For anyone with access to their birth chart and planetary period timeline (Vimshottari Dasha), compare the dasha timelines between you and your siblings to see how your births connect by looking at which dasha-bhukti periods each of you were running when the others were born, starting with the oldest.

For example, my sister is the oldest of the three of us siblings. My brother is the middle child and when he was born my sister was running her Jupiter dasha-Mercury bhukti. My brother has an exalted Mercury and a debilitated, retrograde Jupiter prominently positioned in his natal chart. It’s like my sister’s timeline was saying, ‘Okay, you need more Jupiter-Mercury in your life and you’re about to get it’ and then my brother showed up.

I was born roughly four years after my brother when my sister was running Saturn dasha-Saturn bhukti and my brother was running Sun dasha-Saturn bhukti. I have a doubly strong Saturn (swarashi and retrograde) prominently positioned in mutual aspect with a strong Sun (swa) and also prominently positioned. Apparently both of my siblings needed some Saturn in their lives at the time (whether they knew it or not- probably not)! What I can say quickly about this is that by the time I was born, my parents were three years into owning and operating a large business and my sister was old enough to watch me and my brother while they worked. She, in particular, took on a lot of responsibility (often true for the first born) and with Saturn being a 19-year dasha cycle, my sister got 19 years of responsibility in different ways, but certainly for watching over me and my brother as our oldest sibling.

What fascinates me is how the planetary periods also hint at the personalities of each of us. My brother is very Jupiter-Mercury and by that I mean, he’s always optimistic, looking on the bright side, very social, and more extroverted than his sisters and he’s been the funniest and the most mischievous. I, on the other hand, have taken life serious from the start and even preferred to spend my free time with elderly people rather than my peers many times throughout my childhood and adult life. Very Saturnian.

I encourage you to review your siblings’ timelines and to look for the astrological connections, remembering that it might take looking at the third planetary period also (not only the dasha and bhukti). This might be true especially with very large families. 

If you find any interesting insights when observing your timelines, please share! I want to wish all of you a belated Happy New Year also! May you have a year full of growth, stability, happiness, love, and Light.

Renate Maria Bell is a certified Vedic Astrologer, Jyotish Visharada, and approved teacher with the Council of Vedic Astrology. She can be reached at renatembell@aol.com

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