psyche

Predictive v/s Psychological Astrology

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There is a perception that Indian astrology is only about predictions, this is incorrect. Most clients today are concerned about physical things, material gains and promises of promotion. And most astrologers too are interested in making money, charging by the hour. However Jyotish is not just predictions, it has the psychological aspect built-in. We Indian Jyotishi-s, give prime importance to the position of the birth Moon. The Moon is our psyche. When you go to a good astrologer, he will do a quick analysis of your Moon first to determine your innermost personality first and then talk to you.

Predictive v/s Psychological Astrology

The sequence should be this,

First is the important physical event. This is seen from the chart which starts with the rising sign and where the ascendant lord plays a major role as the chart is made with the ascendant sign as the focal point. Most astrologers stop at this stage because clients want just this much.

  • If you are doing this mini-exercise for yourself, you can look back to the past year and think of which event has been most important to you? Perhaps the birth of your child? Marriage? A new job? Mother’s physical death? New house?

Then the second stage is to evaluate the effect of the physical event on the psyche, this is the domain of the moon. But it is a rare client who waits for so long and tries to listen and understand. For this you have to turn around your birth chart, so that the birth Moon sign occupies the first house. All the houses /signs /planets will be realigned now with the Moon as the focus.

  • Now you are analysing how the birth of your child has affected you on the inner-most, psychological, emotional levels, etc levels. The children are seen from the 5th house. Look for the 5th house counted from the birth moon. If there are benefics here/aspecting, its owner planet is well-placed etc. the birth of this child as been very positive for you emotionally too.

And the third stage is the corrections, the astrologer will evaluate all the potential this event has. For this the divisional chart 9, navamsha is used.

  • e.g. for birth of a child, check out the planets associated with the 5th house of the birth chart, the planets aspecting/placed in 5th and the owner of the 5th. Now look to where these planets shift in the D-9 chart. If they increase in power here, e.g. if get exalted or in the kendra (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) or kona (5th, 9th) houses etc the event has overall a very good positive potential.

Then after this analysis of the potentials, if necessary, the astrologer will prescribe some remedies to balance things on the internal (moon) levels and the physical environment. But practically nil clients interested in listening to such in-depth analysis. So most astrologers will just tell the client to wear some gemstone or do some puja without explaining why. They will just say, ‘if you want a job, wear a yellow sapphire’. This will work, but the rare client who wants to know all the inner details will go away dissatisfied.

Predictive v/s Psychological Astrology

Your psyche, links to the planets/signs/lunar mansions/houses which are conscious energies. Your psyche is interpreted in the language of Jyotish, not the other way round.

  • The graha/planets represent the basic potential and direction of energy, the motivation. Of the nine graha, two Rahu/Ketu, are completely astral working on the subconscious levels.
  • The signs are the 12 divisions of the zodiac which are ‘natural agents/’karak’ of the various aspects of life in general. These are the basic archetypes. (I give about 15% weightage to the natural karaks while analysing a horoscope.)
  • The houses/bhava are the aspects of your individual life. These vary as per the positioning of the rising sign. The ‘functional agents/karak’. Your life experience is linked more to these. The ‘one who experiences’ is most important. So when analysing as per your individual horoscope, the houses have more weightage than the natural archetypes/signs.
  • The lunar mansions/Nakshatra are the finer nuances. The innate nature which lies beneath the surface. For a Jyotishi, Nakshatra and knowing how to use them is quite essential.

Predictive and psychological are two faces of the same coin. One gives rise to the other and the other helps us understand the first more deeply.

In the predictive approach, you think systematically in terms of causes, you classify and discriminate. You look at the horoscope as if it were a problem. You are going to solve it. You have the maths, the 1+1=2 systems. You are aware of the details of the entire horoscope, the rules on interpretation and all the important combinations. You have read all the authoritative works of your seniors. You use precise words, there are very clearly defined events occurring. You finally reach a static conclusion on the physical event. And the baby is born!

When you enter the realm of the psychological, you cannot take the apparent causes as enough, there will always be more. More things corresponding and combining, the past, the present and the tendencies for the future. Nothing can be defined completely, there is always a potential. You look and try to combine, synthesise. You look for an event but really you are trying to define a process. You observe how this event changes things on all levels. You are inclusive and qualitative in approach here. You are delving into the inner worlds so you look behind the meanings of every symbol, you feel. You use the 1+1=2 math but you listen to your intuition and your experience. You look at the horoscope as a mystery, you want to find the interconnections, the patterns so that you understand. You now hold the baby in against your cheek and feel his tiny self in your arms!

