Is Saturn placed in the 8th house good or bad?

Hari Om!

In my consultations, I have looked at the charts of hundreds of clients over the last 5 years or so. I have studied hundreds more to understand common patterns of life events, behaviors and ‘themes’ that are common to individuals with certain placements.

Now, in the beginning of my journey deep into vedic astrology, I only had access to classical texts and notes from my grandfather which I daresay were limited in the scope of understanding that they were able to provide me.

I have avidly followed a lot of blogs and YT channels of eminent astrologers, readers, psychologists and writers across the world.

A common line of thought for a lot of people out there is that Saturn does well in all ‘Dushthana‘ houses i.e. Saturn does well in all houses that are inherently malefic in nature. These are in the birth chart, the 6th, 8th and 12th houses.

However in my humble opinion, Saturn does well in ’Upachya’ houses (3rd,6th,11th) and Dushthana houses with the exception of the 12th.

If you are wondering how or what causes Saturn to do not so well in the 12th house then you can go through the answer I have written on this topic here.

The reason Saturn does well in the types of houses mentioned above is because Saturn is the energy of delays, difficulties, problems, resilience, stamina, hard work, discipline and longevity.

When you Saturn sits in ‘Upachya’ houses his innate qualities are quite consistent with the qualities of these houses.

Why is that?

Well, the ‘Upachya’ houses literally meaning ‘Grow better’ and they ‘Grow better with time.’

Obviously, if you look at them it makes sense. Let me list them out for you:

  1. Third house: Courage, Communication, Skills & talents, Learning power etc.
  2. Sixth house: Routine, Stamina, Competitiveness, Attention to detail and such.
  3. Eleventh house: Network circle, Aspirations, Recognition and Rewards, Incoming gains etc.

All of these are areas of life that we all begin as novices in.

It’s when we mature through time and grow in life that we are able to take better decisions and make the right moves.

Saturn loves that kind of energy.

Similarly in the 8th house as well Saturn is actually quite well placed.

He is not unhappy.

That’s because Saturn is the significator of the 8th house.

Eighth house stands for all thing Saturnian actually.

  1. Longevity
  2. Research
  3. Legacy
  4. Finances
  5. Challenges
  6. ‘Tantric’ knowledge
  7. Personal power
  8. Psychological baggage
  9. Gains from partnerships

etc.

Saturn is happy dealing with all of these significations.

The problem for the native starts when he or she needs to constantly deal with these issues in life.

It gets frustrating especially if you are saying to yourself all the time that you ‘wanted a normal life’.

That’s because Saturn’s lessons cannot be escaped.

In the 8th house Saturn is like a mathematics teacher teaching you trigonometry in the basement under one bulb.

It can suck quite a bit!

It’s almost as if no matter how you start your day, it all somehow comes down to you dealing with your inner demons.

It can be tough staying on top of your feelings and quite often self defeatist emotions.

It can be tough dealing with deeply transformative life events.

Relationships in particular can be quite overwhelming and seem pretty unfulfilling at times. (Saturn sits second from the 7th, delays gratification from relationships)

Quite often relationship with the father is also strained. (Saturn sits 12th from the 9th house, weakens the 9th house)

The native may also find it difficult to express him or herself adequately. (Saturn aspects the 5th house with tenth aspect and makes the native work very hard in self expression.)

Work, career and reputation also seem to demand quite a bit of effort from the native’s end. (Saturn aspects the 10th house of career with his 3rd aspect)

To add to all of that, the native may often face strife or disorder at home/security threatened. (Saturn aspects 2nd house with his 7th aspect.)

All of these influences can on many days make the native feel that ‘the walls are closing in’ on him or her.

No doubt that these very influences are what will make the native very strong, independent and hard working in the future.

In the first half of life it can be a tricky energy to deal with. It does get better with age though.

Another thing is that Saturn is by nature slow moving and rigid.

This often prevents the native from ‘transforming’ his or herself at will.

The native finds it hard to change his or her personality and on other times, change seems to be forced on him or her as a result of things beyond control such as family moving to a different country, being married into a different culture, having to bear difficult responsibilities.

These obviously improve with age but Saturn can test the native through some very difficult experiences sometimes such as life changing surgeries, sexual dysfunction and difficult relationships with in laws, psychological problems.

As a result of the many difficult influences that Saturn brings to the surface here in this placement, many will call this a tough placement.

However, the purpose behind Saturn’s actions and difficult influences is to push the native to transform quite literally into a version of themselves that is unaffected by change or emergencies.

Obviously, the interpretations will change a lot depending on individual placements in a person’s chart.

Conjunctions, aspects, ‘avasthas’, placements in the divisional charts can all change the actual impact of this placement quite radically.

So it’s best to analyze individual charts to interpret exact influences. At a general level however this suffices.

Hari Om!

Meaning of fourth house of the D-9 Navamsha chart

Hari Om!

If you have been following this series of the houses of the D-9 Navamsha chart, then you would have understood by now that how you read the 9th divisional chart of your Vedic astrological birth chart, is very different from how you read the D-1 chart.

The 4th house of the D-9 ‘Navamsha‘ chart is like a snapshot of the native’s mind and personal satisfaction from walking the path of their ‘higher calling’ or ‘life philosophy’.

You see the D-9 may well represent a lot of the attributes of your life as they shall be ultimately in your life however it’s not really as simple as that.

A lot of astrologers say that ultimately we all become our Navamsha charts.

Well that may be true to an extent. It isn’t however, the complete story.

The complete story is that what version of ourselves’ we decide to finally embody depends a lot on our focus area in this lifetime.

In this respect, the D-9 chart is indicative both of one’s ‘bhaagya‘ i.e. fortune and ‘destiny’, as it is indicative of the individual’s experience of embodying his or her higher values and principles wrt their journey in this lifetime.

Additionally, it isn’t that you turn into your D-9. There is no ‘transmutation’ taking place here. The D-1 chart will retain its importance in your life even after you have turned 60.

Why is that?

That’s because most of your ‘dashas‘ and planetary time periods are calculated on the basis of your D-1 chart.

The D-1 chart, much like your ascendant, is the filter of experiences that will govern your soul’s journey in this lifetime.

It has a lot of importance and relevance when we come to the discussion of the points of life path, events, obstacles, help etc.

The D-9 chart is more about the individual one becomes when he or she begins to make the shift towards embodying more and more of one’s higher philosophy about life.

It’s the experience of turning into the individual who is following his ‘dharma’ in whichever way he or she understands.

To elucidate this point further, let me paint a picture for you.

The natural progression of life is like this:

  1. You learn (one way or another i.e. through own experiences or being taught.)
  2. You apply (once again, through a lack of opportunities or plenty, by working.)
  3. You grow (at this stage, you slowly begin to step back into your personal power and make conscious choices that enable you to live life the way you want)

The D-9 Navamsha chart is that chart which shows us what kind of an individual will you grow into and how will the process of that change be.

This is important because you see, a lot of people have great potential, great promise and yet they are never able to transform into and embrace the true extent and power of their gifts to claim their destiny and bhaagya.

So studying the planetary placements in the D-9 is what helps us decode all that. That’s why it is even said that “you turn into your D-9”. That is probably true only to an extent as well sooner or later we all turn into what we believe in. Right?

In that respect, the 4th house of the D-9 Navamsha chart refers to the level of satisfaction, fulfillment, comfort, stability and security that you will derive as a result of moving towards the execution of your life’s karma as you perceive reflects your highest ideals of living life.

So the more benefic influences you have here, the better the experience of transition.

Malefic planets here will point towards indications of ‘lack’ or insecurity at some level.

All in all however, planets placed here tie you deeply emotionally to your highest vision for life.

Malefic planets in difficult dignities in the 4th house of your Navamsha chart may well indicate that those values and ideals that dictate the choices you have made in life were probably instilled in you and through not very pleasant means.

An example of this can be a person born to a father who owned a few factories let’s say and has been instilling the values of working hard and creating locally into his son right from his childhood days.

Such a child will grow up not even considering imported products as an option but probably despising them since they “take away jobs” and “rob the local businessmen”.

Get me?

In the same way let’s say someone has Sun, Mars and Saturn in the 4th house of the Navamsha chart and let’s say with Saturn being retrograde.

Such an individual will probably realize very quickly that the values and ideals that were instilled into them as a child through conscious or unconscious mental conditioning on part of their caregivers.. doesn’t make them happy.

So much could have been the burden of this philosophy on this person that as they mature, their philosophy of life is deeply rooted in an attitude of “anything but that” i.e. any philosophy that is not the one that was deeply instilled into them and that they didn’t find any congruence with.

I hope you’re following me here since this is a bit tricky to understand.

It actually should be because with each divisional chart we are going very deep into the workings of the individual’s psyche. We live in times of oversimplification and reading the divisional charts is made out to be a lot more easy than it really is.

Now moving on..

When talking about the nodes placed in the 4th house of the D-9 Navamsha chart, one can say for sure that with respect to the level of security, comfort and safety that following in the direction of their higher philosophy will warrant, there will always be a certain level of detachment and karma that will need to be worked through.

For example, if you have the North node of the Moon ‘Rahu‘, placed in the 4th house of Navamsha chart, then we can say for sure that you feel a deep attachment and sense of purpose wrt living life according to a set of principles that you may or may not be fully expressing in your formative years.

It’s only in time that you begin to feel more and more drawn towards doing the things that help you deeply connect with your innermost feelings and then that further creates a chain reaction.

For example, that may require you to make a few swift changes; change your career, residence, relationships etc. and let go of things and people that you may previously have held dear to you.

Even then, since it is the energy of the North node in the 4th house after all, this inner peace and contentment will take a while to fully manifest.

Early on along your path, you may often find yourself scrambling for and lacking in the requisite resources and safety to execute your karma effectively.

