LIFE BEYOND VANILLA JYOTISH

Jyotish (Vedic astrology) indubitably perches atop the heap of the world’s many maps for the esoteric realms. For sure, cutting-edge science—especially unified physics—provides an essential lifeline to a balanced perspective on the whole show of reality. But, at least for now, the numinous arcana of other more advanced extraterrestrial (ET) civilizations found haphazardly strewn throughout many ancient models of the universe and life, surprisingly still pack real clout and offer high-voltage thrills and insights not to be found any other way in this world. And of all the pack, Jyotish accords the best vantage to this treasure trove of wisdom.

But there’s quite the kink in a smooth transmission of these eternal verities from the sun gods to us mere mortals. All humans have the not too clever knack for seeing things the way they want and need to see them. That is, the subjective often overrides the objective. It can be anything: a speeding ticket, a night on the town, a happy family reunion. What the event means depends in large part upon the beholder. If you’re happily on the way to an interesting destination, then a speeding ticket isn’t the best but it’s not the end of the world. You just keep trucking on. Nothing is going to break your good mood. Sound familiar?

Even so, what happens when half-hidden and definitely cryptic knowledge describes irrelevant and fantastical ideas and places? An ordinary person would yawn, if she or he would even bother with that, and simply move on to something more exciting and meaningful. And so it is with the wellspring of deep ET insights embedded in the parlance of Jyotish. Generation after generation of ordinary interests (for both astrologer and client) have whittled and watered these arcane jewels down to hollow, tasteless and essentially bland dregs.

What remains of the mighty spiritual and super-physical cornucopia bequeathed upon humans? Not much, it turns out. A visit to the Jyotishi (Vedic astrologer) nowadays still reaps a bountiful harvest but the domain of discourse has sadly sagged from the stars down to the plains and peaks of this world. To sum up: the sagacity found in the original Jyotish teachings (of Vedic times and before) has been reformulated again and again to serve the temporal and practical needs of each passing generation. What remains is an occult knowledge finely-tuned for answering questions about worldly interests but wholly clueless about spiritual matters and how to progress toward—and reach—Light.

Such Vanilla Jyotish rules these days. It’s still valuable as an aid for self-understanding: to know your strengths and weaknesses and the karmic influences directing the story of your life. But to tread the road to the higher lokas of consciousness you will need to turn to yoga—for nothing else will suffice. If higher spiritual awareness holds a central place in your heart, then a deeper understanding is needed. Yoga augmented by the Jyotish Star Map provides that understanding both in theory and practice.

THE JYOTISH STAR MAP (JSM) FOR YOGA

Earthlings being what they are, it’s only to be expected that radically new ideas meet with resistance and opposition—at least until the current generation dies off. This nestles as a perennial truth known by the elders of all times and races. Made popular through the writings of Thomas Kuhn in the early 1960’s, this idea was repackaged and introduced as the notion of a paradigm shift.

The best example is science—something supposedly based upon fact and thus immutable and slow to change, if it does at all. Yet, when new evidence avails that no longer fits the reigning model of how it all really is, a war of opinions (and often, worse) breaks out. Eventually, after some time, the challenger gets weeded out or history finds itself neatly rewritten to appreciate how smoothly and tidily the transition to the new paradigm went (as if science just grows and grows and lazily grows without the need for any tending or maintenance or self-appraisal).

In short, human conceit has it that our kind is so smart that we can just march forward and conquer all with our brilliant contraptions and theories. Unfortunately, that’s not what the ET’s (rishis, sun gods and goddesses, occupants of the higher realms in all religions across all times) were—and still are—trying to tell us. So, let’s move on and examine what the Jyotish Star Map has to say. Given the foregoing lead-in, you might intuit that surely this is worth checking out. Well, take the time to ponder and reflect on what you find. Who knows? Some doors may open or dots get deftly connected.

JSM Lesson 1 — Different Esoteric Levels

Where’s home? You might think that’s obvious but each of the three major chart styles of Vedic astrology anchors to a different reference in the cosmos. To this, the Jyotish Star Map (JSM, for short) adds a fourth reference. So, where’s home? In terms of the universe, your choices abound. Kind of makes you wonder why each style leans toward a certain neck of the cosmic woods? Yep. Here you have lesson 1 of JSM. Each vantage highlights a node in an overall progression toward higher and higher levels of awareness. So, there’s no one “right” answer for anything! The proper frame of reference (type of chart) to use depends on what’s being asked and by whom (her or his potentials and current understandings).

