Astrology of the Seers: A Guide to Vedic/Hindu Astrology

182 Pages·2017·1.77 MB·English

by  David Frawley

- David Frawley -

The
Astrology
of the
Seers
TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE TWO ZODIACS
II. AYANAMSHA

 Planets
 THE PLANETS / THE GREAT COSMIC SIGNIFICATORS
 PLANETARY ATTRIBUTES AND ACTIONS
 KEY INDICATORS OF PLANET
 DESCRIPTION OF THE
PLANETS
 THE SUN
 THE MOON
 MARS
 MERCURY
 JUPITER
 VENUS
 SATURN
 THE LUNAR NODES

Page 1
 Signs
 THE SIGNS / HOW THE PLANETS TRANSMIT THE
INFLUENCES OF THE STARS
 SIGNS BY QUALITY
 SIGNS AND THE ELEMENTS
 DESCRIPTION OF THE
SIGNS

 ARIES
 TAURUS
 GEMINI
 CANCER
 LEO
 VIRGO
 LIBRA
 SCORPIO
 SAGITTARIUS
 CAPRICORN
 AQUARIUS
 PISCES
 PLANETARY SIGNIFICATORS
 THE 27 LUNAR CONSTELLATIONS / NAKSHATRAS

Page 2
 The Houses

 THE HOUSES / THE DOMAINS OF PLANETARY
ACTION
 THE HOUSES AND THEIR ANALOGY TO THE SIGNS
 HOUSES BY QUALITY AND ELEMENT

 DESCRIPTION OF THE
HOUSES

 THE FIRST HOUSE
 THE SECOND HOUSE
 THE THIRD HOUSE
 THE FOURTH HOUSE
 THE FIFTH HOUSE
 THE SIXTH HOUSE
 THE SEVENTH HOUSE
 THE EIGHTH HOUSE
 THE NINTH HOUSE
 THE TENTH HOUSE
 THE ELEVENTH HOUSE
 THE TWELFTH HOUSE

 HOUSE SIGNIFICATORS
 PLANETS BY ASCENDANT
 MAHAPURUSHA YOGAS

Page 3
 SHADBALA/ PLANETARY POWER RATIOS
 HARMONIC CHARTS
 MEANING AND USAGE OF HARMONIC CHARTS
 PLANETARY PERIODS / DETERMINING
PLANETARY INFLUENCES THROUGH TIME
 BACKGROUND TRANSITS

 HORARY ASTROLOGY
 MEDICAL ASTROLOGY

Page 4
ASTROLOGY EAST AND WEST

Astrology has existed all over the world and at all times. It was most prevalent
in ancient religious cultures like those of Egypt and Babylonia. In the Europe
and the Middle East these ritualistic cultures came to an end and were replaced
by medieval cultures of Christian and Islamic varieties. These medieval cultures
continued to use astrology, which they adapted from the earlier cultures, but it
became a secondary pursuit. The religion of the One God would not admit the
powers of the Gods.
However, the culture and religion of India maintained its continuity from early
ancient times. It continued to worship the Gods as well as to seek the Divine
Self or pure consciousness. It retained freedom in the realm of spirituality and
religion, even though it often denied it in the outer life. There was no control of
the culture by the forces of an exclusive monotheism or by a church which
denied both nature and the transcendent. Hence it is not surprising that an older
and perhaps more complete form of astrology survived there. The ritualistic
calendar based upon the stars, the worship of the planets as Gods or cosmic
forces, along with the general culture of temple worship continues in India today
as it did in Babylonia and Egypt three thousand years ago. Modern Hindus still
give prayers and offerings to the planets today as their counterparts in the
ancient Europe and the Middle East did in their times.

Astrology, however, has undergone a kind of renaissance in the West, or one
may be beginning, since the last hundred years. A new modern, scientific,
psychological approach has added much knowledge and broadened the vista of
astrology from the shackles of the medieval mind. This too is beginning in India
though it is not as far developed and will probably not go as exclusively in this
direction. Astrology has survived the onslaught of the materialistic age and may
even have benefited from it, been forced by it into a greater clarity and
objectivity. Once the symbol of the past, many now view it in futuristic light.
Astrology thus is a good point of dialogue and interchange between east and
west, the ancient and the modern. It links together the greatest diversity of
cultures in the most common perceptions and aspirations of humanity.

