When I first moved to Canada, I was fortunate to spend a few years studying Vedic (ancient Indian) astrology with an Austrian master teacher, Ernst Wilhelm (a fiery Aries with an incredible spunk for teaching 🙂
I found it so incredibly revelatory that i devoured it voraciously, always hungry for more knowledge. And this subject is such a deep ocean that i barely skimmed the surface.
Vedic Astrology is based on the ancient Indian sacred texts known as the Vedas, which are said to originate in higher realms and contain information of the gods. Jyotish, or vedic astrology, is known as the “eyes of the vedas”. In other words, it is through Jyotish that we can come to understand God and the Cosmos.
I will say that every class with Ernst was deeply revelatory and enlightening. Please study with him if you can. http://www.vedic-astrology.net.
He is a really cool guy in addition to being a genius astrologer. (then again i always get along with aries 🙂
The level of mathematical precision and science is so incredible in jyotish that i consider my few years of studying as just about nothing. i know nothing compared to what a true vedic astrologer knows!For example, in Jyotish, we don’t just have one birth chart. We have 30. Yes, one chart for each aspect of our lives. It is mind-boggling. It became so scientific that I let it go, because it was simply too complicated for me.
What I loved most is studying psychology and relationship compatibility, my two passions. In Jyotish, you don’t only have your signs, but you have your nakshatras, which are the stars between the signs, represented by animals, and that is what is most important in relationships, especially between the moon signs, since the moon is the emotional body and incarnation of the “jiva” or soul. The Sun is not so important because the sun corresponds to the causal body, whereas the moon sign corresponds to the astral or emotional body, and that is more important in romance. (The ascendant or rising sign is the physical body or mask we wear).
But I would like to share just a few basic concepts I always remembered, that touched me.
We human beings originated in Oneness with the Divine, and we chose to incarnate here on the earth realm. We have been incarnating for many lives, in many different forms. Much of our life is already pre-destined, as per our past life karmas. (for more info on this, see the works of my spiritual teacher Sant Kirpal Singh, http://www.ruhanisatsangusa.org, all books are free online, as spirituality should be!) Ernst pointed out that 75% of life is pre-destined and 25% is free will, according to the ancient vedas.
At the moment of birth, when we take our first breath, the stars are lined up in the sky in certain constellations, in certain patterns. For example, in the case of my own birth chart, (according to the tropical or Western zodiac), the horizon was in libra, so my ascendent is libra; the sun was in cancer, so i am a “cancer”; the moon was in aquarius, mars and mercury were in leo, and so forth…
(in the sidereal zodiac, I have 3 planets in the sign of cancer which makes me so extremely watery and hard to relate to this solid-earth world.)
The stars, planets, sun, etc, all have different archetypal energies, and based on which ones are present in which houses and signs in our chart at birth, those energies affect our various bodies, including our mind, heart, emotions, and body. I took one medical astrology course from him and it was all too fascinating. Every affliction is detailed in our charts…
Some planets are gentle, like moon, venus, jupiter, and sometimes mercury depending on who is nearby, and some planets are cruel, like saturn, mars, rahu and ketu (the nodes of the moon). Sadly, Ernst pointed out that MOST of the planets are cruel, and “that is why life is so damn hard here on earth.” Well, the good news is that you can mitigate the effects of cruel planets with gems (like pearl for the moon, or hessonite for rahu, or red coral for mars, etc.) or with certain mantras.
In any case, it is greatly helpful to know your chart to understand what your life lessons are.
The past lives can be seen clearly according to ketu, the south node of the moon. And your main lesson, ie, where you are supposed to go in this life, is seen in rahu, the north node of the moon. And, when our moon nodes conjunct planets of others, we can see our past life karmas with them. Astrology can see your entire life, from siblings, to parents, to money, to marriage..it is all written in the chart for those who can decipher this ancient language of symbolic knowledge.
I have some pretty cool software to see people’s charts, and especially to see compatibility, which is the most fun. You can see every aspect of the relationship…
Incidentally, although Ernst studies and teaches Jyotish, he has found that he tropical zodiac is more accurate for readings…
Confessions of a Mermaid 