DECODING ZODIAC WITH VEDIC ASTROLOGY: Vol I: Rasi-Graha Interactions

By Pratyush Bhattacharya, Arijit Gupta, Samriddhi Mitra and Swarup Ranjan Paul

Decoding Zodiac Vol I is a classic exploration of the bedrock of astrology, as it deciphers the connections between the Rasis (zodiac signs), and the Grahas (often mistakenly called planets).Pratyush's lucid and detailed exposition unleashes astrology from the deceptive veil of secrecy and algorithmize it to untangle our true selves. The thoroughly explained, expressive, and extensive theory, methodically arranged in a systematic manner, makes a beginner's journey easy-going, yet ecstatic and wondrous. This book aims to make astrology available as a scientific paradigm, thereby presenting it as a tool to efficiently dissect and color-code the inner workings of the human subconscious.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781387938605

Book preview

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

What is a Rasi ?

Importance of the Rasis

Symbol and Feet

Body Parts

Ruler and Gender

Modalities, Elements and Doshas

Axial Integration

Caste and Guna

Body type and habitat

Rising and Diurnal strength

Direction and Colour

Interactions of the RasiChakra with the physical Grahas

Rasi-Sun interactions

Aries-Sun interaction:

Taurus-Sun interaction:

Gemini-Sun interaction:

Cancer-Sun interaction:

Leo-Sun interaction:

Virgo-Sun interaction:

Libra-Sun interaction:

Scorpio-Sun interaction:

Sagittarius-Sun interaction:

Capricorn-Sun interaction:

Aquarius-Sun interaction:

Pisces-Sun interaction:

Rasi-Moon interactions

Aries-Moon interaction:

Taurus-Moon interaction:

Gemini-Moon interaction:

Cancer-Moon interaction:

Leo-Moon interaction:

Virgo-Moon interaction:

Libra-Moon interaction:

Scorpio-Moon interaction:

Sagittarius-Moon interaction:

Capricorn-Moon interaction:

Aquarius-Moon interaction:

Pisces-Moon interaction:

Rasi-Mars interactions

Aries-Mars interaction:

Taurus-Mars interaction:

Gemini-Mars interaction:

Cancer-Mars interaction:

Leo-Mars interaction:

Virgo-Mars interaction:

Libra-Mars interaction:

Scorpio-Mars interaction:

Sagittarius-Mars interaction:

Capricorn-Mars interaction:

Aquarius-Mars interaction:

Pisces-Mars interaction:

Rasi-Mercury interactions

Aries-Mercury interaction:

Taurus-Mercury interaction:

Gemini-Mercury interaction:

Mercury -Cancer interaction:

Leo-Mercury interaction:

Virgo-Mercury interaction:

Libra-Mercury interaction:

Scorpio-Mercury interaction:

Sagittarius-Mercury interaction:

Capricorn-Mercury interaction:

Aquarius-Mercury interaction:

Pisces-Mercury interaction:

Rasi-Jupiter interactions

Aries-Jupiter interaction:

Taurus-Jupiter interaction:

Gemini-Jupiter interaction:

Cancer-Jupiter interaction:

Leo-Jupiter interaction:

Virgo-Jupiter interaction:

Libra-Jupiter interaction:

Scorpio-Jupiter interaction:

Sagittarius-Jupiter interaction:

Capricorn-Jupiter interaction:

Aquarius-Jupiter interaction:

Pisces-Jupiter interaction:

Rasi-Venus interactions

Aries-Venus interaction:

Taurus-Venus interaction:

Gemini-Venus interaction:

Cancer-Venus interaction:

Leo-Venus interaction:

Virgo-Venus interaction:

Libra-Venus interaction:

Scorpio-Venus interaction:

Sagittarius-Venus interaction:

Capricorn-Venus interaction:

Aquarius-Venus interaction:

Pisces-Venus interaction:

Rasi-Saturn interactions

Aries-Saturn interaction:

Taurus-Saturn interaction:

Gemini-Saturn interaction:

Cancer-Saturn interaction:

Leo-Saturn interaction:

Virgo-Saturn interaction:

Libra-Saturn interaction:

Scorpio-Saturn interaction:

Sagittarius-Saturn interaction:

Capricorn-Saturn interaction:

Aquarius-Saturn interaction:

Pisces-Saturn interaction:

Interactions of the RasiChakra with the non-physical Grahas

Astronomy of the shadow Grahas

Origin of the nodal axis:

Nodal axis and the phenomenon of eclipse:

Precession of the nodal axis:

Mythology of the shadow Grahas

Psychology of the shadow Grahas

The dichotomy of the shadow Grahas

Shadow Grahas from a Karmic perspective

Shadow Grahas in the Graha kingdom

Conjunctions with the shadow Grahas

Node-Rasi interactions

Rahu-Ketu along Aries-Libra:

Rahu-Ketu along Libra-Aries:

Rahu-Ketu along Taurus-Scorpio:

Rahu-Ketu along Scorpio-Taurus:

Rahu-Ketu along Gemini-Sagittarius:

Rahu-Ketu along Sagittarius-Gemini:

Rahu-Ketu along Cancer-Capricorn:

Rahu-Ketu along Capricorn-Cancer:

Rahu-Ketu along Leo-Aquarius:

Rahu-Ketu along Aquarius-Leo:

Rahu-Ketu along Virgo-Pisces:

Rahu-Ketu along Pisces-Virgo:

Deeptadi Avasthas

Rasi Aspects

Preparation for chart analysis

Charts of extraordinary people

Albert Einstein

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Angelina Jolie

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Bruce Lee

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama)

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Dr. Deepak Chopra

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Ernst Wilhelm

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Marie Curie

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Salvador Dali

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Sir Anthony Hopkins

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Charts of ordinary people

Subject 1

Subject 2

Subject 3

Subject 4

Subject 5

Subject 6

Subject 7

How to practice astrology?

