Am getting more questions related to mental problems like depression, suicidal thoughts, not fitting into the society and wanting to remain apart. It is rather worrying to see young men and women getting such emotional lows for no good reason. I have written on addictions and on psychiatric issues.

There are cycles in human society. During one ancient period, invasions were a regular feature, so I guess Mars was more important then, being alert, going with an army to kill, or being able to defend one’s home and village were important life skills. But in this cycle, my and your lives are dominated by communication, you wake up to a Whatsapp msg and sleep with your Facebook. If you don’t get enough likes on your posts, you feel uneasy and if someone writes something critical about the post, the whole day goes in depression! You read other’s thoughts, people whom you have never even met, and these posts affect you more than they logically should. You pore over every comma, full-stop and try to find meanings in every tiny word.

But then if your mom scolds you for eating junk food, you don’t even look at her. If your teachers ask you to switch off your mobiles in class, you allege ‘freedom of expression’ and get that teacher scolded from the principal. You do not value real in-depth knowledge, much less wisdom. The social structure has changed, your home has become the like-minded group of your Internet, not the physical solidity of the 4-walls. You now derive your emotional security and happiness from the virtual world. You let your these virtual groups define your personality. You find pleasure in the ephemeral, get bored and then search for new topics to pleasure you, till you feel jaded. And you value this virtual temporary stuff more than the real solid long-lasting stuff that was once the foundation of the society.

So you see, from the paragraph above, if you have paid attention to the keywords baby-steps for the horoscope, there is a lot you can analyse. In our world today the following have gained more importance,

Mercury – He is the agent of all sorts of communications, databases, number-crunching, juvenile chit-chat, nit-picking and details. He is a superficial adolescent spending time with same-age groups chattering, gossiping. Now attention spans even getting shorter, maturity getting lower and nervous excitement higher.

He is rapidly becoming the foremost planet of our times, so let us see what is his take on the matters of mental health. Examine just this one all-important placement, the 3rd house from the birth mercury sign. This is the place where your thoughts tangle and complicate and play with themselves till they cause mental stress. Thoughts here repeat in never-ending loops, which is not good for normal analytical reasoning. The sign, house and planet in this 3rd from mercury demand mental attention and energy. Distracted, depressed and compulsive thinking is seen from here.

Any planet placed in this 3rd from Mercury causes mental chatter. So pay special attention to this mental-energy draining location when evaluating mental stress. These planets, house, sign give their other effects in life as always, and some of these may be excellent but as far as mental processes are concerned they disrupt. Eg Saturn placed here, will give mental oppression, hard mental work, bitterness, negativity, oppression and depression. eg. Moon placed here will color every thought looping into your brain with emotion, creating anxiety, worry, fear of emotional loneliness, of losing mental/emotional stability and loss of comfort.

If this house is vacant, it is better as the mind functions without pre-conceived bias. This problem of ‘sticky’ feelings/opinions is less severe. This house has the past karma of faulty mental processes from past lives which has to be experienced and completed.

Back to analysing our current time-cycle.

Saturn – the solid hierarchical social structure as defined by Capricorn is moving more to the quick-changing similar-minded group structure as defined by Aquarius. The more exotic is good, the more rules flouted the better, everyone making profits even better. You are at your ambitious best, wanting to jump upwards, till you over-reache and fall on your face.

Moon – the mind, which loves to flit from subject to subject. With the Internet, there is no dearth of subjects, the mind is in a whirlpool, of messages, likes, pings and hashtags, that it is getting dizzy not quite knowing where to look. Mind needs comfort and emotional security/stability, but here it gets nothing of that sort. Nothing to anchor itself in these shifting sands of the virtual world. There was a time when a mother or father meant security and love, but now these relations have stopped existing. The mind has lost its roots.

Mars – He is the vitality of the personality, but he seems to be failing in a strange way. You rarely see a person being a vital male or a female brimming with the force of his/her personality. Misshapen, fat, ill and worse, mentally weak, is what this current population is moving onto. Reproduction is also being affected, with assisted reproductive technologies and overall weaker children being born.

Jupiter – No one really bothers with his gift of deep wisdom and knowledge. Very few genuine teachers and equally few deserving students. Jupiter finds himself trumped by Mercury for the time being.

Sun – He is the source of divine intelligence and the creativity associated with it. But now creativity also seems to have been warped. From the elegance of Elvis’s songs in the past to Miley screeching in recent times, just for a comparison.

Venus – He is capable of giving you Moksh, the final esoteric wisdom if you can transcend his pleasure-able tests. But in this world of instant gratification and zero patience, you fall in his traps of girl/ boy-friends, addictions, make-up, fad-diets and superficial beauty.

Rahu – the world is abound with risky ambitions, the scale of which has gone global. Rahu’s nature is to over-extend and eventually fail. If in the past your business failed, only your close groups would know about it and you would get over it quite quickly too. Now the entire world knows about this, never forgets it and your past failures will be online forever haunting you.

Ketu – Now we all are dissociated from the real world. I guess this says it all. A bit more about Ketu, the embodiment of dissociation, the agent of separation, detachment, and despair. These are the ‘pure’ results which will be of course modified as per other factors, planets, aspects, sign and house.

• Ketu in Aries or Scorpio – generally lethargic but intermittent spurts of unpredictable, aggressive or violent activity. Typically passive-aggressive behaviour.
• Ketu in Taurus or Libra – is an escapist by nature. Quite active and gets into several aimless relationships with weird persons. Destruction of money, wealth and relations is often a result.
• Ketu in Gemini or Virgo – mental confusion, anxious and aimless chatter, wrong illogical analysis, querulous arguments. Will interfere into the lives of others, basically cannot be trusted.
• Ketu in Cancer – psychic, nervous, painfully insecure, over-sensitive, terrified of abandonment, dependant. Prefers to remain in isolation and is scared of life overall.
• Ketu in Leo – Is a nutcase who thinks himself to be the emperor. Meaningless self-righteous self-promotion. Is sometimes wildly excited and then easily offended.
• Ketu in Capricorn or Aquarius – extremely detached from everything represented by society. No motivation and zero interest in life. Wears depressing colors drab looking is generally disinterested.
• Ketu in Sagittarius or Pisces – carries the load of global human despair. Wants to ‘help’ humans, takes to travelling to ‘help’ large scale humanitarian problems. Ineffectual and an escapist.

This time-cycle is replete with challenges and at the foremost are the challenges posed by Mercury, the agent of thought and analysis. So if you feel despondent and depressed, open your horoscope and analyse everything to do with Mercury. Try to analyse how Mercury links up with Ketu/ South node and the rest of the planetary forces.

Think yourself back to yourself. You can do it, just give it a try.

We can analyse everything if we can learn to break it down to components. Astrology, Tarot, Runes, any divination tool is about this. These tools empower, they tell you what you have sub-consciously chosen, and then give you the option to change your wish again this time by conscious efforts. These conscious efforts mean consciously working with energy, with your Self. You yourself are conscious energy.

Remember you are never helpless, you always have a choice. Your conscious Will can and does intervene. You just have to intend the Change.