Anyone reading Jyotish seriously, please hunt up these books and put them at the top of your reading list.....

1. Light on Life , by Hart DeFouw, and Robert Svoboda - a very good BASIC INTRODUCTION to Jyotish in good English, and lucid presentation

2. Vedic Astrology by PVR Narasimha Rao - a good ADVANCED Introduction. I THANK ROHINIJI for setting me loose on this marvel of a book....! Like a guide by your side, Raoji takes us through the whole book, and clears up many a controversial point - at least he says what HE follows in such controversial areas. What's good for a persona of his stature in Jyotish, ought to be good for us beginners, at least till we become as learned ourselves...!

3. My Master's words, by Visti Larsen -  The book is as good as RAoji's. But having just gone through a few pages of it, I will add more comments abt the book later.

Hang on Jyotish learners - there IS some light at the end of this long tunnel...!

Glad I could help! Couple of things to straighten the information for the beginners :-)

The book by Narasimha is about the Integrated Approach to Jyotish. It tries to combine (more like remind people!) the often mistakenly separated Parashari vs Jaimini *systems*. Anyone who has taken the time to actually study Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra would know that it includes the so called Jaimini astroindicators (chara, karakamsha, etc). There is some confusion and conflicting information about who came first, Parashara or Jaimini. More intriguing because NEITHER of these gentlemen did not reference the other!

And you forgot to give details of what seems like a new book that you recommended but are just beginning to read. The one by Visti (publisher, source etc). Tsk Tsk! :-)

And no matter how many books one reads it is important to stay in touch with the cutting edge of jyotish: the horoscopes of regular people who most of us will be reading for during our lifetime as jyotishis!

RR


[quote="I_seek_the _truth"]Anyone reading Jyotish seriously, please hunt up these books and put them at the top of your reading list.....

1. Light on Life , by Hart DeFouw, and Robert Svoboda - a very good BASIC INTRODUCTION to Jyotish in good English, and lucid presentation

2. Vedic Astrology by PVR Narasimha Rao - a good ADVANCED Introduction. I THANK ROHINIJI for setting me loose on this marvel of a book....! Like a guide by your side, Raoji takes us through the whole book, and clears up many a controversial point - at least he says what HE follows in such controversial areas. What's good for a persona of his stature in Jyotish, ought to be good for us beginners, at least till we become as learned ourselves...!

3. My Master's words, by Visti Larsen -  The book is as good as RAoji's. But having just gone through a few pages of it, I will add more comments abt the book later.

Hang on Jyotish learners - there IS some light at the end of this long tunnel...![/quote]

I agree that Narasimha Raoji's integrated approach book is the best in the market currently. Book is good for introduction to understand concepts of jyotish like grahas, rashis, drishits, friendship/enemity, planetart strength, graha drishti and house significations

Only problem I have with the book is divisional charts. Divisional charts, argala, rasi drishti and diff dasas do not have base in ancient indian astrology.
They are later interpolations.

PVRji's software Jagannatha Hora is the best in the world and I use this opportunity to thank PVRji and his genius for the yeoman service to Jyotish

But beginners beware: No book teaches you how to analyze a basic natal chart D-1 correctly!!!!
Raman's book is the worst - his how to judge horoscope - is the most confusing work. He does not stick to single approach and as per him almost any planet in chart can give marriage/death etc - This means it is very good for post mortem but not for predicting.

Kirana, I don't understand.....?

The divisional charts seem to be the most Logical explanation to the TWIN PROBLEM.

And there are entire chapters devoted to the D Charts, Argala, Rasi Drishti etc in BPHS.....

Then How come kiran says that they are later interpolations....?

Raman's book is devoid of a single unified or at least a basic approach of how to begin interpreting a chart, true. But one ought to realize that he is considered a Doyen of Astrology, even by PVRji. Maybe it is a book to be read at a later stage during one's journey into Jyotish.

Rohiniji, yes it is true, I failed to mention details about Visti Larsen's book. Its title is Jyotish Fundamentals, and the publisher is Sagitarrius Publishers, New Delhi.

And with the info in all these books, it is important that we enter into the realm of Chart Interpretation. That is our laboratory...! Our testing ground.

I want to ask you one simple question: Can you analyze a D-1 chart and tell about person's past and predict future to some correctness degree atleast?

When most astrologers can't do that - best is to first learn how to predict using D-1?

It is funny when ppl talk of twins etc (especially the SJC Group who keep adding their own concepts to jyotish) and cannot analyze basic D-1 chart