Predictive v/s Psychological Astrology

Of the ancient Sanskrit Jyotish texts available to us, only about 20% have been translated in the past 100-200 yrs. Earlier, Jyotishi-s could read and understand Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the real mother tongue, though we don’t know how to speak it now, (a sin committed by the invaders, just 300yrs were enough to wipe out our ancient culture). Devbhasha Sanskritam, the perfectly arranged language of Light, cannot be completely translated to any other recent language. Then again those texts related to the physical effects were translated on priority, because the current trend is of the physical. Maybe in the future if there are sufficiently learned Jyotishi-s who can translate the remaining in the real sense, we would know about the other not-in-the-limelight aspects of Jyotish.

So till then, this will remain predictive v/s psychological rather than predictive and psychological!

 

The Sun, Surya the Soul

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In a horoscope the Sun is the source of divine intelligence. Just as in the solar system, the Sun is the source of all the energy that powers the chart. The Will! This post is about this radiant Ruler of the horoscope, Surya. He owns the sign Leo/Simha, the 5th. Thus he is the natural ruler of the 5th house of the horoscope. Irrespective of the actual sign occupying the 5th house in a chart, the Sun and his sign Leo will always have a subtle influence on the matters of the 5th house.

Astrology says, the Sun is the soul of Kalapurusha (the person who is ‘Time’), the Moon is his mind, Mars is his vitality, Mercury is his speech, Jupiter is his knowledge and happiness, Venus is his sexual love and relations and Saturn is his work and misery.

The Sun, Surya the Soul

Sun’s friends are the Moon, Mars and Jupiter. In Cancer he loves the patriotism and enjoys working for the interest of his homeland. Also a paternal figure, he likes providing security and stability to those who ‘belong’ to him. In pioneering active Aries, his independence and confidence is enhanced and in Scorpio he loves the penetration, exploration and discovery. In Sagittarius he loves philosophising, channeling the divine truths and being the center stage of religious ceremonies. And in Pisces too, he has the opportunity to cast his radiance in the uncharted domains of the sub-conscious and astral.

He considers Venus and Saturn to be his enemies. If the Sun in the horoscope is under their influence in any way, either conjoint or aspected by them or in their actual sign  or natural house then his self-confidence is reduced. Venus interferes by offering him material pleasures and Saturn interferes by giving him too much material karmic work. In Taurus he is reduced to thinking of money and assets to be everything, and in Libra he uses his divine intelligence only for the pleasures of his partner. His personal will is highly reduced and putty in the hands of his karmic partnerships. He considers the adolescent Mercury to be  a neutral force.

The Sun is most comfortable, exalted in the environment of Aries and most out of place, debilitated in Libra the house of Venus, read more about it here. Thus he is generally productive in the 1st house of the chart and quite mis-matched in the 7th house too, irrespective of the signs.

The Sun in your chart describes the following,

  1. Your personal genius, creativity, independence, gambling, brilliance and intelligence.
  2. Your childhood, whether you were encouraged, praised, made to feel confident or not.
  3. Your actual father and other males who had authority over you, and your experience with them. (The step-father /2nd father is the 8th from the birth sun)
  4. Your two physical eyes and more importantly the third eye. You perceive the secrets of the universe with these eyes.
  5. Your entitlements, things which you take for granted as yours by birth or right and the authority that you wield.

A well placed Sun allows you to express your internal self brightly with grace and in clear light. A self-confident person is attractive and is often naturally in the center-stage. A strong Sun allows you to “think good about yourself”, regardless of what others think. Their opinions do not affect your sense of self, as you internally know you have good reasons for your actions.

But the other side of the Sun is the darker self-righteous personality which is selfish, attention-grabbing, narcissist, not bothered about others and very mean. I knew a person with a debilitated Sun in the ascendant, an excellent lawyer, she was a tireless worker for the poor and often worked without taking fees, very highly respected in society, simple, approachable and non-pretentious. But an extremely self-referential person in private life with no regard for the feelings and hopes of her own husband and child causing them immense trauma of which she was neither understanding nor sympathetic. Her partners were the poor people caught in legal troubles and she would do anything to get justice for them. But in her own personal life, she was the narcissist mother and self-righteous wife.

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A quick exercise, in your birth chart, count the signs from the birth sun to the other planets. A count of 6, 8 or 12 is not considered good. All other counts are generally good and will vary in intensity depending on the signs and aspects.

