Some people have used the horoscope of Queen Elizabeth with Dhanu lagna (Astrodatabank gives 2:40am as a birth time which makes it Sagittarius ascendant), which is against the very spirit of sound astrological principles. I need not elaborate here excepting to point out the importance of the mahadasha of Venus, the fifth and tenth lord for Makar lagna (Capricorn ascendant) but sixth and eleventh lord for Dhanu.



Queen Elizabeth's Natal Chart

If you see the dates of the birth of her children, all four were born in the mahadasha of Venus the fifth lord (children) and tenth lord from Makar (Capricorn). (Venus dasha was from 10/31/1946 until 10/31/1966 - her children were born in 1948, 1950, 1960, and 1964). So which lagna will you give her?

Then you have Venus as the tenth lord also giving her the throne of England (February 1952) which had sunk into an island losing all its colonies in the days of its imperial glory. What the queen inherited was a liquidated empire which had started in the life of her father King George VI.

As soon as her Venus dasha started, she got married (11/20/1947) and conceived. In Jaimini’s Chara dasha, it was the dasha of Karka (Cancer), her seventh house, with Darakaraka, Saturn aspecting it. (Jaimini aspect)

Is there any doubt of hers being Makar lagna (Capricorn ascendant)?

I have often taken up this horoscope and demonstrated many events of her life applying various known techniques in my class room.

All the problems of her life relating to Prince Charles and Diana came in the mahadasha of Rahu in the sixth house (conflict) both in the natal chart and the Saptamsha (divisional chart for children).

Queen Elizabeth's Saptamsha Chart

Now this Rahu dasha is ending on 30 October 2007. It is known as the dasha chiddra or the handing over and taking over of two dashas, Rahu ending and Jupiter beginning.

In Chara dasha in 2006, it is the dasha of Kanya which has the Karakamsha and the antardasha of Mesha (Aries) which has Gnathikaraka (Sun). It has to be and is a period of sickness, accidents etc.

During this dasha chiddra, she will be eighty years old with a record of fifty four years of reign of an empire which resembles a dried orange on the geographical map of the world.

Transit of Saturn in Simha (Leo), eighth from her lagna with a saade saati on will mark the end of her era. Can she survive till or beyond 2009?

This is a chart of a client who died of cancer in August, 2005. She was in a Mercury-Venus-Ketu Vimshottari dasha period. She began her 17 year Mercury mahadasha in 1999, which began a period of decline of her health.



The 2nd and 7th houses are maraka, or death-inflicting houses. Notice how Mercury is in the 7th house. It, therefore, becomes a maraka planet simply by its location in the 7th house, and a Mercury mahadasha could indicate her final mahadasha period. Mercury is also conjunct the Sun, the 2nd lord, another maraka planet. This reinforces the death-inflicting potential of a Mercury mahadasha.

She was diagnosed with Cancer in 2002 in a Mercury-Ketu period. She had a successful surgery in that year and didn't have a relapse of her cancer until the fall of 2004 in her Mercury-Venus-Saturn period. As soon as Saturn transited into Cancer, and aspected her lagna, and was opposite her Sun and Mercury she had the relapse.

Notice also how Venus is in the 8th house, the house of chronic illness, struggle and death. Looking at Venus from two alternate lagnas, the Sun, and mahadasha planet, Mercury, Venus is in the 2nd house, a maraka house. She struggled for about 10 months with various kinds of medical treatment but to no avail. She died a peaceful death while Saturn was within 7 degrees of both her lagna and Sun by transit.

The best combinations for clairovoyance, or even siddhis (spiritual powers) are:

a) Connection of Ketu with Jupiter, involving the 5th house and its lord, the 8th house and its lord, or the 12th house and its lord.
b) The second best is, the same combination as above without the involvement of Jupiter.
c) The third best is Ketu in the 12th house without any aspect, Moon in the rashi (sign) of Saturn aspected by Mars, or in the rashi of Mars aspected by Saturn, with Jupiter influencing the lagna (ascendant) or lagna lord exactly.

The best example I have seen to date, though I have not succeeded in collecting the horoscopes of other gifted saints, is that of my own Guruji (Swami Paramananda Saraswati). Note the combinations.

a) Ketu in the twelfth house aspected by the 5th and the 8th lord, Jupiter.
b) In the navamsa, as also in the birth horoscope, the Moon comes under the influence of both Saturn and Mars.

