Learn Vedic Astrology

The words on your chart page, explained in plain language. Read it in any order. Tap a nakshatra in your chart and it brings you straight to it here.

The zodiac this chart uses

Vedic astrology (Jyotish, "the science of light") measures the signs against the actual stars. This is called the sidereal zodiac. Western astrology usually uses the tropical zodiac, which is tied to the seasons instead.

The two have drifted apart over the centuries, by about 24° today. So most planets land roughly one sign earlier in a Vedic chart. If you're a Leo in Western astrology, you may well be a Cancer here. Neither is wrong; they measure different things.

The exact size of that difference is called the ayanamsa. This tool uses Lahiri, the standard in India.

The ascendant (Lagna)

The sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment you were born. It's the doorway of the whole chart: your body, your way of meeting the world, and the starting point for the houses. It changes about every two hours, which is why the birth time matters so much.

How to read the square charts

Your charts are drawn in the South Indian style. Each of the 12 squares around the edge is one sign, and the signs never move: Pisces is always top left, then they run clockwise. The middle is just a label.

To read it:

1. Find "Asc". That square is your 1st house.
2. Count clockwise. The next square is your 2nd house, the next your 3rd, and so on around to the 12th.
3. Read the planets in each square. They're shortened: Su Sun · Mo Moon · Ma Mars · Me Mercury · Ju Jupiter · Ve Venus · Sa Saturn · Ra Rahu · Ke Ketu. A small "R" means retrograde.

So a planet tells you three things at once: what (the planet), how (the sign it's in) and where in life (the house). "Mars in Sagittarius in the 6th" reads as: courage and drive (Mars), expressed in a far-seeing, principled, adventurous way (Sagittarius), aimed at service, daily work, health and overcoming obstacles (6th house).

The planet table below the charts says the same thing in words: each planet's sign, house and nakshatra.

The twelve signs (Rashis)

Each sign is ruled by a planet. That ruler matters: when you want to know about a house, look at the sign on it, then at where that sign's ruler sits.

The twelve houses (Bhavas)

This chart uses whole-sign houses: the ascendant's whole sign is the 1st house, the next sign is the 2nd, and so on. Simple and traditional.

House groups

Astrologers group the houses by what they do. A house can belong to more than one group.

When two planets "connect" a kendra and a trikona (for example, the ruler of your 4th and the ruler of your 9th), that's the classic recipe for a Raja yoga.

The nine planets (Grahas)

Graha means "one who grasps." Vedic astrology uses the seven visible planets plus Rahu and Ketu, the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's (the lunar nodes). The outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) aren't used.

"(R)" beside a planet means retrograde: from Earth it appears to move backward. Its themes tend to turn inward, or return to be revisited.

How strong a planet is (Dignity)

Exalted means a planet is in the sign where it shines brightest. Own sign means it's at home, comfortable and capable. Debilitated means it's in its hardest sign; its gifts come through effort, and they can be cancelled or lifted by other factors. Vargottama ("the best division") means a planet sits in the same sign in the birth chart and the D9, which is a classic sign of steadiness and strength: the planet is the same on the surface and underneath, a little like being in its own sign. It happens in the first pada of the movable signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), the middle pada of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) and the last pada of the dual signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces). The ascendant can be vargottama too.

Friends and enemies

Each planet treats the others as friends, neutrals or enemies (the classical "natural" relationships). A planet in a friend's sign is comfortable; in an enemy's sign it has to work harder. Saturn in Cancer, for example, sits in the Moon's sign, and Saturn counts the Moon as an enemy, so Saturn isn't at ease there on its own. Other factors, like a sign exchange, can change that.

Benefics and malefics. The natural benefics (gentle planets) are Jupiter, Venus, a waxing Moon, and Mercury when it's with good company. The natural malefics (hard planets) are Saturn, Mars, the Sun, Rahu and Ketu. "Malefic" doesn't mean bad: the hard planets are the ones that build, cut, test and strengthen, and they shine in the upachaya houses.

Strong, neutral or weak: every planet in every sign

Put the last two sections together and you can read any planet's comfort in any sign. Find the planet's row and the sign's column.

Strong placements. Exalted: the planet shines brightest and gives its gifts most easily. Own sign: at home, confident and capable. Friend's sign: a welcome guest, comfortable and supported.

Neutral placements. The sign neither helps nor hinders. How the planet does depends more on everything else: its house, its company, the aspects on it, and the houses it rules.

Weak placements. Enemy's sign: a guest in an unwelcoming house, who has to work harder. Debilitated: the planet's hardest sign. "Weak" doesn't mean bad: its gifts come through effort, maturity and experience, and often end up deeper for it. A debilitation can also be cancelled or lifted by other factors (neecha bhanga), for example when the lord of that sign is strong.

Sign exchange. When two planets sit in each other's signs (a parivartana), each acts as though it were in its own sign. Your chart page marks this as "own sign by exchange."

Read the D9 the same way. The table works for the navamsa too. A planet that is weak in the D1 but strong in the D9 tends to grow stronger with age; one that is strong in the D1 but weak in the D9 may promise more than it delivers. Your chart page shows this for each planet in the D1, D9 and D10.

