Functional benefic and malefic planets for each ascendant

Traditionally, Jupiter and Venus are natural benefics (planets that give good results by nature), along with the waxing Moon and a well-associated Mercury. The Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu are natural malefics (planets that give difficult results by nature), along with the waning Moon and an ill-associated Mercury.

On top of this comes the idea of functional benefics and functional malefics: what a planet actually does for a given lagna, judged from the houses it rules. The chapter of BPHS (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra), the classical reference text, that covers this is titled 'Yoga Karakas', and it deals with the effects arising out of lordships of planets over houses.

P.V.R. Narasimha Rao (PVR), author of the textbook Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, puts the difference in an analogy.

Whether a planet is a natural benefic or malefic is like whether a person is inherently good or bad; whether it is a functional benefic or malefic is like whether that person does good or bad to one. 'Just as a nice person may harm one and a bad person may do good, natural benefics can become functional malefics and natural malefics can become functional benefics.'

The BPHS states the general rules in chapter 34. Benefics owning kendras (angles: the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses) will not give benefic effects, and malefics owning kendras will not remain inauspicious.

The lord of a kona (trine: the 1st, 5th or 9th house) gives auspicious results, and the lagna lord is especially auspicious, because the 1st house is both an angle and a trine. A planet owning the 3rd, 6th or 11th gives 'evil effects', in the translation's words.

The results of the lords of the 12th and 8th depend on their association, and the lordship of the 8th is not evil for the Sun and the Moon.

A planet that rules both a kona and a kendra becomes 'specially a Yog Karak'. Yogakaraka means a planet that produces yoga (an auspicious combination), which B.V. Raman glosses as 'the planet producing success'.

PVR's version is close: lords of trines from the lagna are functional benefics; lords of the 3rd, 6th and 11th are functional malefics; a kendra lord is a functional malefic if it is a natural benefic and functionally neutral if it is a natural malefic; the lords of the 2nd, 8th and 12th are functionally neutral, the 8th being more malefic than the other two. A planet owning a quadrant and a trine becomes a yogakaraka. When a planet owns two signs, PVR says to 'judiciously combine the two indications'.

One exception: PVR's table does not list the Moon for the movable-sign lagnas Aries, Libra and Capricorn, because the Moon's functional nature depends on whether it is waxing (growing brighter) or waning (growing darker). A waxing Moon owning a kendra becomes a functional malefic; a waning Moon owning a kendra is neutral.

Skybond's engine gives Rahu and Ketu, the north and south nodes (two shadow points), no sign of their own, so it never makes them house lords and they have no lordship-based nature of their own. Other texts differ: BPHS ch. 47 gives Rahu Aquarius and Ketu Scorpio as their own signs, and so does PVR's Table 6. BPHS chapter 34 says they give results mainly according to the house lord they join or the house they occupy, and that in a kendra or kona, joined with or aspected by a kona or kendra lord, they become yogakaraka.

The table is PVR's Table 30, which lists functional nature for each lagna in four columns: yogakaraka, functional benefics, functional neutrals and functional malefics. Find your ascendant's row and read across.

One row needs a note.

For Taurus, Venus is the lagna lord and a natural benefic, yet it still appears among the functional malefics. That is because Venus also rules the 6th house for Taurus, and the 6th is one of the difficult houses. Both PVR's table and BPHS chapter 34 list Venus among the malefics for Taurus.

• Aries: B.V. Raman calls Jupiter 'the Yogakaraka'. PVR's table names none, because Jupiter rules the 9th and the 12th, not a kendra.
• Taurus: the Bhavartha Ratnakara, a treatise attributed to Ramanuja, says Saturn is not a yogakaraka, even though it owns the 9th and the 10th. BPHS also calls Mercury 'somewhat inauspicious', where PVR lists it as a functional benefic.
• Libra: BPHS calls Venus, the lagna lord, neutral. PVR lists Venus as a functional benefic.
• Scorpio: BPHS says the Sun and the Moon 'are Yog Karakas', and Raman says they 'produce Rajayoga'. PVR's table names no yogakaraka and lists the Sun as neutral.
• Sagittarius: BPHS says 'only Venus is inauspicious'. PVR's table also lists Saturn, lord of the 2nd and the 3rd, as a functional malefic.
• Aquarius: Raman says 'Venus alone is auspicious'. PVR's table, like BPHS, also counts Saturn, the lagna lord, as a functional benefic.

A text that is silent about a planet, or that names two planets producing a yoga together, is not counted as disagreeing here.

PVR applies the lists to placement: a functional benefic placed in quadrants (which he links to sustenance) and trines (which he links to prosperity) brings good results. A functional malefic in those houses is not good unless very strong. A functional malefic placed in the 3rd house or the dusthanas (the 6th, 8th and 12th, the difficult houses) brings good results 'by spoiling the significations of the bad houses'.

Texts and courses give this topic its own place. BPHS chapter 34 gives the general lordship rules first and then goes lagna by lagna. Raman's Hindu Predictive Astrology has a chapter called 'Key-planets for Each Sign'; Komilla Sutton's course covers 'the positive and the negative planets for each Lagna' in week 14; the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan syllabus lists 'Key planets for each Lagna'.

A caution from B.V. Raman applies to all of it: these descriptions 'are only general in nature and should not be applied hastily'. A planet is read with the rest of the chart.