How to Use Krushna's Ashtakavarga Wheel

From his very early days, Krushna designed his own version of using the Ashtakavarga distribution pattern and set it into a circular wheel fashion rather than the usual linear method as we see today.  He also used the actual abbreviated names of the planets to represent the dots instead. Originally, his manual wheel consisted of different sized layers of circular paper overlapping themselves in order to make up each concentric layer of the 7 planets so that he could “spin” each layer and line it up according to the natal pattern of the person’s chart. He would attach all the layers with a pin in the middle to rotate the layers together and in this way he would be able to use his original wheel. It was also written in the Marathi language.

A while back, I thought it would be a novel idea to update his wheel and redesign it so that it could actually “spin” on the computer instead. He also asked me to add in the Multiplication Factor row, so I did that as well. His original wheel looked like this:

Below, you will see a small fully functional version of the wheel as it looks today. Move your mouse over the wheel while holding down the left mouse button, to see how the inner concentric circles turn.

Click this link to open the larger image of the onscreen wheel above:

Asktakavarga Wheel

UPON OPENING THE WINDOWWhen first opening up the Ashtakavarga Wheel, you will notice a large circle with a series of concentric rings. The outer two rings are stationary and do not move. (They represent the HOUSE names and the ASCENDANT ring.) Neither does the innermost green centered area of the wheel.  As you run your mouse over the circle, notice that it changes from a regular arrow symbol into a pointed index finger over certain parts of the wheel. Once you see this, you will be able to spin that part of the circle by dragging your mouse over any one of the inner concentric rings. After you get the hang of it, you can “spin” the inner circles all at the same time if you prefer, somewhat like a roulette wheel, in either direction you choose, to get the feel of the rotation of the wheel.  

THE BASICS OF THE WHEELThe wheel is equally divided into the 12 houses of the zodiac with the first house at the top. The houses are indicated on the outer ring of the circle in yellow and the ring itself is stationary. The next inner white colored ring represents the ASCENDANT row and also does not move. Each smaller concentric circle from that point on will rotate around the wheel freely as you drag your mouse over it, while holding down the left mouse button and each layer is represented by a particular planet, indicated by the blue rectangular box that is located in the first house upon opening the program.  

Every house is also divided into 7 sector columns, each column representing a particular planet. They are listed from the 1st to the 7th columns as follows and are in the same order for every house:

                                                        SUN, MOON, MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER, VENUS and SATURN

As an example, if we look at the SUN’S distribution pattern on a linear chart for all 12 houses, it would look like this chart below: (fig.1)The SUN distributes 48 benefic points to each of the following houses from its natal position in

the chart. Every other planet helps to distribute the Sun’s overall points to their own assigned houses below as it relates to their own natal positions

Now let’s look at the Ashtakarvarga Wheel to see how the SUN’S distribution patterns fit into the circle.  When we look at the 1st house of the linear chart, we can see that the dot symbol occupies the SUN, MARS and SATURN spaces in the first column.

Similarly, on a slice of the wheel below (fig.2), if we look to the first house in the SUN’S Column, (which is the first column for every corresponding house), we will see that the “Su” symbol intersects on the Sun row, the MARS row and on the SATURN row. So for the 1st house, the SUN gives 3 points or bindus.

Now look at the 12th house from the linear chart (fig.1) and correspond it to the wheel below (fig.2). You will see the first column for the Sun in the 12th house and how it distributes its points to the Mercury row, the Venus row and the Lagna or Ascendant row (in white). For the 12th house, the Sun gives 3 points or bindus.

If you look at the SUN’S distribution points for the 11th house on the linear chart above, (fig.1), you can see how every single row, except VENUS, is taken up with a dot, totaling 7 dots ( or points) for the 11th house. On the wheel below (fig.2), you can see part of the 11th house on the right hand side. If you count all the “Su” points in the Sun column, you will see that there are also 7 points for the 11th house.

