Tibetan Astrology

Explanations of Dharma Practice Days
Prepared by Nawang Thartho, based on Tibetan Medical and Astrological

Institutes calendar. Additional advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual
Director of FPMT, and Geshe Nawang Dakpa, astrologer lama of FPMTs Tse
Chen Ling in San Francisco.
We have marked days that are auspicious* and inauspicious for various activities,
and days that are favorable and unfavorable according to the combination of
elements: earth, air, fire and water. These combinations impact on the
effectiveness of ones activities as well as ones health.
The Favorable Days are listed below in order of most favorable to least
favorable; and the unfavorable days in order of least unfavorable to most
unfavorable.
There are also categories called Unfavorable Days and Very Unfavorable Days,
which sometimes fall on one of the favorable element days. Note that the
influence of the energy of these unfavorable days is more powerful.
As always, many Tibetan days are either missed or repeated.
AUSPICIOUS DAYS
BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES OF HOLY BEINGS
BUDDHA DAY-B
Karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa
Rinpoche in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Days 115 of Month 1: Lord Buddha performed many miracles; the 15th
is Day of Miracles.
Day 15 of Month 4: Lord Buddhas birth, enlightenment and parinirvana
(Or, according to Geshe Dakpa et al, only the latter two).
Day 4 of Month 6: Lord Buddhas first teaching.
Day 22 of Month 9: Lord Buddhas actual descent from God Realm of
Thirty- three.
ECLIPSE
Karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million on solar eclipses and seven
million on lunar.
EIGHT MAHAYANA PRECEPTS
Rinpoche recommends taking these 24-hour vows on days on which the karmic
effects of positive actions are multiplied:
Buddha days (see above)
Days 8, 15 (full moon) and 30 (new Moon) of every Tibetan month
Eclipses (see above)
FAVORABLE DAY (Earth-Earth) FD-EE
Less powerful than UD, VUD
Most auspicious. Earth-earth combination can bring success, fulfilling all wishes.
Excellent for starting activities, especially construction.
FAVORABLE DAY (Water-Water) FD-WW
Very auspicious. Water-water combination can bring strength and vitality.
Excellent for weddings, long-life rituals, increasing activities.
FAVORABLE DAY (Earth-Water) -FD-EW
Very auspicious. Earth-water combination can bring peace and happiness.
Excellent for joyful events such as weddings, promotions.
FAVORABLE DAY (Fire-Fire) FD-FF
Auspicious. Fire-fire combination can increase wealth and property, Very good
for wealth rituals and activities that provide material support.
FAVORABLE DAY (Air-Air) FD-AA
Auspicious. Air-air combination con bring successful, swift completion to
projects or activities. Very good for starting a spiritual practice or a journey.
FAVORABLE DAY (Fire-Air) FD-FA
Auspicious. Fire-air combination can strengthen auspicious activities. Good for
hanging prayer flags (except on NPE days) and spiritual practice.
FIRE PUJA
Many days every month are good for fire pujas, required for those who have
completed certain tantric retreats. Doing them on the wrong days can cause
sickness and obstacles, according to Rinpoche.
FULL MOON
15th of Tibetan month; good for practice.
MEDICINE BUDDHA PUJA
8th or 15th of every Tibetan month; recommended by Rinpoche.
NAGA PUJA
One or more days in most months are good for naga pujas.
NEW MOON
30th of Tibetan month; good for practice.
PRAYER FLAGS PF
Good for hanging prayer flags.
PRAYERS AND PRACTICESPP
Good for spiritual practice.
PROTECTOR PUJA
29th of every Tibetan month.
SOJONG: MONASTICS CONFESSION DAY
Confession ceremony of monks and nuns usually falls at middle and end of every
Tibetan month.
TARA PUJA
8th of every Tibetan month; recommended by Rinpoche.
TSOG OFFERING
10th and 25th of every Tibetan month; according to Rinpoche, Those who
have received an initiation into Highest Yoga Tantra have a commitment to
perform tsog on these days.
*According to Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoches teachers,
observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the
date in ones home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in
India, Rinpoche celebrates Buddha Days and other auspicious dates according to
the time in India.
INAUSPICIOUS DAYS
NO STARTING NEW BUSINESS ACTIVITY- NB
Days 2, 12, 22 of every Tibetan month.
NO COMMUNITY EVENT NCE
Days 10, 20, 30 of every Tibetan month; not good for community events,
such as at ones Dharma center.
NO FUNERAL OR CREMATION NF
NO INVITING GUESTS FOR PARTY NG
NO STARTING TO BUILD NEW HOUSE NH
NO CUTTING HAIR - NCH
Days 1, 2, 6, 7, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30 of every Tibetan
month.
NO MEDICAL PROCEDURE NMP
Days 4, 8, 11, 15, 18,22,25,29 of every Tibetan month.
NO MEMORIAL OR WAKE NM
NO PRAYER FLAGS NPF
According to Rinpoche, by hanging prayer flags including long prayer flags and
banners) on the wrong dates, you will continuously receive obstacles.
Days 10, 22 of Months 1, 5, 9

Days 7, 19 of Months 2, 6, 10
Days 4, 16, 28 of Months 3, 7, 11
Days 1, 13, 25 of Months 4, 8, 12
NO WEDDING NW
NO WEALTH RITUAL NWR
UNFAVORABLE DAY UD
More powerful than FD
Not good for starting important activities.
UNFAVORABLE DAY (Earth-Air) UD-EA
Inauspicious. Earth-air combination can decline wealth and property, and
negative activities may be strengthened. Not good for starting medical
procedures or important activities.
3UNFAVORABLE DAY (Water-Air) UD-WA
Inauspicious. Water-air combination can harm or sever relationships. Not good
for starting medical procedures or important activities; risk of disagreements and
disharmony.
UNFAVORABLE DAY (Earth-Fire) UD-EF
Inauspicious. Earth-fire combination can cause suffering and the risk of burns.
Not good for starting medical procedures or important activities; risk of trouble
and unhappiness.
UNFAVORABLE DAY (Fire- Water) UD-FW
Most inauspicious. Fire-water combination can weaken vitality. Not good for
starting medical procedures or important activities; risk of shortening life span.
VERY UNFAVORABLE DAY- VUD
More powerful than FD
Not good for starting important activities and medical procedures.
NINE BAD OMENS
The days of the nine bad omens are considered the most inauspicious days of the
year. It starts on the 6th day of the 11th Tibetan month at 12:00 noon, and ends at
12:00 noon on the 7th day. At the time of the Buddha, one practitioner tried to
perform a lot of positive actions on this day, and nine bad things happened to
him. Consequently, Buddha proclaimed that on this date each year in the future, it
is best not to try to accomplish much. Definitely it is a bad time to start projects
or start a retreat. Traditionally, Tibetans play games and have picnics on this day.
The 24 hours after the nine bad omens end (12:00 noon on the 7th to 12:00 noon
on the 8th) is considered the day of ten good omens. On this day, ten good things
happened to the same practitioner who had experienced the nine bad omens, as
he continued to persevere in his performance of positive actions. This period is
considered very auspicious for starting projects, retreat, etc. However, Tibetans
traditionally play games and have picnics on this day as well.
Source: Alexander Berzin on www.berzinarchives.com
Tibetan Astro Sciences

Alexander Berzin
Dharamsala, India, 1986
1 Basic Principles
The Scope of the Tibetan Astro Sciences
The astro sciences of calendar-making, astronomy, astrology, and mathematics
touch many aspects of Tibetan life. Their tradition spread from Tibet to so-called
Outer and Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, East Turkistan, the Russian republics of
Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva, and all the other areas of Tibetan cultural
influence in the Himalayas, Central Asia, and present-day China. These sciences
play a significant role in the Tibetan medical tradition. All medical students must
study to a certain level the astro sciences, although astro students are not required
to study medicine.
This topic of knowledge presents the calculations for the ephemeris to give the
position of the planets, as well as those for making the calendar and predicting
eclipses. It also includes the astrological calculations for personal horoscopes and
for the information found in the yearly almanac concerning which days are
auspicious or not for starting various activities such as planting crops. It is a very
wide field of study.
There are two divisions: white and black calculations. White and black stand for
Indian and Chinese derived materials in accordance with the predominant color
of the clothing traditionally worn in each country. As is the case with Tibetan
medicine, Tibetan astrology shares aspects similar to those found in Hindu India
and China. They are modified and blended, however, and used in different ways
to constitute the unique Tibetan system.
Philosophical Context
The philosophical contexts of the astro sciences are quite different in the Indian
Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, and Chinese Confucian worlds. The Tibetan context
derives from the Kalachakra Tantra. "Kalachakra" means "cycles of time." In
this tantra, Buddha presented a system of external, internal, and alternative
cycles. The external ones deal with the motion of the planets through the heavens
and various cycles or divisions of time measured by them in terms of years,
months, days, and so forth. The internal ones treat the cycles of energies and
breaths through the body. The alternative cycles consist of the various meditation
practices of the tantra system involving the Buddha-figure called Kalachakra,
used to gain control over or purify the former two cycles.
The external and internal cycles of time parallel each other and occur due to
collective external and individual internal impulses of energy (karma). In other
words, there are certain impulses of energy connected with all of us that drive
both the planetary and the human bodily cycles. Since energy and states of mind
are closely related, we can experience the cycles in either a disturbing or a
nondisturbing manner. With the Kalachakra practices, we work to overcome
being under the influence of uncontrollably recurring external and internal
situations (samsara) so that, no longer limited or disturbed by them, we are able
to realize our fullest potentials to benefit everyone as much as is possible.
Often, people are under the influence of their personal horoscopes or
uncontrollably affected by the changes of the seasons, the weather, the phases of
the moon, or where they are in their own life cyclesof childhood, adulthood, old
age, and so on. They are often also under the influence of the cycles of energy
within their bodies, for instance the menstrual one or the cycle of puberty
through menopause. Such things can cause people great limitations. The
Kalachakra system provides a meditation framework within which we can
overcome being under the control of these influences, so as to overcome the
limitations they impose and thus be able to help others the most. The Tibetan
Buddhist system presents astronomy and astrology within this general
philosophical framework. It is quite different from the Hindu Vedic context, in
which students learn these sciences to calculate exact time for performing the
Vedic rituals.
In classical Chinese thought, one consults astronomy and astrology in order to
maintain political legitimacy and rule. Confucian philosophy conceives of the
emperor as the intermediary between the heavens and the earth. If the emperor,
imperial court, and government act in accord with the seasons and calendar, and
in harmony with the general principles of change in the forces of the universe, all
goes well in the empire. They obviously have the "mandate of heaven." If they
are out of phase, natural disasters occur indicating they have lost their political
legitimacy. Therefore, in order to maintain harmony and keep political power, it
is essential to know the exact times of the seasons and the flow of the universal
astrological forces.
Thus, the Chinese philosophical context for astronomy and astrology also
differed greatly from the Tibetan Buddhist framework. Its main purpose was
political. Personal horoscopes did not appear in China until around the eighth
century, and that was most probably due to Buddhist influence.
White Calculations
The Indian-derived material in the Tibetan astro sciences comes primarily from
two sources, the Kalachakra or Cycles of Time Tantra, which is specifically
Buddhist, and the Svarodaya or Arising from the Vowels Tantra, which has
material accepted in common by both the Hindus and Buddhists.
In connection with the discussion of the external cycles of time, The Kalachakra
Tantra presents the laws of motion of the universe and the calculations for the
ephemeris, calendar, and almanac. Two sets of mathematical formulations
developed from it: the siddhanta or full tenet system, which was lost before it
could come to Tibet, and the karana or precis system.
Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, various Tibetan masters
reconstructed the full tenet system. Thus, Tibetan astro schools currently teach
both calculation systems. Even when some Tibetan lineages favor the full tenet
system, they still use the precis system for calculating solar and lunar eclipses,
since it gives better results.
The other source of Indian-derived astro material, The Arising from the Vowels
Tantra, also known as the Yuddhajaya or Victory in Battles Tantra, is the only
Shaivite Hindu tantra translated into Tibetan and included in the Tengyur
collection of Indian commentaries. The main feature that derives from it is the
casting of predictive personal horoscopes. In Western astrology, the main
emphasis in an individual horoscope is to look at the natal situation and from that
to analyze and describe the personality. This is not of major interest in the Indian
systems, either the Hindu or the Buddhist, although it is treated. What is of most
interest is to chart the unfolding of a person's life.
Predictive Horoscopes
All Indian astro traditions calculate and analyze a life's course in terms of periods
ruled by nine successive heavenly bodies. The Buddhist system calculates the
lifespan from the time of birth and natal moon position, and then divides it into
nine periods according to certain formulas. The Hindu version does not consider
the lifespan. It divides periods according to another rule. In either case,
astrologers interpret each period in relation to its ruling planet, the natal chart,
and the age at which it occurs.
Although Buddhist astrology contains a calculation for people's lifespans, it is
not a fatalistic system of predetermination. It also provides calculations for how
far we can extend our lives if we do many positive, constructive actions. The
original Kalachakra system in India calculated the lifespan with the maximum
being 108, whereas the Hindu systems assert the maximum as 120. In Tibet, 108
was reduced to 80 since, according to the Buddhist teachings, the average
lifespan is decreasing in the degenerate age. In the nineteenth century, the
Nyingma master Mipam revised the lifespan calculation so that the maximum is
100. Moreover, regardless of the maximum age asserted, the Tibetan system
contains four different ways to calculate a lifespan. Thus, each person has many
possible lifespans. We are born with many different karmas that could ripen.
Even if we speak of a person having a specific lifespan, extraordinary
circumstances can arise to lengthen or decrease it. If someone is terminally ill, he
or she may not have the karmic potential to recover. Nevertheless, the prayers
and ritual ceremonies of a great Lama may act as a circumstance for deeply
buried positive potential for a long life to ripen that ordinarily would not have
surfaced in this lifetime. Likewise, an external event such as an earthquake or
war may provide the circumstance for deeply buried negative potential for a short
life to ripen that also would normally not have come into effect in this life. In
such a case, we might die a so-called "untimely death." In either case, if we do
not have the deeply buried potentials, even a dramatic circumstance in this
lifetime will not produce an effect. Special rituals do not benefit some people,
and some individuals survive an earthquake.
A Tibetan horoscope, then, is a general prediction of one possibility that could
happen in a life. There is no guarantee that our lives will actually unfold in that
way. There are also other possibilities, since astrology can predict other lifespans
as well. Each possibility resembles a quantum level. They are all feasible,
depending on our actions and practices, as well as on extraordinary external
circumstances. What happens in our lives depends on the karmic potentials we
have built up from previous actions in this and past lifetimes. Otherwise, a
human and a dog born at the same moment and at the same place would
experience identical lives.
The main purpose of a Tibetan horoscope is to alert us to possible courses of life
we might experience. Whether or not they turn out to be the case depends on us.
Although we have many potentials, even knowing just one set of them from a
horoscope can inspire us to take advantage of our precious human lives to
achieve a spiritual goal. In the context of Kalachakra, we are striving to
overcome all karmic limitations that would prevent us from becoming fully
capable of helping everyone. Meditation on our suffering helps us to develop a
determination to be free (renunciation), as well as compassion for others.
Likewise, contemplating the suffering we might experience in a lifetime as
outlined by a horoscope can help us along our spiritual paths. A Tibetan
horoscope, then, can be a skillful means for helping those who are interested in
astrology to progress along the path. A Tibetan horoscope is never a forecast of a
predetermined, inherently true future.

Comparison with Other Astrology Systems
The white calculation system, through its pan-Indic basis, shares certain features
in common with the ancient Greek astro systems. The most prominent example is
the division of the zodiac into twelve signs and houses, with the same names for
the signs as the modern Western system uses, but in Tibetan translation.Thus,
natal horoscopes arrange the planets in signs and houses, much as in a Western
chart. The manner of interpretation, however, is very different. As in the Hindu
scheme, an equal-house system is used, the angles between the planets are not
considered, and the ascendant is not a noteworthy point.
The zodiac is the belt through which the sun, moon, and planets rotate around the
earth in a geocentric scheme. For most calculations, this belt is divided into
twenty-seven lunar mansions or constellations rather than into twelve signs. This
scheme is not found in the ancient Greek or modern Western systems, but was
shared in common with the classical Hindu ones. Sometimes twenty-eight
constellations are specified, but while the Hindu system would divide the zodiac
into twenty-eight equal portions, the Tibetan system would divide one of the
twenty-seven equal portions into two.
A system of twenty-eight lunar constellations is also found in ancient Chinese
astronomy. There, the emphasis is on the Pole Star as the center of the heavens,
like the Chinese emperor. The mansions, like ministers, rotate around it along the
stellar equator and thus consist of slightly different clusters of stars than are in
the pan-Indic mansions. Furthermore, the twenty-eight Chinese constellations do
not make an equal division of the sky.
The Kalachakra system treats ten heavenly bodies, all of which it calls "planets."
The first eight are the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and a
comet. This last one is not used in horoscopes. The two remaining heavenly
bodies can be referred to as the planets of the north and south nodes of the moon.
Although the orbits of the sun and the moon are both in the belt of the zodiac,
they crisscross each other. The two points of their intersection are known as the
north and south nodes of the moon. At each new moon, the sun and the moon are
roughly conjunct each other, in other words at the same spot. It is only when this
conjunction occurs at either the north or south node, where their orbits intersect,
that the conjunction is exact and a solar eclipse occurs. At full moon, the sun and
the moon are in opposition. When this coincides with one being conjunct the
north node and the other the south, the opposition is exact and a lunar eclipse
occurs.
Both the classical Hindu and Kalachakra systems conceive of the north and south
nodes of the moon as planets, whereas the ancient Greek system does not. Both
Indian systems explain eclipses as conjunctions of the sun and moon with the
nodal planets.
The Kalachakra system calls the north node planet either Rahu, literally
"growler," or the dragon's head planet, and the south node planet either Kalagni,
which means "fire of time," or the dragon's tail planet. Although the Hindu
systems call the former Rahu, they call the latter Ketu, literally "long tail,"
referring also to its being the tail of the dragon. According to pan-Indic
mythology, this so-called "dragon" consumes the sun or moon during an eclipse.
In Kalachakra, however, Ketu is the name given to the tenth planet, the comet,
which is not included in the classical Hindu or Greek systems, which treat only
nine or seven heavenly bodies respectively.
The classical Chinese system did not include any mention of the north and south
nodes of the moon. The Chinese speak only of the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In later times, when the concept of the north and south
nodes of the moon appeared in Chinese astronomy, they were referred to as the
dragon's head and tail, clearly indicating their Indian origin. They were not,
however, taken as planets.
Another common feature with the ancient Greek and Hindu systems is the
naming of the days of the week after the planets: Sunday for the sun, Monday the
moon, Tuesday Mars, Wednesday Mercury, Thursday Jupiter, Friday Venus, and
Saturday Saturn. Because of this, the Tibetan word for weekday is the same as
that for planet.
The Chinese traditionally had a ten-day week and only started using a seven-day
one in the seventh century of the common era, due to the influence of the
Nestorian Christian merchant communities of Persians and Sogdians living in
China. The Chinese refer to the days of the week by their numbers, however, and
not by the names of the planets.
One of the major differences between the ancient Greek and Hindu systems
concerns the type of zodiac employed. Like the modern Western system, the
ancient Greeks used a tropical zodiac, while the Hindu systems use a fixed-star or
sidereal zodiac. The difference between these two zodiacs concerns the position
of zero degrees Aries. In a tropical zodiac, whenever the sun is at the vernal
equinox in the northern hemisphere, this position is called zero degrees Aries,
regardless of the position of the sun relative to the constellation Aries at that
time. A fixed-star zodiac labels the sun as being located at zero degrees Aries
when the sun actually conjuncts the beginning of this constellation.
The Kalachakra system criticized the Hindu ones and advocated a tropical
zodiac. The Tibetans, however, discarded this feature of Kalachakra astrology
and reverted to a fixed-star system. The Kalachakra tropical zodiac and the
ancient Greek and modern Western ones, however, are not the same as each other
and, similarly, the Hindu and Tibetan fixed-star systems also do not correspond to
each other. The details of these differences are rather complex. To simply the
discussion, let us leave out consideration of the ancient Greek system.
In approximately 290 CE, the vernal equinox point was actually located at the
beginning of the constellation Aries as observed in the sky. Since then, it has
been creeping backwards slowly, at a rate of approximately one degree every
seventy-two years. This phenomenon is known as the precession of the
equinox in other words, the backwards motion of the suns equinox position.
The discrepancy between the observed position of zero degrees Aries and the
position of zero degrees Aries as defined in terms of the vernal equinox is due to
the fact that the earths polar axis gradually rotates in its orientation to the fixed
stars, with a rotation period of 26,000 years.
The vernal equinox point is now between twenty-three and twenty-four degrees
back into Pisces, the sign immediately before Aries. Thus, the modern Western
system currently considers as zero degrees Aries some point between six and
seven degrees in Pisces, as observed in the sky in other words, the tropical
position minus between twenty-three and twenty-four degrees.
The situation actually is a bit more complicated. There were five different
classical Indian Hindu systems of astrological calculations. The most popular
one, still used in India, is that of the Surya Siddhanta (The Sun System of
Calculations). It considers the position of the vernal equinox point at
approximately 500 CE as being zero degrees Aries, when in fact this position was
already a few degrees into Pisces as observed in the sky. The Surya Siddhanta
then constructs a fixed-star zodiac based on this position of the vernal equinox as
being the start of Aries.
The Indian Hindu systems were aware of the precession of the equinox and gave
mathematical formulas for calculating its value. However, although the
discrepancy between the observed position of Aries and the vernal equinox point
increases linearly until the two converge after approximately 26,000 years, the
Surya Siddhanta explains that the discrepancy oscillates. First the vernal equinox
point gradually goes backwards until it reaches twenty-seven degrees behind the
originally fixed position of zero degrees Aries. It then reverses direction and
moves forward until it is located twenty-seven degrees ahead of that set position;
whereupon it reverses direction once more until it reaches the originally fixed
position of Aries again. The oscillation then repeats. This oscillation pattern,
then, does not correspond to the actual changing position of the sun at the vernal
equinox in relation either to the position of zero degrees Aries as originally fixed
by the Surya Siddhanta or to the actually observed position of the start of the
constellation Aries in the sky.

