Lesson S01-M02-L05: Planetary Relationships and the Ratio of Effects

Course / Module 2 — Planetary Characters and Description / Chapter 3, Part 5 — Planetary Characters and Description / Lesson S01-M02-L05: Planetary Relationships and the Ratio of Effects — Lesson

S01-M02-L05 · Chapter 3, Part 5 — Planetary Characters and Description

📖 Lesson → 📝 Workbook → 📊 Application → ✅ Quiz

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1. Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson I should be able to:

• Calculate a planet's natural (Naisargika) relationship to another planet, using the Mooltrikona house-counting rule.
• Calculate a planet's temporary (Tātkālika) relationship to another planet, using its actual chart position.
• Combine natural and temporary relationships into the five-fold compound relationship (great friend / friend / neutral / enemy / great enemy).
• Apply the Ratio of Effects table, combining today's relationship result with Lesson 4's dignity into a single percentage-based strength estimate.

2. How Today's Lesson Fits Into Complete Chart Analysis

Why this lesson matters: dignity (L4) tells you how strong a planet is in isolation. Relationship tells you how a planet behaves toward another specific planet — which sign lord it sits with, whose aspect it receives, whose dasha it runs. Today's Ratio of Effects table (v.59–60) is the first place in BPHS where these two independent factors (dignity + relationship) are combined into one number — a genuine synthesis step, not just two separate facts sitting side by side.

Where these principles get used later, specifically:

Later step	How today's premise feeds it
House Lords, Aspects (Semester 2)	Whether a house lord's placement is "good" or "bad" often depends on its relationship to the sign it occupies.
Yogas (Ch. 36–44)	Many yoga definitions require planets to be in specific mutual relationships (e.g., mutual friends, or a benefic aspecting a friend's sign).
Strength / Shadbala (Ch. 29)	Today's Ratio of Effects is a direct ancestor of Shadbala's more elaborate strength-scoring system.
Dasha interpretation (Ch. 48+)	A Dasha lord's results are colored by its relationship to the planets it's connected with.
Chart Clinic	Today extends Stage 1 from "how strong is this planet" (L4) to "how does this planet get along with that one" — a second, independent lens on the same chart.

3. Assigned BPHS Reading

• Source: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Volume 1 (Girish Chand Sharma translation, Sagar Publications)
• Volume: 1 · Chapter: 3 · Verse range: 55–60 · Printed page: within Ch. 3's 12–49 range

4. While Reading, Focus On...

• Before you read, watch for: three different relationship systems appear in quick succession (natural, temporary, compound) — keep them separate. A planet can be a natural friend but a temporary enemy, and the compound system exists precisely to reconcile that.
• Important terms: naisargika maitrī (natural friendship), tātkālika maitrī (temporary friendship), pañcadhā sambandha (five-fold relationship).
• Passages likely to be difficult: the Notes' worked example (Sun's temporary relationships from a sample chart) is genuinely useful — work through it by hand rather than skimming it.
• Key questions to hold: why does BPHS need two separate relationship systems (natural and temporary) instead of just one? What does the "5-fold" system actually solve that either system alone couldn't?
• How this connects to earlier lessons: L4 gave dignity (a planet's strength alone); today gives relationship (a planet's strength relative to another) — the Ratio of Effects table at the end genuinely combines both.

5. Guided Lesson Notes

5.1 Natural (Naisargika) Relationship (v.55)

Explicitly stated in BPHS, v.55: from a planet's Mooltrikona sign, count houses. The lords of the 4th, 2nd, 12th, 5th, 9th, and 8th houses (from the Mooltrikona sign) are that planet's natural friends. The lords of the remaining houses (3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th) are its natural enemies. A planet that qualifies as both friend and enemy by different counts (i.e., friendly by one sign it rules, enemy by another sign it rules) is neutral.

Translator commentary works this out fully into a results table:

Planet	Natural friends	Natural enemies	Natural neutrals
Sun	Moon, Mars, Jupiter	Venus, Saturn	Mercury
Moon	Sun, Mercury	(none)	Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn
Mars	Sun, Moon, Jupiter	Mercury	Venus, Saturn
Mercury	Sun, Venus	Moon	Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
Jupiter	Sun, Moon, Mars	Mercury, Venus	Saturn
Venus	Mercury, Saturn	Moon, Sun	Mars, Jupiter
Saturn	Mercury, Venus	Sun, Moon, Mars	Jupiter
Rahu	Jupiter, Venus, Saturn	Sun, Moon, Mars	Mercury
Ketu	Mars, Venus, Saturn	Sun, Moon	Mercury, Jupiter

(The Rahu/Ketu row is itself translator commentary/extension — the base verse's house-counting rule is defined for the seven classical planets via their Mooltrikona signs; the translator notes real differences of opinion exist about Rahu/Ketu's relationships specifically.)

Check the table carefully before moving on, because it holds a genuine subtlety: the Moon lists Mercury as a friend, but Mercury lists the Moon as an enemy. This is not a printing error — each planet's relationship is calculated independently from its own Mooltrikona sign, so "A is B's friend" does not guarantee "B is A's friend." Worth flagging as a common mistake to avoid: never assume relationships are symmetric without checking both directions.

