Dignity, Potency, and Opportunity for Planets

 

There are essentially three things to consider when interpreting any planet in a horoscope: (1) How positive / negative is it? (2) How much power and umph is behind that positivity or negativity? (3) How does the planet get, or not get, the opportunity to deliver that positive / negative umph.

The first question is answered by the theory of dignity; the second by the theory of potency; the third by the theory of alignment.

Dignity is a way to evaluate how well a planet gets along with the planet that “hosts” it. Every planet owns a sign, that planet is the “host” of any planet that happens to be in its sign. The measure of sweet/sour in the relationship between the host and guest is called “dignity.” The sweeter the relationship, the more positive the guest behaves in the horoscope, and visa versa.

“Bala” is a way to evaluate how much umph a planet has. There are more than a dozen factors that work together to determine this.

“Alignment” is a question of how accurately a planet lines up with the degree of the more important points in the horoscope: Ascendant, Moon, and Sun.

Taking these three factors into consideration, an astrologer can make relatively sophisticate judgements and interpretations.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Tune-Up Your Astrology with Me! Part 1 – Character

From time to time I return to my own horoscope for a “tune-up” to make sure my astrological methods are still “in alignment.” I thought that persons interested in understanding astrology would benefit from reading my notes, so I did it more systematically this time. If you follow along through this evaluation I think you will enjoy seeing astrology in action.

Here is my horoscope calculated with Lahiri nakṣatra, tropical signs, and whole sign houses for July 27, 1970 at 19:38 in Bay Shore, New York.

Part 1 – Character

Here are a few obvious things anyone would note about me:

• I am heavily spiritual
• I am an astrologer
• I am a writer
• I am a musician
• I have a high level of fame, but amongst limited circles of people
• I am very critical, logical, and not quick to believe

Spirituality

• Jupiter [philosophy & religion] in the 10^th house [obvious/career] as the 12^th lord [spirituality].
• Raja yoga [power/success] in the 9^th house [religion].
  • With Venus [bhakti / love] and Ketu [spirituality / mysticism]
• 10^th lord [career] in 9^th house [philosophy/ religion]
• Jupiter as the biggest aspector to
• the Moon
• the Ascendant
• navāmśa: 9^th and 1^st lords form Raja-yoga in the 10^th [most obvious motivation in life is philosophy and religion].

Astrologer

• Raja yoga  [power/success] in the 8^th house [divination].
• 5^th lord [intelligence] in the 9^th w/ Ketu [mysticism].
• 8^th lord in the 8^th house with Mercury [intellect for divination and mysticism]
• Navāmśa: 8^th and 10^th lords join in Gemini, 11^th house [successful career in intellectual mysticism / divination / astrology]

Writer

• 3^rd lord [communication] in the 10^th house [career] in Libra [arts] and Citrā [fine arts].
• Mercury and Venus [expressive arts] strongly aspect the cusp of the 3^rd house.
• Lord of the Moon is Mercury [writing], who is in the Moon’s 3^rd house [writing] with the 3^rd and 11^th [arts] lord.
• Navāmśa: 3^rd [communication] + 5^th [creativity] lords join in Gemini [communication], 11^th house [arts & entertainment].
• Navāmśa: Mercury [writing] and Sun [career] in mutual aspect

Musician

• Jupiter [sound] as 3^rd lord [expression] in Libra [arts] and Citrā [skill] in the 10^th house [career], with no competition from any other planet in any other Kendra.
• Moon in Gemini [acting/ entertainment] in Rohiṇī [creativity].
• Venus [arts] in 9^th house
• 1^st lord [self] in 5^th house [creativity].
• Mercury and Jupiter powerfully aspect the 2^nd house cusp [singing / orating]
• From the Moon, the 11^th, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th lords [lords of arts] are all sharing houses.
• Navāmśa: 3^rd [communication] + 5^th [creativity] lords join in Gemini [communication], 11^th house [arts & entertainment].
• Navāmśa: 10^th lord [career] in 11^th house [entertainment].

Fame in Limited Circles

• 10^th lord [fame] in the 9^th house [blessed] but debilitated [limited] and with Ketu [underground].
• Raja yoga’s in the 8^th and 9^th house focus the power and success into areas that are not widely popular today.