There are 8 bindus maximum allowed for each house, which is represented by the 8 different rotating layers or rows going around the wheel. The total points of all the planets in each house as a whole, represents the total SAV points. The use of the wheel comes in especially handy when you want to see the cluster of the SAV points from every house all at a glance. For example, look at the 11thhouse and you will see how busy this house is compared to the other houses. All the spaces, with the exception of two, are occupied. There are 56 spots available for every house and the 11th house has 54 bindus occupied. Compare it to the 12th house, which only has 16 of its 56 available spots occupied and is fairly empty compared to the almost fully

occupied 11th house.

Similarly, you can do this for every house around the wheel and see how the SUN’S bindus are distributed and how strong it is, by looking at its MULTIPLICATION FACTOR or MF. This is located at the very center part of the wheel, where you see the planetary glyphs at the base of each planetary column and a number such as 1.2, 1.0, 0.8, and so forth, above each one. These numbers indicate the MF strength of the planet representing that column. Therefore the Sun in the 1st house would have a Multiplication Factor strength of 1.4, while the SUN’S strength for the 12th house would only be 1.2 and for the 11th house, it would come in at only 0.5 strength. The higher the number, the stronger the planetary effect. For more information on the Multiplication Factor, please refer to LESSON 26 in the LESSONS section.

On the same layer as the Multiplication factor line, are the individual signs that need to be rotated accordingly so that the proper ascendant sign matches up to the 1st house. Therefore, if a person was a PISCES ascendant for instance, you would rotate the inner layer at the center of the wheel so that the planetary glyph of PISCES is right under the 1st house. As you can see in the above illustration, the ascendant is ARIES as it sits right under the 1st house of the wheel. In this manner you can judge the proper Multiplication Factor strengths for each column according to its proper sign. HOW TO ENTER A NATAL CHART INTO THE WHEELIn order to use this wheel you will need the house locations of all the 7 natal planets from whatever natal chart you select as well as the natal ascendant.

For this example, the ascendant is AQUARIUS.

SUN is in the 1st house.MOON is in the 6th house.MARS is in the 2nd house.MERCURY is in the 1st house.JUPITER is in the 12th house.VENUS is in the 1st house.SATURN is in the 7th house.

1. First, rotate the inner ascendant wheel so that the glyph sign of AQUARIUS is now lined up directly underneath the first house.

2. Since the SUN is already placed in the first house, there is no need to rotate that ring. Do note though that the blue rectangle acts as the indicator for the “Su” symbol 2 spaces to the left of it as you can see in the first house.

3. Next, rotate the MOON layer so that the blue rectangle goes to the 6th house on the wheel. Take note that it isn’t important to line up the blue rectangle itself, but rather the pink “Mo” one space to the left of it, so that it lines up correctly in the MOON column of the 6th house. This also syncs up all the other “Mo” bindus to their proper columns from all the other houses in that layer when done correctly.

4. For the planet MARS, rotate the MARS layer so that the blue rectangle goes to the 2nd house and the “Ma” symbol 3 spaces to the left of it is properly lined up in the MARS column of that house.

5. For MERCURY in the 1st house, no change will be necessary since it is already in its proper location. Note however that the “Me” position is 2 spaces to the left of the blue rectangle.

6. Next, rotate the JUPITER layer so that the blue rectangle goes to the 12th house and the JU symbol one space to the right of it lines up correctly in the JUPITER column. Note that if you chose to line up the JU symbol to the LEFT of the blue rectangle, it will push the blue rectangle to the 11th house, not the 12th.

7. For the planet VENUS, we do not have to change anything as it is already in the 1st house and is properly lined up. Do note however that the blue rectangle is the marker for the “Ve” symbol 3 spaces to the right of it.

8. Last but not least, the planet SATURN goes to the 7th house. In this case, there IS no SA symbol close to the blue rectangle, so we line up the rectangle to the very edge of the line (as you can see in its 1st house placement). You can also just line up the “Su” position from this layer to its proper column for that house and everything else will automatically sync itself up properly.

