The Importance of the Ninefold Chart in Vedic Astrology by Jagdish C. Maheshri

Article by Jagdish C. Maheshri

The concept of the ninefold natal chart^1,2 is not new.  It has been in use, particularly in India, where it was originated several hundred years ago. But it was not utilized with full success. Its limited success, perhaps, may be attributed to its improper use, without really understanding the principle behind its application.

The ninefold natal chart, in essence, provides a microscopic view of the natal chart and helps in assessing the planetary strength in the natal chart.  In other words, a planet may have an excellent placing in the natal chart with respect to the house it occupies and the zodiac sign it belongs to.  In addition, it may be placed favorably to receive positive energies of other planets.  But if that planet doesn’t get placed favorably in the ninefold natal chart, the degree of confidence in realizing the predictions offered solely on the basis of the natal chart analysis can be guaranteed.

To demonstrate the concept let us consider the natal chart of U.S. President George W. Bush.

His tropical natal chart is shown in Figure-1, and the corresponding sidereal chart is shown in Figure-2.

Since the ninefold concept had been in application for Vedic charts, only the Vedic (sidereal) chart is considered.

In Figure-2, the sidereal natal chart is shown in the Vedic chart format.  In a Vedic (sidereal) natal chart the zodiac signs are usually shown with numbers. For example, the number 1 is used to represent the zodiac sign Aries, and the number 11 Aquarius.  For this example, as shown in Figure 2, the houses are shown with the roman numerals.  The full diamond shaped houses are the cardinal houses: first (I), fourth (IV), seventh (VII), and the tenth (X); and rest of the twelve houses are half diamond shaped. The shift between the tropical and the sidereal zodiac at the time the President Bush was born was about 23 degrees with the tropical zodiac leading the sidereal.

The rising sign (ascendant) falls in Cancer. Therefore, the number 4 is placed in the first house to indicate the Cancer ascendant. Then successively in a counterclockwise manner the zodiac sign numbers are placed in the respective houses.  The planets are placed as per their zodiac sign position.  The planets are symbolized with two letters.  Thus, Su for Sun, Mn for moon, Mr for Mars, Mc for Mercury, Ve for Venus, Sa for Saturn, Ra for the lunar north node Rahu, Ke for the south lunar node Ketu, Ur for Uranus, Ne for Neptune and Pl for Pluto.  Thus, for example, Mercury’s zodiac position is Cancer 16⁰ 48’, and therefore, it is placed in the sign Cancer shown as Mc16 ¾ degrees of Cancer.  The zodiac positions shown for all the planets are rounded to the nearest ¼ degree. Although zodiac signs appear to map with the houses but they do not.  The house span extends from its cusp position to the next house cusp position.  Note that the cusp positions are not shown in the chart but are separately listed in Table 1.  The ascendant in this case begins at 14⁰ 6’ Cancer and ends at 4⁰ 35’ Leo.  The planets Pluto, Mercury, Venus all lie in the first house (or ascendant) span, and therefore, they reside in the first house. However, Saturn being at about 4⁰ Cancer, it falls in the twelfth house. Therefore, it belongs to the twelfth house and is shown by the arrow pointing to the twelfth house.  Thus, Saturn is placed in Cancer sign and it resides in the twelfth house. Saturn is the only planet which resides in the house shown by the arrow.  All other planets belong to the same house as shown with the corresponding zodiac position. Since both the sidereal and the tropical chart are based on Placidus semi-equal arc house division system the planets in both charts will have the identical houses.

Figure-1: Tropical Natal Chart of President George W. Bush

President George W. Bush

Birth Date: July 6, 1946

Birth Time: 7:26 AM (EDT)

Birth Place: New Haven, CT (41.3 N; 72.93 W)

Figure-2: Sidereal Natal Chart of President George W. Bush

Table – 1

The analysis of President Bush’s natal chart from his political career standpoint is as follow:

This analysis is based on sidereal (fixed) zodiac system and the method of interpretation is mostly according to Vedic astrology.