The Kalachakra system of astrology criticized the fixed-star zodiac systems used
by the Surya Siddhanta and the four other Indian Hindu systems and the concept
of an oscillating precession of the equinox. It advocated a modified tropical
zodiac instead. According to the Kalachakra system, the vernal equinox point
needs to be measured by observation once every sixty years. That equinox point
would then be kept fixed as defining zero degrees Aries for an entire sixty-year
period, and then would need to be corrected at the start of the next sixty-year
period. Moreover, as in the modern Western system, it describes the precession of
the equinox as increasing linearly as it slowly moved backwards around the
zodiac, without any oscillation.
When the Kalachakra system went to Tibet in the early eleventh century,
however, the Tibetans stopped making the periodic correction of the vernal
equinox point. Consequently, the Tibetan zodiac system devolved into a fixedstar system, but one in which the discrepancy between its fixed position of zero
degrees Aries and the actual observed position of zero degrees Aries differs from
the discrepancies in any of the Indian Hindu systems. Currently it is
approximately thirty-four degrees.
Observation of the sky reveals that zero degrees Aries of the Western system
actually corresponds to the observed position of the beginning of the
constellation Aries minus the precession factor of between twenty-three and
twenty-four degrees. When it shifts into the next sign back, Aquarius, in about
four centuries from now, the so called New Age of Aquarius will technically
begin. In common discussion, when people speak of the Age of Aquarius starting
very soon, they are perhaps confusing this with the Christian notion that the
change of a millennium marks a new golden age.
During the Mughal period in India, particularly from the eighteenth century
onwards, when observations of planetary positions became widespread through
continuing Arabian astro influences and contact was made with Western
astronomy, many of the Hindu systems discarded the traditional mathematical
models for calculating the positions of not only the sun, but of all the planets.
They saw that the Western models gave more accurate results that could be
confirmed through telescopes and the various heavenly measuring devices that
the Mughals built in their observatories. They also saw that the concept of an
oscillating precession of the equinox was incorrect. Therefore, while keeping a
fixed-star zodiac, many therefore adapted the new technique of subtracting a
standard precession value uniformly from the Western-derived tropical zodiac
positions of all the planets in order to derive their positions in the fixed-star
zodiac. Each of the Hindu lineages adapted a slightly different precession value
as its conversion factor. The most commonly used one is between twenty-three
and twenty-four degrees, which is the actual observed discrepancy.

Some Hindu astrologers claim, however, that the traditionally calculated
planetary positions give more accurate astrological information. This is a very
important point, because Tibetan astrology is now at the stage at which Hindu
astrology was in the eighteenth century when it came into contact with Western
astronomy. The positions of the planets as derived from the mathematical models
of the Kalachakra system also do not correspond exactly to what is observed.
Whether it will be necessary to follow the Hindu example of discarding tradition
and using the Western values modified by the observed precession factor,
however, is yet to be decided.
One could argue that it does not really matter what the actual observed positions
of the planets are, because the Tibetan Buddhist astro system was never intended
for sending a rocket to the moon or navigating a ship. The astronomical data is
calculated for astrological purposes, and if the astrological information is
empirically accurate and helpful, that is all that matters.
Tibetan astrology is intended to allow us to know our basic karmic situations in
life so that we can work with them to overcome all our limitations and realize all
our potentials so as to be of best benefit to others. It is within this Buddhist
context that Tibetan astro studies must be viewed. It would seem irrelevant to
judge and alter it based on its astronomical data not corresponding to observed
planetary positions.
In order to learn and benefit from each other's systems, both Westerners and
Tibetans need to respect the integrity of each other's corpuses of knowledge and
wisdom. Ideas can be shared and indications gained for new areas of research,
but it would be tragic to uncritically toss out traditional approaches and adopt
foreign ones. As can be seen from the histories of both Tibetan medicine and
astrology, ideas from foreign cultures were not blindly copied. They stimulated
the Tibetans to work out unique systems of their own, based on their own
research and experience, in which foreign ideas took on new forms. This is the
way that progress occurs, for the benefit of all.
Black Calculations
The Chinese-derived black calculations, which are also called element
calculations, add a few more features to the Tibetan calendar, such as correlations
with animal and element cycles, like the year of the iron-horse. They also provide
further sets of variables to examine for both analyzing the personality as well as
for making general predictive personal horoscopes. These features are then
integrated with the horoscope information derived from the white calculation
system.
The Chinese-derived material contains calculations for five major areas. The first
is for the basic yearly progressions, to see what will happen during each year of a
life. The second concerns illnesses, determining if harmful spirits caused them
and if so, what type of spirit and which rituals to perform to appease them, as
well as predicting how long the illnesses will last. The third is for the dead,
particularly for when and in which direction to remove the corpse from the
house, and what ceremonies to perform to dispel harmful forces. The fourth is
calculation of obstacles, when they will occur in the calendar in general and
during a specific person's life. The fifth concerns marriage, particularly the
harmony between the prospective couple. Element calculations, then, are used
primarily for astrological purposes.
As was the case with the Indian-derived material and the Indian Hindu systems,
the Chinese-derived material shares many features in common with the classical
Chinese astro schools. Nevertheless, the way the Tibetans developed and used
them has many differences.
The element calculation system correlates the calendar to cycles of sixty years,
with each year ruled successively by one of twelve animals. The classical
Chinese order begins with the rat, whereas the Tibetan sequence starts with the
fourth Chinese animal, the hare. Thus, the place in the sequence at which the
sixty-year cycle begins is different.
The list of twelve animals is intertwined with an empowering element for the
year, which is one of the classical Chinese set of five wood, fire, earth, iron,
and water. Each element rules two years in a row, the first being a male and the
second a female year. The Tibetans never use the Chinese yang and yin. Thus, it
takes sixty years for a specific combination to repeat, such as the wood-male-rat
year, for instance, the first in the classical Chinese listing, or the fire-female-hare
year, the first in the Tibetan.
The Tibetan astro system does not employ the classical Chinese system of ten
heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches. The Chinese correlate this with the
sixty-year cycle and emphasize it far greater in their calendar and astrology than
the animals and elements.
In addition to a natal combination of animal and element for the year of birth, a
progressed combination is also derived for each year of age, but calculated in
different ways for males and females. In fact, most of the Chinese-derived
calculations are different for men and for women. It should be noted that our age,
in both the Tibetan and Chinese systems, refers to the number of calendar-years
during which we have been alive, regardless of how short that period might be in
any particular year. For example, if someone is born in the Tibetan tenth month
of a particular year, the person is one year of age until Tibetan New Year, and
then immediately two years old. This is because although this person has been
alive only three months, this has been during two calendar-years. Thus, Tibetans
all become one year older at Tibetan New Year and do not celebrate or count
birthdays in the Western manner. Tibetan age, then, is not an equivalent concept
to the Western idea of age, which counts the number of full years passed since
birth.
Each of the twelve animals in its various combinations with the five elements
within a sixty-year cycle has a set of five associated elements used for what is
called pebble-calculations. There are life-force, body, power or capacity, valleyof-fortune, and life-spirit pebble-elements. The first four are also found in
classical Chinese astrology, where power is referred to as wealth. Life-spirit or
the organizing principle in life (Tib. bla) is more of a Tibetan concept, found in
the native tradition of Bon as well.
Based on the analysis of the relation between the natal pebble-elements and those
of any transiting year, we can tell from the life-force ones about possible danger
to the life that year and from the body ones about health and physical harm. From
the power ones we can tell about success, such as in business, from the valley-offortune ones about general fortune and travel, and from the life-spirit ones about
the well-being and stability of our basic organizing principles of life. If there are
difficult relations during that year, religious ceremonies are recommended to
counteract these disharmonies.
Each of the twelve animals also has associated with it three weekdays a lifeforce, life-spirit, and deadly one. For everyone sharing the same natal animalsign, the first two are auspicious days of the week, while the latter is not. This is
used particularly in medical astrology for choosing days of treatment.
Magic-squares are also employed, specifically the one in which there is a grid of
three by three, with the numbers one through nine arranged, one in each box,
such that whether one adds horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, the sum of any
line is fifteen. The nine numbers combine with the sixty-year cycle so that every
180 years the same magic-square number will correlate with the same elementanimal year. The sequence begins with the number one, and then proceeds in
reverse order: nine, eight, seven, and so on. Each of the nine magic square
numbers is correlated with a color and each of those to one of the five Chinese
elements. The numbers are usually referred to in conjunction with their color.
One-white is iron, two-black water, three-navy-blue water, four-green wood,
five-yellow earth, six-white iron, seven-red fire, eight-white iron and ninemaroon or sometimes nine-red fire. When the magic-square is printed, the color
of each box is in accordance with this scheme.
4
green
9
maroon
2
black
3
blue
5
yellow
7
red
8
white
1
white
6
white
From the natal number, a progressed magic-square number is derived for each
year of age. As with the progressed element- animal combination, the calculation
is different for males and females. Each natal square number has an
interpretation, which includes a description of past lives, with their residue
propensities in this life, as well as the probable next future life together with
religious ceremonies and statues to commission in order to improve it, and what
type of rebirth might then be possible. This is the source, then, for information on
past and future lives given in Tibetan horoscopes. Body, life-force, power, and
valley-of-fortune magic-square numbers can also be calculated and examined, as
is done with the elements.
The eight trigrams of the I Ching or Book of Changes three lines, unbroken or
broken, arranged horizontally are also used in Tibetan element or black
calculations, though never the sixty-four hexagrams. A progressed trigram for
each year of age is derived from a certain arrangement of the trigrams. The
calculation is different for males and females. Everyone of the same gender has
the same progressed trigram for the same age.
Except for the Bon variation of Tibetan astrology, there are no transiting annual
trigrams, which would entail each calendar-year in general being assigned one in
a particular sequence. The natal trigram, then, for both males and females is not
calculated from their years of birth, but rather is taken as their mother's
progressed trigram for her age at the year she gave birth to them. The
interpretation of the natal and progressed trigrams gives further information for
the predictive horoscope.
In addition, body, life-force, power, and valley-of-fortune trigrams can be
calculated as well, and these are derived from the four types of magic-square
numbers calculated from the natal number. These four trigrams, as well as the
body, life-force, power, and valley-of-fortune natal pebble-elements of a
prospective couple are what are compared in the marriage calculations to
determine compatibility.
Tibetan Astro Sciences

Alexander Berzin
Dharamsala, India, 1986
2 History and the Tibetan Calendar
History
Chinese astro materials came to Tibet earlier than the Indian-derived material.
This occurred in the mid-seventh century, at the time of Emperor Songtsengampo, the founder of the great Tibetan Empire. Among his wives were Chinese
and Nepali princesses, the former of whom brought with her to Tibet various
Chinese astro and medical texts. Within a couple years, the Tibetan court began
using the twelve animal designations for the years, though not yet the sixty-year
cycle. This was practically the exclusive system used in Tibet for the next two
centuries.
After a period of general cultural decline in the ninth century, a new wave of
Chinese-related astro influence came from the Khotan region of East Turkistan,
starting in the tenth century. The Tibetan master Dharmakara amalgamated it
with what he and others remembered from the old period material, which had
become corrupt. He formulated a new definitive system of element calculations,
which now included death, marriage, obstacle, and horoscope calculations and
geomancy. By the eleventh century, the Tibetans standardly used the sixty-year
element-animal cycle.
Present-day Tibetan calendars also give the royal year number. This is the count
of years passed since the ascent of the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo, in 127
BCE.
The Indian side of the astro materials came into Tibet with the introduction of
The Kalachakra Tantra. Various translators and masters translated the basic
Kalachakra texts from Sanskrit and transmitted them to Tibet several times
between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. They became prominent in the
early Sakya and Kagyu traditions, with various further commentaries written and
features from both the Chinese and Indian masters combined and reworked to
derive the distinctive Tibetan astro tradition.
Kalachakra shares with the Hindu systems the usage of the sixty-year Jupiter
cycle for the counting of years and refers to the cycle as the rabjung or
"prominent" cycle, after the name of the first of the sixty years.
The first year of the first "prominent" sixty-year cycle of the Tibetan calendar,
which is considered the official date of the introduction of Kalachakra into Tibet,
is the famous predicted number of years found in the Kalachakra literature of