In the same way, if you have let’s say the South node of the Moon, ‘Ketu‘ placed in the 4th house of the D-9 Navamsha chart, then it tells us that even though the necessary resources, safety net and inner clarity that you require for the execution and completion of your destiny shall be readily available to you, your real challenge will be about maximizing the impact of that.

In fact, people with the South node placed in the fourth house of the D-9 chart can often feel that if they are unable to execute and fulfill their highest aspirations and philosophical victories in life, there will be a part of themselves that will be left incomplete.

While in the D-1 chart, the South node Ketu placed in the 4th squarely points towards an adequate base but lack of satisfaction unless great progress is made on the outside.. in the D-9 chart, the same placement should be interpreted more from the perspective of the level of satisfaction you derive from aligning with your destiny.

So such a person may well stumble upon their destined path early on in life but realize only later that this is truly what is their higher purpose and fortune to pursue.

On the topic of malefic planets occupying the 4th house of the D-9 chart, it may often be so that the individual’s life path leading up to his or her destiny, leads them through a lot of physical manifestations of effort to keep things together and working.

Example?

Well Sun Saturn conjunction in the 4th house of the Navamsha chart may well indicate an individual who inherited their fortune and which required physical upkeep and efforts.

This can be as much a political career as it can be an estate, dealership, farm or factory.

Malefic planets often bind you to physical things and attach their responsibility with you. Benefic planets however allow you a greater freedom of movement and expression wrt all the things you wish to do or are even meant to do.

This is because benefic planets being more ‘sattvic‘ in nature have more to do with the transmission, execution and unfolding of sattva tatva that may well be in material form but usually exists beyond any specific material attachments.

When talking about the luminaries i.e. Sun and Moon, if either or both of them are placed in the 4th house of the Navamsha chart then irrespective of their dignity, it definitely shows a deep attachment on part of the native with choosing the path that is lead by a higher understanding of life.

Such an individual will be quick to grasp the responsibilities that come with bearing the mantle of responsibilities that come with pursuing a path unfolding from a deeper connect with their philosophy of life.

At a material level as well, either of the luminaries placed in the 4th house of Navamsha chart indicate a natural understanding about accumulating the necessary resources, security and safety that is required to proceed to the next level of your life.

Hope this helps.

Hari Om!

Meaning and Importance of the Third Eye Chakra- Ajna Chakra- Part-1

Mantra: ‘Om’ (Pronounced ‘Ohm’)
2. Location: Between the eyebrows.
3. Color: Indigo
4. Position: Perpendicular to the Earth/ Parallel to the Spine
5. Rotation: Parallel to the spine
6. Corresponding Planetary energy: Sun&Moon
7. Corresponding Number: 1&2
8. Corresponding Mudra: Gyana Mudra

The Third Eye Chakra is related to focus, concentration and ‘manifesting your reality’. Throughout cultures the ‘third eye’ deals with all matters of death and rebirth, wisdom and psychic abilities, the ability to ‘see through the veil’ of maaya. It is considered almost a synonym for your ability to see beyond what meets the eye in the waking world, diving into deeper states of conscious experience.

The Third Eye is the center of conscious understanding and interaction with the world. It provides both an outlet for mental activity in the form of physical manifestations and inward understanding of ‘why’ things are the way they are in the world.

The Third Eye chakra in many ways is the connecting point between conscious karma and unconscious patterns of past karma that the soul may still find itself stuck in as a result of a wider ‘conditioning’ of the society and the soul’s journeys through the material plane in its many lifetimes.

Interestingly, the ‘Ajna Chakra’ isn’t only related to ‘consciousness’ and ‘analysis’. It is also related to your ability to your ability to ‘visualize’, plan and ‘work ahead’ with limited facts and structures in place.

In Sanskrit language, ‘Ajna’ literally means ‘to summon’, ‘to command’, ‘to perceive’. This is an energy that is considered beyond wisdom.

This ‘chakra‘ if open and functioning well, in a balanced state, can provide the individual with a lot of foresight, judgement, focus, problem solving skills and an uncanny ability to ‘read between the lines’ of everything taking place.

The ability to ‘read signs’ and study patterns of living and being also come from the power of this ‘chakra’.

You know the famous saying that says: “Expert hits a target better than everybody else but Genius hits a target no one else can see”. This is kind of a snapshot into the power of the third eye chakra.

An overactive third eye chakra can make an individual obsessed with ‘looking ahead’ and over analyzing plans, incidents and events etc.

An underactive third eye chakra can make an individual rather ignorant of the impact of their actions, the ‘right course’ of action and also understanding other people’s true intentions.

While a balanced third eye chakra can lend the individual a strong ‘sixth sense’ so to speak that gives them an inherent knack of judging people and situations accurately, a blocked or closed third eye chakra can cause the individual to appear quite ‘naïve’ and ‘shut’ to the knowledge that is right in front of them.

Decision making is another important aspect associated with the Ajna chakra. With a balanced third eye chakra the native is able to operate from a state of total clarity and decisiveness. A blocked third eye chakra on the other hand can cause the native to often question his or her own judgement, understanding and knowledge.

This can obviously lead to confidence issues and in case the chakra is over active, over confidence and manipulative/ controlling tendencies may often become expressed.

The third eye chakra is also very connected to the pituitary gland, eyes, thoughts, brain, hearing, and even smell.

The third eye is like the silent observer. All aspects of perception in one way or another are related to the power of the ajna chakra. In fact, the more powerfully developed one’s ajna chakra, the more perceptive and intuitive the individual.

At higher states of functioning and attunement energies of this chakra, the individual is able to effortlessly read others’ minds and predict their thoughts, behaviors, outcomes of events and life path/journey/ destiny.

The ‘rishis‘ that you may have read about in Ramayana and Mahabharata as well as many ‘puranas‘, the kind that were able to see events take place many years in advance and/or many miles away.. had highly developed third eye chakras.

In fact, ‘third eye’ meditation is probably one of the most popular yogic practices for opening the mind to receiving more knowledge and developing discernment. To perform this practice, one has to focus one’s eyes at the point where one’s nose begins (between the eyebrows). This is considered to be the most basic of practices of dhyana to open up the powers of the third eye chakra.

The third chakra is also very closely related with the handling and awareness of one’s moods and level of ‘engagement’ with the world.

If someone suffers from problems that cause emotional fluctuations such as bursts of anger, paranoia, fear, mood swings etc., they probably have imbalances in the third eye chakra.

Addictive behaviors, overthinking, depression, anxiety, are all mental imbalances and are hence related with the third eye ‘chakra’ as well.

Memory, ‘knowledge’, ‘intelligence’ are also some significations and attributes that are connected with the energy of the ajna chakra.

One can say in fact, the higher energy of the third eye chakra is one of ‘wisdom’ and ‘understanding’ than anything else.

There is one very interesting attribute of the third eye chakra that makes it quite popular among those seeking power.

This is the outward expression of a very well developed ajna chakra.

This aspect deals with the outward projection of the energies of the third eye chakra to the point that one may project their own thoughts, knowledge and ideas into the minds of others.

In fact, most ‘guru deeksha‘ (‘guru’-disciple initiation rituals) involve the guru activating the disciple’s third eye either manually or by focusing their gaze on the disciple’s third eye chakra.

You may have seen the popular tilak in hinduism, applied during important religious ceremonies and rituals. Some people in fact, apply tilak on a regular basis. You will see Hindus apply tilak for sure before starting an important phase of their life or auspicious event/initiation/journey/work.

The tilak is usually made up of ground saffron and/or vermillion. These materials are used because they are considered to lend a vibrant and energetically ‘active’ energy to the third eye chakra. Vermillion and saffron are both considered to be ‘hot’ in nature and in fact scientifically speaking, they do have such properties especially saffron, which is said to enhance mood and immunity.

The practice of applying tilak on the third eye chakra is still prevalent because it is said to enhance its energies as well as protect one’s minds and thoughts from negative interferences and influences.

The third eye chakra is very important for the individual to be able to see through what keeps them bound to situations and circumstances. Individuals with strong ajna chakra vibrations are in fact able to see through not just their own nature and tendencies but also offer support to others with their wisdom and insights.

You cannot grow in life if you are unable to see through your own repetitive patterns of self sabotage. The further you wish to go in life, the deeper you need to know yourself.

Self awareness is not about the knowledge of what you do and why. It is at its core, the knowledge of one’s role and place in society both as part of the collective and as an individual with likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses et all that may sometimes be at a divergence from the collective obsession for ‘safety’. For it’s only to the ones that dare to go beyond all that is safe and acceptable that the secret treasures of the universe are revealed.

Unlock your energy and heal patterns of self sabotage with our ‘Tantric Meditation’ program.

What are the best placements for Moon in the birth chart?

(Cover Pic: Football legend Cristiano Ronaldo has the Moon placed in the 8th house of his birth chart. Resonates completely with his obsessive, competitive behavior that has lead him to become so successful in his chosen career.)

Hari Om!

Great question. The thing though before I proceed to answer this question.. is that you understand when it comes to the Moon and Mercury, there really isn’t a good or bad placement.

Why’s that?

That’s because when it comes to your mind and intellect, there isn’t any ‘standard’ for what ‘type’ of mind or intellect is the best.

  • Someone with the Moon in the 8th house can have a somewhat obsessive mind but can be a great problem solver, scientist and researcher.
  • When it comes to take it easy and just relaxing however, Scorpio Moon people are generally bad at that. For a Scorpio Moon native usually the idea of living is working themselves to death and then indulging until they pass out. Then wake up the next day and repeat.
    • Bear in mind here indulgence doesn’t always mean drugs, alcohol or food. It can be binge watching a web series or playing squash until you drop.
  • Similarly someone with Moon in the 1st house can be a very receptive and sensitive individual but that may play against his or her best interests if they are involved in a field where let’s say they are required to be practical and rational rather than emotional and intuitive.
    • Moon in first house people tend to show compassion even to the people who are threats to their life and peace. Alternatively, they may behave too sensitively and impulsively with people who have their best interests at heart.
      • So there really is no good or bad placement with the Moon but only different flavors.

