Read the sky
you were born under.

Vedic astrology, or Jyotish, is India’s traditional way of reading the sky at the moment of birth. It reads a birth chart through the nine grahas, the twelve rashis and the twelve bhavas, and is known above all for timing — which periods open doors, and which ask for patience.

Western astrology usually measures the zodiac from the seasons; Vedic astrology measures it against the stars — the sidereal zodiac — so a planet often falls one sign earlier than in a Western chart. Jyotish also reads closely from the Moon, the 27 nakshatras and the dasha periods.

A kundli, or janam kundli, is the birth chart: where the Sun, the Moon and the other grahas stood among the twelve signs and twelve houses at the moment and place of birth. In North India it is drawn as a square cut into twelve houses, the ascendant at the top. Cast your own kundli free.

The ascendant — the sign rising in the east — moves through all twelve signs in a day, about one every two hours, and it sets the order of every house. A wrong time can move a planet into another house. Clear astrological guidance cannot be provided without the time of birth.

Vimshottari dasha is a 120-year cycle of planetary periods, started from the Moon’s nakshatra at birth. Each mahadasha, and the shorter periods within it, brings its graha’s themes to the fore — which is how a chart is read for when, not only what.

Before a marriage, two charts are compared by Ashtakoota — eight kootas read from the two Moons: varna, vashya, tara, yoni, graha maitri, gana, bhakoot and nadi, worth 1 to 8 points each and 36 in all. It is read from the Moon alone, so it is one reading among several, not a verdict on a marriage. Match two kundlis free.

Mangal dosha — being “manglik” — is said to arise when Mars sits in certain houses of the chart, most often the 1st, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th, and in some traditions the 2nd. It is read for marriage, and the tradition also describes what cancels it, so it is judged from the whole chart rather than on its own.

Sade Sati is Saturn’s passage over the Moon sign and the signs either side of it — about seven and a half years. It is often feared, but it is read as a time of maturing, patience and responsibility, not of ruin.

A gemstone strengthens its planet, so it is chosen only from a full reading of the chart — never by sign or colour alone. Strengthening a graha that is already difficult in a chart is exactly what the tradition takes care to avoid.