"fire-space-ocean" after the beginning of the Muslim period in 624 CE, although
actually that period began in 622.
Both the Kalachakra and Hindu systems specify numbers by names, referring to
common enumerations in pan-Indic literature, and list them in the order of units,
tens, hundreds, and so on. There are three fires; space is empty like zero; and
there are four oceans. Thus "fire-space-ocean" is 403 years after 624, or 1027
CE.
When the Kalachakra "prominent" sixty-year cycle was correlated with the
Chinese sixty-year cycle of elements and animals, the year 1027 did not
correspond to the beginning of a Chinese cycle. The Chinese ones always start
with a wood-male-rat year, and this was the fourth year of a cycle, fire-femalehare. This is why the Tibetan sixty-year cycle begins with the fire-female-hare
year and its listing of the sequence of the twelve animals begins with the hare and
not with the rat. Thus, as there is a three-year discrepancy, the present Tibetan
seventeenth cycle began 1987, whereas the present Chinese twenty-seventh cycle
began 1984.
Although the start of the first "prominent" sixty-year cycle was in 1027, it was
not until the second half of the thirteenth century that the Kalachakra calendar
became the rule in Tibet. Nevertheless, people still regularly referred to the years
by their element-animal designations - as they popularly still do today rather
than by their names in the "prominent" cycle. The mathematical calculations for
the calendar, however,were from the Kalachakra system.
One of the eminent early Sakya masters and authors on astro studies was
Chogyel Pagpa in the second half of the thirteenth century. He was the tutor of
the Mongol ruler of China, Khubilai (Kublai) Khan, and the spiritual master
credited, along with his uncle, Sakya Pandita, with bringing Tibetan Buddhism to
Mongolia. As he was a renowned master of the Kalachakra teachings, Chogyel
Pagpa undoubtedly brought the full Tibetan astro system as well. Furthermore, it
was most probably through first his uncle's, and then his being made the secular
rulers of Tibet by the Mongol Khans who, starting with Khubilai, were the
emperors of the Yuan Dynasty of China that the Kalachakra calendar became
the official one for Tibet.
Chingis Khan, the grandfather of Khubilai Khan, had already adopted from the
Uighurs, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the twelve-animal count for
years and made it standard for his empire. According to one account, Chingis
Khan is the one who introduced the term "Mongolian months," which
corresponded to and were a substitute designation for the Chinese ones, on the
occasion of his conquest in 1207 of the Tangut kingdom in the present day
regions of eastern Gansu and Inner Mongolia.
When Chingis' successors introduced the Tibetan calendar to the Mongol Empire
in the middle of that same century, they made the Mongolian months the
equivalent of Kalachakra months, rather than Chinese ones, which are quite
different. They kept the first Mongolian month as the start of the year, however,
in keeping with the Chinese custom, even though it is two months earlier than the
first Kalachakra month. This was adapted in Tibet as well, so that there was
relative uniformity concerning the beginning of the year throughout the Mongol
Empire. Chinese and Tibetan new years, however, do not always coincide. This is
because each of these calendar systems has its own mathematical formulas for
adding leap-months and for determining the start and length of each month. In
Tibet, the Mongolian months were alternatively referred to as Tibetan months,
and even today the two designations are used interchangeably.
Lineages of the Tibetan Astro Sciences
At present, there are two major groups of lineages of the Tibetan astro sciences,
the Tsurpu and the Pugpa. The former derives from the early fourteenth century
commentaries to Kalachakra by the Third Karmapa, Rangjung-dorjey, of Tsurpu
Monastery. This line, found exclusively in the Karma Kagyu tradition, uses the
precis system of calculations for determining the positions of the sun and the
moon and the full tenet system for the planets.
Derivative from the Tsurpu system is the Chatuhpitha-Kalachakra calculation
system. Drugchen Pemakarpo started it in the late sixteenth century. Because the
Drugpa Kagyu tradition and the Bhutanese follow this system, people sometimes
refer to it as Bhutanese calculations. It combines material from both The
Kalachakra and The Chatuhpitha or Four Seat Tantras. The major difference
between this and the Tsurpu system is that it takes the calculated lunar weekday
to be the passed date rather than the present one. For instance, if a specific
Wednesday is calculated to be the ninth of the month in the Tsurpu system, that
ninth is considered in the Bhutanese system to be the passed day and the tenth is
taken as the Wednesday. The Drigung Kagyu tradition, on the other hand, follows
a system that combines the Tsurpu and Pugpa traditions.
The Pugpa system or lineage was started in the fifteenth century by the three
masters with "gyatso" as part of their names: Pugpa Lhundrub-gyatso, Kaydrub
Norzang-gyatso, and Tsangchung Chodrag-gyatso. Based on the tradition of the
fourteenth century Sakya master Buton, a great commentator on The Kalachakra
Tantra, it emphasizes the reconstructed full tenet system of mathematical
calculations. In the midseventeenth century text, Desi Sangyay-gyatso, in White
Aquamarine, amended the tradition by presenting the full tenet and precis
systems together. He specified using the full tenet system for the calendar and
almanac and also to include in the almanac the data from the precis system to use
for calculating eclipses. The Gelug, Sakya, Nyingma, and Shangpa Kagyu
traditions follow the Pugpa lineage, as do the Kalmyk Mongols of Russia. Thus,
it is the most widespread astro system.
The broad Chinese-style, or yellow calculations, developed within both the
Pugpa and Tsurpu systems. When the Fifth Dalai Lama went to China in 1652 at
the invitation of the first Manchu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he saw at the
imperial palace in Beijing notices and documents drawn in accordance with the
traditional Chinese calendar and astrological system. Impressed, he had his
translator Mergen Kachupa take notes on it. Back in Tibet, Mergen Kachupa
compiled thirteen volumes on these broad Chinese-style calculations. These texts
were hidden in the Potala palace of the Dalai Lama and have never been used.
There is no mention of this yellow system in the above-mentioned text of Desi
Sangyay-gyatso, who was the minister of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Nevertheless,
Mergen Kachupa is credited with starting this astrological and calendar tradition.
The eighteenth century saw renewed interest among the Tibetans in the Chinese
calendar and astrology. This was particularly fostered under the encouragement
of the Manchu Emperor of China, Qianlong. From the Tsurpu lineage, the
Twelfth Karmapa and, later, the Eighth Tai Situ, visited the Manchu imperial
court and commissioned more translations. Within the Pugpa lineage, interest
was especially high among the Gelug masters of the northeastern Tibetan
province of Amdo, particularly at the Astrology College of Labrang Tashikyil
Monastery. They also translated many works. Inner Mongolia follows their
lineage.
In the Pugpa school of Central Tibet, an abbreviated version of the yellow system
appears in a text by Chendzo Sung-rab in the early nineteenth century. Based on
notes from Gen Lodro-gyatso, Professor Tragton in the 1980s has compiled the
system currently used at the Dharamsala Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute. The
Lhasa Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute uses a system recently compiled by
Tseten Zhabdrung and Mugey-samten.
The yellow system uses the basic Kalachakra calendar calculations and in this
way totally differs in its framework from the actual classical Chinese calendar.
Nevertheless, the way in which it adds doublemonths is very similar, though not
always equivalent, to that used in the Chinese system. Unlike other Tibetan and
Indian systems, all of which have doubled and omitted dates of the lunar month,
the calendar from the broad Chinese-style calculations, like the Chinese one,
lacks this feature. Months have either twenty-nine or thirty days, numbered
consecutively and determined according to several traditions of calculation. The
dates for the beginning of each month do not always coincide either with those of
the classical Chinese calendar or with those of the Pugpa or Tsurpu systems,
although often they do.
There are a number of differences between the Pugpa lineages of Inner Mongolia
and Central Tibet, for instance in the manner of adding doubled months. The
calendar of Inner Mongolia is arranged according to the yellow system, whereas
the data of this system is merely included in the Pugpa almanacs of Central Tibet.
The main use of the yellow calculations is for making the "earth-ox" prediction
for the weather patterns and general conditions for the year.
The Khalkha Mongols of Mongolia and both the Buryats and Tuvinians of
Siberia follow a variant of the Pugpa tradition known as the New Geden or New
Positive lineage. This was started in 1786 by Sumpa Kenpo Yeshey-peljor, a
Mongour Mongol master of both astrology and medicine, from Amdo. This
system bases itself on the fifteenth-century Kalachakra commentaries of Kaydrub
Jey. Most of the calculations follow the same rules as those of the Pugpa system,
and the sixty-year cycles are counted the same as well. However, despite the
sixty-year "prominent" cycle starting with a fire-female-hare year, the starting
point for the calculations of a sixty-year period is taken as a fire-male-horse year,
the fortieth year of the cycle. This is because Shakyamuni Buddha was born in
such a year. Because of this difference, the Mongolian calendar works out to be
unique.
The Bon system of astrology is called the "pure calculations of the three
analyses." Although the Bonpos consider the Bon system to be the most ancient,
predating any of the Buddhist ones, the codification of the system in textual form
was done by Kyongtrul Jigmey-namkay-dorjey (1880's - 1953). This system has
outer, inner, secret, and more secret pure calculations. The outer and inner ones
correspond to the Pugpa tradition, with only some minor variations and a slightly
different way of approaching some of the calculations. The secret and more
secret ones have more precise calculations than the outer and inner. The Bon
calendar is exactly the same as the Pugpa one.
The differences among these Tibetan systems appear most clearly in the way in
which the lunar calendar correlated with the solar one. To appreciate this, we
must discuss the Tibetan calendar itself, which comes primarily from The
Kalachakra Tantra.
The Tibetan Ephemeris, Calendar, and Almanac
The Tibetan system of astronomy and astrology is extremely complex. It takes
five years to study and master it at the Astro Division of the Tibetan Medical and
Astro Institute in Dharamsala, India. Students learn to calculate everything by
hand in the traditional manner, on a wooden board covered with soot upon which
one writes with a stylus. There is no complete ephemeris compiled in which to
look up figures. One of the main aspects of the training is the mathematics
involved in all the calculations.
The Kalachakra system, like those of the Hindu traditions, gives formulas for
determining "the five planets and five inclusive calendar features." The five
planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Their positions, as well as
those of the sun, moon, and nodes, are calculated for the Tibetan ephemeris
according to a mathematical model, as was also the case in the ancient Greek
system. Thus, it is unlike Chinese astronomy, which derived the positions and
motion of the heavenly bodies based mostly on observation. Chinese
mathematics, when sometimes applied, is primarily algebraic.
The ancient Greeks used mainly geometry, namely different geometric
proportions, to determine and describe the motion of the planets. The Hindu
systems developed the sine function, and thus employ trigonometric rather than
solely geometric methods. The calculations in the Tibetan system, on the other
hand, involve neither geometric proportions nor trigonometric functions, but are
purely arithmetic.
The making of the calendar and almanac entails the five inclusive calendar
features: the lunar weekday, the date of the lunar month, the moon's constellation,
the combination period, and the action period. The first two are involved in the
mechanism through which the lunar and solar calendars are brought into
harmony.
Both the Tibetan and Hindu systems present three types of days. A zodiac day is
the time it takes for the sun to progress one out of 360 degrees of the zodiac. A
solar day, on the other hand, is from dawn to dawn. A lunar date days, correlated
with the phases of the moon, is the period the moon takes to travel one-thirtieth
the distance between new moon positions in each successive sign in the zodiac.
The starting point of lunar date days is calculated by a mathematical process
similar to that used for determining the position of the sun and planets. They are
counted in a cycle of seven lunar weekdays named for the days of the week,
which, as noted above, are also the names of seven of the planets. To correlate
the lunar with the solar calendar, these lunar weekdays must be made to fit in
with the solar days. This is complicated.
Firstly, the exact new moon does not occur at precisely the same time of day each
month. Thus, the moon can start to travel one of these little distances of onethirtieth of its cycle at any time of the solar day. The period it takes to travel that
one-thirtieth the distance of its cycle is called by the day of the week. Thus, the
day of the week may start at different times during the solar day.
Furthermore, it takes the moon a different amount of time to cover each of these
little one-thirtieth distances, since its speed varies with its own position and with
the position of the sun in the zodiac. Consequently, the amount of a lunar
weekday that passes between the dawns of two successive solar days varies,
because the length of a lunar weekday is likewise variable.
Dates of the lunar month, which constitute the second inclusive calendar feature,
are numbered one to thirty and last from dawn to dawn in the manner of solar
days. The problem is to determine which date is to be assigned to each day of the
week. The solution is not so obvious, because the lunar weekdays which are
what determine the days of the week since they are called Sunday, Monday, and
so on start at and last for different lengths of time.
The rule is that the day of the week is decided by which lunar weekday is
occurring at the dawn of the lunar date. For instance, a lunar weekday, such as
Monday, may start in the afternoon of the second date of a month and end in the
afternoon of the third. Since at the dawn of the third, which here is taken
standardly to be at 5 A. M., the lunar weekday is still Monday, the third will be
considered a Monday.
A day of the week can never repeat or be skipped. Directly after a Sunday, a
Monday must follow, not a second Sunday or a Tuesday. However, sometimes
the dawns of two successive dates occur within the same lunar weekday. For
instance, the lunar weekday Monday may begin five minutes before the dawn of
the third, and the next day, the Tuesday, may begin five minutes after the dawn of
the fourth. This would make both the third and the fourth Mondays! There cannot
be two Mondays in a row. One of these dates must be omitted. This is why in the
Tibetan calendar certain dates of the month are skipped.
On the other hand, sometimes the beginnings of two lunar weekdays occur before
the dawn of the next date. For example, if the lunar weekday Monday begins five
minutes after the dawn of the third and ends five minutes before the dawn of the
fourth, then,by the first rule, the third should be a Sunday and the fourth a
Tuesday, and there would be no Monday. Since it is not possible for it to go from
a Sunday to a Tuesday without an intervening Monday, one of these dates will
have to be doubled in order for one of them to be the Monday. This is why
sometimes there are two eighths or two twenty-fifths in a Tibetan month.
To make the lunar calendar further correspond with the solar, a thirteenth month
must occasionally be added to the year in the form of an extra doubled or leapmonth. The rules for which dates are to be doubled or omitted, and when an extra
month is to be added are different in the various Tibetan astro lineages. This is
their major difference. The various Hindu calendars also have doubled and
omitted dates, and both they and the classical Chinese calendar have doubled
months. The rules followed are not the same as those in any of the Tibetan
systems.
The third inclusive calendar feature is the moon's constellation. This does not
refer to the moon's actual position at the dawn of a lunar date, as calculated by
the five planets' techniques, but rather to its successive associated constellation.
For any particular lunar date, this is the constellation position the moon would
have at the beginning of the lunar weekday occurring at the dawn of that date,
according to which that date was assigned its day of the week.
The fourth and fifth features are the combination and the action periods. There
are twenty-seven combination periods. Each is the period during which the
combined motion of the sun and moon equals one twenty-seventh of a complete
zodiac. For any time, then, we derive the combination period by adding the
corrected position of the sun to the moon's successive associated constellation
position. Thus, each period starts at a different time. They have specific names
and interpretations, with some being less auspicious than others are.
Lastly, there are eleven action periods, derived by dividing the thirty lunar dates
in a rather unsymmetrical manner. There is no need to give the details here. Each
of the eleven action periods has a specific name and likewise some are less
favorable than others are for certain activities.
Special Dates in the Tibetan Calendar
The Tibetan calendar and almanac play a large role in Tibetan life. One of their
most important usages is setting the dates for various Buddhist offering
ceremonies or tsog. The tenth of both the waxing and waning phases of the
moon, in other words the tenth and twenty-fifth of each lunar month, is the day
for making ritual offerings to the Buddha-figures Chakrasamvara, sometimes
known as Heruka, and Vajrayogini, as well as to Guru Rinpoche
Padmasambhava, the founder of the Nyingma tradition. Out of all these tenths,
the twenty-fifth date of the eleventh Tibetan month is the most important day for
Chakrasamvara, and the tenth of the twelfth Tibetan month for Vajrayogini. The
eighth of each Tibetan month is the special day for making offerings to Tara. This
is only during the waxing phase of the moon.
If, for instance, a Tibetan month has two tenths, the offering ceremony is made
on the first of these. If the tenth is omitted during that month, the ceremony is
held on the ninth. This rule is followed for all religious practices to be performed
on a specific auspicious date of the Tibetan calendar.
In each Tibetan Buddhist lineage and within each monastery of each tradition, the
schedule of the rituals performed during the course of the year is defined in terms
of the Tibetan calendar. The summer retreat is normally held from the sixteenth
of the sixth Tibetan month until the thirtieth of the seventh month. This is known
as the early summer retreat. Gyuto and Gyumay Tantric Monasteries of Lhasa
follow the later summer retreat from the sixteenth of the seventh Tibetan month
until the thirtieth of the eighth month. Moreover, in the Gelug tradition, the
twenty-ninth of each lunar month is the special day for the Buddha figure
Vajrabhairava, also known as Yamantaka, especially relied upon for protection
from obstacles and interferences. For this reason, meditation retreats for intensive
practice are considered best begun on this date of any Tibetan month.
The Buddhist holiday of Vesak celebrates not only Shakyamuni Buddha's
parinirvana or passing away, but also his date of birth and enlightenment. Vesak,
or sometimes Wosak, derives from the Pali equivalent, used in Theravadin
countries, of the Sanskrit month Vaishakha, which is the second Kalachakra and
fourth Tibetan month. This holiday is celebrated on the full moon day, i.e. the
fifteenth, of that month. Since the Theravadin calendar is different from that of
the Tibetans, and derives from one of the Indian Hindu systems, Vesak works out
to be one month earlier than in the Tibetan scheme.
Two other events from Shakyamuni Buddha's life are celebrated. After Buddha
demonstrated his enlightenment under the bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, the first
person he taught was his mother, who had passed away in his childbirth and was
reborn in the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods or, according to some sources, in
Tushita Heaven. Buddha traveled there to teach her. The holiday of the Descent
from the Heavenly Realm, celebrated on the fourth date of the sixth Tibetan
month, commemorates Buddha's return to this world. Buddha then went to
Sarnath and at the Deer Park taught his first human disciples. The holiday of
Setting Flow Rounds of Teachings, on the twenty-second of the ninth Tibetan
month, celebrates this.
Each of the Tibetan Buddhist lineages also has its special days. For instance, in
the Gelug tradition the holiday Ganden Fifth Offerings, on the twenty-fifth of the
tenth Tibetan month, commemorates the passing away of Tsongkhapa. Monlam,
the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa, takes place from the third to the twentyfourth
of the first Tibetan month. On its final day, there is traditionally a Tossing Out of
a Ritual Cake ceremony performed by the State Oracle Nechung, during which
all obstacles for the new year are symbolically removed. This is followed on the
next day, the twenty-fifth of the first month, by the celebration of the Inviting
Maitreya Festival, during which an image of Maitreya, the next Buddha, is
paraded around Lhasa in an ornate cart.
There are also specific dates for the consultation of oracles. For instance, the
Tibetan government traditionally consulted the Nechung State Oracle on the
tenth of the first month. In Tibet, the Abbots of Drepung Monastery regularly
consulted the Nechung Oracle on the second of each Tibetan month.
Tibetan calendars regularly mark three types of inauspicious dates. "Bad days"
are marked with the Tibetan letter zha, and last from dawn to dawn. "Black days"
are marked with a nya, and cover only the daytime. Both occur on fixed dates
each year, one during each Kalachakra month. The third type of inauspicious
date, marked with a ya, lasts both day and night. It is known as "Yen Kuong
days," after the name of a Chinese deity. There are usually thirteen each year and
they occur on fixed dates of the broad Chinese-style months of the yellow
calculation system. Furthermore, from the Chinese-derived element calculation

system, each year contains two "black" or inauspicious months, and occasionally
there is a "black" year.
The other type of date on the Tibetan calendar marked with a letter, this time sa,
is for the bimonthly ceremony of the monks and nuns for the purification and
restoration of their vows, the sojong ceremony. Each year, the first of these is
held fifteen solar days after the new year. Tibetan months begin with the waxing
period of the moon. The second sojong each month, at the end of the waning
period, is held fourteen lunar date numbers after the previous ceremony. If there
is a doubled date, both those dates are taken as one in the count. If there is an
omitted date, an extra date's number must be counted to make fourteen. The first
sojong of each month, at the end of the waxing period, is held simply fifteen
solar days after the previous ceremony, with no regard to doubled or omitted
dates.
It should be noted that, in general, the waxing half of the month is considered
more auspicious than the waning. Therefore, most Tibetans will begin
constructive, positive practices during the first half of the lunar month so that the
results will increase and expand like the waxing moon.
Auspicious and Inauspicious Dates
In addition, certain dates are considered auspicious and others inauspicious for
various specific activities. For instance, the ninth, nineteenth, and twenty-ninth
dates of a lunar month are auspicious for beginning journeys, whereas the socalled "water-strainer" dates of the second, eighth, fourteenth, twentieth, and
twenty-sixth are unfavorable for travel. This is why if Tibetans cannot begin a
journey on an auspicious date, they will often take a piece of their luggage and
move it a little down the road to another house on the auspicious date, so as to
begin the journey symbolically on that day. However, if one dies on the ninth,
nineteenth, twenty-ninth, or when the moon is in the ninth constellation, or on a
Sunday, and especially on a date when all three occur together, this is considered
inauspicious for those left behind.
The most inauspicious date of the year is the "nine bad omens day." It starts on
the sixth date of the eleventh Tibetan month at noon, and lasts until noon of the
seventh. During this period, most Tibetans do not try to do any special religious
or other positive practices, but instead go on picnics, relax, and play. The history
of this custom is that at the time of the Buddha, one person tried to accomplish
many positive deeds this day, but nine bad things befell him. Buddha advised that
on this date each year in the future, it is best not to try to accomplish much good.
The immediately following twenty-four hour period, however, from noon of the
seventh date of the eleventh month to noon of the eighth, is the "ten good omens
day." On this day, at the time of the Buddha, ten wonderful things happened to
that same person when he continued trying to do what was constructive. This
period, then, is considered very favorable for positive projects but, in general,
Tibetans also take this time for picnics and games.
Two other periods of the year are indicated in the almanac and are noteworthy.
The first is called the "dawning of the star Rishi." This is calculated from a
certain type of point in the eighth Tibetan month and lasts for seven days. During
this period, the light from the star "Rishi" shines on the gem on the crown of a
certain fabulous statue, causing nectar to flow from it. This causes hot springs to
be most effective and thus these seven days are the so-called bathing days when
Tibetans go to hot springs for treatment and cures.
The other is called the "poison pig days." They also last for seven days and are
calculated from another type of point in the fifth Tibetan month. During these
days, due to the effect of a contaminating rain, waters turn to poison. Any
medicinal plants picked on these days will be poisonous. Likewise, hot springs
will be very detrimental, and so everyone avoids them.
Although, from the Chinese-derived element calculation system, there are many
obstacle periods during our lifetimes, the most major one noted by all Tibetans is
the "obstacle year of age." This is each year during which our natal animal-signs
recur. Thus, if we were born in a year of the rat, then each subsequent year of the
rat would be an obstacle year. This occurs, then, every twelve years. According to
the Tibetan way of counting age, as discussed previously, during the first of
these, we are one year of age, during the second thirteen, and so on.
Popular Usage of Astrology among the Tibetans
Horary astrology, the checking of the auspiciousness of the hours of the day, is
the main astrological feature derived from the Tibetan almanac. It too plays a
significant role in Tibetan life. It involves the first two inclusive calendar
features, the lunar weekday and moon's constellation.
Each of the twenty-eight lunar constellations and each of the seven lunar
weekdays and heavenly bodies is associated with one of four elements. These are
four out of the five Indian elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. The element
of the moon's successive associated constellation for a specific date is compared
with that of the lunar weekday occurring. Each of the possible ten combinations
of elements has a different interpretation, based on which we can decide if a
certain action is best undertaken at that time or not.
This is the system of the ten lesser matchings. For instance, if we were doing a
fire offering ceremony at the conclusion of a meditation retreat, it would be most
favorable to choose an hour during a double fire period, which would enhance
the fire, rather than a water-fire period which would douse the flames.
Among the Tibetans, astrologers are consulted most commonly for horoscopes
for newborns, and about marriages and deaths. Aspects from both the white and
black calculation systems are combined in drawing up a horoscope. Of special
interest to Tibetan parents are the expected lifespans of their children. If they are
short and there will be many obstacles, various religious ceremonies
recommended in the horoscope will be performed and statues and paintings
commissioned.
Before marriages, the compatibility of the couple is checked, as mentioned
before, by comparing their various pebble-elements and trigrams. Saturday is the
weekday of prosperity. Therefore, in marriage calculations it is considered the
best day of the week for a bride to arrive and move into her perspective husband's
family home. The couple's family will give the astrologer the approximate week
when they would like the wedding to take place. The most auspicious day of the
week and time within this period will then be chosen according to the system of
the ten minor matchings. If it works out that the Saturday is an auspicious day, it
is always best to hold the wedding then. If the Saturday is inauspicious, then the
next closest auspicious date is selected, although the bride would still be advised
to enter her new husband's home on the Saturday before.
Almost every Tibetan will consult an astrologer when someone dies. Based on
when the death occurred, calculations are made from the Chinese-derived
element system for what time and in which direction to remove the corpse from
where it has been laid in state and take it to its burial or cremation. The actual
time of the cremation or funeral itself is not calculated, and auspicious and
inauspicious days determined by the ten lesser matchings are not involved. The
types of ceremonies to perform for the dead are also determined, particularly if
harmful spirits were involved with the death.
The Tibetans also generally seek an astrologer's advice for auspicious days to
move house, open a new shop, and set off on a business venture. In Tibet, the
latter concerns the day and time to begin a caravan, while in India the most
frequent occasion is when to leave home to go sell ready-made sweaters and
clothing on the streets of various distant Indian cities. This is the most common
means of livelihood among the Tibetans in exile.
Other occasions when auspicious days are always chosen are when a young
Incarnate Lama is enthroned, when he later makes formal offerings to his
monastery to begin his studies, when a family sends their child to enter a
monastery or nunnery, and when a new Geshe, having completed his religious
education and passed his examinations, makes formal offerings to his monastery.
Also, it is the Tibetan custom to give babies their first haircuts approximately one
year after birth. This must be done on an auspicious day, otherwise it is believed
the baby will likely develop abscesses or wounds.