The story within

Astrology twenty-four-seven

Conclusion

Bibliography and References

D E C O D I N G

Z O D I A C

with

Vedic Astrology

Vol I: Rasi-Graha interactions

by

Pratyush Bhattacharya

Astrologer, Yoga practitioner and Physics educator

D E C O D I N G Z O D I A C

with

V e d i c A s t r o l o g y

Vol I: Rasi-Graha Interactions

by

Pratyush Bhattacharya

1st Digital Edition

Publication Date: 22 May 2022

ISBN: 9781387938605

Copyright 2020 © Pratyush Bhattacharya

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

To request permission, contact the author at [e-mail]

Published by:

Pratyush Bhattacharya (author)

Publisher’s Address:

1/2A, Naskar Para Lane, Garfa, Kol - 700031

Cover art and layout by:

Pratyush Bhattacharya

Illustrations by:

Pratyush Bhattacharya, Arijit Gupta, Samriddhi Mitra & Swarup Ranjan Paul

Edited by:

Ernst Wilhelm & Moumita Chatterjee

Author biography and back cover text by:

Moumita Chatterjee

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the unfailing support and sacrifice of my parents and the encouragement of my Gurus.

I am grateful to Ernst Wilhelm, Samrat Lahiri, Moumita Chatterjee, Arijit Gupta, Samriddhi Mitra and Swarup Ranjan Paul for the time and effort they have dedicated to help me minimize the mistakes of this book with their astute criticisms and suggestions.

I owe a great deal to those who have been kind enough to allow me to use their birth charts as examples.

It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to thank, with all my heart, Sadhgurudev Sri Ramlal Ji Siyag for introducing me to Siddha Yoga.

I am deeply indebted to Ernst Wilhelm for sharing his profound astrological wisdom with so much kindness and good intent. His teachings and translations of some of the key Vedic astrological texts helped me handle with grace all the difficulties that arose from the prolonged bouts of writing this book.

Last but not the least, I convey my heartfelt thanks to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev for enlightening me with his immeasurable Yogic wisdom and initiating me into the life changing practice of the Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya.

To the seekers of the mystical amidst the mundane…

Foreword

The more I do astrology, the more important I find are the mysteries of the Rasis; the 12 signs of the zodiac as they are called in India. At first, we learn that the Rasis are just the places that the all-important players, the planets, are found in and that they affect and impact how a planet is being used. But they are much, much more than that and for this reason I find that every time I read a book on Rasis or think about them, the insights and revelations start to stack up again and I find myself wanting to teach an additional course on the Rasis every few years as a result. 

To understand the profundity of the Rasis we must first take a step back, a step beyond the Rasis, which is a step back to the Circle that is created by the Sun in its apparent, from Earth’s point of view, revolution around Earth. This circle is the Divine, its unbroken, it’s the essence of everything that there is.; and then we break this circle into twelve parts, the twelve Rasis. Each of these parts is a doorway to the mystery that we can comprehend when we are not able to comprehend the full mystery of the Divine Circle. We are here to fully engage in and experience a way of being that is the Rasis that are prominent in our chart, and to maintain a balance with the opposite Rasi. That’s a critical agenda of this earthly incarnation. The houses are not such an important agenda, nor are the planets. The houses involve us with things, but they do this not because we so much need to experience those things, but because we need to experience the Rasi behind the house and the house is merely the path to experience the Rasi. The Grahas focus our attention and give us abilities with which to achieve the agenda of living and experiencing the way of the Rasis. So yes, the Rasis are very important and always worth coming back to and studying.

For this reason, I very much enjoyed reading Pratyush’s new book, Decoding Zodiac. While I have covered these details in my Rasi Sutras courses, I was very happy to hear from Pratyush that he was working on a book on Rasis as I, myself, have not had time to write such a book and its nice for students of astrology to have a book and not only videos or audios as are my classes. I was very impressed with Pratyush’s dedication to the study of astrology in the years I have known him during which I have seen him struggle past many earthly difficulties and yet always remain true to his love of astrology as a dedicated student and then as a dedicated author of this book. For this reason, I was happy that he was the first of my students to take on the task of writing a book on the Rasis.

In Decoding Zodiac, Pratyush has taken the indications of the Rasis as per Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and other texts and explained them to us just as we would expect in a book on the Zodiac written by a student of Vedic Astrology. He then went beyond the expected and wrote extensively on ways to derive meaning and interpretations from the Rasis with little other knowledge. He actually teaches how to use the Rasis in a more stand-alone fashion than is normally encountered. Generally, we are told, these are the Rasis, these are the planets, these are the houses, these are the aspects, these are the yogas, now let’s make some sense of it… In Decoding Zodiac Pratyush says, these are the Rasis, let’s start using them, and yes, we will need to know a bit about planets, but let’s not stop anything from us using rasis right now! – as it should be. Rasis are powerful and we should use them as Rasis in as many ways as we can discover and learn and Pratyush has delivered a great dose of that to us.

The Sanskrit texts of India provide an abundance of information about the Rasis. All the texts do not agree on a few slight things, however, what Pratyush has provided is in alignment with what I believe to be correct information from the ancient texts. The differences in texts are for the most part so minor as to be negligible and so I do not believe that anyone will have any conflict with the indications for the Rasis that Pratyush has given as they are fully in alignment with the ancient texts. There is one area, however, where no two texts agree and that is in respect to the colours of the Rasis. No two texts give the same colour for all twelve Rasis. There are reasons for this. One is that in old languages, Sanskrit included, most colours do not have specific names and instead the colour is called some article that is the colour intended by the author. Just as we call the colour orange because it’s the colour of that fruit that we call an orange, this is how most colours are mentioned in Sanskrit texts. It is, therefore, often difficult to know what colour the author meant several centuries later and so this has caused confusion in respect to just what colours the Rasis are. Second, there are simply differences of opinion found in the old texts and so we know that the idea of colours and Rasis is something that was perhaps not so well worked out by the ancient authors and colour is, therefore, something of controversy when it comes to astrology. Pratyush has largely followed what is given in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. Readers should know that this is different than what I have taught in my New Rasi Sutras Course, where I created a new arrangement of colours and Rasis based on modern colour theory and which follows the ideas found in a combination of ancient texts. I consider it completely acceptable that Pratyush would use a different colour scheme as colours are not something we have clear authority on and every student who wishes to use colours of Rasis will at some time have to come to terms with what they think works as no two sources are full agreement.

