Brihajjataka 5

[Chapter 5: Rules on Birth]

One is born out of sight of the father when the Moon does not aspect the ascendant, / or [born] when he is in a foreign land if the Sun is in a movable sign and fallen from the meridian;

or when Saturn is in the ascendant, or Mars has set, / or when the lord of the night is situated between the son of the Moon and Venus.

When the Moon is in a malefic ascendant or in a decan of the lord of Scorpio,
and benefics are in the second and eleventh houses, the born child is a serpent or coiled like one.

When the Sun is in a quadruped sign, and the remaining [planets] endowed with strength
are in dual-bodied signs, twins are born enclosed in an amnion.

When the ascendant is Aries, Leo, or Taurus, and Saturn or Mars is placed there,
[the child] is born wrapped in the umbilical cord around the limb corresponding to the sign or navāṃśa.

Jupiter aspects neither the ascendant nor the Moon, nor does he aspect the Moon conjoined with the Sun;
or the Moon conjoined with the Sun is with a malefic: they declare with certainty that [the child] was begotten by another.

When two malefics, situated in malefic signs, occupy the seventh, ninth, or fifth house from the Sun,
the father is imprisoned in a foreign land, in his own [country], or on a journey, according to the [nature of the] sign.

When the Moon is full and in its own domicile, a benefic is in the ascendant, and a benefic is in the fourth house,
or when the ascendant is an aquatic sign and the Moon is setting, [the mother] gives birth aboard a boat.

Or when the full Moon, occupying a watery sign, aspects a watery ascendant,
or is situated in the midheaven, fourth house, or ascendant, the birth takes place in water: of this there is no doubt.

When Saturn is in the twelfth house from the ascendant or from the Moon and aspected by a malefic, [the birth is] in a prison;
when Saturn is in the ascendant conjoined with Scorpio or Cancer and aspected by the Moon, [it is] in a pit.

When Saturn is in Cancer in the ascendant, aspected respectively by Mercury, the Sun, or the Moon,
[the birth] takes place in a pleasure-house, in a temple, or in barren, salt lands.

Mars, aspecting a human sign in the ascendant, causes birth in a cremation ground; Venus and the Moon, in a pleasant spot; Jupiter, in a sacrificial hall;
the Sun, in royal palaces, temples, or cowpens; Mercury, in an artisan's workshop.

Birth takes place on a road, [in an open area] matching the sign or navāṃśa, if it is in a movable sign; in a house, if in a fixed sign;
and in one's own house, if it is in its own sign or navāṃśa; the outcome depends on the combined strength of the navāṃśa and sign.

When the Moon is in a trine from Mars and Saturn and is setting, [the child] is abandoned by the mother;
if aspected by Jupiter, it is said to be long-lived and blessed with happiness.

When the Moon is aspected by a malefic at dawn and Mars is setting, or when Mars and Saturn are in the eleventh, [the child] is abandoned and dies;
if a benefic aspects it, it passes into the hands of such [a person]; if malefics aspect it, even though passing into another's hands, it does not survive.

Birth occurs in the house of the father or mother according to their strength, or under trees, halls, and the like, through benefics being debilitated;
if the ascendant and Moon are not aspected by planets placed together, birth occurs in a deserted place.

When the Moon is in a sign or navāṃśa of Saturn, in the fourth house aspected by Saturn, or in Cancer,
or conjoined with Saturn, [birth takes place] in the dark upon a bed; and if [planets are] debilitated, on the ground.
As the sign rises above the horizon, so is the expulsion of the fetus; and through malefics placed in the seventh or fourth from the Moon, they speak of distress to the mother.

The oil [is determined] from the Moon, the wick from the ascendant, and the lamp [itself] from the sign conjoined with the Sun as movable and so forth;
and the door of that dwelling is to be known from the planets situated in cardinal houses, or from those endowed with strength.

The house is old and renovated under Saturn; burned under Mars; new under the Moon; rich in timber but not sturdy under the Sun; built by more than one artisan under Mercury; pleasant, / adorned with paintings, and new under Venus; firm under Jupiter: and from the planets in the wheel [of houses], one should describe its arrangement and neighbours as instructed.

A dwelling faces east, north, and so on under Aries, Cancer, Libra, Scorpio, and Aquarius, and in the domiciles of Jupiter and Mercury;
to the west under Taurus; while Capricorn and Leo face the southern quarter.

Aries and the following signs, two by two, [denote] the eastern and subsequent chambers, and dual-bodied signs occupy the corners;
even concerning the beds, one should speak as of the dwelling, by means of the legs situated in the sixth, third, ninth, and twelfth [houses].

Midwives are indicated by the planets placed between the Moon and the ascendant;
inside or outside [the room] according to whether [they are] in the visible or invisible half of the zodiac, and otherwise according to others.

The body resembles the lord of the ascendant's navāṃśa, or the form is like that of the planet endowed with strength;
the complexion is that of the lord of the navāṃśa conjoined with the Moon; and the limbs of the body are partitioned from the head downwards according to the signs starting from the ascendant.

Head, eye, ear, nose, cheek, jaw, and mouth are the ascendant and subsequent [houses]; next throat, shoulder, arm, side, heart, chest, and navel; / pelvis, penis, and anus; then testicles, thighs, then knees, shanks, and feet: thus on both sides, the left by rising decans threefold.

In that [limb], one should predict a wound when conjoined with a malefic, and a mark when conjoined or aspected by a benefic; in its own sign or navāṃśa, or in fixed [signs], it is congenital, otherwise acquired;
caused by stone or wind under Saturn; by fire, weapon, or poison under Mars; from the earth under Mercury; by wood or a quadruped under the Sun; by horned animals or water under the Moon; and beneficence through the others.

In whichever division three planets including Mercury fall, the acquisition of that [mark or wound] invariably comes to pass, whether in good or bad circumstances;
a malefic in the sixth house causes a wound on the body corresponding to the sign of the ascendant; aspected by benefics and conjoined [with them], it repeatedly becomes a mole bearing a mark.