Thursday, October 29, 2015

Why Marriages Last

For Australians, marriage has today become one of the many lifestyle options; and only some “I dos” last “till death do us part”. Love, trust, respect, commitment and the ability of the spouses to laugh with each other play a vital role in keeping a couple together, according to a survey by the Australian Institute of Family Studies titled ‘Why Marriages Last’.
Statistics reveal that fewer Australians are getting married or staying married. During 2001, the number of marriages registered in Australia were the lowest since 1978. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 10,300 fewer weddings in 2001 than in 2000; and one-third of the couples who divorced in 2001 had separated within five years of marriage. This has resulted in a 20-year high in divorces. There were 55,300 divorces in 2001.
“Lasting and happy marriages often appear to be uncomplicated and comfortable, but most long-married couples attest to the effort involved in sustaining a marriage over a long period,” says Robyn Parker, the researcher of the survey.
People who have been married a long time say that if one can stick out the rough patches, things do get better and it is probably a better option to stay the course. But as many as one in three marriages in Australia are ending in divorce. A growing number of unhappily married people are convinced it is better to call it quits than endure the misery of an unfulfilled marriage. Some, like Joe Tammes and Sally Marsh, who stuck with each other are happier five years later when the situation at home and work has changed.
The survey reveals that partners need to assess how things are going at regular intervals. They need to be willing to adjust their behavior or learn new skills to keep a waning relationship alive. They also need a strong sense of being a couple, while retaining their own identity, compromising and adapting to each other and being prepared to give more than they receive.
Says Parker, “They are the president of each other’s fan club. You make an effort to maintain the relationship without finding it a chore. Couples might set aside 15 minutes a night to talk without distraction or go out together on their own once a month. Couple-time is one way to ensure that a
relationship gets the attention it needs.”
Jill Martins, who has just joined oil painting for beginners with her husband of 40 years, believes partners should treat one another as friends. When you fall out with friends, you sort things out and don’t lose them. However, couples married for 40 and 50 years feel that today’s generation doesn’t have the same commitment to marriage that is essential for seeing one through the difficult times.
James and Florence Hill, who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary recently, say: “It is destiny, character, compromise, compassion and compatibility that contributed to our long lasting marriage. By the law of averages in Australia, this marriage should have failed, but it didn’t. In the 1930s marriage was seen as sacred.”
Proud parents of seven daughters, the Hills’ feel marriages are breaking down today because of materialism, lack of spiritual depth and understanding of real love. “Our love has always been bigger than both of us. After 60 years of togetherness, love and life are still great. We can argue and at the same time laugh and be friends. That is our secret,” says Florence.
However, not all long-term marriages are satisfying for both spouses and those who stay in an unhappy marriage do so for a variety of reasons. A 57-year-old man married for 25 years says, “There is a growing together… like a tree around a boulder underneath the ground. The root eventually goes around it.”
More married couples are surviving into old age together than at any time in history, according to Australia’s Health 2002 report. It estimates that over the next two decades, there will be a 66 per cent rise in the number of women aged 75-84 who have a husband and a 66 per cent increase in the
number of men in that age-group living with a wife.
Iris Krasnow, author of ‘Surrendering to Marriage’, writes: “Marriage is not designed to make us happy, it’s God’s way of forcing us to grow into responsible adults.” Wendy Dixon, a mother of three kids who has just completed 15 years of marriage says, “I am committed and want my marriage to last, so I work towards it. My parents, who have been married for 46 years, have been my role models. As the years go by, crises come and go and you feel you have gone through this before.”
According to Dr de Vaus, senior research adviser at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, marriage works to the benefit of both men and women. Married men and women have much better mental health than the divorced, separated and never- married.
However, marriage has different connotations for different people. For some it is a life-long commitment, for others a declaration of love or a contract of financial interdependence. Some couples feel being in love is not enough; they attend pre-nuptial counseling at centers like the Catholic Welfare Agency, Centacare, funded by the federal government.
The survey also reveals that a common cause for marriages floundering is everyday stress – either spouse becoming ill, losing a job, getting depressed, children in trouble, financial difficulties, poor communication, emotional neglect, either spouse having affairs, husband’s drinking, controlling or critical attitudes and spending too much time away from the family.
Single, college-educated city dwellers between the ages of 25 and 34 are the fastest growing group of the “never-married”. However, the number of de facto couples has doubled. There were 72 per cent de facto couples in 2001 as against 31 per cent in 1981.
In today’s society, the focus is on education, career and mortgage – owning a house appears to be more important than getting a wife. Statistics show that 70 per cent couples have lived together before marrying as against 16 per cent in 1975.
For many of the people interviewed for the survey, companionship and commitment were prominent meanings of marriage; and belief in marriage as an institution, its place in their lives and in society ran deep. The majority of those who were married had not questioned or analyzed their decision, seeing it as part of the traditional passage through life.
Enduring and rewarding marriages can be created and maintained. Marriages, they say, are made in heaven; but they require a hell of a lot of hard work to sustain.



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Science and Astrology

We are a democratic country. We also try to be secular and, to keep pace with the time, scientific! No one can surely say how far we are successful but our efforts are on. Every one accepts that there is a need to brush our scientific temperament, particularly after union Human Resource Minister Murli Manohar Joshi proposed to introduce astrology as a subject in universities. Electronic media has exploited the new idea to their best. Thousands of articles have been written, and are still being written on this topic since then. A common man, who does not want to put on a mask of a thinker, when interviewed, found to be in-tact with his belief in astrology. The media campaigners statements aimed to prove how the entire astrology is based on wrong presumptions, failed to convince the reader, even the rational class of society, as they do not touch upon the nerve of those who believe in astrology. Proving that the methodology being followed by the astrologers would not serve the purpose, as astrologers themselves do not claim it to be a perfect and pragmatic science. It is normally termed as partial science. Let’s first get the faces strength in understanding the term science. The word science comes from a Latin word ‘scientia’ meaning ‘knowledge’ which is derived from the verb ‘scire’ meaning ‘to know’. Dictionary of contemporary English published by Oxford University press (1989) defines science as organized knowledge esp. when obtained by observation and testing of facts, about the physical world, natural laws and society. In simple words science can be defined as the process of knowledge which has some theories, which are proven with examples or concrete evidences that can lead to a rational conclusion. Today science is taken only as empirical science like physics, chemistry, biology etc. Crusaders of so called science initially declined to accept sociology, political science, history and other non-empirical sciences to be accepted as sciences. A significant discovery was made in such field towards the end of 19th century when Sigmund Freud proposed his theory of Psychology. These theories are not experienced all the time as expected by science. But still, having a strong base of maximum percentage of proven theories, the field of study was accepted as science. Same was the case with Herbert Spencer’s social theories or Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Entering into the field of empirical sciences, many theories have been changing over the period. In Physics, for example, the theory of nature of light proposed by Newton was discarded in the latter period. It was replaced by the wave theory. Let us take a view towards the chronology of how theories of nature of light have been changing over the period. Prior to AD 1666 ? Before this year it was supposed that dispersion of light produced color instead of separating already existing colors. AD1666 ? Isaac Newton was the first to discover that sunlight is composed of a mixture of light of different colors in certain proportions and that it could be separated into its components by dispersion. Newton explained it by the assumption of a corpuscular theory of light. According to this theory a luminous body emits swarms of corpuscles that travel in straight lines through the all- pervading ether. AD 1676? The ancients believed that light traveled at infinite speed; its finite speed was first discovered by Danish astronomer Ole R’mer in this year. AD 1678? Christian Huygens, a contemporary of Newton, (in The Trait? de la Lumi’re/Treatise on Light, 1678) formulated a wave theory of light, but Newton’s great contributions to the knowledge of light, combined with his great reputation, caused his theory to be favored. AD 1801? Thomas Young, British physicist, physician, and Egyptologist revived the wave theory of light and identified the phenomenon of interference. AD 1821?French physicist Augustine Jean Fresnel refined the theory of polarized light. Fresnel realized in 1821 that light waves do not vibrate like sound waves longitudinally, in the direction of their motion, but transversely, at right angles to the direction of the propagated wave. Augustine Fresnel and Thomas Young established Huygens’s theory by the evidence of their experiments on diffraction and interference. AD 1873? James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist, went on to infer that light consists of electromagnetic waves. He also established that light has a radiation pressure, and suggested that a whole family of electromagnetic radiations must exist, of which light was only one. (Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism 1873) AD1888 ? James Clerk Maxwell’s electromagnetic radiation theory was confirmed with the discovery of radio waves. AD1900 ? Max Planck, German physicist, framed the quantum theory. He proposed that radiation is emitted or absorbed by atoms in discrete units, or quanta, of energy. AD1905?Albert Einstein used Planck’s quantum theory as an explanation for photo electricity. AD1913 ? Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, advocated quantum theory of light. He postulated that emission or absorption of energy occurs only with electron’s transition from one stable state to another. When a transition occurs, an electron moving to a higher orbit absorbs energy and an electron moving to a lower orbit emits energy. In so doing, a set number of quanta of energy are emitted or absorbed at a particular frequency. Similarly the absorption of light, and in particular the emission of electrons from metallic surfaces illuminated by light (photoelectric effect), was explained by the quantum theory. Certain properties of light, however, are explained only on the hypothesis that light is propagated as electromagnetic waves. Thus the quantum theory accounts for the photoelectric effect, while the electromagnetic wave theory accounts for the interference of light. The relation between these two theories can be approached in terms of Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. His uncertainty principal (or indeterminacy principle) says ?In quantum mechanics, it is impossible to know with unlimited accuracy the position and momentum of a particle. The principle arises because in order to locate a particle exactly, an observer must bounce light (in the form of a photon) off the particle, which must alter its position in an unpredictable way.? He gave a theoretical limit to the precision with which a particle’s momentum and position can be measured simultaneously: the more accurately the one is determined, the more uncertainty there is in the other. All possibilities of the discovery of new theory proving light to be something else than what we believe today are fairly in chance. There have been many theories about the structure of an atom, which were contradictory to each other. To ask a practical question, has any human being ever seen a nucleus by any means? Or can anybody photograph the DNA as double helical, which was proposed by James Watson on the basis of illusion seen during the sleep? But still we spend thousands of crores of dollars for further study in it. We cannot deny all these facts merely because we cannot see them. For many things we have to rely on the experimental results. In a nutshell, science gives scope to all rational possibilities in understanding of any subject. Gone are the days of monarchy when Galileo was forced to change his opinions based on his organized and systematized study. We are a democratic country with democratic way of life and expression. But those who threatened Galileo with death for denying what was believed then were called orthodox and unscientific in the latter period. The reason behind was they did not allow new concepts to creep in. Today astrology is believed to be a partially scientific branch of study. Are we not courageous enough to let the scrutiny go on over this subject by making it popular and draw the conclusion after the complete comparative study is done? Are we not becoming orthodox in an opposite way? Thorough study will be the only way to prove or disprove any branch of knowledge. Not an autocratic control of not giving exposure to the subject. If it has an element of truth, it will survive by the nature’s law of survival of the fittest, else it will extinguish giving more perfect ways to study the human destiny. Another base on which astrology has survived through the ages is that there is no method in (empirical) science which would answer the questions of destiny of a person or forecast the fortune. This was the inspection of Astrology through the lenses of so called science. Beyond this, in fact, astrology has a lot to do with human need of belief. By adopting astronomical basis for it, we are giving more scientific base to our beliefs. To put it in another way, Astrology is a study of destiny. Theories in it are merely tools to reach to the conclusion. It is not just dreaming about the promotion or getting married to a beloved girl, but it has a deeper aspect of natural charges governing human life. Let us not be finicky by simply denying it because all theories or predictions do not come true. We will have to discard all the methods of gathering national statistical data and the branches of study like History, Sociology, Political science and Economics etc. if perfection of experimentation is the only criterion applied. Let us find out the theories in astrology, which are being experienced as true and try to reason out them as to why are they experienced. Only then we will be truly called people with scientific temperament. Astrology is an art having a base of science. Like surgery, after a certain level one has to lift himself above technicalities and achieve skill of doing the thing swiftly. That is one of the sciences through which one can read fortune. There are many other sciences like palmistry, Numerology, Face Reading, Ramala Shastra, Nadi Samhita, Chhaya shastra and so on. Some occult sciences like Tantra, Aghori Vidya, Karna Pishaccha, Mantra Vigyan and intuitions, are also used to know the fortune. Astrology provides larger base to all other skills. All these are only means to read the fortune, and are not unchangeable. The theories in these all sciences have changed over the period. Like every other science it is also moving towards perfection. In the olden days Astrological skills were the basic qualification for any high-ranking post in the king’s courts or Army. King Samudra Gupta and Vikramaditya are well known for their skilful courtiers. But in the latter period, particularly after the industrial revolution, all these sciences went on the back burner. Obviously the development slowed down and people in general started thinking, with their boasted confidence that man can create and destroy the things he feel alike. But now in the age of uncertainty these sciences, Astrology or Vastushastra are being refreshed. As one can find a cure for fever in Homeopathy, Allopathy, or Ayurveda or even in Naturopathy. These all branches of medicine have their own method of treating diseases. Some of them are contrary to each other but still capable of curing diseases. Same is the case with all branches of Astrological sciences. Now, a question remains, even if it is a branch of study, should it be introduced in Universities? What is the use of this study in terms of productivity? Answer is simple- examine what contribution is made by historians, philosophers, sociologists and those practicing other branches of arts. If you find that they have made, be optimistic that some day with his study some astrologer would guide our nation on the path of prosperity like Kalidasa did in the time of King Vikramaditya. And if just hope doesn’t satisfy you, ask an astrologer — or else simply disbelieve everything you have read till here and call the writer vicious. You can surely do that, remember, we are a democratic country. – See more at:

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Fate and Free Will in the Mahabharata

“Now I have become Time, Destroyer of worlds!”, says Krishna to Arjuna in that apocalyptic scene of the Bhagvad Gita when He shows him his awesome and terrifying Universal Form. The concept of fate and free will in the Mahabharata is deep and complex like the epic itself. The Mahabharata itself seems to support the concept that the Great War was predestined. Below is a passage from the Arghyaharana parva of the Mahabharata at the time of Yudhishthira’s Rajasuya sacrifice:
“Beholding that vast concourse of all the Kshatriyas, the Muni Narada, O king of men, became thoughtful. And, O bull amongst men, the Rishi began to recollect the words he had heard of old in the mansion of Brahma regarding the incarnation on earth of portions of every deity. And knowing, O son of the Kuru race, that that was a concourse (of incarnate) gods, Narada thought in his mind of Hari with eyes like lotus-petals. He knew that, that creator himself of everyone, that exalted of all gods–Narayana – who had formerly commanded the celestials, saying, – ‘Be ye born on earth and slay one another and come back to heaven’ – that slayer of all the enemies of the gods, that subjugator of all hostile towns, in order to fulfil his own promise, had been born in the Kshatriya order. And Narada knew that the exalted and holy Narayana, also called Sambhu the lord of the universe, having commanded all the celestials thus, had taken his birth in the race of Yadus and that foremost of all perpetuators of races, having sprung from the line of the Andhaka-Vrishnis on earth was graced with great good fortune and was shining like the moon herself among stars. Narada knew that Hari, the grinder of foes, whose strength of arm was ever praised by all the celestials with Indra among them, was then living in the world in human form. That the Self-Create will himself take away (from the earth) this vast concourse of Kshatriyas endued with so much strength! Such was the vision of Narada the omniscient who knew Hari or Narayana to be that Supreme Lord whom everybody worshipped with sacrifice. And Narada, gifted with great intelligence and the foremost of all persons conversant with morality, thinking of all this, sat at that sacrifice of the wise king Yudhisthira the just with feelings of awe.”
