Bhavat Bhavam

sanskrit: भावात् भावम् (Bhāvāt Bhāvam)

Definition

Bhavat Bhavam — literally "house from the house" — is a way Vedic astrologers correlate the houses (bhavas): you judge a house by counting that same house-number again from the house itself, not from the Ascendant (lagna, the rising point). As Frawley puts it, a house sits the same number of places from a given house as that house sits from the Ascendant. His example: the eighth-from-the-Eighth — which lands on the Third — also speaks to longevity, while the twelfth from any house negates it. Larsen and Behari say it works the same for all bhavas.

In Tradition

For these modern Jyotish writers, Bhavat Bhavam is more than a counting trick: you read a chosen house as if it were a lagna (Ascendant) for its own corner of life. Frawley says the house you derive carries similar effects; Behari that you treat that house as an ascendant in its own right; and Cole that the houses counted from a given house carry, for that area, the same kind of significations the lagna carries for you yourself.

In Practice

Jyotishis lean on Bhavat Bhavam most when weighing longevity. Frawley and Behari note that the eighth-from-the-Eighth (the Third) backs up the lifespan, and Behari adds that the seventh-from-the-Eighth (the Second) marks where it ends — the same logic linking the Tenth, Seventh, Fifth and Ninth houses when you judge the span of a life. Larsen reads the circumstances of death from that same eighth-from-the-Eighth (the Third), and the tenth-from-the-Tenth (the Seventh), so that one's relationships reveal how well one's karma yoga has gone. deFouw and Svoboda describe a case where a house's lord sits as many houses from its own house as that house sits from the lagna, which tends to lock in that house's good or bad results — as with the sixth lord in the eleventh. Cole counts kin from the fourth house (the mother): the fifth then stands for her immediate family, the seventh for the maternal grandmother.

Historical Origin

The sources here are modern Jyotish textbooks rather than a single named classical work. The principle is set out by Frawley in Astrology of the Seers, by Hart deFouw and Robert Svoboda in Light on Life, by Bepin Behari in the Vedic Astrologer's Handbook Vol II, by Cole in Science of Light Vol. I, and in Jyotisha Fundamentals. Larsen ties its use for death back to Jaimini's third from the Arudha Lagna.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading