“I am my beloved’s, and my beloved’s mine.” ~ Song of Songs, 6:3
With these beautiful wild roses from our gardens, let’s enter through the mystical velvet veils of the lands of love today; and through the lens of spiritual astrology we will see what may be your path to love towards the partner your soul seeks in this life.
I’ve spoken about the darakaraka many times before, in great depth, but just to briefly recap, our darakaraka essentially shows the partner our soul seeks, and the qualities of our marriage. Dara means spouse, and karaka means significator. In our natal chart, the darakaraka is the planet of our natal chart holding the lowest degrees, out of the seven personal inner planets.
Essentially our darakaraka shows the partner our soul seeks in this life, or our destined spouse, as well as the kind of qualities we desire to develop within ourself or what we need to integrate for our inner sacred marriage on our path to soul evolution.
Your darakaraka shows what attracts you most deeply to someone, what your soul needs for its growth and evolution, and what it seeks. It shows what will essentially make you feel a sense of completion and purpose with someone, and fulfill you in a relationship. It shows the qualities your soul desires to develop; these qualities will be present in your significant partner and through your relationships you too will develop them.
We can only meet another as deeply as we’ve met ourselves, and as the darakaraka holds the lowest degree in our natal chart, it shows what we desire on a soul level to be inspired by, learn from and embody. This placement intimately connects to both our South Node (Ketu) and North Node (Rahu), as these are the axis of the path of our consciousness, connecting both the lineage of soul and our desire and hands for what we’ve here to shape and form; and it also relates to our Ascendant-Descendant axis, as this is the axis of our body moving forward through desire towards the otherness we seek.
Our darakaraka is a beautiful complement to our atmakaraka, and they connect on a soul level, which is why in synastry readings we often look at their inter-connections between two people for how or if at all, they connect to each other emotionally and spiritually. It is also important to analyze these placements in the Navamsa chart, also known as the soul chart or dharma chart.
We often find that in charts of soulmates or long term healthy relationships of physical, emotional and spiritual compatibility and support, that the partners share links between their atma and dara karakas. For example, your darakaraka may play an important role in the chart of your beloved, and your atmakaraka may connect to his darakaraka etc.
What’s even more interesting and mystical is that we often find that the darakaraka relates deeply to the Navamsa chart and the evolution of our atmakaraka, which shows the importance of our beloved for our dharmic path; and how the qualities we develop through our intimate partners and all of our relationships in life are those we precisely need for soul growth and life’s work.
As such, the path towards your destined partner is essentially the path towards your soul evolution. To meet your soulmate you must first meet your soul, which essentially means, that when you walk the path of your true calling, aligned to your inner truth and higher self, you will inevitably be meeting the right people. As you release the true fragrance of your soul and inner essence, as you come into your true self and core, as you become more aligned to who you truly are, you are walking closer towards your soulmate also.
Each relationship is purposeful in your life because each one holds what you need at that exact right moment for you to peel off yet another of your bark to release your sweetest most natural self. Each relationship has wisdom you may learn from, and if you do, you will unfold yet another layer of your inner truth and self knowledge. The more you deepen into yourself, the more into self awareness you come, the closer you will be to meeting more soul aligned people in your life, not just romantic ones but friends, allies, situations.
Throughout your life aspects of your darakaraka will be mirrored in one way or another through other people. You may be attracted to the qualities of your darakaraka in every partner you meet, because it is these aspects your soul is recognizing and feeling pulled by. It may not be the “full” person yet, but it could be the voice, the hands, the compassion, the open mindedness, their ability to be gentle and open hearted, their generosity, their creative self expression. Whatever aspect it is, it pulls you too towards developing or refining this within your own self – which all serves your higher path.
So the path towards your partner is the path of your inner development of whatever the qualities of your darakaraka are. If you darakaraka is connected to Jupiter and the 9th house, these qualities are what you too may need to be developing also, and people in your life may always be holding wisdoms towards this to help you develop it or at least be exposed to it in some way.
This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect in your darakaraka – the whole point is that others will be helping you and supporting you along the way; it just means you have to be at least somewhat aware and perhaps working towards it. It’s about being open to it – being open to it in order for the expression to be in its higher manifestation.
