Rick Houck's book Digital Astrology

February 11, 2004

Dear Peter and Group -.

> I think the best book describing Kakshya is Richard Houcks book called I> believe "Dots of Destiny"

The "Dots of Destiny" book was written by Vinay Aditya and isn't the focus of

this particular link. Rick's book was called "Digital Astrology". He named it that

title because he wanted to more or less "westernize" the whole concept of

Ashtakarvarga and by using an analogy of computers and "bit switches" clustered

into certain types of "bytes" (groups of eights), he attempted to bring to light a

very powerful system geared towards the needs of modern computerized

astrologers. It is indeed an excellent book and has many parallels to Krushna's

system. It's a great primer for those who would like to study the Ashtakavarga

system in general, but as Ash has pointed out in a previous point, Krushna's system

in a system all in its own and differs mainly in the fact that there is knowledge

here that isn't in any of the current Ashtakavaraga books, as it comes directly from his own expereiences with his guru, as well as his own researching thru out 43 years of being an astrologer and not from a book.

A good example of one of the differences between Rick's book and Krushna's

system would be regarding Rahu and Ketu which we just recently spoke of in past

emails. Whereas Krushna uses the method of Samdharmi with Rahu and Ketu and

has them take on the rulership, nakshatra or planet of the house that it falls in, Rick didn't go into this in detail due to the controversy that exists about whether

both Rahu and the Ascendant have their own digital totals (or points) just like the

seven planets do. (This would of course increase the grand summary total to 425

and not 337). Since it isn't the generally accepted view, he didn't want to confuse

matters even more by commenting on it any further. He did say however, that he

clearly recommended paying attention to the grand summary total for the house that

both Rahu and Ketu fall in, both natally and in transit. For example, if natal Rahu is

in a house with 40 points (SAV), a Rahu Dasa or Bhukti could be very strong and

indeed postiive. If the house has only 17 points (SAV), this same transit could be an

entirely different matter. Then he suggests that an entire school of thought also offers

the alternative idea that you monitor transiting Saturn during a Rahu period and Mars

during a Ketu period, which Krushna has also made references to.

So as you see, although I highly recommend this book as a student of Asktakarvarga

in general and especially in the specialized portion of Kakshyas, there are differences

between the systems and we should keep this point in mind while reading the book.

Rick has made this book a very easy read and goes into the Kakshyas in great detail.

The Kakshyas are basically 8 divisions (bindus, points) within a 30 degree sign for each house in the chart, each division with its own ruler. Each point or bindu rules 3 3/4 degrees for its own sector and includes the ascendant as the 8th sector. The number eight also refers to the maximum amount of points that any planet can collect within its sign or house. He refers to how each one of these divisions can be compared to bit switches in a computer, being turned "on" or "off" according to its different planetary patterning.

It was an excellent book and gave many details of> exacrtly hoow to use the Kakshyas. He even persuaded Goravani J and> Parasara's Light to include them in their programs.> Perhaps Donna may be able to help in this matter as she was a very good> friend of Richard.

This is true. Rick and I were very close friends and I was the first one to read his

book "Digital Astrology" when it first came out. It would be interesting to see

Krushna's ideas on the use of Kakshyas and have him go into more depth on this

if at all possible.

Donna

February 11, 2004

Thankyou Donna,

Sorry I got the title mixed up. This is because a friend of mine lent me Rick's book and although I read ther book twice, because it was so interesting, I never pruchased the book. My friend has said that I can borrow the book whenever I need it.

Peter S

February 12, 2004

Dear Peter -

Sorry I got the title mixed up. This is because a friend of mine lent me Rick's book and although I read ther book twice, because it was so interesting, I never pruchased the book. My friend has said that I can borrow the book whenever I need it.

Yes, it's a really good read, because Rick made it in layman's language.

Donna