Exalted or Debilitated in D9: Navamsa Degrees by Graha

A graha’s sign in the navamsa (D9) depends on which ninth of its rashi it occupies, an arc of 3°20′. Every navamsa sign turns up in nine of those arcs around the zodiac, each in a different rashi. So each graha has nine arcs that put it in its exaltation sign in the D9, and nine that put it in its debilitation sign. This page lists them for the seven grahas, using the Parashari navamsa and the exaltation and debilitation signs in the site’s planet table.

Four of those arcs answer the questions people search for most: a graha debilitated in the rashi chart but exalted in the D9, debilitated in both, exalted in both, and exalted in the rashi but debilitated in the D9. The table gives each arc with the nakshatra pada it coincides with, since a navamsa is a pada. Rahu and Ketu are left out, because the planet table gives two reckonings for their dignities; Rahu and Ketu’s exaltation signs sets out both.

The Four Paired Arcs for Each Graha

The “both” columns are vargottama arcs, where the navamsa sign repeats the rashi sign. A graha in the first of those two columns is debilitated twice over, and in the second it is exalted twice over. Vargottama in the navamsa lists all twelve such arcs and what the term does and does not mean.

Why the Moon Has No Neecha-D1, Uccha-D9 Arc

For all seven grahas the debilitation sign is the seventh from the exaltation sign, and opposite signs share a modality: movable with movable, fixed with fixed, dual with dual. The navamsa count then decides everything. A movable sign’s nine navamsas start from the sign itself, a fixed sign’s from the ninth sign from it, and a dual sign’s from the fifth.

• Movable signs (Sun and Saturn in Aries and Libra, Mars and Jupiter in Capricorn and Cancer): counting nine signs from the sign itself reaches the opposite sign at the seventh navamsa, 20°00′–23°20′.
• Dual signs (Mercury and Venus in Virgo and Pisces): counting from the fifth sign reaches the opposite sign at the third navamsa, 6°40′–10°00′.
• Fixed signs (the Moon in Taurus and Scorpio): counting nine signs from the ninth sign runs through the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth signs, the sign itself, and on to the fifth, and stops. The sixth, seventh and eighth signs never come up, so the opposite sign is never a navamsa of a fixed sign.

The result is that a debilitated Moon in Scorpio can never be in Taurus in the D9, and an exalted Moon in Taurus can never be in Scorpio there. Every other graha has one arc of each kind. The pairs also mirror each other: Sun and Saturn swap their two signs, as do Mars and Jupiter, and Mercury and Venus. So the arc that debilitates the Sun in the D1 and exalts it in the D9 is the arc that exalts Saturn in the D1 and debilitates it in the D9.

All Nine Arcs of Each Dignity Sign

Eight navamsa signs are someone’s exaltation or debilitation. These are their nine arcs each, read across the zodiac. A graha anywhere in the second column takes the navamsa sign in the first, whatever its rashi:

Nine arcs of 3°20′ add up to 30°, one sign’s worth spread over nine signs. Three signs never give a particular navamsa sign. Aries as a navamsa, for instance, never occurs in Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, so the Sun in any of those three rashis is never exalted in the D9.

How the Tradition Uses These Arcs

A debilitated graha in its exaltation sign in the navamsa is one of the neecha bhanga conditions astrologers commonly quote from the classical rule lists. Authors differ on whether that condition is enough on its own and whether a cancellation amounts to a raja yoga; the neecha bhanga rules lists the conditions and where they disagree. For the reverse case, a graha exalted in the rashi chart and debilitated in the navamsa, the column above gives the arc and nothing more. This page does not say what any of these placements brings in a chart.

The navamsa itself is set out in the D9 navamsa chart, and the place of the D9 among the sixteen vargas in the shodashavarga overview. Another fixed list of navamsa arcs, chosen by element rather than by dignity, is the pushkar navamsa table.

Checking Your Own Chart

You need each graha’s degree in its sign, not only the sign. A graha near the edge of an arc can land on either side of it. For the Moon a few minutes of birth time can decide which; for any graha, so can the choice of ayanamsa. Since each arc is one nakshatra pada, the pada is enough: compare it with the pada lines in the first table. For the Moon, the nakshatra finder gives the pada free.

In Brief

• Nine arcs each: every graha has nine arcs of exaltation and nine of debilitation in the D9
• Debilitated in D1, exalted in D9: the seventh navamsa of a movable debilitation sign, the third of a dual one
• The Moon: no such arc, because Taurus is never a navamsa of Scorpio
• Debilitated or exalted in both: the vargottama arc of the sign
• No verdict: the tables give degrees; the neecha bhanga lists that use them disagree among themselves