Hora Chart

Maharshi Parasara has defined many divisional charts in his masterpiece Brihat Parasara Hora Sastram of which the Hora chart is one and which he recommends for seeing matters related to wealth.

The computation of the Hora chart has become controversial. According to Parasara,

सूर्यन्द्वोर्विषमे रशौ समे तद्विपरीतकम्‌ । पितरश्रन्द्रहोरेशा देवाः सूर्यस्य कीर्तितः ।
रशेरधँ भवेद्धोरा ताश्चतुर्विँशतिः स्मृताः। मेषादि तासां होराणां परिवृत्तिद्वयं भवेत्‌ ।।

suryendvorvisame rasu same tadviparltakam I pitarascandrahoresa devah suryasya klrtitah I raserardham bhaveddhora tascaturvimsatih smrtah I mesadi tasarh horanam parivrttidvayam bhavet I

Meaning, Lords of Horas are the Sun and the Moon in odd signs and the reverse holds good in even signs. The deities corresponding to the lunar and solar Horas are pitris (ancestral manes) and the gods. Half of a sign is a Hora. There are 24 of those remembered. Starting from Aries, two cycles of Zodiac occur with those 24 Horas.

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Current Interpretations

View 1: Some scholars interpret the Sun and the Moon being the lords of Horas to mean that planets occupy either Cancer or Leo in a Hora chart and no other signs. This is the most popular interpretation.

Drawback: This interpretation ignores the expression “parivritti dwayam”. There are no two cycles starting from Aries here. More fundamentally, a chart that uses only two signs always does not make sense.

View 2; Some scholars interpret the Sun and the Moon being the lords of Horas to refer today’s strong signs (Sun) and night’s strong signs (Moon). For example, the two halves of Aries are mapped to Scorpio and Aries, day and night strong signs (respectively), the two halves of Taurus are mapped to Taurus and Libra, night and day strong signs (respectively), and so on.

Drawback: This interpretation also ignores the expression “parivritti dwayam”. No two cycles start from Aries here.

View 3: Some scholars use other definitions based on other classics, e.g. a definition based on 1st and 11th houses from a sign of 1st and 3rd houses or 1st and 7th houses, etc.

Drawback: This ignores both the Sun-Moon link and the expression “parivritti dwayam”.

View 4: Some scholars give extra weight to the expression “parivritti dwayam” (two cycles). They map the two halves of Aries to Aries and Taurus, two halves of Taurus to Gemini and Cancer, two halves of Gemini to Leo and Virgo, and so on. Thus, we indeed get two cycles starting from Aries when we find the 24 Horas.

Drawback: This interpretation ignores the Sun and the Moon being the lords of the two Horas of a sign. There is no link to the Sun and the Moon here.

Bottom line: There is no interpretation that reconciles both the Sun-Moon link and the expression “parivritti dwyam” (two cycles starting from Aries).

Idea from Krishna Mishra Navamsa

There is a particular way the Navamsa chart is taught by Krishna Mishra. The nine parts of Aries are mapped to Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius as in the standard Navamsa chart. But, the nine parts of Taurus are mapped in reverse order compared to the standard Navamsa chart. Instead of being mapped to Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo, the nine parts of Taurus are mapped to Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces, Aquarius, and Capricorn. A similar reversal happens with the nine parts of each even sign.

Hora Chart: Decoding Parasara

The same idea behind Krishna Mishra’s Navamsa can be extended to the Hora chart. It may be noted that the rulers (Sun and Moon) and deities (devas and pitris) are reversed in even signs. So the Horas can be counted in reverse order for even signs.

The basic idea is this: The 24 Horas, i.e. 24 halves of 12 signs are reckoned as follows: the first half of Aries, the second half of Aries, the second half of Taurus, the first half of Taurus (reversed for Taurus as it is an even sign), the first half of Gemini, the second half of Gemini, the second half of Cancer, the first half of Cancer (reversed for Cancer as it is an even sign), and so on. These 24 Horas are then mapped to 2 cycles of the Zodiac (i.e. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, …, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Aquarius, Pisces).

This does go by Parasara’s guideline of 24 Horas being mapped to “parivritti dwayam” (two cycles) of signs from Aries. This also reckons the Horas (halves of signs) in even signs in reverse order as Parasara has said.

But, how does this fall in line with the Sun-Moon link? One may note that the Sun and the Moon rule over masculine and feminine nature respectively. Odd and even signs represent those two natures. So a Hora being ruled by the Sun could mean Hora falling in an odd sign and a Hora being ruled by the Moon could mean the Hora falling in an even sign.

The first Hora of Aries is Aries, an odd sign (masculine, i.e. Sun). The second Hora of Aries is Ta, an even sign (feminine, i.e. Moon).

The second Hora of Taurus is Gemini, an odd sign (masculine, i.e. Sun). The first Hora of Taurus is Cancer, an even sign (feminine, i.e. Moon). [Note: Order of Horas is reversed as Taurus is an even sign.]

The first Hora of Gemini is Leo, an odd sign (masculine, i.e. Sun). The second Hora of Gemini is Virgo, an even sign (feminine, i.e. Moon).

The second Hora of Cancer is Libra, an odd sign (masculine, i.e. Sun). The first Hora of Cancer is Scorpio, an even sign (feminine, i.e. Moon). [Note: Order of Horas is reversed as Cancer is an even sign.] A^id so on.