Hari Om Namo Narayana!

I have just written an answer about retrograde planets and you are encouraged to go through it once to gain a deeper understanding about what retrograde planets are and their impact on the native’s life.

Before I get into the concepts that you can actually apply to studying a chart to understand what kind of impact the retrograde planet(s) will have on the native’s life, I need you first to understand one important thing.

• Retrograde planets at a spiritual level, indicate some past ‘karma’ that has been pending on the soul’s ledger and that it is here to clear.
• This may be as a result of an absence of that in a previous lifetime or it may be as a result of an imbalance.
• The more the retrograde planets in a person’s chart, the more is the force of a previous lifetime with them. It’s like the soul is still carrying forward momentum from the past.
• Also, dealing with the energy of one retrograde planet can be so difficult that when you have two or three, you can be sure that there are bound to be many fateful events in your lifetime.
• It also boils down to how you harness that kind of power.
• This is a pattern you will observe even when you have a number of planets conjunct the North or South node of the Moon in the chart.
• The nodes deal primarily will patterns of the past and future and when they have a lot of planets conjunct with either one of them, you can be sure that the soul is probably here to clear many ‘karmic’ backlogs.
• You can have spiritual leaders with that sort of placements and you can also have psychopaths.
• It can be very good and it can also be very bad.
• For example, the legendary Daniel Day Lewis, who has received critical acclaim and academy awards for doing movies such as ‘My Left Foot’ and ‘Lincoln’, has three planets retrograde in is chart.. and so does the 9/11 mastermind and America’s no.1 enemy of all time, Bin Laden!

Suffering yourself as a result of your planetary combinations and placements is not the worst case scenario. Worst case scenario is making everyone suffer just because you haven’t found healing yet.

And yet, we must accept that some souls manifest a new life out of trauma over the past one.

Take the example of Genghis Kahn!

• It was as if he had taken over the role of being nature’s ‘designated sadist’.
• In the beginning, when he unified his people and started going on raids, to his people, his clan.. he may even have been seen as a hero or great warrior.
• The reason he united all the clans in a common purpose of raiding and destroying other countries and civilizations was so that they won’t fight amongst each other.
• However, to all those who got caught up in the storm of rape, murder and pillage that he was at the center of.. he was death and misery personified.

This is where Hindu philosophy enlightens you in a big way to the principle of ’cause and effect’.

Not every soul that had to go through those painful experiences at the hands of the likes of Genghis Kahn would have made peace with what happened and not every miserable soul has evolved beyond the suffering of the physical plane.

The only way to heal for some troubled souls is to take it out on others. They can’t go back in time and give it back to who gave them the pain but sometimes some people are born just to settle ‘karmic’ scores and cause pain, spread grief.

Can you heal from these tendencies and free yourself from the pain without hurting others?

Yes you can, like the example of the first poet of the Sanskrit language, ‘Valmiki’.

He is the person who wrote the original Sanskrit version of the ‘Ramayana’.

Guess who he was before he became a poet?

He was a feared and dreaded highwayman.

In fact, calling him ‘highway-man’ is probably an understatement.

He was so violent that he wore a necklace of pinky fingers as a trophy and to strike fear in the minds of those who dared to cross him. This is how he got named ‘Anguli-mala’ meaning ‘finger necklace’

What then lead to this massive transformation.. which by the looks of it, should have taken many lifetimes right?

Well, travelling through universes as is his usual routine, the celestial sage ‘Narada’ happened to get caught in his trap one day.

The dreaded dacoit’s rule was simple: You either pay what you have or if you have nothing, you pay with your life.

As great sages often can, the great sage saw an amazing conviction in how this man conducted himself.

“Who do you do all this for?” ‘Narada’ asked.

“Well, my wife and children of course.”

“And will they share all the ‘karma’.. the pain and suffering you are taking over yourself in doing what you do?” enquired the sage.

“Of course they will. They will have to!”

“Oh really? smiled the celestial sage. Might I suggest confirming the same with them just to be sure?”

“Ha! Fat chance! laughed the dacoit. Sending me away so you can run away.”

“You have my word. No matter what the answer, I will not move from this spot. However, if you must take on the sin of killing a sage, it would help to be sure wouldn’t it?”

Confused, ‘Angulimala’ galloped back to his hut to talk to his wife.

Her returned a few hours later, even more confused and seemingly dejected.

“What did they say?” enquired ‘Narada’

“They said that… whatever I am doing is upon me and it is my duty to take care of them. Therefore the blood is on my hands alone!”

Sages are the OGs of Life Coaching by the way.. and sensing an opening the celestial sage ‘Narada’ had the opportunity he was looking for. The opportunity was to direct the conviction and determination of this dreaded highwayman into a positive direction now that he saw a logical reason to do so.

“If they are not going to be a part of your sin then isn’t it about time you atoned for your actions?”

“How?” came the confused, dejected answer.

“There is this story of a prince born in the city of ‘Ayodhya’ that needs to be written by someone with great conviction and determination… it isn’t an ordinary story, it is the story of God himself in a human form. Why don’t you begin by chanting his name until you feel purified enough to undertake the task?”

“What should I chant?”

“Chant ‘Rama’”

“I can only chant ‘Mara’(death)! exclaimed ‘Angulimala’ after trying a few times and failing..”

“Well, then begin by chanting just that. With enough repetitions, one will merge into the other!” the celestial sage smiled.