As you read Decoding Zodiac, you will come across many extras and surprises that you would not expect to find in reading a book on Rasis. At least, I was I pleasantly surprised. There is even information about Rahu and Ketu, in reference to both planets and Rasis – information which we can never know too much about. I was most impressed with the refreshing degree of philosophical depth found in Pratyush’s writing that is sure to make this book on what is considered one of the basics of astrology, insightful to even advanced students of astrology. This is not a book for anyone to pass up, I am sure everyone who picks it up will come away richer in their knowledge of astrology as did I.

Ernst Wilhelm

March 6 2022

Preface

I grew up watching my father conducting countless palm reading sessions with his clients, effortlessly merging the abstractions of the mystical with the tangibility of the mundane. Witnessing his workflow enabled me to learn the names of the planets and zodiac signs early on, perhaps even before I managed to memorize the multiplication tables. Over time, my interest in mysticism grew stronger. Since it ran in my family, I was blessed with the opportunity to dip my toes into various dimensions of the occult since my early teenage years. While the occult was a taboo subject for most, it was nothing less than an integral part of the daily life in my family. As a result, I learnt early on to see the world as an interplay between the mystical and the mundane. Observing my natural inclination towards the mystical, my father introduced me to Yoga, Tantra, and Vedic astrology when I was about fifteen years old. While every aspect of the occult appealed to me, astrology managed to carve out a special place in my heart. The mythological stories behind the Grahas, Bhavas and the Rasis (typically known as planets, houses, and zodiac signs in the west, respectively) and their cryptic symbolism never ceased to mesmerize me. As I dove deeper into the rabbit hole of deciphering the heavenly omens, contemplating on these stories and symbols sometimes led to transformative insights on my own personality and life. By the time I was seventeen, these insights became so frequent and impactful in determining my worldview that I could not help but start studying Vedic astrology formally. As my understanding deepened, I became evermore convinced that contrary to the popular belief, astrology was not a superficial superstition concocted by the fertile human imagination. On the contrary, it was the refined essence of humanity’s collective psychological evolution since the dawn of the species. I realized that just as the human body evolved over millenia to become the dominant species on this planet, so did the mind; and astrology could potentially be used as a fantastic microscope to study the highly evolved mind of the Homo Sapiens with utmost depth and precision. I formally began my journey of studying astrology back in 2007, right after my seventeenth birthday. As the journey progressed, my suspicion about the primal origin of astrology and its co-evolution with the human psyche grew ever stronger. I started noticing similarities between the astrological theories and the modern-day concepts in applied psychology.

Two years later, I went to the university to major in physics, while exploring various aspects of psychology and practicing Yoga regularly. The simultaneous and unique impact of the mathematical rigour of physics, the esotericism of psychology (especially the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl G. Jung), and the mystical nature of the occult helped me develop a very flexible worldview, which enabled me to walk the twilight zone between the worlds of logic and magic. The resultant thrill left me no choice but to keep exploring the origin of astrology in the context of its connection with astronomy and the evolution of the human mind.

The more I explored the ability of astrology in deciphering the human mind, the more I wondered about the true purpose of this knowledge. All classic astrology texts sounded fatalistic, maintaining the notion that life was predestined and astrology was the divine way to reveal that destiny. I found it very difficult to accept this approach towards astrology and life in general. What was the point of knowing our psychological tendencies and how they evolve over time to become our destiny if there were no way to modify them in any form or manner? Without the ability to control our tendencies but possessing the knowledge to know where they would lead us, would we not just be slaves driven by our own mind? If that was truly the case, then would it not be better to simply bask in the bliss of intentional ignorance about what was in store for us in the future? At least, that way, there would be uncertainty in life, leaving room for the hope of a better tomorrow. However, if life was predestined, then we really did not have a choice in remaining ignorant about our density either. Moreover, since a predestined life implied an absence of choice, a natural consequence should be an absence of responsibility. But evidently, nature runs on causality, where every action has a specific reaction and every choice leads to a specific outcome. Thus, the fundamental classical approach towards astrology simply seemed incongruous with the physical reality. My understanding of physics and my love for the occult appeared to have reached an impasse. Logically, I wanted to accept the inadequacy of astrology in describing the real world, but an unscratchable itch deep in my heart prevented me from dismissing the subject for good. A subtle intuition never stopped convincing me that there was more to this discipline lying latent under the myriad incongruencies of the classical approach. It became nothing less than a question of retaining my sanity to resolve this conflict between the heart and the mind. Every logical fibre in my being kept pointing out the loopholes in the theory of classic astrology, while my heart kept telling me about a deeper and subtler significance of astrology that was worth exploring and discovering. I spent countless sleepless nights pondering upon this existential issue. Eventually, these contemplative nights led me to the realization that astrology was not about changing our destiny or even knowing it. The true power of astrology lied in its ability to illuminate the remotest corners of our subconscious. The purpose and utility of astrology, when applied properly, was not to reveal our fortune, but to bridge the chasm between the conscious and the subconscious domains of our psyche. In doing so, it could create an interface between the mundane causal reality experienced consciously and the abstract mystical reality of the subconscious. This simple yet profound marriage between the objective and the subjective, the tangible and the intangible could potentially transform our behaviour from compulsive reactivity to conscious responsibility. Such a transformation could drastically improve the quality of life by liberating us from the shackles of our subconscious tendencies and reconnecting us to the very roots of our psychological evolution. Essentially, the real purpose of astrology was to identify and colour code the prime components of the intricate machinery of the human mind. Understanding the structures of the subconscious could significantly enhance our level of awareness, which was the key to developing conscious behaviour.

