How to feel more energetic and motivated?

Everybody knows somebody who is so motivated and driven that it seems as
though they are operating on a higher energetic plane.

You know what I mean right?

The guys who are just at it again and again and again day after day after
day.

Not just in terms of their career but just in all areas of their life. It’s their
default attitude towards life. They just seem to be drawing in a lot more
energy than is available for normal folks.

I mean.. it’s hard enough consistently pulling yourself out of bed for an early morning run.. but to then also have the energy to come back from work and go for dance lessons.. while you’ve already had a thoroughly engaging work day.. not just ‘punch in the hours and leave’ kind of stuff.

Right?

Yet some people out there are doing it and doing it consistently and not
doing it to show off or flaunt but very much because that’s the frequency
they’re operating on.

What’s their secret?

It’s what they are tuned in to.

You must have heard this popular quote:

“We don’t get burned out as a result of doing a lot of the things we don’t like doing. We get burned out because of a lack of doing all the things that we love doing.”

Thing is, it still doesn’t paint the full picture.

If you don’t know what are the things that truly fulfill you, how do you recharge?

Many people don’t really know what are the things that truly fulfill them in
a ‘healthy’ fashion.

Many people are so far along the road of self denial in their spirited
efforts to ‘fit in’ and ‘make it work’ with everybody else that the only truly
fulfilling activities they engage in, are those that help them tune out the pain
that is their life!

Partying, shopping and living it out in a ‘glam’ life is what seems to most
to be the ultimate happiness.

That’s the formula right?

“Work hard. Play hard”

But take all the material happiness away and you see that the basis of most people’s happiness is almost entirely external.

Most people are only ever able to do as much as is required of them to be able to afford the ‘painkillers’ that are these material indulgences. All the while maintaining a semblance of control over their lives which tbh doesn’t really exist.

They find themselves constantly lacking in energy. Constantly lacking in
adequate nourishment. Constantly lacking in sleep, comfort and ‘joy’. No matter how much you try to fill that hole, a deep sense of ‘lack’ is always felt.

That’s because life has been reduced to a mere ‘transactional experience’ for these people. They are ignorant to the concepts of co-creation with the universe, they are ignorant to the existence of a higher plane of consciousness beyond the material
world.

You see, people in tune with the calling of their hearts may be less aware
of the spiritual side of life but are still intuitively attuned with a higher
force.

They may often lack the necessary words or terms to describe this ‘connection’
but have a good understanding of what ‘dims’ it and what ‘enhances’ it.

This connection is the source of the highest energetic vibration available
freely for us all.

Anybody can tune into it and connect with a higher level of energy, positivity and drive.

Do you know what that is?

Love.

It’s actually a scientific fact that when you’re in love, all the hormones
in your body are working in all the right ways to heal you faster, make you
require less sleep and food. Help you feel better, stronger and more upbeat and
usual.

When you’re harboring emotions of resentment, unhappiness, frustration and
sadness however, consciously or unconsciously, sooner or later they manifest as
physical ailments.

In today’s day and age, that ‘ailment’ for most is wobbly mental health.

When you don’t feel mentally as strong, upbeat, positive and motivated as
you could, you automatically feel yourself lacking in the necessary strength
and drive in your physical body.

No amount of wealth, ‘recognition’, fame, awards or riches and comforts can
help you feel better if you don’t feel a deep love for the life you are living on a day to day basis.

The job, the body, the spouse, how things are at home and what you are able to do about all of these things, that’s what is the true source of joy. True joy comes from a deep connection with every aspect of your life.

That superhuman state that so many people who are operating at their peak
performance on a consistent basis seem to be, is a state of perfect sync with
their highest intentions on how to utilize the life that has been given to them
by God.

These people are truly in ‘love’ with their lives and seek to pursue only and all of the things they truly feel in love with.

You will quite often see cancer survivors in this category.

 Once you have had a brush with how bad a life of decay and weakness can be, you never want to listen to anything else but the calling of your heart.

Once you have reached the dark end of that road you want to run as far away from
it as possible in the direction of your dreams.

The good thing is, all of us don’t have to wait for a near death experience or
a major health scare to put life into perspective.

It begins by taking the first and the most critical step:

The step ‘inwards’ towards the ‘self’.

·        Mediation can be immensely helpful in this area.

·        All healing modalities, popular, mainstream or
alternate are great to explore. Whatever works for you.

·        Eating better and healthier is the simplest way
to honor your body.

·        Exercising regularly but not necessarily ‘pushing’
yourself to ‘look’ a certain way to ‘fit in’ but more like engaging in the type
of physical workouts that give you the most happiness.

Once you start taking these steps, and not just on ‘weekends’ or ‘alternate’
week days but integrate them in your day to day life, you will find a new you
begin to emerge.

This ‘new you’ will want to share ideas with you, talk to you and express
what truly matters to your soul.

It will seem pretty uncomfortable at first when you suddenly want to change your habits and that will invariably result in your changing your friends.

Then you will probably want to change your hairstyle, clothes and maybe where you stay.

Once you begin to listen to the ‘true voice’ of your heart that is driven by love, you will find that your past life will need to fall away.

That’s scary right?

But isn’t it scarier to think that all this may happen forcefully and unconsciously to you through an external circumstance that you wouldn’t be able to avoid?

Isn’t it better to consciously invite this change bit by bit in a self regulated manner?

When you tune into the true frequency of who you are and truly begin to ‘listen’..
feeling loved and exuding energy and confidence will just happen automatically.

You’re actually not tuning into a ‘new you’ but truly tuning into the ‘real you’.

That’s where the core of your power is hidden.

In the essence of who you truly are.

Love,

Jay

How to achieve ‘Flow state’ part-2

One of the most interesting aspects of being in a state of peak performance is its seemingly detached tunnel like sensation one feels. The more you are in that state, the more you want to continue to be in that state.

 The concentration and focus begin to get exponentially better with each passing moment.

It’s a perfect attunement to one’s highest potential and a complete lack of judgment as the body executes what the mind sees with an incomprehensible ease.

When this ‘ease’ is missing, it’s almost as if it’s missing in everything we do.

It’s missing in every task, every project and every activity we perform throughout the day.

When you’re in a flow in your life, it’s almost as if you carry the flow from one task to another seamlessly.

If you think of it, it’s really not rocket science!

You spend some time doing anything for a while and pretty soon you aren’t using your conscious ‘mind’ anymore but channeling a subconscious force that is hitting the target consistently.

Next time you get to the task of washing the utensils after a big family gathering or when you have some friends over for dinner, I want you to focus on the task itself.

Here’s what happens:

The first few dishes, glasses and spoons are arranged in a somewhat preparatory manner until you are able to sync up exactly where the soap and scrubber need to be. Then as you begin getting your hands wet you slowly begin to grip the dishes better, the sponge or scrubber is a lot more fluffier with residual soap and the water flow from the tap is ‘just fine’; not so slow that you have to flip the dishes many times to clean off the soap, not so heavy that you end up splashing over yourself.

About five minutes into the task you even begin to enjoy the process and even though you are looking forward to completing the task, the task itself is no longer a ‘hassle’ or source of ‘discomfort’ for you.

You know exactly what you need to do and you’re doing it without thinking too much. In fact, the dishes are practically cleaning themselves. All that you are doing is making sure just enough soap is put on and the water pressure is just about right to rinse it off.

You might even find yourself humming a song or engaging in conversation with your partner at the other end drying the utensils as soon as they are rinsed and ready.

To analyze a tad, what exactly is happening here?

Well you are unwittingly right in the middle of a ‘flow state’.

At that moment one could hand you three more loads of utensils to clean and with enough hot water and soap, all other conditions being just right such as comfortable slippers and a waterproof apron and gloves, you wouldn’t really be distracted either.

The prize of the task is in the task itself.

It’s almost a meditative experience!

Now, a slight detour:

Have you heard of the Sikh ‘Gurudwaras’?

Around the world, there are thousands of these places of worship and community building of the Sikh religion. They are open to everyone and provide hot food and temporary shelter for people from all walks of life

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you are encouraged to visit a local ‘Gurudwara’.

Over there you will find, at least every Sunday, Sikh men, women and children from all age groups and social standings, coming together to offer ‘seva’ or ‘service’ to the ‘Gurudwara’.

What’s it all about?

Well the Sikh ‘Gurudwaras’ are essentially places of prayer. However, since service is such a huge part of the Sikh religion, a ‘Gurudwara’ invites everybody with open arms as long as you follow the rules of the temple (such as covering your head, washing up before you enter and staying disciplined and respectful) to be a part of that service.

It’s how  they manage this task on such a massive level that is of great amazement.

You see, most of the regulars at a ‘gurudwara’ are also direct contributors to the services of the ‘gurudwara’ by way of volunteering.

You are directed to participate in volunteering irrespective of who you are and where you come from. That is one of the traditional values of the religion and more so, the ‘culture’.

But guess what that really does?

It ensures people are able to leave their worries behind and become more ‘grounded’ in the performance of acts of service that truly and directly have an impact on society!

Engaging regularly in mundane volunteering activities is a naturally calming exercise.

Anybody can offer service and anybody can receive the services on offer, albeit with gratitude.

From helping in the kitchen to cleaning utensils and mopping the floors, to dusting, cleaning and racking up the shoes of all visitors (shoes need to deposited outside before entering), every ‘Gurudwara’ has tons of opportunities for engaging in activities that are self rewarding.

Isn’t that genius?

In fact for most people from Punjab, irrespective of their religious affiliations, offering service at a ‘Gurudwara’ is actually a regular part of life.

Furthermore, in varying degrees, this is probably an intrinsic element of most Eastern cultures.

For example, corresponding to Buddhist monasteries is a popular Zen saying: “Chop the wood. Fetch the water”

The idea is that to be able to achieve higher states of consciousness through mediation, one must first dedicate themselves to the act of ‘committing to the moment’. How do you do that?

By focusing on the task at hand and deriving the satisfaction from engaging in the task itself.

The wise ones were privy to the secret apparently that when you are too focused on performing tasks as a way of ‘getting things out of the way’ you have a tendency to ‘miss out’ on a lot.

Your intellect tries to interrupt the flow of activity continuously, with needless inputs on how to improve ‘efficiency’ and increase ‘efficacy’.

This creates a tussle between the intellectual side and the subconscious mind.

This is what interferes quite often in an individual being able to hit the metaphorical ‘spot’.

This is as much for a sportsperson as it is for a writer or public speaker, entrepreneur, businessman, journalist, teacher or illustrator.

Irrespective of what you do, if you’ve been out of sorts for a while and haven’t been able to tap back into the ‘flow’: where actions yield the intended results seamlessly and everything seems like a breeze, it’s because you are probably ‘too full of yourself’.

What does that mean?

In his book “The Inner Game of Tennis”, Tim Gallwey offers interesting insights about the two ‘voices’ that exist in the mind of every sportsperson.

For players who are struggling with their game, the ‘logical voice’ of the intellect continuously interferes with the subconscious workings of the body to try and achieve required goals.

Everyone who has been ‘out of form’ for a while, will be able to relate with what I am talking about here.

There’s the ‘instinctive self’ seeking to achieve targets in an unplanned yet ‘instinctive’ manner and then there’s the ‘logical self’.

“You’re hitting the ball too hard!” or “You’re waking up so late how do you expect to get anything done today?” or “There’s no way you will be able to pull of that color combination on this design!”

If you allow it to, the voice of the ‘logical’ side of your mind can become increasingly fussy about the details of the ‘how’ and slowly take over more critical and reprimanding tones.

Why?

It’s the lack of confidence of the instinctive self that opens it up to the nitpicking, over-analysis and criticism of the so called ‘logical’ side.

Make no mistake about it. The chances of you approaching life in an illogical fashion and succeeding are awfully slim.

However when you’re trying to tap into a higher frequency of creativity, called the zone of ‘peak experience’ as first coined by Albert Maslow, the trick is to get your mind out of the way and allow your instinctive abilities to kick in and perform.

The idea is to understand that with enough practice and experience, you already have a good ‘logical’ understanding of what needs to be done.

If you’re a writer you already know how to write and have probably spent years writing and studying how to become a better writer. If you’re a sportsperson you already know how to play your game and you’ve clocked countless hours and practice sessions to hone your craft. Same thing if you’re an artist, designer or public speaker, architect, engineer or musician.

The focus is to tap into the zone of ‘peak experience’ or the ‘flow state’ to be able to create your magic seamlessly and enjoy the experience. You want to stay in that state once you get there and prolong it to extract maximum impact from it.

Any fine tuning if necessary can be done after that session of activity ends; when you have accumulated confidence and sufficient data of your performance to analyze and perfect.

It’s for this purpose that professional archers quite often practice the ‘sudden release’ via employing a mechanical release or ‘release aid’.

Why is that?

Well archery is a sport that demands insane levels of concentration and focus.

Everything from a crosswind to the angle of your chest when you’re mid breath can affect the quality of your shot.

However too much focus and concentration can get in the way of the body performing the simple tasks it needs to perform to accomplish the activity!

At some point you will have to release the arrow or you will be just standing there forever. It’s pretty likely that there will never be that perfect moment to release the arrow; probably all ‘perfect’ moments will at best be close but not exactly perfect.

Another example here from the Zen methodology describes the perfect archer as an individual who releases that arrow the moment his focus on the target is fixed.

Ideally speaking, great Zen masters believe that any time lag in between the two actions serves only to distract and/or discourage.

The mind and the body need to become instinctively better at focusing on the target and working in unison to hit it rather than the mind constantly chattering on “getting your elbow in line” and “holding your breath”!

As Tim says in his book:

“Whenever I see a player criticizing his shot or trying to control too much of his style of play, I ask him to observe who is talking to whom? When you observe the conversation going on you notice that it’s the ‘conscious’ mind trying to interfere in the workings of the subconscious instinctual self which is by the way, doing what it needs to do i.e. striving to accomplish the goal you’ve set for it.”

I hope you enjoyed the second part of the series. Subscribe to the blog to follow the rest of the series and stay abreast of all the content I and my team post here.

Until next time!

Love, Jay

Cover photo credits: Famous foot archer Cristina Garcia, Bernhard Shambeck photography.

Jala Neti for beating back inflamed sinuses

One of the most common problems this winter has been breathing freely.

Especially if you’re living in polluted North Indian cities like Delhi and Gurgaon.

Make no mistake, sinus inflammation can be triggered by cold weather as well and many people living in cold countries complain of the same during autumn months, when the seasons change.

Drier than usual air in winter months, causes the mucus linings of the nose to become dry which then causes the mucus to thicken. This quite often results in congestion and infection.

In the autumn season, there are a lot of irritants such as plant spores and seasonal pollen filling the air that often cause allergies and bronchial inflammation. Virus transmission in public places can be quite common and therefore people with a chronic problem of sinusitis and bronchitis often experience flare ups during this time.

However during winters, especially so in polluted cities in emerging economies such as those of the Indian sub continent, the triggers for people with chronic breathing problems can be really bad.