This theme resonates in the Mahabharata. Lord Krishna, Vyasa, Narada and other great rishis knew that the great catastrophe was predestined. For instance Vyasa advises Satyavati, Amba and Ambalika that they should retire to the forest after the death of Pandu as otherwise they would be witness to the suicide of their race. Draupadi is referred to as being born for the destruction of the Kauravas and Kshatriyas. In the Vana parva, Krishna assures Draupadi that the earth would drink the blood of the Kauravas in a future catastrophic war. It is as if Lord Krishna was conducting a sacrifice of war in which all the Kshatriyas of the world would be annihilated. But what was the secret behind this planned destruction of the Kshatriyas?
The reason may be that the kshatriyas and kings of the world had developed demonic tendencies of greed, arrogance and unbridled lust for conquest and power. At the time of the Mahabharata, India was a land full of powerful and ambitious empires bent on world domination. There were innumerable powerful Kshatriya dynasties which terrorized the world with their armies. Any powerful king would set out with his army and start on a conquest of the four quarters inflicting war on any state opposing their will. Their conquests stretched as far west as the yavanas (ancient greeks). The Mahabharata, although a treatise on the utter futility of War, is full of the heroic grandeur of this militarism. Vyasa doesn’t mince words when he describes a brave warrior crushing his enemy in battle. The Pandavas themselves conquer all lands for Yudhishthira’s Rajasuya. But a point came when these incessant wars of conquest started destroying the peaceful development of human life and things were so bad apparently that the Lord Himself had to incarnate and destroy this uncontrollable order of conquerors and warriors.
However true to its claim of being as broad a canvas as Life itself, the Mahabharata is a complicated jungle. The grand drama unfolds on the stage of tragic destiny but the actors are not following prescripted roles. Free will plays as big a role if not bigger in the unfolding of the Gotterdamerung. There are fundamental reasons stemming from individual beliefs, idiosyncracies, arrogance, egoism and failure which are as much causal in the epic’s grand march to Doom. Dhritarashtra’s moral blindness and personality warped by perceived injustice, Duryodhana’s flawed upbringing which filled him with envy, hate and arrogance, Shakuni’s malice, Bhishma’s narcissistic oath obsession, Karna’s suicidal fixation with self worth based on military prowess, Draupadi’s never extinguishing fire of hatred for the Kauravas and Krishna’s vision of a Dharmic India purged of the grip of self aggrandizing militaristic dictators are great pillars in the destructive edifice of the Mahabharata.
The consequences of this world war for Dharma were however disastrous for India. A highly developed and prosperous society was subjected to the horrors of cataclysmic war. The powerful order of the Kshatriyas was near annihilated and the grand combination of thinkers, statesmen and warriors which had made Mahabharata age India an unrivalled powerhouse was obliterated. All that was left was a ravaged country full of widows, children and degenerate men as warned by Lord Krishna in the Kaurava assembly and as foreseen by the intelligent Arjuna before the start of the grand carnage. This degeneration grimly manifests as the mass suicidal frenzy of Krishna’s own Yadava race thirty six years after the Great War.
Thus as in Life itself, Fate and Free Will form the two strands which weave the rich tapestry of the Epic. The spirit of the Mahabharata however is not fatalistic. Vyasa’s vision is reflected in the action packed life of Shri Krishna, the supreme hero of the epic. The great poem reverberates with His grand personality and inspires us to be like Him- mighty and full of courage, never disheartened and ever enthusiastic, ready to crush evil and establish Virtue on earth. And isn’t Arjuna’s annihilation of the Khandava forest with Krishna’s help an illustration of man’s ability to destroy the forest of self limitations with God’s grace and achieve high goals by self exertion. The heroes of the Mahabharata are the great karmayogis: Bhishma, Karna, Krishna and Arjuna and not the dubious fatalist Dhritarashtra.


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Pisces:The sign of Mystics

Pisces is the 12th sign of the zodiac, one of the two mutable signs ruled by Jupiter that has often been associated with a mystical quality. Those individuals in whose charts, the sign of Pisces is prominent, either by virtue of hosting strong planets or the moon, or charts with Pisces rising in the first or personal house, serve as good examples for these attributes. I must quickly point out, for the benefit of beginners, that like other factors in astrology, this Pisces influence is also amenable to being modified (diminished as well as enhanced) in charts and so must be kept in mind when making a horoscopic judgment.
Those with prominent Pisces have been called mystic and psychic; they have been labeled as simpletons, and they have been stereotyped as ‘those who dwell in deep waters’! They have been cruelly described as “homely” and even unintelligent at times, and have even been portrayed as shrewd. They have been found to be nebulous by some, with their awareness and psychic-ectoplasm hovering between realities, giving the impression that the Pisces is focused on a realm that is neither here nor there! So many diverse labels and such controversies characterize this ‘mutable’ sign that forms the tail end of the zodiac. Pisces stands for fish and fish is a simple life form, many say. It is also one of the oldest life forms and depicts survival and adaptability without which no life form can aspire to thrive for long. Pisces reminds us of the smell of the seas, the chaotic primordial sea from which creation arose, according to Hindu mythology, as gods and demons churned the ocean of milk and found nectar as well as poison. The secrets that the ocean can hold in its bosom are unfathomable, and yet it is made of transparent water that keeps moving and seems so incapable of hiding anything or keeping something buried within.
Controversy can be the epitome of mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces); after all they depict the initiation of movement, as the fixed energy (indicated by the fixed signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) begins to overcome inertia and works its way towards the frenzy of motion, depicted by the movable signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn). The mutable signs signify the state of evolution in which one has the maximum freedom to choose one or the other potential path, to remain static or to become dynamic. The outcome seems to be almost entirely in the hand of the individual at the mutable stage of soul-development. Mutable signs, then, are pregnant with possibilities and in that symbolic sense the mutable signs in our horoscopes, the houses they represent and the planets that are placed in these signs represent our potential and possibilities. We may go as far as stating that these represent the tasks related with our growth that we came to this earthly existence for accomplishing.