Inspired by the above realization, I embarked on a journey of deciphering and rediscovering astrology as a holistic and modern framework for psychoanalysis. The lack of availability of logically structured, well explained, and well-researched books which presented the subject as a science significantly slowed down my progress. I had to spend eight years of my early youth in search of authentic sources of astrological knowledge, where the subject was not treated as superstition or casual pop culture, but as a science that could methodically dissect and analyse the scaffolding of the subconscious. After fourteen years of exploration of the occult, I have decided to dare try and fill that void myself. I feel I have mustered just enough understanding, confidence and inspiration to finally attempt writing the first book which I wish was available when I was growing up. I have borrowed ideas from physics, astronomy, psychology, sociology, and other related fields in order to keep this work as grounded, rigorous, and contemporary as possible, providing as much research data as I could in the references. If this text inspires you to explore astrology or its source, Yoga, any further, I will consider my effort worthwhile.

I sincerely apologize for any unintended mistakes in this work and will be grateful if you care to point them out via the email [e-mail].

Introduction

Welcome to the family of eight billion hairless apes living on planet earth, whose minds are arguably the most sophisticated software under the Sun. But it has evolved to such a degree of complexity that they struggle relentlessly to understand and control it.

If we are being honest with ourselves, we must admit that we rarely understand the true motivations behind our behaviour in their full scope and depth, especially while we are acting them out. Sometimes, we do manage to figure out our motivations in hindsight through conscious contemplation, but quite often the more we think about our past choices, the more confused and lost we feel. But why would we not understand the workings of our own mind?

I believe that human intelligence has evolved to such a degree of complexity that it can no longer be considered a singular construct. Any paradigm of problem solving naturally develops modular specialization when it reaches a certain level of sophistication to keep operating efficiently. For instance, the field of Physics used to comprise of only a handful of branches, say, five centuries ago. But with growing complexity and sophistication, that number has grown much larger today. I think for the same reason, the human mind started becoming more and more modular as it evolved throughout the course of human existence. Therefore, I find it useful to visualize the human mind as a cluster of highly specialized cognitive abilities dynamically interacting with each other to create what we call individuality. Each of these cognitive modules are responsible for processing different aspects of human experience. As individuals, we may often not consciously realize how each module contributes and modifies our experience of life, thus the way we process and react to certain situations appear surprising and unexpected. Since the cognitive modules operate more of less independently of each other, we can think of them as intelligent entities. Given the right circumstance, such an entity can possess our mind and body to make us perform terrible or fantastic acts. Since the dawn of humanity, the existence of these entities has concerned and motivated us as a species to understand and classify the forces within that control us without our conscious permission.

Without any technology to assist them, our ancient ancestors watched their thoughts and actions very closely to explore the nature of their psychological tendencies. Their collective efforts produced profound insights about the inner workings of the human mind. For instance, they observed that when we get angry, we might completely lose control for a short while. Anger can easily override the instinct of self-preservation and turn us into rage-fuelled machines of destruction. It can produce focus intense enough to accomplish feats that would be otherwise beyond our abilities. For example, when a community starts getting abused and tortured by a tyrannical authority, the primary reaction is fear. But when continued oppression makes their back hit the wall, suddenly fear transforms into uncontrolled rage, triggering a spontaneous revolution. The French revolution is perhaps the most iconic instance of this phenomenon among many throughout human history. Anger is such a potent transformer of personality that under the right conditions, it can turn generally amicable and conflict averse individuals into monsters in the blink of an eye. The drastic nature of such transformation may utterly shock everybody, including the individual in question. They may regret the actions they took possessed by anger for the rest of their life, wondering what really possessed them. Most crimes of passion are driven by this mechanism.

The same transformative and possessed quality is associated with all primary emotional responses like fear, joy, hatred, regret, grief etc. I think that of these emotional experiences are linked to a collection of specific cognitive modules, which determines how to process these emotions and react in order to bring the mental state back to an equilibrium. Repeated observations of the transformative power of these psychological processes led our pre-historic ancestors to the conclusion that there must be certain forms of intelligence buried deep within all humans which were responsible for producing intense actions driven by our tendencies. These dimensions of intelligence could neither be pointed at nor touched, because they had no physical existence. Therefore, it was impossible to communicate, destroy, or bargain with them. The phenomena produced by these entities were an existential fact of the human experience itself. Perhaps humanity developed these qualities in order to deal with the harshness of the natural world. This profoundly brilliant train of thought most likely developed over countless generations of psychological evolution. The shift in thinking from people get destructive when they are angry to when anger possesses people, it makes them destructive was a quantum leap in understanding and describing the psyche, which separated the cause from the effect. This transition from objective to subjective thinking and the ability to differentiate between action and its motivation demonstrated humanity's ability for cognitive abstraction - the very gift which allowed us to become the dominant species on the planet.

Our pre-historic forefathers lived in isolated settlements. As a result, different communities reached the above-mentioned conclusions about anger and other such intense motivations in their own way. The abstract nature of their understanding of the mind could not be captured by simple words. At some point, humanity learned to express their understanding through metaphorical mythological stories. No wonder the primitive deities of every native culture were anthropomorphised forms of either forces of nature around them or forces of the subconscious within. As an example, here are some common monikers attributed to the rage-inducing abstract psychological entity I mentioned above across various ancient cultures:

Red Hawk (native America),

Mars (Rome),

Ares (Greece),

Her Deshur (Egypt),

Ma-adim (Babylonia),

Mangal/Kuja (India),

Yin-Ghou (China)

These mythological characters above are strikingly similar to each other, signifying their common origin – the human understanding of a facet of their own mind. The differences arise only due to cultural variations among the communities developing each character. To communicate these inherently abstract and non-verbal constructs to the general populace, our ancestors came up with fascinating stories which captured how a deity could possess us for good or evil. With time, as our psyche evolved, we kept discovering more such entities. Thus, entire pantheons of deities were created, making all ancient religions polytheistic. Such religions were not about appeasing the Gods, but about self-realization in a literal sense.

