Overview of the basic elements OF ASTROLOGY

Overview of the basic elements OF ASTROLOGY

Out of the many luminous bodies in the sky, there are ones that are fixed and

ones that move. The background of the fixed stars is called the zodiac and is

divided in separate, distinct spaces, called nakshatras. The heavenly bodies

that move are called Grahas (for the lack of a better word translated as

"Planets").

For predictive purposes Jyotish looks at the positions of the planets in

relation to the stars in the Zodiac at the time of one's birth. These positions

reveal how the universe was functioning at that instance. In a way, planets

are like 9 special measuring points from which the entire subtle state of

natural law can be measured. At the time of birth, when the body enters the

world, this state of the universe gets projected into the structure of
the life of

an individual.

Therefore, the conditions of these nine measuring points, the nine planets,

define the entire life span of events and circumstances for an individual.

The 9 Grahas

We just mentioned nine planets, even though not all of them are actual

planets. Only five of them are planets, one is a star, one is a moon, and the

remaining two are special mathematical points. Everyone is familiar with the

Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. The other two

elements included into the group are Rahu and Ketu, known as the North and

South Lunar nodes. Rahu and Ketu do not have physical substance, they are

two mathematical points that mark the point of intersection of the plane of

the Moon's orbit around the Earth with the ecliptic plane. Lunar or solar

eclipses occur when the Sun and the Moon are close to one of the nodes. From

now on, we shall refer to this group of "planets" with a proper Sanskrit term

Grahas.

Each graha (planet) represents certain facets of human life. Traditional Vedic

astrology does not consider the influences of Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto.

Here are the names of the grahas in Sanskrit:

SUN is SURYA MOON is CHANDRA
MARS is MANGALA
MERCURY is BUDHA
JUPITER is GURU
VENUS is SHUKRA
SATURN is SHANI
The NORTH NODE is RAHUTHE
SOUTH NODE is KETU

Astronomical basis of Vedic Astrology

Astronomical basis of Vedic Astrology

The Zodiac is a belt of heavens extending on both sides of the ecliptic. It encircles the space through which the planets travel in their orbits.

Vedic Astrology employs sidereal zodiac, which is different from the tropical zodiac used in Western Astrology. While the tropical (Western) Astrology uses the vernal equinox (the Sun's position at the beginning of spring) as the starting point for the measurements along the zodiac, the sidereal (Vedic) Astrology uses fixed stars to identify different segments along the zodiac.

The starting points of the sidereal and tropical zodiacs coincide once every 25,800 years. After that the starting points separate from each other by an approximate 1 degree of an arc per each 72 years. The difference between the longitude of the starting points of the sidereal and tropical zodiacs at any given time is called Ayanamsha.

Due to the existing controversy about the year in which the two starting points coincided last, there are several ayanamshas used by different schools of Vedic astrologers. Some of them are Lahiri, Krishnamurti, Raman, and Fagan ayanamshas. Lahiri is the most widely used Ayanamsha which is based on the last coincidence point taking place in the year 285 A.D.

Lahiri Ayanamsha for the year of your birth is -23:06:26 degrees.

If you want to convert your sidereal (Vedic) planetary positions into tropical (Western), you can do so by adding this ayanamsha to the degrees of the planets in your Vedic chart. To arrive at the sidereal positions by converting the tropical ones, you will need to subtract the ayanamsha from the tropical positions.

For example, your Sun is placed in 02:52 degrees of the constellation of ¯lg in your Vedic chart. When you add the ayanamsha for the year of your birth, which is -23:06:26 degrees, you will derive the tropical (Western Astrology) horoscope position of your Sun which happens to be placed in the sign of ¯lg. Therefore, your Jyotish (sidereal) Sun sign is ¯lg and your Western (tropical) Sun sign is ¯lg.