The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 8 of 54 · Part Two · The building blocks

#The nine grahas

#From motion to meaning

Chapter 3 described how the grahas move. This chapter describes what they mean. In Jyotisha every graha is a whole bundle of meanings: a part of the soul, a kind of person, a colour, a metal, a taste, a direction, a part of the body, a relative, a profession and much more. An astrologer reading a chart moves constantly between these meanings, choosing the one that fits the question. If the question is about health, Mars is the blood's heat and marrow; if it is about family, Mars is a brother; if it is about work, Mars is a soldier, an engineer or a surgeon.

The second chapter of the Brihat Jataka lays out the basic meanings in fourteen verses (Brihat Jataka II.1–14). Later books, especially the Phaladeepika and the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, added long lists of the people and things each graha signifies, which are called its karakatvas. This chapter gives Varahamihira's definitions first, then the most important later additions, and labels which is which.

#The soul and the court

Varahamihira opens with two images that every astrologer knows by heart (Brihat Jataka II.1).

The planets in the cosmic person. To Kalapurusha, the Person who is Time:

The planets as a royal court.

These two lists are the heart of the meanings. Notice how they fit together: the Sun as soul and king is authority, self and vitality; the Moon as mind and queen is feeling, care and the inner life; Mars as strength and general is energy, courage and conflict; Mercury as speech and prince is intelligence, communication and youth; Jupiter as knowledge and counsellor is wisdom, teaching and good fortune; Venus as desire and counsellor is love, beauty, comfort and the arts; Saturn as sorrow and servant is labour, endurance, delay and humility.

Saturn's meaning deserves a word. "Sorrow" sounds frightening, but in the tradition Saturn is also the planet of patience, discipline, duty, old age and long effort. The servant who works without reward is honoured in Indian thought, and Saturn's lessons — that nothing worthwhile comes quickly — are among the most valuable in a chart.

#Names

The grahas have many Sanskrit names, and old texts use them freely, often to fit the metre (Brihat Jataka II.2–3). Some you will meet often:

Several names are clues to meaning. Manda, "slow", tells you Saturn's nature. Kuja, "son of the Earth", is why Mars signifies land. Suraguru, "teacher of the gods", is why Jupiter signifies teachers and the guru; Venus, Bhargava, was the teacher of the asuras, the gods' rivals, and so is wise in worldly matters.

#Benefics and malefics

The grahas are divided into benefics (shubha or saumya, "auspicious, gentle") and malefics (papa or krura, "harmful, harsh"). Varahamihira's rule (Brihat Jataka II.5, with Aiyar's note):

• Malefic: the Sun, Mars, Saturn, the waning Moon, and Mercury when it is joined with any of these.
• Benefic: Jupiter, Venus, the waxing Moon (Aiyar's note), and Mercury when it is joined with benefics or alone.

Later texts add Rahu and Ketu to the malefics.

Three points about this division:

1. Mercury changes. Mercury takes on the nature of the planets it is with. Alone, it is generally counted benefic.
2. The Moon changes with its phase. A Moon near full is benefic; a Moon near new is weak and counted malefic. Different authors draw the line in different places — some at the 8th tithi of the bright half, some by the Moon's distance from the Sun. Chapter 15 returns to this.
3. "Malefic" does not mean evil. It means a planet whose nature is harsh, separating, burning or restricting. Malefics are needed for courage, discipline, endurance and the ability to cut away what is useless. In the houses of effort and struggle (the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th), malefics are traditionally said to do well (Chapter 9). A chart with no malefic influence at all would describe a person who had never been tested.

#The qualities of each graha

The table below collects the qualities Varahamihira gives (Brihat Jataka II.4–14). They look like a list of trivia, but each column is used: colours and metals to describe objects, directions to find things, deities in worship, tastes and tissues in medical astrology, periods in timing.

A few notes:

• The three gunas are the three qualities of nature in Indian philosophy: sattva (clarity, goodness), rajas (activity, passion) and tamas (inertia, heaviness). The Sun, Moon and Jupiter are sattvic; Mercury and Venus rajasic; Mars and Saturn tamasic (Brihat Jataka II.7).
• The humours (doshas of Ayurveda) — vata (wind), pitta (bile, heat) and kapha (phlegm) — link astrology with traditional medicine.
• Varahamihira also gives each graha a caste (Brihat Jataka II.7): Jupiter and Venus Brahmin, the Sun and Mars Kshatriya, the Moon Vaishya, Mercury Shudra, and Saturn outside the caste order. These assignments reflect the society the texts were written in. They are used in a few old rules (for example in describing an unknown person in a question chart) and this course mentions them only for completeness.
• The periods in the last column are used to judge when something indicated by a graha will happen, especially in questions: a matter shown by the Moon happens within hours, one shown by Saturn may take a year (Brihat Jataka II.14).
• The seasons: Varahamihira also links each graha to a season, through the planet in the lagna or the drekkana rising — Saturn to late winter, Venus to spring, the Sun and Mars to summer, the Moon to the rains, Mercury to autumn and Jupiter to early winter (Brihat Jataka II.12). This is used to find the season of birth in a lost horoscope (Chapter 45).