Now when we talk about Mercury, it’s much the same.

  • You can have Mercury in the tenth house and your mind works very practically.
  • You automatically think about the practical aspects of everything from finances to friendships and communications (all Mercurial aspects).
  • People with Mercury in the 10th house usually are great businesspeople and athletes for the same reason.
  • Their intellect evaluates facts, figures and decisions from a very practical perspective.
    • For Mercury in 10th house people, the practicality of information matters more than anything else. You give them stock tips and they will appreciate you for it.
    • You tell them about a coup in Nigeria and the general state of human rights in East Africa and they will look at you as though you stole time from them.
  • In the same way, Mercury in the 12th house people are all about abstract concepts, ideas, knowledge and information.
    • For Mercury in 12th house people (Mercury is considered debilitated in the 12th), imaginative ideas that extend beyond the boundaries of the normal world as we know it means a lot more than other things.
    • You talk to them about mundane stuff and they may tolerate you but everything with them leads them back somehow to the abstract: this can be poetry, writing, spirituality or occult knowledge, blogging or the like.

So you see there is actually no good or bad placement with these two entities.

Yes and add the nodes to this list because with the nodes once again, the axis has more to do with your priorities and soul contracts than anything else.

However there are placements where the Moon if placed gives you the best experience in terms of the material plane and how to navigate it and there are placements where the Moon if placed tends to result in a personality that has problems dealing with the world and finding its center.

Here they are:

1 Positive placements:

  • Moon does well in the 10th and 5th.

2 Negative placements:

  • Moon is a bit out of sorts in the 8th, 12th and 3rd houses.

3 Neutral placements:

  • 4th, 2nd, 11th and 6th, 9th

4 Problematic placements:

  • 1st and 7th houses

Now, people with these placements are going to want to know the reason for this classification.

Here we go:

‘Positive placements’:

Moon in the 5th and the 10th is a very positive placement because Moon placement in the chart is representative of where your mind is the most at ‘ease’.

  • In the 5th it’s a great place to be because firstly, from a ‘tantric’ perspective, the energy is still firmly centered in the third eye ‘chakra’.
  • Only that here the ‘yin’ energy takes on a ‘yang’ flavor by virtue of its expression.

The fifth house is an important house since it represents a lot of great things. From good ‘karma’ from previous lifetimes to expression, self improvement, intelligence and self expression, this gives the individual a lot of confidence and comfort in how they take on the ‘process of living’ so to speak.

  • The intuition is well applied to all matters of improving one’s life and putting creative ideas into action.
  • Also the mind is very confident about how it expresses itself.

In the 10th, the Moon does well again because once more, it is able to readily express its true nature out in the world and put plans into motion.

  • It’s a good placement because the intuition and the softer side of the individual’s psyche is being readily applied out in the world and that makes the expression rather grounded and well ‘rooted’.
  • The individual can be quite practical and refrain from taking intuitive decisions but when they do, its well channeled into making things happen. All in all this placement provides a good career.

‘Negative placements’:

As I said, I don’t really believe there are negative placements for the Moon but the 8th house and 12th house can give the individual a tendency to overthink and become paranoid sometimes.

  • While these placements can certainly be great in terms of providing the individual with a research based mindset that always tries to dig beneath the surface and get to the bottom of things, sometimes these tendencies can get out of hand.
  • The mind isn’t an entity that you want to ‘get out of hand’. That’s what we call a malefic placement.
  • Now also, in the 12th and 8th, an already internalized energy such as is the Moon which stands for all aspects of our personality that our internal: our thoughts, fears, sense of comfort, nourishment needs etc. becomes further introverted.
  • Once again, you need to be able to express these aspects of yourself in healthy ways not hold on so tight that the ones close to you are left clueless about your needs.

What’s wrong with the Moon in the 3rd however you ask?

  • Well the 3rd is yet another placement where the mind feels the need to constantly function to be operational. You don’t want that.
  • The 3rd house is the house of communication, thoughts, analytics, movement and learning.
    • While the Moon here gives great love for learning, interaction, movement and ‘absorption’ of knowledge and information, this too can get out of hand and with not the most constructive results.

See in the 5th and 10th there is still concrete progress taking place by thoughts, intuition and expression being put into action via creation of some sort.

In the 3rd, these energies can just get too internalized and amplify mental chatter.

‘Neutral placements’:

The 4th and 2nd should ideally be the best placements for the Moon right?

Why?

  • Because the 4th corresponds to the natural house of the sign of Cancer and the 2nd the natural house of the sign of Taurus.
  • These are respectively the own house and exalted house for Moon placement.

However, there’s an integral aspect of the Moon that cannot be ignored: It’s tendency to ‘fluctuate’.

  • The Moon creates many highs and lows because it is forever waxing and waning. This as an aspect as well that needs to be taken into account.
  • In the 2nd and 4th therefore, the feeling of stability and security respectively ebb and flow. This isn’t a great influence in terms of the physical realm.
    • You’ll overwork sometimes because you don’t feel stable enough and similar for all matters of conveniences where you just may not feel comfortable despite the best conveniences.

In the 6th it’s actually not a bad placement unlike what one would think.

  • The mind is at home when addressing conflicts, difficulties and problems. Very calculative, very grounded and very regular with respect to doing whatever needs to be done.
  • However, Moon is after all a soft planet and in the 6th can get quite overwhelmed sometimes and have problems maintaining routines and staying on top of chores.

In the 9th the Moon should actually do well right?

  • Forget the fact that the Moon and Jupiter are traditionally considered to be enemies but from a purely house point of view what is wrong here?
  • Mind feeling most comfortable in the area of spiritual wisdom, higher knowledge and sharing knowledge with the world is a great placement for most of the time.
  • On other times though, the individual may find themselves when the Moon is a waning state, doubting the logic and efficacy of these philosophical and largely theoretical concepts and idea

Similarly Moon in the 11th house is a placement that affects incoming gains, friendships and the attainment of desires in much the same way as it does in the 2nd house.

Plus, the locus of ‘control’ of the Moon is now placed in a house which already has a lot of energy fluctuations associated with it.

Why?

  • Because the 11th house is the house of large network circles, parties, social events, friendships and acquaintances.
  • There’s a lot of energetic movement in this house and rightly so. Friends, acquaintances, network and social involvement keep fluctuating right?
  • They change based on your job, life goals, life circumstances, geographical location et all. They don’t remain ‘constant’ or ‘fixed’.
  • Moon placed here can translate into an energy that is quite sensitive to the fluctuations in this area unlike the 10th (‘karma bhava’) where instinct, intuition and an abundance of ‘yin‘ energy translates into positive expression in the form of actual work that is required to be done, thereby stabilizing the Moon’s energy.
  • In this house, the native’s state of mind and instincts, intuition, emotions may dictate vital aspects of one’s life such as incoming gains, friendships, contacts and recognition.

‘Problematic placements’:

Why ‘problematic’?

  • See in the first the Moon isn’t in a bad place as it is in the house of two friends: Mars because it owns the sign and placement of Aries and Sun because the throne is rightfully his and his point of exaltation.
  • However, the Moon is a soft planet and the native may find it tough to ‘exert’ themselves adequately in times that require them to stand up and be a little ‘incisive’ and ‘decisive’.

Sure one thing I want to point here is that the ‘nakshatra’ placement of the Moon is all of these placements will be quite a deciding factor in how the actual effects turn out.

  • However, the intrinsic quality of the Moon is that of softness, intuition and receptivity.
  • Great qualities but not always the best when you are in a position of leadership and purely rational, practical ‘execution’ of plans and strategies.

Similarly in the 7th the Moon is in an area where an already soft planet is handed the scales to balance out. Obviously, the scales can never be balanced.

That is the essence of the energy of Libra, the natural ruler of the 7th house.

  • You attach this energy with the Mind and you create a situation where the mind finds comfort and safety in creating balance.
  • Problem is that’s a difficult placement in terms of your mental peace. It’s like the native is always somehow trying to find comfort in creating an illusionary balance that is always almost achieved but never fully arrived at.

So there you go, a brief summary of lunar placements and their merits and demerits all for you to consider yourself.

A couple of things you need to keep in mind however whenever evaluating the placement of Moon in a chart:

  1. The Moon chart is a very important aspect of studying how the individual’s mind perceives all the areas of one’s life.
    • So let’s take Moon in fifth house.
      • The 8th house is 4th from the Moon.
      • Hence, the individual may always find some emergency or sudden events/ups and downs taking place in the home/homeland/savings/relationship with mother.
    • Similarly Moon in 10th house natives will have the 3rd house 6th from the Moon.
    • As a result of this there will always likely be a certain combative element in their communications and quite possibly conflicts with peers and/or a line of work that involves a lot of short travels.
  2. Nodal conjunctions/aspects and ‘nakshatra‘ placements play a huge role in the actual expression of Moon’s energy in the chart irrespective of where it is placed.
    • It doesn’t matter if the Moon is placed in the 5th or 10th which I said are the stronger placements for it to be, if the Moon is conjunct either of the nodes, there is associated with it a great deal of chaos and transformation.
    • It doesn’t matter similarly, if the Moon is in a difficult placement such as the 6th or the 1st house, if it is in a powerful ‘nakshatra’ that is by nature very beneficial and lucky such as let’s say ‘Uttaraphalguni‘ or ‘Purvashadha‘, the Moon is still quite strong.
      • Similarly, difficult ‘nakshatra‘ placements even in good placements will be difficult to deal with. For example ‘Ardra‘ and ‘Moola‘ will have a great deal of chaos associated with them no matter where the Moon is placed in the chart.

So no Moon placement is ‘perfect’. It’s all quite relative.

Yes but based on my research I can share what I have in terms of Moon placements that give you the most ‘juice’ from your Moon placement.

