I was initiated into the “Gaudiya Vaishnava” school of the path of esoteric divine love (“Bhakti-yoga“) on Sri Nityananda Trayodashi in Vrindavana India – the thirteenth lunar day of the waxing half of the lunar month called Magha. The year was 1993.
Thus my initiation occurred during my Rahu era, so let’s take a moment to look at Rahu in my chart. She occupies Aquarius, the second house – pertaining to family, wealth, knowledge and support. Rahu here generically implies that one will have radical energy in this area, quite likely radical changes. Indeed, the nature of my Rahu era consisted of extremely radical changes in my levels of wealth, family relations, knowledge, and sources of support.
The Saturn cycle of my Rahu era was in effect during my initiation. You can notice that Saturn is the dispositor of Rahu in my birth chart. I hold it as a principle that major events are more likely to occur when cycles of dispositor and disposited coincide.
Saturn is debilitated in the fourth house of my chart, fundamentally causing me to be detached from material comforts of a domestic nature, and causing me to deeply need to understand my inner self. Clearly these factors play a major role in a person taking initiation on a path of self-realization, which involves heavy doses of renunciation.
Rahu was the subcycle planet at the time of initiation.
Jupiter was the sub-subcycle planet. Jupiter, of course, represents the guide which takes us away from inauspicious things and towards auspicious things. Thus Jupiter manifests all manner of councilors, philosophical paths, religions, priests, teachers, etc. The ultimate manifestation of Jupiter is the guru, from whom one receives initiation on a spiritual path, as I did at this time when Jupiter was active in connection with Saturn (a planet inspiring me to self-realization and material detachment) and Rahu (a planet inspiring me to be revolutionary and radically redefine my family-type associations).
Ketu was the sub-sub-subcycle planet at the time. Ketu is the most spiritual of all the planets, representing the internal pull into the original self.
In the transits at the time the Sun was combusting Saturn and Mercury. The Sun is the original ego, the soul. Combustion occurs when a planet is very close to the Sun and becomes completely obscured by the Sun’s brilliance. The effect is that the energy of the planet becomes directed inward towards spiritual goals. The Sun’s combustion of the cycle lord indicated that the self-realization and domestic detachment Saturn holds in the birth chart would undoubtedly have a spiritual outlet, as is the case in taking spiritual initiation.
This combustion occurred in my first house, identifying it as very prominent.
Jupiter was in my ninth house, the house of the guru and of religion, at the time I received “religious” initiation from my guru.
Rahu was in my eleventh house, allowing me to make a significant gain by this initiation (the eleventh is the house of gains) and also signifying that I would do something radical concerning identification with a social group (the eleventh is the house of social groups). When I became initiated I more or less accepted the concomitant identification with a specific socio-religious group called ISKCON.
Since Rahu was in my eleventh house, Ketu was in my fifth – the house of sadhana, which is a practice that acts as a spiritual education, bringing about enlightenment. Thus the planet of true mysticism who was active as a cycle lord was in a position indicating that by this initiation I would gain a truly mystical sadhana.
An important supporting transit on this day is that Mercury was exactly on the cusp of my Second house. This means that Mercury was exactly aspecting my natal eighth house Mercury, a planet in my chart which grants me some significant intellect to grasp mysterious, spiritual, and occult things.
The astrology of ancient India comes primarily from the teaching of Parashara and Jaimini who wrote their own manuals on the science, especially the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and the Jaimini Sutra. Many, including myself, consider Parashara and Jaimini to be the founders of two distinct schools of Astrology. The astrology practiced today in India is not totally dissimilar from these ancient teachings, but is just a few parts of those systems applied in simplified forms, shallowly understood in general, a great deal cut out or ignored entirely, and a great deal added in from medieval and modern sources.
The truth is that Western astrology is only a bit more different than Vedic astrology is from the true ancient astrology of India. The fact is that all culture has common roots, including astrology, and it is likely that ancient India and the world’s oldest surviving book, the Rg Veda, may represent an important core of that ancient common root.
Vic was born when 1º40′ of Capricorn was rising. This means that the rising lunar mansion was the Sun’s Uttara Azhaadhaa and that Capricorn was also rising in the navamsha. This alerts us to the sweet spot factor occurring at degrees where the subdivision sign are the same as the sign they subdivide. This sweet spot has a “factor of four” since it occurs in four subdivisions (D3, D4, D9, and D12). When the ascendant lies in a sweet spot it strengthens the underlying template of the overall chart, making it more capable of supporting strength and minimizing weakness. It causes not only the cusp of the first house but of all four kendra houses to be in synchronous subdivisions. So Vic’s underlying chart template has good basic strength.