Tibetan physicians consult medical astrology when determining the best days of
the week for special medical treatment for a patient, such as moxabustion or gold
needle acupuncture. The patient's life-force and life-spirit days, determined from
their natal animal-signs, would be chosen and deadly ones avoided.
When a long-life ceremony is offered to a Lama, it is done in the early morning
of his life-force or life-spirit day. His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama was
born in an earth-pig year. As his life-spirit day is Wednesday, many Lamas will
begin teaching a discourse on this day of the week for reasons of auspiciousness.
When ritual ceremonies are to be performed for helping someone who is sick, his
or her life-force or life-spirit days will also be chosen.
One further thing that Tibetans regularly consult astrologers about is whether
their businesses will be successful this year. The astrologer performs a
prognostication according to one scheme found in the "arising from the vowels"
system. The question must be submitted formally, and a calculation is made from
the number of words in the question and the number of people in the room where
and when the question is asked.
Buddhist Approach to Astrology
There are so many variables that can affect the interpretation of any particular
period, both in general and for an individual, that almost any time will have
something wrong with it. Not all factors have an equal importance. Only certain
variables are examined for one situation or another, and some will overrule
others. Thus if a journey can be begun on a ninth, nineteenth, or twenty-ninth
date, or a Kalachakra empowerment be given on a full moon day, it is not so
crucial that other factors might be unfavorable.
The aim of this system is not to cripple people with superstitions. Rather, it
provides the populace with something like a weather forecast. If we have a
general idea that a certain date might not be so favorable, we can take specific
preventive measures of performing ceremonies, acting in a kind, careful manner,
and so on, as a way of overcoming or avoiding problems. It is like carrying an
umbrella when one hears it might rain.
Buddhism does not view astrology in terms of influences coming from the
heavenly bodies as independently existing entities totally unrelated to each
individual's mental continuum, but rather as a reflection of the results of our
previous impulsive behavior or karma. A horoscope, actually, is almost like a
map for being able to read aspects of our karma. One of the comprehensive
results of our impulsive actions in previous lives would be the reflection of our
karmic situations in the astronomical and astrological configurations into which
we are born. Therefore, astro information can give a clue about the results that
might come from our previous impulsive actions unless we take preventive
measures to alter the situation. Thus, it helps us to know how to handle any
predicament. Likewise, an almanac indicates the comprehensive results built up
and to be experienced by a large number of individuals together.
There is nothing fatalistic about the Buddhist worldview. The present situation
has arisen from causes and conditions. If we can accurately read that situation,
we can act in such ways as to create different causes and conditions for
improving it even in this lifetime, for the benefit of both ourselves and others.
This does not mean by making offerings or sacrifices to the various deities of the
heavenly bodies to appease them and avert their harm, but rather by modifying
our own attitudes and behavior.
On a popular level, when it is sometimes recommended that in order to extend
our lifespans we need to commission a statue or painting of a certain Buddhafigure, it might seem that this is to gain the favor of that figure. This is an
uneducated misconception. The attitude generated in such an undertaking is what
has the most effect. If it is one of fear or selfishness, the effect will be minimal.
Far more effective in prolonging our lives and improving our health and material
situations are specific meditation practices when done with the motivation of
being able to benefit others.
Tibetan-English Glossary of Astrology Terms

The following list of suggested English equivalents for Tibetan astrology and
astronomy technical terms is arranged according to English alphabetical order. It
was compiled according to the explanations of Gen Lodro-gyatso, with the help
of Tsedrub Negi and Phunrab Tencho, all of the Tibetan Medical and Astro
Institute, Dharamsala, India.
Tibetan
bras-bu bdag-po
brid-pa
brug
bul-ba
bum
byor-pa
byung-gros
byung-ba
byung-ba bzhi
byung-ba lnga
byung-rtsis
chi-bai sbyor
chi-bslui lo
das-khyim
das-lo
das-zhag
das-zla
dod-cha
English
ruler who wishes to know the divined result
subtract
dragon (#2 of the 12 animal cycle, when the
count is begun with yos, hare, as 1)
add
hundred thousands place (in a number)
enrichments (= the number 10)
origin (or steady) gait (of a planet, neither fast
nor slow)
elements (= the number 5)
four elements (= earth, water, fire, and wind, in
the Kalachakra system)
five elements (= earth, water, fire, metal, wood,
in the Chinese system)
element calculations
death conjunction (#10 of the 10 lesser
matchings, the matching of fire and water, when
the count is begun with 1)
death-cheating years
fully passed (previous) sign of the zodiac
fully passed years (since the start of a 60-year
cycle)
fully passed (previous) day
fully passed months (since the start of a year)
thirteen-part parts unit-place (the base-13
smallest unit-place, called parts, calculated for
the value of lunar dates, lunar weekdays, and the
suns position in the precis system of
dod-pa
dod-yon
du-byed
dzin-byed grangs
dzin-pa
gros-bzhi
jig-rten
jug-pa
khon-dzin
khor-lo
khor-lo
khor-los phul
khor-los bsgril-ba
khor-phyed
khor-phyed
khor-phyed
khrig
khrig-pa
khro-ba
khyog-gros
od-dkar
phel-gyur
calculations)
types of beings on the plane of sensory desires
(= types of Desire Realm beings = the number
13)
sense objects (= the number 5)
affecting impulses (#2 of the 12 natal links of
dependent arising)
place-holding number
holding (#7 of the 27 combination periods, when
four types of gaits (or motion of planets: fast,
slow, origin or steady, and turn-bending or
zigzag)
worlds (= the number 3)
avatars (of Vishnu) (= the number 10)
holding a grudge (#26 of the 27 combination
periods, when the count is begun with 0)
round of figures (by which one divides all the
unit-places of a number to even them out)
circle (of the zodiac) (= the number 27)
divide by a round (of figures) (= even out the
unit-places) (= khor-los bsgril-ba)
divide by round (of figures) (= even out the unitplaces) (= khor-los phul)
half-circle (shaped box)
half a zodiac (of 27 lunar constellations)
opposition (of two planets)
coitus (= the number 2)
Gemini (Skt. mithuna) (#3 of the 12 signs of the
zodiac, when the count is begun with 0)
furious deities (= the number 10)
turn-bending (or lateral or zigzag) gait (of a
planet)
white light (= moon = the number 1)
increase (#3 of the 10 lesser matchings, the
matching of fire and fire, when the count is
begun with 1)
phel-ba
pho-byed bdun
phral-ba
phri-pa
phrod-pa nyer-brgyad
phrod-sbyor bcu
phrog-byed
phrog-pa
babs-sme
babs-spar
bag-rtsis
bai-dkar nyi-ldog
bai-dkar
bar-gza
bcad-pa
bcu
bcu-gnyis chai dus-sbyor
bdag-poi gza
bde-byung
bde-byed
bdud
bdud-rtsi
bdud-skar
bdun-dmar
bdun-zur
bgo-ba
bgo-gzhi rags-pa
increase (#10 of the 27 combination periods,

when the count is begun with 0)
seven shifting (cyclical) action periods
subtract
subtract
twenty-eight greater matchings (of a lunar
weekday and lunar constellation, without
reference to their associated elements)
ten lesser matchings (of the associated elements
of a lunar weekday and lunar constellation)
Haris (= Shivas = the number 11)
subtract
progressed magic-square number
progressed trigram
marriage calculations
solstice points according to White Beryl
White Beryl
intermediate (correlations of the) planets
divide
tens place (in a number)
twelve-choice divination (used mainly for
investigating about business, sickness, or some
needed purpose)
ruling planet (= zhing-bdag gza)
Shambus (= Shivas = the number 11)
Shankaras (= Shivas = the number 11)
maras (= demonic forces = the number 4)
nectar (#2 of the 10 lesser matchings, the
matching of water and water, when the count is
begun with 1)
demonic constellation
seven-red (#7 of the 9 magic-square numbers)
seventh corner (ahead from the natal animal; its
opposite animal)
divide
rough base of division
bgod-pa
bgrod-pa
bgrod-pa gnyis
bgya
bishti
bkong-bya sprel
bkra-shis
bkra-shis
bkra-shis
bla
bla-gza
bla-ma
bla-rdel
bla-skar
bod-zla
bra-nya
brgyad-dkar
bro-ba
brtan-pa
bsdus-rgyud
bse-ru
bsgres-pa
bsgril-ba
bsgrub-bya
divide
declinations (= the number 2)
two declination periods (of the sun, north and
south)
hundreds place (in a number)
residing without joy (#7 of the 11 action periods,
late afternoon monkey-period (#6 of the 12
periods of a day, 15:00 17:00) (= nyi-myur
sprel)
auspicious symbols (= the number 8)
Mars (Skt. mangala) (indicated by the number 3
in a horoscope chart) (= mig-dmar)
auspicious (#8 of the 11 action periods, when the
count is begun with 1)
life-spirit
life-spirit weekday
Jupiter (Skt. brhaspati) (indicated by the number
5 in a horoscope chart) (= phur-bu)
life-spirit pebble-element
life-spirit constellation
Tibetan month (= hor-zla, Mongolian month)
Muscae (Skt: bharani) (#1 of the 27 lunar
constellations, when the count is begun with 0,
associated with the element of fire)
eight-white (#8 of the 9 magic-square numbers)
flavors (= the number 6)
fixed periods (= fixed signs of the zodiac)
Abridged Kalachakra Tantra(Skt. Laghu
Kalachakra Tantra)
rhinoceros (= the number 1)
multiply
divide
what is to be accomplished (#21 of the 27
combination periods, when the count is begun
with 0)
bsgyur
bsnan-pa
bsnon-pa
bsnun-pa
bsre
bsubs-pa
btson
btub-skar
bu-ga
bu-lon gyur
bu-lon-du spyod-pa
bu-mo
bum-pa
bya
bya-ra-ba
byang-bgrod
byang-bgrod drug
bye-ba
byed-pa
byed-pa bcu-gcig
byed-pa lo-pho
byed-pa lo-bdag
byed-rtsis
byed-slai khyim
byi
multiply
add
add
multiply
add
erase
box (literally, prison)
harm constellation
orifices (= the number 9)
subtract
travel behind (its mean position)
Virgo (Skt. kanya) (#5 of the 12 signs of the
Aquarius (Skt. kumbha) (#10 of the 12 signs of
the zodiac, when the count is begun with 0)
bird (#7 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
is begun with yos, hare, as 1)
indicator
northern declination period
six zodiac-signs of (the suns) northern
declination period (= Sagittarius, Capricorn,
Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, and Taurus)
ten millions place (in a number)
action period (one of the 5 inclusive calendar
features)
eleven action periods (a complex system for
dividing 30 lunar dates)
shift to the new year according to the precis
system
lord of the new year according to the precis
system
precis (Skt. karana) system of astro calculations
(for the 5 inclusive calendar features)
zodiac-sign position for ease of use
rat (#10 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
byi-bzhin
byin-pa
byis-pa
byis-pa
bzang
bzang-po
bzang-po
bzang-po bcu-dzoms
bzhi-cha
bzhi-gshed
bzhi-ljang
cha-og
cha-gong
cha-shas
cha-shas
cha-shas drug-pa
cha-shas shed-snyoms
chad
chad-lhag med
chu
chu-dzag
Vega (Skt. abhijit) (the second half of #21 of the

27 lunar constellations, when the count is begun
with 0, associated with the element of earth)
add
childhood (#2 of the 11 action periods, when the
infancy (date #1 in the lunar date divine quality
system of counting dates) (= dga)
excellence (date #2 in the lunar date divine
quality system of counting dates) (= gzhon-nu)
medicinal ingredients (= the number 6)
excellent (#4 of the 27 combination periods,
concurrence of ten excellent factors
one-fourth
fourth-place slaughterer (animal-sign) (the
animal-sign four places ahead of or behind the
natal animal and thus squaring it)
four-green (#4 of the 9 magic-square numbers)
lower (= smaller) parts unit-place number (= the
sixth place when six unit-places are calculated)
(= cha-shas drug-pa)
higher (= larger) parts unit-place number (= the
fifth place when six unit-places are calculated)
parts (the smallest unit-place calculated for lunar
dates, lunar weekdays, and sun and planetary
positions)
parts (= the number 16)
parts that constitute the sixth (smallest unit-place
in a calculation) (= cha-og)
equalize the units in the parts unit-place (for the
lunar weekday and the position of the sun)
omitted lunar date
without any extra added or omitted lunar dates
water (one of the 4 elements in the Kalachakra
list and one of the 5 elements in the Chinese list)
split-water dates
chu-so
chu-gter
chu-smad
chu-srang
chu-srin
chu-stod
chu-stod-kyi zla-ba
chu-tig sngon-po
chu-tshan
chu-tshod
dal-gros
dal-bar
dal-dag
dal-rkang
dbang
dbang-phyug
dbang-po
dbang-po
dbang-rdel
dbang-skar
dbang-sme
dbang-thang
dbang-thang tshang-bras
dben-pa
dbo
rivers (= the number 4)

treasuries of water (= oceans = the number 4)
Lower Sagittarius (Skt. uttarashadha) (#20 of
the 27 lunar constellations, when the count is
begun with 0, associated with the element of
earth)
minutes (= chu-tshan)
Capricorn (Skt. makara) (#9 of the 12 signs of
Mid-Sagittarius (Skt. purvashadha) (#19 of the
27 lunar constellations, when the count is begun
with 0, associated with the element of water)
Mid-Sagittarius (Kalachakra month #4 = Tibetan
month #6)
Blue Water-Essence (the name of a comet, one
of the 4 bad omen planets)
minutes (= chu-sran)
hours
brake-point (or slow) gait (of a planet)
mean position for the brake-point correction
position corrected for brake-point
brake-point quadrant-motion constant
power; capacity
Ishvaras (powerful ones = Shivas = the number
11)
sensors (= the number 5)
powerful (#25 of the 27 combination periods,
power (or capacity) pebble-element
ruling constellation
ruling magic-square number
empowering element
full effect of the empowering element
subtract
Denebola (Skt. uttaraphalguni) (#11 of the 27
lunar constellations, when the count is begun at
dboi zla-ba
dbugs
dbugs-thob
dbyangs
dbyangs-char
dbyangs-char
dbyar-bring rta
dbyar-ka
dbyar nyi-ldog
dbyar-ra sbrul
dbyar-tha lug
dbyi-ba
dbyig
dbyu-gu
dbyug
de-nyid
dga
dga-ba
dge-ba
dgu-chai dus-sbyor
dgu-dmar
dgu-mig
dgu-smug
0, associated with the element of wind)

