Combust planets in Vedic astrology

The «combustion» of planets (dagdha-grahas)

As a rule, a gathering of planets in one place shows psychological instability. If the Sun joins them, some of the planets may «burn up» and thereby lose their good potential. When a planet approaches the Sun to a certain distance, it is as though hidden in its rays and becomes imperceptible in the Sun’s light. Such a planet is called combust.

According to the «Brihat-parashara-hora-shastra», a combust planet loses the power to bring good and shows itself like a debilitated one. Combustion turns a planet into a mild malefic, incapable of taking advantage of its fortunate placement, if it has one. Combust planets become helpless and cannot influence a person’s life substantially, since their rays vanish in the radiance of the Sun and do not reach the Earth. The exception is Mercury: one has the impression that closeness to the Sun activates its work. The lunar nodes have no physical body and therefore are never combust; being near the Sun, they themselves eclipse it or block its light.

At the basis of combustion lies the fact that a combust planet does not rise (as the Sun rises above the horizon), but sets. The manifestations of a combust planet differ little from the action of a debilitated one, and even exaltation in the Navamsha will not give it any cheer.

The combustion of a planet occurs at a definite distance in degrees from the Sun. For natal charts and for charts of a question these distances are different.

Planet	Distance of combustion
	for birth charts	for charts of a question
The Moon	12°	8°
Mercury	14°, when retrograde 12°	7°
Venus	10°, when retrograde 8°	7°
Jupiter	11°	9°
Mars	17°	12°
Saturn	15°	9°

Since Mercury never moves away from the Sun by more than 28°, and Venus is constantly placed within 47° of the luminary, some authors suppose that these planets cannot be combust. Western astrologers consider a distance of 8°30′ on either side of the Sun to be the zone of combustion. The Indian classical treatises do not prescribe evil consequences for conjunctions of planets with the Sun, and the combination of the Sun with Mercury is a very good yoga. Even the conjunction of the Sun with the Moon is not so unfavourable (technically, a close conjunction of the Sun and the Moon is a new moon, not a combustion).

Nevertheless, the following opinions are widespread in the astrological milieu:

• Combustion is not a serious affliction.
• It creates discomfort in a person’s life, but there is no need to worry too much about it.
• If a combust planet occupies a very favourable position in the horoscope, for example is in exaltation, its inner potential remains with it.
• The combustion of Venus and Saturn has no effect at all on a person’s longevity.
• Mars and Jupiter become weak near the Sun; some neutralising factors, however, may support them.
• Combust planets have a tendency to damage their living significations, that is, to create problems with the relatives who are represented by these planets and by the houses they rule. The damage usually does not touch the non-living significations.
• The action of combustion can be corrected with the help of gemstones and mantras.
• For more accurate forecasts combustion should be considered within 5° of the Sun.
• A combust Venus makes married life ordinary and dull.
• A combust Saturn makes a person’s life pitiful and unremarkable.
• From a combust planet in the Lagna a person’s achievements in life and his personal life suffer considerably.
• Combustion works separately from a yoga, that is, a conjunction with the Sun does not deprive a planet of its yoga-forming potential.
• In horary astrology combustion plays a negative role. If the Sun is neither the significator of the question nor the Lagnesha, a planet’s stay in its company destroys the planet’s significations, and the closer this planet comes to the Sun, the more serious the damage will be.

The effects of the combustion of planets

Research and experience show that combustion by itself does not make a planet useless. Its strength or weakness depends on the combined action of all the factors influencing the planet. If a planet has satisfactory figures by Shadbala and advantageous positions in the vargas, combustion by itself will not be able to hinder its effective work.

Besides secondary functions, every planet has three main duties: (1) to bear responsibility for the affairs of the houses it rules; (2) to manifest its own qualities, its karakatvas; (3) if it is involved in a yoga, to fulfil the promises of the yoga. Besides this, the effects of a planet are corrected by the aspects it receives, by conjunctions with other planets and so on.

Conjunctions of planets fall into four groups: 1) samayana (a stay in each other’s company); 2) somyoga (a conjunction); 3) yoga (a connection); 4) yuddha (a war). Combustion is a subtype of conjunction and does not always bring harm alone.

Combustion becomes a source of strength, or its negative effects disappear, when:

a) the combust planet is victorious in a planetary war;

b) the declination of the planet exceeds the declination of the Sun by 12° or more;

c) the planet has the status of a Yoga-karaka.

In my book «Venus in astrology» I noted that:

• one should not fear combustion, since its effects are not so very ruinous;
• a combust planet that is well placed in the chart (in exaltation and so on) and aspected by a powerful benefic planet does not lose its strength;
• Mercury, Saturn and Venus, in the author’s practice, do not particularly suffer from combustion;
• the dasha of a combust planet should not be considered wholly bad.

Sri Govind Swarup Agarwal — «Vedic Astrology»

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Vrajendra Kumar — The properties of «combust» planets in Vedic astrology

«Combustion» means that a planet finds itself very close to the Sun in degrees. Since the Sun is a very strong energy of fire, everything that finds itself in a close conjunction with it has a tendency to burn up, which in astrology means that the natural qualities of the planet are coloured and partly replaced by the qualities of the Sun.

