Parivartana Yoga

sanskrit: परिवर्तन योग (Parivartana Yoga)

Definition

Parivartana Yoga is a mutual exchange (a mutual reception) between two house-lords: each planet sits in the sign the other one rules. Say Mercury, lord of Gemini, lands in Leo while the Sun, lord of Leo, lands in Gemini — the two have swapped homes. This ties the affairs and lords of those two houses into one shared result, and lends each planet strength, so each gives its results as if placed in its own sign. Whether the yoga reads as helpful or harmful depends on which houses the two exchanging lords rule.

In Tradition

Classical and modern Jyotish writers read the exchange alike: a mutual reception binds the two houses and strengthens them, the planets acting as if in their own signs, and its worth is graded by the houses concerned. An exchange between a kendra (angle) and a trikona (trine) lord works as a powerful raja-yoga, while one pulling in a dusthana or Trik lord — the 6th, 8th or 12th — comes out damaged, or yields its good only after stress.

In Practice

To read a parivartana, a jyotishi finds the two house-lords seated in each other's signs and weighs the yoga by the houses they rule. Exchanges between kendra and trikona lords — including the 9th-10th Dharmakarmadhipa exchange, and the 1st-10th and 9th-10th ones — are read as fortifying raja-yogas that bring fame, position and prosperity; exchanges of the 2nd, 9th and 11th lords are read for wealth and inherited fortune. An exchange that pulls in a 6th, 8th or 12th (dusthana or Trik) lord is judged damaged: it can leave you quarrelsome and obstructive, deny marriage or children, or bring a sharp reversal of fortune, and such an exchange usually delivers its benefit only after first producing stressful events. The authors also sort these exchanges into classes: Maha Yoga (auspicious, among the lords of the 2nd, 11th, the kendras and the trikonas), Dainya Yoga (spoiled by a Trik lord), and Khala Yoga (an exchange involving the 3rd lord).

Historical Origin

Parivartana Yoga comes down through the classical handbooks and their modern commentators. The three-fold Maha / Dainya / Khala classification traces to Mantreshwara's Phaladeepika (cited at 6:32-4) by way of Charak, and is elaborated by deFouw & Svoboda, Bhagat — who counts sixty-six such yogas across the three classes — Levacy, Boney, Cole, Rao, Rath, Kannan and Raman, who work it through example charts.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading