EYE ON ASTROLOGY: RESPONSIBILITY, JYOTISH AND TRANSFORMING KARMA
Jyotish means light and it is shining light on people’s hidden patterns and revealing them so that they can take responsibility for changing them through new action and choices and awareness. It should also reveal the play of the puppet stings tugging at our emotions and our psychology so that we realize that the planets are hard at work spinning webs of illusion when there may not really be anything there. It is the craziness and blocks of our thoughts and self-doubt that so often causes so many of our problems.
People think that mantras and vedic ceremonies are magic bullets but that is not totally the case. In fact, when mantras and ceremonies are prescribed, they help by loosening the grip of the illusion of the mind so that we can then take new action without being gripped or feeling victimized. They should create good health, power of speech and action to create new directions in our life so that we are empowered. Sometimes clients would like a magic bullet to lift the problems and sometimes that can happen with grace if you have a Sat Guru and are blessed. More often than not, the client has to actively make major changes in their life to recreate their life. This is no easy task and requires huge willpower, motivation and a strong ability to change. Without spiritual practice, service and the company of spiritual people and support this can be difficult to accomplish. Ideally we have to own the responsibility of our own suffering and do something to change it.
For modern Western clients, I like to recommend donations that are specific for the Karma involved. If we can do service work or donate to charities related to problems in our life, we are re-addressing past karma very directly. Freedom Cole in his book, Science of Light, suggests this model. For example, a person with a Venus/Rahu affliction in their chart may have reproductive issues and karmically this may be connected to abusing women in past lives so donating time or money to battered women’s shelters on a Friday, ruled by Venus, may be a direct way of readdressing past karma. Jupiter/Rahu afflictions which may cause problems with luck in this life may mean that you were not a good parent to your children in past lives or that you were not respectful of Gurus and donating to support children or teachers and doing volunteer work for agencies like scouting and Big Brother/ Little Sister on a Thursday, ruled by Jupiter, may be a way of addressing that past karma. One can start seeing all karma in a chart in this way and by being more specific in seeing the karma on a microscopic level, one can suggest a more specific remedy that will be stronger depending on the planet’s sign, aspects and nakshatra.
My financial astrology course recently had a lesson on this and is quite fascinating and it makes good karmic sense. Rather than blame the planet, learn what lessons you did not master in the past and get it right this time. It’s like that wonderful Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day. Get out of your nightmare by being kinder and help others and then you will not suffer. The planets just want us to get it right this time so we do not have to wake up in the same nightmare every morning like Bill Murray.
AVOID ASTROLOGICAL BYPASS
We should not use astrology to prevent us from acting and moving forward with our lives. My columns attempt to give us that perspective; we should not hide our head in the ground like an ostrich as probably 60% of the year there is something challenging happening in the stars but there are always movements of grace. Any given week, there are planetary problems to help us reach into our soul and look at them and help change our lives. There is always grace every week also. Venus and Jupiter the natural benefics are usually doing something good and even when afflicted they are working hard to uplift us and we can use their example to help others and be kind.
Sometimes when things get rough, we get undisciplined and skip our spiritual practices. This is like taking our coat off in the middle of a hard freeze in winter. It gets more challenging. Be more disciplined with diet, bad habits, yoga, exercise and meditation when the planetary weather is rough. The value of spiritual practice during difficult times is that it should empower you with good inner strength to move forward and blow away the smoke of planets and make good decisions.. I find that 95% of my mental and emotional noise disappears with spiritual practice and I am able to move forward as a result.
Our forecasts are general but their impact on your specific life has to be diagnosed and properly forecast by a professional astrologer. Our intent is not to frighten you to hunker down but to just know to have an umbrella handy if it is going to rain. Be practical always and integrate spirituality with real and practical life. Famous Arab saying: ” Pray to Allah but tie up your camel.”
My colleague, Sam Geppi, had a useful spiritual reminder about difficult transits. “Challeging times are where spiritual muscles are stretched and worked out, and these opportunities are not to be avoided if one seeks advancement. Moksha isn’t a pretty process, it involves letting go and can be painful.” We need not fear karmic lessons. That is why we are here. One of Yogananda’s most advanced disciples, Gyanamata, wrote beautifully “I have come to measure spiritual advancement, not alone by the light that surrounds one when he meditates or by the visions he has of saints, but by what he is able to endure in the hard, cold light of day.
We can make difficult transits easier by helping others, donating to charity, doing special vedic ceremonies and doing spiritual practice but some of it just requires getting through it and learning our life lessons so that we can become free. Go forth with courage.
So do your spiritual practices, act, face your challenges and know that God’s grace is supporting you to get through to a higher reality and to the light. Do not use astrology to by-pass your karmic destiny or avoid your challenges. It is not meant to be used in that way. You have nothing to fear and are intimately taken care of by the Divine always.
Traditionally, the astrologer was the village priest who did ceremonies and gave you mantras to help relieve suffering. Through his purity of daily meditation practice and performing pujas each day, he developed a deep connection to the Divine and the ability to make a difference in his clients life through his unconditional love. I personally love this model and have been dedicated to meditation practice for 43 years and do daily pujas and homas because of my deep love for Vedic wisdom and ceremony. Still like all astrologers, our life has to be about service and remain humble and always of service and that is what I personally strive to do.
If you need help understanding your chart, view our services at https://www.appliedvedicastrology.com/category/services/ or take our new class starting Jan 14th on understanding and timing your personal chart. https://www.appliedvedicastrology.com/products-2/timing-your-life/. Still has an early-bird registration discount of 99.00 through Dec. 7th. Learn some of the secrets and simple techniques for understanding how to time your life to be a master rather than a victim of the planets.
Note: Peoples charts and transits are very individual and we write general articles that maybe useful to all our readers. In reality, Vedic astrology is very much like reading very specific strands of DNA.
