Predicting Events by the Transits of Planets

BY

CHAND KARAN AHUJA B.Sc.

Introduction

In today’s fast moving world it has become extremely essential to look deeper into astrology for the occurrence of events over much shorter periods of time than are covered by the Vimshottari or Ashtottari Dasa systems of the Hindu Vedic Sidereal Astrology. For this the effect of the transits of planets comes in very handy. This is also referred to as Gocharphal in nearly all texts which cover the Dasa systems and was even recommended by the ancient astrologers and sages of India for determining events over narrower periods of time.

Over the last more than forty years, and after having studied hundreds of horoscopes, some facts and features of the transiting planets, which I have discovered, are truly astounding. On re-examination of these again and again I have found them to be correct. It is therefore, my endeavor now that more astrologers learn about these facts and give better and more precise predictions to those in need.

Most of you already know that astrology is an ocean of knowledge. It is the science of all sciences and in its ambit lies all the knowledge of the world. There are many principles upon which the transits of planets operate and it can take a lot of time to even learn about some of the basic principles. However, keeping in view the limited space in hand, I shall make here a humble attempt to lay bare some salient features and principles only -- upon which the transiting planets operate and which I have come across in my long tryst with this wonderful subject. Though, I may have missed upon many significant characteristics in my quest yet, whatever I have hit upon and found having a profound effect, I would like to share with everyone.

It must be understood at the outset that, for optimum results, the effects and results of the Dasa system, as propounded by our ancients, must be taken into account along with the effect of the transits of planets. Now, coming to the preliminaries first without which it would be useless to proceed further. These are some of the hard facts that have come across to me over the years:

1. There are two major forces up there in the heavens -- Mars and Saturn. Whereas, at the time of birth Mars is endowed with a potential in accordance with the strength of the House and Sign it is placed in; the planet Saturn is hardly endowed with any such potential strength. Saturn, and whatever it represents in a natal chart by way of House position and Sign, is always envious of the potential and strength of the House and Sign of natal Mars and makes all efforts to mutate/destroy Mars and build, create and strengthen the House it is itself placed in at the time of birth. The House occupied by Saturn at the time of birth may or may not be a friendly House. And accordingly the general path of life can be ascertained from this singular fact. If Mars is in a positive/friendly House and Saturn is not then it can be said that the House of Mars disintegrates/mutates, though gradually, in the lifetime of the person towards a negative end. On the other hand, if it is the other way round, then the opposite happens. A balanced situation too can prevail if the disintegration of Mars is from a negative position to a negative position or from a positive position to another positive position. However, everything is not lost or gained until the position of other planets in the chart is taken into account. The position of all other planets is also to be noted for being in a positive or a negative position in the natal chart. For the final result which will prevail in the twilight years of the person, the position of Moon in the chart of the person at the time of birth is of utmost significance. If it is placed in a favorable House in the natal chart it can be safely assumed that success would definitely come (ultimately) in the lifetime of the person. The remaining planets too play their role and operate during the lifetime of a person. There seems to be a general sequence of the planets in which they operate during the lifetime of a person. This sequence is like this: First Mars, then Saturn, then Jupiter, then Ketu (Dragon’s Tail) and Rahu (Dragon’s Head), then Sun, Mercury and Venus together, and finally the Moon. They operate in this order only. For the time periods of their operation the same values as taken in the Dasa system apply broadly and do not vary by more than a year or so. If there are any retrograde or combust planets in this sequence then the effects of such planets come into play a little later than usual and therefore the previous planet in the sequence has a longer period. This sequence, in addition to the respective Houses and Signs of the planets, is all what has to be noted from the natal chart to get a sort of birds-eye view of the destiny of a person. The next step is to connect the planets of the natal chart in the order of this sequence with a pen or pencil to obtain a graphical picture of the trend of the planets. From this graphical picture the general success and happiness of a person can be predicted quite accurately. If the graph made out by connecting the planets is heading towards the Ascendant -- whether it is in the direction of the movement of the planets or not it can be safely presumed that it would be a fulfilling life. And if it is in the direction of the movement of the planets too, then it can be said the person will have a better life than if it was moving against the movement of the planets. However, in case the graph made out is proceeding towards the Descendant -- whether it is in the direction of the movement of the planets or not it can be safely presumed it would not be a very fulfilling life. However, everything is not lost or even gained due to this one factor. This is just a glimpse in to the net result at the end of life. But during the intervening period between birth and death there can be periods of joy, happiness and success as well as of sorrow, misfortune and unsuccessfulness. These periods too can be determined, roughly, by knowing whether the position of an operating planet is at a crest or at a trough of the graph of the chart. This applies to all cases of the direction of the graph -- whether it is moving towards the Ascendant or Descendant. Next we need to move onto some general characteristics of the planets which are essential too before we proceed to predicting the time of events more precisely by the transiting of the planets.

