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CHAPTER 20: IS VEDIC ASTROLOGY INCAPABLE OF REACHING BEYOND EVENTS? SOME THOUGHTS ON A MODERN MYTH!
Šopyrighted by Crystal Pages (1995-97)
Right from its inception astrology has always depended heavily on symbolism. Over the recent decades, a trend has started to emerge amongst those who study and practice astrology. There is a gradual but deliberate movement away from the 'deterministic' aspects of astrology. As modern human beings continue to gain better understanding of the natural laws and the mechanistic nature of nature and our existence, 'destiny' has become a word that is almost socially unacceptable and one that must be avoided or at least used with caution. We are the rulers of our experiences and it is hard to miss the fact that increasingly our physical universe is indeed becoming more and more controllable and even predictable, within reason! There are still many uncertainties that plague our daily existence, but in a superficial, short-term perspective, destiny does not seem to be an important force, any longer! However, as students of the human animal would agree, although we have exchanged caves for apartments, and traded away the club for the keyboard, many of our intrinsic drives remain the same as before, or even a bit more confused and problematical than earlier, as we try to deny, repress and rationalize them away, giving the therapists the hope for an ever-lasting and glowing vocational future lying ahead of them.
Recently, another parallel form of dichotomy seems to have
descended on the astrological scene. Some of us have begun to
view astrology as
As the demand for the deterministic form of astrological perspective, often termed "doom and gloom" astrology receded, the vacuum was filled by an emerging astrology with a "new" focus. Utilizing the same symbolic language as before, astrologers turned their energies and interpretive skills to studying and explaining human behavior in terms of psychological energies, phenomena and motivations. This approach enabled one to examine the human organism as an interacting matrix of influences that were dynamic, growing and which incorporated a learning paradigm. An image that harmonized very well with the way most of us saw ourselves.
Not only was it more fun to play around with the LEGO-blocks that make up the human mind, it also satisfied an 'intellectual' need for exercising the cerebral faculties, especially in astrologers who had, through formal training or academic leanings, a psychophilosophical background. There was the potential for building a more intricate design while utilizing the very same symbols that were the tools of astrology for eons. The product looked more modern, and more clinical. There was a built-in objectivity -- a cleaner interface -- the messy tangle of emotions could be re-woven neatly with the thread of reason.
However, this new form of astrology too relied heavily on 'interpretation'. Sure there were ground rules, but they allowed for immense flexibility. The output was more textured as well, looked incredibly detailed, and was more likely to be acceptable to the modern thinking person.
If we were to visualize a wheel with a central axis and a rim.
If we assume that the centre is the astrological symbol, then the
rim would represent the range of interpretations that are
attributed to that symbol. Often the wheel is revolving so fast
that all we can see for sure is the rim and the central hub. The
entire cart of
Predicting events had always been a difficult venture for most astrologers, regardless of the school that they belonged to. As is often pointed out by frustrated students of astrology, it is a lot easier to apply 20/20 hindsight and figure out the 'trigger' for a given event. In a priori analyses, one is often faced with too many 'triggers', which makes it difficult and even confusing to hone in on the meaningful one/s and describe what the event would be and when it might take place. There is obviously less 'pressure' for adopting such a discriminating approach when qualitative interpretation is the only goal. It is hardly surprising that many astrologers tend to shy away from predicting events and a fair number of those that do venture, risk getting disenchanted and frustrated. Performance can really vary in this hallway of astrology. The ground rules that work in different hands can vary considerably, there being no sure-fire, cookbook technique that always works. Past performances are often not recorded in a detailed manner and not easily available for objective scrutiny. A researcher's nightmare, in other words!
