EYE ON ASTROLOGY:Â FULL MOON ONÂ TUESDAY
Guru Purnima is very auspicious spiritually and it occurs during the 15th lunar day which begins in the US on Monday, July 15th in the late afternoon and ends late afternoon on Tuesday, the 16th .  It is a very auspicious time to receive grace from the Guru or the Big Mind. Wonderful time to read spiritual literature, do puja for your Guru. Good time to donate to spiritual masters and their schools and support spiritual knowledge. Meditation and pujas done on Guru Purnima are particularly powerful.
This year it is overlapping with the lunar eclipse at 29.53 Sagittarius which is a partial eclipse which start at 18:42 GMT on July 16th (12:42 pm Chicago time) and goes until July 17th at 12:19 am GMT or ending about 6:20 pm Chicago time on July 16. Full moons connected to Guru Purnima can lead to deeper meditations and spiritual experiences as meditations are 1000 time more powerful during eclipses and so spiritual experiences could be very deep.    Eclipses are difficult outwardly but can lead to very powerful and deep spiritual experiences so if the day is devoted to deep spiritual experience and devotion, it may be very powerful but if you get caught up in problems at work it may be frustrating and filled with anxiety or fatigue because the lunar eclipse is conjunct Saturn that day at 3:18 am EDT.
If you do not have a Guru, it is a day to honor our teachers. Our first teacher was our mother and then our school teachers and maybe our local priest and then our college mentors. Take time to fondly all of those that brought you out of ignorance with deep love and gratitude.
The history of Guru Purnima is fascinating. Sarabini Rath discussing it says:
” In yogic lore, it is said that Guru Purnima was the day that saw Shiva become the Adi Guru, or the first Guru. The story goes that over 15,000 years ago, a yogi appeared the Himalayas.His presence was extraordinary, and people gathered. However, he exhibited no signs of life, but for the occasional tears of ecstasy that rolled down his face. People began to drift away, but seven men stayed on. When he opened his eyes, they pleaded with him, wanting to experience whatever was happening to him. He dismissed them, but they persevered. Finally, he gave them a simple preparatory step and closed his eyes again. The seven men began to prepare. Days rolled into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, but the yogi’s attention did not fall upon them again.After 84 years of sadhana, the yogi looked at them again. They had become shining receptacles, wonderfully receptive. He could not ignore them anymore. On the very next full moon day, the yogi turned south and sat as a guru to these seven men. Shiva, the Adiyogi (the first yogi) thus became the Adi Guru. Adiyogi expounded these mechanics of life for many years. The seven disciples became celebrated as the Saptarishis and took this knowledge across the world. Guru Purnima is held sacred in the yogic tradition because the Adiyogi opened up the possibility for a human being to evolve consciously. The seven different aspects of yoga that were put in these seven individuals became the foundation for the seven basic forms of yoga, something that has still endured.”(From Sarabini Rath).
So take a day off and enjoy deep meditation and celebration and spend time with your spiritual group. Other activity with the lunar eclipse will be frustrating.
Jai Guru Dev!
Victory to the Big Mind