And so that is what ‘Anguli-mala’ did until he finally could say the right name and ultimately that lead to his enlightenment.

Why this long story?

It is to help you understand that there is great potential for change even in the scariest of souls and described above is the ultimate journey for every soul.

We must all find our way to peace and for some it takes lifetimes.

But we must all try because you never know when a sincere effort to heal your pain results in healing the entire ‘chain of pain’.

Now, having gotten that out of the way, let’s explain in detail how one can make predictions for retrograde planets in astrology:

First of all, retrograde planets are high in ‘chesta-bala’ (effort-strength).

What is that?

It is the life force energy acquired as a result of exertion of movement and effort.

This means that retrograde planets have far more power as a result of their motion compared to other planets in the chart.

But why?

Think of it like this, when you pull the bowstring far back it accumulates a lot of potential energy right?

What does that do?

It makes the arrow fire out at a lethal speed when you let go.

A similar principle applies to retrograde planets at a spiritual level.

The effort associated with the development of that planet is heightened in the native’s life.

In retrograde planetary periods in fact, there is heightened effort as well as increased fruits.

So now when we look at a retrograde planet in the chart, we should start by analyzing it in the following manner:

1. Which house is this planet placed in.
1. The house that a planet sits in is shows us the primary area of development through this retrograde energy.
1. For example, retrograde Mars in the 11th house will show us that the individual will be working very hard in the area of friendships, aspirations, incoming gains and liquid income.
2. However, this is also the area that the individual is likely to face a lot of frustrations and conflicts.
2. Next, look at the star (‘nakshatra’) that the planet is placed in.
1. This tells you about the story associated with the events that take place with respect to that area of the native’s life.
3. For example let’s say a retrograde Mars is placed in the eleventh house in the star of ‘Dhanishtha’(Alpha to Delta Delphi) in the 11th house.
1. This shows that the individual is destined for great wealth through networking.
2. Why networking?
3. Because the 11th house is the house of networking and the mentioned star is the ‘star of wealth’. It is also the star of music and is ruled by the 8 ‘vasus’
1. Wait.. the 8 who?
2. Well, from fire, sky to earth, moon and the wind, they are the gods of the 8 elements.
4. Now, since Mars is retrograde, most probably the story that will play out is that the individual will become wealthy and materially successful as a result of powerful alliances that he or she has to form as a result of primary frustrations at not being able to manifest their desires and aspirations.
4. So the thing to understand is that retrograde planets make you struggle indirectly and that is what leads you to mastering that energy in that area of your life in the fashion that the underlying star is indicating.
5. Next, look at the strength this planet has in the chart.
1. This will tell you how much that planet supports the individual in the struggle to develop it and overcome its challenges.
1. For example, retrograde Saturn, if forming ‘Sasa yoga’ in the 10th house of the chart, will make the individual a formidable force. If let’s say it is in its own house in the 6th house then it makes the individual ‘invincible’ or at least an extremely tough cookie.
2. These are sign based strengths though. You are going to want to look at the strengths based on other factors as well. Such as how easily a planet grants the native the fruits of their labor and how much support it has in terms of ‘shadbala’ etc.
6. Note that even if retrograde planets are debilitated, they are still more powerful than normal because retrograde planets have a heavier impact compared to when they are direct. They are even brighter in the sky than normal, in fact, if you look through a telescope you can see that.
7. If retrograde planets are present in malefic houses then they will actually be protecting the individual from the negative impacts of those houses however, depending on the planet, the individual will likely become strong as a result of going through those experiences from the malefic houses.
8. One more thing is that in my studies I have found that retrograde planets mature faster. It is in fact, a view shared by many leading astrologers across the world.
1. You know how every planet matures at a specific age? If you don’t you are encouraged to chek my recent answers I have discussed this concept in detail in them.
2. See there is an age before which the planet is not exactly powerful enough to give the best results for its placement in the chart.
3. After it matures, even if it is debilitated, it will give you better results with respect to its placement than before.
4. For example Mercury matures at 31. So unless your Mercury is conjunct the nodes, it means that around the age of 31 is when you will truly understand how to leverage your communication skills, business and analytical skills for your best benefit.
5. Before that, you may have been great in those areas as shown by Mercury, however it is only when Mercury matures that you will gain a true understanding of how to utilize it for your best life.
6. Thing with retrograde planets is that they put you through so much ‘karma’ early in life that you become matured wrt those areas of your life faster than others.
7. So a retrograde Mars, if alone, will probably start showing maturation indications around the age of 26 itself rather than 28 when it actually matures.

That’s mostly it. Besides this, you can just read the planetary positions like you would for any other planet.

1. However do keep in mind that please don’t ever go for ‘shanti’ for a planet out of panic and fear. Many priests might tell you do that but it is worse than a quick fix solution it is like cutting off an arm because you have a mysterious pain!
1. Silencing the impact of planet permanently means interfering with the process and not allowing your soul to mature through the experience.
2. I would rather suggest you do 100,000 chants of the ‘mantra’ of that planet to strengthen your bond and connection with its energy.
2. If a retrograde planet is giving you trouble then its because all of the course curriculum for your soul has gotten accumulated over time.
1. This is especially true if lets say that planet is in the 6th or 12th house or associated with the lord of these houses.
2. This shows that there is definite past life patterns attached to their ‘karma’ in this lifetime and you need to ‘clear some accounts’ so to speak.

Hope this helps.