Eventually, as our understanding evolved, many ancient cultures discovered that the activities of these entities were deeply connected to the motion of the stellar objects in the heavens. Thus, the notion of ‘as above, so below’ developed, which became the foundation of various flavours of astrology. No wonder every ancient culture developed their own paradigm of deciphering the heavenly omens. It explains why different schools of astrology may appear very different on the surface, but a deeper examination reveals that under the hood they were all founded upon the same underlying principles.

In recent times, much research has been done to understand how astrology works and how it can be applied to decode the subconscious patterns of our mind. The most notable western authority in this regard who extensively worked on astrology in the mid-20th century was Dr. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). He was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded the branch of analytical psychology. Jung's work was influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and religious studies. He worked as a research scientist at the famous Burghölzli hospital in Zürich. His genius lied in realizing that humans were more than what their culture and upbringing trained them to be. He saw humanity not as a merely three centuries old modern industrial civilization, but as a hunter-gatherer animal living in the wilds in small tribes since about two million years. It took humanity almost the entirety of that period to reach a population of one billion, but that same species managed to increase their population eightfold in the last two hundred years. Jung’s work revealed that our recent and rapid transformation into an overpopulated, logically structured, and artificial society has not been able to erase the primal instincts and wisdom that we gathered through countless generations of living and thriving in the lap of mother nature. Jung postulated that the collective knowledge of our ancestors surviving and flourishing throughout history and prehistory lives within all of us in a species-wide shared network of highly abstract memories which he termed the collective unconscious. The Jungian view of the human mind is highly organic, flexible, and downright mystical. While he was a hardcore empiricist focusing on data-driven research like any other scientist of his reputation and calibre, he was also intuitive enough to realize that the unfathomable depth and the incredible vastness of human mind was too complicated to gauge using only numbers and statistics.

Let us take a quick overview of the Jungian way of describing the human psyche through a metaphor. Picture an orchard with numerous trees, each bearing leaves and fruits of different kinds. The part of each tree above the ground represents our conscious mind i.e., the aspect of our individual existence that we are aware of. The root of the tree represents our subconscious, or what Jung called the personal unconscious. It is the portion of our individuality that we largely remain unaware of, and frequently experience during dreams and states of altered consciousness. Finally, the soil in which the trees are rooted represents the collective unconscious. It is this soil that contains our accumulated ancestral wisdom filtered through the evolutionary history of the species in the form of hyper-abstract, non-verbal symbols called archetypes. These symbols are essentially the building blocks of the human psyche. As the human genome evolved over time to make the body more efficient, so did the mind. The archetypes are to the mind what genes are to the genome. Naturally, if any of these archetypal symbols fails to manifest itself properly into our conscious mind by channelling itself through the personal unconscious, the mind loses its balance, which may lead to a general dissatisfaction with life, depression, anxiety, psychosomatic disorders, self-destructive tendencies, or straight up insanity - depending on the nature and severity of the condition.

As the human civilization is an extension of its psychological structure, archetypal themes are inextricably woven into every facet of society. The more ancient and effective certain aspect of a society, the more archetypally rich it must be. Consciously or unconsciously, we are cognizing the world through the archetypal lenses of our personal unconscious every waking moment of our lives. Any human experience that moves us at a personal level, be it a movie, a book, a political incident, war, love, children, failure, success, knowledge, finance etc. are nothing but stimuli that have managed to trigger a certain set of archetypes within our personal unconscious. The mythological and fantastic tales of the Bible, Qur-an, Illiad, Odyssey, Ramayana, Mahabharata, or any Hindu Purana are just a few notable examples of how archetypal stories were recorded by our ancestors in the form of complex and layered metaphorical narratives. Evidently, the archetypes can shape entire cultures and compel large groups of people to unite and strive towards a common goal with minimal or no personal agenda. No wonder that all art-forms rely heavily on archetypal themes to appeal to a larger audience. Every culture possesses a rich repository of archetypal myths serving as a document of the core values of the culture and its socio-psychological development through history and pre-history.

Jung suggested that astrology was an ancient science and art which specialized in dealing with the archetypes in the forms of planets, zodiac signs, astrological houses, and lunar mansions. Jung was not familiar with Vedic astrology, as far as I know, but he conducted extensive studies in Western astrology and actively used horoscope analysis to treat some of his patients. He did some important statistical research which showed correlations between astrological alignments and certain patterns of behaviour playing out in individuals beyond probabilistic indeterminacy. For instance, he studied 800 charts of married couples and found undeniable correlations between the positions of the Sun and the Moon in all of them. His entire work on astrology is available as the book Jung on Astrology.

Jung realized that a side-by-side comparative study of the mythological stories and astrological constructs of various cultures revealed overwhelming similarities in their underlying themes. Since many of these cultures were neither geographically connected nor contemporary, the only way to explain such similarities was to acknowledge that the myths were not invented by the fertile minds of our ancestors, rather they were discovered collectively by the entire Homo Sapiens species during their days of survival in the wilderness. Therefore, the typical mythological stories of heroes, monsters, angels, demigods, talking animals, sentient plants or demons were not fictions, but metaphorical descriptions of profoundly significant socio-psychological processes that played important roles in our personal unconscious in defining who we were as individuals. The better we understand the archetypal stories in the myths of our native culture, the better we understand the inner workings of our own minds.