First things first. Start at the very beginning. For if you have a map and a destination but don’t know where you presently are, how will you ever get to the goal? Vanilla Jyotish and all the major eastern yoga traditions (Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, Daoist) simply sparkle with brilliance in terms of higher knowledge but they tend to lapse into panache and a touch too much hubris when it comes to the details: namely, how in the heck do you make the thing work? That is, how do you bridge from ordinary (everyday) consciousness to these rarified places they banter on about with prana and lung and qi flows zipping about within the body and out to the cosmos?

It all sounds good on paper until you try to put their teachings into practice. Then you simply spin your wheels for years and years and years and get very little real gain. Of course, a few folks hit the jackpot, but for most, it’s merely a pipe dream. Why? The essential ingredient that makes all the yogic teachings work is a high level of pure concentration (shamatha, dhyana). With this, one can indeed make energy flow this way and that and gradually craft an energy body that transcends the physical world. Without this skill, at best one spins one’s wheels forever; it could be a lot worse though: if all those inner energies are unleashed without enough concentration to reign them in, all bleep breaks loose. For instance, there are plenty of cases of folks who have had psychotic breaks due to kundalini crises or qi sickness or similar energetic dysfunctions.

Nevertheless, the path to Light is real and you can safely journey the whole distance but you need to respect that the process is like electrical engineering for the soul. There are very real electrical flows and circuits to work with. Best you consult with experts and have a mentor on your side. Especially for the first part of the mystic journey—up to the accomplishment of very deep concentration—you are highly encouraged to seek out a living guru or lama or spiritual master or even advanced spiritual practitioner to help you hew to traditional methods, realizations and insights. Here you have the safest, quickest and most effective way forward.

Beyond this though, the tenor changes. Unless you expect to win a mega-jackpot in the lottery, you can’t simply continue to follow the rules and traditional pearls dished out by your spiritual guides. Now, you will have to step lightly, judge and compare; you must begin to think for yourself; and you will need to start relying upon Light Itself for intuition and direction. For, in yoga—just as in Jyotish—you’re getting traditional beliefs and practices: in this case, beliefs mostly geared toward the needs of folks in caves and monasteries a thousand or more years ago. Little has really been accomplished to modernize and refine these traditions.

Therefore, you need to work with a teacher and one tradition as the foundation for your practice but then you need to cherry pick a little from the other traditions and the modern sciences to kludge the whole lot together. It shouldn’t be this way but it is. The world—even with its many great spiritual traditions—is a very fragmented place. So, as any friendly advertiser would coyly note: let the buyer beware. Once you can own up to this, though, you are free. Then it’s simply time to go for it with all that you’ve got and for all that you’re worth. This spells fun once you get the hang of it, actually. So, here’s the very beginning:

Western Chart for the Natural Zodiac
The natural zodiac (see the chart below) has Aries as the Ascendant (lagna in Jyotish). Here, the region at the center left marked Ari represents Aries. The As designates the Ascendant, which is the place in the zodiac where the Sun was rising at the moment of birth (natal chart) or the moment when the chart was cast (prashna chart). The Primary Axis represents day-to-day life with all its interests and activities. The Secondary Axis shows the path of personal growth and spiritual evolution.

The main teaching here? There’s no real progress along the Secondary Axis (personal growth and spiritual evolution) without one first attending to the Primary Axis (basics of life including health, happiness and career). The pitfall is losing your way amidst all the distractions of the primary axis. So, master it to a fair level (enough to have time and space for regular spiritual practice) but then give more and more time to the Secondary Axis as the years go by. More theory on this later but for now, it’s important to learn how to harmonize the related energy patterns so you can actualize this plan and not just lapse into wishing thinking. Here’s the practical part of the lesson.

JSM Rule 1 — Start with the Lagna and the Primary Axis
The above chart depicts the Primary and Secondary Axes in terms of the natural zodiac (Aries as lagna). There’s a reason for this. The natural zodiac undergirds ALL charts—regardless of what sign falls into the first house. Whatever the natal chart may look like (whatever sign the lagna is), it will necessarily build upon the foundation of the natural zodiac. So, if you fix the foundation, you can often have positive effects on the house built upon it. Fixing the house, however, won’t ever do a whit for the foundation.

Why? The natural zodiac represents “God’s eye-view” of the physical plane. This sounds exotic but simply means that a chart with Mesha (Aries) in the first house (lagna) will have Dhanu (Sagittarius) in the ninth house of dharma, good fortune and the guru’s ashram (workplace in this world). The lagna (Mesha) shows what you can do but the ninth house (Dhanu) holds center court as the most important place in any chart since it channels fate from the higher realms. For fulfillment in worldly—as well as spiritual—matters, it’s not so much what you know (lagna); rather, it’s whom you know (ninth house).

