your Moon. Its sign gives the varna, vashya and tatva (element); its nakshatra gives the yoni, gana and nadi; and its pada gives the name syllable.

Most of these are the categories of Ashtakoota matching, the traditional comparison of two charts before marriage, in which each is scored for compatibility. The name syllable, or namakshar, is the sound traditionally recommended to begin a child’s name.

Traditions differ on a few of these tables. Stella follows the classical texts and records the source for each; ask your astrologer if your family follows another.

Panchang at birth

Your result also records the Panchang of the moment you were born: the tithi (lunar day), the vara (weekday), the Moon’s nakshatra, the yoga and the karana. Together they describe the quality of the day, and families use them to keep birthdays and rituals by the Hindu calendar.

The Hindu day begins at sunrise, not midnight, so a birth before sunrise belongs to the previous vara. Your result says so when that happens.

Manglik (Kuja dosha)

A chart is called Manglik when Mars sits in the 1st, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house. It is traditionally weighed in marriage matching, where two Manglik charts are often seen as balancing each other.

Stella counts these houses from the Lagna and from the Moon, and shows the placement from Venus too. Some southern traditions also count the 2nd house; when Mars is there, your result says so.

Kaal Sarp

Kaal Sarp describes a chart in which all seven planets, from the Sun to Saturn, fall on one side of the axis between Rahu and Ketu, as if held between the head and the tail of a serpent. Its twelve named types follow the house Rahu occupies.

It does not appear in the classical texts such as Parashara’s, and astrologers differ on how much weight to give it. Programs also disagree on the edge cases: Stella decides by exact position, many programs decide by sign, and when the two answers differ your result shows both.

Sade Sati and Dhaiya

Sade Sati, “seven and a half”, is the time Saturn takes to pass through the sign before your Moon sign, your Moon sign itself, and the sign after it: about two and a half years each. It is traditionally a period of effort, responsibility and maturing rather than simply one of misfortune.

Dhaiya, the small panoti, is Saturn’s stay of about two and a half years in the 4th or 8th sign from the Moon.

Your result lists every Sade Sati and Dhaiya in your first hundred years, with dates found from Saturn’s actual movement. When Saturn turns retrograde it can step back out of a sign for a few months; the table shows that step as its own row.