D30 Trimshamsa Chart: Difficulties, Character and Life Lessons

Trimshat means thirty, and the name Trimshamsa refers to the thirty degrees of a sign. In the Parashari scheme the sign is cut into five unequal portions, each with a planet as its ruler, and not into thirty equal parts. The chart is one of the six in the Shadvarga.

What the Trimshamsa is read for

The tradition reads this chart for hardship and vulnerability, which makes it the most delicate of the vargas to write about. The old texts speak in a severe voice about it, and some modern books repeat that voice. This site does not. The honest, calm reading is that the D30 is traditionally used to look at where a person meets difficulty, what their temperament is under strain, and what lessons the pattern of a life seems to ask them to learn.

Teachers read it with the sixth, eighth and twelfth houses of the Rashi chart, which are the houses of struggle, change and loss, and with Saturn, the planet of discipline and endurance. Some teachers say it is especially used for the chart of a woman, and some use it for everyone. As always, a divisional chart describes tendencies and not outcomes. No placement in it is a sentence, and if something in life is hard, a doctor, counsellor or trusted friend is a better guide than a chart.

How the Trimshamsa is calculated

The Parashari rule used by the divisional charts calculator does not use equal parts. Each sign is divided into five parts, and each part is ruled by a planet and falls in a sign of that planet.

In an odd sign (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius) the planets run Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, taking the parts 0 to 5, 5 to 10, 10 to 18, 18 to 25 and 25 to 30 degrees. They fall in Aries, Aquarius, Sagittarius, Gemini and Libra. In an even sign (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces) the order is reversed: Venus 0 to 5, Mercury 5 to 12, Jupiter 12 to 20, Saturn 20 to 25 and Mars 25 to 30, falling in Taurus, Virgo, Pisces, Capricorn and Scorpio.

Odd signs (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius)

Even signs (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces)

Take a planet at 21°30′ of Gemini. It falls in the Mercury part of the sign, so its D30 sign is Gemini.

Only Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn are used, and the Sun and Moon are not. Each part falls in one of its ruler’s own signs, as listed above, and the table shows the result for every part.

Unequal parts and why they matter

The portions of 5, 5, 8, 7 and 5 degrees in an odd sign, and 5, 7, 8, 5 and 5 degrees in an even sign, are the old numbers of the tradition. They do not match any simple fraction, so the D30 cannot be worked by dividing by thirty. They also mean the five signs are not equally likely: Jupiter’s part is the largest, so a planet is a little more likely to fall there than anywhere else, though no part is common enough to call typical.

Every position in the D30 also belongs to a planet, the ruler of the part, and this ruling planet is often read as important in its own right. The calculator shows both the ruler and the sign for each position.

Sensitivity to birth time

The smallest parts are 5 degrees, so the D30 Lagna changes less often than that of finer charts, about every twenty minutes at the shortest. The sign is relatively steady for a birth time that is correct to fifteen minutes, which makes this chart more forgiving than the D27 or D60.

Where schools differ

The five-part rule above is the standard Parashari one and is used by the site. Differences concern the odd-even assignment, the sign each part takes, and the interpretation. Other schemes exist, and published software does not always follow the Parashari one. A separate point of difference is gender: some teachers use the chart mostly for women’s charts, others for all. If another program shows a different D30, it may follow one of these variants.

How much weight teachers give it

The Trimshamsa is in the Shadvarga, Saptavarga, Dashavarga and Shodashavarga. In the commonly quoted Vimshopaka weights it carries 1 out of 20 in the Shadvarga and 1 out of 20 in the Shodashavarga. These are modest shares, yet the chart is notable because it is one of the six charts of the Shadvarga, and so comes up in every scheme of divisional strength. In practice its use varies widely. Some astrologers consult it routinely for temperament under pressure, and others hardly open it.

Where it is used, the reading is a quiet one: which planets rule the parts that the Lagna lord, the Moon and the sixth, eighth and twelfth lords occupy, and whether the dashas of those planets are running. It is read together with the Rashi chart (the guides to planets in the houses are a good companion) and the dasha periods.

Reading your own Trimshamsa

Choose D30 in the calculator, enter your details, and look at the ruling planet and sign of each position. Reflect, calmly, on what the pattern suggests about how you handle strain and what you have learned from hard periods. Resist any urge to read it as a verdict. Nothing in a chart is fixed, and care, effort and good support change a great deal.

The preceding chart is the Bhamsa (D27) and the next is the Khavedamsa (D40).

Frequently asked questions