The finer divisions of time and its sophistication as applied to astrology
There are so many parameters at play when it comes to time of birth. Thus even twins who seem to have been entwined at birth end up with different destinies. Enormous research needs to be done in this area of astrology to understand the intricacies of such charts. Twins are generally born 1-5 mins apart from each other and even their charts differ in case of higher divisional charts. The Vedic astrology in its current renaissance period is in the infancy stage, so it will take many hundred years before we understand such finer principles of astrology.
In these series of articles I will make an attempt to list some of the variables that change the horoscope in a matter of few seconds. Before computers went mainstream astrologers of the early 19th century calculated a birth chart by hand and were required to memorize the position of planets in the sky. Since the calculation of a D1 chart itself included too much work not many astrologers of that day and age bothered with the calculation of the divisional charts although the classical astrology books highly recommended them. Thanks to some of the great astrologers of modern times like Sri K.N Rao and Dr. B.V Raman who advocated the use of divisional charts in astrology to fine tune the predictions. Since the late 80’s, thanks to computers calculating the finer harmonic charts from the birth chart has been relatively simple.
1) The divisional charts or higher harmonic charts just like the nakshatras are a unique aspect of Vedic astrology. Every human being irrespective of where he is born on this planet will go through shodasa kriya’s in his life or there are 16 aspects of his life that hold utmost importance. These 16 aspects of life are attributed to the 16 astrological charts of the native. So it is just not one chart that an astrologer needs to study before the prediction but he has to study the remaining 15 divisional chart before arriving at an answer. Please refer to the table below in-order to understand the importance of these divisional charts.
| Division | Sanskrit name | Area of life | Division in degrees | Approximate Influence of time-change on lagna |
| D1 | Rasi | Physical body | 30 | 120 mins |
| D2 | Hora | Wealth and nourishment | 15 | 20 – 90 min |
| D3 | Drekkana | Siblings | 10 | 10 – 45 min |
| D4 | Chathurthamsa | Great fortunes, property, assets | 7 1/2 | 40 – 45 min |
| D7 | Saptamsa | Progeny and dynasty | 4 2/7 | 27 – 28 min |
| D9 | Navamsa | Spouse and marriage | 3 1/3 | 13 ½ – 21 min |
| D10 | Dasamasa | Power, great deeds, profession | 3 | 3 – 6 ¾ min |
| D12 | Dvadasamsa | Parents and ancestral karma | 2 1/2 | 3 – 3 ¾ min |
| D16 | Shodamsa | Emotional well-being, luxuries, vehicles | 1 7/8 | 4 ½ – 7 ¾ min |
| D20 | Vimsamsa | Devotion and Spiritualism | 1 1/2 | 6 ½ – 8 ½ min |
| D24 | Siddhamsa | Knowledge | 1 1/4 | 7- 8 min |
| D27 | Bhamsa | Strengths and weakness | 1 1/9 | 6 ¾- 7 ½ min |
| D30 | Trimsamsa | Fatalities and accidents | 1 | 6 ¾- 7 ½ min |
| D40 | Khavedamsa | Auspicious and inauspicious events | 3/4 | 4 ¾ – 5 min |
| D45 | Akshavedamsa | Events with greater purpose | 2/3 | 4 – 4 ½ min |
| D60 | Shastyamsa | Fine tuning all events | 1/2 | 3 – 3 ½ min |
The first column refers to the simple name indicating the division. The second column is the Samskritha name associated with the division. In Vedic sciences, the names have very high importance and just understanding the Samskritha terminologies will reveal volume of information related to the topic. The third column refers to the important indications of that divisional chart. The fourth column refers to the division in degrees and the mathematics behind erecting a divisional chart. The fifth column refers to how many minutes it takes for the ascendant to change from one sign to another. For example consider two people who are born 5 mins apart at the same hospital. Both the natives will have the same rising sign say Virgo in the D1 chart but when you examine the D60 chart, their ascendant signs will be different. One may have a Capricorn rising and the other person may have an Aquarius rising because the ascendant changes signs every 3 – 3 ½ mins in the D60. Due to this both the natives will approach life in very different ways, the Capricorn native may even have a bigger build and long legs, a characteristic of Saturn and very hard-working while the Aquarius native may have a medium build and have humanitarian tendencies. Since the D60 is the chart that is used for fine-tuning all the predictions about a native, both the individuals will have different lifestyles. Analogously the other people born at the same location who are born further apart in time will have different ascendants in the other divisional charts. One may refer to the above table to understand how quickly the ascendant changes in the other divisional charts for such natives. Since the ascendant changes very quickly in the higher divisional charts,twins will have major differences in that particular sphere of life where they have different ascendants in that particular divisional chart.
