Birth of twins.

Written by

Jayasree Saranathan.

Published in November 2010 issue of The Astrological eMagazine.

A recent news report from Chennai said that more twin-births were recorded in the month
of July this year. This is a curious piece of information, for, the month of July saw almost
all the planets in dual signs or quadruped signs with the signifactor for twins, namely the
planet Mercury transiting its own sign of Gemini. The traditional wisdom of astrology is
that the dual signs and double –bodied signs that include Capricorn, getting connected
with Mercury indicate the birth of twins. Though the lagna lord, its position, the position
the female and male planets and the aspects they receive are important pointers for birth
of twins, it is nevertheless seen that the transit of long term planets in dual signs with
other faster moving planets including Mercury getting connected to them on and off
seems to make the Universe present a conducive combination for the birth of more
number of twins. With putra karaka Jupiter spending quite some time in the dual sign of
Pisces and Saturn posited in Virgo at the current juncture, the heavens do seem to
facilitate twin births in a greater frequency than usual.

Medically assisted conceptions are on the rise thereby leading to a greater scope for twin
pregnancies. But the news report was about twins-births reported in government
hospitals. The people who frequent those hospitals can not be assumed to have taken
fertility drugs. This confirms the traditional opinion that the Universe creates conditions
periodically that will see the birth of twins. A separate set of conditions facilitate triplets
that happen once in many lakhs of births.
There is some orderliness in the way births are facilitated. However individual karma
decides the way about the entry and impact of twins in their life.

Looking at some of the prominent features of the sky for twin births, we can enumerate
as follows:-

• Sagittarius, the 9th house of the Natural zodiac which also happens to be lorded by
the puthra karaka Jupiter must be the focus of majority planets in multiple births
in a single pregnancy. If the birth falls in Sagittarius rasi or amsa and if all the
planets are powerful and group together in Sagittarius amsa, aspected by Mercury
and Saturn, the world will hear the news of multiple kids being born under such a
configuration. This is a rare occurrence.
• When mercury transits its own sign, it casts is aspect on the dual signs of Jupiter.
If at such a time the birth happens in those dual signs with other planets also
 posited in them and associated with Mercury, that is the heaven’s map for birth of
twins.
• When Jupiter and sun are posited in the navamsa of Gemini and Sagittarius with
Mercury joining them or aspecting them, birth of twin boys can be expected.
• Similarly when Venus and Mars are seen in the Navamsa of Virgo and Pisces and
get associated with Mercury, birth of girl twins can be expected.
• When on a day, moon is seen transiting an even sign and the male planets are seen
in odd signs with one or more of them casting an aspect on the moon, the birth
that happens in an even sign on that day will be that of twins.
• Sun is the universal athmakaraka. If sun, Jupiter the putra karaka, Mars the karaka
for vitality are transiting dual or double bodied signs with mercury also transiting
such signs or aspecting one of them, birth of twins will be reported. Such a
condition existed for quite sometime in July this year.

Looking at the birth charts of women, we find corroboratory combinations pointing to the
birth of twins to them. Some of the oft-repeated combinations are as follows:-

• The 5th house from lagna, Jupiter and moon falling in dual signs from all the 3 or
any 2 of these reckonings must be noted. Their lords posited in dual signs in rasi
or amsa increases the chance of twin births.
• The aspect by male or female planets from dual signs to the 5th house in rasi or
amsa.
• Mercury getting associated with the 5th house or 5th lord and joining the nodes,
while the 5th house happens to be a dual or quadruped sign from any one of the 3
reckonings.
• The 5th house from Lagna or Jupiter aspected by Mercury while the 5th from the 5th
(Bhavat Bhavam) is aspected by nodes or planets from dual signs.
• The 5th lord, sun, Jupiter and Mars falling in dual signs in rasi or amsa.
• In the above combination the sun can be substituted by the athmakaraka in a
horoscope. The planet that has gone too far in a sign becomes the athmakaraka.
The athmakaraka gets associated with the 5th lord from lagna or moon or Jupiter
and falling in dual signs in rasi or amsa while sun or Mars and the 5th lord also
come into contact with dual lords or dual signs or are aspected by Mercury.
• The 9th house from Upapada aspected by planets from dual signs or Mercury or
the 9th sign falling in dual rasis and aspected by Mercury or planets from dual
signs.
• Similar combination reckoned from Karakamsa. The 9th house from Karakamsa
falling in dual sign or aspected by Mercury or planets from dual signs – any 2 of
these combinations indicate birth of twin children to a woman.
• The kshetra sputa must be calculated for the woman by adding up the longitudes
of Moon, Mars and Jupiter. (The details of calculation have been given by Dr BV
Raman in his book “How to judge a horoscope”.) The lord of the kshetra or its
 star lord in rasi or amsa getting associated with dual lords or dual signs does
indicate the potency to conceive twins.
• Uranus is a planet of unusual and tough events such as twin pregnancies. The
position of Uranus in dual or quadruped signs or in the asterism of dual sign-
lords or planets that are posited in dual signs in rasi or amsa also indicate a
potency to conceive twins.
• The sub-lord of the 5th cusp gets connected to Mercury or dual signs or planets in
dual signs.
• The combination for Bahu puta yoga also has a bearing on twin births when the
signs and lords are associated with dual signs. This yoga is caused when Rahu is
in the 5th, but is posited in a Navamsa other than that of Saturn. When one or more
of the above combinations exist in a horoscope along with this Bahu putra yoga,
birth of twins is certain.
• Another version of Bahu putra yoga arises when the planet that joins the 7th lord
in rasi falls in a navamsa, whose lord happens to be the lord of 1st or 2nd or 5th
house in the rasi.

