Planetary aspects (Drishti)

Drishti means "sight". A graha aspects — looks at — certain houses away from itself, and affects them almost as if it were placed there.

This is where Jyotish diverges sharply from Western astrology, and mixing the two systems produces nonsense.

The rule everyone shares

Every graha aspects the 7th house from itself, fully. Count the graha's own sign as 1 and move forward seven signs.

A graha in the 1st aspects the 7th. A graha in the 4th aspects the 10th. Because 7 is exactly halfway round twelve, the 7th aspect is always mutual: if A aspects B by the 7th, B aspects A by the 7th too.

The three with special aspects

Every other graha has only the 7th. Rahu and Ketu are treated differently by different authorities — many modern astrologers give them 5, 7 and 9 like Jupiter, but this is not universal and older texts are quieter about it. Flag it as contested rather than learning one version as fact.

There is one genuinely useful pattern here, though it is not an arithmetic one. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are exactly the three superior planets among the classical seven — the ones whose orbits lie outside Earth's. Mercury and Venus are inferior planets, never far from the Sun; the Sun and Moon are the luminaries. So the special aspects belong precisely to the three grahas that can stand opposite the Sun in the night sky.

Whether the tradition reasoned from that or arrived at it another way, it makes the list far easier to remember than three unrelated pairs of numbers. The numbers themselves — Mars 4 and 8, Jupiter 5 and 9, Saturn 3 and 10 — are not symmetrical around the 7th and simply have to be learned.

Forward only, and by house not degree

Two differences from Western practice that trip people constantly:

1. Aspects count forward only. A graha in the 1st aspects the 7th. A graha in the 7th also aspects the 1st — but only because 7 forward from the 7th wraps round to the 1st, not because aspects work backwards. Saturn in the 1st aspects the 3rd, 7th and 10th. It does not aspect the 10th-from-the-other-direction.

2. Aspects are by whole house, not by degree. There is no 4° orb. If Saturn is anywhere in the 1st house, it aspects the whole of the 3rd, 7th and 10th. Some astrologers additionally weight aspects by degree closeness, and graha drishti in the strict Parashari sense has partial strengths at intermediate houses — but the working rule taught here is whole-house.

There is also rashi drishti, a separate sign-to-sign aspect scheme used mainly in Jaimini astrology. Do not mix it with the graha drishti above until you have one of them solid.

What an aspect actually does

An aspect carries the aspecting graha's nature into the aspected house. Jupiter aspecting the 7th is read as a protective, expansive influence on partnership. Saturn aspecting the 7th is read as delay, seriousness, or an older partner.

Two cautions. A benefic aspect is no assurance of a good outcome, and a malefic aspect does not condemn a house — Saturn on the 10th is difficult and is one of the most common signatures of a long, substantial career. And an aspect is weaker than occupation: a graha in a house speaks louder than one merely looking at it.