Shubha kartari: benefics on both sides
Shubha kartari yoga is a classical condition in which a house or graha is hemmed between two benefics, one on each side. The idea is that the benefics protect or support the central house.
What it is
The standard form counts the houses on either side of a given house, and checks that benefics occupy both. The result is read as supportive in the classical view, and its opposite, papa kartari, is read as adverse.
How it is worked out or read
The site does not check kartari yogas. The houses and grahas can be counted by hand from the birth chart.
Where it appears on this site
See benefic and malefic and the caution on yogas.
The idea of hemming
Kartari means scissors. A kartari yoga forms when a house, or a planet, is hemmed in on both sides: when there are grahas in the house before it and the house after it. If the grahas on both sides are benefics, the result is shubha kartari, the auspicious scissors, and the hemmed house or planet is read as protected and supported. If they are malefics, the result is papa kartari, the inauspicious scissors, and the hemmed point is read as pressed or constrained.
How to find it
To check shubha kartari for the Lagna, look at the second and twelfth houses. If both contain natural benefics, Jupiter, Venus, a well-associated Mercury or a bright Moon, and no malefics, the Lagna is in shubha kartari. The same check can be made for any house, counting the house before and the house after it, and for any planet, counting the signs on each side of its sign. Some readers also count benefic aspects on both sides, though the stricter definition requires occupation.
Many texts apply the yoga especially to the Lagna and to the Moon, since these two points represent the self and the mind.
What it is said to give
Shubha kartari on the Lagna is traditionally read as giving good health, a pleasant personality, support from others and protection in difficulty. On the Moon it is read as a settled and contented mind. On another house it is read as protection of that house's themes: on the seventh, for instance, as support in partnership. As always, the descriptions are traditional, and their strength depends on the dignity of the benefics involved.
Mixed and cancelled forms
Often a house is hemmed by one benefic and one malefic. Such a mixed case is not a kartari yoga in the strict sense, and readers weigh the two sides individually. If a malefic is placed in the hemmed house itself, the protective effect of shubha kartari is considered reduced. And a benefic that is combust or debilitated contributes less, so a shubha kartari formed by weak benefics is weaker than one formed by strong ones.
Placing it in the reading
Kartari yogas are a good example of how Jyotish reads a chart through neighbourhoods as well as individual placements. A planet in a difficult house can still be well supported by its neighbours, and a planet in a good house can be pressed by them. Noting the kartari pattern for the Lagna, the Moon and any house under study adds a useful layer to the reading.