Now that all the planets are in their places, every column on the wheel should have it own planet

in its own proper column. In other words as you look around the wheel, all the MOONS should line up in their columns, all the SUNS should line up in their columns, etc.. You should never see a “Ma” symbol in a “Su”, or “Ve” or “Ju” column for example. If you do, then you’ve made a mistake somewhere.

Do not get confused by thinking that you have to line up the blue rectangle to the proper column. They simply act as markers for the proper symbols to the left or right of it as explained previously. In this way, you use it as a focal point in order to locate the correct house position at a glance and also rotate the proper planetary symbol to its correct place on the wheel.

After a few attempts at spinning the layers of the wheel, you will soon grasp the idea and it will become a simple procedure to line up the proper planets to the proper houses using the blue rectangles as the markers.

Have fun with this wheel. It is a different and unique way of viewing how the ashtakavarga points are distributed in each of the houses and much can be learned from it with a little practice.

How do you find the Samdharmi of Rahu or Ketu using the KAS Program?

For this visual, I will use my own chart to explain the process. My natal Rahu lies in the 3rd house of Aries in my chart (as seen in both Southern and Northern chart formats below):

Samdharmi rule for Rahu and Ketu:  Rahu and Ketu are both Samdharmi to the lord of the sign and the lord of the nakshatra they are placed in.PLEASE NOTE: Conjoining planets to either Rahu and/or Ketu in the same house are ignored when looking for Samdharmi planets in the Rasi! ONLY the above rule applies in these instances. However, Rahu and Ketu are Samdharmi to the sign lord of the Navamsa and any planets they might be conjoined with there.In my chart, Rahu is in the house of Aries, which is ruled by Mars, so Mars becomes the first Samdharmi planet to act for Rahu.Next we look to the Natal chart data below to find out which nakshatra Rahu resides in. You can see below that it lies in the Nakshatra of Ketu (in yellow). Since we can't have Ketu as a Samdharmi planet for Rahu, we have to go one step further than normal and find the house that Ketu resides in. From the natal chart you can see that it's in the 9th house, Libra, which is ruled by Venus. Venus now becomes the first Samdharmi planet for Ketu. Then we look at the natal data chart below to see what nakshatra Ketu is in. We can see that it lies in the nakshatra of Mars. (this is highlighted in green).

So we now know that Rahu has Mars for its first Samdharmi, while Ketu in the 9th house has Venus for its Samdharmi and again Mars for its nakshatra lord. So this brings it down to two different planets, Venus and Mars as Samdharmi planets for Rahu. So which one is the strongest?In order to find out, we go to the Summary page of the KAS program and look at the very top table called the SAV chart. We then check out the 3rd house (where Rahu resides in the natal chart) and see that Mars (the 3rd house ruler) has 5 points. Ketu on the other hand, resides in the 9th house, so we then have to check both Venus (the 9th house ruler) and Mars (nakshatra ruler for Ketu) for the points there. We notice that Venus has 6 points and the 9th house Mars has only 2 points, as circled below. You can easily see that Venus is stronger than both of these Mars planets and therefore becomes the final Samdharmi planet for Rahu.

On the other hand, if Rahu had had Mars for its first Samdharmi planet but had a second planet like Venus for instance, instead of Ketu for its Nakshatra lord planet, then it would've been a simple matter to look up both Mars and Venus points for the 3rd house alone in the SAV chart. In this case, Mars (the 3rd house ruler) would've wound up as Rahu's Samdharmi planet with 5 points as compared to Venus (the nakshatra lord for the 3rd house) with only 4  points, as shown below.

QUESTION:  What if in the SAV chart below, both Mars and Venus had an equal amount of points? Then what would we do? What would be the next step? 

ANSWER: In such a case, when choosing between the sign lord and the nakshatra lord and both planets have exactly the same amount of points, the sign lord takes precedence and becomes the Samdharmi planet for Rahu. For example, in the chart below, if both Mars and Venus had exactly the same amount of points, then because Mars is the natural sign lord for Rahu in this case, it would become the  Samdharmi planet for Rahu instead of Venus.