I believe Vedic astrology, if applied correctly can become a very sophisticated toolset in the hands of humanity to serve assist in the purpose. Throughout this book, I will describe the archetypal significance of the planets and zodiac signs and how to use them practically to explore the human subconscious. Even if you do not plan to become an astrologer by profession, learning the archetypes of the zodiac symbols will provide you a detailed road map to explore your mind. No wonder that the Sanskrit name of Vedic astrology is Jyotishashastra, which can be roughly translated as the science of illumination. Once I explain the archetypal significance of the astrological elements in the chapters to follow, I will work out sixteen example charts in depth to make sure you can pull up any horoscope you want and do a basic yet thorough and accurate reading of the individual’s primary tendencies.

What is a Rasi ?

The zodiac symbols are essentially archetypal complexes consisting of several archetypes layered on top of each other like interpenetrating strokes of paint on a canvas. These symbols must have reached their current archetypally enriched and nuanced forms through many millennia of evolution as shared fictions among various cultures and communities. But they found their formal mathematical structure relatively recently by the efforts of the polytheistic civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Tenochtitlan (Mexico), Greece, Rome, China, and India. Each of these cultures developed their own set of zodiac symbols characteristic to their unique evolutionary history. In this book, I will primarily discuss the zodiac as seen through the eyes of Vedic astrology. I will mostly stick to descriptions given by Rishi Parashara in Brihat Parashari Hora Shastra (BPHS) and Rishi Jaimini in his Upadesasutra. However, the concepts I discuss throughout this book are universally applicable to any flavour of astrology.

In Vedic astrology, the zodiac circle is called the RasiChakra and the zodiac signs are called Rasis. One of the many widespread misconceptions about astrology is that it considers the fixed star or sidereal constellations in the space around the earth to construct the RasiChakra. However, the truth is that the modern astrological construct of the zodiac circle has nothing to do with the heavenly constellations. Since sceptics often argue against the absurd belief that stars billions of light years away influences life on earth, let me clarify this notorious misconception.

Astrology is about life on earth; therefore, it is convenient to perform all the astronomical calculations necessary to compute a horoscope (i.e., the birth chart of an individual at the moment and location of birth) by taking our planet as the origin of the frame of reference i.e., geocentrically. In fact, modern astrological softwares have gone one step further and are calculating the planetary positions topocentrically, which considers not only the planet we inhabit, but the exact position on the globe where the observer is standing at the moment of casting the horoscope. That does not mean astrologers consider earth to be the centre of the solar system. Observed from the Earth, the apparent annual path of the Sun looks like a nearly perfect circle called the ecliptic, which happens to be tilted by 23.5o from our planet’s rotational axis.

The names of the stars and the constellations, as they are used today in western astronomy, were mostly coined by the Greeks somewhere around 300 BC. Since there were many constellations distributed randomly in space, some of them (twelve, specifically) just happened to line up along the ecliptic circle within eight degrees of deviation on either side of the ecliptic plane. These constellations formed a circle around the earth, commonly known as the sidereal zodiac. As these symbols were based on distant stars, their positions practically remain fixed in the sky as observed from earth. The symbols of these constellations vary from culture to culture and there is no discernible geometric boundary between two adjacent constellations. Therefore, even though these stellar symbols captured the imagination of entire cultures, they were never suitable to be used as a basis to divide the ecliptic circle into twelve equal Rasis. So why are these constellations so strongly associated with the astrological concept of the Rasis? To get to the bottom of this mystery, first we need to understand how classical astrology texts constructs the zodiac circle.

The Sanskrit word Rasi literally means a collection or a heap. Astronomically, this suggests that a Rasi is made up of a collection of thirty degrees of ecliptic angular space, while astrologically it means that each Rasi is a collection of psychological patterns or attributes arising from the interaction among sixteen universal archetypes. To construct the RasiChakra, modern astrologers divide the ecliptic circle into twelve equal angular segments of thirty degrees each and label each of these segments with the Greek names of Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, respectively. This equal division or whole sign method is purely geometric in nature and is independent of the sidereal constellations. However, this method of constructing the zodiac circle raises one important question upon closer inspection:

How do we determine the exact point on the ecliptic circle to be used as the beginning of the first Rasi i.e., 0o of Aries?

The answer to the above question has to do with the tilted axis of the earth and how it creates annual seasonal variations. As the earth revolves around the Sun with its tilt, the Sun shines most directly on different parts of the globe at different times of the year. The varying reception of the amount of direct solar radiation causes the seasons to change cyclically, which are most prominently noticed in region between the tropics. Since the tropic of Cancer runs roughly through the middle of the Indian subcontinent, traditional texts on astronomy have stated that this piece of geography experiences six distinct seasons throughout the year. Even today, as a resident Indian living just 97 km south from the tropic of Cancer, seasonal influence becomes distinctly noticeable in the vegetation, clouds, and wind direction if I travel into the outskirts away from the pollution of the metropolis of Kolkata.

If we record the Sun’s daily path across the sky as seen from earth for an entire year, the rotational motion and the tilted axis of our planet will make it appear that the Sun has a daily motion from East to West and an annual motion from North to South and then to North again. The highest and the lowest latitude the Sun can shine directly upon are 23.5o N and 23.5o S i.e., the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn. The fact that the extrema of the apparent positions of the Sun’s annual journey are named after two zodiac signs immediately hints at the connection between the seasons and the construction of the zodiac circle.

India being a primarily pastoral nation, agriculture has always been a very important and common profession, especially before the advent of industry. As it was critical to sow and reap crops in the appropriate seasons, ancient Indians made their first calendars based on the position of the Sun in the zodiac at different times of the year, capturing the phenomenon of seasonal variation in one simple yet beautiful astronomical and astrological construct.

