Moving Beyond Terms Like Friends and Enemies

New students of astrology memorize that Jupiter/Mars/Sun/Moon is a cluster of friends and equally that Saturn/Venus/Mercury/Rahu is another cluster of friends. While there are a lot of neutrals and other types of relationships, we often get lost and fail to translate this into English vernacular to help students and clients understand what it means. In modern times, it is rarely the case that an enemy will break into our house and attack us. It is more often something subtler so even using the word enemy lacks clarity.

People want to know if something is good or bad, but that is rarely a usable term as even the most challenging situations in life bring growth in our life, and sometimes it may take us years to understand this. In 1982-3, I had kidney stones every month and was a walking time bomb and in fear of deep pain and the doctors told me I would be in pain for the rest of my life. Clearly, this was a “bad” situation, but it forced me to study alternative medicine and find a cure involving a Magnesium supplement and it had a long-term impact on the rest of my life. It was a long-term “good.”

In exploring friends and enemies deeply, I have noticed that Parashara is taking a very traditional Vedic point of view. Saturn/Mercury/Venus and Rahu are more material or business planets and have a different purpose than Sun/Jupiter/Mars/Moon who points us toward the Divine and helps us stay in dharma and get us off the wheel of karma and attachment to the material.

A modern way of understanding this is more connected to examining the nature of the planet involved and what happens when they are in an enemy sign and why they have to fight to bring out their nature. For example, Mars by nature is a soldier and needs to be involved in the action and not thinking too much and caught in the sensual realm of Venus. Mars by nature is a celibate and a good soldier has to use his maximum energy to fight and conquer if he has not used up his vital energy in a night of passion. Hence, Mars in Taurus or Libra or conjunct Venus is in enemy houses or afflicted by an enemy is tempted out of his dharma. He may enjoy great sensual pleasures and food but will get lost from his mission and nature and dharma and hence he is out of his natural element. He may have a lot of fun, but he will not be fulfilling his highest calling. Hence, he is in enemy territory and going against his nature. Still, a client who is an earth sign or who may have an artha (business/wealth) or kama (pleasure path) may benefit from doing its nature. Aries rising may get thrown from the path, but Libra needs sensual enjoyment to fulfill her nature.

When we see the complex karma involved here, you help people discern what is best for their life path. From a traditional Vedic perspective, getting too involved in the world is maya, causes suffering, but in modern western society, clients may not have a strong impulse for spirituality and will want to know how much money they will make when their relationships and sex life will improve and that may be where they are and need to be in their life.

Let’s look at Mars and Mercury as bitter enemies. Mars thrives when he is physically moving, athletic, and exerting his prowess. When he is in Gemini or Virgo or conjunct Mercury, he may get too caught in his head and maybe thinking too much and blocking his natural energies. We often note that Mars/Mercury conjunctions can cause accidents because if our enemy has done something to upset us, we are thinking too much about it and not focusing on the moment on driving or the task at hand and we get into trouble. In this way, Mercury afflicts Mars’ natural ability to focus on the moment and the action at hand, and instead, Mars is caught up remembering what someone said, being angry, and not paying attention to his/her surroundings and accidents happen. Mercury in Aries may be too prone to act quickly and not be using his intellectual nature that allows deep thoughtful actions. Hence, Mercury is in an enemy’s sign and out of his nature.

We need to modernize the archetypal relationships in astrology to shed new light on their real meaning so we can grow in awareness of what we need to do to remedy the afflicted planet and its situation.

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