Creating a Storyline with The Cycle of Six-Eight Patterns Thru out the chart

This is a good mental exercise to practice while learning how to connect the links and learn the karakas and their 6:8 relationships to each other under different scenarios. I was wondering how the 6:8 pattern would look if I actually DID connect the dots so to speak. So I drew up a natural Aries chart in the Southern and Northern formats and proceeded to count every house six houses away from it and connect it with a line. The house placements (randomly starting with the 7th), came to 7-12-5-10-3-8-1-6-11-4-9-2 and back to 7 once more. No matter what line you start from, you can trace it from beginning to end and it will either be 6 houses away or 8 houses away from its start. For example, starting at House 1, follow the line 6 houses forward to its 6th house location. (1-2-3-4-5-6). Once you get there, you can continue to follow it back to where it started in the 1st house, by counting forward 8 more houses. (6-7-8-9-10-11-12-1). And in this way, for every house, the 6:8 pattern looks like these two stars below, one for the Southern format and the other for the Northern format.

Geometrically, this all looks very pretty, but I wondered if I could create a full storyline, similar to the way I did with the ABCDE houses in Visual Two, except using just the cycle of 6:8's alone. This would base everything on the Karaka relationship between the A and the B houses, where the A house becomes the CAUSE and the B house becomes the EFFECT. The A house is the karaka for the B house and as such creates the situation that results in the bad or good effect that comes about in the B house. And if you want to go from B to A and move forward 8 houses, instead of 6, you are then in effect looking 'backwards' to see what caused the result being experienced in the B house from House A. When asking yourself "Why am I experiencing the results of House B?" you always look to its karaka to see the reason.

Next, I decided to create an imaginary storyline starting with the 7th house of marriage as a good starting point.  Remember, every succeeding house will be 6 houses away from the one before it and will always be the result of the one before it. For example, let's just take the 7th and the 12th house only. Count forward (7-8-9-10-11-12). This equals 6 houses. Now return to the 7th from the 12th, always going in a forward motion (12-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-). This equals 8 houses.

And in this way, you have your 6:8 relationship between each sequence of houses. So, building up my storyline, I created the following imaginary scenario:

7th house - I got married the other day.12th house - We took a wonderful long journey to Hawaii for our honeymoon. . . the sex was great!5th house - Due to the sex, we now have a child.10th house - Due to the child, I now have much more responsibility as a parent.3rd house - Because of the responsibilities I now have as a parent, I also have to learn to            communicate in a brand new way with a little one running around the house. 8th house - Life is not as easy as it was before anymore. There are alot of hurdles and obstacles and challenges that I've had to overcome, but I know it's all a part of life.1st house - Actually the hard times have served to build my character and have made me a better person than I used to be.6th house - I have worked on myself to improve my social status in the world by getting better employment.11th house - I've had much success and have not only increased my income, but have made many great new friends.4th house - As a result of my increased income, I've built up my assets and possessions and have found great personal happiness as well with my home and family life.9th house - Thru my personal happiness, I have gained much wisdom in my life and have now developed a creative and positive philosophy with which to live by that serves me much better.2nd house - As a result of this, mostly what I've learned is that no matter how much money you make, or how successful you become, it's not worth a thing unless you have someone you love, most especially like family, to share it with.7th house - And so I'm back to the 7th house where the daily life of day to day routines start over as each day gets better and better for me and the ones I love.

Now, this sample scenario can start with any house and from any different layer or perspective view. For instance I could've started my 7th house with a bad business partnership gone wrong  (7th) that resulted in much money going out and nothing coming in (12th). This led me to start gambling (5th), which in turn affected my career (10th), etc. . . .OR I could've started at the 3rd house, or the 4th or 5th house and developed similar scenarios using various keywords and interpretations for each and every house.  It makes no difference. In this fashion, every house will always lead right back to its starting point and completes its own 6:8 cycle.