A Critic

• Capricorn rises.
• Mercury in the 8^th [intellect finds flaws in things]
• With Mars [cutting, independent]
• With 8^th lord Sun [good at it]
• Moon in the 6^th house [problem solving attitude]
• 7^th lord in the 6^th house [not quick to join groups, staying independent]

But there is another side to me, I am not all critical – I also like to see the good in others and encourage them and have faith in people:

• Jupiter [optimism & trust] in the 10^th house [obvious]
• Moon in Gemini [friendly]
• Navāmśa: 5^th lord [intellect] with Venus [generous] in Gemini [friendly] in the 11^th house [friendly].

The end result is that I can often be critical of my friends, friendly to my critics, etc.

Points to Take Away to Your Own Horoscope / Readings

Maybe you have Venus in the 9^th house too, but you aren’t a musician at all. Well that highlights a very important point: It’s not about having one placement, but about having many. There must usually be one placement in a chart that very strongly illustrates a point, and then several other placements that can easily support the same conclusion. Then, if you find these,you have a predictable outcome

For example: “Jupiter [philosophy & religion] in the 10^th house [obvious/career] as the 12^th lord [spirituality].” Is a very strong initial illustration of a very spiritually / religiously oriented person. But there could certainly be people with 12^th lord Jupiter in the 10^th house who are not spiritual. Why? For one thing, in my case this placement has no competition from any other placement in any other Kendra (houses 1, 4, 7, 10 – the cornerstones of the horoscope). And for another thing, equally important, this is not the only indication I have in the horoscope pointing towards spirituality and religion. I have a raja yoga in the 9^th house (itself another key indication, as powerful as the first),  10^th lord in the 9^th house, etc. etc. It’s the “etc. etc.” part that really makes it a sure prediction.

Another point to take away is the importance of the Moon chart and the Navāmśa especially.  If I had the same birth chart, with a different navāmśa (which would happen in my case if I was born about 5 minutes earlier or later) then I would be quite a different person with quite a different character and career.

The Chandra and Navāmśa charts are not totally independent from the main chart. That means that you can’t find your anchoring principle there in those charts, if you don’t find anything substantial to the same effect in the birth chart. In other words, if the Chandra or Navāmśa chart says my skin will be blue, but the birth chart doesn’t say it will be blue – you can’t be confident enough to predict that I will have blue complexion. (I am just using this as a random, fun example, don’t worry about what “blue skin” is). But if the birth chart suggests that my skin is blue and the Chandra and Navāmśa charts show similar indications to the same effect, you can be confident that I will have blue skin.

I will post “Part II” soon, which will be about the more complicated subject of timing important events.

New Birth Chart Overview is now Available!!!

I just made available a fantastic, brand new Birth Chart Overview. It features:

• Beautiful, original artwork renditions of your birth chart!
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• Fantastic graphs of the “positivity” and “potency” of every planet in your chart; giving you easy and intuitive understanding of sophisticated mathematical calculations, like Ṣaḍ-Bāla and Varga-Viṁśopaka.
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I am happy and proud to offer the clearest, deepest and most comprehensive birth chart overview you can find anywhere - the result of thousands of hours spent in deep meditation upon Sanskrit texts, and years of practical application on thousands of horoscopes – for the most affordable fee of just $29!

Here are a few images from a sample reading…

Please check it out and order yours here: http://vicdicara.com/readings.php

Thanks,
Vic

“Natal”?

“Natal” is a strange word used a lot in astrology.

“Na” as a root in English refers to “original” or “point of origin.”

So we have words like nature (the original character of a person or place), or nativity – “the place or situation of birth.” In fact the term is used a lot relating to childbirth: post-natal, peri-natal, pre-natal, etc. “Natal” is the point/time of origin: birth. A “native” is a person who originally inhabits a place, a person “born there.”

In astrology, a horoscope can be called a “nativity” because it describes the situation of the heavens at the point of origin, the time of birth. The person being born at that time is called the “native.” Anything in the chart is referred to as “natal.”

So when as astrologer says “Natal Mars” for example – he or she is talking about Mars at the time of your birth, in other words, Mars in your horoscope. In contrast to Natal Mars, there might also be “Progressed Mars” or “Transiting Mars” or “Regressed Mars” etc. These terms are talking about Mars at times OTHER THAN your time of birth.

A solar return, for example, is when “transiting sun” comes into perfect conjunction with your “natal sun.” That means, when the current position of the Sun exactly matches the position the Sun was in when you were born.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com