Question about Astrology Predictions and Dashas

Question: Is there a 3-month period before the start of dasa/subdasa which can be considered as starting or ending of the respective dasa..something called “Kari ” period where the influences would have already started.

 

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I am of two minds on this. One mind says that the world is analog, not digital. Things blur into each other, they don’t snap suddenly. Day becomes night after blurring through sunset and twilight. So one dasha becomes the next after blurring through a transition. Thus some influence of the upcoming dasha blur into the final portion of the current one, and some influence of the current dasha bleeds into the initial portion of the next.

By my other opinion on this is that much of what we think we observe as the “sandhi” or “kari” or “transitional period” between dashas may actually be the result of inaccurate calculation of the dashas.

I personally found that I was seeing tons of this blurry sandhi effect when I first began reading horoscopes. Later on I decided that the correct year length for calculating dasha terms was not the solar year (364.24 days) but was instead the stellar year “nakshatra year” (359.017 days). Suddenly about 80% of this blurry “transitional” effect suddenly disappeared and things looked much more crisp and well aligned to their expected dates.

Thirdly, I think we expect too much from astrology these days. We have digital watches and GPS and we schedule our days down to the minutes. It is a very unnatural way of life propped up by the huge agitation of rajo-guna created by post-industrial culture. This is a small blink in human history. In the vast majority of human history, we don’t live this way. We are less exact with timing. If something happens relatively close to the pinpoint-software date it is supposed to happen, that is more than good enough for me, and I think it should be for people who want to experience life like human beings, not computers with atomic clocks. =)

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

 

Getting Started with “Dasha” Timecycles

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Every horoscope has a timeline, called the “dasha” cycle. This timeline defines when something seen in the horoscope will unfold. Thus a single horoscope can show indicates for both extreme poverty and extreme wealth. Mapped to the dasha cycle timeline, the planets causing the poverty will bring financial hardship during their cycles, while the planets causing wealth will bring bounty during theirs. Thus a person rises from poverty to wealth, or visa versa, etc.

How to get started understanding how to interpret the dasha cycles?

First of all you have to know what they are. You need a “Vedic” chart. What does that mean, Sidereal? Yes and no. A “Vedic” chart means

• Sidereal Zodiac
• Lunar Zodiac of 27 mansions
• Whole-sign houses
• No modern planets, but a host of Vedic subplanets if you need them
• 15 additional charts as a result of subdividing the zodiac by resonance, of which the 9th division (navamsha) is most important
• A calculation of vimshopaka for dignity including all these subdivisions
• A calculation of shad-bala for the forcefullness or “strength” of the planet
• A calculation of aspects by degree (not by sign as in common mis-practiced Indian astrology, and not by geometric pattern as in Western astrology)
• A calculation of the dasha cycles based on the Moon’s placement in the lunar zodiac, and using the correct year length.

A Vedic Horoscope, as you see, is not just a Sidereal horoscope!

Anyway, once you have this stuff you can start to learn how to interpret your dashas. To get this stuff you will need either a Vedic Astrologer or some mathematically reliable Vedic Astrological software. In my frank opinion there is only one Vedic Astrology software that does not make significant mathematical mistakes calculating the above short-list, it is Kala. Depending on if you want to analyze dozens or more horoscopes, or if you just want to look at yours, or maybe a few family and friend – it might actually be financially cheaper to pay an astrologer to give you the printouts of the above bullet lists rather than drop about $300 on software.

Anyway once you have all the printouts of the above, you will need to know what they mean. So you will need my book, Symbolic Keys of Astrology to get primed up on the essential basics, and my second book, Unlocking the Meanings of a Horoscope, if you want a deeper grasp of what the calculations of shad-bala, vimshopaka, and the 15 additional subdivision charts really are.

So now you have the raw materials of your Vedic Horoscope, and you have the basic background knowledge of what it means. Here is how to start reading your astrological timeline. Pick a timecycle that you want to know about. It will be governed by a specific planet. Examine that planet in your Vedic Horoscope. Figure out…

• The goodness or “dignity” of the dasha planet – calculated across all the varga subdivisions by the vimṣopaka method.
• The strength of the dasha planet – calculated by the ṣaḍ-bāla method.
• The houses owned and occupied by the dasha planet
• Influences on the dasha planet by way of conjunctions and aspects.

The more positive the dignity of the cycle planet, the more easily you can make good things happen. Very positive planets make good things happen with little or no effort at all on your part.

The stronger the cycle planet, the more pronounced will be it’s good or bad effects.

