All 52 chapters
  1. Part 1 · The sky and the chart
  2. The sky above us
  3. Time and place of birth
  4. Two zodiacs
  5. How a chart is drawn
  6. Part 2 · The building blocks
  7. The 9 planets
  8. The 12 signs
  9. The 27 nakshatras
  10. The 12 houses
  11. The lagnas
  12. Part 3 · How planets work together
  13. How planets interact
  14. Friends, dispositors, exchanges
  15. House lords
  16. Reading one placement
  17. Part 4 · Strength and condition
  18. Dignity in depth
  19. A planet's mood
  20. Planetary strength
  21. Ashtakavarga in depth
  22. Part 5 · Patterns: yogas and doshas
  23. Yogas
  24. Doshas
  25. Part 6 · The nakshatras up close
  26. Reading a nakshatra
  27. Tara Bala
  28. Part 7 · Divisional charts
  29. Divisional charts
  30. Navamsa in depth
  31. Part 8 · Timing
  32. Dashas
  33. Transits
  34. The annual chart (Tajika)
  35. Part 9 · Relationships
  36. Compatibility
  37. Marriage in depth
  38. Part 10 · Advanced systems
  39. Special points
  40. Jaimini astrology
  41. Arudha padas
  42. KP astrology
  43. Nadi astrology
  44. Part 11 · Choosing the moment
  45. Panchanga
  46. Muhurta
  47. Prashna (horary)
  48. Part 12 · Life areas
  49. Career, money and business
  50. Travel, abroad, spirituality
  51. Health and longevity
  52. Karma and past lives
  53. Remedies
  54. Rectifying a birth time
  55. Part 13 · Western astrology
  56. Western astrology basics
  57. Aspects and chart shapes
  58. Western prediction
  59. Synastry
  60. Horary and electional
  61. Part 14 · The wider world
  62. Mundane astrology and eclipses
  63. Astrocartography and branches
  64. Part 15 · Putting it all together
  65. How it all fits
  66. How AstroMatch4u scores a chart
  67. Using astrology well
Part 14The wider world
CHAPTER 48

Mundane astrology, eclipses and markets

Can astrology describe countries and the world?

Mundane astrology (Medini Jyotish in India) studies nations, governments, the economy, weather and collective events instead of people. Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita (6th century) covers omens, rainfall, agriculture and the fortunes of kingdoms.

Its charts

National chartsCast for a nation's founding: India's is commonly taken for midnight of 15 August 1947 in Delhi, with a Taurus ascendant.
Leaders and governmentsThe chart of a swearing-in, read with the leader's own chart.
Ingress chartsCast when the Sun enters Aries (Mesha Sankranti in Vedic, the spring equinox in Western), and the other cardinal signs, for the year or season ahead.
Eclipse chartsCast for each eclipse and read for the places where it is visible.
Great conjunctionsJupiter meets Saturn about every 20 years, and the element they meet in shifts every ~200 years. The 21 December 2020 conjunction in (tropical) Aquarius was read as the start of an "air" era.
Mundane transitsSlow planets crossing a national chart's key points; planetary cycles laid against history.

Eclipses

  • A solar eclipse happens at a new moon and a lunar eclipse at a full moon, but only when the Sun is near Rahu or Ketu. That is why eclipses come in "seasons" about every six months.
  • The Saros cycle repeats a very similar eclipse every 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours. Eclipses linked by it form eclipse families.
  • In a birth chart, an eclipse falling within a few degrees of a planet or angle is said to activate it and the house it is in for months afterwards.
  • The eclipse path (where it is visible) matters most in mundane astrology.

Financial and market astrology

Some astrologers cast charts for companies, stock exchanges, IPOs and indices, and compare price history with planetary cycles (Jupiter–Saturn, Mars cycles, eclipses). Figures such as W. D. Gann popularised it.

Not investment advice. Market astrology is speculative research with no reliable track record. Never buy, sell or borrow money because of a planet.

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