  • The Moon from the Sun tells you if your mind has the capacity to express its emotions in a confident manner. Also if these emotions and thoughts are generally clear bright and positive or twisted and negatively directed. Also a look in into how this person can link up his confidence to emotions, can from emotionally manipulative to aggressive and logical.
  • The Mars from the Sun is a fair indicator of the power of the physical and astral bodies, the activity and health. The match between the inner fire and its outer expression is examined here. Is the Ego supporting the body positively or negatively?
  • The Mercury from the Sun determines if the speech, communication and critical thinking is a product of a positive Self and Ego or not. It also indicates if it is a true transmission of the real self image represented by the Sun. The intellectual power of thought patterns and the articulation of the personal logic.
  • The Jupiter from the Sun is the knowledge, wisdom and also a deep happiness. Do you live your life as with balance between the self and the rest of humanity? Are you philosophical and kind to your own self and also to others? Does your ego allow this?
  • The Venus from the Sun shows indicates the soul-source of your relationships. Do you enter your partnerships, personal and legal with a sense of love and pleasure? To have successful relationships you need to have a healthy relationship with your own self first. This subtly defines all your other relationships.
  • The Saturn from the Sun determines if you carry out your assigned work in the society and the profession. Also how are your contributions actually received by the society/organization. Do you value your work? And in turn is your work valued? This is also ultimately a function of your sense of self-worth and ego.

There is one more important interaction among the planets were the close proxmity to the Sun burns out the others, combust planets, dagdha/asta and caizimi. I have written a post on these results here.

But always remember You are the Central Sun of your Life, You power your life experiences. The power to choose, free will is always available, Sri Krishn in the last shlok of the Bhagwat Gita says to Arjun, 18 chapter, 63 verse, “So I have explained to you very secret knowledge. Deliberate on this completely, and then do what you wish to do“. Free will exists, the horoscope is just the choice you have made before you were born you can change your choices anytime to make things better for yourself!

 

The Sun, Surya the Soul

Navamsha, 9th divisional chart

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Astrology is a bottomless ocean of information. Jyotish is one of the 6 branches of Vedanta and is the science used to find out the events which are going to happen in a life time and their timing. Thus it is high mathematics coupled with deep study and intuition. Divisional charts are extremely useful, however you need the exact birth-time, an error of even 15 seconds is not acceptable. If accurate birth time is not available the divisional charts are extremely misleading and should never be calculated.

For a complete analysis of your personality you will need to analyse at least the following

  1. The birth chart with the ascendant as the first house – This is the 1st divisional chart or D-1. The basic chart which we always refer to, the birth chart with the ascendant as the first house. The D-1 is rooted in time/space. This determines the physical, material and social aspects of your life. It is ideal for predicting the tangible events which occur in the ‘real life’, marriage, education, children, travel, business, health, death etc.
  2. The birth chart with the moon sign as the first house – This sets up the emotional context and the comfort zones of your personality. This is how every tangible event affects you on the emotional level. Eg, the Saturn influencing the Moon will restrict emotions, the person’s mother may die, a tangible event, but he will not be so emotionally disturbed because Saturn restricts the mind and emotions.
  3. The Navamsha, 9-th divisional chart – D-9, is used to analyse the astral, spiritual, emotional and psychological planes. These are the real source from which the chart D-1 derives its power and context.

Navamsha, 9th divisional chart

Professional astrologers will not do all this as they have no need or time. Most clients have very materialistic questions. However for knowing more about your own self, everyone should do this analysis for his own horoscope.

You are not just the physical self which you see in the mirror, you have various sides to your personality and also several parallel states of existence. Jyotish has ways to look deep into all these personalities and planes of existence. And these charts are called divisional or Varga charts. In this post we will discuss the 9-th divisional chart or navamsha. The mathematics for calculating varga is quite different but we have software that does this, for Indian/Vedic system, for windows, “Jagannatha Hora” or “Parashar’s Light” gives all the several types of divisional charts. But if you need just the Navamsha/9-th divisional chart, for iphones “Drik panchang” by developer “Adarsh apps” is quite accurate.

The D-9 is used to determine the strength and pre-dispositions of the astral self. We spend about 8 hrs completely in the astral realm when we are asleep. But even when are are awake, the events from the astral are going on side-by-side with the conscious self. If you are aware, you can ‘see’ these from the corner of your eyes, or register them as a 6-th sense. If you engage in some spiritual practice it will be easier to notice these events. The D-9 will not make much sense to you unless you are a bit spiritually inclined.

The D-9 is not used for predicting the tangible life events. The D-9 is sort of a complicated continuous ‘Now’. You ‘are’ your D-9 which is manifested in the physical environment as the D-1. The D-9 is not linked to time/space and it represents everything from your past and parallel lives which is influencing your reality/D-1. You are your astral self, you manifest portions from your astral periodically with the placements of the D-1, and then again go the astral to recover. This happens temporarily while you sleep and permanently when your body dies. Do read my post on Moksh trikon to understand more.

