psychologically astrology

When you read classical books on astrology you will get cryptic references on the body, gaze, hair etc of the planets which will make no sense to you. But then you have to understand that the books in Sanskrit are written in the form of ‘sutra’ ie one word in this Sanskrit shlok here has multiple layers of meanings. You are required to think upon what the word means and how it can be applied to your current question. 

So in this post, let’s see how the ‘gazes of the planets’ work out. (This post is not evaluating your intelligence level, there are different patterns which are used to determine that).

Where your eyes are, what you see, influences how you think, perceive and later act. Where you gaze at, contributes to your personality and also to how others perceive you to be. Eg in a meeting if you look steadily at the main speaker, then you will come across as a confident and bold person. If, rather than looking at the main speaker, you look sideways, here and there, this will make it seem you have something to hide.. shifty-eyed! Or if you are not willing to look up and keep your gaze lowered, this will label you as being scared or refusing to speak up for your opinions, not confident. 

First Sun and Mars. As per the classics, these two grahas have upward gazes. Their eyes are open and they look straight upwards, no fluffiness or shiftiness or hazed out looks here. This means that if you have a dominant Sun or Mars influencing your ascendant sign, ascendant lord or birth Moon you will be more ambitious. You are direct, less tact and more to the point. You are capable of visualising potentially great things and are quite hopeful about the future. You are more extrovert and willing to act on what you think. And you will act more on the visual cues in your environment and your actions will be quite visible too. As you see steadily, clearly, you also evaluate what you see against your precise standards. If your personality is dominated by upward looking planets then you will grasp charts, images, things that you read etc, ie you learn more easily through visual cues. Your output is also better if you deliver something that can be ‘seen’. How something ‘looks’ has the most impact on you.

If your Sun is influencing your personality then you are more concerned about your honor, entitlements, your duties and responsibilities. If your nature is primarily Martian, then whatever you ‘see’ will be first evaluated for its competitive, strength and ability related aspects. If you have Sun or Mars strongly placed in some house then you will look ‘upwards’ on the keywords of these houses. Eg a strong Mars in the 11^th house, will make you be more active when interacting with large groups of like-minded individuals. You will be more forward thinking and can plan things related to such groups more effectively.  And their influence will be visible in your physical eyes too. You will have clear open eyes, eyelids will open completely and the gaze will be direct and confident. You are a leader who has a clear vision and the capacity to make it happen. 

Then Mercury and Venus are the two grahas who look sideways. This means that these two are aware of the main thing in focus but they are more interested in what is happening around the main focus point. The peripheral things are more interesting to them. If your personality is dominated by these sideways looking planets, then you are a more adaptable, versatile and imaginative person. You are the quintessential multitasker. You can look around the main point for more opportunities and more information. You are more open to options and like to explore possibilities. One interesting thing is that these two planets will grant you better learning through the ears, ie you will better understand the things which you hear. The subtle nuances of speech, the things said between words, you understand these completely. Thus you will always have access to secret information, as you tend to look around the main thing being presented to you. You are also more capable of speaking in code or secret communications. You are more attuned to ‘sound’. I think some heavy Mercury or Venus people can actually ‘hear’ their thoughts!

If you are Mercury-dominated then you are interested in the logic, practicality of the peripheral things which can be then used to improve the efficiency of the main focus point. Such people are very valuable in office teams as they are the ones who help the leader in achieving the goal his envisaged goal in the best possible manner even if it means bending a few rules when no one is looking. If your Venus is guiding you, then you try to look for the best possible options which are not only practical but also legal, fair, elegant and graceful. You will not be a rule breaker here. A Venus dominated person will know the best possible choices in all topics possible.

Your physical eyes will also show this same characteristic of quickness, brightness, eagerness and you will look around searching for diversity and interesting stuff, as one thing does not hold your attention for long.

