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My advice is to let ashstakavarga go for the time being. It's one of the more esoteric techniques in India's astrology, and in my experience doesn't always check out the way it's supposed to. Also there is more than one way it can be calculated. To really understand this topic, books by different authors should be compared.

I haven't seen that particular book, but C.S. Patel is a respected author. Possibly the second author took some of Patel's work and built on it to make the book, but I don't know for sure.
http://www.snowcrest.net/sunrise/LostZodiac.htm

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Hi James: Second Therese's advice and opinion in ashtakavarga techniques. The theory of ashtakvarga has serious limitations. High ashtakavarga points doesn't lighten the vulnerability of weak and afflicted planets in the natal chart and consequently renders the usefulness of its fundamental concept a chimera.
Cheers.

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therese and aj,

not that i am ignoring either of your thoughts on this, but my curiousity motivated me to buy a book on this called ''practical ashtakavarga'' by vinay aditya...

a similar system to this idea of the "Logic behind the concept of temporary enemies" which aj gave an answer to in my other 2 posts from today in a post by holdorflod which can be found on this thread - https://skyscript.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10737

i am repeating what i said on that thread for the purposes of strengthening the usefulness of this topic title thread i started previously..

"a similar system is used for arriving at a point system for understanding greater strengths or weaknesses in a chart thru this system of ashtakavarga... aditya states on page 3 on the basic calculations chapter the following.. "The Table-1 on page 4 has to be referred to as the standard table, to mak the benefic positions for all horoscopes. The rationale behind this table is lost in the dust of time."

it draws into question the whole basis for ashtakavarga as i see it.. however, those who use ashtakavarga will vouch for its usefulness..the book is quite good and does a convincing job in this regard.. i am 1/2 way thru the book and would recommend it if anyone is interested in this particular stream of indian astrology.. the author wrote a book previously on ashtakavarga called 'the dots of destiny'... in the book i have the author claims you don't need to have his first book to understand what he lays out in his views on ashtakavarga.. "