EWS #39: On Astrology, Sri Aurobindo master astrologer (1)
Aug 17, 2019
Topics:
Narad (0:00:00)
Namaste and Welcome everyone to our continuing series, Evenings with Sraddhalu!
Narad (0:00:55)
And today we take up the subject, Astrology. Namaste. Quite a subject because Mother and Sri Aurobindo have both said a good bit on it.
Sraddhalu (0:01:05)
In fact, most people would not know that Sri Aurobindo was a master astrologer. You didn't know it probably! If you see his collected works, there are two texts which you will find. One which is his review of a book on astrology, which being a review, he has to speak more about the author's approach and there you can see from his observations that he obviously knows quite a bit of the theme itself.
Narad (0:01:48)
Approximately what year did he write this?
Sraddhalu (0:01:51)
This would be in, I believe it was in the Arya itself. He reviewed certain books and one of these was on astrology and it's published in the Collected Works. But the second series of papers which you will find in the Collected Works, I don't know how it is in the new edition they want to put it in an appendix. In the Centenary volumes it was put in the supplement I believe. And the problem was that they just don't know how to handle it. And this of course comes from a bit of an editorial bias. So during the years I was working in the archives, I approached the people who were in charge of that placement and they were preparing for the new edition. So I told them, 'look this text is written by a master astrologer and you should put it in properly not as in the centenary volumes', so the person asked me, 'oh yeah, is it really? I don't know because I asked someone and someone said it's all wrong'. In the centenary edition, someone has put a note before the article saying, these are notes, there is a footnote with the article saying, these are notes Sri Aurobindo made when he was studying to see if there was any truth in astrology. I don't know, I am going to use a strong word, which fool of an editor had this gumption to make this claim and put his personal fantasy as a footnote as if it's true. Who is there who has the right to say Sri Aurobindo made these notes when he was trying to see. Sri Aurobindo has written it, you just put it out, you don't have to put your silly perspectives. So in the new edition, I said to the people who are working on it, I said well you should put it up as a separate team in itself and they had put it also in the appendix. So they said, well how? I said just put a section called on astrology and put it like that, you don't have to put any comments. They said 'oh yeah, that makes sense', so the fellow puts an arrow, marks it, and of course they didn't do it. I think it's still there in some odd way, separate somehow.
When you read the text you will see the way Sri Aurobindo approaches the Life Divine where he goes to first principles and literally builds up the whole scheme of reality from first principles. Any of Sri Aurobindo's articles, whenever he approaches a topic, he goes in depth and builds from first principles. In these texts, he builds astrology from first principles. And he is teaching you, literally he is teaching you how astrology should be done and what is the principle behind it, how it works and so on. So I believe there are three chapters which are written on the zodiac signs, the planets and then he comes to the chapter where he has only put the title, the time and there he would have elaborated on how to do the calculations or what the rhythms of the times etc are and that's left unwritten or maybe the paper is missing, we don't know. Now how do we know that he was a master astrologer just from this? Well, the way he presents it. Well, it could still be somebody who has studied it, understood it and presents it. But to show that he is a master astrologer, I will refer to a third document, which I have seen and which is currently kept only in Sri Aurobindo's room and the original is in Sri Aurobindo's handwriting. It was written I believe in 1909 and I will tell you the reason why I believe that. There Sri Aurobindo writes, the title of the article is Materials for a New Astrology. And there Sri Aurobindo writes that the astrology of today is full of errors because people don't know who are the right authorities and they don't know how to interpret. I am paraphrasing. And then he writes, 'and in this text, we will present the right authorities and right approach to interpreting'. And he says also that only those who have a yogic background and an intuition should be normally doing the astrology itself.
