Planets

Although astrology is not my subject, but when I came across this story, I could not resist myself to share it with you. This story about how the planets got their houses.

In Astrology there are 12 houses or 12 Raashi (Signs) and there are 7 visible planets - the other two planets - Raahu and Ketu (Dragon's Head and Dragon's Tail) are not the actual planets but they are just the points, so they are the Chhaayaa Graha (shadow planets), so they are not counted as proper planets.

All the 7 planets have their houses. How to distribute 12 Houses among 7 planets? It is an interesting story. Sun is the King of the planetary kingdom and Moon is his consort. So both took one house each for themselves, distributed half and half and thus ruled 5 Houses each. The Sun rules over the first 6 Signs including his own - Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn; while Moon rules over the other 6 Signs including her own - Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces and Aquarius - counting being done anti-clockwise. Thus the Sun and the Moon are living in their respective palaces (Houses) - Leo and Cancer respectively and are ruling their respective dominions of 5 Houses each. This royal couple was noted for their generosity, so when other planets heard that this couple had some houses vacant, they thought of a House for themselves also.

(1) Mercury - The first planet to think in this direction was Mercury who is the closest to the Sun. he went to the Sun and asked for a House. The Sun immediately gave him a House next to his own - Virgo (Kanyaa). But he was not satisfied with one House, so he went to the Moon also and asked for one House without telling her that he had already occupied one House. The Moon also gave him one House adjacent to her own House Cancer - Gemini (Mithun). That is how Mercury got two Houses, one near Sun's House Leo and another Moon's House Cancer - Virgo and Gemini - the first one was negative and the second one was positive.

(2) Venus - Now this news reached Venus. He also thought to have a House from the Sun, so he went to the Sun asked for a House. The Sun still had several houses, so he gave him a House next to Mercury's House (Virgo), that is Libra (Tulaa); but Venus was also not satisfied with one House, so he went to the Moon also and asked her a House without telling her that he had already owned a House from Sun. Moon also had several houses, so she also gave him one House next to Mercury's House (Gemini) - the Taurus (Vrishabh).

(3) Mars - Now the news reached Mars, so he also went to Sun and asked for a house. Sun gave him a house to live next to Venus (Libra) - that is the Scorpio (Vrishchik). Seeing the other planets having two houses each, he went to Moon also and asked her for a house. Moon did not know that Mars had already got the house from Sun, so she gave him a House, next to Venus' House (Tauraus), Aries (Mesh).

(4) Jupiter - Now was the turn of Jupiter. He also went to the Sun and asked him for a House. The Sun still had a couple of houses so he gave him one house, adjacent to Mars' House (Scorpio), that is Sagittarius (Dhanu). Jupiter was also not satisfied with one house so he went to Moon also and without telling her that he had already got one House from Sun, asked one House from her. Moon still have a couple of houses, so she gave one House to Jupiter, adjacent to Mars' House Aries (Aries), that is Pisces (Meen).

(5) Saturn - Saturn got his news in the last, so he ran to Sun. He was also lucky to secure two houses from the Sun and the Moon respectively. The Sun gave him the adjacent House of Jupiter (Sagittarius), that is Capricorn (Makar) and the Moon also gave him the adjacent House of  Jupiter (Pisces), that is Aquarius (Kumbh).

Now Raahu and Ketu were demons, so they got the news in the last. They also went to the Sun and the Moon, but since they did not have any House left now, they could not give them any house to live. At this Raahu and Ketu got very angry with them. Since then they are after the royal couple and whenever they get chance (Amaavasyaa - New Moon) and Poornimaa (Full Moon) they swallow them respectively - Raahu swallows Sun on Amaavasyaa and Ketu swallows Moon on Poornimaa.

All house belonging to Sun are negative Houses, and all the Houses belonging to the Moon are positive Houses. When a planet is in Sun's House, its negative aspect is more prominent, and when he is in Moon's House his positive aspect is more prominent.

Is it  not interesting to know this?

Sushma Gupta
www.sushmajee.com