Denebola (Kalachakra month #12 = Tibetan
month #2)
breaths (= skad-cig, seconds)
breath-catching nadir-point
vowels (of the Sanskrit alphabet)
arising from the vowels
Arising from the Vowels (Skt. Svarodaya Tantra)
summer middle build-up horse month (= Tibetan
month #5 in the Kalachakra season month
system)
summer
summer solstice
summer prelude build-up snake month (=
Tibetan month #4 in the Kalachakra season
month system)
summer finale build-up sheep month (= Tibetan
system)
erase
riches (= the number 8)
hours
degrees
factors of reality (= the number 25)
joy (date #1 in the lunar date divine quality
system of counting dates) (= byis-pa)
joy (#13 of the 27 combination periods, when
constructive (#22 of the 27 combination periods,
nine-choice divination (used mainly for
investigating about thefts and lost items)
nine-red (#9 of the 9 magic-square numbers) (=
dgu smug)
nine-based misfortune spots
nine-maroon (#9 of the 9 magic-square numbers)
dgun nyi-ldog
dgun-bring byi
dgun-ka
dgun-ka phag
dgun-tha glang
dkar-po
dkar-po
dkar-rtsis
dkyil-khor
dman-pa
dngos-grub
dngos-grub
dogs-pai bras
don-brtag
don-gyi khyim-pho
dor
dor-ba
dor-ba
dor-ba
dor-bai lhag
dor-lhag
dor rim-min
dpyid-bring yos
(= dgu dmar)
winter solstice
winter middle build-up rat month (= Tibetan
system)
winter
winter prelude build-up pig month (= Tibetan
system)
winter finale build-up bull month (= Tibetan
system)
Venus (indicated by the number 6 in a
horoscope chart) (= pa-sangs = khu-ba)
white (#23 of the 27 combination periods, when
white (Indian-derived) astro calculations
orbit length (of a planet)
subtract; minus
actual attainments (#1 of 10 lesser matchings,
the matching of earth and earth, when the count
is begun with 1)
actual attainments (#15 of the 27 combination
wavering result (maybe yes, maybe no)
investigate if ones purposes will work out
actual zodiac-sign position shifted to x
will subtract
erase
divide
subtract
remainder from the division
remainder from subtraction
if it subtracts, then (use) the reverse-order
(figures on the right side of the table)
spring middle build-up hare month (= Tibetan

system)
dpyid-dbugs
spring nadir-point
dpyid-ka
spring
dpyid-kai nyi-mtshan mnyam- vernal (or spring) equinox
pa
dpyid-ra stag
spring prelude build-up tiger month (= Tibetan
system)
dpyid-tha brug
spring finale build-up dragon month (= Tibetan
system)
drag-gsum
three forceful (outer) planets (= Mars, Jupiter,
and Saturn)
drag-gsum dal-bar
mean brake-point position for the three forceful
planets
drag-pa
forceful
drag-po
Rudras (fierce aspects of Shiva = the number 11)
drang-srong
sages (rishis = the number 7)
dri-med od
Stainless Light (Commentary to The
Abbreviated Kalachakra Tantra) (Skt.
Vimalaprabha)
drug-cui lor-brten bras
effect of the natal basis on the 60-year cycle
drug-dkar
six-white (#6 of the 9 magic-square numbers)
du-ba
Smoky (name of a comet) (indicated by the
number 7 in a horoscope chart) (= du-ba mjugring = mjug-ring)
du-ba mjug-ring(s)
Smoky Long Tail (name of a comet, one of the 4
bad omen planets) (= du-ba)
dug-phag
poisonous pig days (= phag-zhag)
dum-lngai dus-sbyor
fivefold types of divination (all calculated based
on using the same root for divination, spyidhru)
dung-phyur
hundred millionths place (in a number)
dur-mig
cemetery misfortune spots
dus
seasons (= the number 6)
dus-me
south node; Kalagni (indicated by the number 9
dus-sbyor
dus-sbyor
dus-sbyor
dus-sbyor dpe
dus-sbyor gsum-cha
dus-sbyor phyed-pa
dus-tshan
dus-tshan bcu-gnyis
dva-lcags
g.yag-mgo rlung-tshub
g.yo-ba
g.yul-rgyal
gcig
gcig-dkar
gdab-pa
gdengs-can
gdong-skar
gdugs-dkar
gdugs-rim
ge-sar khrul-chen
gin-ri
glang
in a horoscope chart) (= mjug-skar)

house; astrological house
astrological period divination; prognostication
periods of a day (= 5 astrological hours = 2
clock-hours) (= dus-tshan)
system of astrological divination
three-choice divination (used mainly to
investigate if ones aims will be fulfilled)
divination dividing (the choices into two, used
mainly to check the sex of an unborn child)
periods of a day (= 5 astrological hours = 2
clock-hours) (= dus-sbyor)
twelve (2 clock-hour) periods of a day
tui-iron (Chinese: tui, lake, the joyful) (#3 of the
8 trigrams)
Yak-head Rough Wind (the name of a comet,
one of the 4 bad omen planets)
moving or action periods (= cardinal signs of the
zodiac)
Victory in Battles (Skt. Yuddhajaya Tantra)
units place (in a number)
one-white (#1 of the 9 magic-square numbers)
planting (#1 of 11 action periods, when the count
is begin with 1)
hooded ones (= cobras = the number 8)
dragons head planet (= north node; Rahu)
(indicated by the number 8 in a horoscope chart)
(= sgra-gcan)
white umbrella chart
stages of a parasol (-shaped top of a stupa) (= the
number 13)
great devices of Gesar (= the 64 hexagrams of
The Book of Changes, Chin. Yijing, Wade-Giles
Chin. I Ching)
gen-mountain (Chinese: gen, mountain, keeping
still) (#6 of the 8 trigrams)
Taurus (Skt. vrsha) (#1 of the 12 signs of the
glang
gling
gnam-lo
gnam-loi sme-ba
gnas-lnga
gnas-mal bcu-gynis
gnas-mal bcu-gnyis bras
gnyis-nag
gnyis-skyes
go-la
gre
gro-bzhin
gro-bzhin-gyi zla-ba
grub-pa
grub-rtsis
gsal-ba
gsal-byed
gsal-zhag
gser-rtsis
gshed-gza
gshed-skar
gsil-ba
gsum-cha
gsum-mthing

ox (# 11 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
continents (= the number 7)
present year
transit magic-square number of the present year
five unit-places (five levels of subdivision for
specifying a position, such as sign of the zodiac,
degrees, minutes, seconds, and parts)
chart (of planetary positions) in 12 houses
effect of the natal twelve-house chart
two-black (#2 of the 9 magic-square numbers)
twice-grown (= teeth = the number 32)
orbit
Zosma (Skt. purva phalguni) (#10 of the 27
lunar constellations, when the count is begun
with 0, associated with the element of fire)
Altair (Skt. shravana) (#21 of the 27 lunar
associated with the element of earth)
Altair (Kalachakra month # 5 = Tibetan month
#7)
accomplishing (# 20 of the 27 combination
full tenet (Skt. siddhanta) system of astro
calculations (for both the 5 planets and 5
inclusive calendar features)
divide
consonants (of the Sanskrit alphabet)
clear day (count in a 60-year cycle)
yellow calculations
deadly weekday
deadly constellation
multiply
one-third
three-indigo (#3 of the 9 magic-square numbers)
gter
gza
gza
gza
gza-grems
gza-bar
gza-bcu
gza-bcus rgyu-lam
gza-bcus rgyu-lam khyim
gza-dag
gza-dhru
gza-gnas
gza-lnga
gza-lnga lnga-bsdus
gza-lnga spyi-yi nyin-zhag

gza mig-dmar
gza nyi-ma
gza pa-sangs
gza phur-bu
gza phyed-dag-pa
gza phyir-ldog
treasures (= the number 9)

planet; heavenly body
day of the week
lunar weekday (Skt. tithi) (one of the 5 inclusive
calendar features)
planetary chart (drawn with 12 houses)
mean lunar weekday
ten planets; ten heavenly bodies (= sun, moon,
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, North
Node, South Node, Comet)
ecliptic
zodiac
corrected lunar weekday
lunar weekdays (monthly) root
unit-place lines for the lunar weekday
five planets (= Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn)
five planets and five inclusive calendar features
(the main features in the white Indian-derived
calculations)
general solar day count (in a 60-year cycle) for
the five planets
Tuesday (#3 of the 7 days of the week, when the
count is begun with 0, associated with the
element of fire)
Sunday (#1 of the 7 days of the week, when the
element of fire)
Friday (#6 of the 7 days of the week, when the
element of earth)
Thursday (#5 of the 7 days of the week, when
the count is begun with 0, associated with the
element of wind)
half-corrected lunar weekday
retrograde planet (= Rahu and Kalagni, the north
and south node planets)
gza-rtag
gza spen-pa
lunar weekdays daily passage of time constant

Saturday (#0 of the 7 days of the week, when the
element of earth)
gza-yi dhru-wa rnam-par dag lunar weekdays corrected (monthly) root
gza zla-ba
Monday (#2 of the 7 days of the week, when the
element of water)
gzai dod-cha
lunar weekdays thirteen-part parts unit-place (in
the precis system of astro calculations)
gzai lnga-cha
lunar weekdays fifth or parts unit-place (divided
into 707 parts in the full tenet system of astro
calculations)
gzhi-rtsis
basic yearly progression calculations
gzhin-rje
Yama (lord of death = Sanskrit pun for twins =
the number 2)
gzhon-nu
childhood (date # 2 in the lunar date divine
ssquality system of counting dates) (= bzang)
gzhu
Sagittarius (Skt. dhanu) (#8 of the 12 signs of
gzugs
form (= the number 1)
hor-zla
Mongolian month (= bod-zla, Tibetan month)
hor-zla bdun-pa phyi-ma
later Mongolian seventh month
ka-rka-ta
Cancer (Skt. karkkata) (#3 of the 12 signs of the
keg-rtsis
obstacle calculation
keg-skar
obstacle constellation
kham-chu
kan-water (Chinese: kan, water, the abysmal) (#5
of the 8 trigrams)
khams
natal element
khams
cognitive sources (= the number 18)
khan-pa
add
khon-sa
kun-earth (Chinese: kun, earth, the receptive) (#2
of the 8 trigrams)
khri
ten thousands place (in a number)
khrums-smad
Andromeda (Skt: uttara bhadrapada) (#25 of
the 27 lunar constellations, when the count is
khrums-stod
khrums-stod-kyi zla-ba
khu-ba
khyen-gnam
khyi
khyim
khyim
khyim-bdag
khyim-can
khyim-gyi bras-bu
khyim-skyes
khyim-sleb
khyim-sleb tshes-grangs
khyim so-soi srang-tshad
khyim-zhag
klu
klu
klung
klung-rdel
klung-rta
klung-rtaI bras-bu
kun-joms
lag
begun with 0, associated with the element of

fire)
Pegasus (Skt: purva bhadrapada) (#24 of the 27
with 0, associated with the element of fire)
Pegasus (Kalachakra month # 6 = Tibetan month
#8)
Venus (indicated by the number 6 in a horoscope
chart) (= pa-sangs = dkar-po)
qian-sky (Chinese: qian, heaven, the creative)
(#4 of the 8 trigrams)
dog (#8 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
signs of the zodiac (= the number 12)
sign of the zodiac; zodiac-sign
zodiac-sign-lord (Krishna, etc.)
what has zodiac-sign (locations) (= planets)
effect of the natal zodiac-sign
giving birth to a family (#5 of the 11 action
zodiac-sign reaching cusp point (ingress)
date for reaching the cusp of a sign of the zodiac
amount of minutes for each sign of the zodiac
(the daily period of each sign of the zodiac)
zodiac day; sidereal day
naga (#10 of the 11 action periods, when the
nagas (= the number 8)
fortune
fortune pebble-element
horse of fortune element
effect of the natal horse of fortune element
complete defeat (#12 of the 27 combination
Betelguese (Skt. ardra) (#5 of the 27 lunar
lag
lag-khor chu-tshod
lang-tsho
lang-tsho
las-bzang
lcags
ldan-pa
legs-ldan gza-dgui bras
len-pa
lha
lha-mo char-ba
lha-mtshams
lhag
lhag
lhag-ma
lhag-pa
lhag-pa
lho-bgrod
lho-bgrod drug
lis-me
lnga-bsdus
lnga-cha
associated with the element of water)

hands (= the number 2)
wristwatch-hour; clock-hour
youth (#1 of the 10 lesser matchings, the
matching of earth and water, when the count is
begun with 1)
youth (date # 3 in the lunar date divine quality
system of counting dates) (= rgyal)
good works (#6 of the 27 combination periods,
iron, metal (one of the 5 elements in the Chinese
list)
add
effect of the natal excellent nine planets
obtainer attitude (#9 of the 12 natal links of
dependent arising)
gods (divine beings = the number 8)
Rising Goddess (the name of a comet)
Upper Scorpio (Skt. anuradha) (#16 of the 27
doubled lunar date
Mercury; Wednesday (= lhag-pa = zla-bu)
remainder
Mercury (indicated by the number 4 in a
horoscope chart) (= lhag = zla-bu)
Wednesday (= gza lhag-pa)
southern declination period
six zodiac-signs of (the suns) southern
declination period (= Gemini, Cancer, Leo,
Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio)
li-fire (Chinese: li, fire, the clinging) (#1 of the 8
trigrams)
five inclusive calendar features (= lunar
weekday, lunar date, lunar constellation,
combination period, and action period)
parts that constitute the fifth (smallest unit-place
lnga-ser
lo
lo-gros bcu-gnyis
lo-khor bcu-gnyis
lo-pho
lo-gsar
lo-gsum phyogs-gsum
lo-kag
lo-nag
lo-rgan drug-cu
lo-rta
lo-rtags
lo-tho
loi dgu-mig
loi dur-mig
log-men
longs
longs-dag
ltas-ngan gza-bzhi
lto-gro
lug
lug
lug-zhib
lugs-byung
lugs-bzlog
in a calculation)
five-yellow (# 5 of the nine magic-square
numbers)
calendar-years during which one has been alive
twelve-year gait (of the animal cycle) (= lo-khor
bcu-gnyis)
twelve-year animal cycle
shift to the new year
Tibetan new year
three years and three phases of the moon
obstacle year
black (difficult) year
sixty-year animal-element cycle
animal-sign of a year
natal animal-sign
yearly almanac
nine-based misfortune spot from the year of age
cemetery misfortune spot from the year
progressed combination (of animal and element)
divisible
corrected constant
four bad omen planets (= 4 comets: Smokey
Long Tail in the east, Tiger-head Blazing Fire in
the south, Yak-head Rough Wind in the west,
and Blue Water-Drop in the north)
belly-crawlers (= snakes = the number 8)
Aries (Skt. mesha) (#0 of the 12 signs of the
sheep (#5 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
exact moment the sun enters Aries
evolving order; evolving sequence (in which the
sequence of numbers starts from the top with 1)
(= rim-pa)
reverse order; reverse sequence (in which the
sequence of numbers starts from the bottom with
lugs-ldog
lus
lus-med
lus-rdel
lus-sme
ma-dangs
ma-bsre spyi-zhag
ma-bu dgra-grogs
ma-dor
ma-dor rim-pa
ma-longs
ma-nu
ma-rig-pa
ma-stongs
ma-zin
man-chad
mar-gyi bzhi-gshed
mar-ngo
mar-ngoi tshe
mchog-ldan
mchu
mchui zla-ba
1) (= lugs-ldog = rim-min)
reverse order; reverse sequence (in which the
sequence of numbers starts from the bottom with
1) (= lugs-bzlog = rim-min)
body
unembodied ones (= the number 13)
body pebble-element
body magic-square number
wont subtract
general day count (for a month) with unadded
(dates)
mother, child, enemy, or friend (relationship of
elements)
wont subtract
if it wont subtract, then (use) the in-order
(figures on the left side of the table)
less than (and not including) x
manus (progenitor kings = the number 14)
unawareness (#1 of the 12 natal links of
dependent arising)
non-zero
(next number) not contained (in the quadrant of a
table)
going down from (and including) x
clockwise fourth-place slaughterer (animal-sign)
(the animal-sign four places ahead of and thus
squaring the natal animal)
waning phase
dates of the waning moon
having the supreme (#17 of the 27 combination
Regulus (Skt. macha) (#9 of the 27 lunar
Regulus (Kalachakra month #11 = Tibetan
month #1)
mda
mda-roi lhag-ma
mdos
mdun-char
mdza-bo
me
me
me-bzhi
me mkha rgya-mtsho
mer-rgan gser-rtsis
mgo
mgoi zla-ba
mgyogs-gros
mi-phrod
mi-bdag
mi-mnyam
mi-mnyam rim-min
mi-mthun
mi-sdug-pa
mig
mig
mig-dmar
arrows (of Kama) (= the number 5)

remainder from the division by 65
web-like construction
emerge (appearing) ahead of the sun (at dawn)
(descriptive of a morning star)
friend (#1 of the 27 combination periods, when
fires (= the number 3)
fire (one of the 4 elements in the Kalachakra list
and one of the 5 elements in the Chinese list)
Corvi (Skt. hasta) (#12 of the 27 lunar
associated with the element of wind)
fire-space-ocean (= 403) years
yellow astro calculations of Mergan Kachupa
Orion (Skt. mrgashiras) (#4 of the 27 lunar
Orion (Kalachakra month #9 = Tibetan month
#11)
speed-point (or fast) gait (of a planet)
unsuitable (#7 of the 10 lesser matchings, the
matching of earth and wind, when the count is
begun with 1)
rulers of men (= the number 16)
not even; odd
if it is odd, then (use) the reverse-order (figures
on the right side of the table)
disharmonious (#9 of the 10 lesser matchings,
the matching of water and wind, when the count
is begun with 1)
unpretty (#11 of the 11 action periods, when the
eyes (= the number 2)
Mars; Tuesday
Mars (indicated by the number 3 in a horoscope
chart) (= bkra-shis)
mig-dmar
ming-gzugs
mjug-ring(s)
mjug-ring(s)
mjug-skar
mnyam
mnyam-pa
mnyam-pa gnyis
mnyam rim-pa
mo
mo-zla
mon-gre
mon-gru
mtshams
mtshams-tshad
mtshe-ma
mtshur-lugs
mun-pa
myos-byed
myur-dag
myur-rkang
myur-rtsis
nabs-so
Tuesday (= gza mig-dmar)

nameable mental faculties with or without form
(#4 of the 12 natal links of dependent arising)
Comet (indicated by the number 7 in a
horoscope chart) (= du-ba = du-ba mjug-ring)
Ketu (= south node in the Hindu system)
dragons tail (planet) (= south node, Kalagni)
(indicated by the number 9 in a horoscope chart)
(= dus-me)
even
conjunct; conjunction (of two planets)
periods with an equality of the two (= mutable
signs of the zodiac)
if it is even, then (use) the in-order (figures on
the left side of the table)
female (year)
female (even numbered) months
Delphinis (Skt. dhanishtha) (#16 of the 27 lunar
Mid-Aquarius (Skt. shatabhisha) (#23 of the 27
intermediate (directions) (= the number 6)
length of the night
twins (= the number 2)
Tshur-phu tradition (of astro calculations)
darkness (referring to obscurity, heaviness, a
neutral feeling) (Skt. tamas) (one of the 3
universal constituents in the Samkhya system)
intoxicators (= the number 13)
position corrected for speed-point
speed-point quadrant-motion constant
fast calculation method
Pollux (Skt. punarvasu) (#6 of the 27 lunar
nad-rtsis
nag-pa
nag-pai zla-ba
nag-rtsis
nam-gang
nam-gru
nam-langs
nam-langs yos
nam-mkha
nam-mkha
nam-phyed byi
nam-stong
nang-bral
nang-gza
ngan-pa dgu-dzoms
nges-pa
ngo-thog zhag
nor
nor
nor-du gyur
nor-du spyod-pa
nor-lha
nub
nya
illness calculation
Spica (Skt. citra) (#13 of the 27 lunar
Spica (Kalachakra month #1 = Tibetan month
#3)
black (Chinese-derived) astro calculations
new moon (= 30 th of the lunar month) (= namstong = stong)
Lower Pisces (Skt. revati) (#26 of the 27 lunar
dawn
dawn hare-period (#1 of the 12 periods of a day,
5:00 7:00)
space (= the number 0)
space-harmonizing web
midnight rat-period (#10 of the 12 periods of a
day, 23:00 - 1:00)
new moon (30 th of the lunar month) (= namgang = stong)
matching
internal correlations of the planets
concurrence of nine bad factors (omens)
certainty (#11 of the 27 combination periods,
current (zodiac) day
answer; quotient
wealths (= the number 8)
add
travel ahead (of its mean position)
gods of wealth (= the number 8)
setting (date # 5 in the lunar date divine quality
system of counting dates) (= shi = rdzogs)
Pisces (Skt. mina) (#11 of the 12 signs of the
nya
nyai sgra-gcan
nya-gang
nyer-spyod
nyes-skyon
nyi
nyi
nyi-dzin
nyi-bar
nyi-bu
nyi-dag
nyi-dhru
nyi-dros sbrul
nyi-ldog
nyi-ma
nyi-ma
nyi-ma
nyi-mai dod-cha
nyi-mai lnga-cha
nyi-mar thim
nyi-mtsham mnyam pa
nyi-myur sprel
nyi-nag
nyi-nub bya
nyi-rkang
nyi-rkang dag-pa
nyi-rkang reu-mig
black (difficult) day (= nyi = nyi-nag)