Then he says we will take up some notable horoscopes as examples for how to study a horoscope and then he presents his own horoscope. That's the interesting thing. 15th August, correct time, except the date he puts as 1909. So it's as if he wants to hide his identity, but he wants to take his horoscope for the purpose of presenting a notable horoscope. That's why I believe it was written in 1909. And then he begins the process of analysing charts. So he does all the calculations from the chart and in Indian astrology there is something called Dasha which is a cycle of rhythms of time where different planets rule and within the major cycles there are sub-cycles where the whole rhythm is replicated on a smaller scale and within that there are sub-sub-cycles. He does detailed calculations of his Dasha's and why this is important because later he uses it to calculate the life span and he gives you a number which also I'll come to later. Then he goes on to describe what are the special features of this horoscope. He describes the signs, the zodiac signs, how they are placed, the planets and what they represent, how they are placed and then he starts analysing. So somewhere along the way he points out certain combinations which make this an outstanding horoscope and one particular combination he declares, 'it's one of the most powerful pieces', but I'll paraphrase, I have not brought the text unfortunately, but he says something like this, 'and therefore this makes it one of the most powerful horoscopes. And it represents therefore, he says, the Avatar who has come to do the work of new Satya yuga while still in the Kali, something like that is the most powerful horoscope in the Kalpa, something like that he says in the huge span of time. Now when you read something like this written by him you have to pause. Later, he points out special combinations and again that shows you to just know these combinations means you have to have a mastery. You cannot have read books and pulled out these combinations. Then the way he analyses and he teaches you the right way and he says this is not correct, this is how it should be done. One of the things he writes in the beginning is Parashara, who is the main authority today for all the horoscopes and the interpretation of horoscopes. He says Parashara's interpretation was applicable only in the Dwapara Yuga and in the Kali Yuga it has to be a modification of that rule. And he uses certain systems in the calculation for the Dasa which is very different from the current system of calculation. So the current system which is under Parashara is called Vimshottari Dasa. I won't go into technical details but that particular system of calculation he sets aside and says that belongs to the earlier yuga. In the current yuga it is this and he gives you a different framework, Ashtottari Dasa and there also he points out certain things which have to be corrected and he says that's the cause of all the errors of timings in current astrology. A man who makes statements like this is speaking from deep authority of the knowledge of the science which is more than merely something read.
Sraddhalu (0:09:20):
And then he gets into his own chart. He shows you how to read, and the pattern of reading goes first house, second house, third house and goes all the way and he ends with the eighth house. You would have to go all the way to 12 houses to complete but his analysis goes through 27 pages. The 8th house is where you have the death and lifespan which is calculated. And there is something fascinating there. But just before I come to that, there are many places where he points out certain combinations and says this is one of the most rare combinations, one of the most powerful combinations and the meaning of it he says, one of the statements he makes is something like this, I am paraphrasing, that it means this person will have the largest body of knowledge ever held in a human mind. The interpretations he gives, certain combinations he says, it means therefore the person will be spending his early childhood in the lap of the enemy and then he comes back to his own domain and then he fights the enemy and things like that. Fascinating things. There is one - seventh house generally relates to relationships and spouse. So there he speaks of wife, he describes certain things and then he starts speaking of ‘the woman’ and then the woman, the woman and the things there which are quite very symbolic, suggestive that the woman suffers a lot in the hands of society, in the public, which we do see which happened during that time. A lot of people spoke against the Mother and against Sri Aurobindo and things like that. Even today there are still people writing such nonsense. But there is this description and then he says, very interestingly there is a passage that says, the children, he describes certain combinations and says therefore the children will be great beings, titanic beings and then some other combination which makes the children divine beings and then how do you explain this combination and he comes to this conclusion he says therefore it suggests the formation of a community, something like a spiritual community and the children's children will be as if the beginnings of a new race of humanity. That's the phrase he uses, beginnings of a new race of humanity. Now all of this is written in 1909 and he is describing the formation of the ashram and the Mother and her relationship with all the children and there is this very unusual phrasing that says, therefore all the children will enjoy the Mother, sorry, enjoy the woman. Now when you think about that phrasing, it makes no sense in normal vocabulary but it makes eminent sense when you see the relationship of the ashramites with the Mother. So it goes on like this and coming to the part where he describes the lifespan, he comes to a calculation and this is where you have something very odd. You remember I said there was a calculation of the dasha. He points to the dasha combination, so you look up that and there is a certain age but when he writes it, he writes a different date. So he refers to an age, he refers to a date and the two don't match. They are off by six years. So which of these is to be believed? And so I looked at what they meant. So the first reference, okay I will come to that, so that's the end point of life. But then he says such and such combination means the person cannot die of poisoning. Such and such combination means the person cannot die of accident. Such and such combination, the person will not die of old age. And so he brings up this question, how then does the life end? It's a big problem because the chart itself shows the planetary positions are protecting him from the normal kinds of end of life. And then he says the clue is found in a very old tradition that looks at Venus as representing a transition between two aspects. And this Venus plays a critical role in the end of life. This suggests the change of life, change of body in a way as if transition to a new body. The suggestion of a transformation. And then he comes to when does this happen and starts calculations, he gives two dates like I said. One is a date by age, the other is a date by date, one of these comes to December of, one of these comes to February of 1951, just two months before he left his body and if he had stayed on two more months that would be that date. The other date comes to 1956, which is when the Supramental manifestation takes place. So, it's quite fascinating that although there was a mistake in his writing, in the mistake itself you see a correspondence to something which was, well, so close to something real. Now I place this as a document to point out that he was a master astrologer.
