Lesson 16: Atmakaraka

Atmakarama – The Key To Your Soul’s Mission And Lesson

A lot of things in life are like a knife. Well, a knife cuts, but it doesn’t differentiate between the vegetable you are slicing through and your own finger. 

To cut is the nature of knife, what you cut depends on your choice and your consciousness. 

Something similar happens with our deepest longing. We all have some kind of deep longing – something we want to experience so much that we actually had to take birth to experience it. But it’s tricky, very much like a knife…you can use it or you can get hurt by it. 

And that’s why, this one thing is a combination of your mission and lesson. If you use it rightly, it becomes your mission, if you get played by it, it becomes your lesson.

Degree Position of Planets

If you’ve created your birth chart from the link I sent you, it’d look something like this. 

There are two elements. The chart itself and the list of planets with degrees. 

Well, the degrees are like the position of planet within a sign. Since every sign is exactly 30 degrees, planet’s position can be measured by it’s exact deegrical position. Minimum degree of a planet could be 00º 01º (zero degree, one minute) in a sign and maximum could be 29º 59’ 59”(twenty nine degree, fifty nine minutes, fifty nine seconds) 

Your Atmakaraka

Find Your Atmakaraka

Another layer of our soul’s mission and lesson comes from the Atmakaraka planet. 

Atma means ‘self’ or rather the ‘true self’, translating as ‘soul’ and karaka means the one that signifies or controls. 

It’s very easy to find the Atmakaraka.

Look at the 7 planets – Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn…Ignore Asc, as it is not a planet and also ignore Rahu – Ketu (some astrology systems include Rahu but ignore Ketu, which in itself is absurd)

Look at the degrees of each of those seven planets. 

Th planet with highest degree is your Atmakaraka

For example, in this chart, you can see the degrees of planets within the chart itself and you’ll see that Venus has the highest degree and therefore, Venus becomes the Atmakahraka – the planet that indicates the soul’s mission and lesson. 

In the chart you created using my link, you’ll find degrees separately, but it’s the same. 

So which planet is your Atmakaraka – the planet with highest degrees except Rahu and Ketu?

Your Atmakaraka and Your Mission and Lesson

Once you know your atmakaraka, it’s easy to figure out the mission and lesson. 

If you understood your planets correctly by now, you’d know what each plant stands for and it is from there that the mission and lesson emerges. Here is a good starting point. 

Today’s Task

Find out your atmakaraka

Try to explain, what does it mean to have this planet as atmakaraka – what is the mission of your soul and what does it want to learn, what does it needs to overcome (lesson)?

Do you sense this mission and lesson as a repeating pattern in your life?