Astrological Heart Problems

This is the chart of an athletic (over) achiever, in her mid twenties. With the Sun and an Exalted Mercury in the 10th, I was able to discern the tri-athlete level ability, and the conjunction of Mars and Saturn, easily showed her intensity and drive.

Her Dasha fits well with the Asthotari Dasha sequence, a conditional nakshatra specific dasha, that will be more precise for her, rather than the standard Vimshottari Dasha.  Having begun the Mars Major period in 2007, she adamantly confirmed, that was when life started to become harder and more stressful, and it was in this dasha she discovered the holes in her heart.

The Mars dasa can show surgery, because he rules the 12th, and has that connection with Saturn and Ketu.

In the Trimamsha Varga, Mars is in the 12th house, a house of loss, in neutral status, which makes it’s energy scarce.  This is aspected by a Sun in a Great Enemies sign, which does not help.

The afflicted fire element, while did help sustain her drive, may have pushed her too far.

Ketu on the Asendant or Lagna

Ketu, The South Node of the Moon

The following excerpt comes from a written report I was creating for a recent client. After I completed the paragraphs below, it felt important to share them with others, by way of this blog, for folks who may be overly influenced by Ketu.  Also, if your rising sign or moon sign is Taurus, you may be experiencing a little of this until January 22nd, 2013.

“Ketu on the lagna, makes one seek a high spiritual destiny. During the times mentioned above, would be an ideal time for more intensive meditation and Self-study. It can make a person adaptable and subject to change, and can also make a person sometimes inconsistent with their direction in life. It can make a person hypersensitive to others, and dissatisfied with life in general. When understood positively, it can help us to see that we are not the doer of our actions, and that only by acting appropriately in this life, and surrendering our attachments to the results of our actions do we ever find peace and success. Negatively it can make us cast aside the world, and try to find spirituality by renouncing life.

When Yogananda was once asked about people who gave up all their possessions to go live in a cave to meditate, he said, “I’ve seen those yogis, and during the day they argue about philosophy, and during the night they argue about who gets the fire wood.” While this is your challenge to learn to be in the world, while remaining unattached, that is a special part of your spiritual practice.  To try to get away from the world, is denying that everything is divine. Until we know that everything is divine, we remain trapped in ignorance. What you seek is right here and now.  It is only identification with the mind, that tells you otherwise. You must endeavor to know what you are beyond the mind, so that you can see everything as it is. Then it doesn’t matter what you are doing in the world, because you are at peace in the realization that there is only one divine thing. This is the blessing of Ketu, to realize that. It is not easy, and yet it is the easiest thing in the world.”

Rahu, the North Node of the Moon

“The other side of Ketu is Rahu. Where Ketu shows where we can become obsessed, Rahu shows where we can become compulsive. So it is often that the representation of these two nodes indicate our most challenging lessons to learn in this life. They are not easy to control, nor are they straightforward. They are shadow planets, and can often make us inebriated in regards to the areas of life they influence. In this way, it makes it hard to understand just what is going on.

Rahu in the 7th house shows confusion around relationships. It can make us compulsive about relationships. It can make us always look for the next best thing in relationships, thereby we never settle down and work with what we have.  Rahu in the 7th, like Rahu in Libra, can attract to us toxic or confusing or partners with addiction problems. Positively, it can make us do well in non traditional relationships or with relationships to foreigners and foreign countries.

Often though, Rahu in the 7th, causes us to be out of sync with our partners. So it takes extra patience and developed listening skills to have good relationships. Or we can make the most out of relationships, by choosing relationships that have plenty of space.

We need to remember, that consistent meditation, and endeavoring to surround our selves with supportive, non deceptive, and encouraging people will very radically neutralize much of Rahu’s influence on the 7th house.  Also, we need to be aware, that we need to be around people who do not enable our own addictions or misconceptions about our selves. If the people you surround your self with, allow you to wallow in misery, rather than encouraging you to not be an energy vampire, you need to find new people to be around. “

Ketu Taurus Rahu Scorpio 2011

There’s been some debate about when Rahu and Ketu change signs this year.  I’ve been using the Mean Node, which says it happens on June 8th, 2011.  Many others have used the True Node, which has the change of signs set for this morning.

