The Navāṃśa Chart: Key to Understanding your Skills, Talents, Relationships and Sexuality
In Jyotish (Vedic astrology) a divisional chart, also known as "varga" or "aṃśa," is a tool used to provide a more detailed and nuanced analysis of various aspects of an individual's life. While the main birth chart or Rāśi (pronounced Rah-she) chart focuses on the twelve signs of the zodiac and their placements, divisional charts divide each sign into smaller segments, offering a more specialized examination of specific life areas.
There are sixteen main divisional charts, each associated with different aspects of life. The most commonly used is the Navāṃśa (pronounced Nuh-vuhm-sha), or D9 chart, which divides each sign into nine parts.
This post will explore the insight this very useful chart offers.
Skills and talents
One of the main things the Navāṃśa shows us is our skills and talents – in fact, sometimes this chart is referred to as the “skills chart.” Like the natal chart itself, it is also made up of 12 houses.
This skills analysis is divided into three parts:
The first house of the Navāṃśa: The planets and/or sign lord here show your in-born talents and skills. This is what you are naturally skilled in without anyone ever teaching you. These are skills you’ve carried with you from a previous life.
The fifth house of the Navāṃśa: The planets and/or sign lord here show skills and talents that will develop over time.
The 9th house of the Navāṃśa: The planets and/or sign lord here show skills and talents that can develop with the help of a teacher.
To use myself as an example, I have the first house of the Navāṃśa in Gemini and the moon in this house. One of the main skills the moon represents is singing. I sang from an early age, got a role in the school musical in the 4th grade and sang many solos in choir throughout junior high and high school. I started studying classical singing at 16, but this skill was already there prior to this point. Gemini is ruled by Mercury, which can indicate writing, another love I’ve had since I was a kid.
In the fifth house, I have Jupiter and Ketu in Libra. Jupiter indicates skills in broad knowledge as well as languages and Ketu is astrology, intuition and computers (also math, which is admittedly not really my thing). I love learning languages and am a true grammar nerd, I always win at Trivial Pursuit and I’ve been studying astrology for nearly 20 years. Although I don’t know a ton about computer science, the coding I have learned came easily to me and I’m the go-to person for my husband and several friends whenever they’re having computer and programming issues. Venus-ruled Libra brings in some creative flair.
The combination of Jupiter-Ketu also signifies traditional lineage learning, and that is exactly what has ultimately been most attractive to me both in my music studies and astrology.
I don’t have any planets in the 9th house, but Saturn is the lord of this house, which is in Saturn-ruled Aquarius. This further emphasis traditional disciplines, which fits. I studied classical music and a voice technique that can be traced back to a single teacher in the 17th century. The Jyotish lineage I am a part of can be traced back to a 16th century poet seer. I short, I seek out teachers of knowledge that is at least a couple of centuries old. New age philosophies are not really my things, which can clearly be seen in my chart in multiple ways.
Partners and sexuality
As if skills and abilities weren’t enough, the Navāṃśa also shows details about your partner(s) as well as your sexuality.
This analysis is also divided into three parts:
The 7th house: This house is an interesting mix of the character traits of your first “spouse” (i.e., serious, committed partnership) as well as your sexuality. For example, if you have Saturn in this house, it could mean that your first partner was a more serious, reserved person (also perhaps negative and overly pessimistic is Saturn is in a more difficult sign). In terms of your sexuality, it would mean you are someone who tends to have a lower libido and/or needs more time to warm up sexually. On the hand, if someone had Venus and Moon in the 7th, it could indicate an arty first partner who loves poetry and dancing. For your sexuality, this combination would indicate both a high libido and a need for romance.
The 11th house: This house describes the skills and abilities of your first partner as well as additional aspects of your sexuality. For example, if Rahu (the North Node) were here, it could indicate a first partner who is skilled in research or foreign cultures (or fraud and crime if Rahu is placed in a problematic sign). In terms of personal sexuality, Rahu here can indicate a person who enjoys using sex toys.
The 3rd house: This house further describes your sexuality as well as what arouses your first spouse. For example, if you have Mercury here, it could mean that being playful or talking is an important part of your sexuality, and this is exactly something your (first) spouse likes about you too.
So, what if I’ve had more than one significant partner?
Unless you married your high school sweetheart or come from a culture where having only one partner for life is the norm, this is of course a likely scenario.
In that case, just count eight houses clockwise from the 7th house of the chart. This will bring you to the 2nd house, which indicates both what caused this first relationship to break as well as the nature of your next spouse. If that relationship break apart as well, count eight houses again and then eight again for the next relationship, and so forth.
Two important points: You should really only consider serious, committed relationships (e.g., marriages, living with someone, etc.). If there is someone you were very much in love with, but the relationship was still more of a love affair, you would look elsewhere in the chart to gain insight.
The information seen in the D9 about your sexuality stays constant (houses 7-11-3) regardless of the number of partners.
What else you can see in the D9 Navāṃśa chart
Although skills, partners and sexuality are the main insights you find in the D9, there are a few more interesting details to gather there as well.
Here’s a quick summary:
2nd house: Money
4th house: Luck with health
6th house: Money from work
8th house: Health issues
10th house: Luck with money (i.e., is it easy or difficult to come by?)
12th house: Luck with hospitals, doctors or retreats
Why the D9 is ideal for rectifying birth times
Let’s face it: doctors and nurses are very unlikely to be astrologers.
The time listed on a person’s birth certificate is therefore not likely to be 100% correct. It might be something that was noted down, for example, after you were bathed and swaddled, not at the actual moment of birth (i.e., the moment your “birth chart” was really formed). Often, the times listed on the birth certificate have been rounded up or down. Whenever I have a client who was born at, say, 9:00 or 7:45 I’m particularly suspicious.
Unless you were born at a time when the sign on the Eastern horizon was close to changing, an imprecise birth time isn’t really all that important when it comes to your main natal chart. However, divisional charts like the D9 need to be more precisely timed.
Because of the details it offers, the D9 is therefore ideal for recitifying birth times.
For example, according to the time listed on my daughter’s birth certificate, she has Saturn in the 1st house of the Navāṃśa. This would indicate someone who has extreme stage fright and doesn’t really like being the center of attention. However, my daughter is a natural leader who plays a stringed instrument (violin) and has a great sense of rhythm. All of these are typical Sun skills. This makes it clear that she must have been born about five minutes earlier, which puts the Sun in the 1st house instead of Saturn.
Other aspects can also help.
Say someone has Saturn and Mars in the 3rd house and a strong Jupiter and Venus in the 4th according to their birth certificate. Jupiter and Venus would indicate very good luck with health, but this person has had one health crisis after another. In that case, it is more likely that the time needs to be adjusted to put Saturn and Mars in the 4th, which would show difficulties with health. Similar questions can be asked about sexuality, partners, money earning, etc. to gain a more precise birth time.
A more precise birth time is also important for understanding and using additional divisional charts (the higher the varga chart number, the more accurate the time needs to be). More on that later, so stay tuned!
So much interesting and grounding or confirming information can be gained from this chart. Naming is the first step in defining skills - i like the idea that this chart opens that discussion.