Sraddhalu (0:14:52):
These documents were kept by him along with his Record of Yoga in his room where he was making these notes and for many years they remained in his room even after he left the guest house and moved to the ashram main building. After Sri Aurobindo left his body, these papers were found in the guest house, they were brought... No, I believe it was even later, it was after the Mother had left her body, that these papers were found and they were brought, Nolini Kanta Gupta saw them and then he gave them to Panditji for safekeeping, they were with Panditji for many years and subsequently he gave them to Nolinida about a year before he left. Nalinida then gave them to the archives and for a long time he said not to be published and then one day someone asked him and he said, okay you can start work on it. So which became a point of controversy because when they published it, some people said oh it's not to be published. But I think it's a good thing the Record of Yoga has been published. But this is part of documents which was never given to the and so the original is kept in Sri Aurobindo's room and it's fascinating because it reveals a side of Sri Aurobindo which nobody knows of. And then subsequently when I began to explore this further, I interviewed a few people and I discovered something even more interesting. And that is Pavitra da, he was a Frenchman, Philippe Barbier Saint-Hilaire, when he came to the ashram, he had a mastery of Western astrology. And you will still find in his room all those books, almanacs, charts, quite a few things. And then we were told by one of the very old sadhakas, who is no more, but we have the interview on tape now, that he had heard at that time in the early days of the ashram that Pavitra would be doing charts and analysing horoscopes of some of the disciples and Sri Aurobindo would see his interpretation and correct him and teach him the right way of doing it. And subsequently he had also heard that when new people came to the ashram, they would take details of their birth time and Pavitra would make the chart and show it to Sri Aurobindo. So it shows you an aspect of ashram life and Sri Aurobindo's mastery, which I think currently has no appreciation in the popular mind. He had such deep knowledge of so many fields and just because he did not write about it, people think that maybe he didn't know much. He was just a poet and okay, he was also a writer and he had maybe mastery of the polity and philosophy and yoga and it stops there. Of course his Vedic mastery is there.
There is another document which is titled, 'The First Rik of the Rig Veda'. In fact it is not one document, in the centenary volumes it comes as one article, in the new edition it is actually broken up into many articles. And he's as if approaching the same text, the first rik, from slightly different approaches each time. And each time he goes into the etymology of the words and then analyses and describes and literally pulls out the whole yoga, the entire Vedic philosophy, the whole framework of the Vedic symbolism, all that he pulls out just commenting on that first verse and there in one of those commentaries he explains the meaning of the word Yajna. Yajna is typically translated as sacrifice, fire sacrifice. He says no, Yajna represents the Divine, the Lord Vishnu and he explains why from the root etymology and then he describes how this works and suddenly he switches to and then he speaks of Agni and suddenly he switches to seven kinds of Agni representing seven fires and he goes deeper and then he speaks of sub-concepts and he speaks of the Sun today as the physical Sun and the working of the electrical forces and the light forces and Agni in the Sun and he describes it in terms of Vishnu and Indra and then he says this is the spiritual working and then the psychological working and then he says this is the physical working and he says right or wrong this is the physics of the Veda. And suddenly you get a glimpse, here's a master physics teacher who has the mastery of the physics of the Veda and knowing that people will find it too outlandish, too far out from current physics which is so superficial and immature. He says right or wrong this is the physics of the Veda. But there he gives you a few glimpses of the nature of the Sun and what makes for the corona of the sun and the peculiar blaze of light which is characteristic of the sun and all that he describes in a vocabulary which at the same time is a spiritual truth, psychological truth and the physical truth. And you get a glimpse of his mastery of that kind of knowledge. So I believe that Sri Aurobindo had so much more to share which as in the horoscope chart he has mentioned the largest body of knowledge ever held in a single human being of which unfortunately we have only a few glimpses left. In other writings of his, many of which have been lost, there is much material which had it stayed, people would have had a much deeper glimpse of Sri Aurobindo and his work.
