Figuring out the Navamsha in your Head

Most people rely on their software to show them what navamsha divisions the planets occupy. Here is a trick for doing it in your head.

First let’s know the length of each division. The navamsha divides a zodiac sign into nine equal subdivisions. One sign is 30° so each navamsha is a ninth of that – which is 3 and a third degrees.

Let’s take an example of the Sun at 11° Cancer. Divide 11 by three and a third. That’s a little tricky, but it helps to remember that three and a third times three amounts to exactly ten. So anything past 10° is in the second group of three divisions, and anything past 20° is in the third. It’s easy to see that 11 is a little bit more than 10, 1 more really. And it’s easy to see that 1 is less than 3 and a third. So 11° is the first division in the second group of three – i.e. the fourth division.

Summary of Step One:

Find the ordinal number of the division.

Divide the degree by 3.333, discard the remainder and add one

- or, easier math -

Subtract 10 or 20 from the degree and then compare that number to 3.3

Once you have figured out the number of the division, in this case the fourth division, the next trick is to figure out what sign that division reflects. In every sign there is one division which reflects the sign itself. For example, there is one division in Cancer which reflects the nature of Cancer. If you know where this division lies in each sign, it helps you figure out the rest of the divisions in your head.

There are three possible locations for this special division – it will either be the very first, the very last, or dead center. In Aries it is the first division, in Taurus it is the center division (the fifth), in Gemini it is the last. And the pattern repeats.

Sign	Division that is Identical to the Sign
Aries	First
Taurus	Middle
Gemini	Last
Cancer	First
Leo	Middle
Virgo	Last
Libra	First
Scorpio	Middle
Sagittarius	Last
Capricorn	First
Aquarius	Middle
Pisces	Last

One way to summarize this is to say:

• The first division is identical to any cardinal sign
• The middle division is identical to any fixed sign
• The last division is identical to any dual sign

Returning to our example of the Sun at 11° Cancer… We figured out already that this is the fourth division of Cancer. And we know that Cancer is a cardinal sign, so the first division of Cancer reflects Cancer, the second reflects Leo, the third reflects Virgo and the fourth reflects Libra. So we have figured out, using just our heads, no computers and no pencils even, that this Sun is in the Libra division of Cancer.

Summary of Step Two:

Find which sign is reflected by that division

Determine which division is identical to its sign.

Count forwards or backwards through the signs to the division in question.

One more example: Venus at 24° Leo. First I will get the number of the division. 24 is 4 more than 20 so I know it is in a division after the sixth. 4 is one more than 3, so I know it is in the second division after the sixth. In other words, I know that 24° Leo falls in the eighth subdivision. Next I need to figure out what sign is reflected by this eighth subdivision of Leo. Since Leo is a fixed sign I know that the center, fifth, division of Leo is identical to Leo. That means the sixth is Virgo, seventh is Libra and eighth is Scorpio. Bingo. I have figured out that Venus is in the Scorpio division of Leo.

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Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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Chile Earthquake 2010 – Astrologically

The day before the earthquake I took a look at the Full Moon alignment of planets and Felt it was quite ominous. I made a short post about it, but didn’t look further into it. The next day, I heard the news. So now let’s go back and review the chart and see if there was indeed anything that should have been obvious as an earthquake.

Jupiter – Blessings Turn to Ash

Oh my, this really is alarming.

First of all my initial interest in this time window came about as a result of the Full Moon coinciding with a complete “eclipse” or “combustion” of Jupiter by the Sun.

When the eclipse happened Jupiter was at 15.5º Aquarius and the Sun at 14.5º. That means Jupiter was 92% obliterated by the Sun. The generic implication of such a conjunction is that positivity and blessings are turned to ash.

But now that I know the time and place the bad karma manifested – which you see depicted astrologically in the chart above – I see that the earthquake happened when Sagittarius was rising. This is very important because Sagittarius belongs to Jupiter. This takes the precarious loss of blessings that Jupiter endures in being burned by the Sun, and brings them home to a tangible reality by giving all that energy “birth” in the 1st House.

Arise, Rahu

Now, in any earthquake you expect to see Rahu and Ketu (the lunar nodes) involved significantly. The Chile earthquake exemplifies this to an extreme: Rahu was in Jupiter’s Sagittarius, and was exactly rising over the Eastern horizon when the earthquake struck! It is Rahu which amplifies the negative effect of the combust jupiter and makes it a wild and dramatic tangible reality in the 1st House.