Obviously, conjunctions, planetary aspects, ‘avasthas’ and ‘nakshatra’ placements will all make a difference to this analysis.

Hope this helps.

Hari Om!

Want to learn more about the energies in your chart? You can do so in a personal session .

Don’t stop. Keep going!

If you’ve been in a self improvement journey for a while then you probably would have realized by now that it’s tough.

  • Maybe you’re in a fitness journey or self love journey.
  • Maybe you’re in a de-addiction journey or entrepreneurship journey.
  • Maybe you’re getting back to school to pursue higher education or working hard to finish a book.
  • Maybe you’re healing from emotional or physical trauma.

Whatever the exact nature of your journey of self improvement, you realize sooner or later that things can’t and never go your way all the time.

Sometimes what you’re putting on the line is so much more than you can afford to lose and it’s scary.

It’s scary because if you lose, everything falls down and it will take you forever to pick up the pieces of your broken dreams and start building again.

If that happens, you want to give up. Times like these you just feel the sheer weight of each day as time seems stuck and you can’t move forward. In between trying and losing and trying again, you find your centre.

You know what I mean right? That little space inside your head where you have 100% belief in your abilities.. that little ‘zone’ in your mind where you can just blur the world out and give your 200% to the task at hand.

That IS what we set out to discover in the first place my friend! That IS what we set out to connect with through everything we yearned for. Ever.

You don’t build your dreams to build something. You build your dreams to find out just how far you can go with it. You challenge yourself to discover yourself. That’s what it is all about.


And you need to realise that it doesn’t matter if you’re making the proverbial journey up the mountain or down the mountain. Through all of that, you’re always journeying within.

It doesn’t matter where you find yourself this moment and it doesn’t matter how many years of effort or struggle has gone into you being here right now as you are. It only matters where you’re going from here and what the next step of your journey demands you become.

Conscious self improvement is a ruthless process of change that is as rewarding as it is uncomfortable.

  • You will not feel like it or even be fully recovered for a workout every day.
  • You will not be ready for the demanding nature of running your own business.
  • You will not feel secure performing in front of an audience all the time.
  • You will regress back into your addictions sometimes and you will feel symptoms of withdrawal even many years into your journey.

The solution lies in understanding that the pain of growth and change is much better than the pain of staying stuck in a version of yourself that isn’t empowering.

The solution lies in understanding that once you have tapped into the knowledge of what gives you a sense of empowerment, there is at least a 100 mile runway beyond that point that leads up to the greatest version of who you are.

People won’t see it, people won’t get it and people.. quite often the closest to you.. will do everything in their power to stop you from taking flight and escaping that place in your life.

They will do it unconsciously sometimes and other times consciously. Sometimes it will be because of insecurity and sometimes it will be as a result of attachment. No one will understand your ‘urgency’ and ‘obsession’ with going far far away from what you have fought for years to overcome.

No one but you.

And whenever you feel tempted to let off steam and get ‘comfortable’, remind yourself that this ‘comfort’ is what stopped you from escaping the toxicity that had been keeping you trapped in your old habits.

Remind yourself that you were the one suffering.

Be it in a toxic marriage, an unhealthy body, creative frustration, unfulfilled career or addictions.. you were the one who was suffering the most through that state of disempowerment.

If even after discovering the road to your empowerment, you choose to not take it, run with it and explore how far you can go with it.. it is only a matter of time before you regress back into those patterns.

  • You must keep moving forward even if with .1% progress on some days. That’s fine.
  • The main goal is to not concede a failure from that area of your life.
  • You don’t do this from a lack mindset however. You don’t do this from a fear based mindset. You do this from a mindset of simplicity.
  • A mindset that focuses on moving forward in a linear manner, covering the weaknesses at least as they are known and revealed.
  • It’s in constant progress that more weaknesses and handicaps will be revealed to you over time.
  • It’s in constant progress that you will then be able to remedy as many of them as are revealed.

The catch though is constant forward movement exposes conflicts and conflicts are difficult to deal with because that is so by design.

No one actively goes out seeking conflicts not even if they’re John Wick.

However that’s just inevitable. In the same way that the longer a machine runs the more likely that something will need fixing sooner or later, the further you go, the more you encounter circumstances that stall and impede you.

The wisdom is in embracing and understanding these conflicts as proof of your growth. The wisdom lies in interpreting these conflicts as a testament to your progress.

Sure, people close to you may act differently and tell you “I told you so”. You however, must ensure you remind yourself how much it took to get out of the toxicity of inaction and get in to the energy of proactive change.

Problem solving is a muscle. You lose it if you don’t use it.

The more you try new things, the more you challenge yourself to surpass your own records and perceived limitations, the more you unlock abilities unknown to you.

The price to be paid for each level of self awareness is solving a problem.

That’s important. Important because many of these problems you end up solving for others who are headed in that direction. In the same way that there were many problems you never had to face because others further along this path, solved them for you.

So no matter what happens, once you have tapped in to the energy of self empowerment, keep building upon it. Keep building up on it and keep the faith.

Have faith in who you are and you will rise up to the occasion. Have faith my friend because you will go down and you will come up and it’s all just a part of life.

Have faith because if you brought yourself out of the blind pits of addiction, bankruptcy, divorce, failure, heartbreak, jail, depression, disease… if you brought yourself out of the pits of the most difficult challenges of life.. you can pull yourself out of all the conscious challenges you pose to yourself in order to grow.

If you survived the hell that you were given, you can sure as hell survive the fire you have chosen to mould yourself into a stronger version of you.


©Coach Kaushal

Photo credits: “Burning man” ultra marathon 50k.

To book a personal coaching session, feel free to visit the scheduling page.

Meaning of third house of the D-9 Navamsha chart

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

The previous post in the series focused on understanding the meaning of the 2nd house of the ‘Navamsha‘ from the perspective of one’s life path.

See the divisional charts aren’t to be taken in isolation.

It is only when you analyze them from the perspective of how the journey began in the D-1 at the point the soul entered the body, will it make sense.

This is why there are differences in the life paths and personalities of even identical twins.

While the point where the soul enters the body is what the D-1 chart is, the direction that life is destined to take after that is seen by the divisional charts.

So if you look at the the D-9 chart, it points largely towards the path the individual is meant to take in pursuit of completion of his or her higher values of life.

The first house in this respect points towards the experience of transition towards the next phase and also the ease of taking up the mantle of stepping into the higher version of ones-self.

The second house shows us the available resources in this progression and the values as well associated with it.

The third house now shows us the level of courage, industriousness and peer support in upholding and manifesting the higher version of one’s self. A version of one’s self most in consistency with one’s higher self.

While there can be many different interpretations of the third house and what it represents in the D-9, one theme that will always be common is the ability to fight for and defend one’s beliefs and life path.

The planetary placements in the D-9 will point towards the flavor of communications and efforts on part of the individual in moving their life from what they have been given towards that which they envision as the version of themselves they seek to become.

Difficult placements here such as let’s say a Saturn ‘Rahu‘ conjunction, will point towards an individual who probably felt ‘pushed’ into a way of being that they weren’t ready for.

Malefic placements in good dignity however, such as Sun in Aries, Mars in Capricorn or Saturn in Libra, illustrate the picture of an individual actively fighting for and establishing a reality of life that is consistent with their highest beliefs.

North node in the third house of ‘navamsha‘ will show an individual whose primary focus is bound to be one of courageous expression, initiative and innovation.

Benefic planets in the third house of ‘navamsha‘ can point towards harmonious interactions from peers who act as catalysts and enablers in guiding the native towards a higher version of being.

Now how do you apply this information?

So you look at the ‘mahadasha‘ that the native is going through and look at the placement of that planet in the D-9. If the planet that the native is running MD of is in the 3rd house of ‘navamsha‘, then you can deduce that the native in this period is going to be quite focused in moving towards being a higher version of themselves.

Even if this doesn’t happen consciously, unconsciously the individual’s life path will be leading them in this direction.

Look at which houses the planet rules in the D-9 chart and you will get more clues with respect to the lens through which this change occurs.

For example let’s say you are running Mars period and Mars rules the third house in your D-9 chart.

Now, you see that it also rules the 10th house and so therefore the native shall be taking a lot of inspired action in the area of how they want to be seen in the world.

This inspired action towards change will come from a place of moving towards his or her higher vision and beliefs about life (what the D-9 is all about) but also the intention that they have towards the visible impact of these beliefs (Since Mars is also ruling the 10th in D-9).

An added layer of understanding can be developed by looking at the house that the planet rules in the D-1.

For example and I’m taking this example based on Sidereal calculations for simplicity’s sake.. let’s say Saturn sits in the 6th and rules the 7th and 8th house in the D-1.

Now you have Saturn ruling the 2nd and 3rd houses in the D-9 and sitting in the first.

In the ‘mahadasha‘ of Saturn, the individual will be highly aligned towards his or her highest ideals. They may not be ‘ripe’ enough to execute said ‘dharma’ if let’s say the MD is one they are born into. However the primary goal of all the struggles the native is going through by virtue of the Saturn placement in the 6th, is to be able to ensure the manifestation of their higher beliefs and ideals about life. (Refer meaning of first house in ‘navamsha’)

In the same way, imagine Saturn is placed in the 6th in the D-1 and in the D-9 it rules the 4th and the 5th and sits in the 3rd house of the ‘navamsha‘.

Now here in the period of the ‘mahadasha‘ of Saturn the native will be seen to engage in intense struggle. Why? Because both the 6th and the 3rd are houses that demand excessive efforts especially when you have Saturn placed there.

Good thing though is that both the 6th and the 3rd are houses naturally ruled by a friend (Mercury) since 6th and 3rd correspond to the energies of the signs of Virgo and Gemini. Being in such placements, Saturn makes you struggle hard but also provides decent outcomes.

In this case keeping in mind that Saturn is in the 3rd in the D-9 which is 10 places from its original place in the D-1, we see that the individual will be working hard to manifest his highest beliefs and ideals for life by getting into the right line of work that enables them to do so.