The scenarios are endless and  you can build up all sorts of 'cause and effect' relationships and that makes it much more fun to study the 6:8 patterns between houses and how each and every event as seen thru the Karaka house (A) becomes the trigger for the results that manifest in the focus House (B), whether good or bad.

The Cycle of the 5:9 Pattern in the Chart and how it can create a Samdharmi relationship

Next, we will look at the 5:9 pattern cycle in the chart below and compare it to the 6:8 pattern from Visual Three.

One of the first things I noticed about the 5:9 patterns above (using the natural Aries chart) and the 6:8 patterns in Visual Three is that the 6:8 pattern is completely interlinked thru out the whole of its pattern. For instance, you can trace the entire 6:8 pattern from any one point that you place your pen down and wind up back at that very same point once again without ever lifting the pen up from the page. Everything is completely interwoven in that fashion, the pattern reflecting the "cause and effect" interaction that it creates as you go from one line to the next. However, in the 5:9 pattern above, it consists of 4 independent triangles overlapping each other at various points in the chart, while each triangle has its own special "grouping" of elements and is totally separate from the next triangle. There is no way to start at any point with a pen and trace a full complete cycle of all the triangles without first having to pick the pen up and start each triangle anew. Each set of triangles contains  its own separate and individually grouped quality of elements.

The RED Triangle indicates the FIRE sign placements in the chart, each point being 5 houses away from the next, starting with the Sign of Aries, then Leo, then Sagittarius. They indicate the houses 1-5-9 as indicated in the natural Aries house.The YELLOW triangle indicates the EARTH sign placements in the chart, each point being 5 houses away from the next, starting with  the Sign of Taurus, then Virgo and Capricorn. They indicate the next grouping of houses, 2-6-10 as indicated in the natural Aries house.The GREEN triangle indicates the AIR sign placements in the chart, each point being 5 houses

away from the next, starting with the Sign of Gemini, then Libra and Aquarius. They indicate the next grouping of houses, 3-7-11 as indicated in the natural Aries house.The BLUE triangle indicates the WATER sign placements in the chart, each point being 5 houses away from the next, starting with the Sign of Cancer, then Scorpio and finally Pisces. This is the last grouping of houses and is represented in the natural Aries chart as 4-8-12.The triangle patterns reflect the ease of the energy flow within each of its 3 elemental sign groupings, because they are of the same quality, whether it be the fiery, outgoing, stimulating energy (RED) of Aries, Leo or Sagittarius, or the solid, stable, earthy type of energy (YELLOW) in the signs of Taurus, Virgo or Capricorn. Then there's the airy, communicative, mental type of energy (GREEN) that comes with the signs of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius and lastly a watery, psychic, emotional flow of energy (BLUE) that resides in the signs of Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces.The 5:9 pattern is also reflective of the ease in which two people can communicate with each other when they have this planetary relationship between them, creating a natural TRINE aspect. They become "in sync" with each other according to the elemental group that they are both channeling into.

When two planets are in a 5:9 relationship in a chart and their degree locations put them in the same navamsa, they become Samdharmi to each other. 

Let's use Mercury and Ketu in my natal chart below to show an example of how this works.  Mercury is in 4 AQU 57 and Ketu is in 5 LIB 28. They are in a 5:9 relationship to each other. As you can see in the natal data chart below, (highlighted in yellow), both of these planets also have their navamsas in Scorpio (also see Navamsa chart below) and become conjoined in the same house. Because of this, they become Samdharmi to each other.

However we can't automatically assume that every time we see two planets conjoined in the same Navamsa, that they have to be in a 5:9 relationship in their rasi chart, because it doesn't necessarily work both ways. For example, look at my natal chart (in both Southern and Northern formats) below and see my navamsa now from another angle.

Although you see the Sun and Saturn together in the Gemini Navamsa, if you look at my natal chart, you will see that these two planets are not in a 5:9 relationship, but rather oppose each other and have different nakshatra lords, (highlighted above), so they cannot be Samdharmi in any way.  Therefore you can't always assume that two planets together in the Navamsa will necessarily reflect a 5:9 relationship in the natal chart.

