Jupiter Combust Dates

Jupiter is combust for about four weeks each year, for as long as the Sun stands within eleven degrees of it, the orb that Parashara and Surya Siddhanta both give. Jupiter cannot be seen in the Sun's glare for those weeks. Jyotish calls the state asta, a loss of strength.

The Sun and Jupiter are friends, so this combustion is gentler than Saturn's or Mars's. Jupiter's significations still go quiet for the period: wisdom, teachers, children, wealth, dharma and faith. Advice is harder to take in. Money that was expected tends to arrive late.

Count the house from the Moon and from the lagna. In the houses Phaladeepika gives as favourable for Jupiter, the second, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh, the four weeks pause a good stretch. In the sixth, eighth or twelfth, faith can waver for a short time.

The period tests whether a person's dharma is their own or depends on a teacher being present. Someone whose practice continues through these weeks has understood the teaching.

Keep up the practice without expecting a result. Honour the guru on Thursday, give yellow cloth and gram as Parashara prescribes for Jupiter, and recite Om Brihaspataye Namah. Offer water to the Sun at dawn.

Muhurta Chintamani lists Guru asta among the standard reasons to postpone a muhurta for marriage, upanayana or moving into a new home. The same caution applies to starting a course of study or taking initiation, so the wedding waits until Jupiter rises again.

Work that is already under way continues without harm.