The native may change his or her job in order to get into a line of work that is more in consistency with the path he wishes to walk.

In this way you can understand quite a bit about the placements in the 3rd house in the D-9, by relating it with multiple reference points for placements in the D-1. It helps you go into a lot more detail and make sense of the events that take place in the native’s life in the time period of planet. The ‘instinct’ will be there in the native to direct their lives to match the currents of destiny.

The only thing here is that for some individuals even after feeling that ‘pull’, there possibly won’t be a big enough positive shift. That can happen either because the D-9 chart is unsupportive because of a lot of difficult planets that stand blocking the impact of the 3rd house placement in the D-9. Or it can be because the third house placement itself is so tricky that the individual isn’t able to ever consciously step up and claim that energy.

All in all, the 3rd house of the ‘Navamsha‘ should be looked at whenever questions pertaining to one’s personal endeavors, skills, initiatives need to be studied wrt the native’s purpose in the world.

You know how we often say that a lot of people are born with ‘promise’ for something greater but only a few truly live up to that promise?

That’s because not everyone has a strong enough sense of purpose to enable them to realize their fullest potential. Most people just learn how to tune out the frequency of something ‘higher’ and decide to live in a simpler yet disempowered version of themselves.

Probably the biggest reason for this is the amount of change that is accompanied by sacrifice and self work that most people avoid.

The D-9 chart is a study in transformation really.

The third house in particular is a study in the level of initiative desired by the soul in realizing potential that goes beyond just the primary aims for the soul’s manifestation on the planet.

The stronger the health of the 3rd house of the D-9, the greater the drive in the native to ‘run towards’ his or her destiny and fight tooth and nail to defend the ideologies that give a greater meaning to their life.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

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

‘Ketu’ in 4th house of birth chart

Hari Om!

If you’ve been following this series then you would know by now that the south node of the Moon, ‘Ketu‘ is all about the aspect of unconscious programming that the soul is seeking to free itself from in this life time.

The South node of the Moon ‘Ketu‘ is related to the energies of ‘moksha‘, spirituality and ‘letting go’. ‘Ketu‘ is where the soul has accumulated considerable experience in this lifetime but is seeking to grow out of so that it can complete its cycle of development and move towards liberation.

Wherever ‘Ketu‘ is placed in your chart is where you instinctively have considerable expertise but are seeking to outgrow.

This area of your life is very important for your growth because this is probably what you’re going to use to build the foundation of this lifetime. However, this area of your life will not give you the fulfillment that your soul seeks in this lifetime.

That ‘fulfillment‘ is going to come from achieving the significations of the ‘Rahu‘ placement in your chart.

So now, before we study the impact of the South node ‘Ketu‘ in the fourth, let’s briefly touch upon the 4th house and its significations in the birth chart.

The 4th house in the birth chart is related to the following significations:

  • Home, mother, motherland.
  • Conveniences, comforts, conveyances, luxuries and amenities.
  • Sub conscious mind, private life, private affairs, domestic life.
  • Bank, safes, deposits, securities, land, property.
  • Water bodies, reservoirs, tanks, closets, baths, saunas.

The 4th house is the house of all the things that we wish to keep private and strive to protect.

This is a very introverted and self sufficient kind of house with an energy that is focused on stillness and nurturing.

Imagine what it is being like in your mother’s lap, a cozy quilt on a winter morning, beside the fireplace in a cabin at night, a hot tub.. you get the picture right?

The 4th house is the kind of house where you want the least possible energy fluctuation.

This is a house where the more things are ‘still’ and ‘calm’, the more positive it was for the overall energies of the chart and the individual’s life.

So when you put the South node of the Moon ‘Ketu‘ in this energy, you see that the individual has a natural knack for managing household affairs and sitting ‘cozy’.

These people are great at creating just the ‘right’ environment for optimum comfort and privacy. In fact, these people will try as much as possible to never have to leave their comfort zone. They will be the masters at managing everything from home and probably have a pretty robust domestic machinery where everything is expertly handled.

From enjoying a great movie experience in their 40 inch led TV with surround sound to comfy couches to read books on.. from a comfortable study room that helps them get away from the world and recede into a different dimension of creativity to a bedroom that provides all the comfort one can dream of for a great night of sleep.. the ‘home’ of these people are truly their sanctuary.

However.. and there is always a however when it comes to ‘Ketu‘.. however, these people need to learn to grow out of this ‘safety oriented’ and ‘comfort oriented’ approach.

Their true calling in this life, their true North is going to be the 10th house where the North node ‘Rahu‘ is placed.

These individuals need to learn to step out of their comfort zone and go get whatever they desire out there.

This can be a difficult placement with a difficult lesson because if the native lingers in the comfort of the home for longer than is admissible to the ‘Ketu maharaj‘, he will start pulling the carpet from under their feet to push them out of their ‘comfort zone’.

On the plus side however, as soon as the native ‘steps out’, opportunity meets him.

All you have to do if you have this placement, is to ‘show up’, consistently.

The experience that the soul seeks to master in this lifetime is the experience of showing up and climbing the ladder of success in a slow and steady grind.

Yes the instinct with the North node in the tenth house, as is always there with ‘Rahu‘, will be to find ‘shortcuts’ and ‘hacks’ that can enable the native to not have to leave the comfort zone as much as possible.

However, every time the native takes it too far, the South node creates a circumstance that pushes them out of the comfort zone and out into the world.

The South node here also gives the natives a very instinctive intelligence about managing savings, acquiring property and assets. In the area of land, assets and property, the native is delivered what is ‘karmically’ due to him or her even if there has been no effort in that area.

Even so, the focus needs to be on growing through action and performance of ‘karma‘ on a consistent basis instead of dwelling on past laurels and losing sight of the ‘bigger picture’.

Some notable personalities with this nodal placement:

Donald Trump, Businessman and 45th POTUS

  • Donald Trump graduated with a Bachelor’s in Economics and joined his father’s real estate business.
  • Pretty interesting right? Since the 4th house is all about comforts, land and property.
  • In characteristic ‘Ketu‘ in 4th fashion, Donald Trump was born into a home with an abundance of land, resources, comforts and conveniences.
  • He built upon what his father created and renamed the business the ‘Trump organization’. He expanded the business into building renovating and maintaining casinos, skyscrapers, hotels and gold courses including floating various side ventures.
  • However, in characteristic ‘Rahu‘ in 10th fashion, Donald Trump got his fame by stepping out of his comfort zone through TV shows like “The Apprentice” that he co produced and hosted for 11 seasons.
  • In fact, he achieved a surprise victory and a major upset in 2016 when he became the 45th president of the US while defeating Hillary Clinton.
  • Now, in characteristic ‘Ketu‘ in 4th house fashion, Trump presidency was dominated by numerous controversies and strife at home.
  • In fact he is the first POTUS to be charged with a criminal indictment. That’s one dubious feat for sure considering his predecessors have been people like Richard Nixon who was involved in a major scandal.

Beyonce Knowles, Famous singer-songwriter

  • Beyonce is probably the most loved and looked up to ‘diva’ in the world of music.
  • Her fame, class and craze is probably seconded only by Rihanna.
  • Commercially, creatively and from the perspective of sheer stardom, Beyonce is easily the most successful pop star of her generation.
  • Her life began in a characteristic ‘Ketu‘ in 4th house fashion:
  • Born to a hairdresser and Xerox sales manager, she was raised Catholic and went to a Christian school. There she learned singing, dancing and music and pretty soon became an eye grabbing award winning artist.
  • She achieved great popularity and success with her band “Destiny’s Child” and it was when stepped into the unknown with her solo career that she really started making waves.
  • From being an activist to performing around the globe in awe inspiring performances and widespread critical acclaim, she is known for working hard, thinking big and making daring, powerful moves in her career.
  • In Beyonce’s case, one can say that the aspect of ‘Rahu‘ in the 10th is more pronounced and active.
  • She did suffer a miscarriage and that can be observed as a negative influence of ‘Ketu‘ in 4th (issues related to mother or motherhood)

Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Father of India’, Social reformer

A2FP81 Rare studio photograph of Mahatma Gandhi taken in London England UK at the request of Lord Irwin 1931
  • Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, left India in his teens to study law in Britain.
  • When he returned from Britain after becoming a Barrister, he had adopted quite a few British habits and mannerisms including a certain level of dependency on comfort.
  • Gandhi met with the reality of life under British rule for the first time in South Africa (away from home, ‘Ketu‘ in 4th still active).
  • It was when he was thrown out of the first class compartment for being a man of color that he truly made up his mind to challenge the status quo and mobilize against authority (‘Rahu‘ in 10th taking effect).
  • This opened up a different life for the ‘Mahatma‘ altogether with him slowly releasing all dependence on conveniences and comforts and choosing to take up living like an ascetic devoted the cause of social reform and national freedom.
  • In fact it was characteristic of Gandhi to spend long periods of withdrawal from the limelight and attention to focus on alleviating the grassroot problems of the country (‘Ketu‘ in 4th in effect again.)
  • He would spend time in his ‘ashram‘ weaving yarn, tending to goats, overseeing important administrative tasks until he was confident things were ready for an external push and then launch movements at a massive scale (‘Rahu‘ in 10th).

Hope this was helpful.

Hari Om!

You can schedule a personal session from the booking page.

5 secrets of charismatic leadership

People don’t make a star out of you. Opportunities make a star out of you.

That’s the most important aspect of maturing into a leader that others look up to.

Just look around and you’ll find tons of individuals with oodles of talent and promise clueless on how to progress to the next step in their careers: Of stepping into a leadership position.

So many people who possess most of the skills and qualities they need to make it big in their chosen professions are often debilitated by a perceived lack of ‘guidance’.

Having a ‘mentor’ is perceived these days as somewhat of a necessity in progressing to a leadership position within the same organization or otherwise.

