WIth the Devi’s Blessings. Cover art by Jayant Kalawar 2018.

I posted a tentative Jyotish based model to predict and track the Covid-19 Pandemic in the USA on April 6^th 2020. I titled it the memetic pandemic. I wanted to convey that the pandemic that we were experiencing was not only at the biological level of the virus. It was also at the mental level of language – in terms of incessant flow of torrents of information of the disease and its manifestation in deaths around the globe.

I ended that post with the following summary prediction:

So, what I would be looking for is whether the actuals begin to slope downwards as per prediction based on my Jyotish based model, between April 18^th and April 25^th and then slope downwards even further after between April 25^th – May 2^nd and accelerate downwards between May 2^nd – May 9^th. And whether total number of deaths stabilize around April 25^th on wards. Let’s see.

Here is a representation of numbers of daily new deaths:

What I see, in the chart above, is that the number of new deaths (7 day moving average for the United States) did peak somewhere between April 15^th and 20^th and then began to decline around April 25^th 2020. as predicted. And, again on track with the prediction, the numbers began to go down sharply in the week of May 2^nd. My model predicted up to May 9^th.The model did pretty good in terms of predicting the slopes back in the April – May 2020 time frame. Not too bad for a first time Jyotish based model for a complex phenomenon of Covid 19 pandemic.

For Jyotishis, here is a brief description of how I arrived at the slopes (i.e. change in level of new deaths). I used a combination of 8^th Lord (both natal and transit) aspect and 8^th House placement on both transit and natal planets. In the case of USA SAMVA chart[1], the 8^th Lord is Saturn and the 8^th House is Aquarius, along with natal and transit Rahu / Ketu aspect on natal and transit planets.

Symbolically the function may be represented as:

Change in Level of New Deaths = f(f(8^th L (NandTr), X), f(8^th H, X), f(Ra/Ke(NandTr), X))

Where L=Lord, Tr=Transit, H=House, N=natal, Tr=Transit, X=any planet Mars, Moon, Sun, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn.

The potential for change in level of new deaths is measured in degrees of separation of planet X from the 8^th and / or Rahu / Ketu.

My sense is that I have been able to at least directionally predict a complex biological-social phenomenon in the USA, which epidemiologists and other experts have been trying to get their arms around. With such a directional prediction, I was able to say to myself and my family and friends that with proper safety precautions the pandemic is likely to decrease in its lethality by mid-May. This helped in managing down the level of anxiety and therefore have better sense of hope and well-being. I am also somewhat more encouraged now that there is potential to use Jyotish based models to predict large scale complex social phenomena. Of course, there will have to be many, many trial and error iterations before the Jyotish approach of large scale social phenomena begins to be helpful in designing prevention and mitigation strategies as appropriate.

But then what about predictions for after mid-May 2020? After all, the pandemic phenomena is still continuing as I write this on July 7^th 2020.

Well, I extended my prediction on April 22^nd to cover the time period between mid-May and late July by saying:

There is a chance that there may be a mild second wave of Wuhan Virus in USA during this period of mid May 2020 to end July 2020, which may be seen as a continuance of the current wave. The indicators point to more of a chance of potential for civil and political disharmony and economic hardship in USA in May and June 2020, but that is from a different set of planetary drivers, which I may cover in a separate post (in this post I am focusing on the pandemic concerns).

As you would notice, the prediction of civil and political disharmony and economic hardship in USA in the May – June 2020 time frame was quite accurate (beginning with protests after the death in police custody of George Floyd on May 25^th 2020 and peaking out in the second half of June).

Before I go on to give you my predictions for USA for rest of 2020, there is one key point I would like to make – why did I title my first post on this Covid 19 pandemic, as a memetic pandemic? : the above model representation focuses on predicting sickness (driven by 6^th H and 6^th L Jupiter) and death (driven by 8^th H and 8^th L Saturn). How the information about such sickness and death (and also communal disharmony – affliction of 4^th H and 4^th L Venus), I governed by strength of 3^rd H and 3^rd L Mercury.

So, I was pointing to how memetic pandemics overlay biological pandemics: when tr Mercury was transiting through 8^th H from January 30^th to April 7^th (and then from April 7^th to May 8^th through its debilitation sign in Pisces followed by  Aries afflicted by tr Ketu and natal Rahu), the media (both main stream and social) were continually channeling information about deaths from Covid-19. Then there was a very brief respite between May 8^th and May 24th, when there was at least some neutral to positive news as Mercury transited through Taurus pretty strong and without affliction. Then on May 25^th it transited into the 12^th H of the USA SAMVA chart (Gemini) and its been there since, as of this writing in the first half of July. The media began reporting potential for losses, which is the hallmark of 12^th H. It has kept stressing how new cases of Covid-19 are rising. But it did not convert to either hospitals being filled up, nor to sharp increases in deaths, which are to be expected as new cases rise (according to expert epidemiologists). I was able to confidently predict that this would not be so, that there may be a sense of a mild extension of the first wave up to the end of July. Hospitals did not fill up as tr Jupiter was no longer afflicted by Saturn since second week of May and moved back into its safe house Sagittarius in early July. Deaths did not rise because tr Saturn was no longer afflicted nor afflicting tr Jupiter or any other tr / natal planet or houses in the USA SAMVA chart. This has again helped me and my family and friends to manage anxieties down and have more of a sense of control. Learning and practicing the Systems Approach to Vedic Astrology (SATVA) over the last 14 years or so has really begun to pay off.  I would encourage more and more folks to invest time and effort to learn and practice SATVA[2].

Well, if you have read through here and you reading this in July 2020, this may find this useful for you to navigate the next 6 to 8 months.

So here are my predictions for the rest of 2020:

US economy will see an upswing from July to early November (tr Jupiter in its own house Sagittarius).

The political and community scene in the US will be divisive (which may as may be expected in an election year 2020) between mid-July and early November (tr Jupiter aspects natal Venus).

From November 5^th 2020 to early February 2021 there may be rise in sickness / deaths and intensity of civil and economic disharmony, as tr Jupiter and tr Saturn come into close conjunction, while the nodal axis stations at approximately 26 deg in exaltation in Taurus and Scorpio.

So, that’s it for now. Stay safe, enjoy and take care.

[1] https://cosmologer.blogspot.com/2007/12/samva-usa-chart.html

[2] http://yournetastrologer.com/difference.htm