President George W. Bush was born under Cancer ascendant (rising sign) with Mercury and Pluto right after and near the ascendant cusp. Moon, the ruler of the ascendant (first house) is in Virgo, in the third house, thus it exchanges house with Mercury. Moon is in conjunction with auspicious Jupiter.  At the same time, the Uranus conjuncts Rahu (North lunar node) in the eleventh house, the house of fame, money and representative of masses.  In addition, both Jupiter and Moon are in auspicious trines with the eleventh house Uranus and Rahu. These trines and Uranus-Rahu and Moon-Jupiter conjunctions virtually assured President Bush that he has a potential to become a world leader, especially when the planetary cycles that provide the positive influence of Uranus, Rahu, Moon, and Jupiter are in operation.  However, from his natal chart there is not a single exalted planet or a planet residing in its own zodiac sign. And therefore, the first impression of this chart for any (Vedic) astrologer would least likely to be that this chart is of a man who is going to lead the world’s most advanced country.

Next let us take a look at his ninefold natal chart.  Construction of the ninefold natal chart of President George W. Bush is as follows:

First note the ascendant position in the natal chart.  Convert it in degrees away from the starting point (zero degrees of Aries) of the zodiac based on the eastern zodiac system.

In the President George W. Bush’s natal chart, the ascendant falls on 14 degrees and 6’ of Cancer.   Therefore, ascendant degrees = 104 ⁰ – 6’. Calculate his ninefold ascendant position by multiplying the ascendant degrees by the number 9, and if the value exceeds 360⁰ subtract 360⁰ or a multiple of 360⁰ from the value until it reduces to a number that lies between 0⁰ and 360⁰.

Thus, the ninefold ascendant degrees for Mr. Bush’s natal chart = 936⁰ – 54’

= (936⁰-54’) – 720⁰

=  216⁰ – 54’

Therefore, the ninefold ascendant is 6⁰ – 54’ of Scorpio.

Similarly the ninefold zodiac positions for all the planets are calculated and listed in Table 2.

Cast the ninefold chart with the ninefold ascendant as calculated above and place all the planets as per their ninefold zodiac positions.  Note that there are no house cusp positions in the ninefold chart.

Since a difference beyond a three degree between two planets in conjunction in the natal chart place them in the adjacent zodiac signs in the ninefold chart, a pair of planets that are considered making a certain angle (usually the conjunction and a multiple of thirty degree angle) in the natal chart need to be with in the three degrees of that angle.

Table – 2

The ninefold sidereal natal chart for Mr. Bush is shown in Figure 3.  The ninefold planetary position for all the planets shown in the figure are rounded off to the nearest quarter of a degree.

Figure-3: Sidereal Natal Chart of President George W. Bush

In his ninefold birth chart with Scorpio ascendant, there are six planets in the tenth house, the house of profession, action, and achievements. These are: Rahu, Mars, Uranus (within in 3 degrees of each other), and Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter (Moon and Saturn are with in 3 degrees of each other).  This confirms that politics is the destiny of this man.  Note the planets, Uranus, Rahu, Moon, and Jupiter, all coming together in the tenth house of his ninefold natal chart virtually assure him that he would be a successful politician.  And he certainly became the ultimate politician and the world leader, the president of the United States.

According to Vedic astrology, since all of the planets in his birth chart reside on one side of the lunar nodes, this chart may be affected by Kal-Surp-Yog (meaning a possibility of being a bit unlucky in achieving what the person deserves or the final victory may be denied).  However, in my opinion, this is really not true since the planet Uranus is at 26 1/4 degrees of Taurus (just before and not after the ascending lunar node Rahu) while Rahu is at 26 1/2 degrees of Taurus. However, precisely this conjunction of Rahu and Uranus also makes him the most unpopular (and perhaps deeply hated) president in the world politics.

In Vedic astrology, the Vishontari Mahadasha, the 120 year Grand cycle is commonly used for predicting the future of an individual. The beginning of Dasa period is determined based on the Moon’s natal position. The details of the Dasa calculations are explained elsewhere¹.