north node positions at full moon
full moon (15 th of the lunar month)
sense offerings (= the number 5)
faults (= the number 18)
black (difficult) day (= nyi-nag= nya)
sun; Sunday (= nyi-ma)
solar eclipse
suns mean position
Saturn (indicated by the number 0 in a horoscope
chart) (= spen-pa)
suns corrected position
suns (monthly) root position
morning snake-period (#3 of the 12 periods of a
day, 9:00 11:00)
solstice
sun (indicated by the number 1 in a horoscope
chart)
Sunday (= gza nyi-ma)
suns (periods in a day) (= the number 12)
suns thirteen-part parts unit-place (in the precis
system of astro calculations)
suns fifth or parts unit-place (divided into 67
parts in the full tenet system of astro
calculations)
disappear into the sun
equinox
late afternoon monkey-period (#6 of the 12
periods of a day, 15:00 17:00) (= bkong-bya
sprel)
black (difficult) day (= nyi = nya)
sunset bird-period (#7 of the 12 periods of a
day, 17:00 19:00)
suns quadrant-motion constant
suns corrected quadrant-motion constant
table of suns quadrant-motion constants
nyi-rtag
nyi-shar brug
nyi-zla mnyam-pa
nyin-phyed rta
nyin-res dus-tshod bcu-gnyis
nyin-tshad
nyin-zhag
nyin-zhag nyi-bar
nyin-zhag nyi-dhru
pa-sangs
pa-sangs
phab
phag
phag-zhag
phen-tshun chen-po
pho
pho-zla
phud-pa
phug-lugs
phul-ba
phun-tshogs
phung-po
phur
phur-bu
phur-bu
phye-ba
phyed-bcas gnyis
phyed-dang gnyis
suns daily motion constant

sunrise dragon-period (#2 of the 12 periods of a
day, 7:00 - 9:00)
conjunction of the sun and the moon
noon horse-period (#4 of the 12 periods of a day,
11:00 13:00)
twelve (2 clock-hour) time periods in each day
length of day
solar day
suns mean position in solar days
suns root position in solar days
Venus (indicated by the number 6 in a horoscope
chart) (= dkar-po = khu-ba)
Friday (= gza pa-sangs)
subtract one
pig (#9 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count is
begun with yos, hare, as 1)
pig days
great mutualities chart
male (year)
male (odd numbered) months
divide
Phug-pa tradition (of astro calculations)
add
splendor (#4 of the 10 lesser matchings, the
matching of wind and wind, when the count is
begun with 1)
aggregates (= the number 5)
Jupiter; Thursday (= phur-bu = bla-ma)
Jupiter (indicated by the number 5 in a
horoscope chart) (= bla-ma = phur)
Thursday (= gza phur-bu)
divide
half with two (= two and a half)
half from two (= one and a half)
phyed-yol glang
phyed-yol lug
phyi-cha
phyi-dhru
phyi-dro ma-ongs
phyi-gza
phyi-pa
phyi-rkang
phyogs
phyogs
ra-bring-tha
ra-ba bzhi
rab-byung
rang-gros
rang-bzhin
rdel
rdel-khra
rdo-rje
rdul
rdzogs
re-bras
reu-mig
reg-pa
res-grogs zla-skar
after midnight ox-period (#11 of the 12 periods

of a day,, 1:00 3:00)
early afternoon sheep-period (#5 of the 12
periods of a day, 13:00 15:00)
later half (of a date) (= nighttime)
next (months) root figures
if it is the afternoon, the time yet to come (until
sunset)
external (correlations of the ) planets
erase
later (accelerating) quarter (or quadrant)
moon-phase (new to full, or full to new moon)
directions (= the number 10)
prelude, middle, and finale (build-up month of a
season)
four rough (animal-signs)
prominent sixty-year cycle (in the Kalachakra
calendar system)
natural-gait (of a planet) (= rlung-gros)
nature (= the number 1)
pebble-element (calculations)
variegated pebble
diamond-strong thunderbolt (#14 of the 27
combination periods, when the count is begun
with 0)
speck (referring to activity, motion, pain) (Skt.
rajas) (one of the 3 universal constituents in the
Samkhya system)
finished (date # 5 in the lunar date divine quality
system of counting dates) (= shi = nub)
ones hopes will bear fruit
table
contacting awareness (#6 of the 12 natal links of
dependent arising)
moons successive associated constellation (for
each weekday)
res-gza
res-gzai bras-bu
rga-shi
rgan
rgya-mtsho
rgya-mtsho rnam-gsum
rgya-rtsis
rgya-rtsis byung-khams
rgya-rtsis nyi-ma
rgya-rtsis sme-ba
rgya-rtsis spar-kha
rgya-zla
rgyai dbugs
rgyai sgang
rgyal
rgyal
rgyal-ba
rgyal-gyi zla-ba
rgyal-po
rgyan-pa
rgyu-skar
ri
ri-bong-can
ri-shi
rig-byed
rigs-can
weekdays (= the number 7)

effect of the natal weekday
aging and dying (#12 of the 12 natal links of
dependent arising)
old age (date # 4 in the lunar date divine quality
system of counting dates) (= stong)
oceans (= the number 4)
three astro masters named Gyatsho (= mKhasgrub Nor-bzang rgya-mtsho, Phug-pa Lhun-grub
rgya-mtsho, gTsang-chung Chos-grags rgyamtsho)
Chinese-style calculations
Chinese-style element of a date
Chinese-style animal of a date
Chinese-style magic-square number of date
Chinese-style trigram of a date
Chinese-style month
Chinese-style nadir-point
Chinese-style zenith-point
Mid-Cancer (Skt. pushya) (#7 of the 27 lunar
triumphant (date # 3 in the lunar date divine
quality system of counting dates) (= lang-tsho)
triumphant ones (= the number 24)
Mid-Cancer (Kalachakra month #10 = Tibetan
month #12)
kings (= the number 16)
add
constellations of the zodiac (27 or 28)
mountains (= the number 7)
what has a rabbit (= moon = the number 1)
sage days
Vedas (= the number 4)
gaining the family traits (#3 of the 11 action
rigs-ldan
ril-bu
ril-cha
rim-min
rim-min phyi-rkang
rim-min snga-rkang
rim-pa
rim-pai phyi-rkang
rim-pai snga-rkang
rin-chen
rkang
rkang-dzin
rkang-dzin bar-ba
rkang-brgyad khor-lo
rkang-bzhi
rkang-bzung
holder of the castes (of Shambhala)

whole number (of the monthly root position
within a lunation cycle)
whole number and parts (indicating the monthly
root position within a lunation cycle)
in reverse order (with the sequence of numbers
starting from the bottom with 1) (= lugs-bzlog =
lugs-ldog)
later (= having higher numerical values)
quadrant (of a table, on the right side where the
sequence of numbers is) in reverse order
(starting from the bottom with 1)
earlier (= having lower numerical values)
quadrant (of a table, on the right side where the
sequence of numbers is) in reverse order
(starting from the bottom with 1)
in order (with the sequence of numbers starting
from the top with 1) (= lugs-byung)
later (= having higher numerical values)
quadrant (of a table, on the left side where the
sequence of numbers is) in order (starting from
the top with 1)
earlier (= having lower numerical values)
quadrant (of a table, on the left side where the
sequence of numbers is) in order (starting from
the top with 1)
precious things (of a cosmic emperor) (= the
number 7)
quadrant (of a table); quadrant-motion constant
place-holder (in a table) of quadrant-motion
constants (= rkang-longs = rkang-pa)
mean position for a quadrant place-holder
eight-line chart (for initial letters of names, as
found in dictionaries, used in prognostication)
four supports (#9 of the 11 action periods, when
(place-holder) that is contained in the (table of)
quadrant-motion constants
rkang-bzung gdong-ma
rkang-bzung sngon-ma
rkang-gcig
rkang-gsum
rkang-longs
rkang-pa
rkang-rtsis
rkang-sdom
rlung
rlung-gros
rlung-rta
rlung-rta sme-ba
rnam-dag grub-dhru
rnam-dag ri-mo
rnam-shes
rnyed-nor
rnyed-pa
ro
rta
rta
rtag-byed bzhi
rtag-longs
rtag-pai longs-spyod
rten-brel
rten-brel bras-bu
rten-brel bcu-gnyis
(place-holder) that is contained ahead (= next) in

a quadrant (of a table) (= rkang-bzung sngonma)
(place-holder) that is contained lower (= next) in
a quadrant (of a table) (= rkang-bzung gdongma)
one-quarter
three-quarters
quadrant-motion constant
quadrant-motion figure (= rkang-dzin = rkanglongs)
pith calculations
summation number for the quadrant-motion
constant
wind (one of the 4 elements in the Kalachakra
list)
wind-gait (of a planet) (a planets gait due to its
natural wind-energy) (= rang-gros)
horse of fortune
horse of fortune magic-square number
corrected monthly root figures for full tenet
correct figure
loaded consciousness (#3 of the 12 natal links of
dependent arising)
answer
answer
tastes (= the number 6)
horses (= the number 7)
horse (#4 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
four static (one-time) action periods
daily motion constant (= rtag-pai longs-spyod)
daily motion constant
dependent arisings (= the number 12)
effect of the natal link of dependent arising
twelve links of dependent arising (a system for
rtsa
rtsa-rgyud
rtsa-sgrub
rtse-mo-can
rtsis-kyi dus-tshod
rtsis-lhag
rus-sbel khor-lo
sa
sa-bri
sa-dzin
sa-ga
sa-gai zla-ba
sa-glang
sa-gzhong
sa-ri
sa-sros khyi
sa-ya
sangs
sbrul
sbrul
sbyang-ba
sbyin-pa
sbyor
analyzing personality and character, correlating

one link to each lunar date day, calculated
according to a complex scheme involving the
nadir- and zenith-points)
channels (= the number 9)
(Skt. Mula Kalachakra Tantra)
derived root features
what has tips (= trident = the number 3)
astrological period (of a day) (= 5 astrological
hours = 2 clock hours)
leftover position (from prior calculations)
tortoise chart
earth (one of the 4 elements in the Kalachakra
list and one of the 5 elements in the Chinese list)
sand-writing
holders of earth (= mountains = the number 7)
Lower Libra (Skt. vishakha) (#15 of the 27 lunar
Vishakha (Kalachakra month #2 = Tibetan
month #4)
earth-bull scheme
sand-writing board
Arctaurus (Skt. svati) (#14 of the 27 lunar
dusk dog-period (#8 of the 12 periods of a day,
19:00 21:00)
million
Venus; Friday (= pa=sangs)
snakes (= the number 8)
snake (#3 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
subtract
add
combination (= the number 2)
sbyor-ba
sbyor-ba dag-pa
sbyor-ba nyer-bdun
sde-pa
sdig
sdom
sel
seng-gdan
seng-ge
sgang
sgang-char
sgang-gi nyin-mtsham tshad
sgang-tshad
sgos-pai nyin-zhag
sgos-zhag
sgra-gcan
sgra-sgrogs
sgrub-byor
sgyur-byed
shed-bu
shi
shi-rtsis
shin-tu lhung-ba
shin-tu skrangs-pa
shing
combination period (one of the 5 inclusive

calendar features)
corrected combination period
twenty-seven combination periods (each of
which is the period of time during which the
combined motion of the sun and moon equals
one twenty-seventh of a complete zodiac)
classes (of Indian languages) (= the number 4)
Scorpio (Skt. vrshvika) (#7 of the 12 signs of the
summation number
removal (#0 of the 27 combination periods,
lion-seat chart
Leo (Skt. sinha) (#4 of the 12 signs of the
zenith-point
hill-ascending zenith-point
length of day and night at that occasion
measure of the zenith-point
individual solar day (count in a planets orbit)
individual day (count in a planets zodiac orbit)
north node, Rahu (indicated by the number 8 in a
horoscope chart) (= gdong-skar)
Ravana (10-faced demon = the number 10)
accomplishing conjunctions
multiplier
progeny of Manu (= the number 14)
death (date # 5 in the lunar date divine quality
system of counting dates) (= nub = rdzogs)
death calculations
complete downfall (#16 of the 27 combination
period, when the count is begun with 0)
very swollen (#5 of the 27 combination periods,
wood (one of the 5 elements in the Chinese list)
skad-cig
skag
skal-bzang
skar
skar-ma
skar-ma
skar-ma phos-tshe
skar-mai bras-bu
skar-rtsis
skrangs-pa
skye-mched
skye-pa
skyes-gza
skyes-khyim
skyes-skar
skyes-sme
skyes-spar
sme-khor
sme-phreng
sme-ba
sme-bai bras-bu
sme-bai dgu-mig
smin-drug
smin-drug-gi zla-ba
sna-tshogs
seconds (= dbugs)
Hydra (Skt. ashlesha) (#8 of the 27 lunar
good fortune (#3 of the 27 combinations periods,
lunar constellation (one of the 5 inclusive
calendar features) (= skar-ma)
constellation; lunar constellation
constellations (= the number 27)
time of (a planet) shifting lunar constellations
effect of the natal lunar constellation
stellar calculations
swollen (#9 of the 27 combination periods, when
stimulators of cognition (#5 of the 12 natal links
of dependent arising)
conception (#11 of the 12 natal links of
dependent arising)
natal weekday
birth zodiac-sign position (of a planet)
birth constellation
natal magic-square number
natal trigram
(180-year) period of magic-square numbers
(60-year) cycle of magic-square numbers
magic-square number
effect of the natal magic-square number
nine-based misfortune spot from the magicsquare number
Pleiades (Skt. krttika) (#2 of the 27 lunar
Pleiades (Kalachakra month #8 = Tibetan month
#10)
varieties (= the number 13)
snang-gros
snar-ma
snga-cha
snga-dhru
snga-dro das-pa
snga-rkang
snon
snron
snron-gyi zla-ba
snrubs
snying-stobs
so
son-phan
sor-mo
spar-ka brgyad
spar-khai dgu-mig
spar-khai dur-mig
spel-ba
spen
spen-pa
spen-pa
spor-thang gser-rtsis
sprel
apparent gait (of a planet)

Aldebaran (Skt. rohini) (#3 of the 27 lunar
earlier half (of a date; daytime)
previous (months) root figures
if it is morning, the time passed (since sunrise)
earlier (decelerating) quarter (or quadrant)
add
Antares (Skt. jyeshtha) (#17 of the 27 lunar
Antares (Kalachakra month #3 = Tibetan month
#5)
Beyond Scorpio (Skt. mula) (#18 of the 27 lunar
courageous (referring to luminosity, lightness,
strength, pleasure) (Skt. sattva) (one of the 3
universal constituents in the Samkhya system)
teeth (= the number 32)
abacus
fingers (= the number 10)
eight trigrams (deriving from the Chinese Book
of Changes, Chin. Yijing, Wade-Giles Chin. I
Ching)
nine-based misfortune spot from the trigram
cemetery misfortune spot from the trigram
multiply
Saturn; Saturday (= spen-pa = nyi-bu)
Saturn (indicated by the number 0 in a horoscope
chart) (= spen = nyi-bu)
Saturday (= gza spen-pa)
Great Tang dynasty yellow calculations
monkey (#6 of the 12 animal cycle, when the
count is begun with yos, hare, as 1)
spyi-dhru
spyi-dhru
spyi-yi nyin-zhag
spyi-zhag
srang
sred-pa
sreg-pai sbyor
sreg-pai tshe
srid
srid-pa
srid-pa
srid-pai gnas
srid-pai rus-sbel
srin-mo
srod-khor phag
srog
srog-gi tshang-bras
srog-gza
srog-rdel
srog-skar
srog-sme
stag
stag-mgo me-bar
ster-ba
stobs
stobs-ldan
general root (for divination)

general root (for all planets in lifespan
calculations)
general solar day (count in a 60-year cycle)
general day (count in a 60-year cycle)
Libra (Skt. tula) (#6 of the 12 signs of the
craving (#8 of the 12 natal links of dependent
arising)
burning activities (#6 of the 10 lesser matchings,
the matching of earth and fire, when the count is
begun with 1)
lunar dates when get burnt
endurings (= the number 14)
further existence (#10 of the 12 natal links of
dependent arising)
existences (= the number 3)
places of enduring (= the number 14)
tortoise of what occurs
rakshasas (cannibal-demons = the number 9)
after dusk pig-period (#9 of the 12 periods of a
day, 21:00 23:00)
life-force
full effect of the natal life-force element
life-force weekday
life-force pebble-element
life-force constellation
life-force magic-square number
tiger (#12 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
Tiger-head Blazing Fire (the name of a comet,
one of the 4 bad omen planets)
add
forces (of a Buddha =10)
strong (#10 of the 10 lesser matchings, the
matching of fire and wind, when the count is
ston-bring bya
ston-ka
ston-ra sprel
ston-tha khyi
stong
stong
begun with 1)
autumn middle build-up bird month (Tib. #6)
autumn
autumn prelude build-up monkey month (Tib.
#5)
autumn finale build-up dog month (Tib. #7)
thousandths place in a number
new moon (= 30 th of the lunar month) (= namstong = nam-gang)

stong
emptying (date # 4 in the lunar date divine
quality system of counting dates) (= rgan)
stong-gi sgra-gcan
north node position at new moon
stong-kai nyi-mtshan mnyam- autumnal equinox
pa
stong-pa
void; empty (= the number 0)
sum-cu chai dus-sbyor
thirty-choice divination (used mainly for
investigating about business, sickness, or some
needed purpose)
tat-kal
ascendant (for that time)
tat-kal
ascendant investigation for the time of divination
tha-skar
Upper Aries (Skt. ashvini) (#0 of the 27 lunar
tha-skar-gyi zla-ba
Upper Aries (Kalachakra month #7 = Tibetan
month #9)
thabs-shes
method and wisdom (= the number 2)
then-pa
subtract
thig-le
drop (= the number 0)
tho-rangs
false dawn
tho-rangs stag
false dawn tiger-period (#12 of the 12 periods of
a day, 3:00 5:00)
thob-nor
answer
thob-pa
answer
thub-pa
able sages (munis = the number 7)
thun
session (= 10 astrological hours = 4 clock hours)
thur-btsal
investigate (the length of the shadow of) the
thur-ma
thur-shing
til-brdung
tsha-ba
tshad-dzin gza-bar
tshad-dzin nyi-bar
tshangs-pa
tshe
tshe-bsre spyi-zhag
tshe-grangs
tshe-grangs dod-cha
tshe-grangs lnga-cha
tshe-ldan
tshe-lha
tshe-lo
tshe-sme
tshe-spar
tshe-tshad
tshes
tshes-khyud zla-skar dag-pa
tshes-rab las-rtsis
tshes-zhag
tshes-zla rnam-par dag-pa
tshong-pa
gnomen
gnomen
gnomen-stick
embracing like sesame and rice (#4 of the 11
action periods, when the count is begun with 1)
heats (= the number 3)
mean measure-holding lunar weekday position
mean measure-holding sun position
Brahma (#24 of the 27 combination periods,
lunar date (one of the 5 inclusive calendar
features) (= tshe-grangs)
date-added general day count (in 60-year cycle)
date of the lunar month; lunar date
lunar dates thirteen-part parts unit-place (in the
precis system of astro calculations)
lunar dates fifth or parts unit-place (divided into
67 parts in the full tenet system of astro
calculations)
meaningful life (#2 of the 27 combination
lunar date divine quality (a 5-member system for
dividing lunar dates, named after five periods in
life)
years of lifespan
lunar dates magic-square number
lunar dates trigram
lifespan
dates (= the number 15)
corrected moons conjunct constellation for 0
personal horoscope
lunar date day
corrected (number of) lunar months (since start
of cycle)
trade (#6 of the 11 action periods, when the
tshor-ba
ya
yan-kvong
yan-lag lnga
yang-dag rgyu
yang-rgyui cha-shas
yang-rgyui chu-tshod
yang-rgyui dbyug
yang-rgyui srang
yar-gyi bzhi-gshed
yar-ngo
yar-ngoi tshe
yid
yon-tan
yongs-joms
yos
yul
zha
zhabs-rten
zhag-ngan
feeling a level of happiness (#7 of the 12 natal