While tropical astrology designates Pisces as an area of zodiac that is ruled by the Lord of the Oceans, Neptune, the Indian system of jyotish assigns the rulership of Pisces to Jupiter, his other area of reign being Sagittarius, which is also considered as its special place, or moolatrikona. There is a direct, dynamic, and forceful side to Jupiter, typically signified by Sagittarius, the archer (Vivekananda, known for his directness, had a strong Sagittarius element in his chart). However, Jupiter also has a dreamy, philosophical side that resonates well with Pisces. The absent-minded professor Jupiter has a depth that is well in tune with the nature of Pisces. Einstein’s chart has Pisces in the 10th house of accomplishment with some striking planetary placements there. The nature of his work in a sense exemplifies the Piscean theme that encompasses the wide stretch between pragmatism to something that is almost esoteric in the sense of being a series of concepts that stretched the mind and also the boundaries of physical science. That his work and concepts have been of help to the householder and the holy men, alike, is a tribute to the enormous scope of what a finely tuned and therefore well-prepared Piscean mind can accomplish.
The apparent secretiveness of Pisces is not a passionate attempt to hold things back and to not share, a trait that is typically attributed to Scorpios. Pisces are taciturn because they are simultaneously receiving information from so many sources and perceiving things at so many levels. Little wonder that they often seem distracted, smiling at nothing and give the appearance of being “not quite all here”. Those with moon in Pisces are often in tune with other realms, whether they know it consciously or not. Words that spring forth from their lips (or pen) may have sources that extend beyond the immediate reality.
With Saturn, the lord of karma and ‘time’ ruling the 11th and 12th, namely, houses of gains and loss — for many of those with Pisces ascending or with Pisces as a prominent sign, or perhaps by virtue of having an exalted Venus there — worldly gains and losses are not uppermost issues to focus upon. There is a detachment between the material reality that dances to the tune of rigid rules signified by Saturn and the intrinsic higher qualities of Venus. Pisces is the sign of exaltation of Venus and artistic appreciation and expression comes easily to these individuals. The great poet of India, Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, was born with Pisces rising and moon placed therein. The pearls that the Pisces dives within to retrieve often are expressed in a poetic and ornate manner. Pisces is not comfortable with logical and linear communication or expression. For putting two and two together in a linear manner! It is hardly surprising that mercury the logician and communicator is debilitated in Pisces.
The Pisces find it easy to communicate (3rd house) their deep-diving treasures (8th house) through the channel of arts and poetry. Often they prefer to recite (Taurus, the natural sign of voice, speech is in the 3rd house in a Pisces chart) rather than write (the jurisdiction of 2nd house). They can be generous and not very money-minded, and at times find their lessons in the areas of good financial management, thanks to the teacher Saturn, which rules over their 11th and 12th houses indicating income and expenses. Jupiter’s debility in Capricorn, the 11th house in a Pisces rising chart is not happenstance, but probably indicative of the reminder to the Pisces that he or she is a spirit who has come to this earthly reality to learn how to be human! Pragmatism need not be mutually exclusive of spirituality.
The 10th house often holds that which is considered a pinnacle of achievement, or at least one of the most desirable projects. When looking at a Pisces rising chart, we find the other sign of Jupiter, Sagittarius placed in the 10th! The sharp clarity of expression, the fresh aroma of freedom, that touch of wildness which Pisces often dream about, that makes up their fantasies comes naturally to Sagittarius. Pisces may often find themselves attracted to Sagittarius, not because of some physical attraction, but due to the traits that they feel (they ‘know’!) would make the partnership complementary and complete!
While the Aries make good fathers (Leo falls in their 5th house, sun being the significator for father in jyotish), Pisces make good mothers (moon the indicator of motherhood rules their fifth house). Even the Pisces fathers! Nurturance, teaching through feelings, emphasizing the caring and sustaining part of ones nature as the child grows, comes naturally to the Pisces.
With his existence and awareness divided between realities, fortunate is the Pisces that has found a partner, perhaps a spouse, who brings to the relationship the strengths of organizational abilities, the respect for order and routine in life, typically qualities that Virgos possess. In return, the Virgo receives free trips to realms that are often beyond his or her wildest fantasies!
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The 12th House in a Horoscope

The mention of astrology brings all kinds of reactions in people, ranging from curiosity to contempt. The primary misconception is that the planets out there in our solar system have an ‘effect’ on our destiny. That mars transiting a certain house can “trigger” an accident or injury. People then go to all sorts of physical theories bringing in gravitation and other mysterious cosmic energies that emanate from these planets and influence individuals, millions of mile away, which form a miniscule speck on the face of this enormous planet of ours. Perhaps our war-mongering nations who are trying to perfect aerial combat and long-distance aiming must study these planets and how they focus their cosmic beams on a tiny target like individuals from such great distances!
I prefer to treat the planets in astrology, and their motions like the hands of a clock. The hands of the clock indicate time but do not control or ‘effect’ time (nor do they affect time!). The mere fact of the hands of the clock coming together at noon is not what causes hunger in most individuals as their minds turn towards lunch, but rather that the two completely disparate activities, namely, cycle of hunger and the cycle of the clock-hands are synchronized, more or less that they coincide at lunch hour. Everybody does not eat or even feels hungry at the same time every day, though the clock regularly joins its hands at noon. Similarly, mars comes to a certain position each day but does not cause an accident or injury every single time. Mars, therefore, does not cause the injury but merely indicates the probability or circumstances where such can occur. Planetary symbols are indicators that we use in astrology. Those who are comfortable with esoteric conceptualizations, often point out the possibility of the macrocosmic planetary cycles being in synchrony with similar cycles within the microcosm (Yat pinde tat brahmande; as in the unit (body), so in the universe). We shall leave such pondering to the philosophers and turn our attention to more practical issues.
Astrology is a language that uses the alphabet (symbols) of signs, planets and similar entities and through interpretation and synthesis of such symbols generates a reading that has relevance to the human experience: all facets of life and what surrounds us. The very basis building blocks used in jyotish (Indian system of astrology) involve the 12 sidereal signs (Aries or Mesha to Pisces or Meena) which are formed by clusters of stars in the sky and lie along the apparent path of the sun. Apparent because it is really the earth that is going around the sun and in doing so, due to our geocentric vantage it appears as if the sun is moving against the backdrop of stars. This apparent path of the sun as it moves 28 degrees north and south (again due to the tilted axis of the earth), defines a ‘belt’ around us.
The belt is called the ecliptic or zodiac. Each of these equally divided 12 signs (30 degrees each, since a circle describes 360 degrees and 1/12th of this would be 30 degrees) is ruled by a planet. In jyotish, sun and moon are considered the ‘lights’ just like in western astrology, but only the 7 visible planets, mercury to Saturn are taken into consideration. The extra-saturnine planets (sometimes mistakenly called outer planets; this is contrary to the geocentric classification, where all planets outside earth’s orbit are outers and those within its orbit are inner planets) are not included in traditional jyotish.