On the Election Day (November 2, 2004) President Bush’s Major Dasa period was that of Saturn, intermediate Dasa period was that of Jupiter, and the sub-Dasa period was that of Mercury.  His operating planets¹ (the planets that influence him on that day) for the day of election were Saturn, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, and Ketu. The operating planets are the planets that are in the constellations of the major, intermediate, and the sub Dasa period rulers, viz the Saturn, Jupiter and the Mercury at the time of his birth.  Thus, from his natal chart, the planet Saturn is in the constellation of Saturn, Sun is in the constellation of Jupiter, and Mercury, Venus, Pluto and Ketu are in the constellation of Mercury. Thus his operating planets on the Election Day were: Saturn, Pluto, Ketu, Mercury, Sun, and Venus.

Note all of these planets make conjunctions or trines with each other in his ninefold natal chart.  In his progressive chart¹ for that day Saturn is in the ninth house, Pluto and Mercury in the first, Ketu with Sun in the twelfth, and Venus in the eleventh. In the corresponding ninefold progressive chart Saturn is in the tenth, Ketu in the second, Sun and Pluto in the fifth, and Venus in the sixth.

While Saturn, Pluto are favorably placed for president Bush that evening, other planets: Sun, Mercury, Ketu and Venus are sort of neutral.

When their (President Bush’s and Senator Kerry’s) natal charts are compared against each other (with out taking in to account the influence of the respective progressive charts), despite their similarity in strength, President Bush’s chart seems to have an edge over that of Senator Kerry’s chart as he has six important planets gathered in the tenth house (the house of action, achievement, and fame)of his ninefold natal chart. 

Preview of 2008 Presidential Election:

As of this writing, the presumed nominees for the democratic and republic parties are Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain, respectively.  Before I begin to analyze and compare their charts against each other for predicting the winner of the 2008 presidential race, I am still looking for the accurate birth time of John McCain.  I am expecting to finish their birth chart analysis to predict the winner before the end of August as I did four years ago for the last presidential election.  However, in light of the unique planetary configurations forming around the election time, at this time, I would like to share a few of my comments on this unique and historic presidential race with fellow astrologers and readers of this magazine.

The important planetary configurations for November 4, 2008 are:

Uranus-Saturn direct and ninefold opposition

Pluto-Saturn ninefold opposition

Pluto-Uranus ninefold conjunction

Mars-Neptune direct and ninefold square

Sun-Rahu/Ketu (lunar nodes) squares

The Uranus-Saturn exact opposition occurs on the Election Day. Uranus was discovered around the time the United States was born. Therefore, the characteristics of the nation USA, as a whole, are very similar, if not identical to that of Uranus, and the destiny of USA is very much governed by Uranus and to some extent by Saturn.  At the time of the election, Uranus will be in sidereal Aquarius, the sign ruled by Saturn; therefore, these two planets become significantly important to influence the fate of USA on the Election Day, November 4, 2008, and consequently shape the future of this country.  Since some of the characteristics of Uranus include: suddenness, dramatic, eccentric and very forceful behavior, I wouldn’t be surprised if the happenings around the Election Day would reflect these characteristics.  In addition, the qualities of Saturn tend to resemble conservatism while Uranus qualities identify with liberal principles. Therefore, the race is likely to be a very close one with a dramatic finish. It’s like the history has been waiting for all these years to witness this truly unique and historic moment of a huge transformation. As a result, our norms of morality will undergo a change transforming us to a totally different but positive setting.

Furthermore, by taking into account the Pluto-Saturn ninefold opposition, (chaos, destruction followed by irreversible transformation), and the Pluto-Uranus ninefold conjunction (the premature death followed by the new beginning), there is an outside chance that the ultimate winner may not be one of these two presumptive nominees.  In addition, the Mars-Neptune square may become responsible for a disclosure of a political secret and the Sun’s squares with the lunar nodes, Rahu and Ketu, may manifest in a tragic event.

Regardless of the final outcome, since the planet Uranus governs this country, the United States will again, as always, lead the world.  It may take a while (possibly by the end of 2009) but US will always be the most powerful and pioneering country in the world. Also, since all the modern planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) currently reside in the last four signs of the zodiac, the world is moving towards spiritualism at a rapid rate with phenomenal growth in individual experiences.  And in that sense, we are very fortunate to live in these exciting times.