Page 5
THE TWO ZODIACS

Most of us are under the impression that there is only one zodiac, that of the
fixed stars or the constellations. We think that when an ephemeris, an
astrological table of planetary positions, mentions that a planet as located in
particular sign, for example Jupiter in Sagittarius, that if we were to look up into
the sky to the stars of the constellation Sagittarius, we would see the planet
located there. This, however, is usually not the case. The zodiac used by most
Western astrologers today, what is called "the Tropical zodiac", is no longer
based directly on the stars. It does not correspond to observable positions. Our
astrological Jupiter in Sagittarius would more likely be found astronomically
among the stars of Scorpio. It could even be found near Antares, the red first
magnitude star at the heart of the Scorpion, if it were around 8 degrees
Sagittarius.

The signs of the Tropical zodiac, over the millenia, may come to correspond any
of the constellations of the fixed stars. Today, the tropical sign of Aries
corresponds to the fixed stars of early Pisces. Soon it will correspond to
Aquarius, with the beginning of the age of Aquarius that we hear so much about.
In 10,000 years or so, tropical Aries will correspond to the fixed stars of Libra,
its opposite, until some 23,000 years hence it will once more correspond to the
actual stars of Aries.
This is because the signs of the Tropical zodiac are based upon the equinoxes,
not the fixed stars. The beginning of the Tropical zodiac, its first degree of
Aries, is always identical with the point of the vernal equinox, the place of the
Sun at the first day of spring, not with any specific group of stars. The
orientation of the equinoxes to the fixed stars changes over time according to the
precession of the Earth on its axis. This phenomena, a changing of the tilt of the
Earth, causes the point of the Earth relative to the fixed stars to move backwards
in the zodiac. Over of a period of around 25,000 years the point of Earth relative
to the fixed stars makes a full circuit of the zodiac.

The zodiac which corresponds to the actual constellations or the fixed stars is
called "the Sidereal zodiac". Vedic astrology uses this, as does Western Sidereal
astrology, which was took its orientation from the Indian model.
Page 6
Around 2,000 years ago, when Western astrology was in its formative stages,
the two zodiacs coincided. Since then, with the precession, the two zodiacs have
been slowly moving apart, around 50 seconds per year. Hence the Tropical
zodiac shows the actual astronomical positions of some two thousand years ago.
The Tropical zodiac is based not upon the stars but on the orientation of the
Earth to the Sun. The Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn denote the places of the
Sun at the summer and winter solstices. The Tropical zodiac begins with the Sun
at the vernal equinox. This it designates as the beginning of the sign Aries. Its
position at the summer solstice becomes the first degree of Cancer, at the
autumnal equinox, the first degree of Libra and at the winter solstice, the first
degree of Capricorn. The seasons mark the cardinal points of the Tropical
zodiac. Yet as the precession continues the fixed stars marking these seasonal
points is slowly and inevitably changing.

The Tropical zodiac remains identical with these seasonal points. It does not
consider the precession. Indeed, many who have used it have not even known of
the precession. The Sidereal zodiac, on the other hand, calculates the precession
into its positions. Its signs are always identical with the fixed stars. The ancient
Hindus maintained knowledge of the precession throughout the course of human
history, something no other culture was able to do. In the Vedic system the sign
Aries, for example, is always equal to a thirty degree section of the fixed stars,
in which are located the stars of the constellation of Aries.

Today, however, Tropical astrologers realize that their signs no longer
correspond to the fixed stars. They rest their validity upon other factors. Some
say their validity depends upon the seasons; others say it is a temporal rather
than a spatial symbolism, with the signs more as a division of time than a
division of space. This they hold corresponds to the difference between the
static, eternal or space oriented cultures of the oriental and ancient cultures, as
relative to the time and progress oriented cultures of the West and modern times.
This is not to say that Tropical astrology does not consider the precession. It
does so relative to world-ages, as its recognition of the age of Aquarius with the
precessional movement of the vernal equinox back into the fixed stars of
Aquarius. Tropical astrology does recognize the Sidereal zodiac and consider it
to be of value but for longer collective time periods, not of direct relevance to
the individual chart.
Page 7
Vedic astrology, on the other hand, does consider the position of the planets
relative to the points of the equinoxes and solstices. Yet this is used as one of
several points for determining planetary strengths and weaknesses, not as a
major factor in interpretation.

