EYE ON ASTROLOGY:Â Getting Dashas Right
When we learn astrology, we have to learn the basics but as we get more experienced, we find out that the depth of the Vedic astrological ocean is sometimes unfathomable and it take a lot of deep diving to get it right.
Take for example Vimshottari Dasha. The rules are complicated but many clients are frustrated because it does not always work well. . Why is this? The ancient scriptures tell us that if the Moon is in the 2th or 6th house we should calculate the starting Dasha from the 4th Nakshatra from the Moon to get the starting dasha. This is called Keshma Vimshottari Dasha and means that if you were born with Moon in the 2nd house in Ashwini, instead of starting your life out from a Ketu period, you would start it from 4 Nakshatras away or Rohini or starting in a Moon period. This would toggle all your dashas.
If you have Moon in the 8th or the 12th houses, then the classic text tell you to calculate the starting dasha from 8 nakshatras from the Moon for Moon in Ashwini in the 8th house your starting dasha would be Pushya or Saturn.  This is called Adhana Vimshottari Dasha.
If you have moon in the 3rd or 11th houses, you are supposed to calculate the starting dasha from 5th nakshatra from your natal moon. Hence if you have Moon in Ashwini Nakshatra, you would count 5 nakshatras and your starting dasha period would be Mrigashira or a Mars period.
The dasha period unfold in the sequence from the correct starting point ie Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus and Ketu.
So 1/2 of the people will have moon in the above houses 2, 6 or 3, 11 or 8, 12 and hence their unfolding dasha peri0ds will be different than if you have moon in the 1, 4, 7, 10, 5, or 9th which is where regular Vimshottari dasha works .
Some scholars think the toggled starting point is particularly important if you have cluster of planets in kendra ie 1, 4, 7, 10 from your moon.
In practice, I am seeing this new calculation work much better. I had a client with Moon in the 8th and in regular Vimshottari dasha he was in a Mercury period with Mercury exalted in the 3rd and everyone told him that business would be great. From the proper calculation, he was in Saturn/Ketu which is one of the more difficult periods of his life and everything had fallen apart the past year which is what you might expect with that combination.
Lately I try to use 4-5 dasha systems to get predictions right and see how they coincide and I use Narayana Dasha, Chara Dasha, the proper Vimshottari Dasha and the special dashas for certain charts when Sun is in the 1st or Rahu in the 10th. I am finding that it is much easier to predict now whereas plain old Vimshottari Dasha is always pulling teeth. Parashara tells us that Vimshottai Dasha is the King and should work but it is a stretch so many times.
My new series of classes, Secrets of the Masters, seeks to bring out these more advanced but simple techniques to make our job easier as astrologers. If you get a consult, I will use 4-5 dashas to get to the core predictive truth. Sign up for my first Secret of the Masters Part 1.  Part 2 on Secrets of Dashas will be in the fall.
Sign up for our free sneak preview on May 21st at noon:
SECRETS OF THE MASTERS: TECHNIQUES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE PART 1
