Ernst and Srishti Wilhelm
Ernst Wilhelm
Käla Designer & ACVA certified teacher
What are your three favorite features about Käla?
The best feature in Käla is not a single feature, but the way all the features were designed to “fit together” into an integrated whole. This required my designing the complete software before any code was written. This also required my knowing Vedic Astrology very, very well. Years ago, a friend and I had decided to make a software together- she as the programmer, me as the astrologer who was to design the program. Even though at that time I had studied everything I could get my hands on about Vedic Astrology, I still did not know enough to design a complete software. Fortunately, by the time I met my wife (Kala’s programmer), I finally knew enough to design the complete software, and so we started. I think I can quite safely say that Käla is the only Vedic Astrology software that was professionally engineered this way. The advantages of our software being engineered this way are simplicity, effectiveness, ease of use and, most importantly, the ability to put a lot of information before the user in logical fashion that makes the software smoother and more enjoyable to operate.
I am especially proud of the compatibility module, which has both the Vedic compatibility calculations as well as many western techniques. So often a clients ask me to check a compatibility right in the middle of a reading. This was always stressful before I had Käla because I had to enter the data into both my Vedic and western software, then finish up the hand calculations for the Vedic because, before Käla, no Vedic software did the calculations completely. Now I simply enter the new person’s data and can see everything I need one on screen.
I means a great deal to me to know that the calculations in Käla are absolutely correct. I went through hundreds of ancient texts to make sure that I had the proper formulas. Through the dark ages, several shortcuts for making certain difficult calculations have been adopted that are not always accurate, and which are still being commonly taught these days. Now with computers, we don’t have to make due with these inaccurate shortcuts anymore.
What are the things that hold extra appeal and add depth to your software?
I have always taken special interest in compatibility analysis. In fact, I got involved in astrology to figure out why my first relationship was not working out. Astrology explained it perfectly and I’ve been hooked on compatibility studies ever since.
I have taken years to sort through all of the contradictions that are a part of Vedic Compatibility and calculate them correctly. Compatibility is one of the areas in Vedic Astrology where there is not much agreement about what is important to check for. It is such a fragmented system that most Vedic Astrologers actually use western techniques of compatibility instead.
Everyone loves the system I have programmed in Käla once they learn it. Even Western astrologers whom I have taught have told me that they thought it was better than any of their other techniques and end up doing most of compatibility studies using my Vedic techniques. We provide quite a bit of information about the techniques in the software to help people understand them better. Kala produces a six-page compatibility report that summarizes all the techniques in a simple enough fashion that you can even give them to clients. I use the Western techniques as well, so Käla is the only Vedic Astrology software that has western capability techniques available as well.
I have always done a lot of Muhurtas- choosing times for marriage, starting businesses and things like that. This is a huge branch of astrology that has many facets that are completely different than natal astrology. The Muhurta module is one of the most ambitious projects I had planned for Käla. I am thrilled with how it has turned out. To prepare to design this part of the software, I ended up writing the biggest book on the subject - a large part of which is in the software. The Muhurta module is very complete; we have programmed several things that have never been programmed before. A Muhurta that used to take me 1 – 1 ½ hours now only takes me 10 to 15 minutes- and it is better than I used to be able to do by hand.
I have put a lot of energy into are the Yogas. Yogas are fundamental planetary patterns that help the astrologer get a solid grasp of the horoscope. Even after an astrologer knows the foundational principles for judging the horoscope and making predictions, there can be a Yoga in the chart that radically changes everything. For example, normally it is considered favorable for the lord of a house to be in a trinal house (1, 5, and 9). In regards to marriage, however, if the 7th lord is in the 5th, it will terminate a relationship or prevent the birth of children. So what normally looks favorable could break up a couple. There are several combinations like this, without which an astrologer can not achieve consistent success. I have been searching out and organizing these combinations for years - long before I ever thought of making software. Now many of them are programmed into Käla, and they are organized by subject matter so that the astrologer can effectively put them to use.
How did you get into the business of making astrology software?
My wife and I started making the software because I needed certain features to carry out the research necessary for the books I have written. Since that became a full time job for my wife, we really needed to turn it into a business- raising kids in California on a single income isn’t easy. But since the original intention was not making money, we have kept the price of Käla down and so it is much less than other software that do not even have all of our features.
Both of us have worked for one of the biggest Vedic astrology software companies. We are intimately familiar with popular Vedic astrology programs and have used this experience to design a program that we believe is much easier to use and better learning tool.
Where do you see astrology software going in the next five years?
Software is definitely going predictive. There is more and more demand for software that not only gives character analysis, but also gives predictions. Vedic astrology is particularly well suited to this task but the algorithms have yet to be put into software. Thanks to computers a lot of the groundwork required to make predictive software has been laid, but there is a lot more research and programming of calculations that need to be done before this can really happen. Most astrologers rely a great deal on their intuitive ability when making predictions. Most of the techniques currently used are really not mathematically accurate enough for a computer to get anywhere with, but the last few years has brought about a renaissance in Vedic Astrology, with resulting techniques that could actually be programmed successfully, once all of the subtleties are worked out.
As time goes by our report will contain more predictions – especially our transit report. Our reports are not designed for sale to the public like Western reports. The design intent behind our reports is to help astrologers quickly get answers from charts. Nonetheless, we are continually receiving compliments from people who say that our reports are so much easier to understand then any others they have read. We’ve done a great deal of work to translate the sacred texts into language and concepts that are more assessable to Westerners. We apparently have the only Vedic astrology software with modern text in their reports. I’m a teacher and writer in the Vedic astrology tradition so you can expect longer and more detailed reports. | 
