How to read the planet table in a Vedic chart

Positions in a Vedic chart are measured in degrees from the start of the zodiac, running from 0 degrees to 359 degrees, 59 minutes and 59 seconds, as seen from the earth. This position is also called a longitude, or sphuta in Sanskrit.

Each sign covers 30°: Aries runs from 0° to 30°, Taurus from 30° to 60°, and so on around to Pisces at 330° to 360°. So a planet at 221°37' sits in Scorpio, which spans 210° to 240°, and it is 11°37' into the sign.

P.V.R. Narasimha Rao (PVR), author of Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, notes that the same position can be written three ways: as 11°37' in Sc, in the short form '11 Sc 37', or as '7s 11°37'', meaning seven signs completed and then 11°37' into the eighth sign. All three mean the same place in the zodiac.

Watch out for decimal degrees. One degree has 60 minutes ('), and one minute has 60 seconds.

A decimal such as 17.50° means 17° 30', because 0.50 × 60 = 30 minutes, not 17° 50'.

The Lord column names the planet that rules the sign the planet sits in. Mars rules Aries and Scorpio; Venus rules Taurus and Libra; Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo; the Moon rules Cancer; the Sun rules Leo; Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces; Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius.

The House column counts signs from the lagna. Skybond uses whole-sign houses: the sign containing the lagna is the 1st house, and every following sign is the next house, so a planet's house is its sign counted from the lagna's sign.

The Dignity column shows how a planet sits in its sign, using these labels: exalted, debilitated, own sign, moolatrikona (a special 'root' sign assigned to each planet), friend's sign, enemy's sign and neutral sign. Traditionally a planet is strong in its own sign, its exaltation sign or its moolatrikona.

Skybond's transit chart pages use the same layout: columns for Planet, Sign, Lord of the sign, Degree within the sign as a decimal, House and Dignity, listed in the order Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. Rahu and Ketu are the north and south nodes, two shadow points rather than visible bodies, and a mark flags any retrograde planet.

Dignity values shown on the transit pages are own, moolatrikona, exalted, debilitated, friend, enemy and neutral.

The Venus row reads: Venus | Pisces | lord Jupiter | 11° | house 9 | exalted. Spoken aloud: 'Venus is 11° into Pisces, a sign ruled by Jupiter, in the 9th house from the lagna, in its sign of exaltation.' Every column maps to one phrase of that sentence.

The sample chart is Skybond's teaching chart, not a real person's. Its lagna is Cancer, about 12°, in the Pushya nakshatra.

That lagna is why Venus in Pisces, the 9th sign counting Cancer as the 1st, lands in the 9th house, and why the Sun in Capricorn, the 7th sign, lands in the 7th.

The dignity labels in the sample come from natural relationships, using PVR's Table 7. The Moon in Leo sits in a friend's sign, since Leo belongs to the Sun, the Moon's friend.

The Sun in Capricorn, Mars in Gemini and Jupiter in Virgo sit in enemy's signs, while Mercury in Aquarius sits in a neutral sign. Rahu and Ketu get no friend or enemy label; Skybond's engine marks Rahu in Scorpio and Ketu in Taurus as debilitated, and other texts differ on the nodes' dignities.

One more pattern to notice: Rahu and Ketu are always exactly opposite each other, six signs apart. In the sample they sit at 25° Scorpio and 25° Taurus, so you can use one to check the other.

A nakshatra is one of 27 lunar mansions, smaller divisions of the zodiac used alongside the signs. Each nakshatra is 13°20' long and is divided into four padas (quarters) of 3°20' each.

The first nakshatra, Ashvini, runs from 0° to 13°20' in Aries. A nakshatra column tells you which of these finer divisions a planet occupies.

Retrograde, called vakra in Sanskrit, means a planet appears to stop, move backwards through the signs and then resume its course. Planets other than the Sun and Moon do this at times, while Rahu and Ketu always move backwards.

Tables usually mark a retrograde planet with an 'R', as in 'Mars (R)' in the sample.

Combustion, called astangata, describes a planet in close conjunction with the Sun. B.V. Raman, in Hindu Predictive Astrology, writes that planets in such conjunction 'get combustion and become utterly powerless'.

Tables may note a combust planet, though the sources here give no specific degree ranges for it.

For each planet, Skybond's chart records its sign, house, degree, nakshatra and pada, dignity, whether it is retrograde or combust, which planets share its house, which houses it rules for the lagna, and its shadbala (sixfold strength) score.

Skybond's chart shows this planet table for your own chart after sign-up, and the free calculator gives your ascendant (lagna) and moon sign without an account.