Shiva and Shakti in the Zodiac

In Vedic Astrology the zodiac is seen as Kala Purusha, the Embodied Time. But it is not one body. It is a cosmic divide — Shiva and Shakti holding one form between them. Odd signs — Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius — carry Shiva tattva. Even signs — Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces — carry Shakti tattva.

The same division runs through the divisional charts. In Hora (D2), every sign is cut into a solar half and a lunar half. The zodiac breathes in two: the feminine and the masculine.

We see the same division in the Navagrahas. Purusha (male) planets are Sun, Mars and Jupiter. Prakriti (female) planets are Moon and Venus. Mercury and Saturn, on the other hand, have no fixed gender. In odd signs or male company they behave as male; in even signs or female company they behave as female. Their sign preference follows their lordship. And the lunar nodes? Rahu leans towards feminine. Ketu is masculine.

The Law of the Opposite Tattva

And here is one thing that nobody tells you: a planet wakes in the tattva opposite to its own, while it sleeps in its own tattva.

The masculine grahas, Sun, Mars and Jupiter, are alive in Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces, the feminine rashis. The feminine grahas, Moon and Venus are alive in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius – the masculine rashis.

Company does what the sign does. A male planet joined by the Moon or Venus is awake even in a male sign. A male planet in a male sign with no female contact stays inert — it gives poor results, or gives only the results of its even sign.

Venus in an even sign delivers only her odd sign; joined by Sun, Mars or Jupiter she delivers both. The Moon in an even sign cannot function at all until a male planet touches her.

One caution that keeps this honest: tattva decides whether a planet is awake, bhava decides what it can do with being awake. For Aries ascendant, the Sun is alive in Virgo, Scorpio and Pisces too — but those are the 6th, 8th and 12th, so the yoga thins. The Sun is genuinely excellent there in Taurus, Cancer and Capricorn.

Which of the Two Signs Wakes Up?

Here is one rule that changes reading forever: of a planet’s two signs, the one that fires is the one opposite in tattva to the environment it stands in.

Take a person with Leo Ascendant for example. Jupiter in Aries — male planet, male sign — his even sign Pisces speaks, the 8th. Put the Moon or Venus beside him and Sagittarius speaks instead, the 5th. Jupiter in Taurus — female sign — Sagittarius speaks, the 5th, and yoga arises with no help at all. But let a male planet join him there and Pisces takes over, the 8th, and the result turns.

When a male and a female planet sit together, each serves the other: the male planet’s odd sign is activated and the female planet’s even sign is activated. The potential of both Shiva and Shakti becomes available.

When the 6th, 8th and 12th Wake Up

The same rules applies for dusthana lords, the ruler of 6th, 8th or 12th house – they become activated when they stand in the opposite tattva. But unlike in the case of other planets, it’s highly undesireable for them to be activated in this way. A planet owning a dusthana must never sit in the tattva opposite to that dusthana sign, nor keep company with planets of that tattva.

Take Taurus Ascendant for example. Jupiter is 8th lord through Sagittarius, an odd sign. Place him in any even sign, or beside a female planet, and the 8th house is switched on. 

For Aries Ascendant, the 6th house is Virgo, ruled by Mercury. This means that the 6th house will fire when Mercury is in an odd sign or with male planets. Mars, on the other hand, owns both Aries (1) and Scorpio (8) — in even signs or with female planets the ascendant fires; in odd signs with male planets the 8th fires. Jupiter, the ruler of 12th house, owns both Sagittarius (12) and Pisces (9) — in even signs or with female planets the 9th fires.

Awakened Yoga Karaka

A lord of both kendra and kona — angle and trine — is called a Yoga Karaka and known as a success giving planet. But it remains so only on paper until it gets activated by placement in the opposite tattva.

For Leo Ascendant, Mars is the 9th lord through Aries — but he delivers from even signs or from female company. Jupiter owns the 5th and 8th — the 5th, odd, comes forward only when he is in an even sign or with a female planet. Otherwise the 8th is what you are living.

Which Combinations Actually Give Yoga

Sun, Mars and Jupiter combining among themselves do not give full yoga. Male meeting male activates only their even signs. Sun with Mars, Sun with Jupiter or Mars with Jupiter in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Sagittarius or Aquarius raise nothing.

For Leo Ascendant, Mars with Sun activates the 4th and 9th and nothing more. For Cancer Ascendant, Jupiter with Sun or Jupiter with Mars does give Raja Yoga — because there the even sign that gets activated is the 9th (Pisces).

The largest Raja Yogas are male joined to female, carrying kendra or kona lordship. Leo Ascendant with Sun and Venus together. Scorpio Ascendant with Sun and Moon together. This is why Chandra Mangala (Moon + Mars) is a great yoga, and why Guru Chandra (Moon + Jupiter) is a great yoga.

Venus with the Moon in an odd sign is good. In an even sign it is sterile, and in many charts it spoils the marriage. Female planets as yoga karakas in Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn or Pisces stay inauspicious unless Sun, Mars or Jupiter joins, or Venus sits with Ketu, or the sign lord is in an odd sign. Libra Ascendant with Venus in the 10th in Cancer alongside the Moon raises far less than the textbook promises.

In addition to that, female planets owning the 1st, 5th, 9th and 11th outperform male planets in the same houses. Male planets owning the 2nd, 4th and 10th outperform female ones. Male planets owning the 6th, 8th and 12th give sharper trouble; female planets in those lordships give less, because they are not naturally active there.

The Tattva Behind Debilitation

If you read the signs of debilitation as tattva, a clear pattern stands out.

The Sun falls in Libra, a male sign, ruled by Venus, 3rd from his own. The Moon falls in Scorpio, a female sign, ruled by Mars. Mars falls in Cancer, a female sign, 4th from Aries and 9th from Scorpio. Mercury falls in Pisces, a female dual sign, 10th from Gemini and 7th from Virgo. Jupiter falls in Capricorn, a female sign, 2nd from Sagittarius and 11th from Pisces. Venus falls in Virgo, a female sign, 12th from Libra and 5th from Taurus. Saturn falls in Aries, a male sign, 3rd from Aquarius and 4th from Capricorn.

Five of the seven falls land in Shakti tattva. The two that do not — Sun and Saturn — are exactly the pair that exchange exaltation and debilitation with each other.

The Best Sign for Each Planet

Following the logic of Shiva and Shakti tattva, these would be the best signs for the planets to deliver their respective results:

• Sun: Virgo, Scorpio, Taurus
• Moon: Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aries
• Mars: as lord of Aries, in Taurus, Scorpio, Capricorn; as lord of Scorpio, in Sagittarius, Aquarius, Aries, Leo
• Mercury: as lord of Gemini, in Cancer, Virgo, Pisces; as lord of Virgo, in Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini
• Jupiter: as lord of Sagittarius, in Pisces, Taurus, Cancer, Virgo; as lord of Pisces, in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Sagittarius
• Venus: as lord of Taurus, in Gemini, Libra, Aquarius; as lord of Libra, in Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces, Taurus, Cancer
• Saturn: as lord of Aquarius, in Pisces, Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio; as lord of Capricorn, in Aquarius, Gemini, Libra

Understanding the gender of the signs is understanding the dance of Shiva and Shakti. Not two categories, but the polarity by which anything at all becomes fruitful.

The rest follows: why Chandra Mangala is a great yoga, why Guru Mangala works in some signs and not others, why Sun with Venus shows up in one famous chart after another, why an exchange between kendra and kona sometimes gives nothing, and why one native’s debilitated planet ruins him while another’s lifts him. The secret of yogas is incomplete without understanding this foundational concept.