Narad (0:20:54):
So this philosophy of 320,000 years and the Sun would burn out.
Sraddhalu (0:21:03):
Yes, that is based on current physics, which looks at the Sun as one gigantic hydrogen bomb, nuclear ball which is undergoing nuclear fission or fusion. And It's a speculative assumption of how the Sun works and it was at that time promoted strongly because it justified the nuclear bomb. They said that's how the Sun works. It is nature, nature's process. So what's wrong with if we do it, fission or fusion. Of course Sun is primarily fusion but still fission was just a variation of fusion so it was accepted. But in fact all the evidence points to and Sri Aurobindo's text also points to the Sun being primarily an electric working and not a nuclear working. But that's discussion for another time. What I am coming back to is astrology itself. That Sri Aurobindo used it in a way that was relevant to him at some point, but he didn't need it. He taught it to Pavitra because he had the luxury of being able to consult him, but these are the only texts available today which leave you a hint that he knew much more. But I want to then broaden the whole discussion to what is the place of astrology in our lives and if at all it has a place in the yoga.
Narad (0:22:40):
And Mother said that those who are committed to this yoga, astrology has no meaning.
Sraddhalu (0:22:48):
Yes, exactly. Even in the science of astrology there is a recognition of the limitations of the science itself. So I want to discuss this a little bit. You see, astrology is a highly symbolic representation, on a chart, of something which has almost a cosmic scale. The position of the planets in relation to the zodiac signs somehow are supposed to influence or affect you at the moment of birth. Of course it's not obvious how and it has nothing to do with gravitational waves or electromagnetic waves. In Sri Aurobindo's commentary on astrology, he points out that the influence of the planets and astrology takes place primarily through the working of prana, through life force and straight away that gives you a clue of the limitation. What's the level of operation of astrology? Prana. Where do you live? If you live above Prana, you are already reasonably free of it or you are bound to it only to the parts which are engaged in the Prana influence and through Prana connected to the universe. If you then connect to a still higher spiritual consciousness and a spiritual energy which begins to fill and operate in you, taking precedence over the prana or taking charge of the prana working then again you have basically disengaged from the astrological working so to put it in very simple terms as long as you are living by the instinct of your prana what is instinct after all an impulse of life force within you pushing as long as you're living by instinct you are a product of the processes of the machinery of prana and to that extent your chart is indicating what's happening or what will happen or what you will tend to do etc. The moment you begin to stand back even in your mind, in your mental awareness and you say here's an instinctive impulse and I choose to restrain myself already to that extent you have bypassed the astrological influence, isn't it? How many people do that? And that's what makes the influence of astrology effective. But still what is the nature of that influence?
People go to an astrologer and say, 'what will happen to me?' Astrologer may say something like, 'Oh, you're going to have a car accident' or 'you're going to lose money in the stock market' or 'you are going to meet somebody in such and such date' or 'you will have illnesses of this'. That's not how astrology works. Unfortunately, people think astrology itself being a mathematical science, what it predicts has to be mathematical and that's an error. The understanding of it comes when you see how astrology itself is formed and what it represents. I want to give a summary picture of it. You see, at every moment, there are two extremes which are absolute. One is the absolute of God and the other is absolute of your soul. How would these two and their relationship be represented in form and in nature in the form of the universe? What in the universe represents for you? Infinity and eternity or even oneness, unity. And if you look around well, it's not the changing of the trees growing. It's not the earth. It's not the Sun It's not your solar system You look as far as you can into the universe and the stars seem as if fixed. The zodiac sign, the patterns of stars. Okay, it's not so much pictures of someone is a hunter, someone is a bull, someone is a fish, there are no pictures. That's again a misrepresentation in the modern mind. What the ancients recognized was in physical terms that which represents for us permanence is the farthest stars which form like a circle around us. And because the earth is spinning, it is as if that is the circle spinning around you. That represents for you God or the sense of eternity or infinity. They recognised that that itself as if impacted in 12 different distinct qualities of energy and they describe the energy quality using mnemonics- pictures, symbols, words which are easy to remember which capture the full spectrum of or facets of those qualities and so there are images associated and that's how you get these terms of the Aries or Sagittarius or the Pisces or Leo. There is no lion sitting there, no picture of lion even in the stars. It's the quality of consciousness most represented by this image and associated elements of the mnemonic. So you see 12 influences which represent the absolute of the divine.