links of dependent arising)
warped day (= yan-kvong)
warped day (= ya)
five branches (= five inclusive calendar features)
(= lnga-bsdus)
perfect mover (hours unit-place figure derived in
the calculation of the position of one of the 5
planets)
perfect mover parts (unit-place figure derived in
planets)
perfect mover hours (unit-place figure derived in
planets)
perfect mover hours (unit-place figures derived
in the calculation of the position of one of the 5
planets)
perfect mover minutes (unit-place figures
derived in the calculation of the position of one
of the 5 planets)
counterclockwise fourth-place slaughterer
(animal-sign) (the animal-sign four places
behind and thus squaring the natal animal)
waxing phase
dates of the waxing moon
minds (= the number 14)
universal constituents (Skt. guna) (= the number
3)
full defeat (#18 of the 27 combination periods,
hare (#1 of the 12 animal cycle, when the count
sacred sites (of Heruka) (= the number 24)
bad day (= zhag-ngan)
religious ceremony
bad day (= zha)
zhag-rei gros-khyad
zhal-lung lo-pho
daily special gait (of a planet)

shift to the new year according to the personal
instructions of Pundarika
zhi-ba
peaceful
zhi-ba
peace (#19 of the 27 combinations periods, when
zhi-dal drag-rkang
mean brake-point position for the (two) peaceful
planets as well as the quadrant-holder position
for the (three) forceful planets (= nyin-zhag nyibar)
zhi-gza gnyis
two peaceful (inner) planets (= Mercury and
Venus)
zhi-gza gnyis-kyi rkang-dzin mean quadrant-holder position for the two
peaceful planets
zhing
field (of zodiac-signs ruled)
zhing-bdag gza
planet ruling the field (of a sign of the zodiac)
zhing-la jug
enter within the field (of the suns orb)
zhu-ba
subtract
zin-shing
zhen-wood (Chinese: zhen, thunder, the
arousing) (#7 of the 8 trigrams)
zla
moon; Monday (= zla-ba)
zla-dzin
lunar eclipse
zla-ba
moon (indicated by the number 2 in a horoscope
chart)
zla-ba
moon (= the number 1)
zla-ba
Monday (= gza zla-ba)
zla-ba
month
zla-bai thun-min rtag-longs
moons uncommon daily motion constant
zla-bu
Mercury (indicated by the number 4 in a
horoscope chart) (= lhag-pa = lhag)
zla-bzhol
intercalary month
zla-dag
corrected (number of) months (since the start of
a 60-year cycle)
zla-lhag
extra doubled month
zla-nag
black (difficult) month
zla-rkang
moons quadrant-motion constant
zla-rkang dag-pa
zla-rkang reu-mig
zla-skar
zla-skar dag-pa
zla-thebs
zla-tho
zon-rlung
zug-rngu
zung
zung-ldan
moons corrected quadrant-motion constant

table of moons quadrant-motion constants
moons constellation (with a weekday) (=
res-grogs zla-skar)
corrected moons constellation
leap-month
monthly almanac
sun-wind (Chinese: sun, wind, the gentle) (#8 of
the 8 trigrams
pain (#8 of the 27 combination periods, when the
pair (= the number 2)
what has pairs (= the number 4)
Tibeto-Mongolian Astrology and Karma

Alexander Berzin
Munich, Germany
June 13, 1996
The Benefits of Learning Astrology
In a Buddhist context, when we reaffirm our motivation at the start of a lecture,
we always emphasize that our aim in listening is to learn something that can help
us with our lives. Specifically, we wish to learn not only something to help us
with our own problems, but also what will enable us to be of best help to others.
When we think about astrology in that context, we need to be clear as to what we
can actually derive from studying and learning about it.
On one level, knowledge of astrology helps us to know what may happen in the
future. Based on this knowledge, we can take preventive measures to avoid
difficulties. Dharma, after all, literally means preventive measures. We need to be
careful, however, not to become superstitious and think that everything is
predetermined that certain problems will definitely come since that is not at
all the Buddhist view of life. Especially when we look at predictive astrology, it
is very important to understand it within the context of the Buddhist teachings of
karma.
On another level, learning astrology gives guidelines for better understanding
ourselves so that we gain some idea of our emotional problems. On a more
general level, its features of planets, signs, and so forth, provide a certain
analytical structure within which to look at our lives and our personalities.
When we want to help someone, it is not easy to gain a clear idea about what
type of problem he or she may have or what the best way to communicate with
the person may be. Some knowledge of his or her horoscope and how it
compares to our own is helpful for gaining an idea of how first to approach the
person. Again, we need to look at this within a Buddhist context. It is very
important to avoid locking people into solid categories and thinking, "Oh, this
man is a Libra and I am a Leo; I have to act in this way with him. That woman is
a Taurus, so I have to act that way." Such faulty thinking leaves no room for
individuality and does not allow for flexibility. When we have no idea of how to
relate to someone, astrology can reveal the first card to play with the person. We
need to approach astrology from this point of view and always put it together
with the Buddhist teachings on karma and voidness.
Among the many traditions of astrology in the world, the Tibetan-Mongolian
system is one of the more complex. It is much more complicated than Western
astrology. Here, we shall simply survey the subject in brief, so that we get some
idea of what it contains. Mongolian astrology is a slight variant of the main
Tibetan astrological system, but now in the way of an introduction, let us speak
of the Tibetan-Mongolian system in general. Then, we can turn to the relationship
of astrology with karma and voidness. That latter discussion is not specific or
limited to Tibetan-Mongolian astrology; but is relevant to all systems of
astrology.
The Scope of Tibetan-Mongolian Astrology
The study of Tibetan-Mongolian astrology deals with many topics. Most people
think of astrology only in terms of calculating and interpreting horoscopes; and
when you train in Tibetan-Mongolian astrology, you certainly learn to do this.
Tibetan and Mongolian horoscopes, however, provide not only pictures of the
personality with which someone is born the natal chart. They also elaborate
how the person's life may unfold over the years the progressed chart derived
in a way very different from that in Western horoscopes.
You cannot draw a horoscope if you do not have someone's birth date and the
progression of their life span in the context of a calendar. Thus, a major part of
the study involves mathematics and the calculations for making the Tibetan and
Mongolian calendars, which are also quite different from the Western one.
Further, you cannot make a horoscope if you do not know the precise location of
the planets at the time of birth and later in life. Another large part of the training,
then, is the mathematics for calculating the Tibetan-Mongolian ephemeris, in
other words, the positions of the planets each day. A few tables of these positions
are available for ready consultation, as in the West; but Tibetan and Mongolian
astrologers mostly calculate everything by hand.
In conjunction with the calendar, the astrologers also make almanacs. An
almanac indicates the days and hours that are most auspicious for starting to plant
the crops in the fields, for harvesting them, and other such things that are
important for a society.
As is the case with Tibetan-Mongolian medicine, Tibetan-Mongolian astrology
uniquely blends aspects that derive from Indian, Ancient Greek, Chinese, Central
Asian, and native Bon origins. The material divides into two major aspects:
"white calculations" and "black calculations." This nomenclature has nothing to
do with good or bad, as in the terms "white" or "black" magic. White and black
are abbreviations for the Tibetan names of India and China respectively. India in
Tibetan is known as "the vast land where people wear white" and China as "the
vast land where people wear black."
White Calculations and Kalachakra

Many similar systems of astrology developed in India, several Hindu and one
Buddhist. The white calculations come primarily from the Indian Buddhist
system, found in the Kalachakra tantra materials. Kalachakra means "cycles of
time," with three levels: external, internal, and alternative cycles. The external
cycles refer to the cycles through which the universe passes. Because of these
cycles, you can measure time externally by looking at the passages of the sun,
moon, and planets around the heavens. Buddhism defines time, after all, as a
measurement of change. Moreover, from the cycles of the patterns that the
heavenly bodies make in relation to each other from their motion, we derive
horoscopes. The entire study of astronomy and astrology is associated with these
external cycles.
Internally, you can also measure the passage of time by cycles in the body. For
example, you can measure time by the number of breaths that a person takes. You
can also measure it by the human life cycle of childhood, adolescence, adulthood,
and old age, or a woman's menstruation cycle. Thus, there are external and
internal cycles of time; and, according to the Kalachakra teachings, they parallel
each other.
When we look from a Buddhist point of view, we would say that ordinary beings
have no control over these cycles. The cycles occur by the force of karma, or
impulses of energy. The external cycles, which account for the transit charts of
the daily positions of the heavenly bodies, "ripen" or result from general shared
karma. The internal cycles, which account for peoples' natal and progressed
charts, ripen from each person's individual karma. We suffer all sorts of problems
because of not being in control of any of these karmic ripenings and their effects
on us.
Some persons, for example, are strongly affected by their natal horoscope
configurations. They have difficulties dealing with not only their personal lives,
but also with external cycles such as long winters or full moons. Some people
become a little crazy on full moons, like werewolves! People also have
difficulties dealing with the internal cycles: the cycle of hormone development as
they pass through puberty, the menstrual cycle, the aging process, and so on. In
Buddhism, we strive to gain liberation from these uncontrollably recurring
cycles, which we call samsara, and to go on to become enlightened Buddhas so
that we can be of best help to everyone.
The alternative cycles of time entail the various practices of Kalachakra
meditation to gain liberation and enlightenment. This important point reveals the
basic orientation Buddhism has toward astrology. We want to gain liberation
from being at the mercy of astrological features such as horoscopes. According to
Buddhism, the mental continuum or mind-stream of each individual has
experienced problems with no beginning and, if we do nothing to change the

situation, it will go on experiencing them forever, from one lifetime to the next.
This means that we need to liberate ourselves not only from our personal
horoscopes of this lifetime; we need to liberate ourselves from all possible
horoscopes of any future uncontrollably occurring rebirth. In other words, we
aim to liberate ourselves from the zodiac itself.
We can see from this approach that a horoscope is not something concrete and
fixed, not something dictating the way that we definitely have to be, and that we
can do nothing about it. We want to liberate ourselves from any such imagined
constrictions and, to do that, we need to have some idea of the details of our
specific horoscope and of all horoscopes in general. This, then, is the context
within which we need to study astrology whether Tibetan-Mongolian, Indian
Hindu, Chinese, Arabian, Mayan, or Western. We wish to overcome not only
being under the control of our personal horoscopes of this life, but under the
control of all the ever-changing cycles of time as measured by the motion of the
heavenly bodies. Understanding this point is crucial. Otherwise, we can easily
fall into the trap of becoming superstitious about astrology, especially about
Tibetan-Mongolian astrology, since it speaks so much about "auspicious" and
"inauspicious days."
The Connection with Western Astrology
The Kalachakra Tantra is the source for the calculations for most features of the
Tibetan and Mongolian calendars, for the positions of the heavenly bodies in the
ephemeris, and for most factors in the almanac, such as auspicious and
inauspicious days. Because the Kalachakra teachings flourished in India before
spreading to Tibet and then on to Mongolia, they share a great deal in common
with the Hindu astrological systems. Hindu astrology, in turn, and many other
aspects of ancient Indian culture, share a lot in common with Ancient Greek
culture, since the two civilizations had close contact, particularly from the time of
Alexander the Great. Let us look first, then, at some of these common features.
Modern Western astrology shares them as well, since it derives from the Ancient
Greek tradition.
In Tibetan-Mongolian astrology, we calculate the positions of the planets only up
to Saturn, not the trans-Saturnian planets, and name the days of the week after the
heavenly bodies, such as Sunday for the sun and Monday for the moon. Because
the planets beyond Saturn are invisible to the naked eye, the ancient world was
unaware of them. There is also a division of the zodiac into twelve signs, with the
same names as in the Greek and Indian Hindu systems. These are the same
names as our modern Western system uses Aries, Taurus, and so on. There is
also a division of twelve houses, a few of which have slightly different
interpretations from their Western astrology counterparts. As in a Western

horoscope, each heavenly body is in a sign and a house, the combination of
which affects the meaning and significance of that body in the chart.
Signs and Houses
For those who are unfamiliar with astrology, let me explain briefly what signs
and houses are. Both of them relate to astronomical features.
If you look at the sky, you notice that the sun, moon, and planets let us call
them the heavenly bodies all travel in a certain band from east to west. In
ancient times, people did not think that the earth rotated. They thought that the
sky and the heavenly bodies rotated around the earth. They imagined that the
band of sky through which the major heavenly bodies travel the ecliptic is
like a giant wheel turning counterclockwise very slowly. Half of the wheel is
under the earth. If we use a modern example, our perspective is like someone
standing at the center of a very slowly turning Ferris wheel: half of it is above us,
half of it below.
If you look at this band of sky as a slowly turning Ferris wheel, you can divide
the wheel into twelve portions, only six of which are apparent at any time in the
sky. In each of these portions of the Ferris wheel is a prominent constellation of
stars, like the seats of the Ferris wheel. These constellations are the twelve signs
of the zodiac.
Now, suppose the Ferris wheel is slowly turning inside a building the shape of a
giant sphere. If you divide into twelve sections the band along the inner wall of
the sphere inside of which the Ferris wheel turns, those are the twelve houses.
They do not move. Thus, the section of the band of sphere going downward from
directly east of us to one-sixth of the way to directly west is the first house. The
next sixth is the second house, and so on. The first six houses are below us in
other words, below the horizon the last six are above. Suppose the first seat,
Aries, is next to the point on the inner wall of the sphere directly to the east of us
the ascendant. The Ferris wheel moves so slowly that it takes one month for the
next seat, Taurus, to reach that point. When the Aries seat returns to that point on
the wall, a year has passed.
Now, suppose that the Ferris wheel, slowly turning counterclockwise inside the
spherical building, is shaped like a hollow tire and that nine balls roll clockwise
inside it, each at a different speed. The nine balls are the heavenly bodies. The
sun ball rolls around the inside of the tire in one day; the moon ball takes a month
to complete the circuit; and so on. Thus, at any particular time, a heavenly body
is located in a certain sign and a certain house, and this position continually
changes. A horoscope chart is like a photo taken at a specific moment, such as at
the moment of someone's birth, showing the location of each rotating heavenly
body in the slowly turning band of the zodiac in a specific section of the sky,
either overhead or under the earth.
This system of heavenly bodies, signs, and houses is the same in the TibetanMongolian, Indian Hindu, Ancient Greek, and modern Western systems of
astrology. Unlike the latter two, however, the Indian and Tibetan-Mongolian
systems also divide the Ferris wheel of the ecliptic into a second zodiac of
twenty-seven signs. Sometimes, they put twenty-seven seats on the Ferris wheel
rather than just twelve. They use the twenty-seven sign zodiac mainly for the
calculations of the calendar, ephemeris, and almanac, and the twelve-sign one
primarily for horoscopes.
Fixed-Star and Sidereal Zodiacs
The Indian Hindu and Tibetan-Mongolian systems share another feature
concerning the zodiac that differs significantly from the Ancient Greek and
modern Western systems. They use a fixed-star or sidereal zodiac, while the latter
two use a tropical zodiac. Actually, what happened was that the Kalachakra
system criticized the Indian Hindu astrological systems use of a fixed-star zodiac
and advocated a tropical one. The Tibetans, however, disregarded this feature
when they adopted the Kalachakra zodiac system and returned to using a fixedstar system, though one that differed from any of the Indian Hindu ones.
[See: Tibetan Astro Sciences.]
Rather than explain the details of the differences regarding the zodiacs among the
Tibetan-Mongolian, Kalachakra, and Indian Hindu systems, it is enough here to
simply explain the general difference between a fixed-star and a tropical zodiac
in terms of the twelve-sign zodiac that all these systems share in common. The
difference arises in terms of where the systems place the twelve seats on the
Ferris wheel and whether the seats remain fixed or move extremely slowly.
Suppose that the Ferris wheel itself is divided into twelve sections, each with the
name of one of the signs. Each of the seats also bears the name of one of the
signs. The Tibetan-Mongolian and Indian Hindu systems place the twelve seats at
the exact locations on the Ferris wheel at which the sections bearing the same
names begin. The seat Aries is located at the beginning of the Aries section on the
Ferris wheel and never moves from that location. Tibetan-Mongolian and Indian
Hindu astrology, therefore, use the fixed-star zodiac.
The Ancient Greek, Kalachakra, and modern Western systems place the seat
Aries at whatever point of the Ferris wheel the sun ball is located at the exact
moment of the vernal equinox in India the moment in the spring when the day
and night are equal in length. Because the sun passes directly overhead on that
day at the Tropic of Cancer, this placement of signs in the sky is called the
tropical zodiac.
For the purposes of our discussion, let us leave out now consideration of the
Ancient Greek system. In approximately 290 CE, the vernal equinox point was
actually located at the beginning of the Aries section of the Ferris wheel, as
observed in the sky. Since then, it has been creeping backwards extremely
slowly, at a rate of approximately one degree every seventy-two years. This
phenomenon is known as the precession of the equinox. The discrepancy
between the observed position of zero degrees Aries and the position of zero
degrees Aries defined in terms of the vernal equinox is due to the fact that the
earths polar axis gradually rotates in its orientation to the fixed stars, with a
rotation period of 26,000 years.
The vernal equinox point is now between twenty-three and twenty-four degrees
back into the Pisces section of the Ferris wheel, the one directly behind the Aries
section. Thus, the modern Western system currently places the Aries seat at some
point between six and seven degrees in the Pisces section of the Ferris wheel.
Each year, the modern Western system moves the seats back a tiny distance. It
refers to the positions of the heavenly bodies according to the zodiac defined by
the seats, whereas the Tibetan-Mongolian and Indian Hindu systems refer to their
positions according to the zodiac defined by the Ferris wheel itself. Thus, a
planet at zero degrees Aries of the tropical zodiac is at some place between six
and seven degrees Pisces of the fixed-star zodiac in other words, the tropical
position minus between twenty-three and twenty-four degrees.
Observation of the sky reveals that zero degrees Aries of the Western system
actually corresponds to the observed position of the beginning of the
constellation Aries minus the precession factor of between twenty-three and
twenty-four degrees. Since the traditional Tibetan-Mongolian and Indian Hindu
systems never relied on empirical observation for calculating the precession
factor and, moreover, derived the positions of the heavenly bodies solely from
mathematical models, it hardly mattered that the calculated positions did not
correspond to the observed ones. Traditional Indian, Tibetan, and Mongolian
astrologers were not interested in confirming their calculations by looking at the
sky.
Calculated and Observed Positions of the Planets
India first became acquainted with astronomical observatories in the seventeenth
century through the Mughal conquerors, who learned to build them from the
Arabs. The observed positions of the heavenly bodies differed significantly from
the traditionally calculated ones. Even if the Indians added between twenty-three
and twenty-four degrees to the calculated positions, their mathematical models
still did not give accurate results. When, under British rule in the next century,
the Indian astrologers learned the European formulas for calculating the planetary
positions and saw that they gave results that observation verified, most decided to
abandon the traditional Hindu calculation systems and the ephemeris derived
from them. In their stead, the reformers adopted the positions observed and
calculated by Western mathematics, simply subtracting between twenty-three and
twenty-four degrees to translate them into the fixed-star zodiac.
A similar crisis is occurring now in Tibetan-Mongolian astrology as happened
several centuries ago with Indian Hindu astrology. As the Tibetan and Mongolian
astrologers are becoming acquainted with the Western and Indian systems, they
realize that although the Kalachakra mathematical formulas give positions for the
heavenly bodies that differ from those derived in the classical Hindu systems,
they still do not give an accurate picture that corresponds to observation. The big
question is whether or not to drop the traditional mathematics and to follow the
example of the Hindu reformers by adopting the Western zodiac positions
adjusted for the precession of the equinox. Pros and cons exist for either choice.
Even today, the debate continues among Indian Hindu astrologers.
The Relation with Karma
The Buddhist teachings are quite clear that astrology is not talking about some
influence coming from gods living in the heavenly bodies, who, by their own
powers, independently cause things to happen in our lives. Nor do the heavenly
bodies themselves exert an actual influence. Such things are impossible. Rather,
Buddhism asserts that the positions of the heavenly bodies in a horoscope merely
mirror a portion of the karmic potentials with which a person is born.
Various mirrors reflect portions of our karmic potentials and do so in the form of
patterns. We can see these patterns not only in the configuration of heavenly
bodies at our births, but also in our genetic makeups, our personalities, behavior,
and our lives in general. For any person, all these patterns are synchronistic. In
other words, they all occur in one package as the result of karmic forces built up
from previous lives. From that point of view, it does not matter whether the
calculated position for the heavenly bodies corresponds to what is observed in
the sky. Thus, deciding whether to keep the positions of the heavenly bodies
calculated by the traditional Kalachakra formulas or to adopt the observed
positions accepted in the West, adjusting for the precession of the equinox, is not
a simple matter. It requires a great deal of research and analysis to determine
which choice gives astrological information that more accurately corresponds to
people's lives.
Predictive Horoscopes
One item to investigate is the predictive horoscope, which predicts what is most
likely to happen during various periods of a person's life. As in the natal