Anecdotally, it has been the common view in the west that Jyotish, the indian vedic system of astrology is exclusively an event-oriented approach. Unfortunately, this is a misleading and mistaken perception. Practitioners of jyotish, especially those who have moved into it from a primarily western tropical perspective, on discovering a plethora of techniques for timing of events, such as the many forms of dashas or progressions, multiple means of determining transit influences, etc., understandably, tend to focus on those heavily. Even in its native home, jyotish is practiced in a social environment where pressures of daily existence and looming economical concerns make predictability of events and conditions seem more important. With economic concerns a common issue, the indian (and now elsewhere too!) client can hardly be faulted for paying less attention to spiritual growth or in not trying to strengthen his/her psychological Achilles' heels first, before asking questions such as, "Will I get this contract or not?" or "When will my daughter get married?". The sociocultural differences being what they are, often, issues that seem primary to those growing in technologically advanced societies are hard to relate to by those living the reality of the third world. The reverse also holds true.
But, just because we utilize a swiss army knife for opening cans all the time, the swiss army knife cannot be called a can opener! Any astrological approach can be labeled a certain way based on its popular usage, but it is a shame to not realize that it has a wider spectrum of applicability. All astrology utilizes symbolism at its very basis and while one can attempt to define the rational nature of the symbolic links, there is a certain amount of irrationality or at the very least a linear logical gap between the symbol and what it is taken to represent! By itself, this does not invalidate the symbolism or reduce the value of the symbol in using it to describe an apparently unrelated phenomenon or attribute. Given that, no form of astrology is truly superior to another. Much time has been wasted by astrologers in trying to hold ones flag up or in trying to push the other flags down! Or in carving a neo-niche out of a subset of existing approaches, with further development of an existing theme.
From the vedic astrological perspective, once the religious and arcane metaphors that are often overly literally employed by many modern savants and purveyors of jyotish are stripped away, we see a system that is capable of tackling the human experience from all perspectives. It certainly can be approached as a psychological tool or aid, for analyzing the psychological fabric of nativities, their motivations and behaviors, their perceptions and expressions, responses and reactions. It can also be utilized for predicting events, trends and tendencies.
The intrinsic qualities of the signs interacting with those represented by the planets and other bodies (lights, and now asteroids and planet X) form the basic matrix of symbolism that is used in all astrological deductions and delineations, be they event-oriented or psycho-philosophical. Yet another important consideration, at least from the tropical viewpoint are the arcs, the interplanetary lines of force and of communications that not only have been used by skilled interpreters very effectively, but also reduce and even eliminate (cosmobiology) the discrepancy that arises due to the consideration of different orientation points for the zodiac preferred.
The aspects are also used in the indian system, but with much
wider orbs. Moreover, other than during strength determinations,
only certain aspects which are known as the full aspect are used.
These are very similar to the opposition aspect in the case of
all planets, and additionally, the trines in the case of jupiter,
the applying sextile and separating square for saturn, directed
at planets and houses 3rd and 10th from its location, and the
applying square and the applying inconjunct or quincunx for mars
(4th and 8th signs from its placement). The relative paucity of
aspects by arcs is more than made up by the utilization of the
divisional charts. For instance, two planets that are 40d apart
in the radix, show up in the navamsha chart as a conjunction, by
being in the same navamsha sign. The aspect 'connection', thus
determined, can be taken into account in the delineation. Each
divisional chart examines such interplanetary relationships
(aspects) utilizing a different measure (arc). Similarly, all
planets that are in trine to each other are likely to be in two
different asterisms (nakshatras, lunar mansions), both ruled by
the same planet. Yet another way of looking at the interplanetary
relationships ('aspects') is underscored in the importance of
combinations or yogas in vedic delineation. While the orbs are
considerably wider, it is hard to miss the angular aspects that
is being examined in gajakeshari yoga (moon in conj., oppo, or
square to jupiter), or the inconjunct in the chandrashtama
(transit moon inconjunct natal moon) or ashtam shani (transit
saturn inconjunct natal moon), or even kuja dosha which brings
mars into a situation where it makes a semi-sextile, square,
opposition or inconjunct with the ascendant. It must be noted
that the interpretation of most of these
There is undeniably a deterministic tone in many of the ancient scriptures on vedic astrology, or at least in the translations and transliterations that have arisen from the original texts, and this can be misleading. However, the very fact that sometimes different shades of interpretations are given by different ancient authorities, points to the fact that not everything was treated as gospel even back then and there was room left for disagreement and widening of interpretation, and even allowing for multiple interpretations.
