Education and higher studies in your birth chart

Everything about education astrology

Education astrology can show the best time for you to go for higher education. The examples of Winston Churchill, Steve Jobs and Srinivasa Ramanujan also show three very interesting educational backgrounds.

Bachelor's and master's timing

Let's start with the best time for education. This applies mainly to a master's degree. With a bachelor's degree, we don't have much choice about when we start the learning programme. It's determined by age and is a natural progression.

With a master's degree, we plan it. We sometimes feel, “I need some work experience and then I'll go for higher education,” or, “I want to go straight from a bachelor's to a master's. I have no time to waste.” So when is the best time?

Mercury or Jupiter Antardasha

If you look at the Dasha table, if you are going through the Antardasha of Mercury or Jupiter, there's a very high chance of you entering a learning programme of some kind.

I'd like to share my example. I started my master's a few months prior to the beginning of Jupiter Antardasha. So whilst I was studying, going for my master's, I was under the influence of Jupiter Antardasha.

Time phase two in the Dasha table, if it is of Mercury or Jupiter, is very likely to be a time when you could start a learning programme.

The ninth-house ruler's Antardasha

If neither Mercury nor Jupiter is active, the next best thing is to see whether you are going through the Antardasha of the ninth-house ruler. If that ruler is Sun, Moon, Mars or Venus, there's every chance you could start a learning programme.

Although this time phase is not going to be as promising as Mercury or Jupiter's Antardasha, it is the next route to examine.

Saturn and patience

What if Saturn is linked to the ninth house, the house of higher education? This may happen when Saturn occupies, rules or aspects the ninth house. If you are also about to enter Saturn's Antardasha, there's every chance you'll run into difficulties.

Either you'll appear for an entrance exam and may not get through the university you wanted to get to on the basis of merit, or you might have to delay your enrolment for one reason or another, perhaps a personal issue.

Rahu: opportunity and uncertainty

If Rahu is associated with the ninth house, you are about to enter Rahu's Dasha and you are applying for a learning programme, you could receive the opportunity but later realise, “No, this is not the course I wanted to enrol in.”

Rahu is not going to deny or delay an opportunity to study further. You're likely to make the wrong choice because Rahu clouds our judgement.

Ketu: questioning, detachment and obstacles

If Ketu is involved with the ninth house, the house of higher education, you may challenge the teachings of your teachers. So you might enter the learning programme but might leave in between, thinking you know better. That is a Ketu-related influence.

There could be other factors too. Ketu can also deny you the opportunity. For example, you appear for the entrance exam, you have the necessary merit, you appear for the interview for final selection, and something goes wrong there.

Or you enter the learning programme and a few months later you decide, “No, this is not for me.”

The scale of the Dasha

I must clarify: if you're not about to enter the Dasha of Saturn, Rahu or Ketu, but Saturn, Rahu or Ketu is linked to the ninth house, they may not cause as much trouble. When I say Dasha here, I'm referring to either the Mahadasha or the Antardasha.

You may still be going through the Pratyantardasha of Saturn, Rahu or Ketu in a two-year learning programme, but the troubles these planets cause are going to be manageable.

Trouble in your plans to go for higher education would occur when Saturn, Rahu or Ketu is linked to the ninth house and you're about to enter that planet's Mahadasha or Antardasha. This is very important.

Could you be self-taught?

Could you be a self-taught individual? Yes, you can. I think particularly when Saturn or Ketu is involved with the ninth house, you might prefer to learn based on your own experience.

With Saturn, there'll be a strong sense of feeling, “I need to learn from my practical experience,” and with Ketu you might feel you can actually end up learning better if you do it by yourself. You might challenge the teachings of your teachers.

Research Nakshatras and the eighth-ninth link

A self-taught person can also have a career in research. Can that be seen from your chart? Yes, it can. If you have planets in these five Nakshatras, there's every chance you might build your future in research or go for a PhD: Ardra, Mula, Shatabhisha, Swati and Anuradha.

If you have particularly Mercury or Jupiter in any one of these five Nakshatras, there's every chance you can build a career in research. There's another combination. If the eighth-house ruler is linked to the ninth house, or the other way around, even then there might be a career in the field of research.

The eighth house is all about uncovering the truth. It's the house of discovery, and the ninth house is the house of higher education. If you combine the two, you get a researcher.

Srinivasa Ramanujan's eighth-ninth ruler

One example is a Gemini ascendant. They'll always have the eighth and ninth houses ruled by Saturn.

Srinivasa Ramanujan is a Gemini ascendant. The eighth and ninth houses fall in Capricorn and Aquarius, so Saturn jointly rules them. He was a self-taught mathematician.

Steve Jobs, Saturn and leaving a degree

Let's have a look at the birth chart of Steve Jobs. He has Saturn in the third house. From there, Saturn is aspecting the fifth and ninth houses. Why am I talking about the fifth house? The ninth house is the house of higher education linked to your master's degree, but the fifth house is linked to a bachelor's degree.

He might have faced some delays in his plans to study further. At the age of seventeen, in 1972, he enrolled for his bachelor's, and at the end of that year he decided to drop out of his bachelor's degree.

Why did that happen? If you look at the Dasha table, he was going through Saturn's Antardasha. Saturn is linked to the houses of education, and when you are going through its Dasha, there is going to be some delay. You can see that in his life.

Winston Churchill's entrance exams

Winston Churchill also has Saturn in his chart in the fifth house. When he was nineteen years old and trying to get into a royal military institute for his bachelor's, he entered Saturn's Antardasha.

He appeared for the entrance exam twice during Saturn's chapter and failed both times. But right at the end of 1893, in his third attempt, he managed to get through.

Exams, patience and Jupiter

The lesson here is that it might be a good idea to write your exam under Mercury or Jupiter's Antardasha. If you're writing your exam right at the beginning of Saturn's Antardasha, you might run into difficulties. But if you do have to write the exam, there's no other option. You'll just have to learn to be patient.

Winston Churchill also has an interesting story. He was captured and then escaped from a prison in 1899. Whenever I read stories like that, I associate them with Rahu, and it happened when he was going through Rahu's chapter.

The other interesting thing about Winston Churchill's life is that he became Prime Minister in 1940, right in the middle of Jupiter's Mahadasha. Does it remind you of someone else? Donald Trump first became President when he was about to enter Jupiter's Mahadasha.

The lesson here is that if you're about to enter Jupiter's chapter and you're young, you might run into learning opportunities and even foreign travel. If you are a working professional, you might run into a high-ranking position. These lessons can help you read your chart and plan your life better.