Saturday, February 24, 2007
On Vedic Astrology
For a beginner, learning Vedic astrology can be confusing as one of the first ideas presented is that Vedic astrology is referencing "nine planets": Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.
A beginner can scratch their head and think, ok, Sun is not a planet, it is a star; Moon is not a planet, it is a satellite of Earth; Rahu and Ketu are not planets, they are points in space, the energetic spots where the Moons orbit is most "above" the Earths elliptic around the Sun (Rahu North Node) or where the Moons orbit is most "below" the Earths elliptic around the Sun (Ketu South Node).
So, if four of these nine "planets" are not really planets, whats up with that?
The Sanskrit word for these nine celestial energies is grahas, and this word conveys a better idea than the English word "planets." It is easier to understand all of these nine energies as "grahas." Graha carries a meaning "to seize" or "take hold of", and this indicates more clearly the active power of these celestial energies to seize our consciousness when we come under their influence or to take hold of what we focus on. The Sanskrit word captures the idea that these nine grahas are living energies which put out waves of energy. These waves of energy affect our awareness.
Patanjali, an enlightened sage who attained Samadhi in Rameshwaram wrote in the Yoga Sutras: "Yoga is the control of the thought-waves of the mind." The tremendous energetic waves of the nine grahas can strongly affect our own thought waves, and the divine law is "as we think, so we become."
Thus, to properly perform yoga and enter into deeper meditation, the ancient sages wanted to learn to control the effects of these grahas in their lives. They embarked on the study of astrology and made discoveries of how various combinations of grahas had certain results in the lives of people. They established "remedies" to help counteract these results when the predicted results were non-desirable.
Astrology is one of the branches of meditative arts as this tool can help one "control the thought-waves of the mind".
More...
A beginner can scratch their head and think, ok, Sun is not a planet, it is a star; Moon is not a planet, it is a satellite of Earth; Rahu and Ketu are not planets, they are points in space, the energetic spots where the Moons orbit is most "above" the Earths elliptic around the Sun (Rahu North Node) or where the Moons orbit is most "below" the Earths elliptic around the Sun (Ketu South Node).
So, if four of these nine "planets" are not really planets, whats up with that?
The Sanskrit word for these nine celestial energies is grahas, and this word conveys a better idea than the English word "planets." It is easier to understand all of these nine energies as "grahas." Graha carries a meaning "to seize" or "take hold of", and this indicates more clearly the active power of these celestial energies to seize our consciousness when we come under their influence or to take hold of what we focus on. The Sanskrit word captures the idea that these nine grahas are living energies which put out waves of energy. These waves of energy affect our awareness.
Patanjali, an enlightened sage who attained Samadhi in Rameshwaram wrote in the Yoga Sutras: "Yoga is the control of the thought-waves of the mind." The tremendous energetic waves of the nine grahas can strongly affect our own thought waves, and the divine law is "as we think, so we become."
Thus, to properly perform yoga and enter into deeper meditation, the ancient sages wanted to learn to control the effects of these grahas in their lives. They embarked on the study of astrology and made discoveries of how various combinations of grahas had certain results in the lives of people. They established "remedies" to help counteract these results when the predicted results were non-desirable.
Astrology is one of the branches of meditative arts as this tool can help one "control the thought-waves of the mind".
More...
