Myths of Astrology vs. Facts of Science

Question

Image via Wikipedia

Do you believe that the idea that eclipses occur because Rahu‘s immortal head is swallowing the sun is a metaphor, or that there is actually a being named Rahu who is actually swallowing the sun when an eclipse occurs?

My Answer

First it would be good to admit that the culture who came up with that crazy sounding myth is the same culture which was predicting the time and place of eclipses with near modern accuracy. So maybe we shouldn’t be too quick to write off the whole thing as crazy?

My understanding is that eclipses occur where the path of the Moon intersects the path of the Sun (“ecliptic”) only at times and from places where the two bodies, Sun and Moon, are simultaneously present at the intersecting locations. This is how Vedic astrological/astronomical literature defines and accurately calculates the invisible position of “Rahu” and “Ketu” and thus accurately predicts the occurance of eclipses.

Image via Wikipedia

Vedic literature also says that at the two locations where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s, there is a demigod/demon (force of nature) positioned. And that this powerful force (“Rahu” on one end, “Ketu” on the other) takes advantage of this location to exact revenge upon the Sun and Moon by swallowing them.

The level of reality upon which demigods and demons exist as discrete localized personalities is not the level of reality in which human beings in the current epoch of development, exist, except in very rare cases of persons with stuff usually called “ESP” or persons who have intentionally cultivated higher tunings of their sensory faculties (by yoga disciplines, for example). On our level of reality, there is no demon swallowing the sun or moon when there is an eclipse. All we see on our level of reality is their “shadow” or effect – we see an intersection of lunar and solar ecliptics causing the Sun and Moon to baffle one another and their light to be temporarily extinguished.

So, on our level of reality, no there is no Rahu… also there are no demigods living “on the Moon”, No angels in the “clouds”, etc.

Our level of reality is not the only level of reality. This is what I am getting at in general by agreeing that empiric evidence is extremely relevant and useful for our practical world, but disagreeing that it is reliable as the sole or final authority for determining the totality of reality. This is the point of my Boy and His Ruler, story. (You can CLICK THIS to read the very short story)

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Symbols and Glyphs of Astrology

I am a huge fan of the glyphs developed in the West to represent the signs and planets. The essential meaning of every planet and sign is encoded into these fascinating symbols.

Glyphs for the Planets

Each planet’s glyph is made of the same primary symbols: a circle and a cross.

The circle is symbolic of life. The top of the circle is your original self, the bottom of the circle is your material identity. Life is a cyclic process of the original self transforming into a material being and then returning to a truer understanding of itself.

The cross is the symbol of effort. “We all have our crosses to bear.” The specific location of the cross on the circle reveals a lot about the meaning of a planets glyph.

There are two secondary symbols used in the glyphs: the half-circle and the arrow.

The half-circle is symbolic of evolution and development. The exact type of half-circle used in a specific glyph reveals a lot about it’s exact symbolism for that planet.

The arrow is simply a blurred cross, distorted due to the energy of the arrow’s movement. Only Mars has the energy to transform the cross of effort  into the arrow of ambition.

☉The Sun’s glyph is a circle with a dot in the middle. The circle is life. The dot in the middle of the circle is symbolic of the fact that the Sun is the center of all things in life. The center of life is your identity – the core of your conscious awareness.

☽The Moon’s glyph looks a lot like the moon, which is handy. It is the only glyph without a complete circle in it. Instead the left side of the circle has folded over or reflected to the right so that there are two half circles linked together on the right, making the characteristic crescent moon shape. Why? The Moon is your emotional self, a tricky reflection that creates and satisfies feelings of incompleteness which arise from our interest in a world of dualities.

The half-circle represents evolution. The Moon (emotions) allows evolution in both directions – towards the true self and away from it.

☿Mercury’s glyph is a circle with a cross at the bottom and a half circle at the top. The cross at the bottom shows that Mercury facilitates the effort for the true self to become a real manifestation in the material world. The half circle at the top is unique to Mercury. It shows that he alone can truly facilitate the evolution towards the higher self. This glyph encapsulates in a single symbol the fact that Mercury is your intelligence, which creates the ability to communicate as well as understand.

♀Venus’ glyph is like Mercury’s, without the half circle at the top. She gives you a physical body replete with fascinating senses through which you can truly experience the wonderful manifest world in your life.

♂Mars’ glyph is a circle with an arrow (a distorted cross) at an odd angle towards the top of the circle. This symbolizes that Mars is your energy. He is the passion and ambition which prods you to going off in your own unique direction with your own angle on life.

♃Jupiter’s glyph is a cross supporting the right side of a half circle. The right side of the circle represents evolution towards a deeper understanding of life. Jupiter is supportive of this effort. He encourages it and rewards it and provides the systems of religion, philosophy, and law which do the same.