Reading one planet across the charts:

• Strong in all of them: steady, dependable strength all through life.
• Weak in the D1, stronger in the D9: grows with age and inner work.
• Strong in the D1, weaker in the D9: early ease that needs inner work to last.
• Weak in all of them: a lifelong area of learning. Results come later and through sustained effort, which is often where real depth and mastery form.
• Neutral in all of them: the sign neither helps nor hinders, so the planet takes its color from everything else: its house, its company, its aspects and the houses it rules. A steady, open canvas.

Sign is one layer of six. Classical Jyotish weighs six kinds of strength (shadbala): position (which includes the sign), direction, time, motion, natural strength and the aspects a planet receives. A planet in a weak sign can still be strong by direction or by its yogas. No single factor makes or breaks a chart.

Hemmed in. A planet with hard planets (malefics) on both sides, in the signs just before and after it, is said to be "hemmed in" (papakartari) and loses some of its ease. With gentle planets (benefics) on both sides (shubhakartari), it's protected and supported.

Rahu and Ketu are left out: astrologers disagree about which signs exalt or weaken them. The relationships used here are the classical "natural" friendships, the most widely taught; some astrologers also adjust them for where the planets sit in your own chart.

Do the degrees matter?

Yes, in three ways.

1. The degree decides the details. It sets a planet's nakshatra, its pada and its navamsa (D9) sign. That's why an exact birth time matters, especially for the fast-moving ascendant and Moon.

2. Sign borders sign border. A planet in the first or last degree of a sign (under 1° or over 29°) is at a junction (sandhi), leaving one sign and entering the next. Traditionally it's considered in transition and sometimes weaker, less able to fully give the results of either sign.

3. Gandanta gandanta. "The knot." Where a water sign ends and a fire sign begins (Cancer into Leo, Scorpio into Sagittarius, Pisces into Aries), the nakshatras also end and begin together. The last pada of Ashlesha, Jyeshtha and Revati and the first pada of Magha, Mula and Ashwini are considered spiritually intense: places of a karmic knot that, once untied, can become great depth and strength. Your chart marks any planet there.

Some astrologers use a much narrower gandanta (under a degree either side of the junction). This page uses the broader, pada-wide zone.

The 27 nakshatras (lunar mansions)

Older than the twelve signs, the nakshatras divide the sky into 27 parts of 13°20′ each, roughly the distance the Moon travels in a day. Each has a ruling planet, a deity and a symbol. Your Moon's nakshatra is the most important one: it colors your mind, and it sets the start of your dashas.

Each nakshatra is split into four padas (quarters) of 3°20′, which is what "Anuradha 2" means in your chart: the second quarter of Anuradha.

Each pada falls in one sign of the navamsa (D9), and that sign flavors the nakshatra's theme. There's also a beautiful traditional key: the four padas follow the four aims of life (purusharthas), always in the same order:

Abhijit, the hidden 28th nakshatra

The oldest Vedic texts list 28 nakshatras, not 27. The 28th, Abhijit ("the victorious," "the invincible"), is tied to the bright star Vega. Later astrologers folded it back into the 27 so each would be an even 13°20′, but it never disappeared.

If any point in your chart falls in this span, your planet table marks it in Abhijit. Many astrologers see a planet or ascendant here as carrying a strain of quiet, hard-won victory.

Not to be confused with Ophiuchus, the "13th sign" debated in Western astrology. That's a constellation the Sun passes through between Scorpio and Sagittarius, a separate conversation from Abhijit.

Dashas: the timing of your life

The dasha system answers when. The most used is Vimshottari, a 120-year cycle divided among the nine planets. Each planet takes a turn as the main theme of a long chapter of life, called the mahadasha.

They always come in that order, and the order loops around. Where you start depends on your Moon: the ruler of your Moon's nakshatra is your first dasha, and how far the Moon had traveled through that nakshatra decides how much of it was left at birth.

Each mahadasha is divided into nine smaller chapters, one for each planet, in the same order. These are the antardashas (or bhuktis). "Jupiter–Rahu" means the Rahu chapter within the Jupiter period: Jupiter sets the main theme, and Rahu colors that stretch of it.

How a period goes depends on the planet's condition in your chart: its sign, house, strength and the houses it rules. The same Saturn period can be very different for two people.

The three charts: D1, D9 and D10

Each sign can be divided into finer slices, producing a whole family of "divisional charts" (vargas). Each one zooms in on one area of life.

D1 (Rashi) is the birth chart itself, the whole of you: where every planet was in the sky the moment you were born. Always start here.

D9 (Navamsa) divides each sign into nine parts. It's the second most important chart: your inner strength, dharma, marriage, and how your chart matures in the second half of life. A planet weak in the D1 but strong in the D9 often grows stronger with age.

D10 (Dasamsa) divides each sign into ten parts and shows your career, public work and the impact you have in the world.

How to read them together. The D1 makes the promise; the divisional charts show how it unfolds in one area of life.