In the traditional Saura or solar Indian calendar, a new year begins with the day when the Sun shines directly upon the equator while moving northwards. The point on the ecliptic where the Sun happens to be at the moment of sunrise on this day is astronomically known as the vernal equinox, which marks the middle of the spring season. In Fig 2.a, the topmost position of the earth marks this point. Traditional astrology texts defined the vernal equinox point as the zero degree, or the beginning of Aries, so that the commencement of each new solar year synchronised with the beginning of the zodiac circle. As this zodiac was constructed based on the movement of the Sun between the tropics, it is commonly known as the tropical zodiac. Since the ecliptic is a closed loop, it comprises of three hundred and sixty degrees of angular space. Cleverly, a solar year was thus defined to have three hundred and sixty solar days, each for every one-degree progression of the Sun along the ecliptic. The Julian calendar that we commonly use today has three hundred and sixty-five days, which makes no astronomical sense. Due to this clever and astronomically consistent design, the Sun takes exactly thirty solar days to travel across any given Rasi, defining a solar month. The monthly migration of the Sun from one Rasi to the next is called a Sankranti or ingress. Naturally, there are twelve Sankrantis in a Saura year.

The half-yearly movement of the Sun from the zeroth degree Cancer to the zeroth degree of Capricorn is called Dakshinayana, meaning Southern motion, while the opposite movement from the beginning of Capricorn to the beginning of Cancer is called Uttarayana, or the Northern motion. In the figure above., the right most position of the Earth marks the end of Dakshinayana and the beginning of Uttarayana, while the left most position marks the opposite juncture.

The names of the twelve months in the Vedic solar calendar can be determined in one of two following methods, as shown in the table below. The first method names each month after the Nakshatra or the lunar mansion where the full Moon of that month typically occurs. The second one simply names each month after the Rasi through which the Sun happens to pass during that month.

In the above table, the Julian months do not perfectly map to the Vedic months for several reasons:

1. A Julian year comprises of three hundred and sixty-five days whereas a solar year comprises of three hundred and sixty days.

2. A Julian day begins at midnight but a solar day begins at Sunrise.

3. Julian months have variable lengths between twenty-eight to thirty-one days while Vedic months have a fixed length of thirty solar days.

4. A Saura year needs no correction via the introduction of a leap year every fourth year.

Sometime between 200BC – 200AD, the Hellenistic astronomers observed that the vernal equinox point lied between the sidereal constellations of Pisces and Aries, therefore the beginning of the tropical zodiac sign of Aries coincided with the constellation of Aries. Since this coincidence remained that way for at least a century, the association between the constellations and the Rasis managed to imprint itself strongly into the popular understanding of the zodiac system. This association is erroneous because the zeroth degree of sidereal Aries and tropical Aries need not coincide forever. Due to a certain wobbling motion of the earth, known as the ‘precession of the equinoxes’, the sidereal zodiac seems to rotate westward very slowly over a period of about 26000 years, which makes the vernal equinox point move across the sidereal zodiac steadily. To understand the gravity of the folly in associating the constellations with the Rasis of the tropical zodiac, let me dive a bit deeper into the astronomy of the precessional motion of earth.

If you record the point on the eastern horizon from which the Sun appears to rise on the day of the vernal equinox, you will observe that this point is not fixed, but steadily shifting towards west by a tiny amount every year. This movement is a consequence of the precessional motion of the earth’s axis, which makes it wobble like a top very slowly over a period of about 24000-26000 years. The origin of this motion is not clearly understood, but most likely it emerges from the gravitational interactions among the earth, the Sun, the Moon, and Jupiter. NASA estimates the current time period of precession to be about 25,771 years.

If you imagine the earth’s equatorial plane as a disk that extends in all directions to the edge of the universe, the resultant infinite plane cuts the earth and the space around it into the northern and southern hemispheres. If we imagine the ecliptic circle as a disk, due to the axial tilt of the earth, the celestial equatorial plane intersects this disk along a straight diametric line as shown in the illustration below. The diametrically opposite points where the ecliptic circle intersects the celestial equatorial plane marks the vernal and autumnal equinox points, as the Sun shines directly upon the earth’s equator when it crosses these points. When the Sun reaches one of these points while moving northward, it marks the vernal equinox and the beginning of the solar new year.

The precessional motion forces the celestial equator to wobble as well, which makes the diameter of the ecliptic circle connecting the equinox points rotate with the same period as precession. Thus, the vernal equinox point is not fixed in space, but is steadily and slowly shifting along the ecliptic circle from east to west, as seen from earth. We can make an educated guess where the current vernal equinox point most likely lies with respect to the sidereal constellations. Assuming the precessional period to be a rounded 26000 years, it should take 26000/12 = 2160 years for the equinox points to travel across one Rasi. Records show that the Hellenistic astronomers observed the vernal equinox point to be at the junction of Pisces and Aries approximately 2000 years ago. Since the precessional movement is towards the western direction as seen from earth, at present the vernal equinox point must be very close to entering the sidereal constellation of Aquarius. It is impossible to predict the ingress date accurately because neither the exact precession rate nor the geometric boundary between the sidereal constellations of Pisces and Aquarius can be determined unambiguously. Although, it is often estimated that vernal equinox will occur at the zeroth degree of sidereal Aquarius sometimes between 2100 – 2500 AD, marking the beginning of the so-called Age of Aquarius, as illustrated here.

Unfortunately, a lot of practicing astrologers in India are not aware of the fact that there are two distinctly different types of zodiacs. A significant number of astrologers still use the fixed star zodiac for astrological calculations, which inevitably leads to a debate about the starting point of the zodiac. So, if you happen to visit two astrologers one of whom calculates your Moon sign to be at 10o Libra and the other says its 3.724o Scorpio, do not be confused. Maybe they were just using different zodiacs with different astronomical beginnings of the zeroth degree of Aries. I wanted to explain this very important astronomical idea before I delve into the astrology of the Rasis. Throughout the rest of this book, I will always use the tropical zodiac.