Then we have Saturn and Rahu, the two planets with downward gazes. Lowered eyes are primarily associated with secrecy, tiredness, sleep, rest, mental fatigue, laziness etc. If the eyes are directed downwards, away from the main focus point and away from the peripheral then there is a chance that the mind may enter the deepest psyche where the undefined formless yet powerful fantasies lie. This is more evident when it is a Rahu-dominated personality. On the psychological levels, a personality heavily influenced by Saturn can show low self-esteem, loss of confidence, fear, nervousness, depression, insecurity etc which can get crippling if you do not make conscious effort to keep yourself buoyant. If it is Rahu then these internal feelings of inadequacy can result in a false bravado which can get you into trouble in life.

But there is a positive side to all this too. If you are looking downwards,  you are actually looking at your own hands.  So your main input is from the sense of ‘touch’. You can think in unexpected ways and arrive at extraordinary conclusions. But for this you have to train your mind to at least remember what the focus point is. If you can do this much, you can not only gain different perspectives which touch the root/core of the issue but you can also decisively and consistently act to deliver practical and grass-root type of solutions. However attractively a thing might be packaged you have the ability to get to its basic foundations, to see its core. 

You are not imaginative, in the sense you cannot think of 5 different things in your mind and solve them. You cannot ‘visualise’. You are focussed entirely on what is actually in your hands at a point of time. Multitasking is not your forte. You are a slow and methodical thinker and are effective in your own way. If your horoscope indicates a good intelligence level this power to think ‘in touch’ is necessary in solving complicated problems which require dedicated step-wise analysis. Again you need to physically touch stuff in order to learn well, or study very practical and real examples as your imagination is limited. Also your output would be best if it were in real physical things, eg construction, making models eg if you write you would prefer a pencil/paper rather than a computer screen! 

Again your physical eyes may be heavily lidded, you may open your eye-lids only halfway. You will frequently look down at your hands and use hand gestures a lot while communicating. (This description of the physical eyes must be seen the context of individual cultural and physical build etc).

Then we have the Moon and Jupiter who look all around equally. If your personality is dominated by either of these, then you have the ability to see the whole picture. You are capable of learning as well as delivering in all the possible modes which were discussed above. You are the least judgmental of the lot as you can accept everything without pride of prejudice. A broad mindset, you are also capable of having insights which the others cannot. You are capable of adjusting your behaviour to the situation or the person interacting with you. You do not lie and neither will you tolerate others lying to you. If the rest of the horoscope is supportive then you have an ability to perceive the ‘truth of the situation’. If this planet is the Moon,  then you are highly perceptive, as the intuition is also available. If this planet is Jupiter then there is kindness and benevolence coupled with understanding. The physical eyes will be bright, gentle and beautiful in these people.

Ketu is sightless as obviously he has no head, he is the headless body of Svarbhanu. So if you have a personality overly dominated by Ketu, you are basically an introvert. You are influenced entirely by ‘gut-feel’, the innate intuition which is sensed by the entire body. With no head to direct what you sense, you take in the influences from your surroundings in a strange ego-less non-judgemental manner. You are never influenced by your environment, as there is no personal ego. In the absence of the sense of self, there is nothing which the environment can influence in the first place! You are within a situation but not influenced by it, so your gut-feel will grant flashes of incisive intelligence. If the rest of the horoscope is supportive you are someone who ‘thinks’ so out of the box that it is genius. The physical eyes will look hazed out, unfocussed and the eyelids may not open fully. There will be a strange opacity in the gaze.

So now, observe your best friend. If he looks up while he is thinking most likely he has a Sun or Mars dominated personality. If he looks to the sides as he thinks then its Mercury/Venus. If he looks down as he mulls over stuff, then his is a Saturn or Rahu dominant nature. If he looks in random different directions when thinking, then it is the relatively balanced Moon or Jupiter. If your friend refuses to think and generally follows what you tell him but shows rare flashes of temper/intelligence, he is most likely a Ketu dominated personality. So you see, reading the books in Sanskrit is so important. Just one shlok on the gazes of the planets has given us such in-depth information on the psychology of the person. How he understands, how can he be expected to act and on what types of cues! 

Now observe yourself and try to see how your dominating planet influences your thought processes. If you need to do some course-correction start training your eyes to ‘look’. eg if you are Rahu influenced person, train your eyes to look upwards so that you can change the way you think and act. It will be difficult at first, but it is in reality the simplest thing. Look where you wish to Act.