First and foremost no planet is absolutely benefic or absolutely malefic. A planet might be a natural benefic but then it might be functional malefic. A planet might be natural and functional benefic but placed in a bad house (trik house) resulting in some bad events during its dasha – antardasha. Hence if we really want to study astrology and understand the mysteries surrounding the planets, we must come out of this notion that any planet is completely benefic or malefic. We, our conscious, must be neutral to a planet if we really want to understand its behavior. Usually students tend to be biased towards natural benefic planets or their ascendant lord, trine lords or yogkarak planets in their horoscopes. Let the planets be benefic or malefic, you remain neutral to them.
Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Moon are the natural benefic planets. Jupiter and Venus are natural benefic without any precondition. Mercury is benefic when it is placed all along in a zodiac or when it is conjunct with other benefic planets but when it is conjunct with natural malefic planets then it attains malefic property and becomes a malefic planet. Moon is most benefic on Poornima or Full moon day when it is farthest from Sun or at 180 degrees (seventh house from Sun in a horoscope). Thereafter its benefic property starts diminishing as it looses its shine every day. Slowly by Saptami or 7th day after full moon day, it becomes neutral (neither benefic or malefic) and there after attains malefic nature which keeps on increasing everyday as the visible portion of moon diminishes every day. Finally on no moon day or Amavasya, Moon is completely malefic.
Rahu, Saturn, Mars, Ketu and Sun are malefic planets in decreasing order. Rahu and Ketu are considered to be malefic in nature although they are not physical planets and are commonly referred in Astrology as shadowy planets. These are basically nodal points of intersection of Moon and Earth’s orbit. Saturn and Mars are considered to be highly malefic planets. Sun is considered to be mildly malefic.
In a horoscope, 1,2,4,5,7,9,10 houses are considered to be good houses whereas 3, 6, 8, 11, 12 houses are considered to be bad houses. When a planet is lord of good houses it is considered functionally good or benefic. When a planet is lord of bad houses then it is functionally malefic. Hence for Taurus ascendant people, Jupiter becomes functionally malefic since it is lord of 8th and 11th house. Among the bad houses, 8th,6th and 12th houses are considered to be most inauspicious, called trik houses, in decreasing order. Hence 8th house is most malefic followed by 6th and then 12th house.
Just as a natural benefic planet can be functional malefic similarly a natural malefic planet can be functional benefic planet. Again Taurus ascendant is a typical example where Saturn is the lord of 9th and 10th houses(good houses) although it is natural malefic planet. Similar is the case of Leo ascendant where Mars is lord of 4th and 9th house.
Among the good houses, 1st, 5th and 9th house are most auspicious houses in increasing order, 9th house being most auspicious house. These houses are called trine houses. It is said that Goddess Laxmi lives in these houses and as such these houses contribute in all good yogas specially yogas related to prosperity and money. 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses are called kendra houses as they form the foundation of any horoscope. It is considered that Lord Vishnu is placed in these kendra houses. When a planet is lord of one of the trine and one kendra house then it becomes most benefic planet (functionally benefic) and is known as yogkarak planet. Saturn stated in above example is yogkarak planet for Taurus ascendant; Mars is yogkarak planet for Leo ascendant.
An astrologer has to consider both the aspects - benefic and malefic nature of each planet before giving any prediction. Never consider that a benefic planet cannot give bad results or a malefic planet cannot give good results. A horoscope has to be studied in detail to understand when a planet will behave in favour or against us
