Articles / KP Astrology / Is KP Astrology Accurate?
Is KP Astrology Accurate? Not necessarily!
Historically, astrologers take pride in saying "I practice KP Astrology." When we trace back to the root, we can find the reason for that. It started with Mr. Krishnamurti, who single-handedly launched the most complex system available in the astrological world and, most importantly, successfully defended his system during his time against the traditional systems.
Accuracy is said to be the foundation of the KP System, and his announcement to the world that events could be predicted to the level of minutes and seconds caught the attention of many.
Drafting a chart in the KP System manually is not easy even today. It requires greater concentration. Planet positioning must come with its sub lord. The house system is not a simple one like Equal or Vehlow, but a mathematically complex model called Placidus. There was no statement made by the founder explaining why the Placidus system was adopted for KP Astrology.
An astrologer who practices KP Astrology would very well have difficulty acquiring materials for the above. Unlike traditional astrology, those details are not found in one place. Mr. Krishnamurti, during his time, used Raphael's Tables of Houses and ephemeris, as it was the one that incorporated the Placidus system for houses. Right after his time, on behalf of Krishnamurti Paddathi, his son-in-law Prof. Balasundaram published the Universal Table of Houses in 1975. In the early 1980s, the founder's son Mr. K. Hariharan started the Krishnamurti Padhdhati Stellar Astrological Research Institute, continued to publish the Universal Table of Houses and other KP books. In 1986, the founder's other son Mr. K. Subramaniam branched out his own business and started publishing the KP Ephemeris and Krishman's Table of Houses. As of today, both branches produce materials necessary for KP astrologers.
The KP System was not benchmarked until the availability of the internet to the general public. For several decades, the recommendations from the Headquarters (KSK Family) were followed as laws of the KP System.
As the number of astrologers practicing the KP System has grown, materials, reviews, and research reports have also become increasingly available on the internet to the general public. On the other side, this has opened up opportunities for anyone with astrology or astronomy knowledge to check the validity of the materials, attempt to fix the dissonances, and confront theories that do not make sense.
Now, this raises an important question. Are the materials available for, recommended by, or used by the KP Astrologer community sufficient to produce the accuracy they have claimed for more than 60 years? Let us briefly look at some elements.
What does the so-called accuracy mean?
The Krishnamurti System is based on Star Lord / Sub Lord / Sub Sub Lord divisions. The divisions can go to any number of levels as long as computations are possible.
For example, let us consider the Moon star in Taurus / Virgo / Capricorn. A planet positioned in the following degree range is said to be occupied in the given Star Lord / Sub Lord / Sub Sub Lord.
11:03:20 - 11:06:40 - Mo / Mo / Su
11:06:41 - 11:09:23 - Mo / Ma / Ma
So the calculations must be accurate to find the positions without error. If the planet or house cusp falls at 11:06:40, then its sub lord is Moon. If it falls at 11:06:41, then its sub lord becomes Mars.
For a Virgo ascendant, Moon is the 11th lord and Mars is the lord of the 3rd and 8th houses. For the Lagna cuspal sub lord, a difference of 1 second will cause a change in the signification from the 11th house to the 3rd and 8th houses. This could bring chaos into the prediction.
Borderline cases are also applicable in traditional astrology, but the occurrences are minimal and only at the star level. As the KP System goes deeper into the stars and divides them into sub-divisions, the chances of failure are also greater.
That being said, our tools must be razor-sharp in accuracy, correct? Unfortunately, to make our life more difficult, there are more slippery slopes.
Issue #1: Accurate KP Ayanamsa
Without any doubt, the first bullet to be fired is at the ayanamsa. The founder claims that his ayanamsa is scientifically derived using the Newcomb precession rate. Let us briefly look at the ayanamsas available to a KP astrologer in the market today.
By the founder
The founder prepared a list of ayanamsas for a given number of years, up to 2001, in his book KP Reader Vol. 1 (please read the Ayanamsa article). Until his time, there was no serious talk or discussion about his proposed list. People believed and used what the founder listed in his book. Of course, we understand that they did not have enough help. He insisted that his list must be used for charts drafted in KP Astrology. For subsequent years (beyond 2001 AD), the precession value of 50.2388475 seconds is to be added every year.
Krishman's KP Ephemeris
This is a series released by Mr. K. Subramaniam, son of Mr. K. S. Krishnamurti, through his publication Krishman & Co., Chennai. As they approached the year 2000, they were required to create a formula to arrive at KP Ayanamsa values for years beyond 2001. In the KP Year Book 2003, Mr. K. Balachandran, in his article "In Defence of KP Ayanamsa based on M. G. G. Nair's article May 1980 in A & A," defined the formula for arriving at KP Ayanamsa values between 1900 and 2050. Mr. K. Subramaniam urged the community to use the new ayanamsa list produced using Mr. K. Balachandran's formula and declared that all older formulas were retired from usage. The new list is also published in the Krishman's KP Ephemeris 2011 - 2020 edition. We assume that the same ayanamsa values are used in preparing the Krishman's KP Ephemeris.