Since very early in his life he took to sannyas (renunciate vows) and maintained the pure spiritual life throughout, and went rising higher and higher. Clairovoyance was one of his supernormal achievements, or siddhis.


Swami Paramananda Saraswati



Natal Chart

Navamsa Chart

- K.N. Rao
reprinted with permission

If the birth horoscope of a country is available, it is the most important data to be used. Yearly horoscope cast on the basis of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada (beginning of the Hindu New Year in the month of Chaitra, usually in April, on the first moon phase, pratipada tithi, in the waxing or shukla phase) gives very accurate results. Monthly solar ingress charts should be read together with the annual horoscopes. These points must also be analyzed:- The eclipse axis covered in a nation's or an important individual's horoscope (prime minister) - the afflicted house from the ascendant cast for the beginning of the eclipse,- the aspect of transit Mars on the eclipse point- the planets involved in the eclipse and their results,- a six month period from the time of solar eclipse and three months time from the time of lunar eclipse The horoscope cast on the basis of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada has been the basis of all the successful astrologers of India and any other basis has been misleading. The Gregorian New Year has been the basis of some astrologers, but it is based neither on any solar ingress chart nor on any lunar tithi. On the other hand, predictions given on the basis of some well-known conjunctions and oppositions like Saturn and Jupiter between 1989 and 1991 brought about many changes in the world, including the re-unification of Germany and the collapse of the USSR. They are well-known. Similarly, Saturn and Mars's conjunctions and oppositions have been a very sound basis for the predictions of astrologers all over the world.

Over the past forty or more years, K.N. Rao has taken on the task of researching the classical texts of Jyotish and testing the principles in modern times. In this way, he has kept alive many of the rarely used predictive systems, and demonstrated, in a scientific manner, their incredible accuracy and validity. One area of research that has become his specialty is weather forecasting. Over the years many of his predictions about the timing of earthquakes, drought, and climate change have been accurate. For instance, on January 27, 2001 the Deccan Chronicle reported, "It seems that that quake was fated. Astrologer K.N. Rao author of the best selling, Astrology, Destiny, and the Wheel of Time, in his forecast for 2001 had predicted the country would face crippling natural calamities in the first fortnight of January and also particularly after March. Rao was unfortunately correct."Most recently Rao predicted on TV (AAJ TAK channel), in June 2006, that there would be snow fall and snow storms in February 2007, due to the Sun-Saturn opposition, which reached its climax in mid February. This again proved correct. India eNews reported that, "Many places in India's northern and eastern regions received rain for the fourth consecutive day Tuesday (Feb 13th) while it snowed in hilly areas..Simla was under deep snow after it received the heaviest spell of snowfall for February Sunday since 1990." K.N. Rao was invited back on TV and was shown side by side with the weather forecaster discussing Simla's snowfall and proving the validity of his prediction.Rao is one of the few astrologers defending astrology before the scientific community, which is a noble work that he receives criticism for. "Intelligent and sensitive astrologers must not pay any attention to the criticism of astrology by irrational scientists and ignorant astronomers. The rishi tradition must be kept alive," he says. For more info see Rao's article, "Blind Scientists and Astronomers."

K.N. Rao

Saturn mahadasha began in 1979. He has two sons and one daughter. Towards the end of 1986 he and his wife came to me. Now apply the three parameters (see yesterday's article):1. The 5th lord, Saturn, is aspected by the retrograde 6th lord (Jupiter) which is why there is so much hostility between him and his children. 2. The 12th lord (expenditures), Mercury, is conjoined with the 5th lord (children, education). He has spent a fortune on excellent education for his children in foreign countries like UK and USA. 3. The 2nd lord (Mars) in the 10th house aspects the 5th house aggravating the hostility of his children towards him. For Indian society the behavior of his children is outrageous. The first son is a smuggler and could be arrested at any time. He lives with a married woman fifteen years senior to him in age. The daughter is living together with a rich parasite of a well known family and does not want to marry. The third son suddenly gave up an excellent academic career and took to wild habits. All this started happening in the dasha of the 5th lord, Saturn, and reached a climax in the sub-period of Mars. The father himself had to stay out of India because there were warrants of arrest for him for violations of many laws of the land. Sufferings come most in the dasha of the yogakaraka, particularly the 5th lord, whose duty is to divert your attention from the worldly to the spiritual. But it was too late for him. As a fond father he had hoped that he would raise wealth in illegal ways for his children who had been frittering it away. reprinted with permissionNotes from Vaughn PaulIn this example, the 5th house has two malefic aspects, Saturn (3rd aspect) and Mars (8th aspect), and one benefic aspect from Jupiter (9th aspect). However, Jupiter is also a temporal malefic as the 6th lord and retrograde as K.N. Rao emphasizes here. Saturn is the 5th lord and also becomes the 5th lord from the Moon, chandra lagna, which reinforces the area of children as the focal point during the Saturn dasha. From the dasha lagna, Saturn, Mars becomes the 5th lord, debilitated in the malefic 8th house.

