Tula lagna · vimshottari
The Venus Mahadasha for Libra Ascendant
20 years · Venus rules the 1st and 8th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Libra ascendant Venus rules the 1st (Libra) and the 8th (Taurus), so for Libra the 20-year Venus mahadasha carries both a kendra and a trikona house and a dusthana house.
Counted from Libra, Venus is exalted in the 6th (Pisces) and debilitated in the 12th (Virgo). Venus is also Libra’s lagna lord, so for this ascendant the Venus mahadasha is the lagna lord’s own period. Venus’s own nakshatras fall in Bharani (the 7th), Purva Phalguni (the 11th) and Purva Ashadha (the 3rd) for Libra ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Venus mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Libra
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Libra |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Venus–Venus | 3 years 4 months | the 1st and the 8th |
| 2 | Venus–Sun | 1 year | the 11th |
| 3 | Venus–Moon | 1 year 8 months | the 10th |
| 4 | Venus–Mars | 1 year 2 months | the 2nd and the 7th |
| 5 | Venus–Rahu | 3 years | no house |
| 6 | Venus–Jupiter | 2 years 8 months | the 3rd and the 6th |
| 7 | Venus–Saturn | 3 years 2 months | the 4th and the 5th |
| 8 | Venus–Mercury | 2 years 10 months | the 9th and the 12th |
| 9 | Venus–Ketu | 1 year 2 months | no house |
For Libra ascendant, three of the Venus mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Venus–Venus, Venus–Jupiter and Venus–Mercury, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Venus–Saturn and Venus–Mercury. The sub-period of Venus, Libra’s lagna lord, is Venus–Venus, the first of nine, 3 years 4 months long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Libra take 8 years 10 months (44%) of the Venus mahadasha’s 20 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 6 years (30%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Venus mahadasha for Libra, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Libra-rising chart this is the frame of the Venus mahadasha, not a forecast: where Venus and each sub-period lord actually sit, and their dignity there, decide what it comes to, and this page cannot know either.
Related
For Libra or any other ascendant, the Venus mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Venus mahadasha table; the Libra chart house by house on the Libra ascendant page. How the Venus mahadasha is read in general is in our Venus mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.