On the other side your soul, you, what in form around you best represents the absolute of your individuality? And that becomes this point where you are sitting, standing or where you are born on earth around which the whole universe seems to revolve. You are the centre of the universe or so it seems from your perspective. So catch this moment and what are the forms in which you have it? Well, you have on the east, the horizon, on the west, the horizon, you have the point just above, the point below and this is you, your soul, your individuality, again divided into 12 houses we say representing 12 aspects of your life, or your character and the two are placed in front of each other, one is rotating against the other. That's astrology first step. God, soul. What's the third thing missing? Nature. In the Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo says this - three things which are always there, God, man and nature. So nature in between. So here is God, soul, both as if absolute references. In between is the flux of nature, represented by what? What are the things which most represent the movement of nature? Well, seasonal changes are the form, but what it is it that makes for the seasonal changes, well the place of the Sun relative to you, the position of the planets relative to you and so you have nine, as we say in English planets but in Sanskrit the word is more correct, Sri Aurobindo even comments on that in his writing, graha. Graha means hold, things which have a hold, say Rahu and Ketu so they are not planets, they are energy centres. Similarly, Sun is not a planet, Moon is not a planet. So planet is a wrong word, but we will use the word because that's how it's used normally. So you have 9 planets in between, modifying the relationship between these two. That's your chart, very simply. You see what it has got. From first principles, we are describing what a chart represents, God, Man and Nature at the moment of your birth or depending on how you apply it. Right now if you ask a question and we draw a chart, in the chart will be the answer to your question. Because in the very act of asking a question or giving form to the urge or the need for the question, there is an alignment of the whole universe, God, man and nature in which the question is represented along with its answer so that's one of the forms in which astrology is used. You ask a question and draw a chart of the moment and you find the answer to it.
Narad (0:31:27):
So since most astrologers are not correct, should one have...?
Sraddhalu (0:31:35):
Yes, actually I want to get into that discussion a little later because that's very important. I want to speak of how an astrologer actually functions, how it works in the actual interpretation, what are its limitations, what are its strengths, where it's useful. I want to look at that later. I just want to stay with this whole concept of the chart itself.
So what is the chart actually showing? And I want to highlight this because you will understand the limitation of the chart and the limitation of astrology itself by knowing what it actually shows you. Well, zodiac is not God, your 12 houses are not your soul but it's a symbolic representation of that relationship. And we see something interesting. In South India, they will keep the zodiac signs fixed and the houses will move against it. In North India they will keep the houses fixed and the zodiac signs will move against it. Practically you can say it makes no difference. No, no, theoretically you will say it makes no difference. Practically it makes a subtle difference. If you're used to seeing the zodiac fixed and the houses move, which is the permanence? that aspect of God or the sense is that you are less important, the force of the scheme is more important so it's as if in the southern imaging you get the sense as if fate is stronger than your free will. If you represent it the other way where the houses are fixed, you are more important and the zodiac sign is moving against it, you have the sense as if you are more powerful and can influence. So there is a subtle bias of the sense of fatality and again this thing we will discuss afterwards because that comes into part of the interpretation. But with this let's look at the way it works, what do they represent? If you look at the 12 signs of the zodiac, you will see something that is almost mathematically beautiful. You have 4 multiplied by 3 which make the 12 and so you have the 4 qualities or soul powers and they go in sequence. You know the way it is formulated, the aspect of knowledge, aspect of power, aspect of harmony, aspect of perfection and they go in sequence house one is this, house two, house three, house four, house five, house six, house seven it keeps cycling through. We can say Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati but their particular aspects as represented in the human life or consciousness And then there are three, the three Gunas- Tamas, Rajas and Sattva, which cycle through. So if you go through all 12, you will find 3 x 4 and combinations of each. So each part of the zodiac is a combination of three gunas and four soul qualities, nature and soul and their combinations. Why 12? Well this is your key for 12. There is something very deep and even there is something essential. We are looking at first principles. It is something so essential you could go on any planet in the universe and these principles would be applicable. They may not have Mars and Venus or the personality of Mars and Venus that we have in our solar system but if you go to another solar system, these basic principles of astrology would be valid. If you were born on Mars you would still have a chart made from Mars's perspective but these things would be valid, they would be common to all of them. This is interesting.
