Level 4 · Lesson 6 of 6

Judging significance

7 min · Goal: Apply a consistent five-question filter to any yoga rather than accepting its label.

Five questions, in order

Base rate. How many charts would have this by simple distribution? A yoga present in a third of the population tells you almost nothing about an individual.

Dignity. Are the forming planets exalted, in their own sign, debilitated, combust? A yoga is only as strong as what makes it.

Functional status. Are those planets benefics for this Lagna, or do they rule dushthanas? A Raja Yoga formed partly by the 8th lord is a more complicated proposition than the name suggests.

Timing. When does the dasha of the forming planets run? A yoga whose period arrives at seventy is a footnote in a working life.

Corroboration. Do other independent factors in the chart point the same way? One yoga never carries a reading.

Why the filter beats memorising

There are hundreds of yogas and you will not learn them all. But this filter applies to every one of them, including ones you encounter for the first time in a reading someone else has given you or a relative has forwarded.

It is also, plainly, the defence against being sold something. Every predatory reading in this field depends on the listener not asking the base-rate question.

Where you are now, and what Level 5 does

You have the framework from Level 2, the actors from Level 3, and the named combinations from Level 4 — along with a way of deciding how much any of them is worth.

Level 5 puts it into a method: a fixed order for approaching a whole chart rather than a placement, worked through complete examples, and ending with the harder skill of deciding what to say and what to withhold.

Try it with your own chart

Filter one yoga

  1. Take any yoga your chart shows, or one you have been told you have.
  2. Answer all five questions in order: base rate, dignity, functional status, dasha timing, corroboration.
  3. Write one sentence stating how much weight you would give it, and why.
  4. Notice whether your conclusion differs from how that yoga is usually described online. It often will.
Browse the yoga index

Key points

Check yourself

A chart has a Raja Yoga formed by the 9th and 10th lords, but both are combust and their dashas run after age seventy. How would you describe it?

Lunar and solar yogasFinish Level 4 →
You have finished Level 4

You can now identify the main yogas and, more importantly, judge what any of them is worth. Level 5 turns all of this into a method: a fixed order for reading a whole chart, worked through complete examples. Create a free account and we will tell you when it opens.

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