Your square Vedic chart is a map of past life karmas (actions) actualizing in this life. Applying Vedic Astrology's extensive technical tools peels away the layers of karma to unveil life-long and cyclical circumstances and events. Indians call their astrologers Travelers in time.
Some karmas signified by the planetary dispositions are fixed - absolute. You cannot change your parents, the color of your eyes, your talents, hereditary health issues and other traits we label as inborn. Many other fated karmas vary in potency and are often mixed -- some good some bad. These yield probabilities, not absolute certainties. The experienced astrologer weighs these influences, predicting events. He can also judge whether (or not) anticipated events will precipitate changes in your life's circumstances. In select instances, the planetary karmas all line up, enabling startlingly accurate predictions. In most others, only the likelihood of an event and/or a circumstance change is indicated. |
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These fated influences are only part of the life, for free will expresses itself (creates its own karmas) to alter predestined circumstances and events. Having your Vedic chart interpreted illuminates the way ahead.
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a Spinel for the Sun |
For example, the astrologer predicts your spouse to be exceptionally intelligent and reveals a cycle when you are likely to get married. If you freely chooses a brilliant a partner, and you marry during this favorable cycle, then a successful and happy union tends to result.
Learning your predestined karmas, then, empowers free will, not the opposite. Taking advantage of favorable influences at the right time, you advance. Learning your Vedic chart's frailties and flaws empowers you to limit upcoming karmic harms and turn these dissonant energies into the strength to persevere. The goal in life, thereby, is to conquer one's chart. This advances your Dharma (life purpose), brings happiness and stimulates personal growth. In this way, Vedic Astrology is most essentially a spiritual discipline.
While you are not expected to learn this strange Eastern spiritual craft, it is useful to know two powerful concepts unique to Vedic Astrology -- predicting via Dasas and transits and Rahu and Ketu, the Moon's nodes. |
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Heaven and earth circles around Lunar Pearl |
Predicting Via Dasas And Transits
The Dasa system is the predictive technique for which Vedic Astrology is famous. Dasas, routinely called planetary periods or planetary cycles, are intervals during which the person’s life corresponds to the energies of individual planets in rotation. This rotation is determined by the Moon’s position at birth, giving credence to the Moon’s primacy. Planetary Dasa periods range from six to twenty years. For the nine planets, these total one hundred and twenty years, which Hindus believe to be the natural life span.
Dasas, then, are like a second birth chart. Their rotation dictates planetary influence activations - when the various planetary karmas will play out in the twelve houses. For example, during a Jupiter Dasa, the person may gain wealth and have children, and Mars Dasa is a time for adventures and sports. The birth chart can be compared to a dwelling, with the planetary Dasas indicating when lights in each room are turned on. Driving down a street of cookie cutter houses at night, they look different. The various lighted rooms individualize the Vedic houses illuminated by the Dasas. |
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Transits, the passage of planets in today's skies over the birth chart, is an auxiliary predictive tool. Transits are best understood as catalysts for the planetary Dasa's karmas.. Taking these two techniques together, Dasas are like the river of life, determining which part of your life you are you are currently experiencing. Thus, Dasas are the underlying soul-level influences. Transits are like weather upon the river, bringing temporary and more worldly impacts to the Dasa planets. When Dasa planets influence concurrently with transiting planets, event likelihood is greatly increased, enabling precise and sometimes amazing predictions.
Rahu And Ketu, The Moon's Nodes Rahu, and its companion Ketu are unique planets to Vedic Astrology. These hard to understand Eastern symbols are basically intensifying influences. Malefics Rahu and Ketu, are the Moon's Nodes, the astronomical points calculated to pinpoint eclipses, and as they block the light, Rahu and Ketu are called the shadowy planets. That they normally move backward, called retrograde, is indicative of the Nodes' unique natures. |
A Solar Spinel and Yellow Topaz for Jupiter |
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A rich mythology underlies all of Vedic Astrology, describing the deep meanings behind complex Eastern symbolism. This ancient story tells how Rahu and Ketu became the shadow planets.
Lord Vishnu, the creator and preserver, gathered the planetary gods together and offered them a vial of Amrita so they could live forever in the solar system. Lord Vishnu then left the room, and a shadow serpent crept in to drink from the vial. Alerted by the Sun and the Moon, Lord Vishnu quickly returned and cut the demon in two, but too late to deny the two pieces, Rahu the head and Ketu the tail, immortality. The shadow planets thus joined the solar system as great enemies of the Luminaries. Rahu and Ketu powerfully swallow -up the Sun and Moon in eclipses. Then the stars can be seen, revealing deep knowledge from the dawning of time.
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Ketu, the mystical brainless bottom half,
intensifies by dissolving materiality into spirit, creating insight and
perception. Ketu is unconscious desires, and while it is a superlative
mystical influence, its otherworldly energies can also bring the most
devious and weird effects into the real world. Ketu is the past.
Wherever the Nodes are placed in the chart is an area of psychological intensity, a churning in the life that challenges us to address and conquer. Thus, the Nodes, even more than irresistible and punishing Saturn, are known as the soldiers of karma. Yet, Rahu can bring tremendous wordily benefits and Ketu stimulating insight. |
Hessonite Garnet for Rahu |
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Copyright 1999-2005 Doug Riemer
