** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **
It doesn’t really seem to matter ‘professionally’ how many people you’ve helped overcome depression and get their life together. If the basis for your remedies was ‘astrology’ or ‘jyotisha‘ you’re just a quack practicing ‘pseudo psychology’ and fudging facts together to get the client to ‘play along’.
But with enough time in practice, any astrologer worth his salt realizes that what the rest of the world paints up as and outcasts as a ‘pseudo science’ is actually a subject that quite often delivers more effective results than most remedies out there – clinical and otherwise.
Astrology as a diagnostic science is actually something that pinpoints the root cause of problems far better and faster than diagnostic tests, questionnaires and interviews. A five second glance at someone’s chart sums up the biggest issue in their life perfectly.
A person’s natal chart is actually unique like his fingerprint. If you pitch the age old argument that ‘There are millions of babies being born at any particular place at any particular second’, then that statement reeks of your ignorance towards vedic astrology as a subject and just its power as an analytical tool.
- Each birth chart is divided into Divisional Charts.
- Each divisional chart changes its Ascendant and/ or the Moon in signs and houses depending upon its division.
- The D-9 and D-10 chart, which are the 9th and 10th divisions of the natal chart, change the ascendant every 10 minutes.
- The D-60 changes its ascendant every 60 seconds.
- Within the D-60 the Hora Lagna, Ghati Lagna, Arudha Lagna and Up-pad Lagna change every 5 seconds !
That’s right. Something changes every 5 seconds and anyone who knows jyotisha to any extent will be able to appreciate just how important all of these ‘Lagnas’ (ascendants) are in terms of both analytical and predictive astrology.
The ascendant changes every 30 minutes and every change of 1 degree Longitude, shifts the ascendant by 1 degree in the Natal Chart.
A change in 1 degree latitude changes the Natal Ascendant by 1 degree.
A 1 degree change in both the latitude and longitude changes the Ascendant by 1 degree and 20 minutes.
In the D-60, the same changes are translated as a change of 30 degree per 1 degree latitude and a change of 30 degrees per 1 degree longitude and a change of a whooping 60 degrees per 1 degree longitude and 1 degree latitude.
Let that sink in for a moment.
I agree that a variance of 1 degree latitude or longitude is a sizable difference as 1 degree latitude translates to roughly 69 miles. (The latitude distance in physical terms varies on how close or further away from the equator you are.)
However, 1 minute latitude is roughly 1.5 miles and that’s reasonably small.
And a 1 minute change in the lat and long can shift the Pranapad Lagna by 30 degrees.
Then, you must also remember that ‘birth time’ is the time when the entire head and body of the baby is out of the mother. This may change based on a cesarean or normal birth and a certain percentage error involved in recording the time of birth by the doctor/ nurse.
No two people can have the same chart. No two people have the same chart. Period.
But then, no two people can have the same fingerprint either yet to normal folks, palmistry is as much a ‘pseudoscience’ as astrology. We’ll come to that later.
Even so, two of the greatest psychologists that lived in the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, are famous for their application of ‘astrology’ to dig deeper into their patients’ minds. Both of these gentlemen are widely regarded as geniuses of their fields. Geniuses. Revolutionary geniuses at that.
Freud’s work, no matter how controversial is by far one of the best works on psychosis and hysteria of that time. A lot of his work stands on solid ground even to this day.
As for Carl Jung, he is known as widely regarded the father of analytical psychology and when you look at it from that angle, his openness to experimenting with unorthodox analytical devices such as astrology really comes as no surprise. Astrology is vast being regarded as and being developed as a ‘predictive science’ and while that may be one of the derived functions of astrology, that is not what ‘jyotisha’ was devised for.
The fact that ‘Jyotisha’ is Vedic in origin highlights a higher purpose to the science. As an analytical science, Jyotisha is a great device. This is also why many of the famous mathematicians of ancient India, such as Bhaskaracharya, also happened to be great astrologers.
With a more modern outlook, it would make sense to alter the popular perspective about applied astrology, especially looking towards its applications by great mathematicians and psychologists. It would make sense to study patients’ charts at least once during the first session to gain a better understanding of what goes on inside their minds. Why is it that nobody does it then?
Kinseics is a widely taught subject to Intelligence Officers and Detectives. Graphology finds wide application in criminal forensics. Anthropology is not really too far removed from these derived sciences if you look at it objectively.
So, why is a mediocre psychotherapist perceived to be more qualified than an outstanding astrologer when it comes to counseling someone through Bipolar Disorder, OCD or Depression?
In my experience, Astrology can work wonders with people suffering from ADHD, Anxiety Disorder, Low Self Esteem and even… yes this controversial… even… psychosis!
