Hi Ernst,
Now that there's been an official declaration of war, I cast a prasna for that time. I'm analyzing the Prasna and looking at my notes. Here are some questions I have on the rules from the course:
Rule 4 - in my notes - "Lagna lord in bad houses"
Does that mean conjunct bad house cusps or in bad houses from the Ascendant?
Rule 5 - " The Lagna lord or 7th lord hemmed"
Do planets with (in the same sign as) the 1st or 7th lord count? Or do you just look at the signs adjacent to the sign the 1st or 7th lord is in?
Rule 10 - "In ithasala with 2nd lord"
Does this mean the ruler of the 2nd cusp or the 2nd Rasi from the Ascendant?
(I remember house cusps being used for Tajika Prasna, but can't remember if it applies to these rules, too.)
What's interesting about using the Tajika Prashna chart for the declaration of war here, is that 4 planets are combust including Sa (the asc lord for Russia) and Exalted Ma which is in Cap (russia's asc). To me the overall prashna favors Russia (based on the 8th bhava prashna principles) but the combust planets really hurt and thwart what Russia has been able to do and accomplish and has probably created a lot of frustration.
Ernst teaches that combust planets can barely do much good in Prashna.
The other side with this, is that usually a prashna chart is the 'time' for a year span. Would we cast another chart a month from now when we reach a year's span of conflict?