horoscope and the ephemeris, nine heavenly bodies are involved: the sun, moon,
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and what we call in the West "the north
and south lunar nodes." Let us return to our image of the Ferris wheel, in the
shape of a tire, with the sun and moon balls rolling around the tire's inner track.
This describes the orbits of the sun and the moon. The two orbits are not exactly
parallel, but crisscross at opposite sides of the tire. The intersection points are the
north and south nodes of the moon. When the sun is on one of the points and the
moon exactly on the other, a lunar eclipse occurs. A solar eclipse happens when
the sun and moon meet at either of the two intersections. Most ancient systems of
astronomy and astrology regard the lunar nodes as heavenly bodies. Buddhism
calls them Rahu and Kalagni, while the Hindu systems name them Rahu and
Ketu. They constitute the eighth and ninth heavenly bodies.
Tibetan-Mongolian predictive astrology calculates the most probable length of a
person's life. It then divides the life span into periods ruled by each of the nine
heavenly bodies in a fixed order. Each heavenly body rules for a certain period
a certain percentage of the life span according to a fixed proportion. The
percentage for each is different. You calculate which body rules the first period of
a person's life and, by calculating the percentage of the life span ruled by that
body, you derive the length of the first period. You can subdivide each period of
the life span by the same proportions, and further divide the subdivisions. By
comparing the strengths in the natal chart of the heavenly bodies ruling a specific
period, subperiod, and division of the subperiod, you derive the interpretation of
what is most likely to happen to the person during that time.
The Indian Hindu systems of predictive astrology resemble the TibetanMongolian one, but differ significantly in several regards. The Hindu systems do
not calculate a life span. The nine heavenly bodies rule in the same fixed order
and proportions as in the Tibetan-Mongolian system; but in all cases, the periods
ruled by the nine add up to 120 years. Thus, if the percentage a heavenly body
rules is ten per cent, it will rule for twelve years in everyone's life. The only
difference between peoples' charts is when those twelve years occur in life. You
determine this by calculating where in the cycle of 120 years someone's life
begins. Most people die before the age of 120, and so that period might not even
occur before they pass away. In the Tibetan-Mongolian system, all nine periods
occur in everyone's lifetime and, if the percentage a heavenly body rules is ten
per cent and the life span is only 60 years, that body's period is only six years.
Black Calculations and Chinese Astrology
Black calculations in Tibetan-Mongolian astrology, deriving from the Chinese
systems, add several further variables for predictive astrology. One aspect comes
from the cycles of twelve animals rat, pig, monkey, and so on and of five
elements earth, water, fire, wood, and iron. Together, they make sixty
combinations, such as iron-horse or wood-tiger in the Tibetan variant. The
Mongol tradition substitutes for the names of the elements the names of the
colors associated with them, such as black-horse or blue-tiger. Natal charts
contain combinations for the year, month, date, and two-hour period of the time
of birth. You calculate the animal-element combination that rules each year of life
and, by comparing them with the natal combinations, you derive further
predictive information for that year.
Black calculations also contain a system of eight trigrams and nine magic-square
numbers. A trigram is a combination of three lines, solid or broken, as found in
the Chinese classic I Ching (The Book of Changes). Magic-square numbers
derive from a square, divided into nine boxes as in a tick-tack-toe grid, and in
each box of which is a number, one through nine, arranged in such a way that
adding the three numbers horizontally, vertically, or diagonally always equals
fifteen. From the trigram and magic-square number of the natal year, you
calculate the progressed trigrams and numbers for each year of life, which gives
further predictive information. All the information derived from the white and
black calculations are correlated and interpreted to produce the full predictive
Tibetan-Mongolian horoscope. For further precision, you may add the white and
black information from the almanac concerning auspicious and inauspicious days
and hours. You need to weigh all the factors affecting a certain period because,
from the viewpoint of one variable, the moment may be favorable, but from the
viewpoint of another, it may be unfavorable. The interpretation of charts in
Tibetan-Mongolian astrology is a complex art.
Prediction of Life Span
Skill at interpretation is even more difficult because many problems arise within
the system. Sometimes, when you calculate a person's life span, you discover that
according to the mathematical formulas he or she should have died years ago.
Another calculation reveals that if the person does a great deal of positive things,
he or she can extend the life span by a certain percentage. Even then, many
people should be dead already. Moreover, how many positive things do you need
to do to extend your life span? And, are there only two possibilities, the normal
and extended life spans, or if you do just a small amount of positive things or
your motivation is impure, can you extend the life span just a little?
The situation becomes even more confusing when you look at the texts of
different Tibetan and Mongolian astrology masters at various times over the
history of its development. They disagree about the calculations for a person's
life span. Some take the ideal longest life span as 120 years, some 100 years, and
some 80 years. Depending on which one you choose, the calculation for how
long someone will live and what will happen during the person's life differs.
Which one is correct? Would it be better to follow the example of Indian Hindu
astrology and not calculate the life span at all? Even if we took that step, there
are several traditions of Tibetan-Mongolian astrology; the calendars calculated by
each slightly differ; and thus an even larger variety of predictions are available
concerning the course of a person's life.
Grasping for the Truth
Tibetan-Mongolian astrology is not unique in having several variant traditions,
each producing slightly different predictive charts. The Western, Indian Hindu,
and Chinese systems share this feature. When people become aware of this
situation, they often become uncomfortable. Insecure, they grasp for themselves
to exist as solid, inherently findable "me"s and what will happen in their lives to
exist inherently as fixed events. Based on this confusion, they desperately want
their independently existent "me"s to be in control of what is going to happen or
at least to know what is coming, so as to be able to prepare. When faced with
many possibilities of what may happen, they feel that their lives as solidly
existent "me"s are out of their control.
The frustration they suffer resembles their response when a Tibetan or Mongolian
master teaches a Buddhist classic and explains that from the viewpoint of this
system of tenets in this monastic textbook, it means this. However, according to
each of the other textbooks, it means that or that; from the viewpoints of the
other tenet systems, each textbook has yet another interpretation; and each of the
other Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhist traditions explain it yet differently. Faced with
so many alternatives, most Westerners respond, "But, what does it really mean?"
Perhaps Biblical thought has unconsciously influenced them one God, one
Truth so that they grasp for an inherently existent single truth of what a
teaching really means. They regard astrological information in the same way and
look for definite answers as to what is going to happen.
If we grasp for reality to exist in this impossible manner, we will be disappointed
and frustrated with the information we obtain from Tibetan-Mongolian astrology.
To gain anything from it, we need to look at the information from a completely
different viewpoint- the point of view of the Buddhist teachings on karma and
voidness. Astrological information describes samsara rebirth and the course of
each life occurring uncontrollably under the influence of karma. To liberate
ourselves from this vicious cycle, we need to understand voidness the fact that
everything, including our personalities and the events in our lives, are devoid of
impossible ways of existing. Therefore, we need to understand karma and
voidness.
Karmic Potentials Versus Predetermination

Kaydrubjey, a great Tibetan master put it nicely. In a commentary on The
Kalachakra Tantra, he wrote that if astrology reveals all the information about
someone, then a human being and a dog born in the same place and at the same
time would have the same personalities, the same life spans, and the same things
happen to them during their lives. Clearly, that is not the case. The reason is that
astrology does not give all the information about somebody. Many other factors
influence the course of an individual's life. Effects come about from enormous
networks of causes and circumstances; karma and the laws of behavioral cause
and effect are extremely complex. Without beginning, we have been building up
karmic causes for the experiences in each of our rebirths. An astrological chart,
no matter how elaborate and sophisticated, provides merely a small picture of
one aspect of one pattern of karma that we have. A high probability may exist
that certain events will happen in accordance with that chart; but you cannot
dismiss the lesser probabilities that other things may happen in addition or
instead. Nothing is inherently fixed. By refuting that impossible way of existing,
we overcome our deeply engrained habits of grasping to be a solidly existent me
who knows what really is going to happen and thus is always in control.
Consider the information we derive from various medical traditions. Western
medicine describes the body as a complex network of various systems:
circulatory, nervous, digestive, and so on. Tibetan-Mongolian medicine describes
systems of chakras and energy-channels. Chinese medicine delineates meridians
and acupuncture points. If you protest and ask, "But, which is true? Which
system describes what is really happening in the body," we would have to answer
that all are correct. Each gives a valid piece of information about the body that
allows for successful medical treatment.
The same is true with astrology. The Western systems with the tropical zodiac
produce one set of information. The Indian Hindu and Tibetan-Mongolian
systems with the fixed-star zodiac give other results. The traditional Chinese
astrology systems reveal additional information, while the Chinese-derived black
calculations that the Tibetans and Mongolians use give other points. Within the
Tibetan-Mongolian astrology traditions, if you use the systems that calculate
maximum life spans of 120, 100, or 80 years, you get three different pictures of
what may happen over the course of a life. The way to deal with all this
seemingly conflicting information is to see that each system describes one
possible karmic configuration, with a certain probability that it may actually
happen.
We each have the potentials for an enormous number of karmic configurations
and thus an enormous number of possible lives that we could live. The
orientation is not in terms of trying to learn what is definitely going to happen
tomorrow should I buy more shares of stock tomorrow; is it going to be my

lucky day? The proper orientation is in terms of probability functions. If our chart
reveals that we should have died ten years ago, it gives us some idea that we have
built up the karma to have a short life. That is one possibility of our karmic
legacy. What ripens in a particular lifetime, however, depends on circumstances
and conditions. Consider the huge number of people who die in a natural disaster
an earthquake or an atomic bomb. Surely, not everyone's horoscope indicates
that he or she will die that day. External circumstances and conditions not
indicated in the charts affect what happens.
Therefore, an astrology chart is like a weather report: it provides a picture of
what is highly likely to happen, but which may, in fact, not come to pass. It may
rain today, so we carry an umbrella as a precaution. If it turns out not to rain; no
harm was done. Similarly, if our horoscopes indicate that today we shall meet a
true love, have success in business, or whatever, if we are aware of this as a
strong possibility, we remain receptive to opportunities that may arise this day. If
nothing happens, we remind ourselves that nothing is ever fatalistic in a
horoscope.
Purification of Karma
If we wish to purify ourselves of all possible astrological charts, which after all is
the aim of the Buddhist study of astrology, we need to try to learn Dharma
lessons from our charts. We may learn, for example, that in all situations we need
to be open and receptive to good opportunities, and careful in the face of possible
dangers or setbacks. If our charts indicate that we should have died when we
were ten and, obviously, we did not die then, this makes us think about the
karmic causes for a short life. Dying young results from taking the lives of others
or from harming them. Even if such karmic results have not ripened in this
lifetime, we are reminded that we have built up such karma and probably have
the tendencies to build up more. For example, we might mindlessly swat flies,
thinking to do so hardly matters. The short life span in our charts can inspire us
to work on purifying ourselves of these tendencies.
One of the main points we learn from a Tibetan-Mongolian horoscope, then, is to
deal with specific karmic causes within ourselves. The emphasis is not on trying
to find out what definitely is going to happen on such and such dates in our lives.
The study makes us more responsible, rather than less responsible. If everything
that happens is predetermined, whatever we do now has no effect. We could not
affect anything that happens to us. On the other hand, when we see that certain
possibilities exist of what may happen, not necessarily what will happen, we are
accountable for the choices we make. Rather than the knowledge of astrological
information narrowing our minds so that our personalities, the courses of our
lives, and others' interactions with us seem solid and fixed, our understanding
leads to the opposite conclusions. We see that everything that happens arises
dependently on innumerable causes and circumstances, and that what we do
contributes to the courses of our lives.
The Tibetan-Mongolian astrological system may seem complicated, but life is
infinitely more complicated than that. Far more variables affect what is
happening than what a few heavenly bodies, signs, houses, animals, elements,
trigrams, and magic-square numbers can represent. With mindfulness of the
countless variables that affect what happens to us in life, our rigid confused
views of the world, of life, of ourselves, and of others begin to loosen. This
loosening opens the way to being able to see voidness in terms of dependent
arising. The courses of our lives are devoid of existing as independently
established, solid, fixed things. Rather, they happen dependent on millions of
factors. Astrological information and horoscopes mirror only a tiny fraction of
the affecting variables. Nevertheless, by revealing some of the possible events
that have a higher probability of happening, they may help us to remain mindful
of karma, voidness, and dependent arising. In this light, the fact that the
information we gain from Tibetan-Mongolian astrology is often inaccurate is
actually helpful. It shows us that life is not solid and fixed. Many ripenings of
karma are possible.
Questions and Answers
Question: The Tibetan-Mongolian year is calculated from the moon and the
Western year from the sun. What are the differences?
Alex: The Tibetan and Mongolian calendars combine lunar and solar features.
According to the Buddhist definition, time is a measurement of change. You can
base the designations year, month, and day on the measurements of various
cycles of change. The Tibetan and Mongolian calendars measure a month from
new moon to new moon. Twelve cycles of new moons, in other words twelve
lunar months, add up to less than a solar year the measurement of the period it
takes the sun to complete its cycle and return to the same point in the zodiac.
Since the Tibetan and Mongolian calendars have lunar months, but solar years,
they require some compensation to fit the two together.
Just as the Western calendar has leap years, in which it adds a day every four
years to compensate for a solar year not consisting of a whole number of solar
days; similarly, the Tibetan and Mongolian calendars have "leap" features to fit
lunar months into solar years. Sometimes, they add an extra leap month; and
sometimes, in order to make the new and full moons fall on specific dates of the
lunar month, they double or omit certain dates. The mathematical formulas and
rules are quite complex.
Question: What is the derivation of the twelve-sign and twenty-seven-sign

zodiacs?
Alex: The twelve-sign zodiac derives from the most prominent constellations on
the eastern horizon when the sun rises at each of the twelve new moons in a year.
The twenty-seven-sign zodiac in some calculations, twenty-eight derives
from the most prominent constellations on the eastern horizon when the moon
rises each of the twenty-seven or twenty-eight nights from one new moon to the
next.
Question: Does Tibetan-Mongolian astrology differentiate between birth in the
northern and in the southern hemispheres?
Alex: No, it does not. Tibetan-Mongolian astrology not only lacks any feature to
compensate for birth in the northern or southern hemispheres; it does not take
into consideration different places of birth or different time zones within the
northern hemisphere. Again, this raises the question of whether to amend the
system and add these features, as the traditional Indian Hindu systems did, or
does it not really matter?
Deciding this issue requires extensive research. The computer program I
developed with a colleague to calculate some of the white features of the most
widely used Tibetan calendar and ephemeris provides one of the basic tools for
undertaking the project. The next steps are to add the black calculation materials
and to program in the calculations for the different Tibetan-Mongolian systems
by changing the algorithms for the variables on which they differ. The
researchers then need to enter the birth and death data for a statistically
significant number of people, whose life-courses and personalities are well
known, and check which variants for each variable give the most reliable results
when analyzed according to the Tibetan-Mongolian system of interpreting charts.
Of course, they need to take into consideration that astrology can never be totally
accurate. They also need to check the results obtained by adopting the positions
of the heavenly bodies from the Western ephemeris, compensated for the
precession of the equinox, and by adjusting for different hemispheres, places of
birth, and time zones.
Personally, I have confidence that in addition to the Tibetan-Mongolian astrology
system being helpful for gaining insights into karma and voidness, it can also
provide conventional information as useful as that obtained from Western, Indian
Hindu, and Chinese horoscopes. After all, great Tibetan and Mongolian masters
of the past have relied on these astrology teachings and praised them highly.
They were no fools.
Dedication
Let us end with a dedication. May whatever positive energy, potential, and
understanding built up by our listening contribute to everybody, including
ourselves, being able to overcome all the difficult aspects of their horoscopes and
all their uncontrollable ways of acting. Our astrology charts are not simply hands
of cards dealt to us, which we wish to learn how to play skillfully and win. May
we liberate ourselves from playing any stupid card games at all, so that we can
use all our potentials fully, to be of best help to everyone.
Thank you.

Tibetan Astrology

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Explanations of Dharma Practice Days

Prepared by Nawang Thartho, based on Tibetan Medical and Astrological

Days 10, 22 of Months 1, 5, 9

Tibetan Astro Sciences

predetermined, inherently true future.

constellation Aries in the sky.

and twenty-four degrees, which is the actual observed discrepancy.

Tibetan Astro Sciences

is the famous predicted number of years found in the Kalachakra literature of

calculation system. Furthermore, from the Chinese-derived element calculation

the baby will likely develop abscesses or wounds.

Tibetan-English Glossary of Astrology Terms

increase (#10 of the 27 combination periods,

Vega (Skt. abhijit) (the second half of #21 of the

rivers (= the number 4)

0, associated with the element of wind)

month #2 in the Kalachakra season month

in a horoscope chart) (= mjug-skar)

zodiac, when the count is begun with 0)

gza-lnga spyi-yi nyin-zhag

treasures (= the number 9)

lunar weekdays daily passage of time constant

begun with 0, associated with the element of

associated with the element of water)

arrows (of Kama) (= the number 5)

Tuesday (= gza mig-dmar)

black (difficult) day (= nyi = nyi-nag)

suns daily motion constant

after midnight ox-period (#11 of the 12 periods

weekdays (= the number 7)

holder of the castes (of Shambhala)

(place-holder) that is contained ahead (= next) in

analyzing personality and character, correlating

combination period (one of the 5 inclusive

apparent gait (of a planet)

general root (for divination)

new moon (= 30 th of the lunar month) (= namstong = nam-gang)

feeling a level of happiness (#7 of the 12 natal

daily special gait (of a planet)

moons corrected quadrant-motion constant

Tibeto-Mongolian Astrology and Karma

White Calculations and Kalachakra

experienced problems with no beginning and, if we do nothing to change the

interpretations from their Western astrology counterparts. As in a Western

likely to happen during various periods of a person's life. As in the natal

Karmic Potentials Versus Predetermination

tomorrow should I buy more shares of stock tomorrow; is it going to be my

Question: What is the derivation of the twelve-sign and twenty-seven-sign

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