Here is a description of the differences that I found on a forum…

“The Moon’s Nodes are the points where the orbit of the Moon crosses the plane of the ecliptic (the plane of the ecliptic is the path that the planets travel around the Sun). Where that orbit crosses from South (below the ecliptic) to North (above the ecliptic) is called the North Node, and the opposite crossing is the South Node.

Before there were computers, astrologers had to manually calculate the positions of all the points on a chart by “interpolating” from astronomical tables that showed the positions once each day. So for example, if your Moon was in 2 degrees Aries at Midnight before you were born and 14 degrees Aries at Midnight after you were born, it moved 12 degrees in 24 hours, or about half a degree per hour. Then if you were born at 8 o’clock in the morning, you could figure that the Moon had moved 4 degrees since midnight (8 hours times half a degree = 4 degrees), so your Moon would be at 6 degrees Aries (2 degrees at midnight from the ephemeris plu 4 degrees that it moved in the 8 hours until you were born).

Now this method of figuring where the planet is at any given tim between one midnight and the next midnight works perfectly as long as the planet moves

Ketu, The South Node of the Moon

at a constant rate of speed. But if it speeds up and slows down over the course of the day, then this way of calculating only gives you the average (“mean”) motion per hour … in the example above, the moon might actually move a little bit more than half a degree one hour and a little bit less than half a degree the next hour … so what you are calculating is really the position according to the planet’s Mean (average) motion rather than its True (exact) motion over those particular hours.

In practice, the motion of all the planets (and the Moon) is regular enough that the difference between the True and Mean positions is so slight as to be

virtually identical. The Moons nodes, however, do speed up and slow down enough during the day that there is a tiny but measurable difference between the Mean and True positions. Before computers, it was impossible to calculate the True position of the nodes without spending hours at celestial mechanics equations, so the Mean nodes were always used. Now that computers are commonplace, the True nodes can be calculated.

However, since the Mean nodes were used for thousands of years, many astrologers still prefer to use that method even though it is a tiny bit inaccurate. That’s the only difference between the True and Mean North Nodes. The difference is usually so small that it’s not worth worrying about (unless you’re a Virgo! ) Hope this helps.”

While I’m all for using the actual position, which is one reason I like Vedic Astrology so much, because it is sidereal, but it may be that the information provided about Rahu and Ketu as it moves through the signs, in light of the old texts, might reflect the Mean Node, since that is the information they had to work with.

Vedic Astrology Mantra Remedies

A client recently asked me which mantras were best to use.  She indicated there were a number on the internet, and she could not decide which was most appropriate.

While it is best to learn a mantra directly from someone who has practiced the mantras, that is not always immediately possible.

The following mantras are effective, and ones I have used since beginning the study of astrology.

Saturn as Ruler of the 2nd and 3rd Houses in the 10th House

(The 2011 chart we are using is posted here: http://ashevillevedicastrology.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/2011-astrology/)

One unfavorable placement of the Ruler of the 2nd in the 10th, is having trouble maintaining support from partners, or being a supportive partner. Since, from the chart for 2011, Ketu is in the 7th house (house of partners) this is supported.  Ketu can also create instability in relationships.  On a positive note, that can provide a positive opportunity to transform relationships into either a purer or healed form. This depends on how you work with it.

Saturn ruling the 3rd house, and being in the 10th, this shows a slow and stable growth of careers involving technology: internet, computers.  It also shows an interest in old (Saturn) forms of art, expression, and speaking.

Also…

If in the past you have had great success with short distance travels, being a public speaker, artist, editor, musician or sales person, this will be a good year for you. If you have had difficulty, you may find that your renewed efforts in these fields fall flat. Why? Because some planets work well for some people, and not so well for others. It depends on your astrological horoscope as to how they function. Without a thorough analysis of the horoscope, you can simply refer to your past experiences. They will give you a good indication.

More to come…