It is intriguing to note that the planets up to Saturn would have orbits, which are less than 30 years; therefore, most human beings would experience more than one complete revolution or cycle of each planet. The planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have very long orbits, ranging from 84 to 248 years, which are beyond the average expectancy of life in most countries. These planets would perhaps have more significance in entities with a long life span, such as stock market entities, organizations, nations, etc. This is outside the scope of this article and will not be addressed any further.
The planetary rulership over the signs is based on the orbital distribution of the planets in the solar system with the sun given to rule over Leo and moon over Cancer. Sun and moon are considered to represent the parents, father and mother, respectively and the children, the planets are given one house on each side of the parents. In keeping with their orbital distribution in space, mercury, Venus, mars, Jupiter and Saturn rule the corresponding signs on each side of cancer and Leo. So we have mercury ruling over Gemini and Virgo, Venus ruling over Taurus and Libra, mars over Aries and Scorpio, Jupiter over Pisces and Sagittarius, and Saturn ruling over Aquarius and Capricorn.
Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer
Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus Mercury Moon
Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn
Sun Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn
Each sign then represents a house in a horoscope and the orientation starts with the sign rising at birth in the east; this being the first house or ascendant. In a given horoscope, the planets may be placed in their own house, or in another house, alone or with other planets. They are also considered to influence certain other houses by their ‘glance’ or drishti. It must be noted that these are concepts and descriptors that are useful in judging the connectivity between planets and between planets and signs. Each house has certain attributes and rules over certain areas in life, such as we will describe for the 12th house, further down. The basis theme and considerations are similar for other houses, though the specific issues would vary in each case. Now given that there are close to 6.7 billion individuals inhabiting the earth, a permutation and combination of 12 signs, 9 planets and 1 to 3 aspects or drishtis does not yield too many unique patterns.
Obviously, jyotish does not stop at this and utilizes further divisional charts, each ruling over a certain area in life and there are other considerations such as a series of ‘roles’ played by each planet. For instance, sun in a horoscope represents the ruling stratum of the society and ones father, but it may also be the putrakaraka(significator of progeny) in one chart but darakaraka (spouse) in another chart, and it has more roles possible. Using the asterisms (a way of dividing the zodiacal circle into 27 divisions instead of the 12 signs alone) and the ‘invisible’ planets that are really mathematical points (lunar nodes, luni-solar upagrahas, etc) a fairly intricate matrix results and begins to match the complexity of our lives, as astrology moves towards higher concordance with the human experience that it purports to describe.
Many good books are available for learning jyotish, which provide the information in an orderly fashion, hence, I will refrain from doing the same. In this series of articles that I shall be sharing through the courtesy of Boloji, I shall attempt to present this in a more practical format for the benefit of those who are interested in learning astrology or whose curiosity about astrology brought them to this page. Additional material exists at and shall be added from time to time at the Crystal Pages and I would like to invite you to visit us there, as well.
Crystal Pages is an E-Organization that is dedicated to providing information about jyotish as well as conducting studies and research in this area and providing limited astrological services to help with the upkeep of its various jyotish-related activities.
The following illustration shows the radix or rashi chart of a celebrity (Madonna) using Parashara’s Light version 4.5 software (Geovision), in the layout that is utilized in Northern India.
Madona’s Birth Rashi Chart
The top diamond is the first house and in this case contains Leo, the 5th sign. Virgo or the 6th sign forms the 2nd house in this chart and so on. She has Venus in Cancer in the 12th house. The numbers shown against the planets represent their longitudes in degrees and minutes. So, Venus in this chart is in 8 degrees and 39 minutes of sidereal Cancer. Sun, mercury and moon are in 1st house, rahu and Jupiter in 3rd house (Libra or sign #7), retrograde Saturn in 4th house, mars and ketu in 9th house, and Venus in 12th.
The 12th house in a horoscope encompasses matters that signify material loss. In practice, any house that is in the 12th from another, would signify loss regarding matters governed by that house. In other words, any given house would indicate loss to the matters governed by the house that lies next to it. So, the seeds for triggering a loss in efforts, courage and communication (ruled by the 3rd house) lie in the 2nd house, loss of conjugal bliss and marital harmony (ruled by 7th house) may be studied from the 6th, and loss of fortune and poise (spiritual equilibrium signified by the 9 th house) may be studied from the 8 th house since it lies in a chart in the 12 th house from the 9 th!
The 12th house, therefore, is not a very easy house in materialistic terms; however, there exist hints in ancient texts that indicate the spiritual significance of the 12th house! It is a house of paramount importance in the horoscopes of religious figures and ascetics. Confusingly, though, it has also been vested with attributes and matters such as ‘pleasures of the couch’ – happy rests the head that has nothing that remains to be lost, I suppose! Other things that may be studied from the 12th house include the state of one’s sleep, dwelling and wandering in lands foreign to one, karmic burdens, investment expenses, institutions and similar issues.
Generally speaking, one’s spiritual growth, also known as the quest for knowing oneself, gets a kick start in a major way when one faces ‘choices’ that pertain to losing something or someone who is extremely dear. During most spiritual journeys, a time comes when one’s attachments and clinging must be challenged and subsequently shed. Invariably, experiences at such points in time prove to be the pivots around which the wheel of spiritual progress turns! Whether one actually suffers the loss or merely faces the possibilities of such, and the degree of metamorphosis that such an event or eventuality can bring within oneself, varies between individuals, the profundity of the effect, however, is felt unambiguously.
We can perhaps say that the 12th house signifies the material price that one must pay in order to reap spiritual gains. Obviously, the two ‘realities’ or realms of awareness hardly enjoy any equivalence in values. What might sound like a terrible loss when awareness is focused in the materialistic plane might not automatically signify something of equal positive or negative value in the spiritual!
Planets that are associated with the 12th house in a horoscope, for instance those that are located in the 12th, are important indicators of the materialistic areas that need work so that one may reap spiritual benefits. The natural significance (role; karakattwa) of such a planet must be taken into account, as well as those things signified by its rulership over houses in the given horoscope.
The sun represents the individuality and ego (which can readily become EGO!) and by virtue of being placed in the 12th house would signify the lure of EGO, WHICH must be overcome by the nativity before any real spiritual advancement can commence. This would be even more so, should Leo be rising in the ascendant, thereby imparting the sun with a natural and temporal or chart-specific focus as during double duty as a significator of the self and ego, two keywords that are primarily studied from the first house! Should such a situation (sun in cancer in a Leo rising nativity) be present in a chart where Saturn the epitome of humbleness rises, the path towards self-effacement becomes harder and not easier! The task, signified by the sun in the 12th remains the same, but the expression and self-perception, thanks to the Saturn in ascendant, lulls one into minimizing the extent of the task! “After all, how much more humble can one appear”, is what such a nativity feels? The mantra for someone with such a horoscopic signature obviously is to ‘become’ humble and not merely be contented with simply “appearing” to be humble!
For someone who is born with Venus in the 12th, the battle becomes one that is fought less at the mental level! Indeed, such may be the plethora of artifacts of pleasure, luxury and distractions that one finds the time and opportunities to think about the soul, much later in the game of earthly existence, perhaps through finding a parental role!
