Download Discerning the Differences between Twins with Jyotish It may be

Discerning the Differences between Twins with Jyotish
It may be naïve of me to think that I have originated an entirely new astrological technique, but
frankly, I haven't seen what follows anywhere else. I must confess also that although what I am
presenting here is a method that makes logical sense within the astrological paradigm of Jyotish
(Vedic Astrology), as I currently understand it, it is more or less an experimental idea, so please
take it as such. The only reason I'm bold enough to present it here to my fellow students of
astrology is that, so far, it has produced very good results every time I've tested it.
“I have not ever cast a chart that was wrong that worked better than the one that was right...”
Robert Hand
Twins can represent a real challenge to astrologers since very often very little time elapses between
the two births. It normally happens that the two individuals have, for all practical purposes, the
same chart; unless perhaps you go into degree symbolism (for the Ascendant) or some other rather
obscure and uncommon approach to chart analysis.
Of course here and there there may be exceptions, and perhaps in rare cases a complication in the
birth process may cause an unusually long delay between the first birth and the second, so that the
Ascendant may change signs, and/or some planets end up in different Houses, and/or the Ascendant
and Moon may move an appreciable fraction of a degree closer to or away from an aspect, etc.. Of
course such conventional factors can and should be noted if one is attempting to discern the
differences between twins, but more often than not an astrologer would be hard pressed to account
for the differences between twins on the basis of the changes that occurred in the celestial
configurations between the two birth moments.
Before explaining my simple method let me add that the near identical similarity between the charts
of twins is not, of course, all misleading. There are many recorded instances of twins who have,
despite being separated at birth, lived remarkably similar lives; getting married on the same day to
someone with the same name, and so on. There will be important and fundamental similarities
between twins, and their life-cycles will in most cases be closely synchronized. It's the observable
and often puzzling differences between twins that tend to elude us astrologically...
To the best of my knowledge western astrology (at least your garden variety sort) has only one
House associated with siblings: the 3rd House. Generally an analysis of the 3rd House gives only
very general information about siblings. If an individual has several siblings there is no way of
seeing how their characters may differ and how the natives' relationships with them may differ, as
well they might. Also, and most importantly in the context of our theme, there is no way of telling
between older and younger siblings.
Jyotish, or Vedic Astrology, seems to make it easier to deal with these questions. Although Jyotish
also very generally takes the 3rd House as describing siblings, it more specifically considers the 3rd
House the domain of younger siblings, and even more specifically the next born sibling, whereas
the 11th House is associated with older siblings. My theory rests largely on the idea that the 3rd
House represents the next born sibling. The 1st House (yourself) is the 3rd from the 11th House,
making you your older siblings' “next born sibling”.
Now, Vedic astrology may seem rather naively simple to many western astrologers since it uses
“Whole Houses” (the whole Ascending sign, using the Sidereal Zodiac, constitutes the 1st House,
the whole of the following sign is in the 2nd House, and so on) and generally excludes the modern
outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (not to speak of asteroids and the like!) but this simplicity,
in which you have only one sign in each house and are never in doubt about which planet will act as
house-ruler (since there are no “co-rulers” as in modern western astrology), actually makes it easier
to analyze a house. This ultimately enables you to perform feats of interpretation that would be
more complicated if you had to handle questions about the location of house-cusps and co-rulers of
signs.
If you want to read the tendencies of your next born sibling you simply “rotate the chart” so that
your 3rd House becomes, or rather represents, the 1st House of the next born sibling. Everybody's
natal 4th House is the 2nd House from the 3rd House, and so it will represent the next born siblings
finances, education, family life, face, mouth etc. (some of these are purely Vedic astrology
associations with the 2nd House). Everybody's 5th House will be the 3rd from the 3rd, so this house
will represent your next born sibling's day-to-day communications, courage, changes of residence,
etc..
Likewise everybody's 11th House represents the 1st House of their elder sibling, and your 12th will
be that sibling's 2nd House, and so on.
So, if you are confronted with twins you read the older sibling from the 11th House (taking the 11th
House of the chart they have in common as the 1st House of the older sibling- this is as if you are
analyzing the older sibling from the younger sibling's chart), and conversely you take the 3rd House
as the 1st House of the younger sibling, and read the chart from there.
Let me share with you a few examples of actual cases I've observed:
(the above chart and those that follow are western style presentations of the Jyotish chart for the benefit of
those who can't read the rectangular charts used in Jyotish- note that the Sidereal Zodiac and Whole Houses
are used)
In one memorable instance of twins (both female) who shared for all practical purposes the same
chart, Mercury and Saturn were located in the 11th House, with a stellium of planets in the 9th
House. Now, the 11th House represents the 1st House of the older sibling, and in this case the older
sibling was far more cautious, conservative and reserved (her Saturn in the 1st) than the younger
one. They both worked for the same company when I looked at the chart/s, but the older one,
represented by Mercury and Saturn in the 1st House, was an office-bound admin (Mercury/Saturn)
person in the company, whereas her younger sister was a rep and always out and about, making
more money, meeting more people, and having more fun. The stellium of planets in the 9th of House
(of the shared chart) represents a stellium in the 7th House of the younger sibling (the 9th is the 7th
from the 3rd), and this younger sibling had a new boyfriend every other week, whereas her more
Saturnine older sibling has been with the same guy for ages and was in every respect far more
stable. Note that if we take the 3rd House of the above chart as the 1st of the younger sibling Mars
becomes the 1st Houses ruler and is located in the 7th, further affirming the younger sister's
romantically adventurous (almost reckless!) streak. This may have been the first case of twins I
tried this technique on (after seeing elsewhere how well rotating the chart works with Jyotish). I
didn't study these twins in any great detail, and what I've presented here are just some of my first
impressions of that pair. What was striking to me in this case was how clearly these “rotated charts”
revealed who would be the more cautious and who the more daring and dynamic, and these were
the outstanding differences in their personalities that even a casual observer such as myself was able
to identify easily.