Say you have a planet that is very negative in dignity and very strong. That is bad news. That means that bad things will happen without you really inviting them, or dispite efforts to avoid them, and those bad things will be significant and pronounced, important. If the same planet with negative dignity were weak instead of strong, the bad effects would be negligable, bad moods, bad dreams, lots of opponents who don’t have much strength and arent very effective against you, etc. Positive-dignity planets with lots of strength make important good things happen with little or no effort. Positive-dignity planets with low strength make for good moods, good dreams, good ideas, etc.

The houses owned and occupied by the cycle planet tell you what type of good or bad things will happen (depending on the aforementioned factors). So a planet with positive dignity and high strength that owns the 10th house (career) and occupies the 1st house (self) is a period of time in which you become very famous and personally respected. A planet with negative dignity and high strength owning the 10th, occupying the 1st indicates a period of time in which you lose your employment and must figure out how to make ends meet on your own. Etc.

Finally, look at the influences to the planet by conjunction or aspect. For example, if Venus is the main influence on the positive, strong 10th lord in the 1st house mentioned in the preceeding paragraph – then you will rise to fame and personal recognition as a result of something Venusian (your artistic skill, your beauty, your practical talents, your marriage/partner).

There you go – a huge chunk of astro – knowledge for you from the ancient tomes of Sanskrit wisdom. Some of you might make use of this to learn astrology, some to make your own interpretations, or others may just figure that you want to consult me for a reading of your timeline. =)

Thanks,

Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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Dasha & Transit Reading for a Funky Day

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Zeroing In

Jupiter Era

The native is in his Jupiter era, and was born with Capricorn rising and Jupiter in the 10th house. This means that Jupiter owns the 3rd and 12th house. Thus one expects very generally that issues regarding writing/communication (and other 3rd house topics) will be prominent, along with financial loss/ feelings of alienation / spiritual interests (and other 12th house topics) will both play very dominant roles throughout the 16 years of Jupiter’s era – especially as they impact his public role / visibility / and career.

Ketu Cycle

Into this context, place the native next in the Ketu subcycle within that Jupiter era. This began in July of this year and will continue till June of next. Ketu being a planet of sudden changes – combine this with what we deduced about regarding Jupiter, and come to the conclusion that the native will be having many sudden impulses to change career roles, end career commitments, etc. Will experience unusually strong compulsions based on alienation and dealing with the written word. And will have extremely strong spiritual/religious ignitions.

Subcycles

Now pay some head to the subcycles, current and recently transpired… The native was in Jupiter / Ketu / Ketu and Venus without much in the way of problems, but this was followed in succession by the subcycles of the Sun, Moon, and Mars – all of them are planets connected to the native’s seventh house. The first impulse is to think that the seventh house must refer to the spouse, but remember that this house concerns how we interact with other people in all ways – and thus includes business trade. Especially in the context of the era lord, Jupiter, who owns the house of financial loss, and occupies the house of career – it is wise to interpret subordinate references to the seventh house in light of this and thus highlight its connection to financial trade.

If you were wise enough to do so, you would be thinking that the period from mid September through today (and probably forward for another subcycle, more on that later) would be a period where financial trade would experience extreme loss. “Financial Trade” is an idea coming from the succession of subcycle planets connected to the seventh house. “Extreme” is an idea coming from the cycle planet being Ketu. “Loss” is an idea coming from the era planet being the lord of the house of loss.

You notice that today the native went into the Rahu subcycle – this finally breaks the connection to the seventh house, so perhaps the native can hope for a lessening of the financial roller coaster? However it catches our eye that his natal Rahu is in the 2nd house, the house of wealth. My best guess / “prediction” for the native during the Rahu subcycle (Nov 17 – July 7) is a continued roller coaster, but with less desperation and more of a feeling of turning losses into gains. I would not expect the full brunt of the current difficult karma to end for this man until the Ketu cycle is done, in June of next year, but I would suspect that the nadir of the difficulties has, marked by today in fact just passed.

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Down to the Day

So we come to today. And whenever we get very specific about things, coming to days, we need to look at the transits rather than rely on the cycles alone. The cycles however tell us a lot. For example, today the native switched into a subcycle of Rahu. Looking at this birth chart tells us that Rahu gives this person “a big mouth” (Rahu in the 2nd House). So today we might expect that the native would say something out of (and causing further) compulsions of alienation. (“compulsions” coming from the cycle lord Ketu, “Alienation” coming from the era lord owning the 12th house). Indeed by transit Rahu is in the house of loss, and perfectly trine the position of natal Ketu.

It was actually just slightly before the Rahu period began (by a few hours), just as Rahu was rising at the natives current location – that his big mouth got him into trouble. Perhaps the native’s birth time or location is just slightly amiss, or perhaps being accurate down to a few hours is quite good enough!

Native’s data: July 27, 1970 at 19:38 in Bay Shore, NY

Day under examination: November 17, 2010

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com