2. Mars is a loner, very intelligent, confident and courageous planet (Person) bubbling with life and rarely seeks any planets (Person’s) assistance to achieve its aims and objects or even hold on to and protect the House it is situated in from destruction/mutation by Saturn. However, its weakness lies in its short-sightedness, lack of intuition and hasty actions. It is always on the lookout to influence, interfere and even disrupt the nature or attribute of the Houses and Signs which are in the fourth or eighth Houses from itself but positively supports and promotes the nature and attributes of the House and Sign which is in the seventh House from itself.

3. Saturn on the other hand is just the opposite of Mars. It is not very intelligent but has an ample supply of envy, meanness and greed. The only feature in its favor is that wherever positioned in a chart its candidature to be the first priority, in any situation, is more justified than the other planets. And for countering the features of Mars it seeks the knowledge as well as help and support of Jupiter, but it rarely gets it and therefore cannot hold on to what it has toiled for and loses it to Rahu, Ketu, Mars and Jupiter.

4. Jupiter passes on whatever it has acquired from Saturn to the Sun -- the King of the Universe -- whom no one dare refuse. Whereas Rahu, Ketu and Mars hold onto whatever passes onto them from Saturn – all in their respective lunar months.

5. Ketu and Rahu have been generally considered as the mischief-mongers of the entire lot by the astrologers’ community. This seems to be a little exaggerated in the case of Rahu. But it can be considered to be fairly correct in the case of Ketu. Of the two, Rahu is the passive, yielding and shy; and Ketu the active, unyielding and outspoken one. Ketu is revengeful, does not forget past injustice meted out to it. And being endowed with a good memory strikes the iron hot when least expected by others. It does not yield until it gets its due.

6. The Sun obtains the knowledge, help and support of Jupiter to create, support, elevate and protect the status of the various Houses but especially the seventh House from Jupiter. The transit of the Sun in the seventh House from Jupiter is a very crucial month each year. It usually begins on a sad note but ends positively. This happens so as it sometimes takes a number of days for the support to arrive from Jupiter i.e. until the Moon passes over Jupiter in that lunar month. This effect sometimes begins earlier even -- from the onset of the solar month. It is in fact, the seventh House from transiting Jupiter which stands to gain the most. The other two, the fifth and ninth, which are also aspected by Jupiter, are merely ancillary to the elevation, support and protection of the seventh House. In Hindu astrology there are fewer aspects of planets than in western astrology. For these aspects, a table has been given at the end of this article.

7. The planets Mercury and Venus always move in close proximity to the Sun. Mercury is never more than 28 degrees away from the Sun in either direction and Venus is never more than 48 degrees away from the Sun in either direction. Their roles can be likened to as being the messenger/servant/minister and queen/wife/consort respectively of the Sun. For taking important decisions and passing judicious executive orders -- the duty the Sun is inherently endowed with -- it is essential for it to have them in close proximity to itself for information and advice respectively. Nature has done exactly that.

8. Next in line comes the Moon. As you know that it represents the mind. Its House and position in transit indicates where the mind of the transiting Sun is occupied and is an aid to it to imagine the exact nature of that House and Sign in order to take the right decisions or pass correct orders. Now on to the methodology of predicting events with the help of the transiting planets.

The Timings of Events

This is quite a lengthy process but very effective and assists in coming down to sometimes, the exact date of an event/occurrence. Keeping the shortage of space in mind, I shall broadly explain the method of using it. After casting the birth chart of the person requiring a reading, the position of the transiting planets should be placed outside the birth chart and alongside the Zodiac Signs in which they are transiting at that moment. Take care to mention the retrograde and combust planets both in the birth chart as well as the transit positions of the planets. It is pertinent to point out at this stage that Saturn is many times in forward and retrograde motion in a Sign. So it would be very appropriate to mention that as 1F/1R/2F/2R/3F/3R alongside it as the case maybe, while placing/writing the position of the transiting Saturn. Saturn behaves differently in each of the motions. It is weak in 1F, moderately strong in 2F and very strong in 3F motion. In retrograde motions it has no strength in 1R, very weak in 2R and weak to moderately strong in 3R.