Take a look at the chart below. Here the Ascendant/1st House is Taurus, with Venus, Mars and
Jupiter in Scorpio in the 7th House, Sun is in the 9th, Moon in the 6th, Rahu (the Moon's North Node)
is in the 10th, which inevitably places Ketu (the South Node) in the 4th. I found this quite a striking
case.
The older sibling's 1st House is represented by the 11th House, which here contains the sign Pisces,
which is ruled by Jupiter. We find that, taken from the 11th House, Jupiter is in the 9th House (with
Venus and Mars). This strong emphasis on Jupiter and the 9th fits well with this individual's
pronounced interest in “higher learning”, philosophy, religion and spirituality. This older sibling
also has a deep interest in astrology, which is consistent with both this 9th House emphasis and
Moon in the 8th House (the 6th is the 8th from the 11th). The Sun would be in the 11th House of the
older sibling's chart, and this aptly expresses the far greater importance she places on her social life,
and also the prominent role group activity plays in her life. She has a far wider social circle than her
younger sibling. The older twin has a busy and dynamic career as a partner in an IT company,
involving lots of analysis and strategic planning. The Sun (a significator for 10th House themes in
Jyotish) in the 11th (from the 11th) may also be indicating the fact that the older siblings' career
involves a great deal of group activity and group facilitation.
The younger sibling would be represented by the 3rd House which here contains the sign Cancer.
The Moon thus becomes the “derived” 1st House ruler, and is located in the 4th (from the 3rd). This
younger sibling is far more domesticated than the older one and has four children (both boys and
girls), whereas the older one has none. Note that there are three planets, Venus, Mars and Jupiter, in
the 5th (from the 3rd), which may quite literally represent several children and/or generally an
emphasis on that area of life. Ketu, the Moon's South Node, is in the 2nd House of the younger
sibling, and in this regard it is interesting to note that the younger sibling at one stage suffered from
an eating disorder, which is quite consistent with the Jyotish view of Ketu in the 2nd, since the 2nd is
generally associated with eating, and Ketu with illness, confusion and emotional torment. The
Nodes are often described as insatiable and somewhat deranged in Jyotish. Note that a debilitated
Saturn occupies the 10th House from the younger sibling's perspective, and this seems to describe
well her relative lack of enterprise (or confidence?) in the career realm. The Moon/Saturn
Opposition that exists in both charts is located in Angular Houses (the 4th and 10th respectively)
from the younger sibling's perspective, and she feels quite isolated, despite the fact that she loves
being a mom.
The last chart I'll share with you here belongs to someone who attended a Jyotish course I
presented. She is herself a healer and teacher, and when I mentioned during the course that I had
devised this “method” for discerning the differences between twins with Jyotish she mentioned that
she was a twin, so we made it an impromptu exercise to once again test this theory.
As a brief aside it is interesting to me that she was born with her Ascendant in the very early
degrees of (Sidereal) Aries. The first 13 degrees and 20 minutes of Aries is in Jyotish the location of
the Lunar Mansion (or Nakshatra) known as “Ashvini”.Light on Life (a wonderful introductory
book on Jyotish by Hart de Fouw and Robert Svoboda) gives us the following on Ashvini- “...it's
presiding deity are the Ashvini Kumaras, the heroic, golden-armored, horse-headed twins of
ancient Vedic lore who as physicians to the celestial gods performed many medical miracles”, and,
“when the indicator of a relative in the horoscope occupies Ashvini, it may indicate that he or she is
a twin...”; so, having one's Ascendant in Ashvini, and being a healer, and a twin, is all beautifully
consistent.
The one who was attending my Jyotish course is the younger of the two, and thus represented by the
3rd House, which, as you will see from the chart below, means that she has Jupiter and Ketu in her
1st House. This in itself says a lot since she is by far more interested in metaphysics and healing
than her sister (note that Jyotish associates Ketu with mystical experiences and ancient and spiritual
healing methods). Gemini is in the 1st House of the younger sibling, and Mercury, the “derived 1st
House ruler” is in the 9th (from the 3rd), which describes her as a keen student and potentially also a
teacher, which she is. Typical of Gemini she explores many techniques and ideas, often attending
diverse workshops and courses. She is, however, a highly qualified and experienced Kinesiologist.
I noticed that Mars in the 12th House of the chart shared with her sister would represent Mars in the
2nd House for her older sibling, and on this basis, during our impromptu exploration of this
technique in the astrology class, I asked her whether her sister has a scar on her face, since this is
one possible meaning of Mars in the 2nd House. She said no, but declared that her sister does
however have a large red birthmark on her face!
Moments like these have nurtured my faith in this simple methodology, which after all is nothing
but a special application of totally commonplace Jyotish principles to the relatively rare but
perplexing astrological challenge of discerning the differences between twins.
p.s.- Please note that I have on the whole stuck strictly to the rules of Jyotish for the purposes discussed in this article,
and I am not suggesting to western astrologers that they should apply these same rules to conventional western charts
using the Tropical Zodiac and western house systems.