The dry cold air compounded by a lack of wind causes micro pollutants from vehicle emissions, exhausts, smoke and dust to just ‘sit’ at lower levels of the atmosphere posing a serious health risk.

While installing air filters is fast catching up as a preventive mechanism, it is impossible to avoid coming in contact with air all day long. At some point while commuting, exercising, shopping or socializing, one is bound to come in contact with pollutants. The use of air filters is still only catching on and is not as widespread or systemically integrated in the architecture of the cities.

Therefore, most people try to solve this problem using antibiotics and/or ‘humidifiers’. Sustained used of antibiotics is not something that is good for the body in the long run. Especially if natural methods can be used to prevent the condition of recurring in the first place.

In fact, one such technique is very common in the ancient science of ‘yoga‘ that is part of humanity’s millennia old science of natural healing and fitness.

‘Jala Neti’

Jala‘ meaning ‘Water’ and ‘Neti‘ meaning ‘To guide’.

This is an ancient art used frequently by ‘yogis‘ to keep their nasal passages clean; a very important prerequisite to practice ‘Pranayama‘ or breathing exercises.

How does it work?

It works by guiding lukewarm water (with a pinch of salt) through the sinuses, using a ‘neti pot’.

Refer the photos below for a better idea:

A woman performing ‘jala neti‘ using a ‘neti pot‘.

A common design of a ‘neti pot‘:

Looks uncomfortable?

Actually it’s pretty easy and simple.

You tilt your head to one side and slowly pour water using the ‘Neti pot’ into one nostril and it just pours out from the other one, cleansing your sinuses!

That’s it.

Even so, we understand including a step by step instruction manual is customary. Here you go:

Instructions

  • Fill ‘Neti pot‘ with warm water. (Lukewarm, check beforehand)
  • Add roughly a small pinch of salt to a single ‘Neti pot’ of water. Make sure it is properly dissolved.
    • For best results make mixture of salt in lukewarm water beforehand. A ratio of half a teaspoon per 600ml of water is ideal.
  • Place the ‘neti‘ cone of the pot into one nostril, (thereby sealing it to the nostril)
  • Don’t apply undue pressure but gently push the cone into the nostril to ensure water flows directly inwards into the nostril.
    • Don’t be scared. If you do it properly the entire process works seamlessly. If you panic however water will not go in and you will only end up wetting your short.
    • The process is ‘simple’ but still requires attentiveness. Do not sniff, swallow, laugh, talk or engage your nose in any way during the process.
    • Stay calm and stay attentive. Keep your mouth open and breathe gently through your mouth if you need to.
  • Repeat the same thing from the other nostril.
    • Before changing sides however, blow out gently through both nostrils to clear water and mucus from the nose.
    • Don’t exert pressure. Just gentle blows are enough to ensure excess water or mucus is ejected.
  • Make sure you do it in an alternating manner. One pot from one nostril and another from the other and so on until you feel your sinuses have cleared.
    • It’s a good idea to make around 1 – 1.5 litre mixture of lukewarm water and salt in advance.
  • Repeat the steps as above for 2/3 pots at the beginning of your day.
    • This should ideally be done on an empty stomach before you start your day.
    • You can do it once again in the evening before dinner.

Important Caution:

  • Make sure the water is sterilized i.e. water from a water purifier heated until is lukewarm or tap water that is boiled and then cooled to a lukewarm temperature.
  • Make sure the water is not cold. This can have an adverse effect on the sinuses.
  • The ‘Neti pot’ that you select must be of good quality with edges and tips that are completely smooth.
  • The ‘Neti pot’ should also be sterilized before use. (Just wash it with warm water thoroughly)
  • People who have a nasal infection should not do this.
  • Let your infection subside first and then start this practice afterwards as a preventive measure.
  • Do not share your Neti pot’ with someone else.
  • Always dry your nose gently with a tissue or soft cloth after completing the practice. The nasal passage shouldn’t be left wet.

We hope this simple ‘yogic’ exercise helps you breathe better. Subscribe to this blog for tons of content on Healing, Wellness, Spirituality and much more!

Until next time!

Namaste! 🙏

Photo credits: Woman practicing ‘neti’: artofliving.org, ‘Neti pot’: Indiamart.com

Meaning and Importance of the Heart Chakra- Anahata Chakra- Part-1

1. Mantra: ‘Yam’ (Pronounced ‘Yum’)
2. Location: At the center of the chest. Under the sternum.
3. Color: Green
4. Position: Perpendicular to the Earth/ Parallel to the Spine
5. Rotation: Parallel to the spine
6. Corresponding Planetary energy: Venus
7. Corresponding Number: 6
8. Corresponding Mudra: Lotus Mudra

The Heart Chakra is most related to emotions, love and compassion. Throughout cultures the ‘heart’ is considered almost a synonym for matter of love, compassion, empathy and kindness.

Interestingly, the Heart Chakra isn’t only related to kindness and love. It is also related to fearlessness and strength. People who have an ‘open heart’ are considered as people who are unafraid of hurt and are ‘centered’ in their dealings with others.

Why?

Because love is the highest vibration. A person with an open heart is able to view situations without biases and fears that normally overshadow rationality and logic. Not only are these people more open to giving love but also receiving love.

The heart chakra is very connected with the lungs and the actual physical ‘heart’.

Therefore ‘heartache’ and grief can have a profound impact on the organs related to this ‘chakra‘. Quite often it is observed that people who suffer from ailments of the lungs and/or heart have undergone some form of emotional trauma in the past. In fact even in the cases of children who are born with heart and/or lung related problems, you can trace back the energetic roots of their conditions to unhealed emotional trauma in the family lineage.

Opening your heart chakra through ‘yoga’ meditation and ‘tantra’, invites more balance and ease into all areas of your life. Sure, calling in your soulmate and attracting love can be one of those things. However on a larger level, it invites more harmonious connections and interactions with all of life around you.

There is a reason therefore that this ‘chakra‘ is placed at the very center of the 7 ‘chakras‘. It is to illustrate that when you are compassionate and fearless in your emotions, you are also stable and centered in your energy.

Blockages in the heart ‘chakra‘ restrict the flow of ‘kundalini‘ energy upwards to the higher ‘chakras‘ that deal with consciousness and awareness.

This is because until you are able to let go of mundane emotions of ‘mine’, ‘yours’, ‘hurt’ and ‘harm’, you will not be able to raise your consciousness above the levels of the mundane world. You will not be able to raise your energy to a level where you can aspire to connect with the divine force.

The higher lesson here is to first develop the emotional understanding that you as a soul are required to grow above trivial matters of jealousy and resentment that stem from an idea of ‘separation’. It is to first develop the understanding that intrinsically, all of life is one.

Once you tap into the supreme understanding that all of life is one, it become easy to forgive just as easy it becomes to be fearless. This ultimately opens up your heart-centre and allows energy to move upwards. It also allows healing energy from the heart-centre to radiate outwards and make you a more approachable, attractive and desirable individual.

Don’t allow the hurt and negativity that others may have consciously or unconsciously dumped on you to make you a cynical, ‘closed off’ person. Don’t allow your failures and dejection to make you bitter. This is the key to unlocking your heart ‘chakra‘. The more your forgive and release any sort of bitterness and fear that may have crept into you as a result of the vagaries of life, the more you allow good things to find their way to you. The more you allow better connections and enriching experiences to fill your life with love and happiness.

Chakra artwork credits: Etsy

Rahu mahadasha secrets part 3/101

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

If you’ve read the previous part of this series, it talks about how ‘Rahu‘ is an energy of growth who forces you to expand your mind and your understanding, your knowledge. ‘Rahu‘ is here to force you to ‘think’ yourself out of the puzzle that he has put you in, so that your soul can learn and grow from this experience.

Everyone has ‘Rahu‘ placed somewhere in their chart and it is obvious that we are all here to grow in some way.

Even if some people don’t believe in spirituality at all, it is part of their journey of growth.

This is why I quite often say in my posts that please don’t judge people on the basis of their habits and likes, dislikes. I know many don’t want to hear it, but the thing is, even gangsters and criminals are doing what their soul chose to do and grow from in this lifetime.

Yes, causing pain and hurting others is bad ‘karma‘ but choose not to dwell on what others are doing and focus more on your journey and your path.

Then again, many people won’t do that and like to criticize and nitpick others’ faults because, well, it is their journey to do so! haha

Even so, we all have free will that we can apply in the right direction. I feel my role as an Astrologer Life Coach is to guide you take as much power as possible, in your own hands while simultaneously learning to surrender to the divine will. It’s a fine balance to strike but the sooner you learn it, the better off you will be.

So what’s the 3rd secret that I have about ‘Rahu ji‘ for you guys?

The 3rd secret is that ‘Rahu‘ does very well in his own ‘nakshatra‘ even if that ‘nakshatra‘ is not placed in a good ‘taara‘ and even if the house placement is bad.

I know, sounds unbelievable right?

Hear me out though, there’s a second part to this.

Does well means it’s easier to navigate the energy. The final destination is well, as I said, subjective.

Look, not everyone is going to live a 100 years and live disease and debt free at that.

It’s a fact. Just accept it.

However, when you are in better alignment with the energy you at least know how to swim with the current. You don’t struggle as much.

Now, whether you are swimming in the ocean, sea, river, lake or swimming pool is going to be the difference in how much energy you have left to actually complete the journey.

But swim you will!

Unlike most other placements where you are caught in a whirlpool and unable to move in any specific direction.

The thing is, when ‘Rahu‘ is placed in his own ‘nakshatra‘, you have his energy in action in the purest form.

This is a lot better when we think about how to do the necessary remedies in terms of the ‘mantras‘ and ‘japa‘, meditation etc to perform.

Because when ‘Rahu‘ even well placed is in the ‘nakshatra‘ of another planet then it becomes a little tricky to find the solutions at an esoteric and ‘tantric‘ level.

Why?

Because the planet ruling that ‘nakshatra‘ also comes in to play and mostly that planet also is rarely placed in his own ‘nakshatra’ and then it kind of becomes like ‘kick a can down the road’.

Yes, you may undergo a lot of losses that you will seek ‘closure’ from. Grief is different. Loss of a close friend, partner or interest, career, can be very painful and it takes time to recover from that. Sometimes you may never recover and need therapy etc for a life time.

However, where you should be headed and what you should be doing is pretty clear for you and there’s no confusion as regards that.

When ‘Rahu‘ is placed in his own ‘nakshatra‘ however, yes, the results can often be frightening. However, the direction and focus becomes so strong that you will probably be hard at work rather than searching for answers on the internet or anywhere.

Rahu‘ creates the least amount of confusion when he is placed in his own ‘nakshatra‘.

In fact, mostly, if you have ‘Rahu‘ placed in his own ‘nakshatra‘ in your chart and you are undergoing ‘Rahu mahadasha‘, all you have to do is start ‘Shakti‘ worship and wear a ‘Gomed‘ if possible.

It will give you immediate results.

Now, of course please bear in mind that the exact gemstone may vary from person to person and this post is informational in nature not formal advice.

Before you start doing remedies on your own, it would help to talk about your chart and understand a few more things related to the energies of this placement in the session before you proceed to the solutions.

If you’re already a ‘Jyotishi‘, then apply this to any chart you see and you will actually notice the impact.

People with ‘Rahu‘ in the ‘nakshatra‘ of ‘Swati‘, ‘Ardra‘ and ‘Satabhishaka‘, have more of a problem of dealing with ‘loss’ in their ‘mahadasha’ periods rather than confusion.

They know pretty well what they need to do and how to proceed, it’s just making sense of the change in their life that is troubling them and quite often this can be reflected poorly on their mental health.

Hope this helps.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

‘Ketu’ in 3rd house of birth chart

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

If you’ve been following this series of ‘Ketu‘ through the houses, then the previous two posts in this series would have given you a pretty good idea about the energy of ‘Ketu maharaj‘, what he represents and what he stands for.

Ketu‘ is the blueprint of your soul’s past experiences.

It is the code of all past experiences from the many lifetimes that your soul has previously manifested in the material plane and all the things learnt from those experiences.

Ketu‘ placement in your chart points out towards the area of your life where you are a natural expert. This is also the area where you usually have the most comfort and the desire to break free from.

Check out the previous post in this series if you haven’t already and especially the first one where I’ve built a very strong foundation about the nature of ‘Ketu‘.

Now, moving on. What happens when the South Node of the moon, ‘Ketu‘ is in the 3rd house of the birth chart?

  • The 3rd house is known as the ‘Sahaja bhava‘.
  • Sahaja‘ meaning ‘ease’.
  • This is one of the 3 ‘Upachya‘ houses.
  • Upachya‘ meaning it ‘grows better with time’.

The third house is the house of your skills, communication, siblings, peers, dexterity, courage, relatives and also neighbors. The 3rd house basically represents all the people you interact with on a regular basis.

It is also 8th from the 8th so it can represent sudden events, in-laws, legacy, death and rebirth, conjugal gains and ‘personal power’.

The meaning of the 3rd house actually is very deep. It is quite often a very prominent house when we analyze the charts of entrepreneurs, sportspersons, stock brokers, businessmen and artists.

Some notable examples in this regard:

Apple founder legendary entrepreneur,
Steve Jobs had his Saturn in the third house.
One of the greatest cricketers in recent times, Virat Kohli has the North node ‘Rahu’ in the 3rd house.
Famous stock broker Jordan Belfort (of Wolf Of Wall Street fame)
has Mercury and Mars in his third house.
  • So, the third house is the natural house of Gemini and there is a lot of Mercurial energy in this house.
  • This house is about commerce, writing, reading, discussing, talking.
  • It represents phone calls, small group discussions. Why small group discussions? Because large groups are represented by the 11th house and 9th house represents addressing a larger group of people, the masses.
  • The 3rd house also represents small conversations i.e. short conversations you have with your colleagues at the water cooler, with a stranger on the bus, the store clerk, the watchman etc.
  • The 3rd house is the most important house when we talk about courage and determination.
  • The 3rd house is the most critical house when we look to analyze someone’s ability to ‘earn their own bread’. Why is that?
    • Of course, in order to be able to provide for yourself, as a self employed person or an Entrepreneur, a broker or athlete performer of any kind, you need to constantly ‘make things happen’.
    • ‘Making things happen’ requires a lot of courage. Doesn’t it?
      1. Calling someone for a sale, going up to talk to someone you don’t know.
      2. Making new friends in a team setting, interacting and establishing rapport with people you have no connection with besides your work or profession.
      3. All of it requires a lot of courage and ‘self efforts’.
      4. Things just don’t happen unless you go and ‘make them’ happen.

When you put the South Node of the Moon, ‘Ketu‘ in the third position, suddenly things get confusing.

Why confusing?

Well because the native has all of this natural courage, natural ability and aptitude towards ‘earning their own bread’, towards ‘making things happen’ for themselves and towards communicating, interacting and expressing themselves..