The D-9 tells you, what is possible, what you actually want. So, in a way, it sets the range for the D-1. The D-1 happens within this range. The indications of the astral are slightly in advance of the physical, so if you can see the astral body/aura you can predict a disease or death upto 6months in advance.

Navamsha, 9th divisional chart

Most astrologers will use the D-9 to determine the actual strengths of the planet positions in the D-1. Or for marriage predictions. But in reality all the graha in D-9 should be analysed. The relationship between the D-1 position and the D-9 position of a graha will determine if the astral expectations are in harmony with the material reality that it manifests.

Eg, one of my clients has the D-1 Saturn in the 12th house and in the D-9 it shifts to 4th house. The astral D-9 Saturn restricts emotional shelter, comfort, maternal love, deep healing and recovery. He enforces un-protection, rootless-ness, homeless-ness and not-belonging. This astral expectation is manifested in the D-1 12th house Saturn which further restricts access to the sub-conscious, rest, sleep, guidance from the astral and spiritual. Thus this person never had an emotional connect with his mother or relatives, is working and living away from his home town, shifted residences several times. Has a need for emotional support which will never be granted and his spiritual practice is also highly restricted, he never sleeps properly. So the readings from the D-9 and D-1 match. The karmic/Saturn solution for him is to learn by the negative example. He will be required to comfort/help others who suffer the same problems as him. And because he knows exactly how bad it feels, he will be required to ensure that these others do not feel the same. Thus he will heal slowly/Saturn.

So how to link the D-1 and the D-9.

Our life is a sequence of events. These events are neutral by themselves but when emotional labels put on them, they become ‘experience’. The D-1 is the ‘sequence’ and the D-9 is the ‘label’. Check out the planets in the D-9 charts, their placement houses and their keywords. These will be important as significant emotional labels/experiences will be associated with them. If a particular house has more planets, this house will be in the center stage for ‘experience’.

D-9 placements are like emotional triggers. If you can analyse them, you can heal them. E.g. D-1 South node/Ketu in the 5th will give a disconnect with the children. Now if the D-9 also affected, eg Saturn in the 5th, this reality of disconnect will be accepted internally. But if the D-9, 5th house has a Moon placed in it, the physical reality of disconnect to the child will be severely traumatic on the sub-conscious emotional level.

Navamsha, 9th divisional chart

The most intimate relations can be the cruelest teachers linked to the deepest ‘experiences’ requiring re-balancing and healing. Thus the experience of marriage is always seen in context of the D-9. The more intimate the relationship, the more intensely emotional the interactions. So in matching horoscopes for marriage, you should also match the two D-9’s. There should be some linkage between the two D-9 charts at the deepest sub-conscious levels to avoid trauma and pain of failed expectations. The other in a relationship is often the mirror. The significant relationships of our life follow this rule to a great extent, mother-child, father-child, husband-wife, teacher-student, boss-employee are some of the relations which deeply affect our psyche. So all these experiences can be interpreted from the D-9 so you can try to improve your responses in these relationships and learn your lessons so that you can escape being caught in these learning situations again in the future lives.

The D-9 is the basis on which the immediate next life will be created. The astral moves a bit faster than the physical, thus the astral is also the seed for rebirth. Your emotional affinity and the direction of your energies is already shown here. Most important is to remain calm, focussed and actively participate at the moment of exit, this can be achieved by intellectually analysing your deepest motivations and expectations. If you can interpret the D-9 you can change your choices for the next birth by actively redressing the imbalances shown in it. Generally no one thinks on these lines but you can redress the imbalances by

  • actively helping others who are suffering in the same manner as you are. Learning by negative example is the domain of Karma. Eg if your parents never looked after you, you could go help out at a children’s orphanage.
  • doing mantra pujas for the unbalanced planets. I had written a whole post on this, but perhaps this is too technical.
  • sending energy to the unbalanced planets. Sounds too wild? But as I have repeatedly said, you can do anything with your intention. Reiki, chi-balls, or even the natural energy of the Universe can be directed to the planets in your horoscope. Planets are energy!
  • doing regular spiritual practice where you silence your conscious mind and allow your sub-conscious mind to operate.

So do remember that you always manifest what you sub-consciously expect. The truest indicator of these sub-conscious expectations is the D-9, these are the seeds of the future which will be manifested soon. Studying the D-9 and taking remedial actions can resolve un-balanced planetary energies which would otherwise impact several lifetimes.