Taksa's 8 Positions: Lucky and Kalakini Numbers by Birth Day

Taksa is an eight-slot wheel that turns with your birth day

Taksa (ทักษา) is a system in Thai astrology that pairs consonants and digits with a person's birth day. It is used for choosing names, phone numbers and car license plates. The idea is that eight planets each own a group of consonants and one digit. Everyone starts from the planet of their birth day, and the remaining planets follow in order to fill eight slots called positions (ภูมิ).

The eight positions, in order, are Boriwan (บริวาร, self and the people around you), Ayu (อายุ, health and longevity), Det (เดช, power and authority), Sri (ศรี, fortune and prosperity), Mula (มูละ, foundations and assets), Utsaha (อุตสาหะ, diligence and effort), Montri (มนตรี, patrons and advisers) and Kalakini (กาลกิณี, misfortune and obstacles). The same planet therefore plays a different role for each birth day. A planet that is Sri for people born on one day may be Kalakini for people born on another. This is why the same plate can suit one person yet be a caution for someone else.

The Taksa texts have only eight planets, the digits 1 to 8. The digits 0 and 9 get no slot on this wheel, so this site counts neither of them as a fortune-boosting number or as Kalakini.

The planet order you need to remember fits on one line

The eight planets form a cycle in this order: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Rahu, Venus. Written as each planet's number, that gives 1 2 3 4 7 5 8 6. Notice that it does not run from low to high, because Saturn, number 7, comes before Jupiter, Rahu and Venus. This order is the only thing to memorise. Everything else can be worked out.

Counting takes three steps. First, find the planet of your own birth day. Second, place that planet in the first position, Boriwan. Third, move along the cycle one planet at a time, naming the positions in turn: Ayu, Det, Sri, Mula, Utsaha, Montri, until the last planet, which is Kalakini. If you reach the end of the order, loop back and start again from the Sun.

The birth-day planets are: Sunday 1, Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Wednesday daytime 4, Thursday 5, Friday 6, Saturday 7, and Wednesday night uses Rahu, 8. Wednesday is the only day split in two. If you are not sure whether you were born on Wednesday daytime or Wednesday night, see how to decide in the article on finding your birth day in Thai astrology.

A worked example: born on Wednesday daytime

Wednesday daytime has Mercury, number 4, as its day planet, so Mercury is Boriwan. The next planet after Mercury in the cycle is Saturn, number 7, so it is Ayu. Then comes Jupiter, number 5, as Det, Rahu, number 8, as Sri, and Venus, number 6, as Mula. The cycle then loops back to the Sun, number 1, as Utsaha, the Moon, number 2, as Montri, and Mars, number 3, as Kalakini.

The result is that people born on Wednesday daytime should avoid the digit 3 and the consonants of the Mars group, while 8 is Sri and 2 is Montri. This matches, in every respect, the table this site uses to decide Kalakini on every page.

Taksa number table for all eight birth days

Read the table by finding the row for your birth day, then look along the column for the position you are interested in. For example, in the Monday row, Sri is 7 and Kalakini is 1. Every number in the table is calculated from the formula in the previous section, not typed in cell by cell.

This table is the same every year. It does not change with the zodiac year or with the movement of the planets in the sky. What changes from year to year is something else, such as clashing years (ปีชง) and yearly auspicious days, which are covered separately in the article on 2027 (B.E. 2570).

Consonants, colours and directions of each planet

The 44 Thai consonants are divided into eight groups by planet, so the consonants in a plate's letter series have positions just like the digits do. For example, people born on Monday have the Sun group as Kalakini, which contains only one consonant, อ. People born on Sunday have the Venus group as Kalakini and must avoid as many as six letters: ศ ษ ส ห ฬ ฮ.

The colours and directions of the planets are traditions, and each school picks slightly different shades. This table uses the most common set, which you can carry over to the article on car colours and auspicious directions by birth day.

Which positions this site counts as fortune-boosting

In this site's calculator and birth-day pages, the fortune-boosting numbers are Boriwan, Sri and Montri, while Kalakini is the group to avoid. The remaining positions, Ayu, Det, Mula and Utsaha, are treated as neutral: they are counted neither as boosting numbers nor as cautions.

Other schools group them differently. Many count Det and Sri as the strong numbers for power and wealth, and some count Mula as well. This difference does not mean either side is wrong. It is a choice of which positions to give weight to. What most texts agree on is each day's Kalakini, which is the point we consider the clearest to judge.

If you want to use Det or Mula too, you can read them from the table above. Just pick one approach and apply it consistently to plates, phone numbers and names, so you do not get confused when comparing several options.

What Taksa cannot tell you

Taksa is a belief based on ancient texts. It is not a score of the worth of a person or a plate, and there is no scientific evidence that any number affects luck. Use it as a filter to first remove numbers that make you uneasy, then choose based on your budget and personal taste.

A plate that passes Taksa should still be compared with the market median before you decide. If you would rather not count it yourself, use this site's birth-day lucky number page: enter your date and time of birth and it shows your boosting numbers and the numbers to avoid, calculated on your own device.