Venus in the 12 Signs

 

Image by junibears via Flickr

Venus is the planet of our senses. She therefore largely determines our level of good behavior and our wealth. “Good behavior” means how well we go about enjoying our sensual lives. “Wealth” refers to the quality of sensual objects we have at our disposal.

 

The resources available in the sign that Venus occupies determine how Venus can manifest our good behavior and wealth. You can break down her relation to the sign owners like this:

Difficult	Neutral	Positive
Mars Moon	Sun Saturn	Mercury Jupiter

 

Venus does not find it easy to create productive outcomes when she is in a sign that belongs to Mars. The main reason is that Mars’ resources are too passionate and independently ambitious. Venus in such an atmosphere becomes prone to selfishness and greed.

The Moon’s Cancer is a bit easier for Venus to work with, but still the Moon’s resources involve desire and emotion. Venus in such an environment is more susceptible to becoming overly passionate and desirous.

The resources of the Sun and Saturn are fairly neutral for Venus, meaning that they present as many challenges as opportunities.

Although Saturn is in the same camp as Venus, there are some unusual outcomes that become likely when Venus must operate through Saturn’s resources. She becomes prone towards making us enjoy unusual or unaccepted things. On the other hand Venus in Saturn’s signs is able to generate very enduring desirable results, too.

The Sun’s resources are slightly positive for Venus, although it again seems to go against the rule of “camps.” Venus here is able to produce power and success through beauty and females.

Venus can make good use of Mercury’s signs, but of these Virgo debilitates Venus. Therefore Venus’ good results in Virgo take a humble turn, and she becomes prone to forego personal happiness for the sake of serving the happiness of others. Gemini, on the other hand, is a place Venus can easily thrive in an artistic, enjoyable way.

Venus is surprisingly happy and productive in Jupiter’s signs. It’s a surprise because they are members of opposite “camps,” but the synergy is quite practical. Jupiter’s resources provide excellent moral guidance to Venus, who therefore becomes more capable of producing good character and true happiness. Pisces, in particular exalts Venus.

Of course, like every planet, Venus operates quite well in her own signs.

To look at this topic from an elemental point of view, Venus seems very neutral to all the elements but does better in the more moderate elements: air and, especially, earth.

Venus in fire signs raises a danger of our sensuality becoming too “hot” but this only really becomes a strong issue in Aries, where Mars rules. It is less of an issue in the Sun’s Leo. In Sagittarius it is entirely overcome by the moral guidance of Jupiter.

Venus in water signs presents a danger of becoming too sensually desirous, but again this is entirely overcome in Pisces due to the influence of Jupiter there. It is somewhat of a concern in Cancer and a definite issue in Mars’ Scorpio.

Air signs give Venus the ability to be smart and intellectual about pleasures, though this outcome is less easy to obtain in full from Saturn’s Aquarius. It is particularly ample, on the other hand, in Mercury’s Gemini.

Earth signs allow Venus to be grounded yet powerful about how we can enjoy life. In Saturn’s Capricorn this can more easily wind up in a negative permutation. In Mercury’s Virgo this grounding causes humility and a servile attitude about enjoyment. The positive ramifications of Venus in an earth sign are most abundant in Venus’ own Taurus.

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Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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Whats a “New Year” – And Why Do Some Hindus Say It’s Now?

Lights of Dipavali - Part of the New Years Celebration

If there is anything I really want you to learn from this article knowing, it’s this: time is a circle, not a line.

Clocks are round. The Earth is round. It spins around to create days. Orbits are round, too. The Moon’s circular orbit creates Months, and the Sun’s (or Earth’s depending on your point of reference) creates years. The circular, cyclical movements of the Sun, Moon and Stars are the foundation of how human beings calculate time.

So, time is a circle.

Where does a circle “start” or “end”? It’s easy to say where a line starts and ends, but how do you do it for a circle? You can’t. Or you just pick a point you like and call it the start and end point of a circle.

So what’s a “new year”? For that matter when is a “new month”? Or a “new day”? Some say the day starts at midnight, others say it starts at sunrise, others say it starts whenever they wake up. A day is a circle, a cycle. Whatever point you want to pick on that circle to call the “start” – go for it. Of course some points are more reasonable than others.

A “new month” is also arbitrary. Some calendars say the month begins on a new moon – like in Southern India. Others say it begins on a full moon – like Northern India. Others – like the calendars you get in the book stores – just pick almost arbitrary dates. There is no absolute right answer because a month is a cycle, a circle – one complete circle of the Moon around the earth / zodiac. You can pick a point and call it the “start” but there is no real start to an eternal cycle. Some calendars are more reasonable than others, but none of them are intrinsically “right” or “wrong.”

