An 11-day introduction to astrology

Recognize a chart's inputs and its three basic labels: graha, rashi and bhava.

• A chart is drawn for one stated time and place.
• Check the date, local time, location and settings first.
• Graha names what is placed, rashi the sign, bhava the house.

Name the seven classical luminary and planet entries, and recognize Rahu and Ketu as lunar-node entries.

• The seven classical grahas are the Sun, the Moon and five planets.
• Rahu and Ketu are the ascending and descending lunar nodes.
• All nine together are called the navagrahas.

Read a sign and degree, and find them from a position measured around the zodiac.

• Twelve signs of 30° each make up 360°.
• Subtract a sign's starting degree to find the degree inside it.
• Compare reports only when their zodiac settings match.

Count twelve houses from a stated lagna, with each whole sign counted as one house.

• The lagna is the rashi rising at the eastern horizon.
• The lagna sign is house 1; count onward inclusively.
• In a fixed-sign chart, signs stay put and house numbers move.

Identify houses 1, 4, 7 and 10 as kendras and recognize a few sourced traditional associations.

• A house number is a position; a house theme is a traditional association.
• 2nd: family and speech; 4th: dwelling and education; 10th: avocation.
• The kendras are houses 1, 4, 7 and 10.

Use the seven-graha rulership table to distinguish a sign's lord from the graha occupying that sign.

• The Sun and Moon rule one sign each; five grahas rule two each.
• The occupant is the graha in a sign; the lord is that sign's ruler.
• Swakshetra means a graha placed in a sign it rules.

Explain the 27 nakshatras and the four padas in each one, and locate a worked example that does not sit on a boundary.

• One nakshatra is 13°20′ of arc, and 27 of them make 360°.
• One pada is 3°20′. There are four in each nakshatra and nine in each sign.
• 18° Aries is Bharani pada 2.

Recognize vaar, tithi, nakshatra, yoga and karana, and distinguish a tithi interval from a civil calendar date.

• The five labels are vaar, tithi, nakshatra, yoga and karana.
• A tithi covers 12° of the Moon–Sun gap, and a karana covers 6°.
• Check the place, the time zone and whether listed times are endings.

Understand a divisional chart as a new way of organizing an existing longitude, and work through one D9 lookup.

• A navamsha slice is 3°20′. There are nine per sign and 108 in all.
• Taurus slices start with Capricorn, then Aquarius.
• Near a slice edge, a small input error can change the D9 sign.

Distinguish birth placements, transits and dasha periods, and identify a dasha report's system and level.

• A birth placement is a position at the stated birth moment.
• A transit (gochara) is a later position compared with the birth chart.
• For a dasha label, name the system and the level before comparing reports.

Describe the labels on a supplied chart accurately, and tell a completed lookup apart from an interpretation that needs more study.

• Read the header and the lagna before reading any placement.
• With Capricorn lagna, Aries is house 4, and the lord of Aries is Mars.
• A lookup is established; interpretation needs further study.