Janam Tara: Tara Bala from Your Birth Nakshatra

How the nine taras work. Count from your birth nakshatra (the Moon (चंद्र)’s nakshatra), counting it as 1. Every ninth nakshatra falls in the same tara, so each tara holds three nakshatras: the counts 1, 10 and 19 form the Janma group, 2, 11 and 20 form Sampat, and so on up to 9, 18 and 27. Because the nakshatra lords repeat in the Vimshottari order every nine nakshatras, the three nakshatras in each tara also share one ruling planet. For an Ashwini birth, the nine taras are ruled in turn by Ketu (केतु), Venus (शुक्र), Sun (सूर्य), Moon, Mars (मंगल), Rahu (राहु), Jupiter (गुरु), Saturn (शनि) and Mercury (बुध).

Three taras are traditionally difficult: Vipat, Pratyari and Vadha. Janma is the sensitive base, and the other five are supportive. A useful way to use the tara is to ask which planets of the chart sit in which tara, then watch what happens when other planets transit over them.