2) Another important aspect of astrology is the cusp of a bhava or house. There are twelve houses in astrology represented by the rasis. The rasis are the unconscious manifestation of Maha Vishnu while the planets are the conscious manifestations of the eternal preserver. Please refer to the below excerpt which is a translation by Ernst Wilhelm about the houses as given by BPHS and it’s major indications:
1st Bhava
Body and appearance, cognizance and caste as well as strength and weakness, comfort, pain and one’s own true state are looked at from the Lagna (intersecting) Bhava.
2nd Bhava
Wealth, grains, family, death, collections, friends and metals, minerals, gems, etc. are all looked at from the Dhanasthaana (place of wealth.
3rd Bhava
Courage and servants maintained, siblings, etc. upadesa (initiatory instructions), journey, deprivation of parents, death and discernment are looked at from the difficult place.
4th Bhava
Vehicles and other such, relatives, mother, happiness, etc. as well as other such yearning, and deposits, land and house are considered from the 4th.
5th Bhava
Yantra (amulet), mantra, knowledge and also intelligence, continuance, children and fall from royalty are seen from the child house.
6th Bhava
Maternal uncle, enemies, wounds and such, and also the step-mother are considered from the sixth Bhava.
7th Bhava
Wife, distant journey, trade, lost sight and death of one’s own body are looked at from the wife Bhava.
8th Bhava
Longevity, battle, cheats, impassables/strongholds, wealth of the dead and the soul course – what begins and what after the wise see all from the split/cavity/flaw (Bhava).
9th Bhava
Fortune, wife’s brother, religious law, brother’s wife, pilgrimages, etc. are all looked at from Dharmasthaana.
10th Bhava
Empire, space, occupation, respect, father, absense from home and obligation are looked at from Vyomasthaana (sky house).
11th Bhava
Acquisition of various objects, son’s wife, income, increase/advancement and domesticated animals are looked at from Bhavasthaana.
12th Bhava
Loss/expense, the result of the enemy’s actions, gain of last possession, all this should be known by the wise from Vyaya.
The difference between a bhava and bhava cusp is that although the bhava indicates the qualities of that particular manifestation in our lives, the bhava cusp is the actual tangible manifestation of that particular indication in our lives. The keyword to keep in mind is qualities for bhavas and tangible manifestation for bhava cusp. There is a subtle difference. For instance the seventh bhava is said to represent the spouse and his/her characteristics in astrology. Consider an example where the 7th bhava falls in cancer but the 7th bhava cusp falls in Leo. So in this example we have two different indications, the spouse of the native will have both Cancer rasi qualities and Leo qualities. But the spouse’s actual physical manifestation will have more Leo nature imbibed in them.
Similar to the fashion in which the lagna changes signs very quickly in the higher divisional charts, the cusps change rasis even quicker than the lagna in such charts. Thus it is very important to note that the cusps which are the actual physical manifestation of the bhava changes signs rapidly due to the impact of different birth times. A very small error in birth time thus leads to erroneous predictions. This is illustrated in the below example:
| Chart – 1 | Chart- 2 |
| Date: 16 July 2015Time: 10 am 50 min 9 sec
Place: Stockholm, Sweden DST -1 |
Date: 16 July 2015Time: 10 am 50 min 23 sec
Place: Stockholm, Sweden DST -1 |
Chart 1 and Chart 2 are calculated at the same location and date except they are 14 seconds apart in time. Note that in the D1 rasi chart the ascendant that is rising is Virgo in both cases. Also in both charts, the degree of the ascendant changes very slightly in the D1. But the biggest changes are noted in the D60. Although both charts have an Aquarius rising in the D60, their degrees are different but the critical change that took place in just 14 seconds is that the 2nd cusp moved from Capricorn in the Chart -1 to Aquarius in the Chart – 2 along with that the 8th cusp moved from Cancer in the Chart -1 to Leo in the Chart -2.
How does this translate to a prediction?
The 2nd cusp revolves around a natives finances, food intake and friends while the 8th cusp indicates the surgery, longevity, inheritance and the wealth of the native’s spouse. Although Saturn rules both Capricorn and Aquarius and has a final say on finance of Chart – 1 and Chart – 2 native, the timing of ups and downs of the finance may not be the same. For example, the chart-1 person who has his second cusp in Capricorn may benefit financially when Saturn is transiting in Capricorn whereas the Chart-2 person may not feel any significant changes of such a transit. Likewise, the chart-2 person who has his second cusp in Aquarius may have an underlying theme of Aquarian humanitarian nature throughout his life with his finances and be charitable (of course one has to examine Jupiter and Saturn himself precisely to confirm this) but the chart-1 person who has a Capricorn second cusp may not display such traits. A fine astrologer is able to navigate such nuances in a chart and arrive at accurate predictions.