Role of transiting Saturn: The basic role of Saturn in a Sign and therefore the House it is transiting is to build it. However, its objective may or may not be achieved at all. It depends upon whether its House is being aspected by transiting Jupiter or occupied by transiting Rahu, Ketu or Mars. It is to be remembered however, that the positivity in these cases will come only during the lunar month of Saturn. Since Saturn remains in a Sign for approximately 2½ years, the House it is transiting goes through many trends of ups and downs. The up trends come when it is in forward motion and the down trends come when it is in retrograde motion. In every subsequent forward or retrograde motion its strength can be determined accordingly. Since in retrograde motions it is more or less always weak, the matters related to the house it is transiting can totally collapse/mutate to the House of the transiting Sun and especially so to such houses where Rahu, Ketu, Mars and Jupiter are transiting, but only during the respective lunar months of the Houses/Signs in which they are transiting. Whereas, the lunar months of Rahu, Ketu and Jupiter will definitely come to pass every year -- because their stay in a Sign is approximately 18 months (Rahu and Ketu) and 11 or 12 months (Jupiter); the lunar month of Mars may or may not come during the course of a year and sometimes even more, as Mars is a fast moving planet.

Role of transiting Jupiter: Its role in transit is very significant in the sense that its House and Sign represent the area which transiting Saturn seeks to obtain in order to achieve its ultimate aim of building/creating the House it is transiting; and for this purpose its attention always remains fully focused on Jupiter, and especially so, when it (Saturn) is in retrogression. In a way it can be said Jupiter disintegrates/mutates the House of Saturn to the House it is transiting. Since this situation remains for a year or so, Saturn remains bound to the House of transiting Jupiter for that long. Jupiter’s most significant role is to pass on what it receives from transiting Saturn to the seventh House from itself.

Role of transiting Sun: The Sun, Mercury and Venus combine plays a very significant role in the timing of events i.e. of timing of the lunar month during which actual events/occurrences happen or take place. It is during the various lunar months which occur in a year that the Sun and its combine – The Sun-Combine -- transport/transfer the matters related to the House and Sign of Saturn to various Houses through which they pass, during their respective lunar months. This feature is better and more easily understood if Saturn is likened to be the Petri dish containing a certain shade/color of paint and the Sun-Combine is likened to that of being a paint brush, whereas the Moon is likened to be the imagination at play while a picture is being completed of the lunar month. It follows that, during a lunar month, the picture is hardly conceivable but would be as soon as the next lunar month begins.

Role of transiting Moon: Nothing would have ever happened or occurred if it were not there. The Sun, the lord of the universe, would not have been able to pass on the traits, characteristics and all other matters related to the House and Sign of transiting Saturn to the various other Houses, in their respective lunar months, if it could not call upon, or imagine the nature of, all the remaining other Signs and Houses (leaving the one where the lunar month is current) to play their part in thought and/or action. For this, the Sun-Combine taps all the Houses with the assistance of the Moon. In all respects it is the messenger of the Sun-Combine. But the Moon on its part does not spare the Sun-Combine before it (the Moon) has had its share of the influence flowing from the House and Sign of the transiting Saturn to the House and Sign of the current lunar month. The Moon takes its share of this influence from the Sun-Combine, from the eighth day of the bright-half of the current lunar month and only until the eighth day of the dark-half of the current lunar month. In the process it (the Moon) passes on this influence to the Houses and Signs it passes through during these fifteen days.

Two more significant observations have been made over the last many years. In order to arrive at when and what event/action will take place exactly, these two observations have to be considered in relation to the House and Sign being transited by Saturn. They are:

I. Event/Action periods of Zodiac Signs at New Delhi for 2011

Aries	26^th July to 20^th August
Taurus	21^st August to 18^th September
Gemini	19^th September to 17^th October
Cancer	18^th October to 12^th November
Leo	13^th November to 6^th December
Virgo	7^th December to 31^st December
Libra	1^st January to 30^th January
Scorpio	31^st January to 12^th March
Sagittarius	13^th March to 26^th April
Capricorn	27^th April to 2^nd June
Aquarius	3^rd June to 30^th June
Pisces	1^st July to 25^th July

Note 1: These periods may begin and end a day earlier or later than mentioned due to possible errors in calculation of tables and incompatibility in values among the various Ephemerides available in the market and on the Internet.

Note 2: The periods mentioned may vary by not more than two days either earlier or later for other years and/or latitudes.