On an interesting side note, table 2.a clearly explains how the daily Sun sign interpretations frequently found in daily newspapers and monthly magazines work. They simply describe the archetypes of the Rasi which the Sun happened to be at the solar month of your birth. That is why they provide the Sun sign results based on your Julian birth date. Although the Sun sign astrology is quite popular in the West, in the East, especially in India, people prefer to look at the Rasi of the Moon at the moment of birth. This seemingly insignificant difference in astrological attitude is rooted in the fundamental difference in the psychology of the west and the east. The Sun, as I will describe in more detail in later chapters, is astrologically associated with action, individuality and building a life of absolute autonomy; while the Moon is associated with surrender, receptivity and going with the flow of nature. The Sun sign, i.e., the tropical zodiac sign the Sun occupied at your moment of birth determines what abilities you use in order to gain control of your life and live the way you want. the Moon sign, i.e., the position of the Moon during birth, determines what abilities we use to feel content about life, no matter what the external circumstances might be. While the west is more focused on external control, the east is more about internal wellbeing. However, any astrologer worth their salt will agree that looking at a single factor like the Sun or the Moon is not nearly enough to perform a reliable analysis. Just for fun, let me give you a sense of the probabilistic uncertainty involved in judging a personality by its the Sun sign or the Moon sign only. There are 12 Rasis and approximately eight billion people. As the Sun spends 1/12th of a solar year in each zodiac sign, approximately 8B/12=667 million people alive today have the same the Moon sign or the Sun sign. Any prediction based on just that information will yield a very vague and generalized outcome, which will be hit and miss at best. To narrow down 667 million into one unique individual, we must look at the entire horoscope and dive deeper into it using sophisticated astrological tools like divisional charts, Graha and Rasi Dasas, Varshaphala charts, etc. That is where real astrology happens. So, I suggest you take the daily or monthly zodiac with a pinch of salt, or perhaps, a ton of it!

Importance of the Rasis

Now that we have a basic understanding of the astronomy of the zodiac, we are ready to talk about the astrological significance of the Rasis. The Grahas, Rasis and the Bhavas are the three main pillars of all flavours of astrology. Let us understand how they work together using the following analogy.

Imagine, that the earth is a university which offers nine subjects, each subject broken down into several courses. These nine subjects are taught by each of the nine Grahas, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu, respectively. Birth is the beginning of a new academic session in this university and death is the end. At birth, a certain number of courses are assigned to us as a curriculum. If we manage to complete all of them with optimum grades during our lifespan, we move on to the next incarnation to study a new set of courses. If any of the courses assigned in the current incarnation remains incomplete by the time we die, we must repeat those courses in the next life. Therefore, after a finite number of lifetimes, we finish all the courses of all the subjects offered by the earth university. Now, we graduate; which means we no longer need to reincarnate on earth. This phenomenon of transcending the cycle of birth and death has been called Moksha, Mukti, Nirvana, etc. in Sanskrit and liberation in English.

The Grahas teach their classes by creating various situations that make us experience different aspects of life on earth. The more experience we gather, the easier it becomes to deal with similar experiences in the future. Thus, by repeatedly pulling us into a certain category of experiences, each Graha trains us to gain a specific kind of skill characteristic to it. This process also explains why the term Graha does not mean a planet, which is another common misconception about Vedic astrology. The word Graha means grabber in Sanskrit, which indicates a Graha’s ability to grab us by the neck and pull us into a certain direction to gather its characteristic experience. Considering their ability to take hold of our consciousness, the five planets, the two luminaries the Sun, the Moon and the two lunar nodes are all collectively defined as Grahas. The word Graha is also astronomically significant. It is derived from Grahanam, meaning eclipse. Therefore, a Graha is that which causes eclipse. Indeed, all nine Grahas can participate in and cause eclipses.

The bhavas or houses are the twelve critical facets of human life on earth. They neatly pack all possible human experiences into twelve categories, which makes understanding the tangible manifestation of each Graha's 'lessons' in a specific area of life, very convenient. For instance, the 6th house packs all the experiences one may face to ensure health, stability, and daily maintenance of life on earth.

The Rasis are the twelve templates of human personalities. If a personality is a recipe, then the twelve Rasis are its ingredients. In a horoscope, these twelve archetypal complexes are combined in various ratios based on how the nine Grahas are distributed among them. Depending on how much focus a Rasi has based on the alignments of the Grahas in the chart, a unique personality emerges. If we consider all the possible combinations among twelve Rasis each having thirty degrees, twelve houses and nine Grahas, the number we arrive at is hundred sextillions, which is equivalent to the human population of ten trillion earths! No wonder, every person to ever exist was unique in some way.

In a nutshell, each Graha is teaching invaluable life lessons unique to it by making us face its characteristic kind of experiences. As we become proficient in the lessons of a Graha, we acquire a certain type of intelligence associated with it, which makes life on earth easier and more productive by expanding our consciousness.

The astrological houses tell us the specific area of life where an influencing Graha produces specific situations characteristic to the Graha. They describe how efficiently we are managing a key aspect of life based on the intelligence we have acquired from the Graha ruling that house.

Rasis combine in various ratios to produce a unique way of looking at the world, hence create a personality profile that defines the individual. Rasis are deeply connected to our emotional response to the environment and how we generally feel about our life. So, when it comes to the psychological analysis of a subject, understanding the Rasis become essential.

Courses offered by the earth university are collectively called the Sanchita Karma and the particular courses we are taking in each lifetime are collectively called the Prarabdha Karma. Karma is a cornerstone concept in Indian spirituality. You must understand what it means because unfortunately, it is also a very complicated and misunderstood concept. Let me try to explain what Karma is using a metaphor.

Suppose you have purchased two pairs of identical slippers. You put one pair away, let us call that pair A, for later usage, and you start wearing the other pair, say, pair B, regularly.

A year later, you notice that pair B is too worn out for further use. So, you break out pair A, your new slippers. You put them side by side and compare them, observing that an entire year of vigorous use has left footprints in pair B in a shape that is unique to your feet and in a contour that is distinctive to your gait.

You did not plan to leave these footprints; it was an unconscious process. You just wore the slippers and went about your day, oblivious to the fact that every step you took made the impression in the slippers a little bit deeper.

What if by using some impossible math, you could subtract pair A from pair B? The operation would look something like this:

Difference = B