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Astrological Studies Some suggestions for the aspiring Western Jyotishi
Saraswati by Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906)
What are the best Jyotisha Beginner books in English? Beginner-beginner
Intermediate-beginner Excellent handbooks to keep at arm's length when learning Jyotisha. These volumes are slightly more detailed with a bit more Sanskrit vocabulary, but they are easy to navigate and recommended for the advanced beginner.
Advanced-beginner -
Also of interest:
(Most of these classics are also available in digital versions.) Note: the Jyotisha classics below - including "300 Combinations" - are not textbooks. They are compendia of Jyotisha principles, organized in the traditional shloka arrangements which are optimized for oral transmission via metered Sanskrit chanting. Memorization and transmission by metered chanting is how the Jyotisha tradition survived the most recent Kali Yuga. None of the classic texts are indexed or even particularly well organized from a database perspective. You have to know what you are looking for in order to use these references successfully. Acquisition of the digital versions of these classic texts is recommended for text-keyword searching, but a paper book can be handy for portability.
I want to learn Vedic Astrology. Where should I begin? Traditionally, Vedic astrology is a family business. Secret formulas, the family ayanamsha, other protected techniques, have been passed from astrologer elders to their apprentice children over the generations. Also, the practice of Jyotisha has been taught by guru to sishya - from religious teacher to devotee-student. In both cases, absolute authority of the teacher is unquestioned. Uncritical acceptance of the teacher's personal interpretation of the ancient texts and their proprietary calculations, has been central to the culture of Jyotisha in Indian culture, for millennia. In the late 20th century as computers became widely available, the first tentative systematic testing of various ayanamsha's, astronomical formula, and other calculations became possible. The Lahiri Committee was formed in India to establish a government-approved ayanamsha. Also as the paternalistic Age of Pisces started to wind down, the absolute authority of parents and gurus began to be challenged worldwide. Attention to the master-teacher is still as important in learning the Vidya of Jyotisha as it is in learning any other craft. Since Jyotisha relies very heavily on the practitioner's intuition, a guide who can role-model good intuitive judgment remains extremely helpful and perhaps critically necessary to the student who hopes to make successful divinations. However, for the conscious individual, the guru within can also fill this guidance role. Computers now offer beginning students the opportunity to learn and practice Jyotisha in a much more objective, data-tested way. Jyotisha is a very complicated body of knowledge (vidya); the professional software is not yet perfect. Nevertheless, the availability of good-quality, affordable beginner Jyotisha tutorials written in modern vernacular language (primarily English) makes it possible to "skip" the traditional devotee/apprentice step and get straight to the vidya itself. Eventually, a student *will* need to develop their intuition through meditation in order to make consistently good Jyotisha judgments. However, the principles of the science and introductory, standard planetary calculations -- previously available only to the initiated -- can now be accessed by anyone with a personal computer. IMO, the best way to begin education in Jyotisha is to calculate the charts of your friends and family members. Start with their lives, their histories, which you already know. That will give you some solid comparative data to work with. Live in a balanced way, and meditate. That is the first and most important step toward making accurate predictions. Web resources for learning Jyotisha: There are many more resources out there - these are just the few I have enjoyed using, myself:
Q: I have a background in tropical, western astrology. I've started reading books in Indian astrology (English language) but I find some of the explanations confusing & contradictory. Is knowledge of the European astrological tradition an advantage in learning Jyotisha? A: Learning Jyotisha from books is a little bit challenging because of the Indian cultural concepts, but not impossible if your intuition is strong. It seems like there are a few more good learner books in English entering the literary market, every year. (See recommended list at the top of this page.) Background in tropical/European astrology (since Ptolemy) can be a help or a hindrance. It's a help for familiarity with the 12 zodiacal signs and the 7 planets, which have many similar characteristics across the two traditions. But it's a hindrance sometimes, too. Many of the rules are apples-and-oranges different. Jyotisha is actually a combination of two astrologies. Jyotisha contains a solar astrology (rashi/bhava system) and also a lunar astrology (nakshatra system). The lunar categories underlie the solar philosophy, and both systems are rooted in an ancient mythology that is generally unfamiliar to Westerners. The short answer is, except for familiarity with some of the signs-and-houses vocabulary, it is not much advantage to be skilled in the tropical astrology. Also, people have commented that they resist or resent losing their tropical-astrology "psychological profile". Having become accustomed to a certain validation, e.g., "I am a Gemini so I am very social" a person may feel their profiling skills are invalidated in Jyotisha. In Jyotisha, much more emphasis in placed on Moon & ascendant. Surya (Sun) is not a basis for personality judgment at all, except in partial evaluation of public role or career. Looking up traits by solar birth-day, a common practice among tropicalists, won't work at all. Pychological and social traits in Jyotisha are organized by lagna, and thus a person must know their birth *time* to know what lagna category applies to their personality in this life. If you're ready to make the leap into another worldview, Jyotisha is fascinating. However the time commitments are big, esp. in the beginning. Along with book study and case practice, Jyotisha also demands a certain amount of meditation and usually some translation skills too. A scholarly inclination is helpful. Jyotisha is an old and diverse tradition with many conflicting scriptures that have piled up over the past several millennia. It takes the patience of Job to start to sort them all