Vasi Yoga: a planet in the 12th from the Sun, the rule as coded, and a worked chart

Vasi is the second solar yoga and the mirror image of Vesi. Vesi looks at the sign after the Sun; Vasi looks at the sign before it. If one of five planets stands in that sign, and the sign after the Sun is empty of them, the chart has Vasi. This page states the rule as the engine applies it, shows what Saravali and BPHS say about it - including the spelling difference that has confused more than one software implementation - and walks through a chart. For what any yoga is worth in general, see what a yoga in your chart means.

The rule: how Vasi Yoga forms

Count signs from the Sun's sign as the 1st, by whole signs. The 12th from the Sun is the sign immediately before it in the zodiac. The engine reports Vasi when:

1. 1.At least one of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn occupies the 12th sign from the Sun.
2. 2.Only those five count. The Moon is excluded by both texts, and the nodes by Saravali explicitly ("excluding the Moon (and nodes)").
3. 3.The 2nd sign from the Sun holds none of the five. If it does, the Sun is enclosed on both sides and the engine reports Ubhayachari instead.

A planet sharing the Sun's sign is the 1st from it and plays no part, however close it is in degrees. A planet late in the 12th sign and the Sun early in its own sign may be only a few degrees apart; they still count by sign alone.

Vasi, Vosi and the swapped-sides problem

BPHS Ch. 38 Sl. 1 spells this yoga "Vosi"; Saravali Ch. 14 spells it "Vasi". It is the same rule - the 12th from the Sun - in both. Because Vasi and Vesi differ by one letter, the two are easy to swap, and the engine's source comment records that this app once did exactly that, labelling every 12th-from-Sun chart Vesi and every 2nd-from-Sun chart Vasi. The code now follows both texts: 12th is Vasi, 2nd is Vesi. If another tool shows your chart the other way round, check which side it is counting.

What the classical texts say

Saravali Ch. 14 Sl. 6 describes the Vasi native as having excellent speech and a good memory, being employed, strong about the waist, "equal to a king", and genuine. BPHS Ch. 38 Sl. 2-3 reads Vosi as skill, charity, fame, learning and strength. The two lists overlap on capability and standing and do not contradict each other the way they do for Vesi. The engine keeps Saravali's emphasis on speech: "Classically read as strong, persuasive speech and a dependable, well-regarded presence."

Saravali Sl. 7-9 then gives each causing planet its own line. Jupiter forming Vasi is read as courage, strength, wisdom and keeping one's word; Venus as valour, fame and virtue; Mercury as sweet speech, good looks and obedience to others' orders; Mars as success in contests and fame. Saturn's line is the harshest - it mixes business ability with unflattering traits - and is the text's own verdict, reported here and not endorsed. Sl. 10 asks that the strength of the Sun and of the causing planets, and the signs and divisions they occupy, be weighed before results are declared.

Advanced Predictive Astrology (pp. 146-147) argues that the Moon's position from the Sun sets a ceiling on Vasi and Vesi, as on the lunar yogas. Jyotisha Siddhanta Sara (p. 152) gives the same rule, excluding the Moon and nodes, and splits it as BPHS Sl. 4 implies: a benefic cause is "Subha Vasi", a malefic one "Papa-Vasi"; the engine does not make that split. The Bhrigu Sutras translation does not mention Vasi.

How rare it is

Vasi fired in 843 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060 - 28.1 percent. Its mirror, Vesi, fired 820 times and the two-sided Ubhayachari 1,020 times. The near-equality of Vasi and Vesi is what you would expect: nothing in the sky favours the sign before the Sun over the sign after it.

The engine also names the causing planets, so the walk can be tallied by planet:

Venus and Mercury account for most of it, because they never travel far from the Sun and so often sit in the sign just before it. In 554 of the 843 moments every causing planet was a benefic; in 101 the causes were Mars or Saturn alone - the BPHS "contrary effects" case; the other 188 were mixed. A single planet formed the yoga in 489 moments. In other words, Vasi is a common yoga mostly made by the Sun's two inner companions, and the strict BPHS reversal applies to roughly one Vasi in eight.

What Vasi means in the sky

There is a simple physical picture behind the rule. Zodiac longitude increases eastward, and the sky turns from east to west each day. A planet in the sign before the Sun has a smaller longitude than the Sun, so it lies west of the Sun along the zodiac and rises before it: when Mercury or Venus forms Vasi, it is usually on the morning side of the Sun. A planet in the sign after the Sun - the Vesi side - lies east of it and sets after it, on the evening side. Neither text explains the yoga this way, and the engine does not use it; it is only a way of seeing what the sign count describes. It also shows why these yogas tell you nothing about the planet's distance from the Sun in degrees: a Venus late in the 12th sign and a Sun early in its own sign may be close together, yet still form Vasi.

