Indian Astrology
When an individual is born, the universe is lined up in its position to the location and time of that birth. This is the natal chart or rasi chart in indian astrology. The planets are in the placement in each sign as they are in reality out there or up there. There are only 9 planets (navagraha, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, including Rahu/Ketu as well which are the shadow planets or points of eclipse of the Sun and Moon) used due to the light from these planets are seen by the naked eye from earth up to Saturn. Planets further distanced are not visible. Indian astrology is based in the sidereal zodiac but also uses tropical zodiac in situations that apply to the karma of the planet like predicting weather and earthquakes ect but not seeing a human birth. Tropical is based in the seasons which only really further makes logical sense to the previous statement.
The placement of the planets are individual to that birth and there are further smaller amounts of time that are unfolded into charts mathematically to show further details into different areas of that individuals life. Kinda of a smaller more focused sight into the details of that larger natal chart. These charts are smaller amounts of time which change more rapidly, especially when we get into higher levels of the beings birth. In the natal chart the ascendant is the focus of the chart. The ascendent changes every two hours basically. The ascendant is the sign that is rising on the eastern horizon at the time of the birth. A person will be born into a certain degree of that sign that has risen already on that horizon. You can see how this then is just a map of what is said to be the heavens at the time of the birth. When two people are born, the higher charts (the lesser amounts of time) show the difference between these individuals as well as there are many other details in the natal chart that change besides the planets and signs which also give the individual-ness of one persons karma although the main natal charts might look the same.
There are then what are called dashas, which are time cycles, that show the impending karma that the person is experiencing during their life. The main dasha that is used is based on the moon. The moon is manas or as we translate to english, the mind, and it shows the perception of what the person is experiencing during these cycles. This is all the impending karma as said above.
There is then the transiting planets as to what is the heavens alignment at whatever time is seen, like for example what is the transits of the planets at this very moment. This transit with each planet is overlaid on the persons natal chart and is the activation of the karmas that are seen based in then the dasha that is happening in that persons life.
Just for clarity’s sake, this brings into view what is done in the general masses as horoscopes, what is said about mercury retrograde for example. When the people out there (like people making astrological forecast videos on Youtube) creating the monthly horoscopes on the net for the entertainment of individuals, when they make there statements like your forecast for the month of ________, it is based solely on a blank chart with no identification as to your own individual chart. If we all did not have any planets or any chart of our own, these ‘readings’ would be true but the simple fact is that you have your own chart and the planets in your chart are interactive with the transits. Infact, what is in your chart can completely counteract and even be completely opposite to what is said in those readings. What is even more to this is that when reading the transits they are read from a persons moon and then secondarily taken from their ascendant to see confluence in events happening. This further invalidates what is made to be a ‘reading’ of these transits in a general way and alone.
Everyone is looking out of their face thru their own lens, their own filter of everything that is mentioned above and actually much much more that I am not getting into in this superficial explanation. This is what causes the individual being. Simply put into a perspective, if there were only 12 signs and your taking everyone and putting them into these 12 signs, everything would be only in twelve possibility of ways and this is hardly individual or truth.
It all is even more complicated and vast than what I have mentioned. What bring the beauty of life is the individual-ness. Nature is diversity, obviously. We make statements about how no two snowflakes are the same. It is the same in human beings. We may all be generally made up of the same substances and the general make up of what is a human being vs the many yoni that are possible but we are at the very same time completely different in so many many many ways. The knowledge of this diversity allows one to see the play and liberation from many of its pitfalls while the simplification of it brings bondage and affliction.
Just an example of the above, when a Youtube astrologer talks about the mercury retrograde happening (or anything actually), this actually has very little to do with you individually. That transiting mercury in retrogression is going to be happening in some sign, say it is cancer as it just was, and this transit of mercury is based from your moon and then your ascendant as well. Your moon can be in 12 different signs as well as your ascendant can be one of those 12 signs. You can get the variations of this. It also has many other factors such as if your natal mercury is retrograde, the effect is greater or what the dasha is that your are in as the transit is also going to be looked at from that dasha lording planet.
When reading charts, one will also read the chart from the sun being the lagna or first house in the chart (solar chart), as well as the moon (lunar chart) is also read.
You can easily see some of the depth of Indian astrology from this and some of the details that make you and individual as well as how what is out there in the masses is purely mind fodder.
trueayurveda 
Is there any merit in Nadi?
With the way that Indian astrology is today, how everything’s being sold, everyone is writing a book, and everyone is an expert that has a lineage that actually cannot be substantiated, I have not ran across any nadi astrologist that has any merit. What we get is everyone’s interpretation of the ancient texts. And this is not how these texts were written for everyone to have a different interpretation or a different one huge house in a different way, and the myriad of other excuses I have heard over the years. This stuff has everything else takes a real teacher to learn. If you ask me a more precise question I can give you a more precise answer.
