Comments
on An Early Spring
The March 16 Forecast, An
Early Spring, recited the tensions and strife during Mars' January
25 to March 11 transit through Aries, as previously predicted.
That Forecast also suggested, the
karmic waters will finally calm for a while,
with the exception of March 25 and 26, when the Moon would be passing
Mars.
The week beginning March 22 heated up
with Richard Clarke's exposé book and testimony before the 9-11
Committee, and March 25 and 26 were indeed the most challenging.
This continuing political contro- versy has crashed through the
emerging spring season like an Army Humvee running over a newly
planted flower bed -- distracting everyone, but not significantly
disrupting world landscape, yet.
With several impending astronomical events
promising to shake up the world later this spring and summ- er, this
remains a good time to
rest and recoup your energies.
To get a general perspective on the these heightened planetary
energies, following is a listing of upcoming astronomical events:
April 7-30
Mercury retrograde
April 19
partial Solar Eclipse at 5:50 degrees Aries
April 23-25
the Moon passes Mars and Saturn
May 1
the Sun transits Rahu
May 4
total Lunar Eclipse at 19:46 Libra
May 5
Jupiter ends 5 month retrograde
May 18
Venus turns retrograde until June 30
May 21-24
Mars conjunct Saturn and Mercury conjunct Rahu
May 25
Kala Sarpa Yoga begins and continues until October 18
June 8
Venus crosses directly in front of the Sun
June 17
Mars transits at strength into its fallen sign of Cancer
June 26
Mercury conjunct Saturn
July 7-10
3 conjunctions: Sun/Saturn, Mercury/Mars, Moon/Rahu
This
is a good checklist of sensitive dates for you personally, as well as
the growing challenges the Bush Administration will face that may very
well culminate during the Iraq turnover at the end of June.
Charts for the major players -- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tony Blair and
John Kerry -- will be analyzed with regard to these astronomical
events in upcoming Forecasts. Birth times are not (yet)
available for Condolisa Rice and Colin Powell, but some comments may
be made based upon their birth cities and calendar dates. With
so much going on, it will be difficult to isolate and prioritize world
events, but the trend change is clear.
The next section, Spring
Astronomy - Five
planets Visible, discusses
the also unusual astronomy of five planets being visible this Spring
and how we can use naked-eye observational astronomy to understand the
astrology and thereby relate to the celestial map.
Perhaps there's some grace of God in this unusual opportunity to view
the planets as they portend a major transformation in the world.
Spring
Astronomy - Five
planets Visible
Because Vedic Astrology uses the sidereal
zodiac, it is a true celestial astro- logy. One can merely
look up
to actu- ally see the planets within the constell- ations, just
as ancient Indian astrologers climbed observatories (like the one at Jaipur, right and
below) to calculate charts at the birth of
children.
True, planets are often not visible, but right now, we have a
spring season treat of all five of the visible planets
observed and used by
ancient astronomers and astrologers. Adding the
fast-moving Moon, below is the sky map looking south at dusk on
March 27 displaying all six planets in white type.
This display of all five observable
planets will continue until early April, when Mercury will drop
below the horizon. The
remaining four planets, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, will
all be visible through May.
The April 5 full Moon will be dazzling in Virgo, to the east
(left in the map) of Jupiter.
Not visible in the sky is Rahu, an
eclipse point, located between Mercury and Venus. Ketu,
the other eclipse point, is both invisible like Rahu and below
the horizon. Also obvi- ously not visible at night is the
Sun, positioned below Mercury. Rahu and the Sun have been
added to the sky map in red type.
Below is a Vedic chart for March 27,
clockwise compared with the sky map's counterclockwise
orientation, but otherwise equivalent.
It's
illuminating to see how astronomy and Vedic Astrology actually
match up, to directly perceive the connection between the
heavens and earth. It's also empowering to see the
astronomy and the astrology, and we can thank
the stars there is at least
one remaining area not reliant upon technology.
Yet, this is more than an entertaining
exer- cise, for as the nights pass, we will also be able to look
up to witness how Venus and
Mars march together toward Saturn until mid May. Then, on
May 18, Venus goes retrograde and will move away from the
approaching conjunc- tion between Mars and Saturn.
Jupiter, retro- grade since January 4, will continue to move
slowly backwards until it regains forward motion May 5.
Unseen, of course, will be the movements and relative
positions of Mercury, the Sun and the two eclipse points (Rahu
and Ketu), although we could calculate these by hand if we wish.
Reverting
back to technology for a moment, to the right is a Vedic chart
for May 22, when visible Mars reaches Saturn in Gemini with the
Moon, Venus has backed away and Jupiter has scarcely moved at
all. Invisible Mercury hasn't advanced much, and this is
due to its retrograde from April 7 to May 1. The invisible
Sun will be in Taurus then, and the unseen Rahu/Ketu remain in
Aries and Libra respectively.
Since we now know where these four
invis- ible planets will be, we can understand the celes- tial map
by looking up at the sky during the next eight weeks to watch
Mars, Venus, Saturn, the Moon and Jupiter shift positions to
reach this provocative configuration.
Provocative means to excite,
call up or
stimulate,
and these are apt terms for the celest- ial signals at that
time.
While there are many disruptive astronomical
events this spring and summer (as listed in the above section), Mars' conjunction with Saturn is a primary cause
for concern -- tough Saturn resists aggressive Mars to create tension with inherent violence. A further concern can be seen in
all the planets having moved to one side of Rahu and Ketu, which are
the head and tail of a serpent
in Vedic mythology. Rahu is the
head and indicates the future, while Ketu is the past. The
eclipse points, then, symbolize time. When all
the planets are on one side of the serpent's halves, it captures
the planets in a Yoga (special combination) called Kala Sarpa in
Sanskrit, which naturally translates into
time serpent. With the
planets thus confined, fate is accentuated over free will.