II. And secondly, during a lunar month events/actions also take place of the House of the current lunar month.

A quick method for those new to astrology

An event takes place in each lunar month and it is all the more significant if it is the lunar month of one of these four planets: Rahu, Ketu, Mars and Jupiter or a combination of two or more of them. A lunar month has 30 tithis or days. It can begin on any day within a solar month and therefore can last up to some day in the next solar month. Mostly, in any year there are 12 lunar months but there can be 13 too. They are referred to as being the lunar months of that particular Zodiac Sign which is ascertained by the Zodiac Sign occupied by the Moon on the first tithi or the first day after the New Moon. The dates of beginning and ending of solar months are nearly the same every year, whereas the dates of the beginning and ending of the lunar months vary every year. In each subsequent year the beginning and therefore the ending dates too, of a lunar month begin and end about eleven days earlier than the previous year. To obtain the exact dates of the beginning and ending of a lunar month, in any particular year, one has to resort to an Ephemeris for that particular year or they can be obtained from some astrology software, many of which are available in the market today. Once the beginning and ending dates of a lunar month are obtained, the next thing to be ascertained is whether any one or more of the four planets mentioned above too lie in the same Sign as the lunar month or not. If this is the case, it should be assumed that it would be a lunar month of some significant events or actions, otherwise it would be just a normal lunar month and only such events or actions would take place as were already expected to take place or some actions that were to be taken inevitably some day or the other. However, in case it is the lunar month of one or more of the four planets referred to earlier, then in these kinds of lunar months one can expect at least one significant event. The only questions that come to mind regarding the lunar months are when and what will happen in them when they come.

For the answer one has to take note of four Houses from the horoscope of the person whose chart is under consideration: 1) The House from where a new lunar month will begin; 2) The House where the Full Moon will take place; 3) The House where Saturn is transiting presently; and 4) The event House which is/will be active during the period of the lunar month under consideration. The event House can be determined by first knowing the Sign of the period under consideration from the table given above and then locating the House in which that Sign is placed in the natal chart. After these four Houses have been noted, name them appropriately -- say as A, B, S and P, respectively, for the sake of convenience in understanding and subsequently predicting. The first event will relate to the passing/conversion of the matters related to House A, to House B and can take place on any day during the period of time the Moon takes to proceed from House A to House B. The second event will relate to the passing/conversion of the matters related to House B, to House A and can take place on any day during the period of time the Moon takes to proceed from House B to House A. The first event essentially happens as without its happening the second does not or will not happen -- which too, is an essential event for something else to happen permanently for the House P. The House P should not be taken as being related directly to the individual whose chart is being studied, but as a House belonging to, pertaining to or under the influence of House S. This also amounts to another conclusion, as a corollary, that during the course of transit of Saturn in a House, events will take place directly with respect to the person/matter, which the House of transiting Saturn represents and indirectly to the person whose chart is being looked into. All this can be best explained by an example.

Let us note the position of the Transiting Planets and the Houses A, B, S and P, for a person of Taurus Ascendant, as of 2^nd July, 2011 -- one of the days of the lunar month of Gemini which begins on 1^st July, 2011. A graphical depiction of the same is given below for the lunar month of Gemini in a sidereal chart.

Now, let us consider the case of the person who has his Ascendant as Taurus (by sidereal calculations and not tropical) He will have his House A as the second (Gemini), House B as the eighth (Sagittarius), House S as the fifth (Virgo) and House P as the eleventh (Pisces). So during the course of the current lunar month which begins on 1^st July, 2011 and shall be continuing until 30^th July, 2011 the second House Gemini (A), would be first yielding to the eighth House Sagittarius (B) and then the eighth House Sagittarius (B) would be yielding to the second House Gemini (A) for the ultimate benefit or detriment of the eleventh House Pisces (P) in relation to or with respect to fifth House Virgo (S) [the House of transiting Saturn in Virgo which is the fifth House of the Taurus Ascendant person.] Since, ultimately during this lunar month a permanent event/action will occur regarding the House P, the eleventh House (which stands for money, income, job, gains, etc.), it needs to be seen further whether it is beneficial or detrimental. Since the House S, which is the fifth from Taurus Ascendant, stands for matters related to children, education, official and legal matters, study and research, etc. it can be safely assumed that the eleventh House P of the individual is being built/created beneficially, with regard to, from or for the matters related to House S (the fifth House from Taurus Ascendant.) This would imply that income or gains are indicated with regard to, or from, or for the House S during the event period of the Sign of Pisces. This event period sometimes gets extended until the end of a lunar month which is current, at the most, or until the end of the event period of a Sign in case its duration is more than the current lunar month. Thereafter, the next event Sign and lunar month take over and so on it continues in this fashion.

Aspects of planets in Hindu Vedic Astrology

Planet	Houses Aspected
Sun	Seventh
Moon	Seventh
Mercury	Seventh
Venus	Seventh
Mars	Fourth, seventh and Eighth
Jupiter	Fifth, Seventh and Ninth
Saturn	Third, Seventh and Tenth

In the beginning it may seem to be a bit difficult to do readings but with time, and as skills develop along with a deeper understanding of the attributes and characteristics of the Houses, Signs and Planets, it will become a very satisfying experience.

Chand Karan Ahuja

Email: ck@astrodesk.com
Web: www.astrodesk.com
Expert Astrologer with: www.astrology18.com

25^th June, 2011