If your talking about the palm leaf readers, no, its totally fake. Personal experience.
I could put your question to ayurveda, is there any merit in ayurveda?? My answer would be, “no. Not with how badly Indians are frauds and cheats, and not with how poorly the education or how superficial it is in foreign countries.
There is merit in Ayurveda, thats not the problem.
So what’s the way forward then?
How do you mean?
I mean are there any real teachers of Ayurveda and Jyotish left?
Short answer, no.
Yeah, there is not. lets just keep it easy.
more so, there are no students.
Brilliant!
This is so so very superficial. Just the very tip of the iceberg.
Lol. Im trying to understand sidereal vs tropical zodiac better and it strikes me hust how little sense the latter of the two makes when used on its own as a basis for astronomy and even more so astrology.
This guy is all anti-astrology, which is not surprising as, to quote you, “what is out there in the masses is purely mind fodder.”, but I think his points on the tropical zodiac/western astrology make sense.
“Aside from the validity of the astrological predictions, the entire concept is nonsensical because it does not take into account the precession of the equinoxes and their motion upon the ecliptic which results in shifts in Earth’s axial rotations and the equinoctial points no longer coinciding with the constellations. Some astrologers counter that by saying that their predictions are actually not based on the pattern of stars but rather on the orientation of the Earth to the sun, the tropical zodiac. This begins with the Sun being at the point where the ecliptic and the equator intersect, known as the vernal equinox. In the tropical zodiac, the vernal equinox is defined as the start of Aries, the first moment of spring and, thus, it would not matter much where the constellations are. The zodiac, in this case, is aligned to the seasons and not the stars. But, even then, this sort of tropical astrology determined with reference to the seasons still would not make sense. That is because any signs that you conceive in the Northern Hemisphere would be reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. A Cancer born in the summers of the Northern Hemisphere would be born in the winters of the Southern Hemisphere. And, a Capricorn born in the winters of the Northern Hemisphere would be born in the summers of the Southern Hemisphere.”
Part of this ive heard you mention. The part of needing to invert the signs I have not. Proparbly cause its all bs anyway. I think it does show that in their simplifying of things the whole system falls down, as can be seen in the need to artificially stop it from falling down by inverting the signs. If the seasons were the leading factor in astrology then this rectification would have to be done. Luckily we dont have to bother with it.
Itd be funny if it werent for the fact that this nonsensical stuff devalidates what is actually real and smart as heck.
Jesse, Yes, well there is so much that can be said here but really, it all is the same as Sadhguru telling everyone to drink out of copper cups. Everything ends up coming down to the opinion of people, mainly opinions of people that actually do not know better or have no knowledge of something. Notice it is those people without knowledge that get the most offended. Like that link to that blog you linked there on Astrology being bogus, the guy goes on to say several stupid things, literally, he does not know anything about astrology, he has just read research/articles disproving astrology and he has an opinion. Although the precession missing from western astrology is correct and just one of the many many flaws of Western, the guy behind that link is an idiot as most are.
You can also find all sorts of stuff like that on ayurveda, saying that ayurveda is bogus. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org is one of the ignorant fools that like to publish articles much like the above guy. Take your opinion, then gather evidence of articles and research that support it, then write something completely opinion based but disguise it as knowledge. https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/13-10-09/ is just another. I actually wrote to ESkeptic about this article and explained a whole bunch and asked if I could write a counter. Of course no reply. This is the world today.
Bottomline, it does not matter. None of this matters. In the age we live in there is mainly just ignorance and fake/uneducated teachers or fake gurus are just the same as these people writing articles that don’t know anything.
The only way you will ever know is to study the actual texts yourself.
Who cares about people and their opinions?
“the guy behind that link is an idiot as most are.”
Yes of course, I didn’t mean to say it was anything more than that. It’s just what he wrote on tropical zodiac that I found interesting. Yet besides that.. he doesn’t even mention (or know?) the fact that there is actually people who follow sidereal zodiac.
“Take your opinion, then gather evidence of articles and research that support it, then write something completely opinion based but disguise it as knowledge.”
Lol! I can totally see how that could be the case here.
The sceptic link. One thing that makes it só obvious how utterly stupid it is and how far they go in bending things to their western way of approaching things is that they didn’t even use turmeric. You know, like the plant. No, instead they used a component of it: Curcuminoids. I mean, if that’s your thing… fine. But to then use this to back up your argument that Ayurveda does not work. Lol! Kinda important to know what Ayurveda actually is, how they diagnose and treat and how they use the plants before you can prove anything to be true or not. And who does that?
Yes, you’re right, who cares. There’s 7,7 billion opinions on this planet and their numbers are growing.
“Yes, you’re right, who cares. There is 7,7 billion opinions on this planet and their numbers are growing.”
Unfortunately, ignorance is pretty damn high in that number and it ain’t getting any better.