out! Have software - want to start doing readings Q: Hi Barbara: I have read your astrology website and am really impressed with your depth of understanding and insight into this complex science. I am a student of vedic astrology myself and own Goravani's software. I have also done the correspondence course by Dr. David Frawley of American Institute of Vedic Studies. Although I have studied astrology and have the basic knowledge of independent situations of houses, lords, aspects, varga charts and vimshottari dashas, I have not yet developed the art of putting it all together and intuitively arriving at a whole picture. I am interested in getting a reading done by you. With all due respect, I would like to know if the tape you create is like the interpretation that is available in Goravani software or do you put it all together and intuit a reading out of the effects of all houses, lords, aspects and vargas together? Please let me know? Looking forward to your reply. Thanks A: Namaste, Thanks for your inquiry. As to whether there is a difference between noting the individual effects of graha, bhava, rashi, varga placement, nakshatra effect, etc. versus weaving all the items together (and eliminating many factors which are not relevant to the question at hand) - as you might suspect, the answer is yes. There is a big difference. The difference is, as you suggest, a matter of personal intuition. Intuitive selection directs you as the diviner to select the dominant "themes" in a chart by coordinating the principal effects of the current dasha and relevant transits with the basic components (graha, bhava, drishti) of the chart. This intuition comes directly from the soul. It is only "turned on" when the spirit of compassion is running strong. A successful reading combines knowledge of the vidya of Jyotisha, with deep personal intuition developed in meditation, caring for others, and prayer. Knowledge-wise, I find that reading a Jyotisha chart is very similar to critically analyzing a theatrical play. (Perhaps my viewpoint is skewed by years of reading Shakespeare!) My style is to identify the theme, the historical setting, the protagonists and antagonists, and the potential outcome. Of course we never *really* know the outcome until we get to the last line, but human nature is fairly predictable, and the broad themes of karma and dharma, sin and redemption, life and death, are eternal. As you can probably tell, my style is profoundly humanistic, notably Western, and very much influenced by my academic training in philosophy, religion, and languages. I am profoundly aware that most people are sleep-walking in this life and therefore most people will "act out" their astrological charts in perfect goose-step. (These people are very easy to read for. I simply remark on the nature of the bars in their cage, and they say Oh! Astrology is so accurate! Yes, it is.) On the other hand, even a little drop of consciousness permits some people to begin making active changes in the way they respond to the karmic reality around them. These intentional changes signal the end of the "default" karma and the beginning of very positive potential outcomes. I always pitch my readings to this potential higher consciousness, noting where an individual might adjust their attitude toward an impending event or longer-term condition. In this way I try to accommodate the "fatalistic" component which says that the conditions of our lives are fixed (and, for sleepwalkers, they definitely are!) -- while opening the possibility of a fresh viewpoint, free of resentment, which might allow the person to *own* their karma in a neutral state of awareness. A healthy by-product of having been introduced to a Jyotisha explanation of the forces currently structuring our material and psycho-emotional lives, is that by owning, accepting, even embracing one's own obligations and limitations, one may easily develop compassion for people in worse conditions than oneself. As Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. Jyotisha is a wonderful tool for self-examination. That's mainly how I use it - in the reflective, psychological, western tradition of self-inquiry. Traditional Jyotisha also provides fairly robust predictive tools, and these are fascinating. However, the ultimate purpose of knowing (some aspects of) the future is to adjust one's reactions to the inevitable, as karma unfolds. Everyone has easy periods and difficult periods. Everyone enjoys a degree of social approval, and a degree of marginalization. Everyone carries some type of stigma; everyone receives some element of praise. Everyone experiences birth and death, gain and loss, health and sickness. We can look for timing of marriage, children, periods of illness, deaths etc. - it's all in there, on schedule. Stage left, stage right. Naturally, people have plenty of anxiety about the future. Although this anxiety clouds their judgment and prevents much compassion, it is often possible to allay fears about "negative" future events by pointing out that these are, after all, the completely mechanical roll-out of past-life karma. Of course people clamor to know when they will receive praise, sense-gratification, money, etc - and we can certainly find the periods of favorable house-lords to suggest the arrival-time of these blessings. But in general my style is to emphasis the recurring patterns in the person's life, the ups AND the downs, so that the native may take whatever steps they can to appreciate the outlines of their "fate". I believe that Acceptance is fully necessary. Acceptance is the required first step toward Change! If you have completed the Frawley correspondence course, you already own a considerable knowledge base in Jyotisha. I haven't seen that course myself but I have heard many people praise it; and Dr. Frawley himself has such an excellent reputation. Consider yourself lucky! Your next step toward practicing Jyotisha is to let your intuition guide your choice of what to focus on. There are hundreds - really thousands - of factors inter-operating in any chart. In real life, I select fewer than ten to use in any given reading. My choice is guided by my intuition. My intuition arises through meditation, prayer, and most importantly, through caring for others. With a beautiful name like Scholastica, you are no doubt a very loving and careful person. Use that love - in the sense of compassion - to guide your intuition (your "inner teacher"). External gurus are very helpful of course but in the end, it is the inner teacher who prevails. I would be happy to do a reading for you if you would like. However, I would also encourage you to use the