Three Important Principles in Reading of a Horoscope:1. Desha or country: you must keep in mind the background of the country to which a person belongs and interpret a horoscope against that background.2. Kaal or time: this means that when you are seeing a horoscope in twenty first century, you cannot apply the principles of middle ages given in books. For example, sixty years ago Indian women did not come out of their homes to go to a work at different places. Now they do it and therefore interpret their horoscopes as you will interpret the horoscopes of males.3. Paatra or personal background: Here you must know the personal background of the person for whom you are predicting. If he is an important political leader, achievement here means his coming into a big cabinet position. If he is a government servant, achievement means a big promotion. If he is a businessman, it is big profit. If he is a scientist, it is a discovery or invention.The interpretation can be skillful only if the astrologer has the ability to weigh the pros and cons of a situation and the person. Parashara insists on this and calls it uha poha patu (the ability to weigh different factors in arriving at an accurate conclusion).

Now that Barack Obama was formally and enthusiastically nominated as the democratic candidate yesterday in Denver, I wanted to shed some light on his natal chart. Up until now his birth time had been speculated to be about 1 pm by other astrologers. However, in July his own website made his birth certificate available in order to defend the question of his US citizenship. Click to view Barack Obama's birth certificate. It's highly likely that this birth time of 7:24 pm is valid since it would discredit his entire campaign to tamper with the document, and for what purpose? However, the real test of an accurate birth time should be that it describes a person accurately, not only in terms of character traits, but key events. So let's have a look at his birth chart. Barack Obama's Natal Chart What stands out in many people's minds is Obama's talented oratory skills. Notice how Mercury is powerful in a kendra, and also aspects important personality indicators - ascendant, ascendant lord Saturn, and the Sun. Its tight mutual aspect with Jupiter, the 3rd lord, further heightens his intelligence, wit, communication skills. This mutual aspect even improves in the navamsha where Mercury gets exalted and Jupiter is in its own sign of Pisces. Mercury's strength is also seen by the raja yoga it forms as the 9th lord in mutual aspect with Saturn, the 1st lord. Additionally, Jupiter is the karaka of the 9th house of law, while Mercury is 9th lord. This mutual aspect sure makes sense for a lawyer, and teacher of law, especially because they both aspect the ascendant, ascendant lord, and Sun. Barack Obama's Navamsha ChartThe other very notable feature is his shasha mahapurusha yoga formed by Saturn placed on an angle in its own sign. It's further strengthened by being vargottama. This gives him strong leadership abilities and exemplary Saturnian qualities like discipline and responsibility. So far so good. It all makes sense. But wait a minute. How about the perplexing placement of a debilitated Jupiter? There are several ways that Jupiter's debility is cancelled and forms a neecha banga raja yoga. First, it's conjunct its debilitation lord, Saturn. Second, this forms a raja yoga as the "Great Parashara Exception," as K.N. Rao calls it, because Jupiter is the 12th lord debilitated, placed in the ascendant and the ascendant lord is in its own sign. A third factor of cancellation of debility is that Mars, the planet exalted in Capricorn, is on an angle from the Moon.When we first look at his Sun, we might wonder why someone with the Sun as the 8th lord would represent a politician since the Sun is the planet of politics. However, we have to remember that the Sun is gaining from its association with the other planets, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn forming the above mentioned yogas. When we look at his chart from chandra lagna, we see that the Sun's condition improves as the 4th lord conjunct the 5th lord Mercury, and opposite the 9th and 10th lord Saturn. This forms multiple raja yogas from the Moon. Another important feature is that his Moon, the 7th lord, is exalted in Taurus, and aspected by Jupiter. This is a combination for compassion and caring that has won him the trust of many supporters. This forms a rare Gauri Yoga mentioned in the classic text, Phala Deepika, and is due to the Moon being in its own or exalted sign in a kendra or trikona (5, 9) and aspected by Jupiter. Its effect is described as, "Will have a beautiful body and will be a friend of the king. He will possess good qualities and will be blessed with sons. He will belong to an illustrious family. His face will be like a lotus. He will be praised for his successes (over enemies)." This certainly seems to be playing out in Obama's chart with all the dramatic and widespread support and praise he's received throughout his campaign. When we look at his dasha sequence we see that he's been in a Jupiter-Moon dasha since 11/24/07 which will continue until 3/25/09. This dasha activates his special Gauri Yoga and could win him the election in November. More about this in upcoming articles.

