How to Determine Gender from Horoscope?

There are three parameters about the individual which should be known to the astrologer beforehand. They are Desh (Place), Kaal (Time) and Paatra (Identity – like male/female, age, etc). It is the basic principle of Astrology. Great Rishi Parashara too has emphasized the need for the same. I am unable to quote any classical text for reference but it is very important.

Desh refers to the culture in which the native is brought up and the prevailing environment of the society. If a horoscope shows problems in marital life,

• For a native living in a conservative society, it may indicate unhappy married life but no divorce.
• Whereas for someone born and brought up in a liberal culture, the same planetary alignment can indicate and and result in divorce.

Kaal means time or era. In olden days, child marriage was a practice. Astrological predictions conformed to those practices. But times have changed and with changing times Astrology should also be updated. Child marriage is illegal now. Similarly, in Vedic period there were only a handful of occupations like agriculture. Today there are hundreds of them. Astrological predictions should correlate to the present day occupations in order to be more meaningful. Continuous transformation of society is taking place and the astrologer should understand the trend to make relevant predictions.

Paatra refers to the identity of the native. Example – Age, gender, family and social and financial status at birth. What we can predict for an infant, we cannot for a young, middle-aged or old native. In the same way, predictions for males and females can be very different. Like there are some health issues specific to females which males can’t have and vice-versa.