West is west, east is east ... they are already meeting!

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

 

The uneasy divide between west and east always has been there. In

material reality and the issues it deals with as well as that

beautiful and beatific (some say) realm of human experience that

modern humans deal with -- the spiritual reality! Oxymoronic in a

sense, because reality cannot come with conditions! It is all or

none! Like a mother or maternal qualities! Maternal instinct does not

change really based on where one is born, or which culture is being

focused upon. What changes or is different is the maternal expression!

 

I am not trying to make a case for astrology as being a matriarche or

even having lunar maternal qualities, though it does have a strong

element of caring and nurturing that should ideally go on between the

astrologer and nativity. We all fail on that very tough kasauti,

testbench! Weary astrologers snap at seekers for answers, sometimes

rightly, but also hastily at times -- we are all human, after all.

Egos, emotions get hurt, offended, who knows if such instances were

unnecessary or all within the complex intricate web of karma or

whatever name we choose to give it.

 

Tension also exists between astrologers, of all cloths! Currently,

several schools exist, but the biggest divide exists between east and

west. The zodiacs are different, thanks to the variable known as

ayanamsha (variable!) or precessional correction to the synetic

vernal point (SVP) or whatever else they want to call it. There are

other schools but either they do not visit each others' forums or

remain silent or do not care (tsk tsk!) -- I do hope though that they

do!

 

Without western/tropical astrology, and more importantly astrologers

who practice that craft, I would not have fallen in love with jyotish

(story repeated ad nauseum elsewhere hence sparing present captive

audience ;-))

 

The perspective is quite simple. And paradoxical! Even ironical!!

Sidereal zodiac that jyotishis follow is the visible zodiac. When you

look up, there are constellations, that represent aries, sagittarius,

scorpio, kumbha, meena! Mars streaming across pisces in the sky would

be placed exactly in that sign in a jyotish chart!

The monkey wrench is this: There is no clear fence or boundary that

demarcates the rashi or signs? Where does aries begin or cancer end

in the sky? When can we definitively say that saturn has left karka

rashi and entered leo? Why did God the SAVIOUR (Sorry!) did not put

up a wall that was clearly visible and would remove this uncertainty?

Why do we serious astrologers need to mess around with chitra and

revati and galactic center to figure out or as some say 'guess'

(sadhu sadhu!) the correct ayanamsha? Well I am not that ambitious

and certainly cannot solve the controversy that has extended for

centuries I am sure about what is that magic number, the Holy Grail

(in jyotish, that is!)?

 

On the other hand, the western/tropical astrologer brethren/sistren

(?) have focused their sights on the very earth we live on (makes

pragmatic sense!) and tied the first point of the zodiac that they

wish to use to the earth where our experiences lie (hmm ... that is a

paradox worth visiting sometime later -- experiences <that> lie?).

 

Tropical zodiac rests on the geocentric zodiac of seasons. When Sun,

which is really the projection of earth into the celestial zodiac --

they chose the first point of aries as the moment when sun was at the

vernal/autumnal equinox (north/south). The night becomes equal to the

day and that moment marks the first point of aries, the beginning of

the tropical zodiac. Spring (to keep it simple) comes at the same

time each year, or does it?

 

If you look hard, you will find that the conventional first day of

spring or summer or winter etc are not days that are circumscribed

and ATAL (permanent, immutable!). I will not give a URL. If you want

to explore -- you will have to work a bit! Sorry!!

 

So even the beginnings of the tropical zodiac are not all that

straight and narrow, though narrower than the sidereal zodiac, I

admit!

 

As I stated, the season for a given epoch, spring, winter whatever

would be diametrically opposite depending on the hemisphere! As

spring is announcing itself, cold winter is receding, flowers are

beginning to sprout, allergies are just starting, all those 'spring'

smells are revealing themselves (!) and overwhelming us, in the

north, the same entry of sun into aries is signalling the onset of

autumn in Australia and other southern hemisphere countries. While we

are coming out of our shelters and hibernations, our southern

brethren (and ...) are preparing to baton the hatches down, getting

ready for winter and whatever it brings to them -- hopefully less

misery than some of us living in high northern latitudes!

 

Just as the heavens are deceptive (ayanamsha) so are seasons

(tropical markers) and ONE explanation would just not do! The ram

with its generative energy as symbolism that we would like to embrace

spring with very quickly cannot be turned into the 'old goat' that

fall and winter would signify to the southern hemispherical reality!

The same may be true for cancer, libra and capricorn that we would

like to use, tropically and seasonally to explain summer/winter,

autumn/spring and winter/summer just based on where we live!

 

There has got to be a more cohesive and universally applicable

symbolism to astrology! I leave it at that in your able hands, dear

astrologer friends, western, eastern, northern and southern! Let us

not forget or ignore any corner of this earth when we consider the

one and ideal orientation point for astrology that should at least

apply globally, from pole to pole and ocean to ocean, whether it

applies to zodiacs or house divisions!

 

Love,

 

Rohiniranjan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SURRENDER JOYFULLY TO THE WILL OF THE ULTIMATE DIVINITY AND RELISH THE TASTE OF ABSOLUTE BLISS.