Understanding drishti is vital in trying to decipher the undercurrent influences in the birth chart that are essential drivers of our own or others’ desires, which lead to certain actions and shape our experience of life.
Etymology
Drishti is derived from Sanskrit word dṛṣ, which means to see, to care for, to learn, to understand, to become visible or appear. It does not only refer to physical vision, but also means to see with the mind or by divine intuition. Because of this power to see and to know, drishti indicates the power to affect or influence something. In Astrology terms most common English translation for drishti is “aspect”, which implies all or any of the above meanings.
Intention of a planet
Each planet is able to see or has a drishti only on certain places from itself. Only what you see, you can have knowledge of. Only what you know, you can desire. And therefore, these aspected places show houses where planets want to interfere. It shows what the planet is looking at because it wants to attain, affect or intervene in that particular matter of life. If any other planet is sitting in these particular houses, they want to influence them too.
To fully understand the quality of the drishti and intention of the graha, we need to understand grahas themselves. In some cases, it works as the source of strength and support, whereas in some cases it can cause turbulence, chaos and even destruction. The more planets aspect another planet or a house, the more multi-layered influence is experienced. Graha drishti of a benefic planet strengthens the house, malefic grahas – damage it. If two or more benefic planets aspect the sign, it gives blessings to the house, whereas two or more malefic aspects show curses and difficulties to overcome.
The aspect of a house lord to its own sign gives strong protection to the house, even if it is a malefic planet. Nevertheless, it can still hurt a planet sitting in that house.
The heart of the planet
All planets cast a full drishti on the 7th house from themselves, which is the opposite house. It is said that whatever is in the 7th house from a planet, that is in the strongest desire of that planet and is deep in the heart. In case of naturally inimical planets, placed opposite each other, inner and outer conflicts arise. For example, Sun and Saturn being opposite each other can show the tussle between wealth and poverty, worldly life vs ascetic life. In other case, if Mercury and Jupiter are opposite each other, its like a student is searching for a Guru and a Guru is searching for a student, creating beautiful opportunities for learning, growth, expansion and success.
Besides the 7th house from itself, depending on the graha, there are additional full aspects as listed below:
· Mars - full drishti on the 4th and 8th house form itself – security;
· Jupiter – full drishti on the 5th and 9th houses from itself - knowledge,
· Saturn – full drishti on 3rd and 10th houses from itself - growth,
· Rahu – full drishti on 5th,9th and 12th houses from itself - knowledge.
· Ketu is headless and has no eyes to see, hence he has no desires and no graha drishti.
In a nutshell, Jupiter, wherever it casts his glance, gives knowledge, blessings, expansion, Saturn’s gaze gives delays, hard work, slow way to success, etc.
Impermanence
The most important feature of a graha drishti is its impermanence. Like all our desires, the desires of the planets last for a certain period of time and are activated during their planetary periods. Here time is the King. Once the dasha or the time of that planet is over, the desire is gone too, be it negative or positive. And hence, we are off to chase new desires, new people, new life, wondering what value we saw in all this back then when our mind was gripped…