We see, therefore, that two different methods of determining the signs of the
zodiac exist. Each is based on a different kind of calculation. Neither is
necessarily wrong. Both are using different measurements, though they employ
the same language to speak of them. The signs of the Tropical zodiac are not
really star signs, though they follow the analogy of the twelve constellations or
star groups. They measure the heavens according to the Sun-Earth relationship,
not that between the solar system and the fixed stars. The signs of the Sidereal
zodiac, however, are identical with those of the fixed stars (or, more properly, of
a thirty degree section of the sky in which they are located). There are a few
people today who try to relate the signs to the actual stars only, rather than to a
thirty degree division in which they are located. For example, they would see
Aries as only equivalent to the stars of that small constellation, not the greater
band around it. Vedic astrology does not agree with this. It sees in the
twelvefold division of the zodiac a harmonic division of the light coming from
the center of the galaxy. It is this harmonic division that is most important, not
the individual stars within that division, though these have their significance as
well.

THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE TWO ZODIACS

As two different zodiacal systems are used, a controversy naturally arises
between them. Some astrologers may consider one to be the true zodiac, the
other to be in error. Some may consider both to be valid but to different degrees.
Some may try to use both together. If we are unbiased, I believe that we can find
examples of accurate astrological readings using either system, and examples of
bad readings as well. This may depend more upon practitioner than system.
Some say that the Tropical system is for westerners, as it has developed here,
and that the Sidereal system is for easterners, as it has prevailed there. Yet
Sidereal astrology can give good and accurate readings even for westerners who
believe in the Tropical system and Tropical astrology can make sense of the
Page 8
charts of easterners. Moreover, we see this barrier between east and west
breaking down everywhere. Easterners can be as materialistic or scientific as
westerners and westerners can be as spiritual or religious as easterners. We are
all human beings with the same basic nature in life and we cannot make the
influence of the stars dependent upon geographical influences.

When a tropical astrologer says that the Sun is in Aquarius, he does not mean
that the Sun is in the fixed stars of the constellation Aquarius. He usually knows
that it is probably in the fixed stars of Capricorn. He means that it is in the
eleventh of a twelvefold division of the zodiac based upon the position of the
Sun at the vernal equinox. Similarly, when a sidereal astrologer says that the
Sun is in Capricorn, he means the fixed stars, not the tropical division, which he
knows is probably Aquarius. Though both astrologers use the same terms, they
refer them to different portions of the sky based upon two different ways of
dividing the heavens.

As Vedic astrology is sidereal this means that the signs will change in the Vedic
chart from what we find in the more common tropical chart. A Taurus Sun sign
person may find their Sun in Aries in the Vedic system. This shift of positions
naturally causes some consternation, particularly for those of us who are familiar
with or pleased with our chart in the Tropical system. An Aquarius Sun sign
person may not be happy to become Capricorn in the Vedic system (even though
there is some difference in the interpretation of the meanings of these signs). On
the other hand, a Capricorn Sun in the western system may feel happier as a
Sagittarius Sun in the eastern. (We should mention in passing that the Vedic
system does not make such a big thing of Sun signs, it considers the Ascendant
and the Moon to be more important). Hence it is crucial that we understand the
two zodiacs and their differences so that we don't confuse one system with the
other or try to judge one according to the standards of the other, in which terms
neither is likely to look good.
The Sidereal zodiac is probably the original zodiac historically, as it is the
observable zodiac. The Tropical, which is an abstract zodiac, musty have
derived from it, as all abstractions are usually based on underlying observable
things.
The zodiac was invented long before the time when the vernal equinox was in
Aries. It must have originally been based upon direct observation of the stars.
Page 9