How to calculate a planet's Navamsa position in your head

Another good mental exercise to eventually learn is to calculate the navamsa location for any planet in any sign at any degree without looking it up in a software program or a table. But first, we will check out how to find the navamsa position by using the tables below.The Navamsa is set up by dividing 30 degrees into 9 parts. These numbers can be easily memorized with a little practice. You can see how the degrees are portioned out below on  your right.

The next step is to always take note of the element that the planet occupies and know that:

If the planet is in a FIRE sign, then always start at ARIES and count forward from there.If the planet is in an EARTH sign, then always start at CAPRICORN and count forward from there.If the planet is in an AIR sign, then always start at LIBRA and count forward from there.If the planet is in a WATER sign, then always start at CANCER and count forward from there.

Also notice that ARIES, CANCER, LIBRA and CAPRICORN are the signs of the 1-4-7 and 10 houses for the natural Aries chart. They are the natural sign placements for each one of the major angles of the chart. Each house controls all 3 of its own sign groupings (as shown in the Northern chart above) and acts as a 'starter' house for the others in their group.

As an example, let's take a planet in 24 SCORPIO 15 to see how this works. We want to find out what Navamsa it's in. First, we notice that SCORPIO is a water sign, so we have to put it into the Water sign starter house of CANCER. This is the house we will count forward from.

Next we have to figure out how many houses are needed to count forward in order to arrive at our Navamsa placement, so we check the chart at the above right. We can see that 24 SCORPIO 15 lies between 23 degrees 20 min and 26 degrees and 40 min, so it gets 8 navamsas.

This means we start from CANCER and count forward 8 houses (4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11). This brings us to the 11th house of AQUARIUS, which is the Navamsa house for 24 SCORPIO 15.

An easier way is to simply look it up in the Navamsa table below. You can see by the highlighted

house below that 24 SCORPIO 15 lies in the navamsa of AQUARIUS. It's an easy process to look up any planet's position by cross matching its degree/min placement with the sign that it's in and then looking up its Navamsa position.     

Another way is to mentally calculate the degrees like this:

Look back at the degree table next to the Northern chart at the top. You will see the 10d, 20d and the 30d highlighted in RED. In your mind, think:

10 degrees = 3 navamsas 20 degrees = 6 navamsas

30 degrees = 9 navamsas

Use this as the framework to judge where the degree placement of the planet should go. We already know that anything up to 3 degrees 20 min = 1 navamsa. Therefore, by doubling it to 6 degrees 40 min, we now have 2 navamsas. Now let's figure out once again where the 26 SCORPIO 15 planet would fit according to our new way of mentally calculating it.

First we know that it's in the 26th degree. That means it has to at least be in the 6th navamsa because the first 20 of those degrees would be equal to 6.

26 degrees and 15 minutes minus 20 degrees (for 6 navamsas) leaves 6 degrees and 15 minutes to consider. We know that 6 degrees and 40 minutes equals the length of 2 more navamsas, so 6 degrees and 15 minutes falls well within that range. Now we can mentally calculate in our head 6+2=8 navamsas that we need to count from the CANCER location (4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11). This brings us to the 11th house of AQUARIUS which becomes the navamsa for 26 SCORPIO 15.

Let's do one more example. 15 CAP 02. We mentally think in our head that we can subtract 10 from it which means that at least 3 navamsas have gone by. 15 degrees 02 minutes  minus 10 (for our 3 navamsas) leaves us with 5 degrees and 2 minutes. We  know that 5 degrees and 2 minutes is already past 1 navamsa but not past the second one, which would be 6 degrees 40 min., so we mentally calculate 3 + 2 = 5 navamsas starting from the 10th house of CAPRICORN. (10-11-12-1-2). This brings us to the 2nd house of TAURUS which is the navamsa for 15 CAP 02.

