Plain words

What the words mean

EnteAstro calculates in the vocabulary of the traditions it implements, because a Nakshatra is a Nakshatra and calling it something else would be a weaker claim. But not knowing a word should never be what stops you reading your own chart, so every one of them is here in a sentence.

angle between two planetsAspect: Two planets at a particular angle to each other — a third of a circle, a quarter, opposite — which Western astrology reads as a relationship between them.
birth starNakshatraനക്ഷത്രം · नक्षत्र: The band of sky the Moon was crossing when you were born — there are 27 of them, and yours is the one Indian astrology names you by.Where a Western horoscope starts from the Sun, Indian astrology starts from the Moon, and the Nakshatra is the finer division it uses. It is what a Kerala family means by your star, and it is why two people born the same month can be read completely differently.
chapter within the chapterAntardasha: A shorter period inside the long one, usually a few months to a couple of years.
half moon-dayKarana: Half of a Tithi. The almanac uses it to time things more finely than a whole lunar day allows.
houseBhava: One of twelve areas of life — work, money, family, partnership and so on — laid over the chart from your rising sign.
how close is close enoughOrb: How far from exact an angle can be and still count. EnteAstro states the number it used rather than leaving it implied.
Kerala's sun seasonNjāttuvelaഞാറ്റുവേല: Which of the 27 star-periods the Sun is standing in — Kerala's farming calendar, and the one the rains are named by.
life chapterMahadasha: The long planetary period you are living through — they run from six to twenty years, and the one you are in shapes the whole stretch.The sequence is fixed and it is decided entirely by where the Moon was at your birth, so it is worked out once and then simply runs. It is the part of Indian astrology with the least room for opinion and the most for arithmetic.
measured from the seasonsTropical: The zodiac Western astrology uses, fixed to the spring equinox.
measured from the starsSidereal: The zodiac Indian astrology uses, fixed against the constellations.
moon dayTithiतिथि: How far the Moon has pulled ahead of the Sun today — the lunar calendar's version of a date.There are thirty in a lunar month, fifteen while the Moon fills and fifteen while it empties. They are not the same length as a calendar day, which is why a Tithi can begin in the middle of an afternoon.
moon fortnightPaksha: Whether the Moon is filling towards full or emptying towards new.
moon-opposite dayChandrashtamaചന്ദ്രാഷ്ടമം: The two or three days a month when the Moon is eight signs on from where it was at your birth.Kerala treats it as a day to keep small rather than a day of bad luck, and EnteAstro says it the same way. It comes round every month for everybody; a warning that arrives thirteen times a year is not a warning.
planetGraha: The nine moving points Indian astrology reads: the Sun and Moon, five planets, and the Moon's two nodes.
planetary gazeDrishti: Which parts of your chart a planet is looking at from where it sits.Indian astrology's gazes are not symmetrical — Mars, Jupiter and Saturn each see further, and in specific directions. That asymmetry is one of the clearest differences from the Western idea of an aspect.
quarterPada: Each birth star is divided into four quarters, and yours narrows the reading further.A Nakshatra spans a little over thirteen degrees, which the Moon crosses in about a day. The quarter says which part of that day you arrived in.
rising signLagnaലഗ്നം: The sign that was climbing over the eastern horizon at the minute you were born.It moves through all twelve in a day, so it is the one part of a chart that needs your birth time to be right. Without a time, everything else still works and this does not.
rising signAscendant: The same thing as the Lagna: what was coming up in the east when you were born.
signRasiരാശി: One of the twelve signs — the same twelve as a magazine horoscope, measured against the actual stars rather than the seasons.This is why Indian astrology usually puts you one sign earlier than the Western one you already know. Neither is a mistake; they count from different starting points, and the gap between them is the ayanamsa.
star-distanceTara: Counting from your birth star to today's, which gives one of nine traditional relationships between the two.
sun–moon combinationYoga: The Sun's and the Moon's positions added together, which the almanac reads as one of 27 named qualities of the day.Nothing to do with the exercise. The word means a joining, and what is being joined here is two measured positions.
the common letter systemPythagorean: The other way of turning letters into numbers, and the one most books use.
the day's almanacPanchangപഞ്ചാംഗം: Five measurements that describe a day: the weekday, the moon day, the birth star, the sun–moon combination, and the half moon-day.The word means five limbs. It is the page a Kerala household checks before fixing a date, and every figure in it is calculated from where the Sun and Moon actually are.
the gap between the two zodiacsAyanamsa: About 24 degrees, and growing — the distance between where the stars are and where the seasons say they should be.The Earth wobbles, so the spring equinox drifts slowly backwards through the constellations. Indian astrology measures from the stars, Western astrology from the equinox, and this number is the difference. There are several published values; EnteAstro uses Lahiri, the official Indian one, unless you change it.
the hour to avoid starting thingsRahu Kalamരാഹുകാലം: A roughly ninety-minute stretch each day, different for each weekday, traditionally avoided for beginning something new.It is calculated from that day's actual sunrise and sunset, so it moves through the year and differs by where you are. A printed table that gives the same times everywhere is an approximation.
the Kerala chartGrahanilaഗ്രഹനില: The square chart Kerala draws, with the signs in fixed boxes and the planets written into them.
the Malayalam yearKollavarshamകൊല്ലവർഷം: Kerala's own calendar, whose months follow the Sun through the signs rather than the Moon.
the ninth-part chartNavamsa: A second chart drawn by dividing each sign into nine, read alongside the first — traditionally for marriage and for what a placement really amounts to.
the older letter systemChaldean: One of the two ways of turning letters into numbers, and the older of them.Chaldean and Pythagorean assign different numbers to the same letters, so they genuinely disagree about your name. EnteAstro shows both rather than picking one and calling it the answer.
the short periodPratyantardasha: A third level down, measured in weeks.
weekdayVara: The day of the week, and the planet that traditionally rules it — the same association English keeps in Sunday, Monday and Saturday.
where a planet is nowGochara: A planet's position today, read against where it was when you were born.
your birth-date numberLife path number: Your full birth date added down to a single digit.