Back to talking about a year. From an astronomer’s perspective it is one complete circle of the Earth around the Sun. From an astrologer’s perspective it is one complete circle of the Sun through the Zodiac. When does the circle of a year “begin”? Never, but for the sake of counting and orienting ourselves in the eternal flow of time, we pick a point and call it the “beginning of a new year.” You can pick any point you want. Some pick the point where the Sun stops moving southward and leaves winter solstice. Some pick convenient dates near that time. Others pick other dates. Again some are more reasonable than others, but none of them are really the beginning of an eternal cycle.

Many people in India – not all, but many – pick right now: when the New Moon in the middle of “Kartika” month (if you use a northern Indian calendar. It’s the beginning of Kartika if you go by the southern Indian calendar).

Mainly they pick this day to start the year because it is a very auspicious time. There are many auspicious holidays and events being commemorated on this day – so to make the new year auspicious they decided to start it under the good fortunate of these celebrations and commemorations.

Here are the key events celebrated and commemorated at this time of year – most from extremely ancient aeons:

• The demon Bali, who took control of the whole universe under the expert guidance of Venus, was gracefully and wondrously defeated on behalf of the gods by Vishnu who took the form of a cute little boy/dwarf but reclaimed the entire cosmos in three cosmic steps.
• Vishnu in the form of the great king Rama returned home to his kingdom after 14 years of exile.
• Vishnu as Krishna inaugurated a ceremony which provoked the wrath of Indra, the king of the gods. He then protected his village against the cataclysmic storms and floods sent by Indra – humbling the egotistical god.
• The Pandavas (important friends of Krishna) returned to their kingdom after 12 years of exile.
• Krishna and his wife Satyabhama killed the chaotic demon Naraka.
• Vishnu empowered King Prithu to milk the Earth in the form of a cow and thus restore the ecosystem.
• Vishnu in the form of Dhanvantari appeared and founded the science of medicine.

Hey, let’s get into the spirit of things! “Happy New Year!!!” Jai Sri Krishna!

Astrological Reasoning for this day as a “New Year Day”

A very reasonable date for the new year is around Christmas / Winter Solstice – because this is the day the Sun ceases it’s weakening and begins getting stronger – it is like rebirth. In the Indian system this is also a type of New Year – celebrated as “Makara Sankranti” the “Uttarayana” (Although it is erroneously calculated by the majority of current Indian astrologers without tropical reference, but that is another story).

Following a similar logic it is very reasonable to count todays new Moon, the New Moon which occurs in sidereal Libra, as the beginning of a new year. Libra is the Sun’s debilitation, and the opposite point, Aries is its exaltation. So after this New Moon, the Sun ceases moving further and further into debilitation and begins moving closer and closer to exaltation – a type of rebirth, a new year.

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Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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Śrī Caitanya Illustrates the Moon in Leo

Sri Caitanya Traveling Alone in the Forest

Śrī Caitanya, the world-famous saint and avatar of divine love, was born February 27^th 1486 at 17:55 in Mayapur, India. He is an excellent subject to illustrate the nature of the Moon in Leo because the Moon in Leo was rising as a full moon during an eclipse when he was born.

There are several excellent biographies of Śrī Caitanya. Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta (“The Immortal Nectar of Śrī Caitanya’s Life”) is a particular favorite, originally written in Bengali poetry by Kṛṣṇadās Kaviraj.

The primary effects of the Moon in Leo are to create a peculiar temper, high-mindedness, masculinity, obedience to one’s mother, and certain physical features. I will first explain each trait and then, in these indented italics, cite illustrations from the life and character of Śrī Caitanya.

 

Temper: Leo’s fire and the decisiveness of its ruler, the Sun, cause the mind to become hot tempered when the Moon is in this sign. However, the fixed nature of Leo causes the mind to become emotionally and intellectually steady and grave. The resulting temperament is one which is deep and steady, but once triggered results in an anger that subsides very slowly.

The deep intellectual nature and fixed contemplation of any Indian saint is a given. To illustrate this from Śrī Caitanya’s life could fill up a book. So I will pick a single incident which really nicely exemplifies this trait of the Moon in Leo.

At the age of 24 Śrī Caitanya accepted “sannyāsa” – a lifestyle in Indian culture which revolves around completely giving up all personal comforts, the foremost of which is the security and comfort of marriage and of intimate association with the opposite sex. The depth and steadiness (characteristics of Moon in Leo) to which Śrī Caitanya embraced this ideal was extreme even by the high standards of the time.