“But how will I come to learn the intricacies of my job as a leader if I don’t have someone to ‘mentor’ me or ‘guide’ me until I have found my feet in my new role?” complained a friend of mine recently who is a Software Architect seeking to move higher in the product division in her company but finding it difficult to do so.

The idea that you need someone to teach you how to be a leader so you can then find the confidence to take up a leadership position is flawed at best.

While we don’t endorse the idea that leaders are born not made, we also find the idea that leadership is something you need a manual, guide, book our course to understand, preposterous.

Why is that?

It’s because some of the most charismatic leaders that history has produced have been individuals who were not even expected to become leaders. They were ‘wildcards’ that burst on the scene and lead with a definitive sense of ‘purpose’ that was infectious and intimidating at the same time.

Granted. These individuals have an X factor that is hard to ‘spot’ or recognize by others unless they possess the same trait.

However, what we need to learn from their style of leadership is the right attitude to command respect and discipline once you assume that post even if by accident.

You know what the magic ingredient is?

The magic ingredient that launches you into the hall of fame of leadership irrespective of whether you received the right mentoring, coaching or guidance?

‘Charisma’.

Now ‘charisma’ is something that cannot be taught. That I certainly believe in.

It’s because much of one’s ‘charisma’ is derived from a unique signature of execution style that varies from person to person.

‘Charisma’ can however be ‘developed’ by tapping into the innate talents one does possess and shamelessly upholding ones authentic style even in the face of great criticism.

Here are 5 ways that this article seeks to share with you the secrets to becoming a charismatic leader:

#1 Charismatic leaders are highly dependable

Charismatic leaders aren’t always firmly in ‘official’ leadership positions. However, by virtue of their innate talents at problem solving, they are often the de facto leaders when it comes to mitigating crises and solving conflicts.

Charismatic leaders inspire the perceived halo of being special by always keeping the best interests of the organization as priority when taking action.

They are not hungry for recognition because they are very secure about what they bring to the table.

They don’t care about immediate gratification or compensation because they have sufficient confidence in their abilities to create better opportunities for themselves.

These are the kind of people who as part of a team, will help others do what they do better so that the team’s performance can improve. Their expertise and eagerness to share comes from a deep knowledge of their chosen field and a devotion towards their craft. These individuals are often eternal students.

Ultimately this trait is recognized and sought out by immediate and allied team members who seek to learn from and grow with these people.

Elon Musk is probably one of the best examples of a ‘hands on’ charismatic leader. He isn’t shy of sleeping in the factory when things are tight. He isn’t shy of being the fall guy when having to take tough decisions in a new business strategy. He is looked up to for solutions and answers that others in the team aren’t talented enough to find sometimes.

#2 Charismatic leaders are good communicators.

‘Communication’ is often thought of as speaking or writing skills.

While that may be true, the true ‘gauge’ of good communication has more to do with the content that is being communicated.

In this sense, you may be a German native in an Australian team but you are still the best communicator in that team because you strive to bridge knowledge gaps in the processes.

For example a charismatic software engineer would be one who tries their best to maintain extensive documentations and commenting in their code so that others working on it can learn from it and grow.

Charismatic leaders are very transparent and seek to maintain that transparency as much as possible to ensure members don’t feel ‘left out’ in the dark.

The egotistical need that many manipulative leaders possess of ‘withholding information’ to maintain control and project an illusion of power actually stands challenged by such individuals.

This is why they are so good at inspiring trust in their teammates.

Why? Well ask yourself who would you rather follow/ count on in times of crises.. a person who hides important things from you or a person who is open about what they know and don’t know?

Atal Behari Vajpayee is probably one of the best examples of a leader who lead from the front with his meticulous communication that often worked to bridge differences between polarizing opinions on the parliament. He was able to achieve a feat few are in their lifetime: Respect from rivals and followers alike.

INDIA – NOVEMBER 22: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Former Prime Minister of India at his his Residence in New Delhi, India (Photo by Bandeep Singh/The India Today Group/Getty Images)

#3 Charismatic leaders challenge the status quo

At the risk of sounding cliched, the famous quote that says “An expert hits a target in the bull’s eye and a genius hits a target others can’t see” holds true here.

Charismatic leaders usually have a great deal of knowledge about their chosen field and therefore a heightened sense of creative vision on what can be.

Since they always hold the welfare of the organization and the development of their field of work higher than anything else, they strive for constant improvement.

In this process they may sometimes be disliked by traditional forces within the organization however their confidence in their abilities allow them to take risks that others will shy away from.

Even if they find themselves facing opposition in the short term, it is not unanticipated. Charismatic leaders will often push for necessary changes for the better even if they anticipate major opposition in the short term.

Ultimately this is what leads to them inspiring massive loyalty.

Steve Jobs is the best example of a leader who stuck to a vision that was very disruptive and ambitious yet highly achievable. He lead with the idea of building a personal computer when nobody could even imagine the utility of having one. He stuck to the idea of not investing further in developing the Apple 2 but building a new platform (that later became the ‘Mac’), even though it lead to him being fired from his own company. Ultimately not having Jobs on board was invariably pushing Apple to failure and he was brought back on board by buying the company he created after leaving Apple.

#4 Charismatic leaders are thick skinned.

This is probably one trait that can be quite controversial.

It is however an important one.

Heard of the famous quote: “Lions do not concern themselves with the opinion of sheep”?

Yes that applies here.

Charismatic leaders usually aren’t the type of individuals one can be indifferent to. They are either are massively loved or equally abhorred.

That’s because they are fearless in the expression of their authenticity and always aware of the fact that things can change anytime.

Charismatic leaders are optimistic realists.

This is why they are able to anticipate key challenges before they show up in the physical reality but also back themselves to tackle problems that are unanticipated.

Such people motivate others as well in their team to develop their talents and problem solving skills. This helps the team or the organization become better but it also gives rise to many conflicting voices and dissent in the chosen approach to an issue.

However, with as deep an understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses, as charismatic leaders possess, they know where and how to tune out the noise and back their judgement on key matters.

Lady Diana, Princess of Wales is a great example of charismatic leadership that came from being firmly rooted in one’s authenticity. Diana earned mass fame, popularity and love owing primarily to her attitude of being herself even in the face of opposition, criticism and judgement. She broke a lot of traditional rules, conventions and barriers in the pursuit of building a deeper connection with the masses.

#5 Charismatic leaders never hog the limelight

The fact that charisma invariably always leads you back to the limelight is not a reflection on the individual’s need to seek the same.

Charismatic leaders prefer to let their work do the talking rather than going out and actively demanding credit or recognition.

They are proud of what they helped create and are constantly striving to do more and create more.

Charismatic leaders are very special because they continuously inspire leadership in their team members, peers and followers.

Even if they can often have their idiosyncrasies, charismatic leaders constantly demand more of themselves and their people and work on bridging that growth curve with a lot of work. They are often perfectionists who can see the flaws clearly but are optimistic on how to fix them with novel solutions.

When you work ceaselessly in this fashion, it can be quite humbling. Charismatic leaders are well aware that they could just as easily have been the one to accept responsibility for a failure and are therefore quick to be inclusive in success.

However the most interesting aspect of their ‘charismatic’ attitude is being pushed to embrace publicity and recognition by their teams and organizations who recognize them as one of the best among them.

They don’t dwell too much on current accomplishments as they are constantly focused on the development of the larger vision.

MS Dhoni is a living legend when it comes to showcasing how to take the backseat and allow the team to bask in the glory of success. He is one who stands out in this regard because as a leader he has probably enjoyed more success than any others in a any field. You never see him hogging the limelight or taking credit. Even though everyone knows he is the mind behind the successes, he enjoys being in the shadows.

Hope you enjoyed this article. If you did, please subscribe to this blog to follow all the wonderful content that we post here!

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first PM of India was once asked what would be his legacy once he’s gone? “Hopefully 400 million people capable of leading themselves” he answered.

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Rahu mahadasha secrets part 4/101

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

I know I know! Haven’t written about ‘Rahu ji‘ in a while. Well 3 posts coming out in quick succession this week as I bring this series up to speed.

Actually I’ve been very busy working on my book ‘Decoding Rahu’ that comes out as a paperback in July. If you would like to be notified when it is released, you can register here.

So, what’s the 4th elusive fact that I have to share about ‘Rahu ji‘ today?

The 4th secret is that your ‘Rahu‘ placement shows what you are here to do for the world.

Have you heard of the famous quote:

The meaning of your life is to find your gift. The purpose of your life is to give it away.

This is massively applicable to your ‘Rahu‘ placement.

  • Nothing else in your chart is going to give you as much ease of manifestation as the area where the North node is placed.
    • You are instinctively drawn to this area since birth.
    • Yes, what makes it quite difficult so often is that one is plagued by fear and has to withstand many failures and gross misjudgments in this area of their life.
    • However, this is the area where all you need to do is show up and things begin to happen for you. Obviously you can do this actively or inactively.

Look at your chart. Look at any chart of any famous person for that matter.

You will be able to see that the North node placement is where they have had the most success in creating something for society, giving something to the world.

Let’s look at the nodal placements of 3 eminent personalities to confirm this:

  1. Steve Jobs
  • North node in fourth house
  • Makes sense doesn’t it? Not sure why?
    • Well, the 4th house is the house of ‘conveniences’. The iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, the Mac are all conveniences that radically transformed the way we manage our personal lives.
    • That is where Apple carved out a niche for itself: “Personal computing”.
    • Steve Jobs was a visionary because he could see the market for ‘personal computing’ long before anyone else could even imagine the potential.

