How to visualize planetary positions

Introduction

There are two ways in which you can visualise the sign, Nakshatra and Navamsha: as a neighbourhood, residence and preferred room, or as an organisation, department and exact role.

Hear Saturn's full position

If you have a look at this chart, Saturn is in the tenth house, it's ruling the fourth and fifth houses, it's in the sign of Cancer, it's in the Nakshatra Ashlesha, in the Navamsha it's in the sign of Capricorn, and in the Dashamsha it's in the sign of Libra.

When I say all of this together, it sounds very overwhelming. How to simplify it is the purpose behind this visualisation method.

Houses as parts of life

Imagine the houses to be aspects of life: the 1st house to do with your personality, the 4th house is your personal life, the house opposite to the 4th is your public life, the career, and the 7th house is opposite to you, your life partner.

I'm giving you a rough idea of the meaning of a few houses. So let's start by looking at the houses involved.

Visualize Saturn's duty

Saturn is in the tenth house. It further is ruling the fourth and fifth houses. If you don't know the signs and their rulers, identify the signs occupying these houses and their rulers. Let's cover the houses involved and visualise it in this manner.

Saturn is the ruler of the fourth and fifth houses and is executing, performing its duty in the tenth house. What does it actually mean? It might mean that the person is sacrificing one's personal life, home life, for the sake of one's career. When Saturn is in the tenth, the person is going to take one's career very seriously.

The fifth house relates to time spent in leisure activities. Again, the individual is compromising that for the sake of one's career. This is how you can visualise the houses.

The neighbourhood and room analogy

Let's have a look at the signs, Nakshatra and the signs in the divisional charts. How do you visualise that? Imagine the sign to be a neighbourhood where you have your house, and within that house you also have a preferred room.

The sign is the neighbourhood, the Nakshatra is your place of residence, whether it's a flat or a house, and the sign in the Navamsha is your preferred room.

Cancer, Ashlesha and Capricorn

Here what do we see? Saturn is occupying the neighbourhood belonging to Cancer, the sign of Cancer. Immediately we can draw some conclusions there. When Saturn and Cancer come together, the person can be like a caretaker of some kind, or a public servant of some kind.

The house you live in is much more important than the neighbourhood. The house, the flat, is the Nakshatra of Ashlesha. This is also helping you understand the peripheral role the sign placement is playing in determining the role the planet is playing in the chart. The Nakshatra placement is more important.

We've identified so far that the person can be a bit of a caretaker. With Ashlesha as the Nakshatra, the person might be involved in building a long-term strategy to prevent something bad from happening. Then in the Navamsha chart we find Saturn in the sign of Capricorn.

Within that house, the main room occupied by Saturn is the room belonging to Capricorn. The individual would have to be super organised. Earlier I've already mentioned the person is going to take one's career very seriously. This supports that.

The organisation analogy

You can also visualise it in a different manner. Imagine the sign to be an organisation, a company you're working for. The department that has been assigned to you is the Nakshatra. The exact specific role you are playing is the sign in the divisional charts.

With this analogy you could say Cancer is the organisation Saturn is working for. The Nakshatra is the department and that's Ashlesha. Capricorn, the sign in the Navamsha, is the specific role Saturn is playing.

You can visualise a planet's position as you like. I'm hoping this will make the process of reading your chart or reading a planet's position a bit more fun. I've tried this method and I feel that I am a bit more engaged with the chart when I follow this visualization technique.

Check both owners

There's another step you can follow. If you are living in the neighbourhood, you would also like to know if the neighbours are friendly, or if the owner of the neighbourhood, the one responsible for the neighbourhood, is friendly or not. This is where you check the sign ruler.

Cancer is ruled by the Moon, so you try to see the relationship the planet placed there and the Moon are having. Saturn and the Moon have a neutral relationship. If the neighbourhood owner is unfriendly, then you can say the planet is uncomfortable.

Similarly, the house ruler is most important in the residence analogy. Saturn is ruling the 4th and the 5th house. For this person it's performing its duty in the 10th. You could say Saturn is renting the 10th house. And the owner of the Nakshatra, the residence, is Mercury. Here Mercury is Ashlesha's ruler, not the 10th-house lord.

Saturn and Mercury also have a neutral relationship. If, for example, the ruler of the house, the Nakshatra, was the Sun, given the adverse relationship Saturn and the Sun share, this would have made Saturn's job or living conditions a bit more uncomfortable.

What I'm trying to say is to also go beyond the sign and Nakshatra. Also look at the Nakshatra and sign rulers. This will help you look at a planet's position more specifically.

Read Saturn's environment

The sign ruler is the Moon and the Moon is in the 3rd house in the Nakshatra of Purva Ashadha. The Moon's position is associated with motivational communicators. We also find the Moon and Jupiter in conjunction, with both planets in Purva Ashadha.

The individual can have big ideas and may make speeches without thinking things through. So this is the environment in which Saturn is finding itself. The Nakshatra ruler is Mercury and Mercury is in the 7th house in the Nakshatra of Ashwini.

Altogether I see that Saturn is given the task of having some form of long-term strategy to cover up for the big claims the Moon and Jupiter have made in the third house, and to also cope with ever-changing public relations with Mercury in the seventh house in Ashwini.

Read Mars and Venus carefully

I want to highlight another planetary position in this person's chart, and that's Mars. Both Mars and Venus actually are falling in the same Nakshatra of Bharani. This position together is an indication that the individual can romanticise violence.

The Nakshatra of Bharani has a lot to do with setting things right, even by force, particularly when Mars is involved. The individual can even start to love the idea of forcing justice somehow.

The individual can even have perverse tendencies. The individual can even become a sadist of some kind.

Count five Ugra placements

If you analyse this chart based on the Nakshatras, you'll notice five planets occupy Nakshatras belonging to the nature of Ugra: fierce, even violent.

We have earlier seen the individual can be some form of protector of society, could be a long-term planner, could take one's work so seriously the work can consume the person, and could also be a motivational speaker who'd make big claims. But we also see this romanticising of violence.

Return to the method

If you put all of this together, I hope you can see signs that this chart belonged to Adolf Hitler.

The other thing I see here in his chart is that Rahu is in the ninth house in the Nakshatra of Punarvasu. The individual can delude himself into thinking, “I am a great protector of some kind.” With the Moon and Jupiter in the third house alongside Ketu, the individual could end up saying things and may have this inherent belief that anything is possible, a fist-in-the-air kind of attitude.

My purpose behind sharing his example was to explain how you can visualise planetary positions, and I have shared two methods. Then go beyond the sign and Nakshatra to their rulers. I hope you find it useful.