Goravani software to construct charts for all your friends and relatives. Look at their Vimshottari dasha timelines and compare to the known events in their lives. In the beginning, Jyotisha study is similar to homeopathy study. The unique requirement to combine intellectual analysis with spiritual intuition means that you will learn much faster using sample subjects that you can read BOTH intuitively AND analytically. I.e., you have a solid psycho-emotional impression of close friends and relatives; you can sort out quickly what their main motives and behaviors are; you know alot about "how they are". Then add in the analysis, which is everything you learned from the Frawley correspondence course, and the little mini-readings that are included in the Goravani software. I actually kept Excel spreadsheets for several years, comparing column-to-column the hard-core real events (marriages, illnesses, promotions, children etc.) against the current lines of their Vimshottari dasha. (I don't use other dashas in normal practice but I have "general family practice" - other dashas can be excellent tools for specific purposes. ) I found this practical template to be a very effective "proving" method. Importantly, it helped me weed out some historic Jyotisha claims that don't seem to work in real life. There is a huge volume of poorly understood traditional Jyotisha literature, most of it from the medieval period 600CE-1600CE, that circulates in Sanskrit, Tamil, Mayalam, Bengali, Hindi, and - these days - English. There is a plethora of modern Jyotisha literature in Hindi & English. It is not feasible to read all or even most of it. Frankly, I read very few books. For most of us in the west, it is also not feasible to sit at the feet of the guru. Although, truth to tell, the guru's job is to say "weed out all the unnecessary stuff and focus on the ten things that work for me." I feel that vigorous testing of basic principles - using charts of people you know well! -- combined with a grounded meditation practice -- is a perfectly fine way to learn Jyotisha in the modern world. Good luck to you, Scholastica. I hope this viewpoint on "the difference" between knowledge-base and intuition, and how they must be combined to achieve a successful reading, is helpful to you. Sincerely, Barbara Pijan Lama Q: I've been studying Jyotisha on my own for about 2 years. I have to get out there and start doing readings... but I'm afraid to make a mistake and hurt someone. A: Building a knowledge base As with all Jyotisha practice, looking at a variety of charts is the best path to understanding of varga significance. Be sure not to fixate on one or two emotionally charged nativities. There is too much anxiety associated with the nativities of persons regarding who one has powerful expectations (positive or negative). Rather, study a variety of nativities of persons well-known to you such as parents and grandparents, siblings and cousins, co-workers and neighbors, in order to establish a neutral and data-driven knowledge base. The vidya of Jyotisha is not a strictly rational empirical science. Jyotisha vidya engages both lunar intuition and solar reasoning. However t it is important to see a substantial database of charts showing wide variety of Jyotisha nativities in order to validate the teachings of the classics. Otherwise, unfortunately, the whole enterprise falls into lineage interpretive conflict and village superstition. Getting started Read lots of charts! Read lots of charts! Read lots of charts! It is not necessary to be an "expert". When one is just beginning to offer readings and one can only say a few things for certain, the spiritual validation inherent in recognition of the unique qualities of each incarnations is still helpful to the client. Even the minimum acknowledgement will be appreciated so long as your language is positive and constructive. At the level of simple soul validation, something is always better than nothing! Many people wander through life never receiving recognition that they are a soul and they have a purpose. Even if your reading is a bit off about the details of their path, simply validating the truth that there *is* a unique path for this individual is indeed a spiritual service! At the beginning when you are building your collection of nativities in order to validate the effect of vargas, dasha timelines, graha character, etc. I recommend to accept a very small fee, and to *donate this fee to your favorite charity*. When you are established in the practice, it will be OK to start earning personal income as the fruit of your dedicated Jyotisha studies. However, in the beginning, the best psychic protection against inadvertently harming someone's peace of mind is to ask for the indulgence of the spirits - and give the money to a compassionate cause. Also - this is REALLY important - do not give any negative predictions. Make it that your sole objectives are
Be sure to advise your earliest clients that:
Be sure to give ALL of your profits (except to cover the cost of materials) to a worthy cause.
Q: Which ayanamsha should I use? The different ayanamsha choices seem to produce very different charts?
A: Most
practitioners use Lahiri ayanamsha.
That is by far the most common, probably more than 90% of
astrologers use Lahiri. Q: -
Can I base predictions upon my navamsha? I think my navamsha is
a stronger chart. What Shri Raman probably means is that occasionally a graha which is very weak in radix gains major strength in navamsha. In that case don't expect the graha to act weak because it has a sort of secret strength that will emerge during its periods. In fact if the graha's only strength is in navamsha then a partner is required to help make the outcome of the period more successful. But he would not be saying to predict directly from the navamsha. For example if a graha is the L-6 in radix but L-10 in navamsha, predict it to behave like an L-6 (health), not an L-10 (career). Usually predicting the effects of a graha during its period is a multi-leveled assessment. Most of the behaviors of a graha in the D-1 will relate directly to the native's personal, material or emotional experience. Most of the behaviors of a graha in the D-9 will either reflect the native's much higher spiritual perceptions or (more commonly) will predict the behavior of the spouse, partner, adviser, Other. For example the L-4 of the navamsha usually
dictates the spouse's career, and when the L-4 navamsha is
activated, the spouse's boss will do something consistent with that
L-4 graha. If L-4 navamsha is a strong surya, the spouse will get
recognition at work, probably a promotion up the hierarchy.