2. Michael Jordan

  • North node in the first house.
  • Once again, makes perfect sense! Doesn’t it?
    • Even many years after his retirement, widely regarded as the greatest NBA player of all time, Michael Jordan is a legend.
    • I have written it earlier as well in my articles how Michael alone transformed the fate of the Chicago Bulls.
    • How many titles did they have before MJ joined? 0
    • How many titles did they have after MJ came on board? 6 titles in 8 years!
    • In fact, it is important to point out here that they have not been able to do anything special since MJ left.
  • Another thing about MJ that makes you look at his North node placement and go: “Damn! That is so apt!” is his role in making Nike what it is today.
    • Jordan is responsible for popularizing the “Air Jordan”, probably one of the most popular shoes of all time. In fact, he alone can be said to be responsible for making Nike the brand it is today. At that time when Nike signed him, they were a very small player in a market dominated by Adidas and Converse.

3. Salman Rushdie

  • North node in the 2nd house.
  • It’s so accurate once again that it’s eerie.
  • What is the 2nd house about?
    • Speaking your truth, sticking to your values and finding stability and ‘home’ in life.
  • You would probably know that Rushdie’s 4th book, “Satanic Verses” has received worldwide critical acclaim.
  • However, the book was also a source of great unrest, protests, assassination attempts on Rushdie’s life, the issuance of a ‘fatwa’ against him, controversies and bans.
  • Rushdie has mostly kept real topics at the foundation of his fictional plots such as life in modern India in “Midnight’s Children” and contemporary politics in Pakistan, “Shame”.
  • Born in India, lived in Britain and moved to America.
    • That shows a person heavily dominated by the North node, creating his own home.

I know the biggest question you might have now: Did these events take place during the ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ of these individuals?

Well, no.

MJ’s ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ is going to start in 2030!

  • See you can read these placements to anticipate the kind of results you will receive in your ‘Rahu mahadasha‘ period.
    • The specific period of the North node will only speed things up in that direction.
    • In the background the energy is always at play and will be expressed ultimately.
  • For example Rushdie’s ‘Rahu‘ period was between 1949 and 1967. This was a time when he was studying at the university of Cambridge in Britain.
    • These were the first 20 years of his life. Most of his planets weren’t matured enough to be able to effectively lend impact to the motivations of his nodal placement.

I’ll talk more about this in the next part.

Hope you enjoyed this one.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

Do you have a fear of success?

Have you heard this famous saying: “If you’re not where you want to be in life it’s because of either of two things: A fear of failure or a fear of success.”

I must confess there was a time I thought a fear of success is a ‘good’ problem to have.

No?

It sounds like you having the necessary talents and abilities to be wildly successful at whatever you want to be successful at but you just choose not to because “success can be lonely” and isn’t life better spent closer to the things and people you love?

It seemed like I had all the power to apply my talents as and when I wanted or at least at the ‘right time’ to get the results I wished for.

Life doesn’t work that way however, you quickly learn as you age.

Knowing what I know now I probably wouldn’t even blame myself for that line of thinking if I were to magically come across the past version of me.

In fact in a way I do. With my younger clients, I often see an aspect of expression of this flawed belief.

And what I can share with you is that ‘fear of success’ doesn’t at all look the way you would imagine it. If you do have it, chances are you won’t ever realize it unless you looked really really deep within. That’s because it’s quite often conditioned into our mentality unconsciously, and a mentality that may well be running through the family for generations.

Here’s what a ‘fear of success’ can actually look like:

  • Not developing your full potential because you fear doing that will render you lonely.
  • Not being able to fully ‘fit in’ to an ‘underdeveloped’ version of reality either because no matter what you do there’s a nagging feeling hanging at the back of your mind telling you that you deserve more.
  • Consciously avoiding life situations no matter how fulfilling they can be, because they push you to move beyond your ‘security paradigms’.

Many of these ‘security paradigms’ are actually inherited ideas of what is absolutely necessary to thrive in the material plane.

In some families that could be prioritizing income over happiness, in others it could be prioritizing relationships over career.

Different families have different values they pass on to each generation. However they also unconsciously pass on a lot of fears that stop us from becoming successful in our area of ‘calling’.

What do I mean by that?

Maybe having a happy family life is more important for your happiness than it was for any of the previous generations. Maybe traditionally, your family has been focused on wealth creation and financial security but you don’t find yourself drawn to that idea of ‘happiness’. It doesn’t fulfill you.

In order for you to achieve the idea of happiness as is important for yourself, you will need to grow a certain way, act a certain way and evolve a certain way. However, the biggest fear that you might unconsciously have here is the fear of losing your loved ones in this process of chasing your personal maxima.

Why wouldn’t you?

In the beginning you have no proof, no physical evidence that what you are aiming for is right and that you’re not making a big mistake.

This makes you very susceptible to absorbing the emotions and biases of your surroundings that sabotage you in ways you probably don’t even realize. This then causes you to undervalue your own knowing.

In fact, family conditioning is just one example.

This can happen in many different ways with many different scenarios.

Maybe you’re a scientist in a country that has traditionally never produced scientists or researchers. Maybe it’s considered a waste of time and energy.

Standing out and pursuing what you desire can be tough in these situations because you have to work to develop yourself ‘against the grain’ of the default nurturing received in the early years.

What is constantly stopping you from becoming the highest version of yourself to attain the happiness you truly seek will eventually also sabotage your peace in the life you are already living.

This happens to so many people. Doesn’t it?

You know you’re meant for something but there’s nothing in your environment or skill that proves to you that you can have it.

So you try all you can to make life work without it only to find yourself constantly unfulfilled.

“That’s fine. I can build a music career later in life after I have earned a lot of money” or “That’s fine, I will settle down and start a family after I have settled my career” etc.

Problem is, you can only talk yourself out of what you want for so long.

Ultimately the red glaring sign that “Something’s missing” begins to shine brighter and brighter in your life in the form of setbacks, failures, disagreements and conflicts.

When that happens you will want to force the outcome in the life you already don’t feel naturally drawn to even more.

If true happiness for you is starting a family and settling down in life but you keep moving cities to chase career growth, you’ll keep facing a lack of happiness in your career until you own up to your true desires.

This can manifest in the form of horrible bosses, toxic work environments, unstable monetary compensation etc.

But why?

That’s because you are unconsciously ‘stuck’ in a certain way of living life and are afraid of upsetting the status quo even if it makes you unhappy.

You’re just in a vibration of devaluing yourself and from that vibration you will only attract experiences, people and opportunities that reinforce the same.

Don’t we all know someone caught in a rut like this?

Maybe some of us are stuck in a vicious circle of this sort and are clueless why it keeps happening over and over again?

Maybe some of us have a family member like this.

Whatever it may be, the reality is that we are surrounded by individuals with massive talent but very little understanding of what they can create with that talent.

  • Individuals with gifts that they are not willing to put in the time and effort to develop.
  • Individuals who shy away from dedicating themselves to developing their talents fully and bringing them out to the world.
  • Individuals whose minds have been conditioned to believe that in order to have the massive success that they desire and even deserve.. they will have to give up all the other things that they probably don’t deserve but have been gifted by life.

Example?

A loving spouse, caring parents, genuine friends, devoted children, great home, fame, status, popularity, wealth..

the list of all the things we feel are too good for us but we are lucky to have is endless and varies from person to person.

Anyone stuck in the idea that in order to become the best version of themselves.. in order to have all that they want and deserve from life, they will have to sacrifice what they do have.. That they risk losing this for that.. is just engaging in self deception.

I mean, look at the reality of how life truly is in the 21st century, especially post the pandemic:

  • Isn’t everybody largely preoccupied healing themselves and minding their own business?
  • Isn’t everybody focused on firefighting their life situations and planning for their family’s security?
  • Aren’t the people who truly matter in your life the ones that have been with you through the lack and the struggle?
  • Wouldn’t you be able to better provide for these valuable people in your life if you could become more?

So what’s stopping you from becoming more and doing more?

What usually stops us from becoming more is the idea that if we wander off on that path we will fail the people who have done so much for us. That we may lose them in the process. That we may change and they may not be able to keep up.

Is there a guarantee however that you will not lose them if you decide to make peace with how things are and quietly go about your life paying your bills and fulfilling your responsibilities?

Is there?

No! There are no guarantees in life.

The only guarantee with this formula for ‘survival’ is that you will make everyone close to you feel what you’ve done and sacrificed for them and hold them hostage to how you let go of your dreams for them.

Probably not consciously but at a subconscious level, your mind will feel it and you will act it out.

Make no mistake, everyone has to fulfill their responsibilities first. Everyone has to provide for their families and their community.

But don’t you think the burden of unfulfilled potential compounds with each generation?

It doesn’t matter how much money you’re making or how successful you are in your career.

If there’s a faint voice that speaks to you telling you that you can do more, be more, and you have learnt with time to procrastinate that calling, to lower the volume.. you probably don’t realize the burden that this tradeoff is bringing forth for everyone who loves you to bear!

That’s because the ones that love you will love you any way.

I’m not saying go start gambling with your money because your devoted spouse will always love you and your parents will always try to provide for you!

I’m saying you need to understand that if you’ve gone through ups and downs in life and have still managed to keep a few people around you that do the best they can to be by your side, then these people will be by your side even if you failed.

But if you’re failing by not starting, if you’re failing by not committing to your highest calling in the first place because of fear..

A fear not of failure but a fear of losing the people and possessions dear to you..

and you’re doing this with complete knowledge of how much you need to do be who you need to be..

then you’re not afraid of failure my friend, you’re afraid of success.

  • It’s quite possible that you inherited it from the previous generation. Maybe the dominant parent in your life taught you the importance of ‘taking it easy’ and ‘appreciating life’ instead of going crazy over your desires.
  • It’s also possible that it was the opposite. That your parents(s) were so focused in their goals that they hardly had any time for you.
  • Maybe your parents had nothing to do with this idea but your circumstances shaped this perception. It could be anything.
  • Maybe you think in your mind that the person you become as a result of the pursuit of your highest vision will be at a disconnect with your familial and/or traditional values.
  • Maybe you fear letting down your community, teachers, followers or spouse should you become as ‘selfish’ as is needed to dream, change and manifest a better life more in consistency with your ideas of fulfillment.
  • Maybe you fear alienation and isolation as a result of ‘differentiating’ yourself from the pack.