Another point that you can easily remember is if any of the major starting houses, ARIES, CAPRICORN, LIBRA or CANCER are in their early degrees from 0 to 3 degrees 20 minutes, they will automatically be in their own navamsa. For example Aries in 3 degrees 19 will be starting out in its own house under its own sign name and will not progress past the first navamsa which ends at 3 degrees 20 minutes. Therefore it will be in the same navamsa as its starting sign, ARIES.

Still another simple thing to keep in mind is that you will always start off your count with the sign number of 1, 4, 7 or 10, depending on which element the planet falls in. Then count forward on your fingers the number of navamas you need to go in order to reach the final sign number, which automatically converts into its navamsa equivalent. For example you know that 1=Aries, 2=Taurus, 3=Gemini, 4=Cancer, 5=Leo, 6=Virgo, 7=Libra, 8=Scorpio, 9=Sagittarius, 10=Capricorn, 11=Aquarius and 12=Pisces. So if you land on sign # 9, you know  your navamsa is Sagittarius. If you land on sign #12, you know your navamsa is Pisces, etc.

This may seem a little confusing at first, but with a little practice, it can become second nature. And for those of you who just don't like to calculate anything in your head, there's always the nakshatra table or your favorite software program to do it for you.

How do you remember all the placements of the ABCDE houses and their relationship to each other?

Many times, we have to try and remember where certain houses are placed in relationship to each other and without constantly referencing a chart, it's hard to keep track of, so I created a little visual in order to better see how to reference these Upachaya houses in one's mind without having to constantly look them up in a chart or a table.I've devised the '6-5-6-9' method ( just remember this numerical sequence) using your own hand as a reference. It looks like the following:

Starting from the thumb, we label each finger A, B, C, D and E to represent each of the Upachaya houses. Then in between the thumb (A) and the pointer finger (B), we put the # 6 in the space between. This represents the amount of houses that we will have to count in order to get from the A house to the B house, always counting the first house (in this case A) as #1. Then, from the pointer finger (B) to the middle finger (C), we have to count 5 houses more, starting with the B house as #1, so we insert 5 into that space. From C to D = 6 houses, using the C house as the starting house #1 and from D to E = 9 houses that we will have to count using the D house as the starting point #1, in order to reach the E house.Let's use an example and show how these houses actually create a sort of story line as they interlink with each other. Suppose we start the A sequence with the 12th house. It should look like this:

Using the 12th house as the starting point, we count 6 from it (12-1-2-3-4-5) in order to get to the 5th house at House B. Then we count 5 more houses (5-6-7-8-9) to get to the 9th house; 6 more houses from the 9th to arrive at the 2nd (9-10-11-12-1-2) and finally 9 houses more from the 2nd to get to the 10th (2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10). 

We can do this with any starting house position at the thumb (house A) and by remembering the '6-5-6-9' sequence, always be able to complete the ABCDE pattern from House A onwards.

Now let's put an example storyline to this ABCDE pattern, starting at the 12th house and a possible interpretation that could be derived from this. The 12th house (House A) represents SEX, which in the cycle of life normally leads to the 5th house focus (House B) which is CHILDBIRTH.  As a result of the 5th, we go to the 9th which represents BECOMING A FATHER. From the 9th, we go to the 2nd, which represents an ADDITION TO THE FAMILY. And finally we come to the 10th house, which in this instance reflects the ADDED RESPONSIBILITY of becoming a parent. As you can see, the houses create a linked storyline that in turn creates a life cycle pattern.

From this diagram, we can also see other patterns between these houses as well. For example, let's look at the points A and B. There are two primary house relationships going on from house to house in these patterns. The first one is a 6:8 relationship and the other is a 5:9 relationship.

From points A to B, we can see that it's a 6:8 relationship, where the first leg from A to B = 6 houses and the second leg from B to A  = 8 houses in order to complete the 6:8 relationship between them. A is always the karaka for the B house and its strength or weakness will always be reflected in the quality of the result in the B house. As an example of this, let's go back to our story line for a moment and view house A once more. Depending on the strength or weakness of the 12th house (House A), this might mean having really good sex in a loving committed relationship or bad sex, such as a forced rape, which in both cases might still lead to childbirth (5th house B), but the quality of both these events would have an entirely different outcome because of what went on in 12th house (House A).