However, there is simply no desire to grow in that direction!

It’s pretty simple.

  • The soul has experienced those things in past lifetimes and although these may be things that come naturally to the individual, the individual simply isn’t inclined to make use of these traits in this lifetime.
  • That’s because the individual’s urge, or rather the soul’s urge, is to grow in the direction of ‘Rahu‘, who is situated in the 9th house.
  • These individuals therefore, tend to focus more on ‘ideas’ than small talk.
  • The native can be perceived as a bad ‘communicator’ and ‘slow learner’. Since the 3rd house is the house of learning and interacting, with ‘Ketu‘ placed in the 3rd house, the native has a hard time grasping things the first time around.
    • This is because the consciousness is always aligned more towards ‘higher knowledge’, ‘deeper wisdom’ and ‘addressing a large number of people’ rather than a small group.
    • However, they can do very well when asked to research a topic in depth as this is where the application of ‘Rahu‘ energy in the 9th house becomes active.
  • Now, with ‘Ketu‘ in the 3rd house blocking their natural ‘Gemini’ traits, this individual is probably a person who will go and post a photo on their Instagram as soon as their cup of coffee arrives, but take days to respond to simple messages from their best friends.
  • And as ‘Rahu‘ is in the 9th house, the individual can be painfully direct when making small talk and go on and on when talking about their own ideas and sharing their quite often elaborate insights about topics.

This placement is also one which in ‘Vedic‘ astrology is called ‘pitri dosha‘ as the north node ‘Rahu‘ is placed in the 9th house. However, we will go into more detail about that aspect when we discuss ‘Rahu’ through the houses.

On the ‘Ketu‘ side of things, the important thing to be noted is that this individual struggles quite a bit in the following areas as life progresses:

  • Forming friendships
  • Exerting their will
  • Expressing themselves
  • Learning new things
  • Short travels
  • Working in a team setting

I say ‘as life progresses’ because that is the nature of ‘Ketu maharaj‘. He is supposed to push you towards the opposite end of the axis towards ‘Rahu‘. He does so by simply taking away the native’s friends, team members, neighbors and sometimes even the right words, when time comes to communicate.

The native’s lesson is to not engage in the trivial and occupy the mind with higher wisdom and higher knowledge. To focus on bigger things, deliberate on deeper topics and give their attention to ‘larger ideas’ presented to a larger audience.

The native however, may be a very good editor as the ability to just ‘cut’ through tons of content and come ‘to the point’ is expressed very well with ‘Ketu’ exuding his influence and expertise in the third bhava.

The lesson for people with this placement is simply to understand that:

  • The support they seek is not going to come from their ‘peers’ but followers.
  • The courage these seek is not going to be expressed in working for themselves but instead, applying their mind to bigger ideas for the collective benefit.
  • Their ‘karma‘ is to wade through tons of incoherent chatter and zero in on the crux of the messaging that is the most important and relaying that information, syndicating it to as many people as possible.
  • The individual could do very well in institutional education especially ‘creating’ and teaching at the graduate level.
  • The individual can also be filmmaker, politician, travel blogger, researcher and publicist.

This placement is also one which in ‘Vedic‘ astrology is called ‘pitri dosha‘ as the north node ‘Rahu‘ is placed in the 9th house. However, we will go into more detail about that aspect when we discuss ‘Rahu’ through the houses.

On the ‘Ketu‘ side of things, the important thing to be noted is that this individual struggles quite a bit in the following areas as life progresses:

  • Forming friendships
  • Exerting their will
  • Expressing themselves
  • Learning new things
  • Short travels
  • Working in a team setting

I say ‘as life progresses’ because that is the nature of ‘Ketu maharaj‘. He is supposed to push you towards the opposite end of the axis towards ‘Rahu‘. He does so by simply taking away the native’s friends, team members, neighbors and sometimes even the right words, when time comes to communicate.

The native’s lesson is to not engage in the trivial and occupy the mind with higher wisdom and higher knowledge. To focus on bigger things, deliberate on deeper topics and give their attention to ‘larger ideas’ presented to a larger audience.

The native however, may be a very good editor as the ability to just ‘cut’ through tons of content and come ‘to the point’ is expressed very well with ‘Ketu’ exuding his influence and expertise in the third bhava.

The lesson for people with this placement is simply to understand that:

  • The support they seek is not going to come from their ‘peers’ but followers.
  • The courage these seek is not going to be expressed in working for themselves but instead, applying their mind to bigger ideas for the collective benefit.
  • Their ‘karma‘ is to wade through tons of incoherent chatter and zero in on the crux of the messaging that is the most important and relaying that information, syndicating it to as many people as possible.
  • The individual could do very well in institutional education especially ‘creating’ and teaching at the graduate level.
  • The individual can also be filmmaker, politician, travel blogger, researcher and publicist.
I’m going to college. I don’t care if it ruins my career. I’d rather be smart than a movie star.” said Natalie Portman when she quit acting at the height of her career to pursue a Bachelor’s in Psychology at Harvard. Wow! If ever there was a better example of this amazing placement in action.
Jim Carey is famous for dabbling in spiritualism, ‘The Secret’ and other manifestation techniques. He quit acting for a period to just spend time at home, learning about spirituality and making elaborate paintings some very grand and with artistic, abstract themes.

Hope this helps!

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Why does Sun do so well in the first house?

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Generally all planets do so well in the first house because that’s where a planet gets the most prominence in the chart.

The 10th house is where a planet gets the most ‘attention’ and ‘recognition’ because this is the mid heaven. It’s where you see things most clearly so a planet here is most apparently expressed in the native’s life, choices and personality.

However, any planet in the first house is the most prominent planet in the native’s life because it’s the ascendant, the central point of the native’s life path.

Even if the planet here doesn’t have the highest strength, dignity or power, it still is ‘central’ to the native’s life because it is intrinsic to events and experiences that shape the native’s life journey.

Now, the Sun is exalted in Aries and the first house corresponds to the natural sign of Aries. Therefore, Sun placed here, irrespective of the sign, is in a naturally exalted position.

Exalted positions aren’t necessarily the best placements for a planet in the chart. See from the chart’s perspective, there are places which are good, there are places that are tricky and then there are places that are bad. Although no house is bad but still, you’d rather not want Rahu in the 8th as much as you’d not want Mars in the 2nd.

It’s not that these planets would do bad here, although they might; it’s just that their energies could be put to better use in other houses.

For example, Saturn although would be at home in the 10th or 11th house as they correspond to its naturally ruled signs of Capricorn and Aquarius, it isn’t where we’d want Saturn the most. Simply because Saturn would cause frustrating delays for the native in gaining recognition and status and potentially help in less ways than create problems especially early in life.

Saturn would be exalted in the 7th house as it corresponds to the natural house of the sign of Libra however here Saturn would again potentially cause problems to the native’s health, home, mother, partnerships and career once more since 7th is 10th from the 10th.

Saturn is applied a lot better in the 6th house however as it is here even its negative aspects come in handy. Saturn suppress all the malefic houses at once with all 3 of its aspects. Also, Saturn’s influence in 6th house imparts a high level of stoicism and patience to the native.

In the same way, Mars actually wouldn’t be preferred as much in its naturally ruled houses of Aries and Scorpio i.e the first and eighth house.

Why is that? Well, Mars creates conflicts no matter where you put him. Reason is Mars signifies where the bulk of your ‘energy’ is expended. In the 8th and 1st, this energy is likely to create more problems for the average person than in the 10th house.

In Mars’ case, as is Mars’ nature, the tenth house is perfect for him. Why? Because you have an endless space for him to expend his energy endlessly and with only positive results for the taking.

Similarly, Jupiter could do really well in the ninth house which it naturally rules. It could also do well in the 4th house which corresponds to the natural house of the sign of cancer where Jupiter is exalted. However, this is once again not the most ideal position for Jupiter as it aspects both malefic houses, the 8th and 12th and imparts potentially problematic lessons to the client.

Jupiter placed in the 12rh house however.. would be lot better as place in the 12th, Jupiter is in his own sign as well as in a position of ‘protection’ for the native. Jupiter expands the subconscious and opens it up to recieve guidance and messages from the angelic realm by being in the 12th. From here it aspects the 4th and 8th houses and actually blesses the native with good family life and conjugal happiness while also expanding bed pleasures by being in the 12th.

So you see when the Sun, similarly is placed in the first house and doing well, it is actually one of the few planets to be doing great placed in its exaltation and also favourable for tje ascendant.

The reasons are many. However the most important ones are:

  • The Sun naturally rules the East direction. It rises in the East after all! The 1st house corresponds to the direction of East and the Sun does well here therefore.
  • The Sun is the ‘sthir atmakaraka’, the universal significator of the soul for everyone. So being placed in the first house shows a deep connect of the individual with his ‘life purpose’. This makes achievement of life goals easier.
  • The Sun represents vitality and the first house is the house of the self. The Sun placed here infuses vitality in the body since its presence here has a strong impact on the native’s body.
  • The Sun represents guidance and clarity. Being placed in the first house is great from the perspective of achievement of goals in the native’s life path as the ascendant signifies the life path.

To put it in simpler terms. The Sun being the king, would probably have more recognition in the outer world i.e. the 10th house.

The Sun would probably also have more dominance in the 6th house of enemies and conflicts, easily slaying competition and taking on the mantle of being the ‘warrior king’ and leading form the front.

The 8th house would be good too since the Sun here gives the individual the confidence to go into what is scary and unkown.

In the 9th and the 3rd, in the house of its friends Jupitet and Mercury, Sun is once again well disposed to give the individual powers of expression and communication, courage, however it doesn’t have the same dominance as in the 1st. The Sun here in both these houses could do really well but in the 9th, it could potentially take on more of a spiritual role and less successful materialistically. In the 3rd the Sun doesn’t have sufficient ‘digbala’ as it is almost near ’emun coeli’ point.

In the 5th, the Sun has a tendency to cause delays in progeny as it being a hot planet, causes the number of children to be less. This often results in delays of progeny.

It’s in the 1st house however where the Sun is sitting on his ‘throne’. The Sun here doesn’t need to take on the costumes of the planets in whose house it sits. The Sun being in his own element doesn’t have any adverse effects either (like with the 5th house position).

The Sun in the first house simply has to be. That’s it. This is a sun who shines through every action and event in the native’s life, guiding the native through life’s trials and challenges, with a firm, confident, inner knowing that cannot be replicated by another planet in the chart.

Hope you liked this article.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Rahu mahadasha secrets part 2/101

In the previous part of this series, I talked about how ‘Rahu ji‘ is that mysterious entity charged with the all important task of pushing the soul to grow in a specific direction based on objectives set before manifesting in the physical plane.

I talked about how ‘Rahu‘ destroys the house that it sits in so that it can be rebuilt in a more stable and conscious way in alignment with the soul’s desire.

In this part, I’m going to reveal the secret a lot faster. Right away in fact!

Rahu‘ is here to teach you to think.

This is why ‘Rahu‘ represents Entrepreneurs.

No, not businessmen, Entrepreneurs.

Businessmen are represented by Saturn and Mercury and deal with businesses that have a set monetization and profitability model. Not in the case of Entrepreneurs though, who quite often deal with novel ideas. Quite often ideas that are disruptive and open up an entirely new business vertical.

See, ‘Entrepreneurs’ are the people who we often joke about as having the talent of figuring out “how to build a parachute on your way down from an airplane!”

They are the people who are the inventors of the modern world.

Look around you.

90% of the technical marvels you see exist as a result of ‘inventions’ by pioneering minds. From food and retail delivery apps to smartphones, social networking sites and ‘Internet Of Things’, everything that forms an intrinsic part of our daily lives is as a result of some innovative guy in some garage having the vision to look beyond his or her personal reality to ‘what can be’.

I talk to so many people in their ‘Rahu mahadasha‘, completely hopeless and inconsolable at how they’ve lost things that they spent a lifetime building. This could be a marriage, business, project or anything else like that which we view as stability and security.

Rahu mahadasha‘ comes along and destroys it and people are left aghast.

Too shaken to even think of what can be done now with what they have.

Here’s the thing about ‘Rahu‘.

He won’t move unless you move.

He comes in and destroys things once to clean the slate and push you in a particular direction. After that it is up to you to make progress by putting in effort.

If it were ‘Ketu‘, he would continuously take away things to force you into moving towards ‘Rahu‘.

Rahu‘ is pretty clear.

He is like an adventurous friend playing a joke on you on your Bachelor’s party. Making you believe you are being kidnapped while in fact you are being given the ‘thrill’ and adventure as part of the ‘experience’.

See, ‘Rahu‘ is here fulfilling the simple duty of giving the soul the ‘experience’ it wanted when it chose to manifest in a particular body in this material plane.

That’s it. That’s his job.

He will ensure he does that job ASAP.

This is why ‘Rahu‘ under ‘Rahu‘ is a massively transformative period for the native.

Quite often this is why people who have ‘Rahu‘ placed in the 10th house in the birth chart, get a promotion as soon as ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ starts. Also quite often, that’s the most professional success the native will enjoy in the entirety of the ‘Rahu mahadasha‘.

Why is that?

Well quite often you don’t really deserve that promotion. This is one of the good aspects of ‘Rahu mahadasha‘. He is here to give you what you came here to experience. Whether you deserve it or not he just doesn’t care.

This is unlike ‘Ketu‘ who will only give you what you deserve sometimes out of nowhere.

Rahu‘ won’t function like that and it would serve the native a lot to understand this.

Rahu‘ represents the ‘mind’.

Quite often you will see ‘Rahu‘ people and also number 4 life path people, who behave quite similarly to someone having ‘Rahu‘ in the ascendant as 4 is the number of ‘Rahu‘.

Quite often you will see these people finding ways with their thoughts and figuring out loopholes as if life was just one big chess game.

This is why many hackers, con men and politicians, brilliant Entrepreneurs, are represented by ‘Rahu‘. They have the ability to out think everyone else.

You know what they say: “Expert hits a target in the middle. Genius hits a target no one can see.”

That ladies and gentlemen is the 2nd secret of ‘Rahu mahadasha‘.

There is a way.

There is a solution.

If you’re not able to see it it’s because you need to learn to think!

Expand your mind. ‘Rahu‘ will help you immensely.

I have the outmost respect for all cultures, beliefs and schools of thought etc. But I see people doing utter useless things like ‘donating cigarettes’.. I’m not kidding! Supposedly ‘donating tobacco’ is considered one of the ‘remedies’ of ‘Rahu‘.

Oh c’mon!

Honestly, it comes as no surprise to me that people in ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ will come across people guiding them like that! Lol.

See that’s the thing. If you don’t do the thinking yourself, ‘Rahu‘ will force you to think for yourself by putting you through these difficult experiences where other people will out-think you and con you!

Hope this helps.