Finding the signs by hand

Because the rule depends only on the Sun's sign, the two signs to inspect can be listed once. Vasi needs one of the five planets in the middle column and none in the right-hand column.

Worked example: the first moment of the walk

The engine's deterministic search starts at 1 January 1985, 06:00 IST, New Delhi - and that very first moment has Vasi. Enter it in the birth chart calculator to check. The ascendant is Scorpio at 28.81 degrees.

1. 1.The Sun is in Sagittarius. Its 12th sign is Scorpio, its 2nd Capricorn.
2. 2.Scorpio holds Mercury and Saturn - two of the five - and Ketu, which does not count. Condition one holds.
3. 3.Capricorn holds nothing. Condition three holds, so the yoga is Vasi rather than Ubhayachari.
4. 4.Jupiter is in Sagittarius with the Sun - the 1st from it - and takes no part in the solar yogas.

The engine reports Vasi Yoga with the planets Mercury, Saturn and the Sun, and the sentence "The 12th sign from your Sun holds Mercury, Saturn." This is a mixed case for BPHS Sl. 4: Mercury is a benefic and Saturn a malefic, and the text does not say how to combine them. Saravali would read each through its own line. Here the 12th-from-Sun sign is also the ascendant, the 1st house - but the Vasi rule attaches no meaning to which house it falls in.

Saravali Sl. 10 asks for the strength of the Sun and of the causing planets. The engine's dignity grades for this chart give a first, partial answer: Mercury in Scorpio is graded "Friendly sign", Saturn in Scorpio "Neutral", and the Sun in Sagittarius "Neutral". None is exalted or debilitated. Dignity by sign is only one part of the strength the text has in mind - it also names the divisions (amsas) the planets occupy - and the engine does not combine these into a Vasi grade. The point of the exercise is to show what the text asks for beyond the bare rule, and how much of it a reader has to supply.

The same chart has three more yogas in the engine's output: Kedara (a Nabhasa count of occupied signs), the Kendra-Kona Raj Yoga, and a Parivartana exchange. Note also what it does not have: with the Moon in Aries, the 2nd from the Moon (Taurus) holds only Rahu and the 12th (Pisces) is empty, so none of the lunar yogas forms - Rahu is excluded there too.

Vasi beside its neighbouring yogas

Vasi's closest relatives are Vesi (2nd from the Sun) and Ubhayachari (both sides). Its lunar counterpart is Anapha, a planet in the 12th from the Moon, with Sunapha and Durudhura completing that family. The Sun family has no counterpart to the Moon's Kemadruma: a Sun with both neighbours empty simply has none of the three, and the engine reports nothing.

What each causing planet brings in its own right is on its page - for the example, Mercury and Saturn.

What the rule does and does not establish

Vasi establishes that one of five planets occupies the sign before the Sun while the sign after it does not. The texts read that favourably, with Saravali grading it by planet and strength and BPHS reversing it for a malefic cause; neither gives it a timing rule. A yoga is a named rule about positions, not a promise. Seeing Vasi in your chart tells you exactly that, and its absence removes nothing the texts promise elsewhere.

To check your own chart for Vasi, Vesi or Ubhayachari and see which planets form it, run the yoga calculator.

Questions about Vasi Yoga

Are Vasi Yoga and Vosi Yoga the same?

Yes. BPHS Ch. 38 spells it Vosi; Saravali Ch. 14 spells it Vasi. Both mean a planet other than the Moon in the 12th sign from the Sun.

Is Vasi the 12th from the Sun or the 2nd?

The 12th. Vesi is the 2nd. An earlier version of this app had them swapped; the engine now follows both texts.

Does Ketu or the Moon in the 12th from the Sun form Vasi?

No. Saravali excludes the Moon and the nodes, and BPHS excludes the Moon. Only Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn count.

How common is Vasi Yoga?

It fired in 843 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060 in this engine, or 28.1 percent.

Which planet usually forms it?

Venus, then Mercury. Of the 843 Vasi moments in the sample, Venus took part in 465 and Mercury in 377, because both stay close to the Sun.

Does a malefic forming Vasi change the reading?

In BPHS it does: Ch. 38 Sl. 4 says malefic causes give contrary effects. Saravali gives a separate line for each planet instead. The engine applies neither and shows one line.

Is Vasi Yoga about the 12th house of the chart?

No. It is the 12th sign counted from the Sun, which can be any house from the ascendant. In the worked example it is the 1st house.

Do I need to do anything about Vasi Yoga?

No. It is a named rule about planetary positions. This app does not prescribe remedies.