Brihajjataka 4

[Chapter 4: On Conception]

Mars and the Moon are the cause of the monthly menses; but when the non-hot-rayed [Moon] has entered an afflicted sign, / if it is situated otherwise and aspected by a benefic masculine planet, the passionate woman enters into union with a man.

In whatever manner the setting sign meets Gemini, just so should the sexual intercourse be declared: / when the setting [sign] is aspected by or conjoined with a malefic planet, it is full of anger; with benefics, full of playfulness and laughter.

Even when the Sun, the Moon, Venus, and Mars are in their own divisions, or Jupiter is situated in the trine or ascendant, / offspring indeed [does not] arise for those lacking seed; these [configurations] are fruitless, like the rays of the cold-rayed [Moon] for the blind.

When Mars and the son of the Sun are situated in the seventh house from the Sun and the Moon, they produce disease in the man and the woman respectively; / when situated in the twelfth and second houses, they cause death; likewise, when conjoined or by their aspect alone, they are considered to bring about death.

By day the Sun and Venus are designated as father and mother, Saturn and the Moon by night; through their reversal / they are designated as paternal uncle and maternal aunt; and their situation in odd and even signs respectively is auspicious.

When malefics are approaching the rising sign and it does not receive the aspect of a benefic, she meets death; / and when Saturn is conjoined with the rising sign while aspected by the waning lord of constellations and the son of the earth, the woman [meets death].

When the ascendant and the Moon are situated between two malefics and are not aspected by a benefic, / whether simultaneously or separately, one should declare that the woman together with the embryo perishes.

When a malefic is in the fourth house from the Moon, or Mars occupies the eighth house from the ascendant, / or when the waning Moon is in the fourth or the twelfth house, it leads to death as before.

When Mars and the Sun are in the rising and setting houses, one should declare death caused by a weapon; / likewise, when the lord of the month is afflicted, one should predict a miscarriage at that time.

When benefic planets are situated in the ascendant of the Moon or in the trines, the seventh, second, fourth, and tenth houses, / and malefics are in the third and eleventh signs, the embryo thrives, provided it is aspected by the Sun.

When the ascendant, the Sun, Jupiter, and the Moon are strong in odd signs and in masculine navāṃśas, one should predict the birth of a male; when in even signs and even navāṃśas, of a female. / Jupiter and the Sun in an odd [sign produce] a male; the Moon, Venus, and Mars in an even [sign], a female; and through the aspect of Mercury situated in a dual sign, they produce twins in their respective half.

Excepting the ascendant, Saturn situated in an odd sign from the ascendant also causes the birth of a male. / Observing the strength of the planets mentioned, a male or a female is to be declared at birth.

If the Moon and the Sun aspect each other, or if Saturn and Mercury do; or if Mars [aspects] the lord of day situated in an even sign while the Moon and the ascendant are in an odd sign; / or if the Moon and Mercury, situated in an even and an odd sign respectively, are aspected by the son of the earth; or when Venus, the ascendant, and the cold-rayed [Moon] are in masculine signs—these are remembered as the six combinations for a hermaphrodite.

When the Moon and Venus are in an even sign, and Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and the ascendant are in an odd sign; or when the ascendant and Moon are aspected by a male [planet] and situated in even signs; or when the living beings are in even [signs], / they cause twins. When [a planet] aspects dual degrees occupying the planetary ascendant while Mercury is in its own navāṃśa, triplets [are born]; triplets are equal [in sex] according to the navāṃśas occupied by Mercury, but through unmixed [influences].

When the ascendant is in the last [navāṃśa] of Sagittarius, and strong planets occupy that navāṃśa, / being aspected by Mercury and Saturn endowed with strength, numerous [children] are born, even enclosed in a single caul.

Seminal fluid, dense mass, sprout, bone, skin, hair-and-limbs, and consciousness [are produced by] Venus, Mars, Jupiter, the Sun, the Moon, Saturn, and Mercury successively; / thereafter, the lord of the ascendant, the Moon, and the Sun are declared [as lords of the eighth, ninth, and tenth months]; and good or evil corresponds to the lord of the month.

When Mercury is in a trine while the others are weak, [the child] then has doubled face, feet, or hands. / When the Moon is in Taurus and malefics are on the junctions of signs, [the child] is mute; if aspected by a benefic, it produces speech after a long time.

If the son of the Sun and Mars are in a sign or navāṃśa of Mercury, the one born here has teeth. When the Moon is in its own sign in the ascendant, aspected by Saturn and Mars, a hunchback [is born]. / One is lame when Pisces is the ascendant, aspected by Saturn, the Moon, and Mars. When a malefic is in a junction and the Moon is in the ascendant, one is dull-witted, unless aspected by a benefic.

When the end of Capricorn is the ascendant, aspected by Saturn, the Moon, and the Sun, a dwarf [is born]. / And through decans in the fifth, ninth, and the ascendant conjoined with malefics, one will be without arms, legs, or head.

When Leo is the ascendant conjoined with the Sun and the Moon, and aspected by Mars and Saturn, [the child] is bereft of eyes; if aspected by benefics and malefics, it has bubble-like eyes. / The Moon situated in the twelfth house destroys the left eye, the Sun the other; combinations declared as inauspicious are mitigated when aspected by benefics.

Whichever dvādaśāṃśa the Moon is conjoined with at that time, when the Moon in the future is conjoined with the sign equal to that, / and by as much of an equal portion of the day or night as has arisen, by so much of the day or night having passed, they declare the birth.

If conception takes place when a mild sign or navāṃśa is rising and Saturn is in the seventh house, birth occurs after three years; / but when the Moon [is in the seventh], this rule produces it in the twelfth year; what is declared here should also be considered logically at the time of delivery.