Trouble with the Hindu Culture part of Jyotisha Q: Dear Barbara, Is Vedic astrology part of Hinduism? Very little of your reading referred to Hindu gods or concepts, but once or twice you did talk about Hindu gods. That bothers me. I really don't like cults, especially foreign religious cults. Is Jyotisha tied to missionary Hinduism or "airport" cults? A: Namaste, Ancient Vaidik roots of Jyotisha Yes, you're right about Vedic Astrology (called "Jyotisha" in Sanskrit) being related to Hinduism. However, Jyotisha is much older than Hinduism as we know it today. The canonical Veda pre-date "Hinduism" by several thousand years. The ancient roots of Jyotisha are actually found in "Vaidik" culture. Jyotisha is called a "limb" or "branch" of the Vedas (vedanga). In pre-literate times, Jyotisha was mainly a system of describing omens found in in acts of nature. Movements of the Moon formed certain omens, and a system was developed to predict what the Moon would do (omen-wise) over the period of a lunar year. Vedic times historically are somewhere approximately around 3000 BCE-600CE, although dating of the era is *extremely* contentious! It's a fairly big jump from the Moon-omen-system ( Nakshatra) to the medieval/modern Jyotisha that we use today, but the roots of Jyotisha definitely go back that far. Best book on the Vaidik origins of Jyotisha is Valerie Roebuck, The Circle of Stars. The knowledge preserved in the "Vedaa" (including the Moon-omens), was passed down by memorized chanting. From ancient origins in the mists of pre-literate time, the stanzas were kept significantly intact by strict rules of sound transmission. Q: What is the relationship of Vedic Jyotisha to modern Hinduism? A: The patchwork-quilt collection of many different Indian religions that we currently call by the umbrella-name idea of "Hinduism" was an "umbrella concept" created by British colonial scholars in India in the 1700's. In practical terms, however, most of the multiple religions which are grouped together as "Hinduism" also trace their roots to the ancient Vaidik cultures. Therefore Jyotisha, as a "branch" of the sacred Vedaa, is completely accepted in all the religions called "Hinduism" - as well as Jainism, and most schools of Buddhism. From a certain perspective, we could possibly compare the role of the Vedas in Hinduism to the role of the Hebrew Bible in Christianity. The Christian sacred scriptures include the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Hebrew Bible is a document (actually, many documents knitted together) which originated in the religion of Judaism. Judaism is ritually & theologically different from Christianity, and also MUCH older. Hebrew Bible is at least 1000 years older than Christianity itself. Yet, Christians universally respect the Hebrew Bible, and they take many of their core teachings from that holy scripture. Just as Christians venerate the canonical teachings (scripture) of the ancient Jewish religion, Hindus venerate the canonical teachings of the ancient Vedic religions. Traditional Hindus treat the Veda as their respected teacher, and try to follow its guidance. However, just as Christians are clearly not pure Jews, so Hindus are clearly not pure Vaidik. Unfortunately in recent years, a wave of patriotic Hindu chauvinism in India has caused some Bharati astrologers to call Jyotisha by the name of "Hindu Astrology." But, we who seek the truth of Jyotisha need not be concerned with the linguistic politics. Jyotisha is an ancient "vidya" or body of knowledge, accessible to all sincere seekers regardless of current politics or religious dogma. Bottom line: there is no need to be Hindu in order to understand or practice Jyotisha. This is of course entirely my personal opinion. Hope this perspective is helpful to you. Sincerely, Barbara Q: I browsed through your website and found the material exptremely useful. I am keen to learn vedic astrology and was wondering if you had any tips or advice that could help me develop building blocks of Astrology. If you know of anywebsites or books that will help me develop structured understanding of astrology and am also curious about how you managed to enrich yourself with the knowledge. A: Thanks so much for your compliments on my Jyotisha website. It is very much a work in progress! I am always happy to know that students of Jyotisha like myself find the information and perspective on the site to be useful in studies. The best books in English are very simple ones by Bepin Behari: Planets in Signs and Planets in Houses. These might be more helpful for western-minded folk. Behari also wrote more esoteric stuff but that is confusing in the beginning of studies. David Frawley's early books are also well organized for the intermediate-beginner. I think the most important components are (1) to have a passion for the Vidya (become a little bit obsessed with it!) and (2) to trust one's intuition. Without firm confidence in intuition, one will drown in a sea of conflicting instructions. The second most important tool is good software. Getting one's own Jyotisha software and reading the nativities of one's own friends, family, and celebrities is the best possible study. The best packages are expensive (300-400 USD) but they are worth it. There are less expensive s/w packages in India and a quite good free one, from Pandit Narasimha Rao, downloadable from Boston. Eventually, it helps to start reading the Jyotisha classics. However, the old method of memorizing shlokas is not very effective (altho it did keep the Vidya alive during the dark ages!). Nor is it necessary, I believe, for the sincere and reflective practitioner to have a guru in the traditional arrangement. That custom too had obvious historical validity, but software and books have considerably replaced the master's knowledge base. It will help (hugely) to have willing spirit guides, but one need not have a physical master. Luckily we spend almost no time on computations these days, so we can spend the greater effort on interpretation. This is where meditation and compassion are essential. Examining a nativity, one can see right away the good and evil in any