Some of the 'nadi' grinthas, which form a unique subclass by themselves and are often claimed to use techniques that give very uncanny but hard to rationalize interpretations do give the impression that determinism and events find a prominent place in vedic astrology. It is not inconceivable to visualize that the body of vedic astrology as we have it came from many diverse time periods produced by many generations of astrologers. A culture that had been invaded many many times, by outsiders and from within, is expected to have its 'history' saved in a coded form that makes it difficult to understand on surface, and with checksums built into it that may aid future restoration. It is not uncommon to see redundance of information in vedic astrological texts. However, it is also conceivable that there could exist 'gaps' that were created by time or its invading agents and some of the details could have gone missing, giving a distorted picture of what originally was or was recommended by the original author.
The body of astrological literature was composed in time periods that were similar to those during which the rest of the vedic literature and its system of health, ayurveda, emerged and grew. The description of humors, remedies, both herbal and gemstones, through sound and aroma are too similar between those given in ayurveda and astrological parlance to have not influenced each other or the practitioners thereof. Even casual perusal of the ancient vedic literature and its mythology and allegories would immediately show the complex psychophilosophical framework that the vedic man viewed humanity through. It would make no sense to assume that during the same era, some were so engrossed with viewing the human being as a complex psychophysiological entity and yet were using a deterministic, event-oriented framework when examining the very same human being through astrology! This just cannot be possible. Astrology has never been removed or developed in isolation from the rest of the vedic literature. It has been referred to as a vedanga (a limb of the vedas) all along and hence must have leaned heavily on the psychophilosophical models that were in vogue then. And the spiritual model that hinduism promotes is in essence very flexible and all encompassing. People often see the idol worship, but forget that hinduism also includes the concept of the formless Creator. People often see the concept of karma as an indication of fatalistic thinking, and turn away before they see that the law of grace, dharma has also been described right next to karma. People in their haste to nail the coffin shut and erect the headstone that reads "Here lies Determinism, R.I.P.", conveniently ignore that the rest of the 'book' deals with remedies and recommendations, physical, mental and spiritual, how best to discharge and reduce or even dissolve the 'karma'. If vedic astrology promoted incontrovertible fatalism, why would it undermine its stance by prescribing measures that can be chosen by freewill to undo karma? Now, I would not deny that these very prescriptions have been 'used' by some unscrupulous practitioners for personal gains, but that is not the fault of vedic culture which has had its share of the good and the bad individuals, just like any other culture did/does.
For those who are interested in exploring some practical examples of non-event oriented vedic astrology, a book named "Notable Horoscopes", by B.V. Raman (available from AFA) would be very revealing. His enditorials and many articles that appear in his The Astrological Magazine from time to time provide delineations that illustrate the efficacy of vedic astrology when used to examine the psychophilosophical nature of human beings, in addition to examining other aspects of the human experience, including events, just as a complete system of astrology would be expected to.
Obviously, this article cannot address every little nuance that comes into play motivating people to make sweeping judgments about what swam up ashore. Nor is it directed at stopping them from doing so or to make them look at the waters with greater sincerity. However, as a practitioner of vedic astrology, it is my duty to bring out the truth as best as I can see and dispel as many myths as I possibly can.
The most difficult myths to dispel are those that are contemporary, for they utilize the language and metaphors of modern times! However, Astrology (of any kind that is capable of describing the 'human experience'!) is like a swiss army knife. Just because some may choose to use a swiss army knife to only uncork wine bottles, it is not justified to call a swiss army knife a corkscrew!
Šopyrighted by Crystal Pages (1995-97)
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