A follower of Śrī Caitanya invited him to come to his home to eat lunch – the main meal in India. As he was preparing the meal with exquisite loving attention to the fabulous details, he felt he would like to offer a higher grade of rice than what he had. He called for his friend, another “sannyāsī,” and asked him to go to the home of a very advanced spiritualist who was a great devotee of Śrī Caitanya to ask her for some of her best quality rice.

Later on, Śrī Caitanya was deeply appreciating the extreme care and love put into making the meal. In particular the rice struck him as being exquisite. He mentioned this to his host and asked, “Where did you get this rice?” When he was informed of its origin he asked, “Who went to ask her for the rice?” His host told him the name of his sannyāsī follower.

When Śrī Caitanya returned to his small room near the Jagannātha temple he told his assistant, “Please do not let me see the face of that sannyāsī ever again. A man who has renounced the world but still speaks directly to women in private should be shunned.”

I feel that this is an excellent illustration of the grave temperament of the Moon in Leo. Normally Śrī Caitanya is very forgiving, calm, etc. but when something occurs that he cannot tolerate, his anger at it is great and surprising, expressed in a reserved yet powerful manner. This is the temper of the Moon in Leo.

Śrī Caitanya’s followers were completely shocked at his reaction. Many people, including those Śrī Caitanya held in superior esteem, attempted to dissuade him, but he dramatically refused to relent. Once the temper of the Moon in Leo is triggered, it endures powerfully. In fact it took Śrī Caitanya slightly more than an entire year before his anger at the transgression of principles subsided and he called for the sannyāsī again to forgive him. This illustrates that the anger of Moon in Leo, once set off, is very durable and slow to subside.

Now let’s consider another trait of the Moon in Leo:

High-minded: Leo was created by the Sun, which is the soul, and has a fixed nature making it very deep. When the Moon is in the Sun’s sign the mind acquires spiritual desires and likes to contemplate deep spiritual subjects.

It might be almost ridiculous to pick any single thing about Śrī Caitanya which illustrates the spiritual depths capable of the Moon in Leo. Perhaps it is important to note that Śrī Caitanya is the avatar of divine love (“bhakti”), a yoga that works by creating emotional connections to the divine via spiritual desires to satisfy and please the Beloved Personality of Godhead. To say that the Moon in Leo creates “spiritual desires” and then point to the life and teachings of Śrī Caitanya as the paramount example of what these desires are and just how profound and elaborate and real they can be, is highly appropriate.

One may ask why this particular trait of the Moon in Leo is amplified in the life of Śrī Caitanya to such a volume. I will now list several facts which compile to explain this. If you are not an astrologer or familiar with the workings of astrology you may want to skip to the next section. It is not an entirely exhaustive list. I attempt to order it in order of importance.

The Moon is Śrī Caitanya’s 12^th lord. It is conjoined Ketu. His 9^th lord is exalted, and his 9^th house occupied by the 3^rd lord (desires), who is Venus (love). His Jupiter is in Sagittarius in a trine. In the navamsha: Moon is in the 12^th house, Mercury is the Moon’s lord and is the lord of both the 12^th and 9^th houses and occupies the 1^st house with Jupiter who is the lord of the 6^th and 3^rd.  

Masculine: Moon in Leo puts our inner self in a mature masculine environment. This results in a feeling of independence from romance, ability to live alone and wander without deep roots, personal power, and a positive, outgoing, giving, magnanimous, self-sacrificing nature.

As we already mentioned, Śrī Caitanya was an extremely ardent sannyāsī renouncing all direct contact with the opposite sex since the age of 24. At that time he gave up his home and wandered about India for 6 years on foot and usually alone. All his associates were males.

Obviously he was an extremely powerful individual otherwise we would not be talking about him more than 500 years later. His biographies constantly reveal that his personal influence was enormous and without any effort to do so he amassed thousands of followers from all backgrounds and all walks of life throughout the entire Indian subcontinent. His followers continue to increase and thrive today. Thus his personal power is an extremely good illustration of what the Moon in Leo can contribute to.

Śrī Caitanya was known and is remembered as “maha-vadanya” – the topmost jewel of all magnanimous and generous people. The Moon in Leo is like the emotions feeling they are kingly and have lots of wealth and resources to distribute. The magnanimity of this placement springs therefrom. Śrī Caitanya was a mystic saint, an avatar who realized the spiritual ecstasies of divine love to a previously unknown, impossible extent and who tirelessly worked to share the ecstasy of that divine love with the world – primarily by holding public song regarding the object of divine love, Śrī Kṛṣṇa in which he would dance for hours, with eyes pouring rivers of tears, singing heartfelt stories and names of Śrī Kṛṣṇa which completely revolutionized the hearts and minds of all those who came within hearing and sight of these events (“Saṁkīrtana”). Thus he gained access to the greatest, most mysterious, deepest spiritual treasures and, like a billionaire throwing thousand dollar bills to the crowd, showered them upon humanity through the emotional content of his transcendental singing and dancing. Thus Śrī Caitanya exemplifies the great magnanimity the Moon in Leo can contribute to.

