Resources
Jyotish, in plain language.
New to Jyotish, or want the plain-language version? Start here — a map of the ideas behind a Pragyanam reading, and the words that come up along the way.
Start with the four movements
Every reading follows the same order: composition and cause first, foresight and remedies after.
- Composition — what you're made of: your five elements arranged across the twelve houses.
- Causation — the cause beneath your recurring patterns.
- Foresight — where things are heading, and when.
- Remedies — what you can actually do about it.
A plain-language glossary
Every Jyotish term, paired with what it really means.
- Jyotish — “the science of light”: the Vedic study of a life through the sky. Self-knowledge, not fortune-telling.
- Tatvas (five elements) — earth, water, fire, air and ether: the raw material your nature is mixed from.
- Bhavas (houses) — the twelve areas of life across which your composition is arranged.
- Rashi (sign) — one of the twelve zodiac signs, each with its own ruling planet.
- Grahas (planets) — the forces at work within you: not distant judges, but drives you can recognise.
- Nakshatra — one of the 27 lunar mansions, a finer layer of detail behind the signs.
- Karma — cause and effect: what you set in motion, and the results it tends to bring.
- Prarabdha — the portion of your karma set to play out in this life; the load you were born carrying.
- Dasha — the seasons of a life: long stretches when different forces in your chart step forward.
- Atmakaraka — your soul's core theme, what you keep reaching for.
- Upaya (remedy) — a practice, inner or outer, to work with a cause and shift its effect.