To book a reading, feel free to visit the scheduling page.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

‘Ketu’ in 2nd house of birth chart

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

The second house, dhana bhava, the most obnoxious placement for Ketu they say as Ketu is naturally debilitated in the sign of Taurus and therefore the natural sign of Taurus, the second house.

This post also works if you have Ketu in Taurus and Rahu in Scorpio.

Ketu rejects where it sits therefore Ketu sitting in the second house rejects wealth, family and even food.

Interestingly though, if you analyze people with Ketu in the second house placement you will find that these people are actually very intelligent with their money and have a tendency to watch what they eat.

Not necessarily early on though. No, early on their soul is still stuck in the previous life where they were probably taureans with a penchant for all the good things and indulgences in life.

People with Ketu in the second house usually grow up naturally gravitating towards the Taurus mould. They grow up wanting, understanding and feeling comfortable with all things related to the second house.

For a while Ketu helps them with this as well as they are still learning to adapt to the new life. However beyond a certain point, it just begins to fall apart. It is pretty clear that they are trying too hard to save money, too hard to accumulate material possessions, too reliant on the family and too indulgent in food and taste.

Ketu in the second house can give a person a tendency to smoke as Ketu represents smoke and as a whole these people may have a heightened ‘hand to mouth’ activity which may translate as many addictive behaviors. Smoking is just one of them and others could be caffeine addiction, eating disorders and nervously or absent mindedly chewing on their pencils or gum, tobacco etc.

They have a lot of attachment towards their family but there is obviously an imbalance in that attachment since their soul has lived out the validity of the ticket that Ketu in the second house represents. They have a tendency to rely on their family for things that they are unable to provide. This causes frustration, isolation, confusion and lack of direction as they try to make sense of the fact that “Others’ families are so supportive while theirs is hardly so!”

It is only when out of sheer frustration of lack from all things representative of the second house that the native steps into the scorpio mould of the eighth house and embraces his inner power that it all begins to make sense.

It begins to dawn on them that Ketu in the second house kept them needlessly attached to a security that never existed and it is in embracing the uncertainty of the eighth house, in being malleable and fluid that their true power lies.

Ketu in second house folks mature in their later life into people with an exceptional grasp of money, security and values, financial and dietary discipline while being a master at forming relationships with other people and gaining from partnerhsips.

Marriage and joint resources of the in laws, other people’s investments and speculative gains is what gives them reward and losses in equal measure until they finally learn how to hedge their losses and push both themselves and others a little further each time to maximize the prize which is then shared by everyone.

Ketu in second house however has a tendency not to share and is all about holding on to his resources while leveraging other people’s power to score some more. It’s all about pushing it a little further for them every time. Like a compulsive gambler almost, Ketu in the second house person finds a secret pleasure in manipulating people while retaining a sense of control over the entire situation.

Of course if Ketu is conjunct a planet in the second house this changes a lot of things. I am mentioning the effect of a few conjunctions here and you can add these to any other planetary conjunctions occurring therein to get a better grasp of the dynamics.

  1. Ketu conjunct Mars in the second house
  • Mars is naturally out of place in the second house however Mars and Ketu have a similar nature therefore while quite ‘bitter’ and ‘dry’ this conjunction works well for the native.
  • Mars energizes the second house quite a bit so that there is a frequent emptying of a pot into another pot It’s difficult to just hold on to and save money for such individuals. Mars alone energizes the house it sits in and this not really that good for the second house that you would want to have as much Earth element as possible for static wealth to lie ‘still’.
  • However, with Ketu’s tendencies to just ‘let go’ of a house’s significations suddenly, Mars is a great supplement to that energy energizing Ketu continuously to release its energy on a constant basis. Finally the native learns the way to protect wealth is to look towards the opposite house of Rahu in the eighth. Such a person will most likely invest in SIPs, insurance schemes, annuities, stocks and mutual funds on a regular basis as he is just averse to ‘money lying around’. This turns out to be a good thing in the end.

2. Ketu conjunct Venus in the second house

  • This isn’t a bad position actually because Venus is very happy in the second house, the natural house of Taurus and Venus’ home sign.
  • Moreover, Shukra is the Guru of the asuras and therefore a natural friend to Rahu and Ketu.
  • What happens here is Venus’s natural earthly energy in the second house in conjunction with Ketu’s tendency to suddenly let wealth go translates into an energy where the pot may be being emptied from time to time but is also being filled.
  • In time the native realizes that the best solution is to keep filling and emptying the pot each time to ensure there is always a little left over.
  • Venus looks at the eighth house at its friend Rahu and helps Rahu churn out profits and comebacks from the eighth house of uncertainties and risks.
  • In time the native learns that security is enjoyed by providing the same. That the more he puts into the vessel the more he has when it is time to empty it like a piggy bank.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Is Mars in the 8th house bad?

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Kuja‘ in ‘Randhra Bhava‘ i.e. Mars in the 8th house, is mostly considered bad by people.

In fact, in electional astrology, whenever you have to find a ‘muhuratam‘, whenever Mars is in the 8th house, that ‘muhuratam‘ is considered out of your control.

Avoiding any ‘muhuratam‘ with Mars in the 8th house and/or the nodes ‘Rahu-Ketu‘ in the ‘kendra‘ houses are pretty much the two golden rules of selecting a good ‘muhurat‘.

However, when it comes to the birth chart, you can’t always control things like that.

I know, a lot of people try to control the birth of their children through unnatural means sometimes such as a planned caesarian even when one isn’t required. I disapprove of such ideas and you are invited to disagree with me. Well, I have reasons based deeply and soundly in logic and historical examples. To that effect, I have written an article about this on Quora that you are encouraged to check out.

Now, as I was saying, in a birth chart, you hardly have control over where a planet is. Stop trying to fight your planetary placements already! Learn to channel them and harness their energy.

No placement no matter how bad it looks is all bad and vice versa.

Therefore, Mars in the 8th house does have some problematic aspects but in this post we will talk about mostly the aspects of this placement that people tend not to talk about.

For example, Mars in the 8th house is actually quite at home. Why is that?

Because the 8th house is the natural house of the sign of Scorpio and that is ruled by Mars. Mars in the 8th house is pretty much in his own home. Yes signs and dignity matters but first and foremost it’s the energy of the house and the planet that should match for consistency in alignment with the energies.

I have often talked about this before that Saturn even in Capricorn in the ascendant will never be without its trials and problems for the native.

Why is that?

Because Saturn in the first house is in its natural placement of debilitation no matter what the dignity of the planet.

Digbala‘ has a huge role to play in how the native is able to channel a planet’s energy towards the achievement of life goals and objectives.

Similarly, Sun even in Libra in the first house, will not be without its share of natural advantages to the native.

The king is sitting on his throne and it doesn’t matter if he’s forced to ‘get along’ with the court and ministers, he is still sitting on his throne and he is still seen as the king.

On the contrary, you look at people with Saturn in the first house and there are almost always controversies wrt their leadership style and decisions.

Similarly, Mars in the 8th house, no matter how problematic, is within his known place.

It’s like, Mars is exactly where he likes to be.

Which is where?

  • Which is.. diving into the unknown.
  • Facing sudden events and dealing with them.
  • Exploring secrets.
  • Exploring sex. (Mars is the planet of passion and sex drive)
  • Giving transformational energy. (Saturn keeps you stuck. Mars is a revolutionary)
  • Taking risks.
  • Controlling sexual energy (Mars is also the planet of celibacy.)
  • Channeling personal power. (8th house is the house of personal power)

So when Mars is in the 8th house, it can quite a few times show the individual has a very strong no-holds-barred, daring and direct relationship with sex and risk.

  • These people.. either engage in taboo breaking sexual behavior or choose to consciously abstain for sex completely.
  • They either take great risks impulsively or take such calculated risks that they don’t appear risks at all. Sometimes a good Mars in 8th house person can be the epitome of personal restraint.
  • They either tend towards the self destructive or..
  • tend towards extremely transformative and self aware behavior.
  • When it comes to partners, they may conceal many affairs or they may choose consciously to not have any partners and tap into that sexual energy for higher purposes such as ‘kundalini kriya’ and ‘dhyana’.

Now, Mars in 8th house people can also, if not properly channeling this energy, be like a horse running amok.

It all depends on the level of spiritual development and physical consciousness of the native.

The anger and sexual drive needs an outlet and if the native isn’t taught from a young age how to channel or grows up in an uncertain environment with too few role models, this can be the placement of a psychopath.

On the other hand, this can be the placement of an exceptional healer, surgeon, psychologist, entrepreneur, yogi, spy, scientist, the list is endless as far as 8th house related professions are concerned.

Why is that so?

It’s because even if the consciousness is not as developed, Mars is where the native gives most of their energy. Mars represents the physical body and blood circulation, muscles and movement. It also represents focus, courage, determination, self confidence and ambition.

So even if someone grows up in a highly materialistic household and has Mars in the 8th house, he may just grow up to be an exceptional surgeon if that is what they have been nudged towards in their life from a young age. This could be as a result of the impact of role models or a conscious nudging by parents, teachers and peers.

Why is Mars in the 8th house notorious for causing accidents then?

There’s an interesting type of personality called the ‘accident prone’ personality. Although these people may have many types of placements and it depends a lot on the ‘taara’ and the ‘nakshatra’ placements, quite often we see these people have Mars in 8th placements.

And the reason for this is simple.

What you put out in the universe you get back.

So if you’re putting out aggression and anger into the universe even if unknowingly in the form of passive aggressiveness or constant complaining and frustration, this energy will manifest in the physical world as imbalances in the area that Mars is placed in your chart.

This is why Mars is considered so well placed in the 10th house.

Why is that?

It’s because in the 10th house of the ‘outer world’ and the ‘arena’, no matter how much energy Mars exerts, good or bad, it’s simply too less compared to the vastness of the so called ‘container’.

Even an angry champion is a champion nevertheless and a fearsome one at that.

In the 8th house however, this energy can manifest in many ways.

From accidents and mysterious cuts and bruises to fights, arguments and violent outbursts, directed towards the native or outwards, you really can’t predict.

Why? Because it is the 8th house. That’s why!

This is the only downside in my opinion, towards Mars in the 8th house.

Otherwise, I have seen some very successful people with this placement. I’ll be updating some of the famous ones pretty soon.

For now, hope this helps!

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

What is the best house for Saturn to be? (Saturn in 6th house effects)

From an esoteric perspective, Saturn placement in the chart is about the area of your life that you have the most karma in. So, it is tough to say which is the best place to have the most karma in your chart!

However, as a Life Coach, when I look at someone’s chart from the perspective of understanding him, Saturn gives me the most glaring cues about what he spends the most time dealing with in his waking life.

Now, all issues may not be overcome in this life time. Some can be just too complex to see the bright side of but Saturn is the one planet in the chart which can help you become great by scaling the insurmountable obstacles you face in that part of your life.

So if we look at it from that perspective, Saturn in the sixth house is probably the best placement to have. This is based on my personal views as a ‘vedic’ astrologer and also to a huge extent of what I consider to be important for succeeding on the material plane but here are my reasons for the same:

  1. Saturn suppresses where ever it is placed.

As a result of this, the good thing is that Saturn’s placement in the sixth house will suppress debts, enemies, diseases and conflicts.

The challenge here is that sixth house also represents workplace, routine, habits and struggles.

These individuals although later in life become the masters of solving conflict, leading a healthy life, inculcating healthy habits and taking care of the body but they tend to develop the discipline necessary to keep a job and find work a little later than the rest.

So the 6th house although one of the ‘dushthana’ houses isn’t all bad. Technically, no house is bad! These are just representatives of the 12 different pillars that your life is built upon.

So the 6th house is bad in the sense that it represents the following:

  • Enemies
  • Competitors
  • Conflicts
  • Routines
  • Debts

However, the 6th house is also good as it represents:

  • The necessary work to accomplish something,
  • Building a solid routine
  • Dealing with necessary day to day expenses
  • Working in general.

Now, since Saturn teaches through delay, sixth house is where Saturn might delay the good aspects represented by the sixth house but it is also giving you more time to grow and prosper until you are strong enough to deal with these things.

If you think of it as a trade off between the good and bad aspects of this placement, it’s not such a bad idea since the Sixth house is the only house in the entire chart that in the ‘vedic’ sense is said to make a person invincible. Let’s cover that in the next point:

2. Saturn makes you work hard where it is placed

So, the sixth lord in the sixth house can make you invincible so to speak because who really is invincible if you really think about it?

Someone who keeps fighting and never loses of course!

You cannot stay within the confines of your home wearing body armor, holding a broad sword and call yourself invincible. You need to go and fight and deal with everything and everyone that comes in your way.

Saturn in the sixth house after the initial phase of your life when it was denying you the ability to work and discipline yourself will begin to push you progressively during its return around the 28th or 30th year.

This energy will make you work, work, work and then work some more!

In fact, people with Saturn in the sixth house seem more Virgo sometimes than Virgos themselves! It’s because the sixth house is the essential house of day to day living. Sixth house is in concise, day to day life.

So, it is better to work hard and have the muscles to show for it than to work hard and not really have much to gain from it materially.

For example, Saturn in fifth will make you work really hard towards self expression and delay your ego. Once you do gain that ego and find your self expression, it isn’t necessary that what you really gain is enough for you to feel fulfilled.

In the first house, Saturn will make you work really hard on yourself and inculcate self discipline but quite often this means that early years were lost in under development. Later on, you may find yourself and become amazing at what you do but time is of great importance in self development so maybe your body just didn’t develop and now that you’re an adult it can’t. You just have to deal with it! Accept it.

In the sixth house however, you didn’t know how things work in the beginning so you were given problems after problems to understand how to fix them. Eventually, you become the master of solving problems and what is success in life all about?

Solving problems!

That is quite often why people with Saturn in the sixth become great entrepreneurs or become self employed. They are addicted to doing things (sixth house) their own way (Saturn likes working alone.

3. Saturn’s aspects suppress 3 other malefic houses.

So, this is a good bonus to have always with a Saturn placement, it’s aspects. However, if it is placed in not such a good house, these aspects can wreak havoc.

For example, let’s assume Saturn is placed in the tenth house.

This is very good in the long run because Saturn is at home in the tenth house, the natural house of Capricorn. The energies are perfectly in sync. However, Saturn teaches through delay therefore the person will take some time to be recognized noticed and appreciated for his or her work.

This is how you must read a Saturn placement:

  1. Look at the challenge i.e. the house where it sits
  2. Look at the aspects on the houses to understand why
  • Third aspect: (Third from Saturn’s placement) The aspect of self efforts
  • Seventh aspect: (Seventh from Saturn’s placement) The aspect of opposition
  • Tenth aspect: (Tenth from Saturn’s placement) The aspect of defining status

So, for a person with Saturn placed in tenth, the recognition achieved in the world is delayed because through Saturn’s 3rd aspect on the 12th house, the person finds it hard to develop his imagination. Through Saturn’s 7th aspect on the 4th house, the person finds it hard to deal with inner conflict or conflict within the home and through Saturn’s 10th aspect on the 7th house, this person isn’t able to get the recognition he deserves for himself because he is too busy defining himself through others!

