Upon reading through traditional texts on jyotiSha it is observed that there is often an attempt to simplistically explain away a particular configuration as "sinful" or in other such dismissive albeit not inaccurate terms. This feature, although justifiable in the name of brevity, is often misleading, particularly in translations (the ISKCON translation of the bhAgavata purANa is an apt, even if irrelevant, example, which should be evident to anyone who compares it with the original saMskRta version). This may not, of course, imply that the authors contemplated these issues flippantly, but for the sake of our own clarity we ought to endeavour to examine the texts with greater caution, especially by way of etymological reference.

In this regard I would like to point out two authors on jyotiSha who have, although not in modes supremely exemplary but in a way that points us in the better direction, attempted interpretations of planetary combinations by way of explaining the actual psychological mechanism at work which makes occasion for one's peculiar ideas, stirred by which one eventually chooses to commit actions which may either raise him to a higher level of awareness and strength (that is, puNya) or to an inferior state (pApa, or fall).

1. www.barbarapijan.com
2. sacred-astrology.blogspot.com

A further object of this post is to initiate discussion on exposing such features of the traditional texts as appeal to the modern temperament that demands a thorough evidence and explanation for the claims.