lifetime. The question is, having seen that, what to say about it? If astrologers are going to be useful members of society and not just dilettantes, we ought to be able to help people live better, more conscious lives through the insights of the Vidya. Therefore compassion is key! Wishing you all the best in your studies, Sincerely, Barbara Barbara Pijan Lama, Jyotisha - www.barbarapijan.com Trouble with reincarnation & fatalism. Q: Dear Barbara I admit to intellectual difficulty with some concepts like reincarnation and karma, especially those relating to fatalism. I do not want to be a negative person, and those concepts seem very negative to me. I don't accept escapism or passing the buck. I believe we have one life and our job is to live that life with full moral responsibility. I also believe we have a choice as to how we live, at every step along the way. Isn't Karma a fatalistic concept? Won't thinking like that, believing that this life is sort of "disposable" because we have infinitely more chances to clean up the hurt we inflict on others, won't this prevent people from taking responsibility in their lives? There are multiple unmistakable elements of truth in your reading, relating to past events, present realities and future visions. I really didn't want to get involved in this type of speculative thinking since I am deeply committed to a moral path of life. So now I am fascinated & would like to know more. However, I don't want to get involved in negative thinking. I was raised to believe that we are given only One Life - make or break - and I want to make this life as good as possible. With sincere confusion, A: Namaste, Excellent questions! You are clearly a reflective moral thinker. We need more astrologers like you! Your worries about the negative moral effects of believing in reincarnation are very old indeed. In fact, at the Council of Nicea in 325CE, the bishops of what had recently become the Holy Catholic Church denounced reincarnation as heretical. They didn't say exactly why, but their decision stuck, & many people think it's because of the moral complications you note. However, looking more closely, we can see that subscribing to the concept of reincarnation can have some powerful moral advantages. If we have multiple incarnations that accumulate karma as we go, it is very much in our interest to work diligently to reduce that karmic "heap" as much as possible in each. My own view is that there is no absolute fatalism in Jyotisha. The basic concept of karma is that a thought or action put in motion in a "previous" life, will cause a re-action in a "future" life. Western culture is comfortable with the idea that a thought or action put in motion in one's childhood will affect one's adulthood. It takes only a slight expansion of that concept to entertain the possibility that if there were past lives, they probably would affect current and future lives. There is however a relative fatalism in Jyotisha. It only applies to low-consciousness people. It works like this: Folks who live without reflection, addicted to one sensual experience after the next - or one fear to the next - (but either way trapped into thinking only about themselves) will be spending all their attention on food, money, sex, entertainment, getting status, etc. etc. They are always in the grip of fearing something or desiring something. They never pull their head out of the sand to get the "big picture" of how their actions are affecting self & others. This sort of person is essentially on auto-pilot. Their choices at every juncture are dictated by fear - especially fear of death - or desire for short-term sensual experience. We see them playing the game of "he who dies with the most toys, wins" or obsessing about their health or finances, overrun by one wave of anxiety after the next. They have no peace. However, they are very easy to predict because the Jyotisha chart shows where the past-life fears and desires are stored, and when those ancient seeds will sprout. I'll bet you know people like this. They actually form the majority of our global population. These people's lives are *very* easy to predict with their Jyotisha charts, because these low-consciousness folks are essentially sleep-walking through a maze of experiences. That maze is constructed unfortunately from nothing but the sprouting seeds of fear & desire. These folks simply do not have the conscious awareness that their minute-to-minute choices regarding *how to respond* to the sprouting seeds, are directly affecting future unfoldment of their lives. They are not yet mature enough to even be aware that they are making choices! They simply experience things happening *to* them from the outside. Mentally these folks live in a victim state throughout life. It's not very pleasant but it is very easy to predict! Luckily, there are some higher-consciousness on our planet as well. You, are likely in this higher group. Higher consciousness folks can, occasionally, pull their head out of the sand. They are blessed with the capacity for reflection. They enter this life with a higher level of spiritual & emotional maturity. Interestingly, higher consciousness folks often have a very difficult first half of life. Their lives improve dramatically after the Saturn opposition, about 42-45. Higher consciousness folks sometimes "wake up" from the victim state, and become aware that their decision on *how to respond* to their current pressures is completely under their control. True, the sprouting seeds of past life fear and desire will sprout on their own natural timeline. They're sprouting all around us, in 3-D, 24/7, real-time reality. That we can't so much control. But our mental, emotional, and often physical experience does not depend so much on what is objectively happening. Our happiness comes from how we respond to what is happening. The more a person "wakes up" and seizes the moment, making a conscious decision to respond not with anger but with neutrality & compassion - the more that person starts to "outgrow" the defaults in his or her Jyotisha chart. Each time the outside happening is greeted with aware, accepting