Sraddhalu (0:35:30):
And in the planets, this is where now we get variation. You go to a different solar system perhaps the planets are different in quality. So when you look at our planets in our solar system, we find there are psychological qualities associated with each planet, but even that the physical form and characteristic of the planet reflect those psychological qualities. And Sri Aurobindo goes so far as to say in that writing which is published, that behind each planet is a presiding deity. So, I think behind Mars it is Rudra, the aspect of force, power, even violence and Lakshmi is behind one of them and so on. So you can see that list but without going into that, looking at certain characteristics of the planets, we notice Mars has for example, a certain forcefulness, vitality, pushiness, violence even. And so wherever Mars comes, you will find great energy, physical energy, reddish in quality, short in stature and so on. So there's a whole description of Mars quality, which if you complete the description, you end up as if describing a personality of an individual. And even the form of an individual- stature will be short. So if Mars is in your rising sign, rising the first house, your first house is often defining or influencing the form of your body. So if you had Mars there and it was very strong, it would mean you would have a body which would be relatively short, stocky, well-built and likely your skin will be reddish colour. Why? Because there is a strong Mars imprint on you. That's how astrology is working. It's like genetics. You have this gene, well you have this tendency. Here it's not a genetic, biological but psychological genetic influence. If you look at Venus, it's an artistic planet. So if you go into the Indian stories, one of the beautiful ways in which they encapsulated this knowledge was by describing stories among the planets. They are beings, you describe the beings and then describe their relationships and incidents among them. And suddenly you understand why this one likes the other or does not like the other or what is the tension between them and all the stories come through. Now for a long time I thought the stories were also mnemonics. I thought for example there is a story that Saturn is a child of the Sun, Jupiter's wife had an affair with the Sun and gave birth to Saturn. So Jupiter is upset with Sun. But Saturn has a father in the Sun but there is a tension between them because it's an illegitimate child, things like that. So I said these are mnemonics, so it makes it easy to remember and then I read in Sri Aurobindo, where he writes the relationship between these planets, he is describing who likes whom, who doesn't like whom and then he says the relationship between these planets is the result of their past karmic events. So he is as if telling you that actually something happened between them which makes for these relationships. So here you have something which is not universal. So far whatever I described was universal, true on any planet in the universe.
But here are relationships which are specific to these planets and to their past. And that's what the Puranic stories are documenting. So now you find children are being taught these stories and you would have dismissed the stories as somebody's imagination or it's just one of those mythologies. No, they are actually documentation of events which have taken place in the astral domain where you have the true character of the planetary beings who have physical bodies and their relationships there, they play out here in their influences in your chart. It is quite a fascinating insight. So now you see Venus for example, in the Indian tradition he is described as the teacher of the Asuras, whereas Jupiter is the teacher of the gods. So Jupiter corresponds to Zeus in Greek mythology. So he is the head of the gods, he is the teacher, he gives knowledge but Venus, Shukracharya the Asuras choose him as their teacher. Why? What's the difference? Both are teachers. And the reason is, and if you go into the mythology and this documentation you discover when the Asuras wanted knowledge, Jupiter said no I won't give it to you because you will misuse and so they went to Shukracharya who was so beneficent, so loving, he said I'm sorry I cannot refuse someone who asks for knowledge and he accepts them but also that he teaches them according to their way, through indulgence. So Venus teaches you by taking you through the experience of life, through indulgence, through enjoyment. Whereas Jupiter teaches you by showing you the way and he stands back and says this is how you do it but he doesn't make you do it, he doesn't lead you into it and he gives you the higher divine wisdom and that's it. It's given, you take it, you use as you want. Shukracharya that is Venus takes you by the hand, leads you through it, through indulgence through enjoyment and this is what the Asuras want. Now understanding this you can see how the influence functions in your chart. So you cannot really do astrology if you don't understand the character of the planets and even develop kind of a relationship with them. And it's quite fascinating. Each of these planets has a higher function and a lower function. If in the chart he is raised, you get an exalted expression of the planet. If he is fallen, you get a debilitated function. So what happens with Venus for example, exalted, he is master of the arts, music, poetry and any artistic expression would come from him. If he is fallen, then he is a debauch. He indulges in sensory pleasures and loses his way and that's the way of the Asura. Where are you in between? Well, you have to assess from the