How do you see yourself?
Photo credit: @ivana.bari
Arudha Lagna is the public image and how others perceive you, but how do you perceive yourself? Sometimes how we try to be, believe ourselves to be, and want to be, does not align with who or what we are. This is the Bhāva Lagna - how you act and approach things.
How you approach things
“Sometimes how we try to be, believe ourselves to be, and want to be, is not really who or what we are.”
Where the time it takes for signs to rise will vary based on your location on Earth, Bhāva Lagna is calculated with an equal time slot of two hours per sign rising, added to the degree of the Sun at the time of sunrise prior to your birth. Note there are disagreements about how to calculate sunrise (actual rays, appearance of rays, tip of disc, the center). Nonetheless, the resulting Bhāva Lagna will land normally with your natural Ascendant, or one sign after - or before - your ascendant. This calculation emphasizes how space distorts reality.
When the Bhāva Lagna lands in a sign other than your Ascendant, there will be some incongruence between who you are and what your mind believes you to be. You may be a lion, but approach the world like a mouse. You may be a cat, but approach the world like a dog. Perhaps you are naturally extroverted and aggressive, but in your mind, you are gentle and introverted and will attempt to be so.
Bhāva Lagna shows how Brahmā (or any divine body or energy) wanted to create you, but the Ascendant shows how you really turned out. When the Bhāva Lagna and Ascendant - with their grahas or lack thereof - are drastically different in personalities, you are likely less in tune with your inherent self, strengths, weaknesses, and roles in life. This is not always problematic, but it can be. It may even be an advantage.
Application
Is your Bhāva Lagna placed with your ascendant? If not, do you relate to and behave more like your rising sign or the sign before/after? These distortions can be important when consulting clients who have different ideas about themselves than what truly is. On another note, the power of the mind may also be strong enough to actually manifest those concepts.
- Zelda Astrology
Thanks Zelda. Really interesting stuff here. So for me the Bhāva Lagna is in a different sign than the lagna in my Rashi chart, and I very much do resonate with concept of feeling like I’m supposed to be doing my bhava lagna, but really I’m doing the rashi lagna. It almost makes too much sense.
But philosophically I have a hard time getting on board with this idea that the cosmic creator wanted me one way and I turned out another; I really don’t believe in cosmic mistakes like this. This notion would also inherently invalidate the basic premise in astrology that so many of us have come to take for granted:
Can you mention any example here.