2 posts tagged “vedic”

From this month's Mountain Astrologer magazine, there's an article in it called "Symbolic Substitution and the Way of  Participatory Astrology."

"Symbolic substitution is about choosing to act in line with the Flow of Time by using astrological symbolism as a road map. The trick is to consciously substitute one possible future for another."

What does this mean, exactly?

"You are standing at a crossroads regarding your dead-end job, and your spouse is pressuring you to make a change in order to make more money. Is this really an astrologically appropriate time to make a change? Your past and your culture's "normal" expectations tell you to make the responsible choice and stay within the bounds of whatever society and your spouse deem logical and appropriate.

The Now is pushing on you. Your rational ego says you should give yourself a month to find a decent job, and you should immediately start looking in the newspapers. But external reality is not cooperating. Saturn is conjunct the ruler of your 6th house and squares your Mercury and your Midheaven. You get desperate and begin to practice New Age ritual magic in the form of creative visualizations and affirmations; still, nothing changes. Contrary to your most superficial wants and needs, this is not a time of opportunity for you on that level. Perhaps you need some time to develop new goals. Externally, you are at a red light, and you will only become stressed over the difficulties you would have to face in achieving unclear goals just now.

You see that the progressed Moon will change signs in six months and will enter Capricorn, the real sign of career. A month after this passage, the ruler of the 10th house will make a favorable aspect to Mars, the ruler of the 6th, and Saturn will be well past its square to the Midheaven. All of this suggests that the Now is now the time to make a change that involves public and work-related life. Your ego is trying to define the Now as your past history wants it to be. But the astrological code says this is a time for reaction, not conquest- a time for consolidating your position, getting organized, and being patient with the Now. But there must be some action. Knowing that Saturn is square your Mercury and the progressed Moon is still in Sagittarius but void of course, you choose to seek temporary work organizing legal matters. Or you look for a temporary job that represents a closure of some kind, maybe a sporting goods store that is taking inventory or even closing down. You seek a temporary job that is like one you've done before. In other words, you don't look for the next step in your career. And if you look for things that are actually described in the astrological Now, you will find opportunities that are appropriate and true for you."

In other reading, I also recommend the article on how horary helped find the author a condo.

I normally don't follow Vedic worth a damn, but this bit from this month's Vedic section applies to me as well (gee, who knew Princess Di and I had so much in common), and I was amused. Yeah, I can't wait to see a literal prince end up on MY doorstep...

"If the 7th-house lord is stronger than the 1st-house lord, such people are likely to marry "above themselves." In Princess Diana's chart, her 7th-house lord (Venus in Taurus) is significantly stronger than her 1st-house lord (Mars in Leo)."

This book, written by an astrologer and her husband, goes into various kinds of astrological matchmaking around the world. It covers Chinese, Hindu, Judaic, and Western astrology methods. Which is interesting to read about.

But before I mention that, I've got to talk about the chapter in which the authors got together. It's one of those couplings where it turns out they've seen each other in various places- even in a different country- for years, but never met. (Shades of that couple in When Harry Met Sally.) They finally meet when Anastatia is throwing a party and needs a caterer at the dead last minute, which is what Jared does. (While having a arm cast, incidentally. That's some skillz.) After the party's over, they hang out and talk, and compare signs. Anastatia goes to her computer and compares their charts in a couple of different methods, and gets a second opinion from her friend. It's a match!

But here's the part that startled me: Jared apparently ALREADY has a live-in girlfriend of three years(!!!!) when they meet. And yet, they hop right into a relationship, and he introduces the two girls to each other. And the girlfriend thinks they're perfect together and is mysteriously totally fine with it! And then they elope. And I'm still kinda like "But...you had a live-in girlfriend...and were making moves on someone else... um, ick?" And it seems odd to me that she'd be over it THAT fast.

Anyway, that part still makes my brain boggle and I had to mention it. Now on to the actual useful stuff.

The Chinese astrology section is primarily concerned with whatever your animal year is and matching element, and how those combinations mate with each other. They also discuss the lunar month in which you were born and when to pick a wedding date.

I find it kind of funny how my mom has always been, "Well, I'm a Tiger, and your father is a Dog, and you're a Horse, so we all get along." This book says that the Fire Dog (Dad ) and Metal Tiger (Mom) will either "bring nothing but extravagance" or "marital bliss may not be a smooth road." Certainly true. Meanwhile, I'm an Earth Horse, and apparently I shouldn't date other Earth Horses "because the two of you can't live together." I guess this was literally true with the Earth Horse ex... According to Chinese astrology, I should date people born in 1967, 1970, 1979, or 1986, and avoid anyone born in 1966, 1968, 1972, 1973,  1974, 1982, or 1984. What's with those pickins?

On to Hindu astrology, which is all about the marital predictions. Your seventh house tells if you are destined to marry, what type of spouse you'll have, and the influence marriage will have on your life. Where your Venus and Mars and Moon are located has an effect also. It also goes into your ketu, which I guess is your marriage point or something?

(Incidentally, they tell you if you want a Hindu birth chart, to find the link off of their website. I couldn't find it, but did via Google find a fair chunk of sites that'd give you a chart, but you (a) had to register, and then (b) their place finder didn't work. I did find one site, planetarypositions.com, that will make a serviceable one, without being busted or requiring registration. Does require Java though.)

Apparently, my marital aspects suck. Lots of delays, disappointments, obstacles, and bad men for me! And the in-laws will hate me! Huzzah! I'm just like Courtney Love, Debbie Reynolds, and Princess Di!

But seriously now, the differences in the two systems really throw me off, and I have plans to look into this more. (Plus I bought something that I'll probably review whenever I get around to testing it out.) I kind of wonder if this is off because I'm kind of stupid on figuring out the whole GMT thing (minus seven hours? I think? does that count as west?).

Then there's Judaic astrology...no joke, this seems to be the same thing as "traditional" astrology. I'm not sure if this means the Jews originated it or appropriated it, but it looks exactly the same. The book talks about your seventh house, planetary placements...the usual you'd probably get in other books, really.

"Western" astrology seems to be more in the tree-hugging-hippie line of things. There's a section on Celtic moons and what that means for your personality. (I'm inclined to get married before I turn 27. Oops, too late!) Then it goes into more traditional Western stuff, such as what it means to have planets in what house, etc.

There's also some chart comparisions of celebrities at the end, and they also talk about marriage ceremonies, if you're interested in other cultures's traditions.

So, this is probably a fairly good primer in "traditional" astrology for the newbie, and a good primer in Hindu/Chinese astrology if you don't know much about that. Not so much of a pinning down when you'll marry book so much as who you might be likely to.

Course, that varies from culture to culture. I might marry older or younger, or at a young age, or at an old age, or I might marry a tall dark stranger (yeah, they said that)... so take that all with a grain of salt.