Rahu was at 26º of Sagittarius, while 24.5º was rising in the East. That means Rahu was only 1.5º away from the Ascendant, the exact point of the Eastern horizon. This is very very powerful – it puts Rahu in a position to be extremely dominant and effective.

Rahu, Jupiter, Sun & Mars in the Divisionals

Whenever two objects are this close, their togetherness will persist even in the sub-divisions, the sub-harmonic echoes of space. The most important division of space after the normal observable sky is the 9th Division (the “D9″ or navamsha). Notice that Rahu is in the First House here as well, which is created by Scorpio – the sign belonging to Mars. Remember that.

Now look at the next most important division, the 3rd Division (the “D3″ or drekkan). Again you see that Rahu is in the 1st House, created by Leo – which belongs to the Sun. Additionally you find the D3 ascendant flanked by malefic Saturn and Mars, both stronger (more powerful, not “better”) than usual due to being retrograde.

If you look at these three important divisions of space – the main chart, 9th, and 3rd divisions – you find that the rising signs belong to Jupiter, Mars and the Sun respectively. Remember that my initial interest in this chart to begin with pertained to the relationship between Jupiter and the Sun – and the potential negativity therein. At the exact time of the earthquake this negativity was brought out to it’s fullest potential because both Jupiter and the Sun had their signs rising (Sagittarius and Leo respectively), and in both cases Rahu was sitting in each, amplifying the situation and escalating it out of control, as he always is want to do.

Mars

The rising sign of the 9th Divisional chart was Scorpio which is the 8th house/sign of the Zodiac and belongs to malefic Mars. Let’s go back now to the main chart and look at what Mars is doing there.

He is debilitated in Cancer (as he has been for an unusually long time now), is retrograde and in the company of the nearly full Moon. He is in the 8th house. So the 8th sign rises in the navamsha – which belongs to Mars, while Mars sits in the 8th sign of the birth chart, debilitated and retrograde. And the Moon also occupies the 8th. This means that not only is the situation of Jupiter’s problem a significant issue, now we have new problems: tons of 8th house energy (the house of sudden mysterious and cataclysmic events) connected to the violent planet, Mars.

Saturn

The only real planet in the quadrant houses (the most dominant houses) is Saturn who sits in the most dominant 10th House, and who owns Aquarius wherein Jupiter is being burned up by the Sun. This causes the negative situation in Aquairus to be of paramount (there is a pun for astrologers in that) importance. Also Western or Tajjik astrologers will note a sextile aspect between Saturn and Mars – which manifests as them being in mutual aspect (by opposition) in the 9th division. In simple terms: Saturn and Mars are in cahoots. And that is not usually a really good or pleasant thing especially not in these circumstances.

Saturn is exchanging signs with Mercury. This creates an even stronger link between the initial problem of Jupiter’s combustion in Aquarius and the time frame where Rahu rises and Saturn sits at the zenith of the sky in the 10th House.

The Death of Fortune

Every planet has a specific point in each sign which causes a “fatal flaw” or a “blind spot” related to that planet. In Vedic terms this point is called mrtyu-bhaga – the “death of fortune.” When this earthquake happened, on top of all the other nasty stuff we already went over, both Jupiter and the Moon were  at their mrtyu-bhaga points!

Hindsight is Fine, But Where is the Foresight?

To be fair to myself. It is very reasonable not to see this in foresight, and only catch the true significance of it in hindsight. The way to improve foresight on this type of thing, however, is to note that at some point throughout the day(s) surrounding the full moon and the Jupiter/Sun conjunction, at each part of the world would have Rahu ascending dramatically like in this situation. And therefore each part would be vulnerable at that time to a disaster or significant problem. To narrow it down further one would perhaps need to acquire the national charts for each country falling in that risk zone, and make an assessment of which countries are more or less impacted by the planets and signs involved. In other words, its not something that you do in your free time everyday, even if you are an avid devotee of astrology.

Basically if someone were paid to look ahead for these disasters. Or if it were for some reason one’s primary responsibility in life – then certainly that person would be remiss for not spotting this before it happened. However in my case, you could send me a whole lot of donations to help make that a reality – but until then, even the time I just took out of my day to write this article is something that cuts a serious chunk out of my ability to be responsible to my primary duties today.

So, until the time when that changes – you can at least usually count on me to help you understand the astrological indications of world events after they happen.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com