Obedient to Mother: Leo is a royal environment fostering loyalty and obedience to superiors. Whatever planet is in Leo, the person that planet represents becomes an object of increased respect, reverence and loyalty. Moon in Leo indicates such feelings towards the mother. You can extend this principle to every planet like so: Sun – father, Mercury – children, Venus – spouse, Mars – siblings/friends, Jupiter – teachers, and Saturn – the elderly.

It is not expected for a sannyāsī to remain connected to his mother. Nor is it expected that Moon in Leo, which grants masculinity and a feeling of independence from the opposite sex, should also foster obedience and reverence for one’s mother. Nevertheless this is the case and Śrī Caitanya’s life exemplifies it.

In fact, some of the most touching and easily accessible parts of his biography are those which depict his deep love and respect for his mother, Sacī. He could not do anything that his mother did not approve. His clandestine taking of sannyāsa is the one exception, but immediately after doing so he went to her to beg her forgiveness and allowed her to order him to remain in the nearby city of Jagannātha Pūrī, in which he faithfully spent the remainder of his life despite the fact that his deepest heartfelt need and desire was to live in the much more distant village where his beloved Śrī Kṛṣṇa previously displayed his divine pastimes on the face of the Earth. In short, Śrī Caitanya forego his deepest spiritual desire for the sake of obeying the order of his dear mother.

Physical Effect: Two physical effects accrue from the Moon in Leo – (1) power and (2) acidity. The features become more powerful and commanding, strong and broad. Acidity causes appetite and thirst to be higher, fertility to be lower, and can be noticed by the body and eyes having a yellowish hue.

The biographies state that Śrī Caitanya’s body was unusually large, long and broad, and especially powerful. It is said that he resembled a lion. This is a reference to both stature and strength. Another name of his is Gaurāṇga which means “Golden Body.” His beautiful, powerful body had a distinct yellowish hue. He had no offspring, despite being married twice prior to taking sanyāssa. The amount of food he could consume sounds impossible when described in the biographies, but is yet another illustration of the Moon in Leo in a heightened condition such as it is in Śrī Caitanya – rising full during an eclipse.

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Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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Surya Siddhanta System (“SSS”)

People trying to use astrology constantly have to face up to the fact that they are not getting accurate results very easily at all. The real problem – believe me – is a lack of clear, thorough, correct, and deep understanding of the most basic astrological principles. But people don’t think that’s possible. They all think “I already know all that begginner’s stuff.” So they think that there must be some fancy technique they haven’t mastered yet, or some asteriod or planet they need to include in their charts, or some obscure calculation that will suddenly make everything right.

Case in point: currently there is this surge of interest among Indian-based astrology fans that the way we calculate planetary positions is somewhat wrong, and we should change to the system described in the Indian astrological / astronomical classic: Surya Siddhanta.

Here is my opinion of the calculation system described in Surya Siddhanta.

 

Image via Wikipedia

Old astronomical texts from India – including Surya Siddhanta – do not work on Ephemeris principles, rather they work on averages, “means.” They observe the planet for sometime and from that observation they derive an average motion. They then use this average motion to postulate future and past positions of planets.

This is very much like the mean node positions verses the true node positions. Mean nodes are calculated in this manner, and therefore they do not always accurately locate the nodal positions and are sometimes erroneous in predicting eclipses. The Surya Siddhanta System is a similar Mean Motion system.

Averages are estimations, not reality. Therefore periodically, regularly, the averages must be updated by correcting them in accordance with new observations. The corrective value is called “Bija” – the “seed” which keeps the system accurate. If the corrective value is not updated the calculations become inaccurate.

The version of Surya Siddhanta currently available to us contains a Mean Motions system which is accurate for 1100 A.D. and is quite inaccurate today, 900 years in need of updating the bija. This is one reason why Sri Yuktesvar spoke against using these old averages and said to use modern, highly accurate calculations.

People who don’t grasp the simple mathematical truths here, but who are in the habit of grasping for new revelations to try to improve their practice of astrology, rather than going deep into the foundations of what they already know and improving themselves there – such people find this Surya Sidhanta fad (let’s hope) an extremely attractive and thrilling proposal. However, in my opinion it will only throw our ability to grasp true astrology into a greater chaos than it already is.

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Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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