#Natural strength

The grahas are not equally strong by nature. Varahamihira gives an order, from weakest to strongest (Brihat Jataka II.21):

Saturn < Mars < Mercury < Jupiter < Venus < Moon < Sun

This "natural strength" (naisargika bala) is used to break ties: when two grahas are otherwise equal in strength, the one higher in this list wins. Notice that it is simply the order of brightness as seen from the Earth, more or less: the Sun brightest, then the Moon, then Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn. Chapter 14 uses this list.

#What each graha signifies in a life

Varahamihira's definitions are compact. Later books spell out the significations (karakatvas) of each graha — the people, things and areas of life it stands for — in long lists. The most important are below. They come from the later classics, especially the Phaladeepika (chapter 2) and the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (chapter on the natures of the planets), whose lists agree on the main items.

Each graha also has one or more fixed significations of a relative or area of life, called its naisargika karaka role. These are the most used of all, and are marked in bold.

#Sun — Surya

• Father; the king, the government, people in authority, the head of anything.
• The self, the soul, vitality, health and the constitution; reputation, dignity, honour.
• The heart, the bones, the right eye (of a man), the head.
• Gold and copper, wheat, the east.
• Medicine, government service, politics, leadership.
• Its nature: royal, proud, generous, steady, hot and dry.

#Moon — Chandra

• Mother; women in general, the queen, the public.
• The mind, emotions, memory, imagination, peace of mind, sleep.
• The blood and bodily fluids, the breasts, the left eye (of a man), the stomach.
• Water, milk, rice, silver, pearls, the sea and travel by sea.
• Nursing, hospitality, trade in liquids and food.
• Its nature: changeable like its phases, gentle, receptive, cool and moist.

#Mars — Mangala

• Brothers and sisters, especially younger ones; courage and valour.
• Land and property, energy, ambition, quarrels, accidents, cuts and fire.
• The blood's heat, the marrow, muscles, the head (as an injury), surgery.
• Red things, coral, copper, weapons.
• Soldiers, police, surgeons, engineers, cooks, athletes.
• Its nature: fiery, quick, bold, independent, impatient.

#Mercury — Budha

• Relatives, especially the mother's brother (the maternal uncle), friends, the young.
• Speech, intelligence, learning, writing, mathematics, commerce, wit, humour.
• The skin, the nerves, the lungs, the voice.
• Green things, emerald, brass, trade.
• Merchants, writers, accountants, teachers of the young, messengers, astrologers.
• Its nature: adaptable, youthful, curious, takes the colour of its company.

#Jupiter — Guru

• Children, especially sons in the old texts; the teacher and the guru; for a woman, the husband in some traditions.
• Wisdom, knowledge of scripture and law, religion, good conduct, generosity, prosperity, good fortune.
• The liver, the fat, the thighs, the ears.
• Gold, yellow things, topaz.
• Teachers, priests, judges, lawyers, counsellors, bankers.
• Its nature: wise, benevolent, expansive, dignified.

#Venus — Shukra

• The wife, and for both sexes the marriage partner, love and romance.
• Beauty, art, music, poetry, dance, pleasure, comfort, vehicles, fine clothes, perfume, jewellery.
• The reproductive system, the kidneys, the face, the eyes' charm.
• White things, diamond, silver.
• Artists, actors, designers, jewellers, makers of luxuries.
• Its nature: refined, sensual, diplomatic, pleasure-loving.

#Saturn — Shani

• Longevity — the length of life (Chapter 33 treats this only as history); servants, workers and labourers; old people.
• Hardship, delay, discipline, patience, duty, detachment, renunciation, democracy and the masses.
• The legs, the knees, the joints, the teeth, chronic illness.
• Iron, oil, black things, sapphire.
• Labourers, farmers, miners, servants, those who work with iron and oil, and those who serve the poor.
• Its nature: slow, serious, cold, dry, enduring, austere.