While this may not be cast in stone, more often than not, when one is born with a planet in the 12th house, one is almost assured of ‘reminders’ from the spirit! These reminders may appear in one of many different forms, but generally are unmistakable and quite often persistent. These could occur during significant transits, and during the periods of dasha (the Vedic system of timing using a special form of progression of the natal moon) of planets situated in the 12th house as well as during periods of planets in the stars ruled by planets that are associated with the 12th. One may choose to treat the 12th house as ones enemy and may try to reduce its impact but running and hiding in the game of spiritual evolution merely delays the inevitable, namely, that growth and maturity is the birthright of the soul and is best handled by facing rather than turning away from opportunities for growth that challenge us throughout life.
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Love Marriage or Arranged!

Love marriage or arranged is still a questionable issue among the Indian community. Let me confess, I consider myself very liberal, I myself would want my daughter to hold on a couple of more years to make her decision. No matter how clear-headed the child is he or she still needs a little maturity to make the most critical decision of her/his life.
Is love marriage better or the arranged? What is the basis of a communion between two people? When a man asks a woman out on a date the foremost physical attraction is the deciding factor. So is the case in an arranged marriage. However, in a love marriage timing is important. People are able to spend more time together and get to know each other better. Well! Sometimes, it needs a lot more to be able to get under the skin. When two people are in love, they are at their best to impress the other person. They wear the best clothes; they are at their best behavior and project a lot of things that they are actually not. Our society is structured that way we are expected to be polite in public. It takes a while between couples to shed the veil. Most of the time, even after going out for a few years, when we actually live together, we are in for surprises. Actually, even after living together for almost 25 years, couples are still discovering each other. This is the beauty of relationships and the mystery of a human mind.
In an arranged marriage similarly the yes or no is based on the appearance of the partner. They then try to know each other in a couple of meetings they have before the final commitment. However, the parents make the background check. Let me not discard the importance of a good family background here and of course the financial stability. People who go for arranged marriages are not at much of a disadvantage as said earlier no matter what it needs a lot of time to actually know the other person.
I would say in a love marriage, after a few dates sometimes or certain duration of time, couples make a commitment. At any point, couples are not bound by a legal document or a ceremony where as in an arranged marriage its not so. It might appear while people are in a love and not married yet, it’s easier to get out of a relationship. But it is not so. Once two people are in love and are committed it takes a lot of emotional bruise to break away.
Love marriage or arranged, it takes two people really responsible honest and committed to succeed. Whether it’s a love marriage or arranged, it needs a lot of effort to work a marriage. Getting married is a complete package. One just doesn’t marry the person as such but his habits, his family, his emotional problems, his background, his experiences, his career and lot of other things that are required to be dealt with.
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My two cents on Eastern &Western Astrology

This article in some ways has been triggered by Hank Friedman’s recent article, Teachings in Western and Vedic Astrology recently published on the B.C. based Fraser Valley Astrology Guild site. This site bravely addresses both sides of the astrological coin (assuming that there is indeed a coin with two sides, as opposed to there being only one side of the coin better studied and currently being divided into several territories – kind of like what happens in the REAL world we live in).
The COIN is not something that exclusively belongs to ASTROLOGY but to what I call the “DYNAMIC human experience” or as some would define: A collective personal view of perceived reality. The ‘DYNAMIC’ pertains to the changeable focus and perspective as we humans evolve – hence an ever moving target!
Perhaps it is a human quality or pressure of the modern times, but most astrologers of western or eastern kinds seem to be eager, too eager! Too eager to claim and even try to prove that astrology is something vital, must be preserved at all costs and that must not become the proverbial baby that humankind has for centuries been tossing out with the bathwater.
Miraculously, the proverbial “BABY” of reality has FOREVER survived! After all, back then those were really p-o-w-e-r-f-u-l times seemingly belonging to rulers and priests – the keepers of religion, morality and all that is good and godly, when hemlock was served in giant servings, killing historically documented great minds (BUT SURPRISINGLY NOT THEIR THOUGHTS OR TEACHINGS!). Invading cultures PLUNDERED IN trying to erase and efface the traces of the conquered cultures and their banked knowledge. And in more modern times, the likes of Adolf Hitler who have tried to wipe out the likes of Einstein and the ancient cultures that receive the likes of him as godly reminders of what it is really all about!
Sure enough, we rejoice and celebrate in the achievements of individuals — their strength and survival but really what matters in the long run is the survival of the body of TRUTH. This brings our collective evolution as humankind a step further, an evolution that somehow seems to be protected in a divine manner. I do not want to wax devotional – but really – considering how frail the human organism and its products are, it is amazing that bodies of knowledge worldwide have survived barbaric foreign invasions, often brutal and other attempts at annihilation in other ways, and here we are hundreds if not thousands of years after the ancient craft of ASTROLOGY had been attempted to be suppressed by different forms of religions, churches and other HUMAN houses of God and more recently by Science or shall we say, the Modern Church of Rationality? Yet, miraculously we still have the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and the Tetrabiblios – mostly intact and still very relevant and meaningful!
Time to say: H-a-l-l-e-l-u-j-a-h?
But, then we must re-turn to business and the business has another name: pragmatic REALITY!
I have been on the cyber-astrological scene for some decades and despite being a jyotishi living in North America, I had been privileged to enjoy the welcome warmth of being allowed to create a niche for the facet of the ancient craft that I love and am dedicated to, in the very centre of a forum that had a very dominant western theme and particularly in astrology. I am talking about my CompuServe days in the early nineties on the New Age Forum and The Astrology Roundtable on Genie, in the company of the likes of Roger Elliot, Charles Bowlings, Theresa Kinney, David Barnett, Michael Munkasey, Michael Erlewine, Ena Stanley, Ed Perrone and many other individuals — most very fine western and some equally fine eclectic astrologers firmly rooted in their chosen framework of exploration, yet unconditionally welcoming and not one bit dogmatic about what they chose to follow or against what other discipline they knew lay out there and were never felt threatened about! I see that replayed in my two teenager male progenies when despite their natural tensions and strains, their sibling rivalries – they unabashedly interact with each other, all fighting aside, laying their maturing egos and personal vendettas aside, to exchanging notes and to learn from each other’s unique but parallel experiences, be it in basketball or volleyball or Physics and how to get into that prestigious University that seems so very crucial to their immigrant parents or who knows perhaps even girls (budding ideas about relationships!)
When one grows during the formative years of one’s soul in a milieu filled with love and acceptance like I have been privileged to be, one begins to on the one hand gain a broader acceptance of Reality and of one’s ignorance and on the other hand, having shed the baggage of there being AN one and only sacred, divine and exclusive package of truth, is freed of the need to prove the wrong hypothesis: That there being some one and only one way of looking at TRUTH.
Scientists are often blamed for being too narrowly focused or of working with a “blinders on” mentality, but if one seriously looks at how scientific (particularly physical) explorations are done, these always aim at trying to view the ‘reality’ through different view-ports and thus to formulate a three-dimensional view of reality or truth through a 2-dimensional construct. Kind of like every software programmer of computer games and modern animated films must do, creating the leela and maya layer by layer!
Astrologers, modern, eastern and western — have been sucked into shoving their ill-understood astrological framework into this rigid construct of 100% predictability. It is amazing, how even the champions of free-will, many western astrologers – who have intuitively and experientially experienced (you can tell English is not my primary language!) the influence of free-will through their personal experiences during their practice of astrology – when pressed into a corner, begin quoting how successful they or other revered colleagues were at predicting events and pinpointing the future before it could be experienced as the present! Do you see the paradox?