♄Saturn’s glyph is a cross to which the right side of the circle is affixed and bound. The evolution towards a deeper understanding of life is nailed to the inescapable realities which Saturn generates: death, old age, decay and misery. We evolve by coming to grips with these realities.

☊Rahu’s glyph has no cross. In fact only the five real planets have crosses and represent effort. The Sun, Moon and the two nodes Rahu and Ketu are not literally planets. Their glyphs contain no crosses. They manifest their nature without any effort or evolution required.

Rahu and Ketu are the only planets to contain two complete circles. Their glyphs consist of these two circles joined by the arc of a half circle. The two circles represent two different lives, two different worlds. Rahu’s arc connects the two – bridging the present to the future, creating the ability and need to move upward and outward, and causing the possibility of nearly instantaneous change and movement.

☋Ketu’s glyph is identical to Rahu’s except that Ketu connects the two circles with a downward arc, while Rahu does so with an upward arc. This glyph symbolizes Ketu’s essential nature as a like between the present and the past, the ability and need to move inward and downward with the possibility of nearly instantaneous change and movement in those directions.

Sign Glyphs

♈Aries is the beginning of the zodiac – where the one (at the bottom) splits and becomes many (at the top). This symbolizes the tremendous energy and ambition of life itself.

♉In Taurus the energy forms a stable unit (a circle) which is like a womb for the new energy of life. The circular womb will cause things to grow and develop upwards (the half circle at the top).

♊ Gemini is the sign in which the incubated energy of creation is born and becomes a distinctly separate being. The many created at the beginning by Aries have developed by the support of taurus, and now become a second being, a truly individual self capable of its own experiences and ideas.

♋ In Cancer there are two circles attempting to connect. The new being of Gemini finds that she wishes to integrate her new self with her former self. Therefore Cancer is a place where energy directs inwards and emotions are examined rather privately.

♌ Leo begins a new cycle of evolution – the evolution to understand our own powers. A newly integrated single circle moves sets out with a new identity.

♍Virgo‘s glyph like taurus, creates circles. The three lines of the “m” represent the three layers of the world. The last line of the “m” weaves around itself, creating circular environments. In Virgo the newfound personal power of Leo enters these circles and attempts to more deeply and practically understand and express itself.

♎ Libra‘s glyph evokes both a balance and an equal sign. It shows a balance of desire to work equally with the world as well as on it. In Libra we attempt to achieve the delicate balance between our own personal strength and the personal strengths possessed by the other people in the world, to whom we relate.

♏ In Scorpio we complete the mastery of our own powers. Thus an arrow develops at the end of the three lines – the three layers of the world. This shows that we and now ready to move to a new stage and apply our newly understood personal power on a higher level.

♐Sagittarius’ glyph shows the arrow which appeared in Scorpio moving beyond the line of the “new level” of operation. Thus, in this sign we begin to truly explore the various ways in which we can develop ourselves on higher levels.

♑Capricorn’s glyph, like Taurus and Virgo before it, possesses circles. The straight lines from Sagittarius resolve into curves which create circles. This glyph shows that the new levels we discovered in Sagittarius can now enter a safe “womb” and incubate here to become more deeply and stably realized.

♒ The glyph of Aquarius, like Gemini and Libra before it, is dominated by two lines. These lines are wavy, showing that Capricorn’s effort to evolve a deeper understanding of life are now vibrant with power and potential.

♓ Pisces‘ glyph is two half circles bound together by a line. In Pisces we reach the end of one cycle of evolution. The new levels we discovered in Sagittarius, developed in Capricorn and expressed in Aquarius are now ready in Pisces to bear their final, deepest fruit: the ability to transfer us to an entirely new cycle of evolution. One of the half circles is the end of the old cycle. The line is Pisces effort to transport us to the other half circle, the beginning of a new cycle of evolution.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

© 2010 Vic DiCara, All Rights Reserved

RAHU: Destroyer of Now, Creator of Tomorrow

Transformation

Anti-Authority

Radical Liberalism

Compulsion

Chaos

Polarity

The Future

The Sky and Outer Space

These are the realms of the mysterious planet Rahu.

~ * ~ * ~

We have discussed all the visible planets. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – all have evolved and we have explored the role of each. There are two more “planets” remaining to understand. They did not evolve – for they are the very power of evolution itself.

They are invisible points in the sky which cause the Sun and Moon to blackout. They cause eclipses. An eclipse is a visible demonstration of their  absolute power to completely reverse things create the chaos of change, transformation, and evolution.

Their names are Rahu and Ketu. They are a separated pair – two sides of the same entity.

First, to understand Rahu…

THE POWER OF TRANSFORMATION

Rahu is the power of transformation – that alone is his singular, fundamental trait. You can learn everything else about Rahu just by always keeping this in mind.

The very story of Rahu’s birth centers around his ability to transform himself from one shape into another!

If it were not for Rahu, nothing would evolve, nothing would change. Anything you have ever done to change yourself – and any change that has ever happened in humanity or on Earth itself, has all happened with the power invested by Rahu.