chart what is the level of Venus working in your chart. The same with Jupiter. The same with every planet. So Mars exalted makes you strong, courageous, heroic, leader. Mars debilitated makes you cantankerous, quarrelsome, always getting into fights, violent, unstable in your violence of energy. Mars, because it represents physical energy, if he is there in a strong positive way he can give to your physical body great strength and force of vitality. So when you look at the planets not only they describe psychological states but also they represent qualities of consciousness or levels of consciousness. Mars coming much more to the physical body and to the physical vitality. Whereas Venus being the more refined vitality, Jupiter representing more the aspect of mind and especially knowledge aspect of mind, Sun representing the higher spiritual knowledge or influence of the soul's poise and so on. Mercury rapidly moving closest to the Sun, circles around very quickly, is the intellect and its power of distinct division, analytics and so anything happens with Mercury, he analyses, breaks up, cuts up and rapidly moves, quickly jumps around and is modified by something like let's say the Moon, who is poetic, imaginative and so on. Now all of these are there in your chart, each putting its influence depending on where they are sitting and each acting upon each other making for a complex chart. How do you interpret this? Not easy, unless there is a deep intuitive insight also. And so most astrologers basically follow rule of thumb. Mars in this house, good for you. Saturn in that house, bad for you. That's not how it works. And that's why bulk of them are wrong but they play on your psychology.
Narad (0:44:06):
But could you tell us a bit about Leo because there are four or five of us here.
Sraddhalu (0:44:11):
I am not an expert in astrology, unfortunately. I did get into it in quite some detail precisely to understand this. I wanted to understand how does it work, what makes it effective, what is its value. And so I went in only as deep as I needed for this purpose and for a long time I was well learning from or discussing with a friend who had extraordinary, extraordinary mastery of astrology. Unfortunately the fellow died. But during the time when I was interacting with him I would play this game we would take a chart or we take my chart in this particular case and I would try to see by intuition what would be the timing of a certain thing and he would do it from astrology and often it would correspond which is fascinating. Then we would look at other people's charts and I would look at something what would come from intuition and he would come from his mastery and their correspondences, so I came to the conclusion very quickly that if you can work to develop the deeper intuition you need not have this. Of course you can use it as a starting point, a trigger point for the intuition to click. I once gave him a challenge, not once, two occasions I gave him a challenge. I gave him a chart of somebody he knew nothing about. He went deep into it, accurately describing the person, describing his appearance, describing elements of his life which even I did not know. So there was one case, it was an extraordinary person, he had great spiritual authority and power. So he described this as one of the most powerful charts he had seen, and he went into certain details and he said the person has two children, I only knew of one. So I said, well, is it true? And he said, yes, the second child, a daughter who at an early age had brain fever and as a result brain was damaged and she remained stunted in mind for the rest of her life. I didn't know about it and he had found it out through the chart. Amazing! Then another case was a person in Pondicherry who didn't believe in it so we did again a challenge. We picked a student who had just completed his education. Even I didn't know who it was. So my friend picks, takes his chart and then the astrologer was supposed to describe his physical appearance. Now what is fascinating is he came up with two identifiers and when he looked at that person it was obvious these were two distinct elements in him. Large hands, beautiful eyes. It was obvious it fitted him. But then he gave other details like reddish skin and all that which also matched perfectly. And each time I would ask how do you say this and he would go into the analysis and say this combination leads to this. So this is first to tell you how profound the science itself is. But precisely because it's so profound you cannot apply it casually and I make an analogy with weather prediction. Weather prediction is a complex science or stock market prediction is a complex science and there are books written on it people have dedicated their lives to mastering the science and it works and then it doesn't work suddenly because it's not everything, it's looking at one aspect of stock market patterns not looking at other elements which are outside the stock domain. Same way astrology looks at one aspect, particularly the physical and life energy layer, does not look at the mind and the freedom of mind, freedom of spirit, freedom of soul or even other people's freedom intervening to modify and so suddenly it breaks down, it doesn't work. So all this to tell you that there's a deep truth to it, on the other hand its current application is completely a misuse and abuse, I will say, of how the astrologers work. So in the next session we have, I want to discuss what happens in a typical astrologers reading, where they go wrong and then what is the utility of astrology for us as sadhakas or at least devotees of the integral yoga.
Namaste.