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Every essay on this blog, put plainly for somebody who has never met astrology, Sanskrit or the Indian calendar before. About two minutes each. Every one links through to the full piece, which has the working, the sources and the sky.

2 min How to choose an astrologer, You cannot judge a reading by whether it came true, so judge the room instead: the price, the first five minutes, and what happens when you try to... decisions 2 min Rohini, and the moon who would not keep the rota, An old story about the moon favouring one wife out of twenty-seven turns out to be a neat description of two things anyone can see in the sky, and... nakshatra-files 2 min The many schools of jyotisha, Indian astrology is not one system but several, each with its own rules and vocabulary, so two practitioners can agree about where every planet sits... tradition 2 min Why two panchangs disagree, When two Indian almanacs put the same festival on different days, there are four honest reasons for it, and every one of them is bookkeeping rather... almanac 2 min What a birth chart actually computes, A birth chart is ten numbers plus a list of decisions somebody made, and everything else printed on the page is those ten numbers sorted into boxes. computed-sky 2 min The gemstone question, The oldest Indian chapter on gemstones is a guide to not being cheated when you buy one, and the modern prescription of a single stone for a single... myth-vs-method 2 min Krittika: the blade and the flame, Go outside, count the stars in the most famous little cluster in the sky, and then find out why almost every culture on earth calls it seven and sees... nakshatra-files 2 min What an honest reading looks like, A checklist for what a fair astrology consultation should look like, starting with the customer's own decision and ending with the astrologer... founder-notes 2 min The question you have been avoiding, People often book a reading to ask about one thing and spend the hour circling a completely different thing they have not been able to say out loud. decisions 2 min Bharani: the bearer, A letter to anyone who looked up their birth details, saw the word death printed beside the sky-slice called Bharani, and shut the page in fright. nakshatra-files 2 min Entering the Hora Shastra by a side door, How to get through a huge, badly organised classical astrology book: skip the opening, enter at one of two better places, and keep a notebook of... tradition 2 min The slow clock of precession, The earth spins like a slowing top, and its axis takes about 26,000 years to trace one full circle in the sky, which is why the pole star has not... computed-sky 2 min Rahu kaal, without the fear, Rahu kaal, the daily window many Indian families avoid for starting anything new, is nothing more complicated than the day's daylight cut into eight... almanac 2 min Ashwini: the first spark, Indian tradition divides the sky into twenty-seven parts, and this piece goes outside at four in the morning to find the first one and see what it... nakshatra-files 2 min Where are the intellectuals?, Educated Indians use astrology in private and laugh at it in public, and that gap emptied the field of scholars and left the microphone to whoever... founder-notes 2 min Kaal sarp: anatomy of a modern fear, A flaw that frightens people today cannot be found in the classical astrology books it borrows its authority from, and the pattern it names takes... myth-vs-method 2 min Astrology and the anxious mind, Checking your horoscope can genuinely settle a worried mind, and it can also quietly take over that mind, and one simple test tells you which is... decisions 2 min Who was Parashara?, The huge old book at the centre of Indian astrology carries an ancient sage's name, but many hands assembled it over centuries, and that makes it... tradition 2 min Computed, not composed, Instead of promising to stay honest, a company builds honesty into its software as things the system is simply unable to do. founder-notes 2 min The mangal dosha panic, A rule used to screen marriage matches flags close to half of everybody, and the tradition's own list of exceptions usually arrives only after the... myth-vs-method 2 min The arithmetic of Vimshottari, The best known Indian system for dividing a life into named stretches of time is long division: 120 years split into nine unequal shares, with your... computed-sky 2 min The five limbs of a day, The Indian almanac measures a single day five different ways at once, and this is what each of the five counters is actually counting. almanac 2 min Fear is not guidance, A four-sentence sales message is taken apart word by word to show how frightening somebody is done without telling a single lie. founder-notes 2 min Bring a decision, not a fear, If you go to an astrologer, take a real choice you have to make, not a vague worry, because only one of the two can actually be worked on. decisions 2 min Sade sati: a field guide, The dreaded seven and a half year period in Indian astrology is the slow planet Saturn crossing three of the twelve zodiac signs, and at any given... myth-vs-method 2 min How to read a panchang, A panchang is the Indian almanac sheet crammed with tiny print, and once you know that its day starts at sunrise instead of midnight, the whole page... almanac 2 min Why your moon sign changes between apps, Two astrology apps can hand you two different moon signs, not because they disagree about where the moon is, but because they disagree about where to... computed-sky 2 min Why we are building bhagol, The founder of an Indian astrology company explains why he is building it around rules the software cannot quietly break, starting with a refusal to... founder-notes