Beyond fanciful cultural trappings, this mapping squares with hard fact: modern astronomy. The center of our Milky Way galaxy holds forth at about three degrees of Dhanu. And where does Ketu (marker for enlightenment and the spiritual elite) get exalted, pray tell? According to hoary Jyotish it finds true accord and exaltation at six degrees of Dhanu. Sound like someone is trying to tell you something? Well, in fact, yes. That is, the devatās (gods and goddesses) are at play (mostly) and work (a little, to keep honest) in higher realms, which usually means a more complex astronomical system. The more complex the system, the more advanced (or at least, powerful) the beings that hang out there. So, the ninth house of any chart relates to Dhanu and thereby the heart of our galaxy and, following from this, it relates to the gods and goddesses (more advanced extraterrestrial space dudes and peeps or what have you).

We humans plod along down here on planet earth and have not a few hurdles to get to the devas’ part of town. Nevertheless, the natural zodiac underpins all comings and goings on this planet. So, whatever your lagna may be, you can often adjust and regulate it simply by tuning the lagna of the natural zodiac. This gives you a working corollary to rule 1: work with Mesha (Aries) and Vrishabha (Taurus) first, if possible. These correspond to the Lung and Large Intestine meridians in Chinese Medicine.

Examples — Compare Lagna (and second house) with Mesha (lagna of natural zodiac) and Vrishabha

Check out this pattern: the chart style here is South Indian so the rashis progress in the clockwise direction; in this style, the position of Mesha (Aries) is fixed so you always find it in the block just to the right of the top left block. Consequently, the constellation just clockwise to Mesha is Vrishabha (Taurus) and so on. The label AS (used in Western and other Indian styles) designates the lagna (ascendant). In South Indian style, however, the lagna is plainly shown by a small cross-hatch of at the top-left of the relevant sign. Thus, Karka (Cancer) postures as the first house, a place of health and native intelligence and a place that figures as the single best overall marker for who the native is and what she or he is all on about. Rahu (Ra) in the lagna does not bode well but because Ketu (Ke) does not cast any gaze upon it, there is only one malefic bothering the lagna. In general, this is annoying but usually you can just work with Mesha (lagna of the natural zodiac) and Vrishabha and that will effectively serve the same purpose as attempting to fix the lagna directly. In massage, one treats at the problem. But in Chinese Medicine (CM), one treats from a distance, if at all possible. For this affords greater leverage and leads to a better overall systemic effect.

Hence, in CM, the foregoing approach constitutes treatment of the root (cause and fount of the problem) rather than the branches (symptoms) and mostly does a much better job than chasing will-o’-wisps. However, sometimes, the wisps need attention too. In such a case, you still aim to treat the root causes but also incorporate the surface features. Here, then, if needed, you would also treat the rashis related to the first and second houses of your birth chart. As a representative case, consider the following situation.

In example 2, now two malefics (Rahu and Shani) aspect the lagna in Karka. Two or more malefics hammering the house of native intelligence and health strikes a little too close to the core and so you would probably want to treat at least Karka along with Mesha and Vrishabha. The final decision depends upon a close scrutiny of the natal chart along with a look at the current dashas and transits; and, also consideration of what fills your world at the moment—Jyotish aside, what’s really happening? What are you experiencing and how are you feeling? When in doubt between what the chart suggests and how you feel and think, go with your own experiences.

To sum up: you’re part of a food chain: a chart with Mesha lagna (the natural zodiac) presents a view in align with the heavenly realms and so holds keys to the deepest patterns of your life. In contrast, your birth chart shows what gives at a worldly level. It accords with the energies of the earth and solar system. As such, it provides you unmistakable clues on how to circumambulate life in this world and the very next (astral realm).

But any chart other than the natural zodiac can only hint at how to progress much further than that—to where the real action goes down (mental and causal planes) and where the really cool (exceptionally advanced) spiritual beings hang out … at least on their summer holidays. Trek this way or that: it’s totally your choice on which chart (your natal chart or God’s natal chart—the natural zodiac) to take as your main guide and mentor. For genuine spiritual success, one needs to consider, utilize and eventually master both of them.

However, be forewarned: practically all the pearls of perennial wisdom found glistening alongside any true spiritual path only reveal themselves in terms of God’s natal chart. To knit Jyotish and genuine yogic practice together you need to peruse the natural zodiac and not your personal off spin from this Divine template.

The mapping between rashis and meridians was comprehensively detailed and illustrated with a case study on the web page titled Rashis and the Meridian Clock. You can review that for a refresher, if you would like. Otherwise, let’s get to the treatment and start fixing what needs fixing.