Jyotisha: tool of consciousness or terror of superstition?
There are many way to gain knowledge of the subconscious inventory and skills for managing it.
E.g., awareness meditation, tantric practice, non-petitionary prayer, selfless service/seva, bhakti/karma/jyapa yoga, many forms of divination, etc. Many, many ways.
One way is Jyotisha.
According to the rule: as above, so below:
Jyotisha is a form of divination (reading the Divine) which uses the patterns of planets in the sky, and their complex interrelationships, to reveal patterns in the subconscious inventory.
Using the mirroring patterns of the planets' movements :: the individual reality, Jyotisha can predict the timing of major releases of subconscious expectation into the field of consciousness.
This major release is called an "event". Jyotisha can predict events.
There is however absolutely no spiritual benefit to being able to predict the timing of events unless one wishes to use the information to learn what's in the subconscious warehouse (at least, the top level of storage that is active in the current lifetime), the timing of the projection mechanism, and (ideally) how to manage it.
Lacking a spiritual motivation, the user of Jyotisha and any other type of divination falls into destructive misuse of the information as a further encouragement to disempowerment through superstition.
Thus, some moral responsibility rests with the Jyotishi for ensuring that with every dose of predictive information comes strong suggestion for how to use this gift most beneficially.
Remind the querent frequently that:
we are looking into their OWN life path
they really do own it,
they can have full control over it -- when and if they wish to claim that control
but that gaining control does take skill and dedication to the goal.
(Ask any yogi in a cave exactly how MUCH skill and control. A lot!!)
updated: 05 May 2008