As Saturn matures, there is a role reversal and the person begins to use all these aspects to his advantage to succeed in the house Saturn sits.

Now, let’s consider the same scenario for Saturn in the 6th house:

This person finds it hard to deal with conflicts and daily routines because through Saturn’s 3rd aspect on the 8th house, this person is trying to control events that aren’t under his control and lacks support from other people. Through Saturn’s 7th aspect on the 12th house, this person always finds himself in opposition to his own dreams ,expenses and anything that requires expending energy in general(12th house significations) therefore he is forced to think practically and logically. Through Saturn’s 10th aspect in the 3rd house, this person is trying to build himself with this own efforts(3rd house significations) and is probably falling short in being able to put the right effort.

Now, what is the story of the person with Saturn in 6th house?

He is trying to make it on his own or let’s say he is forced to make it on his own.

What does Saturn signify?

Working alone, working seriously and being self sufficient.

What do you think this person will turn into once Saturn matures and starts giving him the results he wants?

Now, here is a person who just can’t give up as he thinks all that is required to succeed is to try one more time and work more.

Yup, those are the guys you almost always find at the top.

Because the difference between winning and losing is quite often.. trying one more time!

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Looking for advice on working better with Saturn’s energies? Book a Reading

Astrology and Mental Health Part 3: Using the ‘taaras’ for a quick scan

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

The previous part of this series was all about leveraging the power of planetary placements for a quick analysis. This time we go deeper into the ‘taara‘ concept. Why ‘taara‘ before ‘nakshatras‘? Well these are quick techniques. So moving in order of speed. In the order in which I personally analyze a chart as soon as I start a session.

The ‘taaras‘ can be absolutely amazing when being used to help understand what a particular planet is really capable of doing.

I know, the ‘avasthas‘ and the degrees, placements etc. all get a lot of attention and focus from astrologers around the world. However, the single thing that gives me the best idea with just a quick scan about what a planet is really capable of doing or not, is looking at the ‘taara‘ that it sits in.

What is the ‘taara‘ now?

So the ‘taara‘ is a natural progression of co relation between the planets and the natural ‘vimshottari dasha‘ system.

Let me explain how this works.

See, in the ‘vimshottari‘ system, the order of the ‘mahadashas‘ is fixed. Which ‘dashas‘ a native goes through or doesn’t in this lifetime depends completely on which ‘nakshatra‘ they are born in.

This is why not everyone will long enough to go through let’s say, ‘rahu mahadasha‘. This is also why some people will undergo a particular ‘mahadasha‘ early in life and learn important lessons related to that planet and some people will have tough lessons to learn towards the end of their life.

So the order is as follows:

  1. ‘Surya mahadasha’
  2. ‘Chandra mahadasha’
  3. ‘Kuja mahadasha’
  4. ‘Rahu mahadasha’
  5. ‘Guru mahadasha’
  6. ‘Shani mahadasha’
  7. ‘Buddha mahadasha’
  8. ‘Ketu mahadasha’
  9. ‘Shukra mahadasha’

Now, if let’s say you are born in the ‘nakshatra‘ of Sun i.e. any of the 3 that it rules which is ‘Krittika‘, ‘Uttaraphalguni‘, ‘Uttarashadha‘.

This means that the first ‘mahadasha’ the native will undergo in life will be Sun’s ‘mahadasha‘. After that, following the natural progression, the native will go through ‘Chandra‘ period, ‘Kuja‘ period and so on.

Let’s say the native is born in the ‘nakshatra‘ of Saturn i.e. any out of the three ‘nakshatras‘ Saturn rules which are ‘Pushya‘, ‘Anuradha‘ or ‘Uttarabhadrapada‘.

This means that the native will first undergo ‘Shani‘ period and after that following the natural progression, the native will go through ‘Buddha‘ period, ‘Ketu‘ period, ‘Shukra‘ period and then, since there are only 9 planets, the cycle continues from the top i.e. ‘Sun’ period, ‘Chandra‘ period and so on.

So the ‘taara‘ system and how it works is this:

The ‘nakshatras‘ ruled by the same planet as the one ruling your Moon’s ‘nakshatra‘ will be for you, the first ‘taara‘ i.e. the ‘janma taara‘.

For example, let’s say you were born when Moon was in ‘Ashlesha nakshatra‘ and you have your Venus in ‘Revati‘.

Then we will say that Venus is in your ‘janma taara‘. Why is that?

Because ‘Revati‘ and ‘Ashlesha‘ are both ruled by Mercury.

In the same way, as we progress, we view the planetary placements wrt the ‘vimshottari mahadasha’ progression as I showed above in points.

So let’s say you have Moon in ‘Ashlesha‘ and Mars in ‘Rohini‘.

Then which ‘taara‘ is Mars in?

Well, since ‘Ashlesha‘ is ruled by Mercury and ‘Rohini‘ is ruled by Moon, you count from Mercury to Moon following the ‘vimshottari mahadasha’ progression.

Which means that Mars is in the 5th ‘taara‘.

Now, every ‘taara‘ has a different meaning and I will go into that when I do a separate series on the ‘taaras‘. For the purpose of this article, I shall cover only the most important and relevant concepts that can quickly help you understand the chart better by looking at the ‘taaras‘.

So out of the 9 ‘taaras‘, the 7th ‘taara‘ is the one most prone to giving health issues and even causing death sometimes but mostly I have seen mental health issues.

In fact, it comes as little surprise since the 7th ‘taara‘ is called the ‘naidhana taara‘, ‘naidhana‘ meaning ‘death’.

In major periods of the planet placed in the 7th or the ‘naidhana taara‘ and let’s say if the ascendant itself is placed in this ‘taara‘, then the native can experience a lot of anxiety, depression and mental health related issues.

This is like, I have seen this with 100% strike rate till now. I’m not joking. I’m dead serious. I am yet to come across a chart where a key planet is placed in the ‘naidhana taara‘ and the native doesn’t seem like they’re carrying a burden they can’t speak about.

So if you’re ever looking at chart and the client has issues with mental health, by all means refer to a trained psychologist yes, but also know that it is the planet sitting in the ‘naidhana taara‘ that is causing the problem and that’s the one you need to find the remedy for.

If it’s the ascendant then most probably this is a general theme in the native’s life and the native possible has encountered all sorts of mental health issues, obstacles, health problems and/or accidents and conflicts that have given them mental health problems in some way or another.

So that’s that.

Now, the second part of this article is about understanding a very important aspect of the ‘taara‘ concept that actually you know, revolutionized my way of looking at chart once I read it.

So, two planets in the same ‘taara‘ may be considered as conjunct.

You know how when there is a ‘parivartana yoga‘ and we consider those planets in a tighter conjunction than even a proper conjunction?

I hope you knew that. If you didn’t, now you do.

When two planets are in ‘parivartana yoga‘, you can consider them more tightly conjunct than even an actual conjunction in a single house if it occurred between them.

In the same way, two planets in the same ‘taara‘ actually behave like a conjunction to a huge degree.

And watching out for this, when you’re reading a chart, can give you such amazing clues within like, 5 seconds!

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Astrology and Mental Health Part 2 : Five second diagnosis using the planets

** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **

If you read the first part of this series, you would have developed a fair bit of understanding about the importance of astrology as an ‘science’ in mental health diagnostics. There is more to astrology, especially ‘Vedic Astrology’ when it comes to its accuracy in diagnosing mental health issues.

Western astrology has its own techniques, for example using the outer planets, Uranus Neptune and Pluto quite effectively for diagnosing specific ‘problem areas’ of your life. Vedic astrology on the other hand, relies more on the Moon to analyse really how the mind works. The functioning of the Moon is gauged from the combination of nakshataras and the nodes of the Moon.

The nakshatras or the 27 lunar mansions are of prime importance when it comes to discussing several aspects of ‘consciousness’. However, I have found to be of prime importance to the novice astrologer, the nodes of the Moon, Rahu and Ketu. The nodes are quite literally ‘nodes’ or eclipse points. These are the two points where the Moon’s orbit around the Earth intersects the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Rahu and Ketu are called ‘disembodied planets’ in addition to the seven ‘bodied planets’ from the Sun to Saturn, that we can employ for conducting a detailed study.

Although the Sun and Moon are not planets, in astronomical terminology, ‘planet’ is a loose translation for the Sanskrit word ‘graha‘ and ‘graha‘ mean ‘that which moves across the sky’ in Sanskrit.

There is a whole lot more than just the planets, eclipse points etc. in Vedic Astrology as the core work of analysis is formed by a robust scheme of 27 constellations or nakshatras underlying each zodiac sign or ‘rashi’. Every nakshatara has a planetary ruler and every planet is placed in some or the other nakshatara irrespective of where it is placed in the chart.

The scope of this part is limited to exploring the ‘Aha!’ combinations or ‘5 second combinations’ as I call them, of placements of planets and conjunctions and their combinations in a chart that shout out to the astrologer about underlying mental health issues as soon the chart is opened.

It is important to understand that the client may or not may not come to you directly with a query about mental health issues. Their query may be about something completely different. It is possible that any mental health issues that they are facing may be being swept conveniently, under the rug. It is your job as an astrologer to evaluate how much of that problem is related to their most pressing problem and what you can do about it.

For example, a client comes to you for a relationship reading and seems to be going on and on about their partner ‘never paying attention to their needs’ or about feeling ‘used’ in the relationship. It is possible that they may be facing problems in all relationships not just romantic relationships.

What would you do? Where would you start looking? What would you do to help them and what should you do when you open their chart and see within the first 5 seconds that the North Node of the Moon, Rahu is conjunct the Moon, in the 12th house…

For starters, if you have a fair bit of idea about planetary combinations, looking at this placement will help you understand that your advice will probably go waste on this person. It will most probably go waste like the advice of all other people in their life about all the issues that relate to the significations of both Rahu and the Moon in their chart. (It is important therefore that you figure out how to communicate well with them in the course of the reading.)

Where you see Rahu sitting, you see the areas of their life that they are trying to develop in this lifetime but are not quite close to yet. All in all, with Rahu Yuti Chandra, you can ascertain that such people have trouble maintaining their mental stability. Emotions run high and fast and they can’t seem to understand how to deal with that whirlwind.

In this example, let’s assume the Moon rules the seventh house in the horoscope which makes the client a Capricorn ascendant. Now, we can analyze the conjunction better by putting together the significations of the seventh house which is ‘Relationships’ with Rahu’s significations which are ‘Inexperience’ and ‘False’. So this person actually has inexperience in dealing with the emotions of their partner and their own emotions as well. Whenever they are in relationships, they find it hard to figure out what the other person wants and needs and how they must strike a balance with them. The emotions expressed and felt are mostly false in that they may be over exaggerated and over blown.

Since the 7th house signifies everyone except yourself, this person could be having huge problems in dealing with all relationships in general, not just the spouse. Mostly these problems could be centered around escaping from relationships and ‘escaping’ in general since the signification of the 12th house is ‘escape’ and the 12th house is where both Rahu and Moon are placed.

Further, Rahu in the 12th house could also indicate problems with sleep and rest such as insomnia, night terrors, sex, difficulty in meditation, finding inner peace, ‘letting go’ and surrendering to the higher power. They could also be having problems about ‘letting things go’ in general.

Here, it is very important to understand that the Moon signifies the area of life where the person feels most comfortable. The Moon being in the twelfth indicates that the person is most comfortable being along and being in their peaceful secluded place. Since the chaotic energy of Rahu is now conjunct the Moon, you can see that there must be major emotional upheavals related to feeling comfortable in general. Perhaps this person is too introverted or too sexual.

A couple of interview questions while interacting with the client can help big time in understanding where the energy flows in the chart.

A rule of thumb that I follow: If Rahu has eclipsed a luminary (explained in point 1 below) then the person is having to deal with a lack of that energy and if Rahu has not yet eclipsed it but is extremely close to it, the person is forced to deal with an excess of the luminary’s energy and is struggling to harness and channelize it well.

The severity of the problem can be gauged by what Karaka the Moon represents in their chart. I wouldn’t advise using this method though for everyone as there are some who follow the Lahiri ayanamsha and others who follow Tropical signs and some who follow KP. The karakas obviously change with the ayanamsha, so do the houses, so I cannot prescribe standardized results for the same in applying these diagnostic methods.

However, just in case any of you are interested in knowing what system I find most accurate, I follow a combination of Tropical Rashis + Sidereal Nakshatras + Placidus House System (KP Krishnamoorthy)

In my experience and research so far, over the past 7 years, these are the combinations I’ve seen in charts that can help you diagnose mental instability of varying degrees. The biggest help that you can get out of this is the ability to quickly understand that extensive work that shall need to be done with the counseling aspect of the client’s reading and helping them overcome deep rooted issues and challenges. If there are visible mental health indicators one needs to understand that on some level, the client may not be very ‘open’ to external advice.

Not necessarily all combinations are a ‘problem’ per se that need fixing. Most combinations are just energies aligned with the wrong life goals and the client needs to be given a better perspective of the problem through those indicators to better align themselves with the energy at work in their life.

I hope you can understand these basics and stick to them from a scholarly perspective when doing your research. Remember, this is just the first step and there are a lot of layers to this onion that we shall peel part by part.

Here are the 5 second combinations for this part:

1. Rahu Sun/ Rahu Moon:

Whenever either of the two luminaries, the Sun or Moon get caught up in the ‘wormhole’ of Rahu and Ketu, the effects of the placement are supremely taxing on the native’s self image.

Either they may have an image so overblown of themselves that they fail to live up to those ideals themselves and keep getting depressed due to continually falling short, or they may have a rather deflated sense of self and ego that takes a toll on them whenever they try to achieve anything ‘significant’ as per worldly standards.

  • Look at the degrees of the luminary and the degrees of Rahu.
  • Take the degrees of Rahu in negative magnitude. Take the degrees of the luminary in positive magnitude.
  • Add both of them.
  • If the answer is negative, then that means the person is facing a suppression of those traits that the luminary represents. Possible issues: Low Self Esteem, Neediness, Recklessness, Depression.
  • If the answer is positive, then the person is facing an over expression of the qualities of the luminary, much to his own peril. Possible issues: Narcissism, ADHD, Psychosis, Schizophrenia.

2. Ketu Sun/ Ketu Moon:

Whenever Ketu is conjunct either of the luminaries, the results are distinctly introverted compared to the same conjunctions with Rahu. Figuratively speaking, Ketu is the past and the exit of the ‘wormhole’.

