Vedic Astrology – Ascendants:
Diving in this vast ocean of Astrology, perhaps one of the most essential part to start with would be the ascendants. To begin with any kind of analysis we first need to have some basic information about that person in regards to his/her date of birth, time of birth and place of birth. This information is mandatory to get the ascendant and birth chart of that person.
I follow the north Indian style of birth chart representation. With the above details, and using any online software we can get the birthchart or Kundali as we call it of that person. This is calculated using the latitude and longitude of the location and time provided.
A birth chart is divided into 12 parts namely twelve houses. Each house is associated with a particular sector of our life.
These houses are different from the signs that we generally talk about. Based on what one’s ascendant is which sign occupies which house is decided.Let’s take an example, if your ascendant is say Leo that implies that leo occupies your first house and governs your physical outward appearance. This also decides the other flow of signs occupying the remaining houses. The signs always follow an order starting from Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. So Leo in the ascendant would imply Virgo in second house, Libra in third house and so on. This constitutes of the basic chart for any individual.
Another thing we should discuss before starting the ascendant series is the planets considered in vedic astrology and their lordship. Since vedic astrology is thousands of years old, when people would gaze stars to get the location and time and other mathematical details instead of softwares. This takes only the seven planets visible from naked eye and two luminary nodes into consideration. Saturn is the farthest planet that is visible to us. This also differs from the western astrology which takes into account Pluto, Uranus and Neptune and others. For the lordship, each planet rules two signs while sun and moon rules just one.
Later we will see how the planets gets placed and what their effects are. I will start with each ascendant characteristic and how it gives the general path of life starting from the next article. Interesting things coming up so stay connected..
Astrology...A way of living 