Article by Krishnamurthy S, India

As the horoscopes of twins continue to haunt Astrologers world-wide, recently there was a rare event of octuplets born in the USA, all alive! This happened in the USA after a gap of 10 years. Last time, the octuplets were born in 1998 and one of them passed away after one week. This time it happened on the morning of January 26 (on the day of solar eclipse) in Bellflower, California. The most interesting part was all the babies were delivered by C-section within a span of just 5 minutes from 10:43 to 10:48! Overall, they were six boys and two girls, all kicking and crying.

With the breaking of this news, the first thought that came up was to immediately check out if the rules that were defined earlier (refer to “Unique Features of Charts of Twins”, August 2008 issue of Saptarishis Astrology) were applicable to this case as well or not. Though the rules were defined for twins, it should cover multiple births as well. Those rules have been reproduced here for ready reference:

1. Take a look at the Lagna lord or its dispositor. One of the two following conditions can be seen: [Rule 1]
a. LL or its dispositor is involved in a Parivartana/Srinkhala either in Rasi or in Constellation, or
b. LL or its dispositor disposits its own Rasi dispositor in Constellation (mixed Parivartana?)
c. LL and its dispositor are closely conjunct (or, could it be within one nakshatra pada)
2. Lord of 11th house (representing multiplicity) or the karaka of 11th house Jupiter influences Lagna or Lagna Lord by ownership or by conjunction or by graha drishti. [Rule 2]
3. Rule specific for identical twins [Rule 3]:
a. The 3rd lord and 11th lord are in close conjunction, hardly 1 degree apart! (or it could be within the same nakshatra pada), or
b. There is a Parivartana/Srinkhala between the 3rd lord and the 11th lord either in Rasi or in Constellation.

Since it is a clear case of fraternal twins, the third rule need not be looked into. The birth details of the first twin are as follows:

Natal Chart

Date: January 26, 2009
Time: 10:43:00
Time Zone: 8:00:00 (West of GMT)
Place: 118 W 06′ 58″, 33 N 52′ 54″
Bellflower, California, USA

The chart for this data is presented below:

Now, to the interesting part of checking out the rules defined. The lagna lord is Mars. Its dispositor is Jupiter. Mars and Jupiter are in Parivartana in Navamsha! Also, Jupiter’s dispositor Saturn is involved in a Parivartana in Rasi. It is interesting to note that all three – the lagna lord, its dispositor and its dispositor are involved in Parivartanas. This satisfies Rule 1.

Now look for the influence of either Jupiter (karaka for 11th house or the lord of 11th house on the Lagna Lord). In this case, Jupiter strongly influences the lagna lord Mars in more than one way:

– Lagna lord Mars is disposited by karaka of 11th house Jupiter
– Both the above planets are in parivartana in Navamsha

This satisfies Rule 2.

It always gives great satisfaction when rules formed to demonstrate any Jyotish principle can be applied repeatedly for other applicable charts as well. After all, repeatability is one of the corner stone’s of any science.

About the Author: The Author is about 49 years old and holds a Post Graduate degree in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc., Bangalore). He was the University topper and Gold Medallist at the Graduate level. He worked as a Software Engineer for over 22 years in both Indian as well as large MNC companies. He did on-site software development work at Switzerland for a few years. He took voluntary retirement in December 2004. Since then, he is pursuing the study of Astrology which is one of his interests. The author is particularly interested in Medical Astrology and has already published articles giving special combinations for Diabetes (both Type-I and Type-II) and severe Dandruff problems that could be identified from natal charts. His other interest being Poetry; has published a poetry collection (in local language Kannada) in 2006.