Introduction

Our ancient sages had divine power by which they have extraordinary memory to explore, acquire,organize and view the future. In the current world (Kaliyuga),the people have less power, more turbulence of life which causes to failure ofprediction. In addition to this, some of the information from our great sageswas either misunderstood, misinterpreted or missing.

As per the current state, Astrology can be seen as an art rather than a science. Thanks to some ofour recent Gurujis like Late Prof.K.S.Krishnamurti (Six readers by Prof.K.S.Krishnamurti), we are given with more scientific oriented directionto bring this divine subject towards a science. I would like to present fewideas for better organization of Astrological information to bring astrology tofuture by filling the gap between generations.

Basic requirement

Astrology can be functionally divided into several parts:

Data collection, data rectification (Andrew Dutta, 2007)

Chart calculation (The SWISS EPHEMERIS by Astrodienst,based upon the DE406 ephemeris from NASA's JPL)

Summarize the information related to an event

Analysis of chart

Comparison with Knowledge

Result of analysis

Research tools

Existing functionality and future needs

Software

Most of the software packagesconsist of chart and basic information calculation. Different software packagesgive different chart calculations based on fine tuning parameters. Most of thetime these parameters need to understand very well before using them. Some ofthese parameters are still in discrepancy (Kevin Heng Ser Guan). In addition to this, the accuracy depends on the calculationmethods.

Some of the packages also produce automatic analysis reports. Personally, I prefer that theastrology packages should provide all information required for analysis and theastrologer should use his experience and the divine power to summarize theresults (Figure 1).

The quality of calculation needs to be verified using authentic dataset. So, there is a needto create and maintain a dataset together with the results. Any new packages ornew versions of the packages must be verified against this dataset. Similar toISO type of standards needs to be drawn.

Forums

Forum is one of the best available places to discuss and to derive concrete methods for theanalysis of charts. There is a need to associate a knowledge database with eachforum, where the concluded methods and rules can be added. The forums should beaimed at (a) discuss and concretize the methods, (b) validate using the datafrom forum users, (c) presentation of research results, (d) lessons for thelearners.

Knowledge database

In any scientific world, most of the misunderstanding and misinterpretation occurs due to lack ofmathematical models and mathematical descriptions. Astrology was also writtenas a textual form rather than a mathematical form. Thanks to our Prof.K.S.Krishnamurti whohas started to make this into some sort of scientific methods. The knowledgedatabase should converge to produce the mathematical models that give certaintyfor the prediction.

One will be sure of the analysis only when all the rules are made in mathematical formatteddatabase. To achieve this, there is a need to develop a unique communicationlanguage that can describe astrological methods. Some attempts were made inthis direction ( Rangarajan Krishnamoorthy, 2005) and required to complete and put in to usage.

Known datasets

For any research, it is required to have well defined datasets. There is a need to develop aninternational public database that can be used by all astrologers to test andvalidate existing and new methods. Also the software packages should support andvalidate this dataset. The dataset format needs to be developed with differentfields, defining the chart, the events and the relationship between charts. Oneshould also include the fields that may not be useful or relevant now, as theymay be useful in future.

Methods and testing

Once the knowledge database and dataset is developed, one should validate the methods togetherwith the testing process. It is good to develop recursive testing of allexisting methods regularly with the latest dataset to improve or prove theexisting methods.

Reference materials

Currently most of the information is available through books. They are very good for reading. Butunfortunately, they are static texts and do not reflect the current state ofart or some times with wrong information. It is required to develop onlinereference material for public (E-Zine by Sri Kanak Bosmia) and easy accesswith natural language based search engine. There is a need to develop onlinedatabases of that help authors to update or correct the information in thealready published literature.

Due to large number of information sources, it is becoming difficult to know about the availability ofany publication and the quality assurance of such literature published. Thereference literature database should be developed that has brief details of thearticles (Title, abstract, author, source and the quality level).

Learning aids

Even though, I strongly recommend to have a Guru for learning, thereis also a need for computer aided teaching package (Ref. Interactive learningtools web site). Preferably this should be linked with known data sets andknowledge database. This helps for any new learner to understand the basicconcepts more concretely from the validated knowledge using validated datasets.Astrology is N-dimensional and is extremely difficult to put together all theconcepts and knowledge to summarize the results (I am fortunate to haveexcellent gurus). After my experience of learning and with the guidance of Sri T.SeshagiriRao, I have puttogether one basic teaching kit model for medical astrology (Figure 2). Thiskit can easily be extended to several other domains of astrology.

Summary

In Kali yuga, we are blessed with lessconcentration and divine power, so we need more tools (a) to serve the neededwith more accuracy, (b) to validate existing models and develop new models.

Forums need to be associated with a knowledge base and datasets that can be used to put togethernew methods and rules in mathematical form and validate using known data sets.

A public known dataset need to be created that can be used to validate new software packages and newreleases. This makes users to use the software with more confidence.

The knowledge need to be transformed to mathematical form rather than textual form that bringsastrology towards a scientific model from artistic model.

The reference literature should be made available online along with the quality level ofdifferent published books and articles.

I hope god will give me power and courage to start expanding and contribute for the development of theabove topics in practice.

References

1.Six readers on KP Astrology by Prof.K.S.Krishnamurti

2.Birth Time Rectification through Krishnamurti Paddhati (KP)-by Dr. Andrew Dutta (Sri Indrajit), 2007.

3.E-Zine by Sri Kanak Bosmia,http://kpastrologer.com/kpezine.asp

4.Interactive learning tools,http://www.kpastrology.com

5.AstroDatabank,http://www.astrodatabank.com/

6.Swiss Ephemeris,http://www.astro.com/swisseph/

7.The mathematics of Astrology does house division make sense? By Kevin Heng Ser Guan, Department of Physics,NationalUniversity of Singapore.

8.Astrological Description Language: A Proposal, Krishnamoorthy, July, 2005.

Images

Figure 1: Computer assisted analysis template (Based on Sri RajendraNimje’s template). The chart is displayed on the left and the template on the right.The template can be filled in interactively using the chart and popup menus.Astrologer can summarize and produce the report.

Figure 2: Computer aided medical astrology (Based on Sri T.SeshagiriRao’stemplate). The chart is displayed on the left and the help on the right. Thelearner can view the help of Rasi, Planet, Star,House and the relation between their placement and the medical diagnosis ofdiseases.