We can also see that the pointer finger in the hand diagram is aptly representing the B focus

house. The pointer finger in effect "points" out the focus of the area we're interested in, in the chart. For example, if we're interested in marriage, it points to the 7th as the B focus house; if we're interested in children, the pointer finger points to the 5th house as the B focus house, etc.

The relationship between B and C will always  be a 5:9 relationship, the first leg of the pattern (5), being a trine between B and C. This will also indicate in a chart that when two planets are in these 2 houses in the same degree range, they will always be in the same nakshatra as well and therefore will automatically be  Samdharmi to each other. The points from C to B  are the second leg of the pattern (9) and will take 9 houses to complete the 5:9 relationship between them.

The relationship between C and D is also a 6:8 relationship and as such will also act like a karaka relationship with C house being the karaka to the D house.  In the first leg of the 6:8 pattern, it takes 6 houses from House C to reach house D. But if you reverse it and go from House D to C, it will take 8 houses, starting from the D house as #1.

Finally, the relationship between D and E is the second leg of a 5:9 relationship pattern. Therefore, it will take 9 houses to get from D to E and 5 houses to get back from E to D, which is another trinal relationship and would make any planets in these houses Samdharmi to each other, as long as they are both in the same degree range, which would then put them both in the same nakshatra lord.

Also, please reference VISUAL SEVEN as it is connected to this one, but instead, using a desktop utility program.

How to Study the Upachaya Patterns Using a new desktop Utility program

I programmed a small utility program for beginners that allows you to study the Upachaya Patterns and how they rotate around the chart highlighting the different houses. You can keep it on your desktop and use it to study the Upachaya patterns when referencing posts in the forum for instance and give yourself a better visual of the house placements. You can print out any Upachaya pattern for any ascendant and make notes, put in planets or points for references, etc.   There is a utility program for both the Southern and Northern chart formats for those who have a preference. 

When you open the program and click on the Aries Ascendant (using this as our example),  you will see a page like this (Southern style chart format). The Northern Style program looks similar to this except you will see a Northern Style Chart in place of the Southern Style format.

Whenever you click on the RESET PAGE, it will reset the page to the way it looks below. If you click any of the house selections in the "House B" list, it will change the pattern in the chart to the left so that it reflects where the position of House B goes. The positions of C, D, A and E will

also switch houses as well. For the Aries Ascendant, the B House defaults to the 1st house and shifts accordingly depending on which house number you click on the "House B" List.

As you can see in the screenshot above, if you click on the SU selection from the middle column of planets, the right column will highlight in yellow with the positions of each of any 12 possible SU house positions.  In this example, I chose the 1st house position for the SU which automatically put SU in the 1st house of the chart. You can see the middle blue box in the FOCUS House remind you of which house is under FOCUS as the B House. Once you place the SU position, you can do the same thing for each of the other planets until all the planets are in their corresponding houses according to whatever chart you have before you. Each planet in the right hand column has a red dot after it. This automatically deletes the position of the planet in that house if you decide to change it and put it somewhere else. 

There is a BIINDU column on the far left that allows you to drag and drop different numbered BINDUS to any of the planets so you can study their effects, experiment with them, move them around, etc. You can HIDE this column, or reset it to the way it looks above by clicking on the button above the BINDU column.

On the green strip at the bottom, it will reflect the meaning of the B house position as it goes around the chart according to the house position you click on.

It's very user friendly for beginners and fun to play around with while you learn the Upachaya patterns.

How to Visualize a Full Saturn Delay and When It Ends

In this article I created a KAS visual that is linear in style so as to avoid confusion with trying to illustrate it using both the Southern and Northern chart styles and to make it as simple as possible to understand. I've also used the Natural Aries Chart (with Aries as the natural 1st, Taurus as the natural 2nd, etc) to also simplify things, although the basic principles would still apply regardless of the sign at the ascendant.