@Ginny's comment echoes my own sentiments as a practitioner of Western astrology although I am familiar with the vedic system to some degree (partly from having friends from that background who have either taught me some bits about it or have commented.) I think the system works when understood within its own frame but this would be difficult for me as I have also learned the western signs with their archetypal meanings and tend to interpret placements accordingly.
This is where I have a bit of an issue with the system because instead of showing a tendency (if one is a cardinal fire sign one will be impatient but not necessarily incapable of improving and becoming more aware and more in charge of one's energies - for example) it tends to portray the descriptions in a more fatalistic/deterministic fashion more akin to traditional astrology. This is where we would hear that one afflicted by Saturn would be evil and wicked and other such things and the issue with it is that it has a discouraging effect on the reader while also giving the impression that one is not capable of altering circumstances through one's own choices and actions. While this may actually be the case while we remain oblivious of a placement's action it still seems to promote relatively little self-growth therefore my disinclination to use this method of interpretation. However I have seen some examples of it and indeed they can get very precise about what one is "gifted"/"cursed" with depending on placements.