Eastern astrologers, particularly jyotishis on the one hand extol predictive success and even openly tout the role of destiny and incontrovertible fate, yet in the very next breath they would chant out the remedies that could overcome destiny, through use of mantra, Tantra, gemstones and a myriad of other karmic cop-outs as some call these! So, is there free-will or does fate stand supreme?
Given the obvious dichotomies, tracheotomies, polytomies etc., do you wonder why the common man (and woman) is confused and wary of all these astrologers running their spiel and not really coming out with the one and only truthful story? Well, there is NO one and only story! There is no shame in accepting the fact that all of us are searching and looking! If there was a gospel truth, it would have been offered freely with a guarantee and a ‘P’ value provided! Would it not? But is that possible now, even for the illustrious few that we keep pointing at as our beacons and supreme examples of predictive prowess, in our respective camps?
For reasons of politics, ego or whatever else, no single astrologer exists that can come out with such a Kreskin claim! Do we really need to pretend, particularly amongst our astrologer brethren, western or eastern, that there is no rock-solid 100% guaranteed predictability in any form of astrology? Some of this uncertainty is because of a lack of full knowledge (many of the rules are probably hidden, lost or yet to be discovered!) but maybe a lot of it is because of this variable called ‘free-will’. Is it free will of the soul or free-will of the incarnated fraction of the soul? We would not go there, but should we stop thinking about the wholistic us and seriously considering it during our astrological evaluations?
There certainly have been a few, VERY few individuals who had been very successful at predicting, consistently, in a documented manner available for public scrutiny, but have they always used ONLY astroLOGIC, knowingly or unknowingly, on which their track record of outstanding performance is based? When individuals who have been accepted as authorities or teachers and writers of fame confess in their rare ‘human’ moments that there is something higher than mere logic and knowledge guiding them, and others, invoked possibly through an arduous spiritual practice, years of yogic discipline and a ritualistic process in which they take the horoscope to bed and do japam (chanting/concentration/meditation) and then a picture begins to emerge, evolve … etc. What is one to make of this, other than invite a mental framework in which the boundaries of TECHNICAL astrology have not yet been nailed down sharp and tight but the need for honest exploration emerges and hopefully continues, obviously.
K.N. Rao, a brilliant Indian teacher, jyotishi, writer and predictor of astounding success indicated a few times in his Jyotish-list messages that even great jyotishis are about 80-82% accurate, generally. A mini study on CompuServe done in mid-nineties through message threads showed that in general average astrologers get things right between 60-75% of times. If we begin to tease out the important from the non-essential predictions, the percentage in the accomplished ones will fall further from 82% down, I am certain.
Even if there are one thousand super-accurate predictors that exist in the marketplace of astrology at this time worldwide, who rarely fail or are wrong, is that a good enough performance record for our ancient disciplines of astrology, given that a few hundred thousand if not a few millions are ardently engaged in discussing and living astrology? One in five being the threshold of statistical significance, we should have infallible performance from 200,000 astrologers per million. How far are we from achieving such numbers, in the eastern or western camp, or any other camp for that matter? If not, should we be spending our energies in claiming and touting the infallibility of astrology as a discipline, let alone as a science, and should we really be brawling on this tiny island of astrology which probably holds only an infinitesimal fraction of the entire population, even if we are counting believers as opposed to practitioners, especially successful practitioners with a high performance record, consistently and documented so!
What is needed, perhaps, is not theories and justifications but DEMONSTRATIONS of what astrology can give, and produce. Failures are as important as successes and egoism or jingoism have no place at this stage of growth or perhaps rediscovery of the ancient craft.
I am neither trying to be provocative nor to challenge any individual’s, astrologer or not, view of reality or where our energies should be focused insofar as astrology is concerned, eastern or western. but, let me remind you friends, there are way more than just TWO schools of astrology! And all of these have ardent followers and anecdotes of uncanny predictive success. And I am not even looking at all the different methods of divination, in total! It eerily reminds one of the ‘dodo bird verdict’ alluded to by Dan Baker in “What Happy People Know”. Luborsky, Singer and Luborsky (1975) were trying to figure out which brand of psychotherapy was really the best, but did not find any single one that could be called that. They borrowed the Dodo bird verdict from Alice in Wonderland: “Everyone has won — so all must have prizes!” Baker comments that if no single therapy is superior, then some other healing factor is obviously at work! We do not know if that applies to the diverse forms of astrology or not, but perhaps we should keep it in mind, given the diverse and dissimilar orientation points used in the various forms of astrology. Perhaps some of the better predictors intuitively know that and do not remain limited in their armamentaria when tackling the tough job of reading the signs and symbols of the human soul through heavenly indicators.
Quite honestly, it is not time yet to get into, “My dad is stronger than your dad!” games and arguments with our playmates, although modern astrology, eastern and western, as it is being rediscovered, is indeed at about that age where such behavior might be just appropriate!
It is all healthy and normal, as long as we do not get stuck, stop growing as individuals, as groups of explorers and as astrologers of any and all cloths as we explore this fascinating and largely unknown territory. But first of all, we must stop in our tracks and really test ourselves honestly to find out where we stand, in terms of progress and performance. Most of us will find that when searching a large and unknown territory, working in groups of individuals with a large variety of skills and expertise is perhaps more efficient!
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Retrograde Planets: Another Perspective

Our geocentric vantage-point enables us to witness the phenomenon known as retrogression as planets go around the sun in their cyclical orbits. Planets that normally appear to move from Aries towards Taurus, at times, appear to move backwards, from Pisces towards Aquarius and so on. The Sun and Moon are immune to this apparent backward motion. The mean lunar nodes always move backwards, but the true nodes describe a bi-directional motion somewhat like other planets; though the nodes are mostly retrograde but at times travel forward – what is known as direct motion in astrology.
The reason for this apparent retrograde movement of planets varies. For the inferior planets, Mercury and Venus, when they are between earth and the Sun, they appear to move retrograde; however, when they are on the other side of the sun (Sun is between the planet and earth), they appear direct.
Superior planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are retrograde when they are in signs opposite to the Sun, in other words, when they are just ahead of the earth and we are trying to catch up with them until such time when they are a bit behind the earth in the ever going orbital race. The remaining time they are in direct motion. It is perhaps an interesting astrological symbolic clue that the phenomenon of retrogression is not a real one, but a product of our perspective or vantage!
Many views exist on the astrological implications of such apparently retrograde phases of planetary motion. Most astrologers agree that at least subtly different effects are produced by the same planet when it is in direct in contrast to retrograde motion. Retrograde Mercury is anecdotally associated with communication breakdowns, more computer troubles, etc., and causes much anguish in certain circles! Some astrologers tend to put too much emphasis on the retrogression phenomenon.
In Vedic astrological treatises, retrogression has been considered as an indication of strength (chestabal is the technical term used for the strength when a planet is retrograde). Some experts qualify further by saying that the natural benefics such as Venus, Mercury and Jupiter are strong while natural malefics such as Saturn and Mars are weak or evil when retrograde, unless Saturn or Mars happen to be ascendant lords or yogakarakas (by virtue of being lords of angular and trinal houses). Nothing more elaborate is generally made of the phenomenon of retrogression in most classics.