The thing to understand is that as long as you are living ‘off the radar’, you are essentially living as a shell of your true self, as an imposter. You need to start showing up more often in the vicinity of that which sets your soul on fire.

Sure we all need to time to heal sometimes. Life unfolds in phases.

If it has been going on for too long however, living like that is a disservice to those who love you.

Even if you are afraid of disappointing those who love you but have limited beliefs, it is your duty if you truly love them to open their eyes and guide them towards the light.

No one’s asking you to go lead the community but stand up to your responsibility as the leader of your self, your family.

If you devalue your dreams you are teaching everyone else connected to you to do the same.

You don’t want to do that in life.

You don’t want to do that in life because if you could choose between a legacy of hope and a legacy of limitation..

a legacy of hope is a legacy of courage and self realization.

A legacy of limitation is a legacy of submission and that is a mighty burden to bear.

Don’t pass it on to your children and the next generation. Deal with it.

It ends at you!

In the end you need to realize a harsh truth:

People who don’t support your growth weren’t really your people to begin with. People who would rather see you unhappy in a life that isn’t the most authentic expression of your soul, don’t really have your best interests at heart.

Love, Jay

If you have dreams you wish to fulfill but don’t know where to start, begin by scheduling a personal coaching session.

Meaning and Importance of the Throat Chakra- Vishuddhi Chakra- Part-1

Mantra: ‘Ham’ (Pronounced ‘Hum’)
2. Location: At the base of the neck. Under the larynx.
3. Color: Sky blue
4. Position: Perpendicular to the Earth/ Parallel to the Spine
5. Rotation: Parallel to the spine
6. Corresponding Planetary energy: Mercury
7. Corresponding Number: 5
8. Corresponding Mudra: Shankha Mudra

The Throat Chakra is related to expression, voice and ‘speaking your truth’. Throughout cultures your ‘voice’ is considered almost a synonym for your ideas, values and expression in the world. Even if you are not directly involved in speech related professions or people facing work, your writing, your ideas and your ideology are considered as part of your ‘voice’ and your message to the world and society as a whole.

Interestingly, the ‘Vishuddhi Chakra’ isn’t only related to expression and voice. It is also related to your ability to ‘speak up’, your skills, talents and ideas that you apply to interact with the world. People in tune with their ‘voice’ are fearless individuals who aren’t afraid to call a spade a spade, even if it ruffles a few feathers and attracts attention/ garners opposition. These are people who refuse to be ‘silenced’ by the status quo and are often agents of radical change.

Why?

Because truth is the most powerful vibration. A person standing firmly within their truth does note merely stand up for themselves but for all who resonate with those values but are too afraid of confrontation. A person standing firmly in their truth is a person standing firmly in their personal power and this empowers everyone around them to do the same.

Not only will these people not stand by and watch injustice being carried out, they will speak up actively if needed, to protect others.

The throat chakra is also very connected to the ‘throat’, thyroid gland, lymph nodes, cervical and vocal chords.

Therefore being stifled and unable to express your truth can have a profound impact on the muscles, bones and organs in this region as also your voice and tongue. Quite often it is observed that people who suffer from ailments related to the neck/throat region have been struggling with some aspect of authentic expression. In fact there have been many cases of people mysteriously losing their voice one fine day without a well defined medical cause.

If you observe carefully you will also notice that many individuals who feel unsure about their ability to be ‘heard’ and ‘get through’ to others struggle with throat ailments. They will often strain their throat more than others, resort to shouting and cursing even to be able to form a better connect.

Individuals who feel safe and secure within their ability to form a connection and express themselves, will speak slowly with well measured words and ask questions, express objections, wherever they feel they need to.

Children who are born with stammering issues or lisps can possibly trace back the underlying energetic cause of these maladies to the pre natal experiences of the mother. Maybe their mother felt her creative expression stifled or felt fearful of adequately expressing her truth.

You will also see this quite often in adults who struggle with thyroid problems and speech impediments or recurrent cases of tonsillitis, throat infections and laryngitis; there is always some unresolved trauma associated with being truthful and honest. They may deny it outright in the beginning because in many cases of energetic blockades being formed, the underlying causes are unconscious for the individual.

With structured meditation and/or journaling exercises however one will slowly be able to see a pattern emerge. This is the pattern that needs to be adequately addressed and understood for it to be healed.

For example an individual may have grown up in a household where even with all the love and security their parents provided for them, children were expected to ‘speak only when spoken to’. While this may have been one of the classical ideas of raising kids, every individual has a different level of creative force within them and they respond differently to environments of ‘cultivation’.

Another example would be an actor who had to keep doing roles they didn’t like just so they could keep earning. Yet another example would be a child growing up in a dysfunctional neighborhood where you could not question or raise your voice against less than ethical activities taking place under the radar.

Journaling is probably the easiest way of opening up your throat chakra. You begin by bringing your own thoughts and ideas to the fore for your conscious mind to take note of. The next step of articulation and presentation to the world without fear of rejection happens eventually.

Opening your throat chakra through ‘yoga‘ meditation and ‘tantra‘, invites more balance and ease into all areas of your life. Sure, having greater courage to express your talents, experiment with creative ideas and speak up in meetings is one of those things. However at a higher level, it invites more harmonious connections and interactions with all of life around you. Why is that? That’s because the more you stand in your authenticity the more you are able to invite authentic connections.

A person with an open throat chakra is able above all, to demand what they’re worth from the world. The clearer you are in framing your ‘demand’ to the world, the clearer you are in setting your boundaries and expressing your desires. Recognition is one of our primal needs as social beings. The throat ‘chakra’ has a huge role to play in this regard.

There is a reason therefore that this ‘chakra‘ is placed at the narrow passage that is the neck which leads up to the ‘chakras‘ of higher conscious: the third eye and crown ‘chakra‘. It is to provide the individual an outlet of expression for everything they stand for. This includes an understanding of:

  • their basic requirements and primal instincts (Root Chakra),
  • sensual pleasures and sexuality (Sacral chakra),
  • Creative expression and ego based desires (Solar Plexus),
  • ability to connect with others, open up & share love (Heart chakra)

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

‘Mantras‘, chanting, prayer, toning are all activities that cleanse the throat ‘chakra‘. Truthfulness and ‘saatvic‘ speech are also two activities that cleanse and empower the throat space. Unless the individual realizes the sheer power of speech and the responsibility attached with the same, it is very difficult for them to tap into higher states of consciousness and discernment which connect them to the divine.

What is to be understood here is that authenticity and truth are to be practiced not for yourself but for the collective. Your ideas, speech and expression channel a higher power that finds physical manifestation through your words. When you choose to forego this inspiration, you are doing a disservice to yourself and also the collective.

This is not to say that silence is unimportant. It is very important in fact. ‘Silence’ is a conscious decision to not speak. The ability to consciously abstain from speech comes first with the ability to consciously tune in to expression.

The higher lesson to understand here is that thoughts, words and ideas existing in the collective imagination, exist as formless vibrations. When you speak, write or paint, practice your vocation, you are giving a form to these ideas without fear of judgement.

A powerful throat ‘chakra‘ gives you access to tap into the complete range of emotions that you can manifest physically with your ‘voice’ alone.

Your ‘voice’ has the power to inspire, encourage and motivate as much as it has the power to spark fear, intimidate and demotivate. This is why distinct ‘war cries’ have had as much importance in social groups as have prayer rituals for invoking the powers of the elements.

In Indian culture, it is said that ‘vedic‘ musicians of the highest caliber could trigger the clouds to rain just by using the power of their voice in a specific ‘raaga‘. In native American cultures you had a similar ritual of ‘rainmakers’ and ‘shamans’ who could invoke rain by utilizing specific frequencies of sound coupled with rituals.

Even today, if you search the internet for different frequencies of sound for meditation, you will find that each frequency has a specific kind of impact on you. For example 999hz is associated with Shamanic healing, 444hz with angelic protection and 528hz for DNA repair and meditative sleep, 432hz for anxiety relief etc.

How did we develop a knowledge of these frequencies? How did we come to know this frequency has that impact? In the same way that poets composed poems and musicians composed masterpieces.. by allowing their authentic expression to ‘flow’ without fear of judgement.

Don’t allow the judgement and negativity that others have consciously or unconsciously transferred to you, to make you fearful of voicing your ideas, thoughts and emotions. In its highest form even anger is as sacred and can act as a powerful catalyst for change.

Don’t allow rejection and suppression to stifle you and question your abilities. You will find the answers to most questions in your life by fearlessly asking those questions, not settling for assumed answers.

The more you release judgement towards yourself for wanting to say what you need to say in a moment, the more you allow your voice to become stronger, deeper and powerful.

The more you allow yourself to ask for help, demand your worth, ask for forgiveness, ask for direction, companionship, communication.. the more you allow yourself to see things and people for what and who they are.

You have within you infinite knowledge passed down from countless generations that encountered many of the same challenges you face right now. You have within you infinite potential capable of moving mountains, altering social structures, conventions and belief systems. All you have to do is believe that what you have to say, does matter.

Chakra artwork credits: Nikitna Olga,

Unlock your energy and heal patterns of self sabotage with our ‘Tantric Meditation’ program.

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

To book a personal coaching session, feel free to visit the scheduling page.

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.

If you need help developing better focus and concentration, consider booking a personal coaching session.

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

Unlock your energy and heal patterns of self sabotage with our ‘Tantric Meditation’ program.

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!

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.

You can also watch this video on my YouTube channel for a deeper dive into the ‘life purpose and destiny’ guidance for people with this placement:

Hope this helps!

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

Hari Om!

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!

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 partnerships.

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.

For a deeper dive into the topic, you can watch my video on Ketu in 2nd house and life purpose and destiny guidance:

Hope this helps.

Hari Om!

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

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!

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