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 10Advanced systems
CHAPTER 33

Nadi astrology

What are the palm-leaf readings and the "Nadi" methods?

"Nadi" is used for two different things, and it helps to keep them apart.

1. The palm-leaf libraries

In Tamil Nadu, especially around Vaitheeswaran Koil, families keep bundles of palm-leaf manuscripts said to have been written by sages such as Agastya and Bhrigu. A visitor gives a thumbprint, and readers search for a leaf that matches the person's name and life. These readings are a living tradition; their claims cannot be checked independently.

2. Nadi techniques

The second meaning is a set of methods drawn from Nadi texts, used on an ordinary birth chart. They are not one uniform system.

Bhrigu Nandi NadiReads planets by their sign relationships (the same sign, trines 1/5/9, the 2nd and 12th, the 7th) and largely ignores houses and the lagna.
Planets as peopleJupiter is the man himself, Venus the wife, Mars the husband in a woman's chart, Saturn career and karma, the Moon the mother, the Sun the father.
Planet linkingWhen Jupiter is linked to Saturn, the person is tied to their work; to Venus, to their spouse. Stories are built by chaining these links.
Jupiter's transitEvents are timed by Jupiter (and Saturn) passing over the planets that show them.
Nadi amshaA division of each sign into 150 parts of 12′ each, said to distinguish even twins. It needs an exact birth time.
Event sequencingReading the order in which links are met as the order of events in life.

All chapters