Ketu pulls you in to itself but it also has the energy of the entire journey that began with the entrance at the mouth of the ‘wormhole’ at Rahu. You can use the same technique as Rahu with Ketu but with opposite meanings:

  • Look at the degrees of the luminary and the degrees of Ketu.
  • Take the degrees of Ketu in negative magnitude. Take the degrees of the luminary in positive magnitude.
  • Add both of them.
  • If the answer is negative, then it means the person is facing a an inability to develop the traits associated with that luminary any further. The qualities of that luminary come naturally to them but they must look towards the other luminary for balancing their life. Possible issues: Hypersensitivity, Low self esteem, Suppressed Personality disorder, Multiple Personality disorder, Schizophrenia
  • If the answer is positive, the person is facing an over development of the traits associated with that luminary. They find themselves at a cycle in this lifetime where they simply cannot develop those traits anymore and yet they need to because there is some karma attached to them. Possible issues: Perennial depression, Self worth issues, Introversion, Social Anxiety etc.

3. Saturn Moon/ Saturn Sun conjunction:

Saturn conjunctions and even hard aspects/ oppositions of Saturn on the luminaries can be considerably heavy for the native. If Saturn is badly placed in the chart, such as being malefic in nature and/or being debilitated/ situated in difficult houses, this problem can intensify considerably. Quite often, this can be a solid indicator of depression and narcissism.

The trouble is, once Saturn and the nodes are conjunct in a chart, pretty much any of the houses that either of them aspect, will face the chaotic energy of both Saturn and the nodes. Sometimes, even Ketu aspecting a house where Saturn is conjunct, will display Saturnine approaches towards those areas of the native’s life.

I have personally discovered that Saturn Ketu conjunctions are typically more frustrating and less intense than Saturn Rahu conjunctions in the chart.

Although neither of these combinations is comfortable but with Saturn and Rahu, rest assured that there will be considerable progress after the age of 42 when Rahu matures and in fact, still some at 36 when Saturn matures.

But with Saturn conjunct Ketu, one can be quite sure that Saturn won’t be readily accommodating of the idea of the native ‘going for it’ in this life time.

As I’ve talked about in my article about Astrology and past life, one can be quite sure of the fact the Saturn conjunct Ketu points out to an area of your life that the soul is here quite literally to develop because it’s ‘stuck with it’. It’s karma that you simply cannot seem to wash of or get rid of. Ultimately, in this lifetime, you will be able to do it but before that happens and often quite late in life, the lessons learned are hard and tough.

This sort of combination obviously comes with its baggage and lack of clarity on what is wanted and more focus on what is being repeated mostly that you cannot seem to make your peace with.

The thing is, with Saturn conjunct the south node of the moon, the native is too fixed in his ways, which are often the ways of the past that the soul is here to shed and move towards the North Node of the moon, Rahu.

However, to go towards Rahu, one needs to build up with Ketu in the earlier part of their life. It’s like learning a new language. For that, you will begin by learning first the translations of each word in the language you already know, using a few words of your mother tongue here and there when you fumble for the right vocabulary in the new tongue you’re speaking.

With Saturn conjunct Ketu, your condition becomes quite like someone with Rahu conjunct the Moon. You’re being taught a new language without being allowed to use the old language to learn it. It’s like being asked to talk in Japanese from the very first class of Japanese itself!

The resultant problems are quite often: Frustration, Self Harm, bouts of Hysteria, OCD, Psychosis, Neurosis.

Ketu is sitting there indicating you need to use that to build up towards Rahu and yet Saturn is sitting with Ketu, telling you can’t use it. This can become quite a task in the beginning of your life but here’s where it becomes better: Once you realize you’ll not be able to reap any benefits off that house and that you need to go towards Rahu in whatever way you do know, life becomes better.

The neurosis reduces, the depression reduces, the anxiety goes away and the pain (sometimes physically so), goes away with it.

Interestingly enough, as is always with Saturn and Ketu, the things of that house in which they sit conjunct, will all come to you own their own. The lesson here is learning to ‘not care’

4. Saturn Rahu/ Saturn Ketu

Rahu Yuti Shani or Ketu Yuti Shani is a difficult placement from a mental well being perspective. However, it is not an indicator of underlying mental health problems on its own.

The house placement of this conjunction matters a lot and if it is placed in malefic houses, I have observed the conjunction to be actually a lot stable. In kendra houses, it gets a lot worse but depending on the native and the other planets in the chart. There is no strict rule to it and it can vary depending on the chart.

However, anytime you have Shani Yuti Chandra in addition of to any of the nodes, chaos ensues. Usually, such a person will come to you on their own with a primary concern about their mental health. It could be possible that they’ve dealt with mental health issues for so long that they’ve never felt that there is anything wrong about feeling that way. Possible issues: Perennial depression, Low Self Esteem, Self Harm.

This can be really tough and requires a deep analysis of the underlying history and emotional baggage associated with the houses that the Moon rules in the chart and the houses that Rahu and Saturn are aspecting.

5. Pluto

In my experience, I have found indications of the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto to be 100% accurate every time I use them to analyze a client’s chart. In this part I’ll discuss only Pluto.

It’s really simple. Pluto being the farthest from the Sun, the house in which it sits, is the house where the mental comforts are the farthest from you. You never seem to get it right at least for the first half of your life until you’re past your 30s. There’s always a frustrating aspect to that area of your life which you can’t dominate. Quite often, that can be a trend for the entirety of your life since Pluto only changes signs once every 20 years.

These are the top 5, five second techniques that I could think of for this post. I’ll expand on this idea a little more in the next post with more examples, techniques and details about diagnosis techniques for the planets and ultimately using the houses, nakshatras, taaras, yogas and ashatakvarga, transits, planetary relationships.

Hope you found this useful. Please feel free to leave your comments. I would be happy to hear from you!

** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **

Rahu mahadasha secrets part 1/101

I have been blessed to have built so much on the back of the bad boy of ‘Vedic‘ astrology: ‘Rahu‘.

Seriously, it’s simply amazing how much I have been blessed by ‘Rahu ji‘.

Maybe one day I dream to share my chart and get people gasping at how apt it was that I would achieve so much writing about ‘Rahu‘.

Why?

Haha ‘Rahu ji‘ controls so many important placements in my chart and through the background. Not apparently but subtly. Like an underlying energy constantly at work.

Chances are you too have ‘Rahu ji’s‘ energy playing itself out in your life somewhere in your chart even if you never go through ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ in this lifetime.

It’s there.

Just by virtue of his placement in your chart, he is guiding you in a specific direction. This is the direction of your soul’s purpose in this lifetime. This is the direction of your ‘soul calling’ and you can only ignore it for as long. Ultimately you need to surrender to it and let it lead you , let it guide you.

That’s the power of ‘Rahu‘.

In this series of posts, which are going to be exclusively published on my website, I am going to talk about 101 secrets of ‘Rahu mahadasha‘.

Yup! Every post will talk about 1 secret about ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ and ‘Rahu‘ placement in your chart that you probably didn’t know.

So let’s take the name of Shri Hari and start this amazing journey.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

So the first secret about ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ is this:

Rahu destroys the house that it sits in so you can build something ‘new’ here.

Hmm. Me talking about things so sordid and worrying like death destruction and conflict? Damn! I never do that on my Quora account while answering questions. Then why am I doing so here?

Well, most people panic and they panic very fast when they read things like these.

On top of that, Quora’s policies are way too restrictive sometimes to be able to talk freely. It seriously drives me crazy sometimes.

It’s almost like they are objectively opposed to writers writing about ‘Vedic‘ stuff in English. Quite often even when you really don’t have an alternative for Sanskrit words, they will just flag your answer or collapse it for flouting the language policy.

Also, big commercial names of astrology apps, individual astrologers and lots of other people whose livelihood depends on astrology, just take a free swing at your content and downvote it for no reason sometimes.

Maybe jealousy, dislike, disagreement? I don’t know.

Look I’m a firm believer in peace, live and let live and just let the light shine bright. Yes, my views on ‘Vedic‘ astrology are quite often too novel and unorthodox for people to accept right away and I’m sorry I can’t change myself.

It’s just the way I am and how I write. I am very qualified on the academic and practical, business side of things as well so my understanding of ‘Vedic‘ knowledge is very modernistic and ‘applied’ in nature rather than taking things literally in ways that simply no longer are relevant in 2022!

I want to bring ‘Vedic‘ astrology up to date with current times and make it easier and more logical to understand as a science not just this ‘fortune telling’ avatar that they’ve made it out to be.

This isn’t the ‘Vedic‘ way at all!

I’m sorry it just irks me that that’s what they’ve done to it. Instead of finding the true meanings, the true essence of this science, people are more and more obliterating what it stands for just to be able to commercialize it and make it profitable.

Well, you can do that the right way too!

Anyway, enough of my rant.

Back to the point.

So the point is, the secret is, ‘Rahu‘ destroys the house that it sits in so you can rebuild it.

This is the most painful aspect of ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ and even ‘Rahu antardasha‘.

This mystical obsessive force comes along and Bam! destroys your carefully built castle of cards and forces you to rebuild it.

Crying over what you have lost is no option and there isn’t even enough time for the native to do so because things keep changing and shifting one after the other as the ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ progresses.

Here’s the deal now..

What ‘Rahu ji’ wants to make the native learn, what ‘Rahu ji‘ wants to guide the native to understand is to take a different approach.

What does this mean?

Okay. Let me give you an example:

Rahu‘ is placed in your 7th house. ‘Rahu mahadasha’ starts and your wife divorces you.

Let’s say further that the 7th house being 10th from the 10th, ‘Rahu‘ further causes problems at your job probably because of the divorce.. who knows, any reason could be possible. This is just a scenario.

Now, what’s the most likely reaction that a person will have to this new reality?

Well, the native will be aghast at what has happened and wont’ be able to come to terms with the new reality by which time, the flow of ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ is further and further pushing them in a direction alien to them.

It’s like the flow of the river that you have been pushed into is constantly pushing you further and further away from the shore.

Try to understand now.

You cannot return to the shore.

If you want to survive, you will need to swim with the flow and aim at a point on the other side of the river.

On that shore, a new beginning is guaranteed to you and it is in fact your soul’s deepest desire to build something of value and experience this novel adventure but it has to be on that end of the shore.

The sooner you reconcile yourself with this new reality, growth can occur.

Actually, people can grow to massive heights in their ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ and even ‘Rahu antardasha‘. However, quite often I have seen two people with the same ‘Rahu‘ placement have polar opposites when it comes to results.

Why is that?

It’s because free will plays a huge role.

The more you resign to the force of ‘Rahu‘, the more you lose also the ability to swim with the current.

The more you consciously understand where ‘Rahu ji‘ is trying to lead you in his ‘mahadasha‘ or ‘antardasha‘, the more you can co-create with the universe to claim what your soul is here to accomplish!

It’s really that simple.

Here’s the first secret out of 101 secrets that I’m going to share about ‘Rahu mahadasha‘. Follow this blog to follow more posts and articles on the topic of ‘Rahu mahadasha‘, planets through houses and much much more.

To book a reading, feel free to visit the scheduling page.

See you soon.

Hari Om!

Astrology And Reincarnation – Part 2: Understanding the nodes of the Moon

** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **

On their own, the nodes of the Moon are mere mathematical entities. They are not considered ‘bodied planets’ in the Jyotisha scheme of planets and are extremely difficult to predict concrete events with owing mainly to their unpredictable nature.

There are experts out there in the field of jyotisha who claim to have researched them thoroughly and boast of a range of techniques to employ in the chart when predicting with these entities. However, all of them agree that the nodes are not nearly a bankable method of event prediction as much as they are a key to unlocking the psyche of the native. At the same time, the nodes are the most bankable indicator in a chart of an event that simply has to happen.

Legend has it that the nodes of the Moon were born out of the dismemberment of the ‘asura’ (demon) named Swabharu. Right after the churning of the ocean as described in the ‘Shrimad Bhagavatam’, there started a fight between the ‘devas‘ and ‘asuras‘ over who would drink the nectar of immortality that was drawn from the depths of the ocean by the collective efforts of the both the devatas and asuras.

Vishnu, the all seeing, all knowing creator of the universe and all of the lokas, decided to intervene in this mess by taking the form of a beautiful enchanting woman ‘Mohini‘. It was decided that Mohini would distribute the nectar of immortality to both the asuras and the devas, the only condition to the arrangement being that the devas would be given the nectar first. The asuras, already smitten by the enchanting enamoring form of ‘Mohini’ readily agreed.

All of them but one; the demon named Swabharu.

Swabharu wanted to ensure that the demons were not dealt a rough hand and was already quite suspicious of the whole arrangement. So he sat assuming a position between the Sun god Surya and the Moon god Chandra. As Mohini reached where Swabharu was sitting, distributing the Amrita among the devatas, both Surya and Chandra realized that while there were only supposed to be 7 of them sitting in the row, there was this extra ‘devata‘ sitting between them that they had never seen before.

Both Chandra and Surya looked at each other, as if to say: “I thought he was with you?”

But in that confusion, Swabharu reached out and drank the nectar of immortality that Mohini had poured into a cup. As soon as he had drunk the nectar of immortality, he assumed his natural form and began to laugh, mocking the devatas. Furious at being cheated, Mohini too emerged into her true form as Vishnu and chopped off the demon’s head with his ‘Sudershan Chakra‘.

The damage had been done however and the demon was divided forever into two immortal parts: The head, which is the north node of the moon Rahu and The body, which is the south node of the moon, Ketu.

Since the demon Swabharu had become immortal having drunk the nectar of immortality, he continued to exist in his dismembered form as a ‘shadow planet’. While both the North and South node are parts of the same entity, they are essentially distinct in nature. In a birth chart, they are always 180 degrees apart from each other.

For our consideration, Rahu is the future and Ketu is the past.

In my experience I have found the nodes of the moon to function not in strict future-past roles but indicatory roles at least. For example, when you are running Rahu Dasha or Mahadasha, if you make Rahu the ascendant and read the chart for that period, you will obviously have Ketu in the seventh.

It comes as no surprise therefore that a lot of people running Rahu Dashas, run into people from their past lives or at least people that they have a lot of pending karma with. Rahu is very important in that it gives you a fresh perspective on being able to understand your past and move forward.

Ketu on the other hand provides you with that comfort of the ‘known’ and exciting opportunities for growth because in Ketu periods, just as with Rahu periods, you can put Ketu in the ascendant and read the chart like that, which puts Rahu in the seventh.

Most people will tell you that chaotic events in Ketu periods are a result of the inherent nature of Ketu being an unpredictable and chaotic violent energy while being ripped off and tricked, lied to are Rahu traits which are what many people feel are reflected in Rahu periods.

Truth is, if your past karmas have been good, in Rahu dasha you will only come across people who help you on in this life. (Because Ketu is in the seventh)

Similarly, if your past karmas have been good, Ketu dasha can be like a free run for you to build your future on without any hangups of the past. It can be a limitless experience where you realize you can tap into an infinite source of personal power you never knew you had. (Ketu in the first)

Now, how do we decode if the past karmas of a person have been good or bad? How will they play out in this life time?

Well, we start by analyzing Ketu. Ketu is the source. Ketu is where we all came from. Ketu is the DNA. Ketu is electric signals.. lightning. Ketu is that spark between the first two molecules of amino acids that lead to the formation of life.

** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **

Why is Rahu in 3rd house considered good?

“Why is Rahu in the 3rd house considered good? I’m running through Rahu Mahadasha & my career has come to a standstill & I haven’t talked to my younger sister for a year now. Why am I having such bad results?”

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

  • According to the BPHS, the North Node of the Moon ‘Rahu’ is considered exalted in the sign of Gemini and the South Node of the Moon ‘Ketu’ which is always opposite the North Node, is considered exalted in Sagittarius.
  • However, there is no unanimous belief in the astrological circuit about the exaltation and debilitation of the nodes.
  • A part of the community believes the North Node to be exalted in the sign of Taurus and South Node in Scorpio.
  • Then there are those who debate the nodes are strictly mathematical points representing the points of intersection between the ecliptic and the Moon’s orbit around the Earth therefore they neither own any signs nor are debilitated or exalted in any of the signs.

Now an important thing to note which is unanimously accepted in the astrological field of study especially ‘nadi jyotisha’ is that the house placements and sign placements have quite a bit of the same energy so for all practical purposes the sign of Taurus is equal to the Second House and the sign of Scorpio is equal to the Eighth house. In the sense that they have the same energy more or less.

(For example: The north node placed in the second house will impart similar energy to the native as the north node placed in the sign of Taurus.)

Coming back to the question, let’s first analyze why the north node is considered so good when placed in the third house.

Here are some reasons why the North Node is considered great in the third house:

  1. Third house is an ‘upachya house’ meaning it grows better with time. This means that the results of the North Node in the third house also give better results with time in line with its signification as well.
  2. Third house is the house of ‘self efforts’ and the energy of the North Node is difficult to control or direct. Maybe that is one of the biggest reasons that the North Node is considered debilitated in the eighth house however in the third house, even if the energy of the North Node goes haywire, the results will almost always be good from a material stand point.
  3. Third house is the house of courage. The north node is the area of life that our soul is out to master in this lifetime. Initially there is some struggle involved and in time it is the general direction that an individual’s life begins to take in this lifetime. So in the third house, the north node imparts a lot of courage to the individual as the individual is naturally destined to learn from ‘experience’ and ‘experimentation’ which leads to the development of a very courageous persona later on.
  4. Third house is the house of the hands and the position of the north node in the third house helps in development of amazing dexterity in the hands and hand movement of the individual. This is because, we must note again, the North Node represents the area that is constantly undergoing development in this lifetime as it is the soul’s purpose to master that energy. Rahu’s placement here is amazing from the point of view of development of the skills of hands.
  5. Third house is the house of learning and the north node is actually an energy that is very quick to grasp and imitate.
  6. Third house is synonymous with the sign of Gemini and is the natural house of the sign of Gemini. The sign of Gemini is all about learning and imitation and the signification of Mercury is pretty much the same as Mercury is the planet of learning and imitation. This is where the obsessive energy of the north node is actually beautifully placed for the benefit of the native as the greater the hunger for learning the faster the process of learning.
  7. Third house is the house of siblings and the North Node actually encourages great competitive-communicative interaction between siblings.

Sometimes this backfires and all of the points from 1–7 can swing in the opposite direction initially in life at least before the first Saturn Return because the energy of the North Node can quickly get out of hand and accelerate and escalate matters.

What is happening with you is just that.

Going by your question, without even knowing your date of birth I can estimate for sure that you are younger than 41 years of age as that is the age that the North Node matures and it usually gives good controlled results after that.

Further, although speculative and please Quora moderation don’t remove my answer for speculating on one point, I would say you are less than 34 years of age as at that age Saturn matures and usually a Saturn maturation means better results for the North Node.

Now, here’s how you can constructively utilize this energy:

  1. Try to go for a freelancing job or start your own practice or business. The North Node’s position int he third house creates conflicts with authority as the third house is sixth from the tenth and these people are better of working on their own.
  2. Whenever you are interacting with your peers (also represented by the third house) try to communicate very logically and patiently. This will help direct the energies of the third house in the right manner.
  3. Keep a check on how you communicate with others and please make sure not to use bad words or expletives in your communication with others. (North Node in the third house can create that bad habit)
  4. Try to be more considerate of other people’s feelings and understand that not everyone is as strong as you or even strong enough to take your criticism or tolerate being ‘pushed’ in a constructive and positive manner. (The north node in the third house has a tendency of making the person a bully because they can’t control the aggression and competitive spirit of the third house all the time)
  5. Try to pick a job in sales and I’m sure you will find it very easy to land a job in sales as sales is nearest to the significations of the third house and involves a lot of self efforts and short travelling and communication. All of these are third house significations and developing the third house in general will satisfy the hunger of the North Node Rahu and things will improve exponentially.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

How to achieve ‘flow state’? Part-1

You must have heard about this strange otherworldly state where the creator is attuned completely with the universe, almost like an alchemist.

Scientists, musicians, composers, painters and artists have all tapped into this state to produce their best creations and works.

This ladies and gentlemen, is called the ‘flow state’.

It’s a state very similar to how you are under the effect of intoxicants that give you a kind of ‘trip’ which disconnects you from your immediate surroundings and connects you to this singular point of inspiration from which you draw and continue to draw until you have produced what you want to.

However, atheletes too have felt this and this is the state in which some of the most eloquent public speakers and entrepreneurs have created stellar pieces of content, speeches and interactions that had historic impact.

So is it dependent on hallucinogens or is there anything at all hallucinogenic about it?

Not really.

There’s another example in fact that you can compare it with, which is the ‘runner’s high’.

When you’re running, the mind does want to stop in the beginning but after a point it almost seems that the body is going on its own and the mind even if it logically wanted the body to stop wouldn’t be able to do so.

So what is it?

Well, scientifically speaking, the ‘flow state’ is a state of perfect attunement between your conscious mind and your subconscious interacting seamlessly with your active memory as well as reflexes.

It’s kind of like a ‘pump’ that you get from working out or a tunnelled vision that you might get into when faced with an important deadline, task or challenge.

The only difference is that while usually big challenges can throw off the workings of your mind, when your mind is in ‘flow state’, it is so perfectly rooted and grounded in reality that the brain seems primarily to be relying on tried and tested pathways to control and clear instructions.

Is there any scientific evidence of that? Because it just sounds like I’m talking about a continuous reflex action!

Well, there must be when it comes to mapping the intricacies of the chemical reactions and how they are taking place.

However, what we are relying on is more the experience of people who have reported what it feels like to be in the ‘flow state’.

And we’re sure you too must have experienced this at some point in your life. Definitely in fact, if you went to college or played a sport. The sheer pressure of an examination or competition can heighten your awareness to a level that isn’t normally possible.

So how do you get into a flow state?

Well, here’s the first set of tips in the first part of this series:

  1. By allowing your mind to be free.
  2. By allowing your body to also function freely.
  3. By dropping your ‘logical’ side.

Tuning into your ‘intuitive’ side is the first clue about tapping into ‘flow state’ energy.

Thing is, most people aren’t able to do that because they are too programmed to do things a certain way that is a result of the standardization of how our minds should ‘function’ according to society.

‘Taoism’ is a doctrine of Buddhism and it talks a lot about the philosophy of ‘flow’.

And one of the most interesting things written in the Tao Te Ching, the primary book on Taoism written by Lao Tzu is this:

“A river does nothing more than flow from higher land to lower land and yet everything is accomplished. Life is sustained, farms are watered, rocks are weathered to generate new soil and river banks and river paths are created. Be like a river; strong and gentle at the same time.”

Follow this blog to follow the entire series.

See you in the next one!

Love, Jay

Meaning of second house of the D-9 Navamsha chart

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

In the previous post, I talked about the significations of the first house in the D-9 ‘Navamsha‘ chart. If you haven’t read that post already, I suggest you do so before you read this one, just for a better context and flow of knowledge building.

As you know, the divisional charts have a lot of importance in helping us analyze the finer aspects of the native’s life.

Each divisional chart corresponds to some aspect of the native’s life.

The D-7 chart analyzes the relationships, the D-4 chart analyzes the property and conveniences situation in the native’s life and the D-10 chart analyzes the native’s ‘karma‘ and career. In the same way, each of the 16 divisional charts, each analyze an aspect of the native’s life.

The D-9 chart analyzes the higher path of the native’s life trajectory.

Note the keywords: ‘higher path’, ‘trajectory’.

See the D-1 chart corresponds to how one can analyze the first house in the chart, the ascendant.

What does the ascendant represent?

  • The ascendant represents:
    • Physical appearance
    • Life path
    • Confidence
    • ‘Self’

However, as you would know, these are just the attributes that you are more or less born with and unchangeable to a huge extent. No doubt the ascendant is an intrinsic and probably even the most prominent part of the native’s life journey because it is where everything starts and where everything begins for the native as soon as the soul is manifested in the material plane.

But, it is only a ‘foundation’.

Sooner or later, your life is defined more by the choices you make.

Right?

That is what? That is your ‘free will’.

How you execute your free will and how effective that execution will be, is shown by the D-10 chart.

The D-9 chart is so important because the D-9 chart shows us what the higher wisdom of the native is. For, how do you make the necessary choices in life?

You make them on the basis of your higher wisdom.

You turn into your beliefs. That is what defines your life journey. Also, as pointed out in the previous post, the 9th house is the house of ‘sanskara‘ or the rituals that mark the progression from one phase to the next one.

This is why the D-9 chart is used to look at a person’s life in the second half of life.

So what does the second house of the D-9 ‘Navamsha‘ chart show us?

It shows us the gains from this path.

What supports this path, or hinders it.

The D-9 chart is also the chart to look at your married life.

However, The D-7 chart is more relevant in looking at the nature of that partnership.

On the other hand, you can stay unmarried all your life and the D-9 chart will still have a sizable impact on you.

And so the second house of your D-9 chart will point out to what kind of resources you will have in the second half of your life and in being able to execute your higher wisdom and higher journey in life.

It is both what supports and what upholds this journey.

If the second house of the D-9 is afflicted then it shows that in the execution of this journey you are likely to encounter a lot of difficulties or tests.

If the second house of the D-9 is well supported it shows that as soon as you align yourself and your life with your higher values and your higher wisdom, life will become better for you.

So now what are these ‘higher values’ and ‘higher wisdom’, ‘higher journey’?

These are simply the trajectories of ‘karma‘ that unfold from your actions of paying off the ‘karmic‘ debts that you have to repay in this life time.

One of these ‘karmic‘ debts is getting married and having children or let’s say in modern terms today, raising children and carrying on the family lineage.

Why?

Because each one of us have to repay the debt to our ancestors of raising us and bringing us into this world.

And this is called ‘pitri rina‘. ‘Rina‘ means debt in Sanskrit.

So if you have the second house afflicted then probably it will take you longer to get married and have children, to execute your duties towards your family and your lineage.

Why is that?

Because there are important lessons you need to learn and experiences you need to go through before you can accomplish this.

Now, analyzing the nodal axes by comparison in the D-1 and D-9 will give you a lot of clues.

If let’s say you have the nodes in the 1-7 axis in the D-1 chart i.e. ‘Rahu‘ in first and ‘Ketu‘ in 7th, then it means that the primary area of focus for you in life in the early part was focus on self and building your life journey and the ‘self’.

(As a side note, for future reference always remember that whenever we denote the axis we are always talking about ‘Rahu‘ and ‘Ketu‘, in that order.)

If this axis changes to let’s say, 2-8 in the D-9, then we can say that your primary focus in the second part of life is going to be the execution of your higher path, higher wisdom, higher ‘dharma‘.

And you are going to encounter difficulties in doing this early on but you will be able to do it in a big way as life progresses and you gain more experience. Why? Because wherever ‘Rahu‘ is placed in your chart is where you primary motivations lie and where you need to gain the most experience while also lacking the necessary skills but possessing a natural flair for.

Hope this helps.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

To book a reading, feel free to visit the scheduling page.

‘Ketu’ in 1st house of birth chart

** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **

The nakshatra of Ashwini.

The first nakshatra of the 27 nakshatras in the sidereal constellation system. The nakshatra lying within Aries and the nakshatra where the Sun is exalted.

Guess who is the ruler of this nakshatra?

The South Node of the Moon Ketu.

My approach is to try to comprehend the vedang jyotisha system like a coded puzzle. There are no coincidences here. Everything is the way it is for a reason.

It’s not a coincidence that there are 12 months and 12 signs of the zodiac. There are 12 months because there are 12 zodiac signs. There’s a logic to the design.

It’s not a coincidence either that there are 27 constellations and 9 planets with each planet ruling exactly 3 constellations. That’s part of the design as well.

So how can it be a coincidence that Ashwini.. ‘the first‘ is ruled by the South Node Ketu?

Here are a few significations of the South Node Of the Moon:

  • It represents past life karma.
  • It is a representation of Kaali… an energy that supersedes death itself?
  • It is represented by Lord Ganesha… ‘the God of great beginnings‘.
  • It is also represented by the first Avatar of Vishnu… the Matsya Avatar.
  • It represents ancestors and family lineage… forefathers.. Pitris.

The South Node dear friends, is where we all came from. Without understanding the significance of the south node in the chart, it is impossible to tell the native what his life purpose is. So how do we decode the placement based interpretations of the south node Ketu through the 12 houses of a birth chart?

In this 12 part series on the South Node through the houses, I will cover the interpretations of the placement and the associated past life karma associated with this shadow planet. At the end of each part I will share the affirmation and life mantra associated with each placement that can help the natives with this placement work with the energies of the South Node exceptionally.

So Ketu in the first house… Where do we start?

Seriously, that’s what this placement is about…

Where do we start?”

If you are familiar with electional astrology (muhurtas), you would know that no matter how great a muhurta is, the mere presence of the nodes in the Kendra houses(1,4,7,10 house) is enough to destroy the entire exercise of finding the muhurta in the first place.

When the nodes fall within the Kendra houses, as a rule of thumb is to realize that you must learn to surrender to a higher will at work in your life. Things could be exceptionally good and also exceptionally bad depending on your karma and the will of the divine.

When the nodes walk in, your will walks out. You yield all control and yet no control.

When Ketu is placed in the first house of the birth chart, the native is well aware of the potential he holds within himself. His problem throughout his life is the lack of understanding about the starting point.

He knows he can do this and do that and he’s good at this and that but he just doesn’t know where he should start and how he should exert his will. The only thing left to do in the end is to learn to surrender.

Interestingly, as soon as the native surrenders to the will of a higher power…

** Doors Open! **

  • Any opportunities that weren’t visible before, appear suddenly.
  • Any opportunities that were stuck before, resolve suddenly.
  • Any challenges that seemed insurmountable, crumble suddenly.
  • Anything that seemed impossible.. happens so easily and so fast.. it doesn’t seem real.

But try to exert your will with this placement and you will find that anything that can happen, will happen! Of course, you could still try to do that if other placements are well supportive and obviously, I’m a firm believer of free will and self expression.

