Twins have nearly identical charts: the planets sit at practically the same degrees. What changes in a few minutes are the house cusps, and in KP, the sub-lord of each cusp changes. It was while researching twins that K. S. Krishnamurti created the sub, the division that tells these two charts apart (KP Reader VI, Introduction).
What changes in ten minutes
When two babies are born ten minutes apart, the sky moves a little for the planets and a lot for the houses.
| What moves | How much it moves in 10 minutes |
|---|---|
| Sun | less than half a minute of arc |
| Moon | about 5′ of arc |
| Ascendant and cusps | about 2.5°, on average |
The planets' signs almost always stay the same. So does the Moon's star, and with it the dasha, the Vimshottari planetary period that opens the life. The 5′ the Moon moves shift the dates of the periods by a few weeks. The cusps tell another story. Two and a half degrees are enough for a cusp to change sub, sometimes star, sometimes sign.
The research that gave rise to the sub
Krishnamurti recounts, in the introduction to Reader VI, that after four decades of study he focused his research on the charts of twins. He gathered the birth time of both, what each one lived through and when (KP Reader VI, Introduction).
What he found was a problem of method. The same rule could be right for one twin and fail for the other, whose life went in the opposite direction. He recorded this with stated respect for the classical authors and for the astrologers who followed those principles, and went looking for the missing piece.
The conclusion is in Reader III: the star lord, by itself, wasn't enough. One more subdivision was needed to explain the difference between twins (KP Reader III, p. 7). He divided each nakshatra, the 27 stars of 13°20′, into nine unequal parts, proportional to each planet's years in Vimshottari (KP Reader VI, p. 76). Each part is a sub, and its ruler is the sub-lord. The smallest measures 40′ of arc and the largest, 2°13′20″.
Krishnamurti's own twins
Reader III presents cases of twins read through the cusp of the 10th house, the house of work (KP Reader III, pp. 63 and 64).
| Twin | 10th house cusp | Sub-lord | Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pair 1, first | Taurus, star Rohini | Saturn | oil trade |
| Pair 1, second | Taurus, star Rohini | Mercury | cotton and silk |
| Pair 2, first | 21° Leo, star Purva Phalguni | Jupiter | educator and lawyer |
| Pair 2, second | 27° Leo, star Uttara Phalguni | Sun | doctor |
In the first pair, sign and star are the same. Only the sub changes, and with it the line of work. Within Rohini, Saturn's sub runs from 15°40′ to 17°46′40″ Taurus, and Mercury's begins right after. A cusp that moves a few degrees crosses that boundary.
In the second pair, Jupiter is the planet of law and teaching. One of the twins went to law school and the other to medical school. Krishnamurti sums it up: a star can indicate many results, and the sub decides which of them applies to each person (KP Reader III, p. 64).
The introduction to Reader I, written by the editor, says the same in other words: it's the sub that decides the smallest difference and makes it possible to get the prediction right for both twins (KP Reader I, introduction, p. xxi).
And when they're born two minutes apart
In two minutes, the ascendant moves half a degree on average. Some cusps change sub and others stay in the same one, depending on how far each one is from the nearest boundary. That's why KP checks cusp by cusp. Where the sub-lord changes, the promise of that house can change. Where it stays the same, the method reads the same theme for both.
Krishnamurti also said where the method hadn't yet reached. For twins born at the same instant, a boy and a girl, he wrote that no method up to then could show from the chart which was which, and that the research was continuing (KP Reader II, p. 3). Stating the limits was part of the conduct he asked of the astrologer (KP Reader II, p. 6).
What this asks of your birth time
If the sub tells twins apart, it tells any chart apart. The time needs to be as close to the minute as possible. Look for the birth certificate and the hospital papers, which usually record the time of each baby. The guide for people who don't know their birth time shows where to look.
At Vedik, the time is required for a new chart. You type the clock time and the city, and Vedik works out the time zone and daylight saving time for that date. The engine calculates the cusps with the Placidus system, using the Swiss Ephemeris and Krishnamurti's own ayanamsa. Two twins with the correct time receive two charts, each with its own cusps.
To see the structure from the inside, read cusp and sub-lord in KP and how to calculate the sub-lord. With your time in hand, create your free reading.