#Rahu

Rahu has no signs or qualities in the Brihat Jataka beyond its names and its direction, south-west (Brihat Jataka II.3, II.5). The later tradition built up a picture of it:

• The father's father (in some texts); foreigners and foreign lands; outcasts and people outside the social order.
• Obsession, ambition, illusion, sudden events, cleverness, technology and what is new or strange.
• Poison, snakes, infection, confusion.
• Its nature: like Saturn in many ways, but restless and craving; it amplifies the matters of the house and the sign it is in.

#Ketu

Ketu too is a later development:

• The mother's father (in some texts).
• Detachment, renunciation, spirituality, liberation (moksha), occult knowledge, intuition.
• Sudden and mysterious events, injuries, fevers.
• Flags, banners, comets — its name Shikhi, "the crested", connects it to comets.
• Its nature: like Mars in many ways, but inward and separating; it takes away interest in the things of its house, often pointing to past mastery rather than present desire.

#How to use the significations

A list of significations can seem endless. Three habits make them manageable:

1. Start from the core meaning. Every signification grows from the core of Brihat Jataka II.1. Mars is strength — so it is the soldier, the brother who stands by you, the surgeon's steady hand and the quarrel. If you understand the core, you can work out the rest.
2. Let the house choose the meaning. The same graha means different things in different houses. Mars in the 3rd house (siblings and courage) speaks of brothers and boldness; Mars in the 4th (home) speaks of land and property; Mars in the 10th (work) speaks of a career with energy or authority. Chapter 9 introduces the houses, and Part Six of this course reads each one.
3. Remember the karakas. When you judge a relative, look at both the house (the 9th for the father, the 4th for the mother, and so on) and the graha that naturally signifies that relative (the Sun for the father, the Moon for the mother). The classical rule is that a matter flourishes when its house, the house's lord and its karaka are all strong.

#The example chart

In the example chart of Chapter 6 (Libra lagna, Hyderabad, 1990), try reading a few grahas by their core meaning and their house:

• The Moon (mind, mother) is in Taurus, the 8th house. Taurus is where the Moon is exalted (Chapter 10), so the mind is strong, steady and patient — the classical portrait of the Moon in Taurus (Chapter 7) fits.
• Mars (energy, courage) is in its own sign Aries in the 7th house of partnership: a strong, direct energy brought to partnerships and dealings with others.
• The Sun, Jupiter and Venus (the soul, wisdom and the arts) all stand in the 10th house of work and public life, with Jupiter exalted in Cancer. Work and public standing are a central theme of the chart.
• Saturn (discipline) is in the 3rd house of effort and courage, a house where the old texts say malefics do well.

You do not have enough rules yet to judge these well; that will come. The point is to practise translating each graha into its meanings and placing those meanings in a house.

#Summary

• In the cosmic person the Sun is the soul, the Moon the mind, Mars strength, Mercury speech, Jupiter knowledge, Venus desire and Saturn sorrow; in the court the Sun and Moon are kings, Mars the general, Mercury the prince, Jupiter and Venus ministers and Saturn the servant (Brihat Jataka II.1).
• Malefics: the Sun, Mars, Saturn, the waning Moon, and Mercury with malefics; benefics: Jupiter, Venus, the waxing Moon and Mercury with benefics (Brihat Jataka II.5). Later texts add Rahu and Ketu to the malefics.
• Each graha has a colour, deity, direction, sex, element, guna, temperament, tissue, place, metal, taste and period (Brihat Jataka II.4–14).
• Natural strength, weakest to strongest: Saturn, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Moon, Sun (Brihat Jataka II.21).
• Later books list each graha's significations; the fixed karakas are: Sun father, Moon mother, Mars siblings, Mercury relatives, Jupiter children and teachers, Venus spouse, Saturn longevity and servants.
• Rahu and Ketu are given rich meanings only in the later tradition.

#Exercises

1. Without looking, give the role of each of the seven grahas in the cosmic person and in the court.
2. Is Mercury benefic or malefic when it is in the same sign as Saturn and nothing else? When alone?
3. A lost object is described in a question chart by a strong Venus. What colour and kind of place would the old rules suggest?
4. Put these in order of natural strength, weakest first: Jupiter, Sun, Saturn, Moon, Mars.
5. Which graha is the natural significator (karaka) of: a younger brother; the mother; children; the spouse; the father?

Answers: 2. Malefic with Saturn; benefic alone. 3. Mixed, many colours; a bedroom (Brihat Jataka II.5, II.12). 4. Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Moon, Sun. 5. Mars; Moon; Jupiter; Venus; Sun.