Typically the 12th house is the considered the house of residence in a foreign country. The 1st house represents the place of our birth, and the 12th house from any house represents the loss of the indications of that house. Therefore, the 12th house is the loss of one's birth place and therefore residence abroad. It can also simply mean travel to foreign places and not necessarily settling down.

In addition, the 7th house is also sometimes listed in texts as a house of foreign travel or residence abroad. For instance, the Sarvarth Chintamani refers to the dashas of planets located in the 7th house as a time of travel or residence abroad. For instance, it says:

"During the ruling period of Jupiter in the 7th house, the native gets wife, wealth, son, happiness, goes abroad, is victorious in battle."

Likewise, it later says the same for a Rahu dasha:

"During the ruling period of Rahu located in the 7th house, the native soon gets destruction of his wife, goes abroad, suffers losses in agriculture etc."

Why is the 7th house a house of foreign residence? Usually it's just considered the house of relationship. The reason is because the 7th house is the farther house from the 1st house, being the opposite house. The placement in the sky of the 1st house is on the Eastern horizon, while the 7th house is on the Western horizon. Therefore, the 7th house is the furthest from one's birth place or a foreign location.

This all makes logical sense, but there may still be some lingering doubt that the dasha of a planet in the 7th house could actually result in residence abroad. Therefore, here's a chart of a woman who was born in Hong Kong, and when she was 10 years old her family decided to move to the USA. This was during her Mercury-Rahu dasha.



Natal Chart

Notice that Rahu is placed in the 7th house, and Mercury is the 4th lord, and in the 4th house from the Moon. The 4th house is of course the house of home, indicating events related to home in her Mercury dasha. Notice how Rahu is also placed in the lagna of the chaturtamsha chart (D4) the divisional chart for home, indicating a significant event related to home in a Rahu dasha. At the time of the move, Rahu was transiting through her 12th house, Taurus. Furthermore, Rahu is the planet of foreign connections. All these factors show a repeated pattern indicating a major move to a foreign country in her Mercury-Rahu dasha.

Chaturtamsha Chart (D4)

I once asked my Jyotish guru, K.N. Rao, if it's necessary to understand the meaning of mantras in order to get their benefit. His response was, "Mantras are medicine. I don't need to know the ingredients of my medicines for them to work." When I thought about this it made sense. If it's true that all languages emit a vibration, and Sanskrit is a spiritual language, then we can benefit by the vibration of mantras without knowing their meaning. It's like when you hear beautiful music sung in another language, like at an Italian opera, and you feel uplifted regardless of knowing the language. Sanskrit mantras are the same way, only more powerfully, because the language was developed for purpose of spiritual transformation.

Sanskrit Text

Kotamraju Narayana Rao retired from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service as Director General in November 1990. He is the second of the four sons of the famous journalist of the pre-independence era, K. Rama Rao, the founder editor of the National Herald and editor of more than thirty journals in his long journalistic career.

He was initiated into astrology by his late mother, K. Saraswati Devi, at the age of twelve in 1943. He regards her as the best astrologer he has known in two areas, marriage and children and prashna (horary).

He was a lecturer in English before joining the government service through an all-India competition in 1957. He joined the Indian Audit and Accounts Service from which he retired as Director General in November 1990.

More interested in games and sports than in astrology in his youth, Rao won brilliancy prizes in chess competitions and two state championships in bridge competitions. He played ten other games which is why in his astrological writings also there are references to games often.

During his service career, he was the planner, organizer and teacher of three international courses on Audit of Receipts as a joint director once and director twice.