In astrology there are different views on which planets should be considered combust (dagdha-graha). In the tradition in which I was taught, a planet is considered combust only in the case where it is behind the Sun (that is, lags behind it in the degrees of the zodiac). For example, if the Sun is at 10° of Gemini, then the other planets — the Moon, Mercury, Venus and so on — will be considered combust when they are at 9°, 8°, 7° or fewer degrees of Gemini. If, however, a planet is ahead of the Sun — if, for instance, Mars is at 12° of Gemini — then such a planet will not be considered combust.

Thus there is an orb, or arc, behind the Sun, within which a planet burns up; the boundaries of the signs and houses are of no importance here.

The Moon burns within 12° behind the Sun;

Mars burns within 17° behind the Sun;

Mercury burns within 14° behind the Sun;

Jupiter burns within 11° behind the Sun;

Venus burns within 10° behind the Sun — and only when retrograde, while in direct motion Venus does not burn even in the immediate vicinity of the Sun;

Saturn burns within 15° behind the Sun.

Such is the technical aspect of «combustion». Now let us make sense of what it means in essence: what the qualities of a combust planet are.

What a «combust» planet means

Combustion means that a planet comes close to the Sun from behind, «from the back», and its natural qualities are coloured and partly replaced by the qualities of the Sun. The Sun symbolises the wish to shine, to be a star, and the qualities of the combust planet show the sphere in which the person wants to become famous.

A «combust» Moon

The Moon is the symbol of femininity (or, to a greater degree, of motherhood), and if the Moon finds itself behind the Sun and falls into the degrees of combustion, this may mean an aggressive feminist for whom belonging to the female sex (the Moon) is a reason to establish a matriarchy and her own power. The Sun is the principle of power, and the Moon is the principle of femininity and motherhood; a combust Moon may make a woman the chairwoman of some «Council of soldiers’ mothers», where she will behave actively and aggressively — like the Sun — in the sphere of motherhood, indignantly protesting that our children are being taken into the army by force and turned into «cannon fodder». Or a combust Moon will give heightened irritability, an excited mind, because the Moon is the mind and the Sun is fire, inflated ambitions. The Sun symbolises the principle of being a «star», of shining, of being brilliant, and the Moon dictates the sphere of manifestation.

A «combust» Mars

The result is a double fire: both the Sun and Mars are fiery planets; and when two fiery planets are joined closely, this may give a burn on that part of the body which is symbolised by the corresponding house; there may be some ulcer, injury or inflammatory process. The person will use the energy of the Sun to promote Martian ideals. A combust Mars may, for instance, make a person a military careerist, for whom it is very important to receive the next rank as quickly as possible, to perform certain actions in order to advance in the military sphere; it may also be a sportsman, an engineer or a discoverer who courts trouble in order to become famous. A person with a combust Mars will literally «scorch» everything around him with his irrepressible energy and be unrestrained in his behaviour towards those around him. On the other hand, the Sun with its rays will disperse the energy of Mars, which in the end may lead to a great damp squib. Just as retrogression to a certain degree knocks a planet’s energy off course and deprives it of the right direction, deflecting it as a magnetic field does; so too in the case of combustion the planet takes on certain properties of the Sun as a star in a particular sphere; on the other hand, these closely acting rays of the Sun to a certain degree deprive the planet of its own natural qualities.

A «combust» Mercury

This is the mind blinded by ambition. Such a person will want to shine excessively with his intellect, and because of this he may make mistakes. The person will try to dominate in communications («my word is the first and the last»), will try to prove his superiority to everyone; it may be an accountant or a book-keeper who throws dust in people’s eyes, who pads the figures, inflates the indicators and so on — that is, he uses the sphere of Mercury for the goal of the Sun: to advance and become famous in his field. Or it may be some conceited scholar who draws hasty conclusions with the wish to create a sensation (he has discovered or found something and is in a great hurry to tell everyone), without even properly making sure of the correctness of it all, because he is driven by the wish to become a star: the Sun blinds Mercury, his mind.

A «combust» Jupiter

This is the wish to demonstrate to others one’s charisma, one’s holiness, one’s competence in spiritual or juridical questions. Such a person may be excessively proud of his children, his pupils or his wealth, of his position as a just judge, a sponsor or a benefactor; he may have a superiority complex in the sphere of philosophy; it may be a teacher who uses learning for the sake of a career and position.

A «combust» Venus

This may be a woman who wishes to conquer everyone with her beauty and charm — some «sex bomb» shining on the covers of glossy magazines. If it is a man, he will be proud and boastful of his romantic adventures, of the number of women’s hearts he has conquered and so on — that is, he will strive to show success in those spheres of life for which Venus is responsible. In art it may be a painter, a musician or a poet who wishes to stun everyone with his originality and unusualness — he will seek popularity at any price. Or a person may strive to become a show producer or the presenter of some entertainment programme (the faces known to all, who never leave the television screens). This is a «star» in the sphere of Venus — the sphere of entertainment or art.

A «combust» Saturn

This may be a proud ascetic who scorches everyone with his wrath, or a senior monk; in worldly manifestations it may be the foreman of a team of loaders who will push through all the trade-union matters for his own people and so on. It may be a person who is proud of his proletarian origin, because he considers that to be a worker has a proud ring to it. The Sun makes him be a star, and Saturn shows the sphere in which he strives to be a star. The person may make a serious career in the sphere of metallurgy or of the coal industry, that is, one connected with the basic primary elements symbolised by Saturn. He may also become the head of a prison or of a funeral office, since prison, death and funeral rituals are connected with Saturn.