What does “Jyotisha” mean?

Jyotiṣa is the Sanskrit word for ”Astrology.” There is a lot of speculation on what it means. Here is what it really means, in lieu of authentic Sanskrit dictionaries and linguistic rules.

It is made of two parts jyotis and the suffix ṣa. [It's not made by combining jyoti and iśa because (a) there is no such word as jytoi (it's jyotis), and (b) there is no such word as iśa (it's īśa), and (c) if you combined jyotis and īśa you don't get "jyotiṣa" (the closest you might get is jyotīśa, which is a cool word, for sure, but is not a pre-existing Sanskrit word, and most certainly is not the Sanskrit word for "Astrology.")]

Jyotis means:

• Light
• Brightness
• An illuminating object, for example:
  • Sun
  • Moon
  • Fire
  • Lightning
  • The stars and planets
• As the revealer of things, and thus
  • Consciousness
  • Enlightenment

The suffix ṣa has several possible meanings:

1. The best
2. Mastery (in the sense of learning or wisdom)
3. Loss
4. Duration

The most direct meaning of the word Jyotiṣa is: Astronomy / Astronomer / Astrology / Astrologer. Since these are the English words expressing learning in the movement of the heavenly lights.

The primary use of Jyotiṣa is to measure the duration of things… to tell the time. By knowing the time, Jyotiṣa indirectly gives us a glimpse of the all phases of time: past, present and future. So there is also good use of many of the other connotations inherent in the word Jyotiṣa , such as the ability to reveal things, and enlighten.

Jyotisha is not really the science of light – it is the science of time. Time, however is relative to light. For example, the movement of the Sun (the source of all local light) is the backbone of the measurement of time.

Thank you,

Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Reading a Tropical Horoscope With Indian (“Vedic”) Techniques.

I have come to embrace the conclusion that the 12 sidereal signs of modern Indian astrology are not in line with the classical Indian definitions of the 12 signs, and have therefore adopted a somewhat unique system of calculating the 12 signs tropically, but calculating the 27 stars (“nakshatra”) sidereally.

Many people have kindly read about my reasoning behind this and the vast majority of readers have expressed appreciation or at least respect for my conclusions. But almost everyone asks, “Can you show us how to do it? How do you read a chart with Tropical signs.”

I wonder if there is any need to show how, because there is no special new technique involved. You simply follow the classical principles. Using a classical principles with a classical (tropical) definition of the 12 signs just produces clearer, simpler results. You don’t have to do anything new or adopt any new techniques.

But now that I’ve said that, I feel like I should say a little bit more.

When you switch to classical, tropical signs, you will want to be more pure and simple about your techniques. You can stick with the fundamental basics and discard all the complicated fine-print that has developed over the centuries since the classical period ended. So you would probably really want to go back to “square 1″ for a moment and organize your system and approach to reading the horoscope again from the ground up. Kind of like a spring-cleaning.

Start by diving more deeply into how you understand the method of interpreting planets in signs. Reread the classical descriptions of planets in signs, and figure out what they are really talking about.

Next do the same for planets in houses. And follow that up by doing the same with lords in houses. Forget what you have accumulated in your mind over the years about planets in signs and houses, etc. and take a fresh new look at the classics. Glancing back from the classics to your sample horoscopes – you will gain much more clarity on the fundamentals. So much more that you will feel very confident to burn all the bookshelves full of astrological fine-print that has accumulated literally in your library and figuratively in your mind. You  will be liberated to stick with the simple basics!

After you refresh your conception of planets and lords in signs and houses, next revisit the second level of basics. Start with dignity. (Re)learn about how to calculate dignity, and then about how to calculate dignity not just for a sign, but for a specific degree in the sign (by way of the varga subdivisions, the amshas). This information is all right there in the classical literature. Try to figure out what dignity is really all about – how it affects the positivity or negativity of what a planet does in a sign and house. Check it out in action in your sample charts, and feel relieved that now you can forget about all kinds of madening concepts like exaltation in retrogression and neech-bhanga-yogas. Using simple degree-specific dignity alone, with tropical signs, you will be reading charts easier, more clearly and more confidently than you did before.

After degree-specific dignity, review degree-specific aspects.

Then you have pretty much taken your “second birth” as an astrologer. My congratulations.

PS – remember, for this to really work wonders, you need to let go of everything you think you know and you have read about, especially everything that sounds remotely complex. Take a fresh new look at the classics on the classical, fundamental basics… apply it to the tropical horoscope (case with whole sign houses, and classical planets only), and you’ll be transformed.

PPS – dont’ forget to keep the nakshatras sidereal, and therefore don’t let your vimshottari dasha dates change. If you want to go into interpreting planets in nakshatra, this is also a great time to start. =)

Does the Sun Revolve Around the Earth???

Let’s get some basic astronomical and physical concepts ironed out.

First of all motion is relative. If Car A is going 50kph and Car B is going 45kph. Than Car B is moving backwards at 5kph relative to someone looking at it from Car A. And someone sitting in Car A experiences the car itself as standing still. Even though to anyone outside the car, it’s not standing still at all.

That is a basic concept of physics. Now let’s apply it to astronomy. If you are standing on the Sun (with your super-duper heat shield, of course) – the Sun is standing still for you, and everything else is moving around it. That like being in Car A; it makes Car A stand still and Car B and the rest of the world move. If you are instead standing on the Earth, its the Earth that stands still and everything else moves around it, similar to being in Car B. If you stand somewhere else, somewhere in outer space, you see that everything is moving. It’s like standing on the road and seeing both Car A and Car B moving. The Earth is moving around the Sun and the Sun is moving around some other stars and the whole thing is circling around the galaxy, and the whole galaxy is… “etc.”

