The Upapada: The "Marriage" Point in your Natal Chart
...What Vedic Astrology says about the Social Standing of Committed Relationships
In Jyotish (Vedic astrology), the Upapada is a key concept for matters related to marriage and spouse. It is an Arudha Pada, or "reflected image," that gives insights into the nature of a (committed) relationship, the quality of married life and the social standing of a person’s marriage.
In more technical terms, it is the Arudha, or “reflected image” of the 12th house in your natal chart.
Arudhas: A Brief Overview
Each house in a Vedic astrology chart has an Arudha–also called a Pada–which reflects how the matters of that house are perceived by others. For example, the Arudha Lagna is the Arudha of the 1st house, which means it speaks to your public image. This may or may not be a fit to your Lagna (i.e., who you truly are), but it is how the world perceives you, for better or worse.
The Upapada, on the other hand, is tied to the 12th house. Among other things this house speaks to the private life led behind closed doors – one that you lead with your spouse or committed partner. Since this is still a reflected image, this point has to do with the perception of your relationship to the outside world. However, it speaks to the quality of the marriage in general as well.
More on that later. Let’s first look briefly at how the Upapada is culculated.
Calculating the Upapada from the 12th House
The Upapada is calculated from the 12th house of the natal chart. The process is as follows:
Identify the 12th house and its lord in the natal chart.
Determine the position of the 12th house lord.
Count the number of houses the 12th house lord is from the 12th house.
Count the same number of houses from the position of the 12th house lord to find the Upapada.
For example, if the 12th house is Aries and its lord Mars is in Leo (the 5th house from the 12th house), the Upapada will be the same number of houses away from Leo, which is Sagittarius.
If you’re using a Jyotish program or software like Deva Guru, the Upapada will be shown by the letters UL in the chart.
The Upapada and Social Standing of “Marriage”*
The Upapada is a key indicator of how your marriage is perceived in society. It provides clues about your spouse's character, background, and the nature of marital life. Here are a few ways the Upapada influences the social standing of a marriage:
Perception of Spouse: The sign, planets, and aspects related to the Upapada reveal the public perception of the spouse. For example, benefic influences on the Upapada generally indicate a positive perception and respect in social circles.
Quality of Married Life: The condition of the Upapada and its lord can show the quality and harmony within the marriage. Malefic influences might suggest challenges, whereas benefic aspects indicate harmony and mutual respect.
Social Respect: A strong and well-placed Upapada often correlates with a marriage that is respected and admired by others. This includes aspects like the family's status, cultural values, and the couple's societal contributions.
Public Image: The Upapada also hints at the public image of the marriage, which can affect how a couple is viewed in their community. For instance, an Upapada in a dignified position suggests a marriage that upholds societal values and garners respect.
*I put marriage in quotations in the heading here because you need to expand this concept according to the culture you live in. The Upapada indicates all committed relationships that have reached a level of social standing.
The way my teacher Freedom Cole describes it, these are the people you would take to a wedding. When people think of you, they often also think of your partner. Therefore, if you come from a culture where it’s common to live with a partner you’re not married to, you would still consider such relationships an Upapada even if it’s not technically a “marriage.”
The 2nd House from Upapada
The 2nd house from the Upapada holds significant importance as it represents the sustenance and support of the marriage. Some marriages are horrible and yet last a life time, others are great for a while, but peter out at some point, while some may be promising or wonderful and yet fade away or break apart. You can get a sense for each by examining the planets in the 2nd house from this point, as well as the aspects to this house.
As an example, let’s take a look at the Upapada of the chart I posted earlier.
In this chart (drawn up at the time I started this post), the Upapada is in the 8th house together with a Mars strong in its sign of Aries. On its own, this combination speaks to a relationship that perhaps has quite a bit of fighting or is competitive in nature. It could also indicate a partner who is in a Mars-like profession, like the police or military.
However, the Upapada’s placement in the 8th house suggests bad decisions or issues with debt, which is additionally afflicted by an aspect from both Rahu and Saturn. This suggests a potentially violent, dishonest partner–possibly a criminal or a thug–who is also cold and withholding. Since all of these aspects are associated with the Upapada itself, these problems in the relationship will be evident to others as well (i.e., not abuse that is taking place away from the eyes of others).
Whoever is born with this chart is going to have a rough time of it with their first partner to say the least. Jupiter in the 2nd house from the Upapada is offering sustenance to this relationship, which may mean they stay in it longer than they should.
Calculating the Next Upapada (8th House from the Original)
So what do you do if you’ve been married more than once or have been in several committed, long-term relationships?
You move to the next Upapada. This is done by moving eight houses from the original Upapada. This Upapada is then interpreted in the same way as the first Upapada.
Let’s take a look at the hypothetical chart chart again.
The original Upapada (UL) is a very difficult one. If we count eight houses, we land in the 3rd house. The sign in the 3rd house is Scorpio, which is also ruled by Mars. This house is receiving an aspect from Jupiter, which is helpful. However, it is also once again lorded by Mars and receiving an aspect from both Saturn and Rahu.
The verdict? This is the same unhealthy pattern where the person has a relationship with an abusive partner who has all the same characteristics of their first spouse.
Let’s move on to the 3rd Upapada. This one is in the 10th house with the Sun, Mercury and Venus – a fantastic combination! This speaks to a partner who is elegant, playful, witty and confident who will also help this person with their social standing or career since it’s in the 10th.
The second house from this Upapada is in Cancer, which is ruled by the moon – another positive indication that this third spouse is a keeper.
Remediation for a Weak or Afflicted Upapada
As is always the case in Jyotish, you can always do remedies to support, boost or heal the karma of an afflicted or otherwise compromised Upapada. Although the approach will vary depending on the natal chart in question, one general rule of thumb for Upapada remediation is to fast on the day ruled by the planet lording the sign it is in.
In other words, if the Upapada is in Leo, fast on Sundays (the day ruled by the Sun), if it’s in Gemini, fast on Wednesdays (the day ruled by Mercury) and so on.
This is because the Upapada is the arudha of the 12th house, which is associated with fasting. This fasting will help bring more harmony into your relationship as well as solve the difficulties of a compromised Upapada.
The only exception to this general guidance is if the Upapada is associated with the natural second house in the natal chart (i.e., it is located in the 2nd house or conjunct the second lord). While the 12th house is the house of fasting, the 2nd house is the house of food and sustenance. This paradox means another remedy would need to be selected in this case.
How could our hypothetical person avoid their second Upapada?
Although fasting or other remedies can be helpful to heal a partnership, they should not be used to try to stay in an unhealthy or abusive relationship.
So what could we do for the chart of the hypothetical person (or the baby born with that chart somewhere in the world 20-odd years from now) to help them avoid repeating the toxic Upapada relationship pattern we can clearly see in their 2nd Upapada as well?
Luckily, Jyotish has an answer to this as well.
If this person were to go to an astrologer after leaving their first abusive relationship only to see that the second partnership has the same dynamic, the astrologer could refer them to a pujari who could perform a ritual that would “break” the second Upapada, therefore allowing them to move on directly to the lucky third. Such a ritual would spare them from having to live out that rough relationship karma twice in a row.
Michelle R. Dean is a Vedic astrologer and writer based in Berlin. To find out more about Michelle or book a Vedic astrology consultation, swing by here.