Apoklima

Definition

Apoklima is the Sanskrit name for the cadent houses — the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th. These fall away from the angles (the Kendras), sitting just past the succedent Panapara houses. Parasara names them in the Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra (Ch.7 Sl.34), and Varahamihira defines them in the Brihat Jataka (Ch.I Sl.18). With the angular Kendras and the succedent Panaparas, they make up one of the three classical ways of grouping the twelve houses. The Brihat Jataka translators note that Apoklima, like Panapara, is a Greek term.

In Tradition

Across both the classical and the modern Jyotish literature, the Apoklima houses are read as the weakest of the three positional groups. A planet sitting in an Apoklima is held to be positionally weaker than one in an angular or succedent house, so it gives its results — its phala — with the least force.

In Practice

A jyotishi (a Vedic astrologer) uses the Apoklima grouping to weigh a planet's positional strength by the house it sits in — an Apoklima occupant reads as the weakest of the three positional classes, giving its results with the least force. The Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra (Ch.9 Sl.23) takes this further, pointing to a very short lifespan when every strengthless planet is pushed into the Apoklima houses. Frawley adds that planets here act weakly, uncertainly, or in hidden ways; he likens these houses to the Mutable signs — mentally sensitive and adaptable, but also unstable — with the Ninth the strongest and best for spiritual development. Kannan reads the cadent houses as generally inauspicious, but qualifies that: the 3rd, he notes, is good for a malefic, and the 9th is good for all.

Historical Origin

The Apoklima houses are attested in the classical Sanskrit texts: the Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra (Ch.7 Sl.34, in Santhanam's translation) and Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka (Ch.I Sl.18, in the Usha & Shashi translation), whose translators note that the term itself is of Greek origin. Modern authors define them too, among them Frawley in The Astrology of the Seers and Kannan in Fundamentals of Hindu Astrology.

Further Reading

• Santhanam, Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra
• Varahamihira, Brihat Jataka
• Frawley, Astrology of the Seers
• Kannan, Fundamentals of Hindu Astrology