In practice, retrograde planets generally seem to affect the mental plane more than the physical or worldly plane (perception of what is apparent is often a ‘mental’ thing!). During the dasha (planetary period) of a retrograde planet, one would be hard pressed to find a difference in the types of events that occur or other physical effects; however, the person with the dasha lord retrograde in his chart may react to the goings-on differently than another individual undergoing the dasha of the same planet in direct motion.
Those with retrograde planets often respond to ‘time’ in a nonstandard way. This is perhaps symbolically linked with the concept of their being related with “other spheres of time,” the brave romantic thinker may stretch that to include the past; even earlier reincarnations that expose the nativity to “karmic” influences. The concept of karma generally is considered to be associated with linear time. The retrograde planets expose one to influences that are not a part of the currently perceived reality, in other words, sensory and other ‘inputs’ emanating from “other” realities are able to make it through normal barriers and are able to affect “existing perceived reality” and ones decisions. In a sense, retrograde planets open up, or at least perturb some kind of a “temporal reality-boundary”. This in itself is neither good nor bad. Contrary to popular opinion, I have not come across an instance when the dasha of a retrograde planet produced a major “transforming” influence that could be unequivocally attributed to “retrogression” itself. Some believe that retrograde planets only manifest strongly in the lives of those who have advanced sufficiently on the spiritual path and have the heightened inner capability and sensitivity to perceive and express the energies that the retrograde planets represent. Others experience the effects in a more subtle manner.
Each planet represents certain attributes and natural portfolios. Likewise, each planet holds sway over certain houses in a horoscope. By viewing retrograde planets against such a background of information, interesting insights can often be achieved.
Taking retrograde Jupiter as an example, a notable thing about nativities with a retrograde Jupiter almost anywhere in the chart but particularly in the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 11th is that they are presented with opportunities in life to bring to fruition other peoples’ failed projects. Also, retrograde Jupiter may sometimes affect the gonads and/or growth-related hormones, particularly the pituitary and thyroid. Obviously, there would not be an obvious disease or defect in all, but, in many the functioning of these glands might lie closer to the extremes of the normal range indicating a borderline or latent disorder that may remain clinically unnoticed and perfectly compatible with normal growth, etc.
From the perspective of karma, expansion seems to be one of the significant ‘life-tasks’ for nativities with a retrograde Jupiter. The symbolism is obvious! The individual is presented with opportunities for expansion (of body, mind, spirit, ideologies; of boundaries in general). Indeed one is almost ‘forced’ into situations that would cause expansion. What one does with that ‘expansion’ is where the arguably present faculty of freewill perhaps comes into play, leading to either a promotion to the next grade in the school of life or an opportunity to take another go at the task perhaps through reincarnation.
Retrograde planets signify a mental state that contains certain highlighted areas or unusually heightened traits. With Jupiter retrograde, there is seen a tendency towards over utilizing of the psychological defense mechanism known as “reaction-formation”. This makes one take an exaggerated “opposite” stance to whatever it is that triggers discomfort or anxiety. A retrograde Jupiter can often affect in ones inner life an area that has remained unattended, undeveloped or unexpanded! A diametrically opposite area in such a situation may be seen to be overemphasized as if to compensate for the deficiencies. Obviously, the placement and rulership of Jupiter in such charts would give a clue as to the areas that are so affected. With recognition of such areas, some of the psychic energy can be diverted from the zone of abundance to that of deprivation. In a sense, one might say, that a retrograde Jupiter could reflect some of the traits and vibrations that are representative of the spectrum of the “energy” that we normally associate with the resonance characteristics of the planet Saturn, in it being an equalizer, a re-distributor, a leveler.
We may visualize each planet as having a certain energy that flows easily through certain channels or ‘jurisdictions’, these ‘areas’ are recognized in astrology as the natural significations of the planets. Mercury, for instance, enables ‘cosmic’ energy to flow into pursuits that are intellectual, that depend on reasoning, sequential intellectual processes, demonstrating a connectivity that strikes many of us as a logical A to B to C to D sequence and which most of us generally find easier to follow. Mercury does not very comfortably handle an A to C or A to D jump or even a C to A back flip (a C to B to A would be handled easily by it though). Therefore, the prime issue is not the direction of logic but the sequential steps involved. Rapidly commuting from A to B to C to D in a typical mercurial fashion would appear to be governed by intuition. However, if we were to take away one of the intermediate logical pegs, then Mercury would begin to stumble becoming increasingly unable to process information effectively. When Mercury stumbles, being intrinsically impatient, it might be tempted to fill in the gaps with assumptions or even by confabulation (at its worst, an afflicted Mercury has been known to represent a habitual liar, a liar that actually believes in the lies he or she is telling at the moment).
Some astrologers consider a retrograde planet as a ‘blocked’ or deficient responder! By that token, one with a retrograde Mercury would not find logical thinking very easy or even something within one’s capability. The retrograde planet appears to move backward in the zodiac due to our geocentric viewpoint and it is easy to fall into the “similia similibus” trap and consider the apparent backward motion as something ‘negative’ because of its symbolic parallelism with the connotation of the term ‘backward’! Perhaps it is not very simple and the retrograde planet is merely shifting its modus operandi to an alternate modality. Perhaps during the periods and transits of retrograde planets, one needs to undergo a “paradigm shift”, in other words, to embark on an alternate approach, using a very different viewpoint of looking at the same thing. Would a retrograde Mercury, then, be more ‘comfortable’ in using an A to C or even an A to D approach, rather than the usual A to B to C to D that it is ‘expected’ to? A ‘normally’ logical, sequentially thinking scientist with a retrograde Mercury may find such ‘intuitive’ jumps a more efficient way of overcoming ‘blocked progress’ when doing an experiment or examining a hypothesis.
There are in allegories (dry facts presented in a more interesting and palatable format!) a hint of the possibility of reasoning and logic (Mercury), and intuition (Moon) together forming a complete information sensing and processing unit. Indeed, the mind that has harnessed and can utilize both sequential reasoning and intuitive jumps, progresses a lot faster, better and deeper than one that has only mastered either mode of gaining information. It must be noted that Moon and Mercury can only bring facts to one through different channels or means, but one still needs the blessings of Jupiter to incorporate such ‘information’ into wisdom. It is often seen that the individual with a retrograde Mercury is more comfortable or more accepting of modalities of fact-gathering and presentation that do not necessarily rely on the usual sequential approaches.
It is important to remember that the end result or the core-nature of what a planet represents remain the same regardless of its apparent motion in the radix. The direct Mercury would be more comfortable with sequential processing of information; whereas, the retrograde Mercury would tend to explore the dimension of non-sequential intuitive processing. In either case, Mercury would still be gathering and processing information. In other words, regardless of its apparent motion, Mercury remains associated with thinking and information-processing. The difference between the direct and retrograde versions being in the way the mode of processing and thinking (reason and logic vs. intuition) operates.
Retrogression could represent an intrinsic strength in ones being or may represent an armor with cracks in it, the outcome depending upon how well the retrograde planet is connected with other factors in the chart. In the end, polemics and occasional flashes of intuitions aside, the ‘weight-of-evidence’ approach is what saves the day for most astrologers. Curious as it might be, retrogression, is but a single factor or phenomenon and not the critical card moving which topples the entire structure. After all, neither the horoscope nor the human life experience is a house of cards!
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