• Each chart has its own ascendant, so the houses are counted again from there. A planet can be in your 10th house in the D1 and your 3rd in the D9.
• Check a planet's strength in both. A planet exalted or in its own sign in the D9 grows stronger as you mature, even if it looks weak in the D1. One that's debilitated in the D9 may promise more than it delivers.
• Vargottama: a planet in the same sign in the D1 and D9 is especially steady and strong. Your chart marks these in green.
• In the D10, look at the 10th house, its lord, and the planets in the kendras (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) for the shape of your work in the world.
• The birth time matters more here. The D9 ascendant changes about every 13 minutes, and the D10 ascendant about every 12, so if your birth time is approximate, hold these charts more lightly than the D1.

Others you may hear about: D2 (wealth), D3 (siblings and courage), D7 (children), D12 (parents), D60 (past karma, which needs a very exact birth time).

Chara karakas: the soul planet and its helpers

In the Jaimini system, the planets are ranked by how far they've traveled through their sign, from 0° to 30°, ignoring which sign it is. The order is different for everyone, which is why they're called chara ("moving") karakas. Each rank signifies one area of life for you.

Seven or eight? Most charts use the seven planets from the Sun to Saturn. Some astrologers include Rahu as an eighth, measured backward from the end of its sign because Rahu moves backward. With eight, a Pitrikaraka (the father) is added after the Matrikaraka. Your chart page shows the seven, and tells you where Rahu would fall.

Karakamsa. The sign your atmakaraka occupies in the D9 is called the karakamsa. Jaimini astrologers read it as a window onto the soul's path and spiritual inclinations.

When two planets are within a degree of each other, a small error in birth time can swap them, so astrologers sometimes disagree about the order. These are "chara" (changing) karakas; each planet also has a fixed, natural signification (the Sun for the father, the Moon for the mother, Venus for the spouse) that applies to everyone.

Yogas: special combinations

A yoga is a combination of planets that produces a particular result. There are hundreds. Your chart page checks for some of the best known:

Words you'll meet

The Sanskrit words that come up on your chart page and in readings, in plain language. Tap “more” to go to the full section.

Antardasha: A sub-period inside a mahadasha. Every mahadasha has nine, always in the same order. more ›

Atmakaraka: The planet with the highest degree in its sign: your soul planet. The first of the seven chara karakas. more ›

Ayanamsa: The gap (about 24° today) between the Western (tropical) zodiac and the Vedic (sidereal) one. It's why your Vedic signs are usually one sign back from your Western ones. more ›

Benefic / malefic: Gentle planets and hard-working planets. more ›

Bhava: A house. more ›

Dasha: A planetary period. Your life moves through all nine planets' periods in a fixed order. more ›

Debilitated (neecha): A planet in its hardest sign. more ›

Drishti (aspect): “Sight.” Every planet looks at the 7th sign from itself. Mars also looks at the 4th and 8th, Jupiter at the 5th and 9th, Saturn at the 3rd and 10th. Rahu and Ketu: traditions differ.

Dusthana: The difficult houses: 6, 8 and 12. more ›

Exalted (uchcha): A planet in the sign where it shines brightest. more ›

Friend / enemy sign: Whether a planet sits in the sign of a planet it gets along with. more ›

Gandanta: “The knot” where a water sign meets a fire sign. more ›

Graha: A planet. Literally “one who grasps.” more ›

Kendra: The pillar houses: 1, 4, 7 and 10. more ›

Lagna: The ascendant: the sign rising in the east at your birth, and your 1st house. more ›

Mahadasha: A major planetary period, from 6 years (Sun) to 20 (Venus). more ›

Nakshatra: One of the 27 lunar mansions, each 13°20′ wide. more ›

Navamsa (D9) · Dasamsa (D10): Divisional charts: the D9 for the soul, marriage and inner strength; the D10 for career. more ›

Own sign (svakshetra): A planet in a sign it rules: at home. more ›

Pada: A quarter of a nakshatra (3°20′). There are 108. more ›

Parivartana: An exchange: two planets in each other's signs. more ›

Raja yoga: A kendra ruler and a trikona ruler connected. more ›

Rashi: A sign. more ›

Retrograde (vakri): A planet that appears to move backward from Earth. Its themes turn inward or return to be revisited. more ›

Sade Sati: The roughly 7½ years when Saturn passes through the sign before your Moon, your Moon's sign and the sign after. Famous and often feared, it's best understood as a long season of maturing. Your chart's transit section shows it.

Sambandha: “Relationship”: the ways two planets connect. They can sit together, swap signs, or look straight at each other. more ›

Trikona: The houses of grace: 1, 5 and 9. more ›

Upachaya: The growing houses: 3, 6, 10 and 11, which improve with time and effort. more ›

Varga: A divisional chart, like the D9 or D10. more ›

Vargottama: A planet in the same sign in the D1 and the D9: steady and strong. more ›

Yoga: A combination of planets that produces a particular result. more ›

Yogakaraka: One planet that rules both a kendra and a trikona: a special helper in your chart. more ›

Go deeper: teachers I learn from

The meanings on this page are the classic starting points. These astrologers go much further. Their channels are their own; this is just where I'd send a friend.

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