responsibility (not guilt!) of knowing that this circumstance, whatever it is, is simply the natural karmic reaction to whatever seed was planted -- the cycle if action-reaction is broken. It is not necessary to know anything about the seed. It is only necessary to train one's awareness to respond with neutrality - with higher love - so as not to get stuck in the action-reaction that binds us to the "world." I believe this is what Jesus was saying. If you are curious, you can find out about the seeds through Jyotisha, or past-life regression, or meditations on past lives. But, as H.H. Dalai Lama often says, there is no need to waste time exploring past lives. Our work lies here, in the current life. The nature of that work is to stop the all the cycles of constant anxiety, constant fear, constant reaction -- and replace those cycles with a deep, trusting peace. The higher-consciousness person actually wants opportunities to "practice" their maturity. That is why more spiritual people often have much more difficult lives, especially in the first half of life. Eventually, the spiritual person gains the strength through practice, to expand their attitude of aware, accepting responsibility (not guilt!) into every area of their life. Eventually, they replace every victim experience with the experience of being in complete control. By controlling their reactions to the cycle of outside experiences which was put in motion long before, they make themselves completely free. As we move toward spiritual freedom through responsibility for our actions are reactions, our Jyotisha chart has increasingly less predictive power. Eventually, it will mean nothing. Yet, for you and I who are "on the path" but
not quite there, the Jyotisha chart is a valuable document, which can assist our
spiritual awareness and inspire us to deeper moral commitment.
One of my favorite examples of a person who was seen "growing out" of his Jyotisha chart, is Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's Moon-with-Rahu in the 12th house of imprisonment signals a lifetime of marginalization, isolation, and loss. Navamsha planets suggest fighting in the law courts & sexual conflict. Rahu indicates affection for polluted
outcastes, and L-6 Shani in 4th house can give homelessness. Sun in Virgo
in 2nd house indicates low wealth. At Gandhi's birth, the local
astrologers issued his light-skinned wealthy merchant parents a dire warning for
their older son: tightly control him, else he will end up imprisoned through
criminal association with foreigners - and die in penniless disgrace... Although he is now revered as a great saint
and the moral father of modern India, Gandhi was in and out of nasty prisons
his
whole life. However, he had
increasingly high consciousness from boyhood.
Every time he was beaten, spit on, or imprisoned, he did not take it
personally. He reacted with
neutrality, and gained strength each time. He
did consort with the polluted outcastes of Becoming emotionally identified (Moon) with the isolated, marginalized, despised Indians of South Africa, he abandoned his parents' anxious-for-status lifestyle in favor of activist's poverty. But he met poverty with neutrality (not fear or judgment) and this gave him more strength! Eventually he had enough strength to overthrow the British in India!! He did suffer imprisonment, squalor, mixing with low people and casteless foreigners, and he did die penniless. So his middle-class parents certainly had reason to worry :) But did Gandhi suffer personal agony from these sprouted seeds? No! He lived and died a centered, prayerful man. He used loss as fuel to energize his highest goal: returning consciously to the heart of God. Many of us believe he arrived. A few years ago I picked up my young son from kindergarten. I witnessed a scene that reminded me about consciousness and karma! The bell rang, and a small boy ran out the school door at top speed. His fully-loaded backpack was clearly unzipped, and his shoe was untied. But he was busy running. On the 100-foot route from the school door to his mom's car, his backpack disgorged pencils, books, markers, hat. When he tripped on the shoelace, plastic lunchbox with thermos, all the way from the bottom of the pack, sailed up into the air above the crowd, and fell to the concrete with a loud crack. The boy looked at his debris trail in amazement. "My pack exploded!" he screamed exultantly. He must have felt like he was in a cartoon! But his mother was angry, since all the supplies in his backpack (which she had bought & paid for) were trampled by the herd of stampeding children that followed her front-runner son. She smacked him hard - right in front of the other parents and all his friends. Everyone felt bad - but especially the victim of the exploding backpack! If we as mature adults examine the instant replay, we see that in fact the backpack did not "explode". In the heat of his burning desire to be the first one out the door, the boy failed to zip his pack. He left his shoelace untied, and he ran too fast. The natural laws of material dynamics played out. He was really not a victim of anything except unconsciousness. His mom was apparently an act-first-think-later type too. But he surely felt like a victim. Many things had happened *to* him, in a very short time! Belief in reincarnation is not absolutely necessary for appreciating a Jyotisha chart. We can see the micro-version of the action-reaction-repercussions-on-other people cycle quite clearly in the current life alone. That little boy probably has a strong Mars - running, getting hit, explosions, etc. If the boy wants to avoid future "explosions," angry hitting moms, etc. he will need to be aware that his desire to run out first must be counterbalanced by attention to shoelaces and backpack zippers. He will need eventually to take responsibility for his desire-nature and how he chooses to act it out. In Jyotisha readings, I never suggest that folks restrain their desire-nature. Desire-complexes are natural "sprouting seeds" that must run their course. Life will always be complicated! But, we don't need to hyper-explain the mystical roots of