5.2 Temporary (Tātkālika) Relationship (v.56)

Explicitly stated in BPHS, v.56: from a planet's actual position in a specific chart, any other planet in the 10th, 4th, 11th, 3rd, 2nd, or 12th house from it is a temporary friend; any planet in the remaining houses (1st [same sign], 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th) is a temporary enemy.

This is entirely chart-specific — unlike natural relationship (fixed for all charts), temporary relationship changes chart to chart, because it depends on where the planets actually are.

5.3 Compound (Five-Fold) Relationship (v.57–58)

Explicitly stated in BPHS: combine the natural and temporary results for a given planet-pair:

Natural	+ Temporary	= Compound Result
Friend	Friend	Great friend (Adhimitra)
Friend	Neutral	Friend
Neutral	Friend	Friend
Neutral	Enemy	Enemy
Enemy	Neutral	Enemy
Enemy	Enemy	Great enemy (Adhishatru)
Friend	Enemy	Neutral
Enemy	Friend	Neutral

This five-fold result (great friend / friend / neutral / enemy / great enemy) is what actually feeds into most later dignity-and-strength judgments — not the natural or temporary relationship alone.

5.4 Ratio of Effects — the Synthesis Table (v.59–60)

Explicitly stated in BPHS, this is where Lesson 4 (dignity) and today's relationship system combine into one score:

Auspicious (benefic) effect, by dignity/relationship state:

Exaltation	Mooltrikona	Own sign	Friendly sign	Neutral sign	Enemy/Debilitated
100%	75%	50%	25%	12.5%	0%

Inauspicious (malefic) effect — exactly reversed:

Exaltation	Mooltrikona	Own sign	Friendly sign	Neutral sign	Enemy/Debilitated
0%	12.5%	25%	50%	75%	100%

Keep one thing firmly in mind as you read this table: it's a single ordered hierarchy, not two scores added together (procedural organization for learning). Check in this order, and stop at the first that applies:

1. Is the planet exalted? → 100% / 0%.
2. Is it in Mooltrikona? → 75% / 12.5%.
3. Is it in its own sign? → 50% / 25%.
4. (none of the above — now check the sign lord's compound relationship to this planet, from §5.3) Is the sign lord a friend? → 25% / 50%.
5. Is the sign lord neutral? → 12.5% / 75%.
6. Is the sign lord an enemy, or is the planet debilitated? → 0% / 100%.

Dignity (L4) is checked first and takes priority; relationship (today) only comes into play as a fallback, for the case where a planet is in a sign that is neither its exaltation, Mooltrikona, nor its own — i.e., a sign owned by some other planet entirely. This is the first fully synthetic technique in the course so far, but it's a priority ladder, not an addition of two independent numbers.

6. Key Terms

Sanskrit term	Transliteration	Simple meaning	Technical meaning	Practical use	BPHS source
नैसर्गिक मैत्री	Naisargika Maitrī	Natural friendship	Fixed friend/enemy/neutral, by Mooltrikona house-count	Same for every chart	Ch.3 v.55
तात्कालिक मैत्री	Tātkālika Maitrī	Temporary friendship	Chart-specific friend/enemy, by actual house position	Different every chart	Ch.3 v.56
पञ्चधा सम्बन्ध	Pañcadhā Sambandha	Five-fold relationship	Combined natural+temporary result	The relationship figure actually used in judgment	Ch.3 v.57–58
अधिमित्र / अधिशत्रु	Adhimitra / Adhishatru	Great friend / great enemy	The two extreme compound-relationship tiers	Strongest positive/negative relationship	Ch.3 v.57–58

7. Continue

Next: read Ch. 3, verses 55–60 in the source text below (or your own physical volume), then work through this chapter's Workbook — Lesson S01-M02-L05: Planetary Relationships and the Ratio of Effects — Workbook. Then complete the Chart Clinic — Lesson S01-M02-L05: Planetary Relationships and the Ratio of Effects — Application — Stage 1: calculate the compound relationship between two planets in your own chart, and test whether their combined dignity+relationship score (Ratio of Effects) matches a known outcome connecting those two planets' significations.

8. Mastery Check

• Workbook completed, including its Chart Observations & Application section
• Chart Clinic completed
• Can calculate natural, temporary, and compound relationships correctly for a new planet pair
• Can apply the Ratio of Effects table correctly, combining dignity and relationship

9. Review Connections

• Builds on: L4 (dignity) — today's Ratio of Effects table directly requires both.
• Revisit when studying: Ch. 29 (Shadbala — Ratio of Effects is an ancestor of this fuller system); Ch. 36–44 (Yogas — many require specific relationship states).

10. Source References

• Source: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Volume 1 (Girish Chand Sharma translation, Sagar Publications), Volume 1, Chapter 3, verses 55–60, printed page within 12–49.

11. Research Journal Prompt

Add an entry to your personal Research Journal — today combined two separate systems (L4 dignity + relationship) into one score for the first time; a good prompt is whether that synthesis felt intuitive or required real effort to hold both pieces at once.

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Original BPHS Chapter

The private build includes the full assigned verse range here. The public preview excludes the copyrighted BPHS translation text itself for copyright reasons.

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