Krishman's Table of Houses
This is a book released by Mr. K. Subramaniam, son of Mr. K. S. Krishnamurti, through his publication Krishnam & Co., Chennai. To everyone's surprise, the fifth edition of Krishman's Table of Houses published in 2012 carries an ayanamsa list that does not match the list advocated by the editor. This book provides the user with a list that starts with an ayanamsa value for 1900 as 22-21-50, with a constant of 50 seconds added for every subsequent year. Unfortunately, this conflicts not only with the founder's proposed precession rate of 50.2388475 seconds but also with the editor's own proposal. Anyone using this list can observe that every 4 years and 2 months, one second is lost.
Universal Table of Houses
This is a book released by Mr. K. Hariharan, son of Mr. K. S. Krishnamurti, through his company Krishnamurthi Publications, Chennai. The recent edition of Universal Table of Houses introduces a different controversy. There are two ayanamsa lists given in this book. In Table X, the ayanamsa list starts with an ayanamsa value for 1900 as 22-28-10.1535, with a constant of 50-plus-fraction seconds added for every subsequent year. Though it states that the ayanamsa values listed are for 15th April, the two Tables of Houses using a similar yearly increment differ by around 6 minutes in 1900. On the next page, Table XA contains the ayanamsa list proposed by the founder in his KP Reader Vol. 1, printed with the title "According to Krishnamurti."
A few others have also tried their own ayanamsa formulas for the KP System.
S. P. Khullar Ayanamsa
This is actually called the KP Straight Line Ayanamsa by some scholars!
AyanKP = (50.2388475/3600)*((YR-292)+(261/365)+(((MN-1)*30+DY)/365))
YR stands for year
MN stands for month
DY stands for day
KP Straight Line Ayanamsa (KPSTLA)
This was proposed by M. C. Khare in 1978 as a simple formula. The reason for this proposal is outside the scope of this article.
KPSTLA = T*P/3600
where
T = Year for calculation - 291 (zero ayanamsa year for KP Ayanamsa)
P = Newcomb's annual precession rate = 50.2388475 sec (for KP Ayanamsa)
Note: For T as a fractional/decimal year, taking days between the required date and 15th April gives an up-to-date ayanamsa value.
Swiss Ephemeris (1. Epoch 1900 / 2. Epoch 291)
Swiss Ephemeris is the best open-source software available in the market and is the core of many software products available. As the calculation of planetary positions is a very complex process, software developers incorporate Swiss Ephemeris data into their products, since it has already been proven that the ephemeris data is more accurate than the traditional formulas.
- Their standard implementation of Krishnamurti Ayanamsa was based on the recommendation of western astrologer Robert Hand, using the initial epoch set to 1900.
- After seeing convincing evidence from the research report of Mr. D. Senthilathiban, a second implementation of Krishnamurti Ayanamsa was added using the initial epoch set to 291 AD. Please read the Ayanamsa article.
| The Accurate (!!!) KP Ayanamsas for the date 15-04-2020 | |
| Founder | Obsolete |
| KP Ephemeris | 24-03-00 |
| Table of Houses | 24-01-00 |
| Universal Table of Houses | 24-08-42.5 |
| SP.Khullar | 24-07-53 |
| Straight Line | 24-08-43 |
| Swiss Ephemeris (KP/Epoch 1900) | 24-02-19 |
| Swiss Ephemeris (KP/Epoch 291) | 24-03-31 |
When a 1-second difference would cause a change in signification from the 11th house to the 8th house, the available KP ayanamsas differ among themselves by between 31 and 262 seconds.
Issue #2: Birth Time Rectification
BTR is a process of adjusting the birth time up or down to create a link, directly or indirectly, between the ascendant cusp Star / Sub / Sub-Sub lords and the Moon's.
The KP Readers (6 volumes) available in the market at this time are to be considered a superset of the KP System along with the original writings of the founder, Mr. K. S. Krishnamurti. Details about Birth Time Rectification (BTR) are scattered throughout. Many have come up with different procedures to be applied. Eminent astrologers such as Mr. Mohan, Mr. T. K. Gopal, Mr. Andrew Dutta, Mr. V. Shanmugam, Mr. Durai Mathivanan, and Mr. V. Subramanian have proposed different solutions, but none agree on the same rule.
The original 2 volumes of the KP Reader from the founder's time are not available in the market. However, a print from the publisher Modern Astrological Research Institute is available and appears to have been published slightly after the founder's time, reflecting the original writings of Mr. K. S. Krishnamurti. In that book, the founder addressed Birth Time Rectification as a separate topic.