True. Psychology and Therapy involves formal training of a sort without the knowledge of which the average person cannot be trusted to handle a sensitive client adequately. But more often than not, as you go higher up in the class pyramid, your preference for clinical treatment seems to increase. The upper classes are scoffing at astrology as a ‘pseudo science’ and hocus pocus while the lower classes, often deprived of the ability to bear astronomical bills for ‘mainstream counseling’ is reaping the benefits of a straight and simple science that works wonders as an analytical technique.
Now, it could also be possible that Psychologists have academic degrees and are therefore considered more mainstream and knowledgeable wrt therapy and treatment. Last I checked, there was no Master’s in Astrology at Yale or Harvard. Not even Delhi University.
However, it doesn’t seem that a lack of academic recognition for Astrology as a subject is what makes the case for its dismissal as a ‘complete waste of time’ for many people. We can build institutes for teaching astrology and award diplomas and master’s and doctoral degrees in astrology. Even then, the stigma wouldn’t be removed.
The Church may have a role to play for its branding of astrology as the ‘science of the devil’. The Islamic world holds a more staunch view of the same. Even so, what have the Eastern schools of thought done so far to promote it as a subject or as a discipline?
All in all, it just seems that no matter how far you go and further up you go in the field of astrology, other more ‘serious’ professionals tend to still look at you the way Sheldon Cooper looks at Geology.
It’s the same difference as between a Physiotherapist and a Physician and between a Chiropractor and a Doctor. The stereotyping is unfortunate in all cases but in addition to the mathematical information busting the fad about multiple people having the same birth charts, here are a few top of the hat experiential stats:
- It takes a psychologist 2-3 sessions typically, to formally and correctly diagnose the average patient’s problem.
- Then it takes him 2-3 sessions to properly advise the client on future course of action and start therapy and begin to build a relationship via analysis and interview.
- It takes 2-3 sessions of therapy per week or every 10 days to show any sizable change in the mental health of the subject.
The average astrologer on the other hand…
- Can diagnose the problems and triggers of the typical mental health patient in around 3-5 seconds.
- Then it takes the astrologer 1 session at the most to discuss the cause of the problem triangulated upon.
- And finally, it takes the astrologer 2 or 3 sessions at the most to discuss probable solutions and remedies and to counsel the client to adopt a different way of living and adopting an ideal changed mindset towards the problem.
The rightful comparison between astrologers and psychotherapists at least in the field of mental wellness and depression is the difference between a paramedic and a surgeon.
You need the surgeon to perform the procedures that will actually save your life. However, you can’t reach the surgeon’s table without the paramedic.
We need to a raise a new corps of astrologers who can recognize mental health issues with the client and where they stem from and prepare a file based on their analysis and forward them to a psychotherapist who can take it from there.
This will give the therapist at least a 2 -3 session jump start and help him triangulate the problem area at the word GO!
However, on the question of how likely is that to happen any time soon, I am well aware that this idea is way ahead of its time. It feels good however to put it out there and at least give the astrology students a great exhibition of the power of diagnosis especially in mental health challenges in astrology.
The idea behind the first part in this series about mental health and astrology is to highlight that astrology as a science has great potential in helping the average psychologist know a lot more about their client than the average psychologist without the knowledge of astrology.
Astrology, if anything is a statistical science more than a pseudo science.
- For all the money that we have poured into building breathtakingly spectacularly expensive particle accelerators to look for particles that we’ve never found and aren’t likely to find any time soon…
- For all the money that we have poured into researching cures to diseases that we have caused due to our carelessness in the first place…
- For all the money that we have poured into developing robots that can open doors, shake hands, climb steps and ladders, lift chairs and cranes but are still incapable of ‘feeling’ and ‘compassion’…
- The money we have invested in the development of astrology as a science and discipline is microscopically minute.
Also, to call out bluntly, look around and you’ll find many people seeking out shrinks never really able to let go of them. Never really able to outgrow them. Never really able to make any serious efforts to get life going on their own. People visiting astrologers on the other hand mostly end the session with a sense of more answers to their questions than questions to their answers.
Somebody somewhere is doing something wrong. It’s not the astrologer or the psychotherapist. It’s the people who’re looking for the right answers via the wrong questions.
Astrology is not be the pseudo science that it is mocked to be and I have healed more people of depression and mental anxiety disorder employing applied analytical astrology than I have seen being healed of the same ailments by the ‘system’.
And I know that because they came to me after they had been rejected by the system.
To conclude, this entire topic in many ways, reminds me of Dallas Buyer’s Club! If you haven’t watched the movie, watch it. You’ll know what I’m talking about!
** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **
One thought on “Astrology and mental health – Part 1: Is Jyotisha really just a ‘pseudo science’?”