Viparita Raja yoga
Viparita raja yoga forms when the lord of a dusthana house (6, 8 or 12) is placed in another dusthana. The name means reversed royal yoga, because difficult houses combine to give advantage.
What it is
The standard rule is the placement of the lords of 6, 8 and 12 in one of the other dusthana houses. The traditional readings describe success after difficulty, often through conflict or hidden matters.
How it is worked out or read
The rule needs the lords of the houses, which are found from the Lagna. The site does not check this yoga.
Where it appears on this site
The dusthana houses are in the dusthana houses article. The houses are in the birth chart.
Checking it on a chart
Find the sixth, eighth and twelfth houses from the Lagna and note their lords. Then see where each lord sits. If the sixth lord is in the sixth, eighth or twelfth, Harsha yoga is present; the same check for the eighth lord gives Sarala, and for the twelfth lord Vimala. Note any conjunction with kendra or trikona lords, which many readers treat as mixing the result.
The three forms
Viparita means reversed, and Viparita Raja yoga is a pattern in which difficulty turns into gain. It is formed when the lords of the dusthanas, the sixth, eighth and twelfth houses, occupy dusthanas themselves. The texts name three forms: Harsha yoga, when the sixth lord is in the sixth, eighth or twelfth; Sarala yoga, when the eighth lord is so placed; and Vimala yoga, when the twelfth lord is so placed. Each is described with its own results, Harsha with health and victory over opponents, Sarala with resilience and learning, Vimala with frugality and independence.
The reasoning behind it
The logic is that the lord of a difficult house, placed in another difficult house, weakens the difficulty it represents. A sixth lord in the eighth, for example, is read as the source of conflict being itself undermined. Many readers add a condition that the dusthana lords should not be associated with the lords of the Lagna, kendras or trikonas, since that would mix the pattern with other influences.
Timing and caution
The results of Viparita Raja yoga are often described as arriving through or after difficulty: gain after a setback, or advantage from another's loss. As with other yogas, they are said to appear chiefly in the dashas of the planets involved. Because the yoga involves the hardest houses of the chart, readers should be careful not to present it as an unmixed blessing, and should look at the whole chart before drawing conclusions.
Viparita as reversal
The name viparita means reversed, and the yoga is read as a reversal in which difficult houses become a source of advantage. The reader should describe the reversal as a pattern in which a person's struggles lead to recovery or gain, while noting that the classical texts state the conditions carefully and that the outcome depends on the whole chart.