How the Combust Planets Work?

Astrology is accurate, rarely wrong, and eternal, no matter what critics say. The planets move in a predestined manner and they have various modes of movement like retrogression, debilitation, and combustion. Retrogression happens when a planet slows down. The Sun and Moon are never in retrogression as they never slow down. The entire world has debilitation, which means being placed in a weak position.

Combustion is unique as the Sun is the only planet that can cause this effect. The Sun is the zodiac king, and no planet can combust the Sun. As the Sun is a very strong form of fire, anything that comes close to the Sun gets burned. Our rishis and sages developed this beautiful theory millennia ago.

Vedic Story of the Sun

Vedas are the base of astrology. Many stories in the Vedas show us the creation of planets and their course of action. The Sun is known as a benefic in astrology, but it has a negative side also. This negative side is highlighted through combustion. Sanjana or Saranyu is believed to be Sun’s wife. Fed up with the Sun’s ego, she decided to leave her husband. Here the heat from the Sun is represented as ego. Sanjana hides in the forest in the form of a mare. But before she leaves, she creates a shadow of herself named “Chhaya”.

The Sun, without knowing that Chhaya was not his real wife, goes on with his marital life. They soon have a son, who is believed to be planet Saturn or Shani in astrology.

Shani was black, and the Sun disliked him. At one point, Shani got angry with his mother and tried to kick her. That’s when the Sun realized that the woman with him was not his wife as Sanjana would never produce such a rebellious son. The Sun leaves Chhaya and finds his wife.

In this story, we can see the difficulties faced by Sanjana, Chhaya and Shani due to Sun’s ego. So, any planet that comes close to the Sun will be affected by his ego. Sage Parasara has noted some rules for this combustion.

Different planets have different degrees of combustion. However, when any planet is in the same house as the Sun, that planet will need help in giving the best results.

Degrees of Combustion

The Moon

The Moon will combust when the Moon and Sun are within 12 degrees. The Moon indicates mother and home. When the Moon is in combustion, the native’s mother will have some suffering as the Moon indicates the mother in astrology.

Mercury

Mercury indicates intelligence, communication and logical thinking. Some scholars say Mercury never combusts as it is always closer to the Sun. However, it will combust when Mercury comes within 12 degrees of the Sun.

Mars

Mars is the soldier in the zodiac and a friend to the Sun in astrology. Mars indicates power, physical health, and courage. Mars will combust when it comes within 17 degrees of the Sun.

Venus

Venus indicates love, money and comfort. When Venus is within 8 degrees of the Sun, it will combust. This combustion can impact love life and relationships. Such people also struggle to make money.

Saturn

Saturn will combust when Sun and Saturn are within 15 degrees. Saturn and Sun are father and son in astrology. This combustion can create power struggles and difficulties for the father.

Jupiter

When Jupiter is within 11 degrees, it will combust. Jupiter indicates divine intelligence, money and children, so the combustion of Jupiter can bring issues in childbirth and studies.

The Sun and Moon

The combustion of the Moon can give a yoga named “Amavasya” yoga. This has positive and negative sides. Amavasya yoga gives a creative mind, but at the same time, there will be issues at home.

The Western Approach towards Combustion

Sidereal astrology has a complex attitude towards combustion. While Western astrology finds that combustion has a good side, both streams agree that the combust planets are not strong. Still, the astrology of the West says the Sun will increase the quality of the combust planet. For example, if Venus is combust, the Sun will highlight the quality of Venus. Venus indicates beauty and luxury, so the native will be overly interested in increasing the beauty and leading a luxurious life.

In Vedic astrology, the Sun indicates father. So, the combust Venus indicates that the father will be irresponsible and that his focus will be on his comfort.

The impact of the combustion will vary according to the placement, aspect and conjunction. The result will change if the combust planet is retrograde, exalted or debilitated. If a retrograde planet is closer to the Sun, the planet is not affected much; this too, depends on the degree of closeness. Retrogression means the planet is going away from combustion.

The combustion of a planet varies a lot according to the house placement also. They are naturally strong if they are in Kendra house i.e. 1, 4, 7 and 10. Any planet in Kendra is much safer as Kendra is the inner portion of the horoscope. If the combust planets are in trikona, i.e. 5 and 9, it indicates problems as the trikona indicates past birth karma. If these combust planets are in a dursthana house of 6, 8, or 12, it is good for two reasons

1. combustion means you need to take care of the dursthana or negative houses.
2. a complex planet in dursthana means the native has enough power to control the negativity in those houses.

Presence of a combust planet in the 2nd and the 7th house also has good and bad effects. Both houses are connected with money and money-making strategies. The combust planet in these houses indicates you will have money-making issues. The combust planet in the 7th house clearly shows marital issues as well.

The fact about the combust planet is that it is very difficult to interpret them. The accuracy of the interpretation depends on the intuition of the astrologer.