It’s not that geocentric astronomy is “wrong” it’s just geocentric, centered on the Earth. Heliocentric astronomy is not “right” it’s just heliocentric, centered on the Sun. And non-centric astronomy is probably only a philosophical concept, since it’s not possible not to be somewhere within the universe you observe. It’s not wrong for the person in Car A to feel like his steering wheel is not flying around at 50kph. It’s correct, relatively speaking.

All motion is relative.

Now, in astrology we are concerned with life on earth. Therefore it is geocentric. The astrological symbolism of the Sun very strongly suggests that ancient astrologers / astronomers knew that the Sun was, from one perspective, a truer “center” of the planets. But that is not very important because we don’t live on the Sun! We live on Earth. The math of astrology is practical astronomy. It is astronomy in its practical relevance to an observer on Earth. It is intentionally geocentric because it is meant to examine how celestial time proceeds from an earth-based vantage point.

In geocentric astronomy / classical astrology there are three principles to consider: space, planets, and the earth.

Space is the area  through which the planets move. There are two types of space: sidereal and tropical – stellar space or earthbound space. So many cultures had two measurement systems, one for the stars (for example ancient India measured space by 27 stars segments), another for the “signs” (12 of them) of earthly space.

Planets are the visible points in the sky that move through space.

The Earth is the thing we are standing on. It has two important poles: above/below and east/west. Based on the four extremes of those poles there are four quadrants of the “sky” (the earth’s local space). Reflecting the two poles into each of the four sections, each section acquires three distinct divisions (one for the pure quadrant and two for the quadrant mixed with each pole). Thus altogether the Earth’s sky possesses 12 sections. We call these houses.

Now, as to how they are moving… we are standing on the Earth – so we cease to perceive that it is spinning on an axis and rotating around the Sun, just like a person inside a moving car does not perceive the dashboard and chairs to be moving. Instead of seeing the Earth moving around the Sun, we see the Sun as another “planet” that moves through space. Instead seeing the Earth spinning on it’s axis we see space itself (containing in it the moving planets including the Sun) spinning around the Earth.

In classical astrological geocentric astronomy, the Earth is the fixed reference point. And all of space revolves around us, moving through the twelve divisions of our sky, as the planets additionally move within space.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

The Ptolemaic geocentric model of the Universe according to the Portuguese cosmographer and cartographer Bartolomeu Velho (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Milestones of Growing Up – Astrologically

A planet’s complete lap of the heavens represents the prime opportunity to gain maturityin what the planet represents. The planets all travel through the circle of space at different speeds, thus creating different milestones of growth and maturity.

1 Month: The Moon

The first milestone of development is to reach one month of age, because at one month from birth, the Moon completes a circuit of the entire circle of the heavens and returns to the place it was when we were born.

The Moon is the emotional center of our being – our mind, which is the subtle organ of emotion and opinion, and is the coordinator of all the 10 senses (5 senses of input and 5 of output). From the one month milestone the child attains control of his or her senses, acquiring maturity in hearing, vision, etc. and mobility, evacuation, etc. Their emotional identity becomes concrete during this time and they develop the firm foundations of what they will like and dislike for the rest of their lives. They are purely emotional beings.

1 Year: The Sun, Mercury & Venus

The next milestone is our first birthday. At this time the Sun completes its first circuit of the heavens, and with it, roughly simultaneously, Venus and Mercury do the same.

Mercury is the planet of intellect. From its milestone a child starts to become rational and begins to communicate in much more complex verbal ways.

Venus is the planet of refinement and beauty in the senses. So from this milestone children develop expertise, refinement and beauty: Their bodies attain normal proportions. They become balanced and graceful and begin to walk, talk, sing, draw, etc.

The Sun is the planet of identity. At this milestone the child finally comes to completely identify with this new body he or she inhabits. Thus the sense of identity becomes solid.

2 Years: Mars

Just before 2 years old, Mars completes its first cycle through the complete celestial circle.

Mars is the planet of independent ambition. At 2 years old children develop independence - becoming much more brave and courageous, and wanting to play on their own. 

9 Years: Ketu

At about 9 years old, Rahu will have moved halfway through the circle of the heavens, and thus arrive at the point of its pole, Ketu.

Rahu and Ketu are planets of transformation and chaos. Children at 9 years old face significant chaos, uncertainty and fear. Adults should not underestimate the realness and intensity of these to the 9 year old. From this milestone to the next they will learn to cope with and overcome these.

12 Years: Jupiter

At about 12 years old, Jupiter completes its first circuit of the heavens.

Jupiter is the planet of growth, reproduction, and morality. At 12 years old children enter puberty and soon become capable of reproducing. From 12 years children develop adult-like philosophical capabilities and begin to seriously consider topics of morality, ethics, religion, etc. Higher education traditionally began from this age. Currently we still consider it the end of “elementary” schooling.

18 Years: Rahu

At about 18 years old, Rahu completes its circuit of the entire heavens.

Rahu is the radical planet of rebellion. Around 18 is when we become significantly wild and rebellious. The essential component of this milestone is that we come to reject, or at least seriously challenge, just about everything we have been brought up with so far. Soon after the 18th year the smoke settles and we begin assembling for ourselves a better version of what we learned prior to our 18th year.

27 Years: Saturn

At about 27 years old, plodding Saturn completes it’s heavenly circuit. This is the final milestone towards adulthood. From this point on, in no way, shape or form are we any longer children. From 27 years onward, we are full-grown, we are astrologically mature.

What does it mean to be mature? To be grown-up? To not be a child?

Saturn is the planet of work. So we develop our career from this milestone. Saturn is the planet of servitude – so we stop thinking about what makes us happy and start thinking about what we need to do to fulfill our responsibilities and obligations to those in our care and those who have cared for us.

That is what it means to be an adult.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com