His interactions with foreigners have been both on professional and astrological levels for more than two decades which is why he has, as an astrologer, a large international network of friends. He went on doing all his fundamental researches in astrology during his service career because of which, he went on collecting horoscopes systematically in thousands.

He has in his possession more than 50,000 horoscopes with ten important events of each individual noted with him. It is perhaps, the largest individual collection of horoscopes any astrologer perhaps has.

The strain of doing astrology as a mission, not charging any fee, almost made him give up astrology many times. But in December 1981, he was forced out of his shell to participate in a three-day seminar on astrology in Delhi. After this ground breaking speech, there has been a persistent demand for his astrological articles. From then onwards he has been sharing with his readers his original researches for which he has won worldwide praise.

Between 1993 and 1995, Rao has visited the USA on five lecture tours. He was the Chief Guest at the Second Conference of the American Council of Vedic Astrology in 1993. He was requested to be present in the Third Conference also in 1994 on the opening day because of the crowds he would draw. His name was advertised till November 1995 also for the Fourth Conference though he had made it clear that he would not be available anymore for the American conferences. As a result of his academic approach, he has now more than a thousand students in India and more than two hundred in the USA.

He was instrumental in starting the Vedic Astrology course in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi and is the Advisor and senior teacher of Astrology Courses. He is also responsible for the BJP Govt. introducing Vedic astrology as a study course in the Indian universities.

What impelled Rao to do it is well explained in his own horoscope where the lagna and the 10th lords get combined in the lagna, with an exalted Jupiter in the 10th house.

All this was foreseen by his Jyotish Guru, Yogi Bhaskarananda of Gujarat whom Rao describes as the last of the Rishi astrologers in the purest classical mould. He had told him that he would have to visit many foreign countries to give to Hindu astrology the honour, recognition and dignity which it did not have till then. An American summed up the impact of the first ever foreign visit of Rao to the USA in 1993 as, “Vedic astrology before Rao and after Rao”.

What different yogis have said about astrology as a Vedanga which he must not give up has been quoted in his book, Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time. Astrology is ill-reputed as a profession because of its mercenary and exploitative nature.

His desire never to turn into a professional astrologer, has won him thousands of admirers and also some enemies from the community of professional astrologers who felt threatened, when around him there grew up a fine team of more than two hundred academic astrologers like him, for whom astrology is not a source of living, but a super science to delve into the meaning and purpose of human life, which is what astrology, as Vedanga, should and has to be.

Both his mantra guru, Swami Paramananda Saraswati, and his jyotish guru, Yogi Bhaskarananda, taught him some secrets of spiritual astrology which are not given usually in any book of astrology. Rao has revealed some of these secrets in his book, "Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time".

Among his recent fundamental and most original researches are his two books "Predicting through Jaimini's Chara Dasha" and "Predicting through Karakamsha and Mandook Dasha". It has been possible for him to produce such researches because he was told by his jyotish guru that what was in parampara (tradition) was much more than what was contained in books of astrology which are translated literally and are without illustrations generally.

His own mother, who was his first jyotish guru, knew many such traditional secrets, parts of which Rao has revealed in his three books “Ups and Downs in Careers”, "Astrology, Destiny and the Wheel of Time" and "Planets and Children". It was the mantra guru of Rao, Swami Paramananda Saraswati, who first asked Rao not to give up astrology as it had to be an integral part of his sadhana. Later a great yogi, Swami Moorkhanandji, prophesied in 1982 that he would be the architect of a great astrological renaissance. Whether that is already fulfilled or not can be gauged from the impressive list of his researches published in his writings.

Terrorism in India - An Astrological Viewpoint

In the first week of November, my astrological research made me see an imminent terrorist attack in Mumbai after 12th Nov and today as I’m watching the events unfolding on television, it pains me no end. So I’m sharing with you all what I’ve learnt from my astrological analysis.

Terrorism all over the world is getting out of control and I don’t see any end to it in the near future. Thinking of which my astrological study shows chances of terrorist attacks after 12th Dec 2008 in the Indian State of Karnataka (Bangalore City) and in Rajasthan (Jaipur, Jodhpur) in Feb 2009. I hope that Indian Security system remains most vigilant in these cities to protect human lives and our famous temples, buildings and markets from becoming easy targets of World Terrorism.

God bless Humanity.