An example of this 2nd version of Bahu puta yoga is the popular Hollywood actress
Jennifer Lopez.
+-----------------------------------------------+
|Ra |Sa |Ve | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-----------|
| | |Su Me |
| | | |
| | July, 24, 1969 | |
| | | |
| | 12 pm | |
|-----------| |-----------|
| | Bronx, New York | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | RASI | |
| | | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-----------|
| |Mo Ma | |As Ju |
| | | |Ke |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
+-----------------------------------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------+
|Ju | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-----------|
| | |As Ra |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | Navamsa | |
|-----------| |-----------|
|Ke | D-9 |Mo Ve |
| | |Sa |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-----------|
| | |Ma Me |Su |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
+-----------------------------------------------+

Ketu conjoins her 7th lord Jupiter in Virgo, her lagna. Ketu is in the Navamsa of Saturn.
Saturn happens to be the 5th lord in her rasi. She gave birth to her twin kids – a girl and a
boy – on 22nd February, 2008. She was running Ketu dasa – Mercury antar dasa – Ketu
pratyantar dasa at the time of delivery of twins. There are a number of other indicators for
twins. Let us list them out:-

• Lagna is dual sign (Virgo)

• Putrakarak Jupiter is in dual sign (Virgo)
• From moon, the 5th house is dual sign whose lord is posited in dual sign.
• 5th house from lagna and Jupiter is the double-bodied sign of Capricorn which is
aspected by Mercury.
• The lord of that 5th sign Saturn is in debility in an odd sign but joins Venus and
Moon in an odd sign in Navamsa. But Venus and moon are in even signs in rasi.
This gives a combination of female and male babies in one pregnancy.
• In the Navamsa, the 5th lord happens to be the male planet of Mars which joins
mercury in odd sign and joins Moon and Venus in even signs in the rasi. This
also strengthens the birth of twins of 2 sexes.
• The sub lord of the 5th cusp is sun who is in the asterism of Saturn, the 5th lord.
• Uranus in the asterism of sun is in the dual sign of Virgo.
• Note that sun is occupying the dual amsa, so also Jupiter and the nodes.
• The birth of twins took place in the dasa of Ketu which is involved in Bahu putra
yoga. Note that Ketu is in the asterism of the 5th cuspal sub lord, the sun and
 occupies the dual sign along with Jupiter. The antar dasa was expectedly
Mercury!

The first version of Bahu puta yoga is found in the horoscope of another Hollywood
celebrity, Angelina Jolie.
+-----------------------------------------------+
|Mo Ma | |Su Me(R) |Sa |
|Ju | |Ke | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-----------|
| | |As Ve |
| | | |
| | June,4, 1975 | |
| | 9-09 am | |
| | Los Angeles | |
|-----------| |-----------|
| | | |
| | RASI | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-----------|
| |Ra | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
+-----------------------------------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------+
|Ke | |Sa |Su |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-----------|
|Ju | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | Navamsa | |
|-----------| |-----------|
| | D-9 |As Ve |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-----------|
|Mo Ma | | |Me(R) Ra |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
+-----------------------------------------------+

Rahu is in the 5th house from lagna but not in the Navamsa of Saturn. But note that Rahu
has joined Mercury in a dual amsa. In most case studies of mothers of twins, Mercury is
associated with the nodes. She gave birth to her twin kids – a boy and a girl – in Venus –
Jupiter – Rahu period. Other pointers in this horoscope are as follows:-

• Moon and Jupiter in a dual sign.

• 5th lord from them happens to be moon which is posited in the dual sign.
• The 5th house from lagna is aspected by Mercury.
• The 5th from the 5th is an even and dual sign with moon and male planets in it.
• The dual signs of her Navamsa are full with planets.
• 5th from her Navamsa lagna is a dual sign with moon and the natal 5th lord, Mars
occupying it.
• Rahu has joined mercury in another dual amsa. Note that Mercury is her athma
karaka.
• 9th from karakamsa is lorded by Venus and occupied by Saturn. Though she
already had adopted children and had her own daughter, the twins were born in
Venus dasa and Jupiter antar dasa as Jupiter is in the asterism of Mercury and her
5th cuspal sub lord also happens to be mercury. In the Rahu pratyantar dasa of that
period, the Bahu putra yoga was fructified.

Like this, we can see a combination of factors for the birth of twin children in the
mother’s horoscope.

Written by
Jayasree Saranathan