By Gordon Brennan
The next lunar month is called Jyeshtha, the 3rd month of the lunar year. Jyeshtha means the eldest. It started on Thursday, 6th June for most of the world. In the UK the starting time is 1.38 pm BST. The chart is set for London to represent the UK as it is the capital city.
Each month of the Hindu calendar has several festivals. Perhaps the best known in the month of Jyeshtha is Ganga Dussehra on June 16th, remembering the descent of the Avatar of Goddess Ganga, who came to rescue the cursed souls of Bhagiratha’s ancestors. The story is in the Mahabharata and other ancient texts. I do not know how relevant this is to what will happen in the coming month, but in the story Shiva had to protect the Earth from the enormous power of Goddess Ganga. Some great power also seems to be building up to be unleashed this month. Here is the chart for the New Moon. North Indian charts are given at the end of this article.
There are many interesting and unusual features in this chart. First to note is the Shula Yoga of 7 planets in 3 signs, which is ruled by powerful Mars, lord of 3rd and 8th houses, who in this year’s Chaitra Shukla chart is shown to be the king of the year. Some ancient texts talk about a conjunction of planets in Taurus also being dangerous. This sign is sensitive to disturbances, as is well known in the case of Saturn, which, it is said, can cause terrible disturbance in Taurus if it ‘cuts the wain of Rohini’. As you can see there are 4 planets in Rohini here, but not Saturn of course. The ascendant of the UK chart is also in Mrityubhaga, a dangerous placement for the UK.
Mercury, Venus and Moon are forming the rare and exceptionally powerful Parijata or Kalpadruma Yoga. Taurus is also the sign leading the ‘garland’ Yoga of planets from Aquarius to Taurus. If you were to add in the outer planets, then the garland would begin with Pluto in Capricorn. Uranus is in Taurus as well. Something seems to be brewing up as they used to say in the UK years ago.
The other effect most marked, however is on Scorpio, which contains the Nakshatra Jyeshtha. Eight planets aspect Scorpio, nearly all with full aspect strength (NB Ketu has no planetary aspect, he wants us to leave the world alone, so he has no interest in it). Mars and Mercury’s’ Upagrahas, Mrityu and Ardhaprahara are in Scorpio, along with the Arudha of the 12th house in this chart. If many planets aspect one sign, then there is a great build-up of energy there. Scorpio will suffer some powerful effects this month. There are of course both benefics and malefics, so effects will vary.
I wondered how many times Scorpio has been aspected by 8 planets – as far as I can discover it is twice in the past 12,000 years. One instance I knew about – there was a grand stellium in Taurus in 3243 BCE of all the planets except Ketu, so 8 planets aspected Scorpio. The other was in 228 BCE. The 220s BCE was a decade of conflicts. So you can be sure something unusual is happening.
The UK General Election will happen on July 4th in this same month of Jyeshtha. 3rd house (Scorpio) relates to elections and 9th house (Taurus) to higher knowledge and education, law and other essential matters. The natural 9th house, Sagittarius, is also a battleground, so every 9th house has this basic nature as well. Mercury is the Karaka for elections. Rahu always makes a claim on Mercury’s signs and Ketu on Jupiter’s signs, the effect of which can be a kind of exchange of influence here. In the chart Rahu is at 18.21 degrees of Pisces. If you subtract this figure from 30 degrees, to see the progress of Rahu through the sign of Pisces then you get 11.39 degrees, very close to Mercury’s degree of 12.18, so Rahu is trying hard to influence Mercury and make his claim on the sign Virgo. The planets are in different degrees, but that proximity has a powerful effect.
This is a year of elections around the world. In India Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has just failed to gain the large majority of seats it wanted. It will not be able to carry out its threat to radically alter the Indian constitution now. The South African ANC has just lost its majority vote, so it will have to negotiate with others to govern. The flood of immigrants into Europe is bringing support to far-right movements, which can frustrate established parties. The Belgian election is the next in line on June 9th.
You can see in the New Moon chart that Sun, Moon and Venus are all in the 23rd degree of Taurus. To get some idea of the effect of planets in the 23rd degree you can take the degrees as Tithis. There are 30 Tithis in a lunar month and there are 30 degrees in a sign of the zodiac. Deduct 15 from 23 and the remainder is 8, so those 3 planets are in the 8th, or Asthami Tithi, not a fortunate place. It is also said that Sun and Moon do not take part in a planetary war, but of course Venus does and it is feeling severely threatened by its great enemy the Sun and its lesser enemy the Moon. Venus is harried by the two most powerful planets in the chart. Venus commands the water element. Another interesting matter is that the enormously bright star Rigel is in the same degree in Taurus. Many other major stars cluster around this area of the chart, which is in the constellation of Orion.
There is a Yama Yoga in the chart – Saturn aspects Mars. There is also a Yama Yoga of Saturn and Mars conjoined in Taurus in the Navamsa chart. The Navamsa chart itself is expressing troubles. Not a single planet is in a very good position in this chart. You may say that Jupiter is in Pisces and it aspects the Moon in Cancer – and that should be good. But 3rd house is the worst for Jupiter and 7th house not good for the Moon, especially not the Moon with no light, so they are not very positive.
Taurus is an earth element sign and Venus its lord rules the water element. Scorpio is a water element sign ruled by Mars, lord of fire. Add the two together and you have a dangerous time this month for many. I would hesitate to undertake 9th house type travels from the UK to countries with a history of major geological or weather events, which includes many holiday destinations.
Looking overseas we can see that the Americas have Cancer ascendants. Leo contains mainly the Atlantic Ocean and the Western edge of Europe, Virgo ascendant shows nearly all of Europe and even North Africa, Libra shows the Middle and Near East, Scorpio shows India and Sagittarius shows China and the Far East, but not Japan whose ascendant is Capricorn. The different fortunes can be read for this coming month, taking into account the main parameters for the year given by the Chaitra Shukla chart. Saturn has the role of chief minister this whole year, so in general a lot of harsh treatment may be expected. Five planets are well known to be too much energy to be contained by one sign, as I suspect is the aspect of eight planets, although I do not have any authoritative astrological reference to quote for this last idea, apart from having seen it very occasionally. More climate changes are coming of course.
You could surmise perhaps that President Biden with a Scorpio Lagna might have an extraordinary month. Countries such as Ireland with a Scorpio ascendant might have a dramatic time. There are very few countries with a Scorpio Lagna. Scorpio will feel the effect of this concentration of energy, so everyone will be affected in some way. Scorpio is the natural 8th house, so some transformation will happen. The Vimshottari Dasha, Saturn, Saturn Mercury, in the UK progressed chart of 1945 shows a dangerous time for the UK. After the 1945 chart are all the relevant North Indian charts.