Otherwise, what happens is that the “others” along the way will be more of in their catalyst roles, or karmic roles, to help you first awaken to this, so that you move on your path of inner and soul growth. This is why there are various expressions of your darakaraka also, just as for all your aspects and planets. The more inner work we do, the higher the expression, because we no longer need conflict or catalyst energy to realize or recognize something.
To come into the harmonious and higher expression of your darakaraka is about self awareness. Think of it as the outer bark of beliefs, judgments, identities, false identities, outdated beliefs or conditioning, masks … and all these, as they peel off, we release another mask of ourselves, so that we release the underneath true fragrance of our inner self. This is the soul meeting – meeting your soul, and then meeting the mate of it. It’s based on inner truth and authentic way of life.
So throughout your life you will be facing the various expressions or parts of your darakaraka in other people or situations also. Some may feel more conflict like, others may be more harmonious as you come into more inner harmony. All hold their pearl of wisdom for you to learn from. But always, you will be pulled and attracted to these darakarak expressions in others, because your soul is recognizing something it needs to learn and evolve from.
It is all, essentially, moving you towards inner union; and eventually outer one, when soul kisses soul on the human lips, and we find that love isn’t just felt in the hearts, it is known by our hands also.
The Natal and Navamsa
An interesting way to understand the deeper spiritual layers of your path to love and partner, is actually by seeing the evolution or spiritual subtleties between the natal and Navamsa chart, and the darakaraka placements there. The Navamsa shows your dharmic path, soul desire and the higher purpose of your marriage and lessons through it also. The Navamsa is crucial for understanding the spiritual and deeper layers of what’s actually going on in the natal chart, which shows often only the more physical manifestations.
Suppose your natal darakaraka Jupiter is in the 9th house, and in the Navamsa it moves into the ascendant. This is a significant placement, showing marital bliss but also the important of the destined partner in your life’s path. The union itself will serve as embodiment of your soul’s calling. It also shows deep emotional connection and closeness between you.
The spouse or destined soul partner may significantly influence and enhance your personality and life, and help you fulfill or further your soul’s work, whether financially or by encouraging you to use your natural gifts etc. This placement suggests a devoted partnership where the spouse will play a crucial role in your growth and self discovery, leading to a fulfilling married life.
Your partner may inspire you to have more confidence, or have more courage to embrace who you really are. Your partner will be someone who sees you very clearly, sees the real you on a deep soul level, and supports you lovingly towards following your heart’s desires and making your dreams come true.
This also shows that throughout your life, you may have been attracted to partners who saw aspects within you that maybe you didn’t even see yourself, as your gifts and talents. Perhaps others always see you as wise or seek your guidance, even if you don’t think of yourself that way. Or perhaps you always found the right people at the right time, and your destined spouse too will come in divine timing, and play a key role in the work you end up doing, which will be a soul calling; so your soul’s calling and spouse are very intimately connected. The path to your partner is to walk your higher calling, and be your unique self; this is how they will find you – through you walking towards your 9th house of dharma.
The path to the right one is by expanding your inner world and spiritual self, build self confidence and self value, don’t lose yourself in others, and be discerning with partners, so that you may align to the soul essence of your right partner and experience the bond you seek on a soul level. Having your darakaraka in natal ascendant shows the importance of building your sense of identity outside of others, otherwise you may find partners who make you feel diminished in self.
In your Navamsa, having your darakaraka in the 9th is beautiful, showing the spiritual rewards that may unfold as you grow in your inner self. The 9th house is a cosmic house, higher house – so it shows your union with the right one will expand your world. You and your spouse will learn life lessons hand in hand, and this placement encourages spiritual exploration, moral guidance, and expansive flexible open minded thinking.
Your marriage may feel like a pilgrimage toward greater understanding, and travel too will be important. Whether you share a religious faith, moral philosophy, or a passion for distant travel and global cultures, these broader perspectives become the threads weaving your love story together.
To meet your destined though, you yourself need to become more flexible in your thinking and perspectives, and soften any inner rigidity or holding on to things too tightly, whether emotionally, spiritually, physically or mentally. There may need to be some inner alchemy and inner transformation that happens, but it is all for the purpose of expanding your world on all levels, and reaching higher grounds.
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