However, this is a spiritual idea and people with this placement may have noticed so.

A some what accurate interpretation to this can be found in the story of the Matsya avatar found in the Yajur Veda:

One day, water was brought to Manu for his ablutions. In the water, there was a tiny fish. The fish stated that it feared being swallowed by a larger fish and appealed to Manu to protect him. In return, the fish promised Manu that it will save him from an impending flood. Manu accepted the request. He put the fish in a pot of water where it began to grow in size. Ultimately however, it became too big for the pot.

So then a ditch filled with water was prepared and the fish left in it to grow freely. Once again the fish grew steadily until it had become too big for the ditch. Then it had to be transferred to lake where once again it became so big that it became too big for the lake.

Finally, the fish grew bigger and bigger ultimately to be too big to be contained in smaller water bodies and big enough to be free from being eaten by other fishes. Manu thus transferred the fish into the ocean. The fish thanks him, forewarning him about the date of the great flood, and asking Manu to build a boat by that day, one he could attach to its horn.

On the predicted day, Manu visited the fish with his boat. The devastating floods came, Manu tied the boat to the horn. The fish carried the boat with Manu to the high grounds of the Himalayas and so Manu re-established life by performing austerities and by performing yajnas.

Ketu is like the fish in the tiny bowl. There is no limit to how much you can feed Ketu power, ultimately, Ketu will become too big for you to be able to feed it anymore.

The catch here is this: Ketu is what will lead you to liberation. 

In the first house of the birth chart, the self has been developed over many lifetimes and even in this life time, those patterns are visible in the independent and self aware nature of the native.

However, the lesson for the native to achieve salvation is to realize that the self must now be developed not through deliberate self development but oneness with existence itself.

The self may have been developed through conscious yogic practices or physical disciplinary practices in past lifetimes but in this life time, development needs to happen in the way of the Zen… being able to take any number of attacks from the blind side and still be able to fend off all of them.. while acting in the moment..

First house Ketu people and also people with the life path number 7, need to understand that they must build themselves up like the quintessential ‘peaceful warrior’. The will must be exerted and self confidence developed by nimbly dealing with the situations life throws at them. In time they will learn that self mastery comes from being able to tame their inner power to surrender to a higher power in times of trial and struggle while retaining the necessary force to do what is needed.

Towards the second half of their life, especially after the age of 47, these people will come to be admired for their great skill in dealing with pressure situations and finding superhuman strength and adaptability within their soul to stand up and deliver in situations no one else thought possible.

Some famous number 7s : John F Kennedy, Princess Diana, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Marilyn Monroe, Queen Elizabeth.

Ketu in ascendant life mantra: “I surrender to the will of God.”

Ketu in ascendant life affirmation: “I am firmly on path to fulfilling my destiny.”

** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **

Meaning of first house of the D-9 Navamsha chart

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Quite often when we begin to analyze the nodal placements for any person we forget to take into account their nodal placement in the D-9 or the ‘Navamsha‘ chart.

This can be a very big mistake because our priorities invariably change in life as we begin to age and as we move from being an individual to living in a couple.

This is why analyzing the position of the nodes of the Moon in the D-9 ‘Navamsha‘ chart can give us a lot of clues to understand what any given individual’s deeper motivations in life are.

So therefore, in this series, we will be exploring each house of the D-9 ‘Navamsha‘ chart and what it means. This will also help you understand how to interpret planetary and nodal placements through houses of the ‘Navamsha‘ chart.

Now, starting with the first house of the D-9, this house has many important connotations:

  1. The first house is the house that represents the ‘existence’ in support of that chart.
  2. What this means is, the first house of the D-9 has a lot of importance in terms of the native’s married life and also the native’s principles and larger vision towards life.
  3. Individuals who possess a clarity of purpose in life about a larger plan that they are working towards, quite often have D-9 and D-60 charts that are pretty strong.
  4. Why is that? It’s because the same energies that they were born with in a certain kind of configuration, are energies that they learn to harness and direct better with time. These are then expressed in the D-9 chart by helping us understand the larger plan unfolding based on the individual’s beliefs and partnerships.
  5. See an individual’s life in ‘Vedic‘ culture has been divided into distinct ‘ashrams’ or phases of life.
  6. First comes the ‘Brahmcharya Ashram‘ then the ‘Grihasta Ashram‘ and finally the ‘Vana prastha ashram‘.
  7. Each of these stages were traditionally accompanied with a religious ceremony. This religious ceremonies can be seen through an individual’s D-9 chart.
  8. Individuals who have a strong D-9 and a strong Ninth house are individuals in whose chart is indicated, a strong predisposition towards the completion of these religious ceremonies and following the path towards higher wisdom. This is the path that is indicated by the 3 distinct ‘ashrams’ as they are structured such to align the individual towards the pursuit of a higher wisdom and higher objective towards life.

Therefore, the first house of the ‘Navamsha‘ chart becomes extremely important in judging the individual’s life path and satisfaction.

Why satisfaction? Because it is believed that the highest satisfaction can only come through the fulfillment of one’s duties and ‘dharma’ which is indicated by fulfillment of such duties in accordance to what is perceived best for society.

How so?

Well, the ‘Brahmcharya ashram‘ is structured such to ensure maximum personal development for the individual in the early stages of life. This is to enable them to become strong mentally as well as physically before they step in to take up higher responsibilities of career, partnership and society.

The ‘Grihasta ashram‘ is structured such to ensure maximum cooperation with the partner, family and involvement in the social fabric as a householder. It is in this period that the individual, along with a suitable partner, does the bulk of his or her work for society and community. The individual also raises kids to take on this mantle of family in the future.

The ‘Vanaprastha ashram‘ is structured such to ensure maximum spiritual development for the individual and their partner. It is a stage where having fulfilled their societal and familial responsibilities, the couple heads to live in the forest in harmony with nature.

The idea is for individuals to ‘consciously’ let go of physical and material attachments and develop themselves spiritually and become closer to the esoteric side of life.

Living in the forests is one way of living harmony with nature as well as society. This is indicated as a way to separate themselves from the good as well as bad aspects of the social structure, whatever they may be and leave it to the next generations to find what truths are relevant for them in their times and run society from those perspectives without the interference of people who lived and functioned in different times.

Now when you look at the first house of the D-9 chart, this is essentially all that you’re seeing.

Yes specifically these ‘ashrams’ can be seen from the houses of the D-9 however primarily we see in the first house whether the individual will indeed be able to experience the entire breadth of responsibilities and experiences, duties etc. that come with the role and responsibilities of being a part of society.

It also shows the individual’s personality in the second half of life.

We can also use it to understand how the priorities of the individual changes in the second half of life.

Somebody with a 1-7 axis of ‘Rahu-Ketu‘ in the D-1 chart if continues to have the 1-7 axis even in the D-9 chart, it shows that the individual’s priorities don’t change much in later life.

The individual continues to follow the same principles of work and focus on all the aspects of life that were of importance before the individual came in a partnership or became more ‘mature’ wrt their life path.

On the other hand, a reversal of the nodal axis in the D-9 ‘Navamsha‘ chart will point towards an individual who struggles to retain their individuality in partnerships.

Such individuals tend to struggle to balance their identities with and outside their partnerships and the execution and fulfillment of personal principles.

In the same way we can study other planetary placements wrt the D-1 and D-9 charts.

For example, the placement of Sun in the ‘Navamsha‘ chart will show based on the house placement, which area of life the individual finds their confidence in the second half of life. It will also show us how this changes wrt where the individual found confidence in the earlier part of life.

For example, for someone whose Sun placement shifts from the 12th house in D-1 to the 5th house in the ‘Navamsha kundli‘, we can say that the individual’s personality changes from finding oneself through spirituality and isolation (12th house) to expression and power (5th house).

This way you can look at the comparison for each of the other planets as well. Here’s what they mean in terms of personality aspects:

  1. Mars shows where you give most of your energy.
  2. Moon shows where you are most comfortable.
  3. Venus shows where you feel most abundant.
  4. Ketu‘ shows where you have natural mastery.
  5. Rahu‘ shows where you have a natural inclination towards and also the most room for growth.
  6. Jupiter shows where you are the most giving.
  7. Mercury shows where and what you spend the most time learning.
  8. Saturn shows where you work the hardest.

Hope this helps!

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

To book a reading feel free to do so on the scheduling page.

7 deadly mistakes in sales that small business owners must avoid. PART 1/7

#1 You prioritize delivery of ongoing projects over consistent sales habits then scramble to get new sales after the projects are delivered.

The jury’s out on sales and marketing being the most important component of a business and it is precisely for that reason most CEOs have a background in Sales. We’re not talking about tech companies, but yeah, if you’re talking about Tech Founders then sure. Trust us, those nerds are sales freaks!

In this 7 part series we are going to tell you what not to do and how not to sell.

There are a lot of books and courses and resources out there that can guide you on how to sell . There’s Jordan Belfort these days, Hubspot’s free courses, Steve Schiffman and then there’s a whole bunch of them on youtube.

However, whether or not you have time to read them or follow them or even if you already do and are a pro at sales, it helps to keep in mind what not to do. If those habits have crept in, make sure to weed them out asap or your sales will plunge; big time.

No, no, not scaring you at all. Just telling you the facts. Sales is a lot like sports. If you get into the wrong habits, you get the yips. Once you get the yips man, you’re pretty much screwed no matter what you try or how you try it because if you’re a small business owner, there may not be anyone above you or along side you to point out what you’re doing wrong.

That’s why it’s tough for small business owners without a background in sales to actually go and get ‘sales stuff’ done in addition to all the operational and administrative tasks they have to perform.

Sales is tricky but sales, if handled properly and executed with the right mindset is the most exciting part of owning a small business.

If you’re a small business owner or an Entrepreneur, you probably know that in addition to whatever your core skill set is, you need to double up as a sales rep, sales manager and VP.

The biggest thing people forget about selling is that it’s a science. It’s very simple but make no mistake, it is simple but hard.

As a business owner, if you’ve been in business for more than 5 years you probably know a lot about selling now even if you had no clue about it when you first started. In fact, even if you have worked in sales before, running your own business teaches you to look at sales in a whole different dimension.

If you’re a new business owner then it’s probably time you picked up your game and got serious about selling because it doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do, if you can’t bring in sales, your business won’t survive. Sales keeps businesses alive and all the businesses that close down, close down because they weren’t able to sell. It’s really that simple.

We’re not kidding. If you can drive sufficient amount of sales towards your business on a consistent basis, even if you don’t have the right project management or execution skills, you can build a strategic partnership with a company that has the technical chops, outsource and manage to stay in business for a long long time.

We’re sure you probably know at least 3 people who run multiple businesses doing just that.

We’re also sure you know extremely talented people who had to shut down their businesses because sales dipped in a rough patch and they didn’t know how to get them back up.

Then, you must also know people who knew nothing about sales but then they started a business and then learnt the trade ground up without any proper training and are killing it right now.

Here’s where most small business owners err early on:

  1. You focus on doing projects you get well and actually, since there aren’t many projects in the initial days, there’s a tendency to become a bit of perfectionist.
  2. After you’re done with the project, you start focusing on getting more sales again but that is actually a gamble because the market isn’t always the same and you still have fixed costs.
  3. Then you dig yourselves into a hole because new sales sometimes just don’t come in that fast and out of desperation, you under charge and over deliver hoping desperately for repeat business.
  4. This sucks big time because what is happening essentially, is that you’re moving your business into a downward spiral in terms of profits and efficiency. You’re consistently desperate for sales because you’re never regularly engaged in the process and every time you launch yourself into a crazy selling frenzy after a project has been delivered, you’re either quoting too high or too low to cover your fixed operational costs.
  5. This affects your ability to expand and get economies of scale. This affects your ability to grow very hard and you end up frustrated, tired, burnt out and desperate.

So what’s the solution?

The solution is to understand that the most important thing about effective selling is consistent selling. It’s a habit that you need to engage in on a consistent basis. It doesn’t matter how busy you are or if Reebok and Nike are both simultaneously your clients, the golden rule you need to understand as a small business is that you begin to lose your clients as soon as you get them.

What?

Well yes! As a new business you really can’t be sure of the direction you will scale in and what clients will move with you in that direction. You can either follow the client’s lead and just go on servicing your biggest clients or you can follow your vision for your company and essentially what you got into business for.

Did you start your business to recreate the last job you were in? Being at the beck and call of a top client all the time? Servicing clients and basing your entire business around them?

If it’s a particular section or demographic that’s different. That means multiple customers or at least a few hundred ideal matches with your ideal client persona in a pool of a thousand or hundred thousand.

But when you’re just focused on retaining your top client, you’re killing your company and your dream in the process by giving away your bargaining power. This is why software companies come out with updates regardless of the number of customers still on an outdated version.

Hey! We’re not going to stop innovating just because you’re too lazy to upgrade. A good business shows the clients what to expect and want and experience not ‘tailor’ their processes and services around them.

The biggest example?

Nokia.

Nokia was once one of the biggest mobile brands out there until the advent of the smartphone. After the smartphone came along, the most popular choice for smartphone makers was to shift to an Android based OS.

Nokia for some weird reason, decide to pick Windows for the same and instead of throwing out Windows as its preferred OS when the combination evidently wasn’t working, it stuck with the OS well beyond the point of no return.

All Nokia had to do was shift to an Android based OS. With the amount of brand awareness and widescale adoption and trust it enjoyed in Asia and specifically South Asia, it was only a matter of time that loyal customers helped increase its sales.

Well, that didn’t happen and Microsoft bought Nokia and well, Nokia is pretty much history now.

Moral of the story?

Be in constant contact with the market at all times. No matter which stage your business is in, if taking a myopic view of your business can undo big companies, as a small business you could be wiped out inside three months. Which is basically what has happened to a lot of small businesses out there in this pandemic!

Selling should be a top priority for any small business owner at all times. All you have to do is pick up the phone and call prospects one hour a day.

  1. All you have to do is run a campaign every few days to have new leads flowing in.
  2. All you have to do is attend one conference or meetup every month.
  3. All you have to do is have one conversation every other day in a group on Linkedin or Facebook every other day.
  4. Your customer is very important but no customer is more important than your business. Make sure you don’t end up with 3 bosses instead of the one you left behind in your last job! Remain proactive and keep on reaching out and selling to new clients every single day. FIRST thing in the morning.
  5. If you can, hire someone good in a permanent presales role. It will help you out a lot. However do keep in mind, you will probably need to be the one to close a lot of these deals and that still requires discipline.
  6. If that’s not possible because of financial constraints, you can leverage the power of digital marketing, social media marketing and/or buying leads from a trustworthy source to ensure you keep the counter clicking every day. Sales is just a numbers game. Get that straight. Find your numbers and hit your numbers that’s it.

It’s really that simple. However a lot of small business owners don’t do this and end up paying a huge price for it in the long run.

Don’t be one of them!

%d bloggers like this: