East meets West: Experimenting with some ideas suggested by KP Horary

My longstanding interest in horary astrology has prompted me to experiment with different techniques. The Indian astrologer K.S. Krishnamurti (1902-1978) developed a method of distinguishing between charts of twins, which he extended for use in answering horary questions. In a stroke of genius, Krishnamurti invented a way to map the Vimshottari Dasa division of time onto the ecliptic by dividing each Nakshatra (which has a praticular Vimshottari lord) into 9 parts with their own sublords corresponding to the bukti lords and proportional to the time-subdivisions of the Vimshattari system. He also advocated the use of Placidus house cusps. This system is often referred to as KP (Krishnamurti paddhati) astrology.

The result of Krishnamurti’s theory was the division of the zodiac circle into 249 parts, each associated with a Nakshatra lord (aka Star lord) and a Bukti lord (referred to as a sublord). If I understand Krishnamurti correctly, in his horary work he would ask the querent to think of a number between 1 and 249, which Krishnamurti would use to establish the Ascendant degree for the horary question. He would then construct the chart with the Ascendant chosen by the querent (based on the 249 divisions of the zodiac) and with Placidus house cusps for the location of the question, into which he would insert the planetary positions for the time of the question. In some ways, this is similar to Evangeline Adam’s methods of constructing a horary chart for use in divination.

I wanted to test a variation of this method on known horary charts, for example, those of William Lilly. However. Lilly did not ask his clients to come up with a number between 1 and 249 to establish a horary Ascendant degree. It occurred to me that the time at which the querent posed the question ought to be astrologically significant and could be converted into a number between 1 and 249. Giving the matter some thought, I decided to map the week onto the 249 KP subdivisions of the zodiac by assigning the first subdivision to 00:00 AM on Sunday and the 249th subdivision to the period just before midnight the following Saturday at the end of the week.

Here’s an example from Lilly (CA 286). The question is, “A sick Doctor, what was his Disease? If curable?” Here is Lilly’s chart for the question but with Placidus cusps:

Lilly’s decumbiture chart about a sick doctor, cast on a Thursday at 6:10 PM (18:10) LMT.

To convert the time of the question to a KP subdivision, we can do the following:

Thursday is the 5th day of the week, so by 00:00 Thursday morning 4 x 24 = 96 hours will have elapsed.

The question was asked at 18:10 on Thursday, so we add 96 + 18:10 = 114:10, or 114 hours 10 minutes, which is 114.1666 in decimal form.

There are 168 hours in a week of 7 days (7 x 24 = 168).

114.1666 divided by 168 = 0.68313, which is the fraction of the week that has elapsed since the beginning of the week.

0.68313 x 249 subdivisions = 170.1, so the KP horary Ascendant can be found at 170.1 in the KP table of subdivisions, which is readily available online at several sites.

170.1 corresponds to 3 Sagittarius 45′. Its sign lord is Jupiter, Vimshottari Nakshatra lord is Ketu, and sublord is the Moon. These planets should play an important role in answering the question.

We now cast a chart for the location of the question with Placidus houses and the Asc of 3 Sag 45′:

Sick doctor: KP Ascendant. The planetary positions are advanced a bit from Lilly’s original chart, so we will need to analyze this chart based on the original values for the planets but the Angles and Placidus cusps of this chart.

I will not address the nature of the disease from this chart, since medical astrology is a subspecialty and nowadays I would prefer the diagnosis of a well-trained physician.

The question of whether he is curable or will succumb from this illness is more clear-cut. The first house signifies the sick person. The Asc is ruled by Jupiter, which signifies the sick doctor. Jupiter lies in the 7th in opposition to the Asc, an indication of serious illness. Lilly did not know of the outer planets, but the partile opposition of Neptune to Pluto on the horizon is an ominous sign. Uranus in the 12th house (hospitalization, sorrow) in partile square to the true lunar nodes (“at the bendings”) is another warning. The Sun in the 6th, opposite Uranus in the 12th, and in square to the Moon’s Nodes also suggests serious illness, possibly involving the heart (ruled by the Sun).

The Moon rules the KP 8th cusp, signifying death and rules the KP 6th by exaltation. The Moon (sickness and death) conjoins the south lunar node, lies in square to the Sun in the 6th of illness, suggesting a fatal outcome. In Lilly’s original chart, the Moon at the end of Aquarius will enter Pisces and square Jupiter (the sick doctor) in 12 degrees 20 seconds of arc. The Moon in the KP chart is cadent and in a fixed sign, so the 12 degrees could correspond to weeks or months. Given the state of illness described by Lilly, it is probably weeks: 12 weeks = 84 days; 20 seconds = 1/3 of a week = 2.4 days. So they doctor (Jupiter) is likely to meet his demise (Moon) in about 84 + 2.4 days = 86.2 days, that is the 87th day after the question. Lilly tells us that the doctor died on August 14, which is 88 days after the question and very close to the time of death predicted from the chart.

At least in this example, the conversion of Lilly’s original horary to a KP horary gave accurate results.

PS: An alternative method.

After reflecting on this method for a bit, it occurred to me that one could simply project the week onto the zodiac circle without the intermediacy of the 249 KP subdivisions. In other words:

here are 168 hours in a week of 7 days (7 x 24 = 168).

114.1666 divided by 168 = 0.68313, which is the fraction of the week that has elapsed since the beginning of the week.

0.68313 x 360 degrees = 245.9268, which is equivalent to 245:55:36, or 5 Sag 55′ 36″ as the new horary Ascendant, placing the Neptune-Pluto opposition even closer to the horizon. The MC of this chart would be about 3 Libra 45′.

The KP lords of this new Asc position would be: Sign lord Jupiter, Nakshatra lord Ketu, sublord Rahu.