Page no. 401, titled "Rectification of Birth Time," states as follows...
Question
When one is doubtful about his exact time of birth, but says that it may be around 15 minutes this way or that, is there any method by which one can find out the exact moment of birth?
Answer:
I shall give some of the methods that are available. How far you can rely on them is left entirely to you, to the readers, and to the research scholars.
He then went on to explain around 4 different methods. The first method is to link the Moon's stellar position, and it appears that the method of linking the ascendant to the Moon as described above is probably a refined version of it.
Birth time rectification is indeed a very questionable process. The founder himself introduced the topic only for those who did not know their birth time. But nowadays, it has become customary to apply BTR to every KP chart.
Issue #3: Sub Lord of the House Cusp
Birth time cannot be accurate to the second in most cases unless a person is deployed specifically to record it. Even then, the event that determines the birth time is not fixed or properly defined in astrological texts. Is it when the head comes out? Is it the time when the umbilical cord is cut? Is it when the baby takes its first breath? Is it when the baby cries? As of now, it is the doctor who decides the birth time, and the assessment is more or less accurate to the level of a minute, which is sufficient for medical records.
Does a 1-minute difference cause any issues in KP astrology charts?
Yes. Borderline cases within a zodiac sign would be far more common in KP charts than in traditional charts, because of the incorporation of the sub lord and sub-sub lords. For example, using the Swiss Ephemeris's latest implementation of the Krishnamurti-Senthilathiban ayanamsa for the following two cases:
Case 1: Date and Time of Birth: 07-12-2020 01:25:00 (+05.30), Chennai, TN, India, Long: E 080.17, Lat: N 13.04, Ayanamsa (True): 24.04.04 The Lagna Cusp falls at 10.58.11 in Virgo, which is Mo / Mo / Ve. The Sub Lord is Moon.
Case 2: (1 Minute increase) Date and Time of Birth: 07-12-2020 01:26:00 (+05.30), Chennai, TN, India, Long: E 080.17, Lat: N 13.04, Ayanamsa (True): 24.04.04 The Lagna Cusp falls at 11.13.04 in Virgo, which is Mo / Ma / Ra. The Sub Lord is Mars.
Issue #4: Longitude and Latitude
Besides issues with time, there are also issues with longitude and latitude. A city like Chennai, India spans 00.10.00 in both latitude and longitude. This too makes a difference in cuspal positions. Software programs and printed materials give only a rough longitude and latitude. Unless the astrologer fixes the exact birth location on a map and calculates the longitude and latitude accordingly, the accuracy of the cuspal points of the houses is not at an acceptable level.
Questions
1. Founder Krishnamurti proved his "theory" with charts during his time. But the ayanamsa values he used have since been proven wrong; a new list was proposed by his heirs, who demanded the community use only the newly proposed list. The new list differs from the old list for many years between 1900 and 2001. Does that mean the founder was using wrong values when drafting charts, yet still producing accurate results?
2. Until astrology software became available, the main sources for drafting a KP chart were the Krishman's KP Ephemeris and Krishman's Table of Houses, up to the year 2000. For many who could not afford expensive KP System software, those materials played an important role for many more years. Surprisingly, the KP Ephemeris ayanamsa list does not match the ayanamsa list proposed in Krishman's Table of Houses. Anyone drafting a chart manually using the KP Ephemeris would end up with a house system using a different ayanamsa value, unless the astrologer applied his judgment and chose the best one from the two different lists. Yet, these same astrologers have been making predictions claimed to be accurate to the minute and second for their clients for decades. How would that be possible?
3. Apart from the ayanamsa list, private parties have proposed different ayanamsa values and continue to make successful predictions for their clients. How do the charts expose proper positions when their foundations are in question?
4. Beyond the figures, charts built on Birth Time Rectification and Longitude/Latitude also play a significant role in KP charts. But for decades, predictions have been claimed to be "accurate and successful." How?
Conclusions
- The founder of the KP System, Mr. Krishnamurti's Theory of Stellar Signification, holds water.
- The Stellar theory can be applied in any other system of astrology for greater success.
- But the materials to be used as proposed by the founder or his followers do not hold water.
- The founder adopted the Placidus House System, perhaps because it was gaining popularity in Western countries at the time.
- The successful KP astrologers in the industry since the inauguration of the KP System of Astrology do not depend on the astronomical accuracy of the chart. They use their intuition, application of external factors like ruling planets, concepts from other sectors, time, place, etc. for their success.
- Finally, the astrologer's experience in reading the chart and his intuition decide the level of success of his predictions.
- N. Nachiappan
(Updated on 18.03.2021)