that desire nature, unless we are naturally interested in those ancestral complexities. On a practical level, we just need to be aware of the effect our actions and thoughts are having on us and the people around us. It is true that the Jyotisha chart is an effective spiritual tool for seeing the complexity of one's desire-nature, and thereby being prepared for the moral work when it arises. Blessedly, it is also true that the essence of that work -- applying the Golden Rule -- is extremely simple. (Not easy, but simple!) It is quite possible to use the Jyotisha chart in real-time of the current lifetime, without any reference to reincarnation, and still have full benefit of being forewarned, and forearmed! H. H. Dalai Lama says often, that our decision to treat each person (especially ourselves!) with kindness, while simultaneously resisting the urge toward anger & blaming, is a moment-to-moment moral commitment which does not require any complex philosophical explanation. Clearly our true purpose here on earth is to apply that higher-love rule not in any past life or future life, but right now! However I personally find that at the level of technical Jyotisha, reincarnation is essential for my understanding. I am by education and by trade, a philosopher. On the tapes, I talk about past life seeds sprouting in the current life as a way of historically explaining things. Also, I find that the reincarnation idea therapeutically helps folks to gain a little emotional buffer against their lifelong guilt. Many people subtly believe that bad things only happen to bad people. The old western morality (esp. Calvinism) has made a lot of folks doubt that they will ever be accepted by a loving God. Fearing rejection from God if they can't fix all their problems in one lifetime, they often reject God entirely. Reincarnation is a nice buffer for these victims because it allows multiple lifetimes to fix all the problems, and therefore releases fear of rejection. The concept of reincarnation may help them rebuild their trust that they too will someday be mature enough to accept guilt-free responsibility for their actions/reactions, and thereby ultimately be free enough to merge into the heart of a loving God. So, I think reincarnation can be a very therapeutic teaching when intelligently and lovingly applied. But for folks who do not need the concept, it remains true that to stop the endless cycle of reaction, one needs only to control one's response to the current event. It is not necessary to know anything about the seed. I think we can have it both ways, according to taste! Regarding Tibetan traditional astrology: Philippe Cornu’s Tibetan Astrology book is (at the time of this writing) the only substantial English instructional text (translated from the French) currently available in the USA in the broad field of Tibetan Astrology . (There are plenty of descriptive texts written by non-astrologers, but few instructional manuals available in English.) I too have trouble understanding the presentations in this book. Since Tibetan astrology is about 50% Indian astrology and 50% Chinese astrology, it seems critically important that any author of Tibetan astrology books for the Western audience be educated in both Jyotisha and classical Chinese systems. Unfortunately, the examples & references in Cornu’s book are from tropical European astrology. This is a show-stopper for me. Also, I agree with you, there seem to be some calculation errors in the book, which is also a show-stopper for beginners. Nevertheless I’m sure it was a huge undertaking to write it, and the author/translator deserve congratulations for getting the first major western (French/English) offering to market. IMO, it helps tremendously to read classical Tibetan in order to access the (literary part of) Tibetan astrology. If you are deeply interested in Tibetan Astrology it seems necessary to make this language commitment (and to spend lots of time in Dharamshala, where the partially restored Tibetan classical libraries are now located). However, even with literary skills, sorting through the many and contradictory classical Tibetan “astro-medical” texts would take several lifetimes. I can read rudimentary classical Tibetan. Because of my family connections, I have access to certain texts. Nevertheless, the texts themselves do not make too much sense without a guru to filter out the nonsense. Also importantly, the lamas I know who practice what they call astrology actually rely much more heavily on intuitive divination than on the application of rational astrological principles. They don't use manuals and they don't all agree on which rules should guide a planetary reading. This cultural diversity of opinion (depending on the lamal's lineage and tutors) is perfectly fine in the end, since the proof of the pudding is the divinatory result. Despite the apparent chaos and conflict in scripture, the system produces accurate readings - moreso if the lama is gifted. However, since intuition cannot be learned from a book. Intuition requires diligent meditative awareness, constant conscious practice of interior vision. This defining skill is unlikely to be learnt from a book! (Mr. Cornu’s or anyone else’s!). Vedic Jyotisha is much different. The Sanskrit written tradition is long, consistent, rational, and not broken into warring sects. (Jyotisha traditional features variations on interpretation over the past 5000 years, but never ideological conflict.) Anyone with a basic reading knowledge of Sanskrit, a good memory, and a strong personal intuition can get started independently. Jyotisha traditional scripture is stored in several languages however and eventually one will want to develop Jyotisha literacy in Telugu, Tamil, Mayalam, & Kannada as well. It is of course immensely helpful to have a master teacher for any esoteric subject. However, because the Jyotisha is (generally) internally consistent, the rules can indeed be learnt from books. Of course, the rules gives us the science but successful practice of Jyotisha rules forces creation of an art. To master the art, one generally needs an artful master teacher. Intuition is undeniably a vital and irreplaceable component of Jyotisha readings, but the rational framework of Jyotisha is very straightforwardly intellectual. If you are interested in learning Tibetan astrology, I would recommend pursuing the Sanskrit or Chinese literature first. Or, undertake to apprentice directly with a skilled translator lama. Q:
Respected Madam, Namaskar. I read about the Jamini aspect of astrology. There happens to be several astrological studies, eg. Hindu, Vedic, Chinese, Arabic, Jaimini etc. Do all reveal the same results? Which system of astrology should one follow, or can all be used together at a time. I find Shri Sanjay Rath, using completely Jaimine, Is it more accurate than the Vedic. Jaimine is based mainly on the soul aspect (Karkas) of native. Best Regards A: These are all very good questions. IMO: all world systems are complementary, but each system is immersed in its own local culture. Within the Vedic tradition, Jaimini system and Parashara system are compatible and not contradictory, but the student should master one system first, before starting the other one. All world traditions of astrology can give accurate results according to the sincerity and intuition of the astrologer. All respond to the seven graha, fundamentally, then some systems add more pieces such as Rahu-Ketu, or Uranos/Neptune/Pluto. I myself prefer to stick with the seven classical planets. Any opportunity for Divine Intelligence to penetrate the darkness of human mind is a good thing. All of these systems are channels for Divine Intelligence to manifest along pathways that match the planets in the sky. Unfortunately during the long dark centuries of the Kali Yuga there was much accrual of fear and superstition upon the bright and truthful knowledge of astrology. Even today many societies and individuals have not climbed out of this pit and do not see even the first rays of the brilliant sun. So, it is necessary to remove the junk of superstitious claims and practices from all world astrology systems in order to find the truth underneath. It does seem like some of the systems have become nothing more than false religion, warding off evil spirits and wearing amulets & talismans. Actually, there is nothing to ward off, all reality originates in one's own thoughts! But digging out the truth from some of these legacy systems can be a huge task. If you like the Jaimini approach then that is a fine place to begin training. I myself use the Jaimini karaka assignments as a tool in my toolkit of Parashari techniques, but I do not use Jaimini rashi drishti because it complicates my view of the nativity. However Jaimini drishti is quite legitimate. Indeed, every item in the chart will eventually "see" every other item, so whether one draws in the Jaimini drishti first and overlays Parashara, or the reverse, the full picture is very rich and authentic. In consulting practice, I don't want my view point to be overly complex. If the nativity begins to look too complicated, I won't be able to pick out the salient points which I need to mention to the client, the answers to their immediate questions. I like Parashari techniques because they are simple.. However, I fully appreciate that Jaimini techniques give valid results. And Mr. Sanjay Rath has done a great service in explicating these texts for a modern audience. I personally have some familiarity with western tropical astrology and Tibetan classical astrology. I personally think these two systems are flawed due to internal contradictions in the tradition (the damage of time, syncretism, and text transmission errors) yet I have known extremely skilled practitioners of these systems who can give correct predictions because their intuition is so finely tuned. In the end, each astrologer works within the system which appeals to one's personality - logically, culturally, and intuitively. Again, all astrologies use the same sky, viewed from earth, as their map of "as above, so below; as within, so without". They all address the same human conditions: birth, marriage, children, parents, social approval, wealth, illness, loss, and death. IMO all the historic systems are rationally legitimate, but the accuracy of their predictions depends on the skill and intuition of the practitioner. Sincerely, Barbara Pijan Lama, Jyotisha Q: Are you friends of Anmarie of England................Who wrote Circle of Stars?????? A: Thanks for your note. "The Circle of Stars" was written by Valerie J. Roebuck Ph.D., published by Vega Books (orig. 1992, republished 2002). Currently out of print, but worth looking for in used-book shops. I am not a personal friend of the author, but I admire her scholarly work. Thanks for your interest, and best wishes for success in your Jyotisha studies. Sincerely, Barbara Pijan Lama, Jyotisha www.barbarapijan.com Q: Hi Barbara, ... I'm interested in learning jyotish and wanted to start by looking at my own chart. ... A: Namaste, ...In regards to starting the study of Jyotisha with one's own nativity, I would strongly recommend against doing that. It is almost impossible to take an objective view regarding one's own nativity. The emotional ego usually want to romanticize one's personal nativity. In the first wave of study, before the student has a sense of the normal range of applications for the Jyotisha principles, beginning students can attribute all sorts of extreme results to the natal geometry. Nervous anticipation about terrible mysteries being "discovered" can disrupt the rational assessment process, and the anxious beginner can lapse into superstition or despair. To avoid being mislead about what knowledge Jyotisha can and cannot provide, begin your study upon the nativities of your family relatives. Also, utilize the nativities of celebrity leadership figures whose life events and character are well known. Only after obtaining objective confirmation of the core principles of Jyotisha, through observing the "range of normal" results of the yogas, can one's own nativity be apprehended with a cool and scientific view. Sincerely, Barbara Pijan Lama, Jyotisha |
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