Rahu and his other half, Ketu, both create the power of transformation – but Rahu’s sort of transformation is specifically the kind that impels you forward and makes you think about making the future better. He impels you forward and outward.

Rahu is the force that compels you radically change your lifestyle – trying to improve your future and make your outer self a better reflection of your inner potentials.

DOWN WITH AUTHORITIES! SMASH TRADITIONS!

Since Rahu always wants to improve things, he makes a lot of serious enemies right off the bad. Authorities hate Rahu, and those who cling to traditional ways also despise him.

As you can see Rahu is revolution. Every single revolution that has ever occurred in history did so because of Rahu’s effect on the human race. All revolutionaries are manifestations of Rahu.

Non-conformists, too. Rahu has no love for tradition! He is concerned with the future, not the past. He wants to make things evolve, not stay the same. Therefore he is the antithesis of tradition, the bane of hierarchy, the reviler of authority.

He is a wild radical liberal.

All cultures depict Rahu as a serpent, dragon or snake. This is why traditional cultures despise snakes so deeply. They even go so far as to call Rahu the Devil. In the biblical Garden of Eden, for example, Rahu was the serpent who inspired mankind to make themselves better than what they were, to be unafraid of change, to be unfettered by authority – to eat the apple from the from the tree of knowledge.

Christianity portrays this story in a very negative light – because Christianity is a fundamentally traditional and conservative culture. They paint Rahu as “Satan”, the ultimate force of evil. In fact it is quite interesting that Christians and most conservatives of all denominations rather vehemently hate concepts of “evolution” – since Rahu, the serpent, is the force of evolution itself.

All sorts of people moved by radical liberal energy are manifesting the power of Rahu. The revolutionaries, the protestors, the anarchists, the dissidents, the rebels – all are Rahu’s offspring. They receive very little love from society. By majority, society is always a flock that clings to the safety of tradition and authority. Thus Rahu’s offspring become the outcasts, misfits, and fringe elements of any society.

FOUNTAINHEAD OF PURE CHAOS

In a sense, the conservatives are right. Rahu is very, very, very dangerous. They are way too scared of him and don’t know how to embrace his power in good measure for positive growth, but still, you can see their point of view to some extent. If you let them, the radical forces of change will create pure chaos.

Rahu is the dark fountainhead from which pure chaos flows.

That’s why astrologers tend to connect him with confusion and uncertainty. Rahu brings transformation. Transformation causes revolutions. Revolution means destruction of the old ways to make room for the new. Destruction causes chaos and rubble and dust and smoke and thus makes it difficult to see anything clearly. We become confused.

Rahu on his own, untamed by any other planetary influence, would create a world of constant revolution – pure destruction, pure chaos, pure confusion and uncertainty.

Thankfully, he is almost never completely untamed.

UNCONTROLLED URGES, COMPULSIONS

I hope that my description of Rahu so far is at least making it clear that this planet is fantastically and wildly powerful? He is the ability to topple a government, the ability to make the Sun itself go black! His power is greater than even the Sun’s! He is wild and uncontrollable.

Thus he is the cause of compulsive behavior, uncontrollable urges, overwhelming emotions which can not be stopped. He is the wild thing within you.

POLARITY AND DIAMETRIC OPPOSITES

Because Rahu is such a wild and unbridled force of change, you could well describe him as “polar” or “bi-polar” (as if a pole would could be tri-polar or uni-polar? I never quite understand the need for “bi” at the beginning of “polar”, but whatever). Rahu’s radicalism is so extreme that it will run you through the entire spectrum of changes.

Under the influence of powerful Rahu a woman becomes a nun, but winds up in pornography. She is pushed through the entire spectrum of change and evolution – from one extreme to the other.

Rahu does this with a purpose – or at least, there is a positive purpose to be gained: under Rahu’s “guidance” you will see it all. Having seen it all, you can later on try to make sense out of everything. Rahu’s cycle in your life is like a chaotic revolution. It is only really after the revolution is over – after Rahu has subsided – that we can establish a new, hopefully better, society and prosperity.

Persons with the ability to grasp opposite things at the same time are blessed by Rahu. People who are unable to maintain balance, but flip back and forth in a “bipolar” pattern are cursed by the same energy.

THE FUTURE

Rahu and his other half, Ketu, are not ordinary planets. They have no mass, they occupy no actual physical space – therefore they are not bound by the normal laws of space and time. As a result they transcend the boundaries between here and there, past and present and future.

Rahu specifically bridges the present to the future. Those who can see the future do so as a result of Rahu’s power. This includes acolytes of divination as well as it includes scientists and inventors who foresee things like electric lights and handheld communicators, and then make them a reality in the present.

Rahu always sees the future, and that is why he tries to revolutionize and change the present. He sees the future, and then works on the present to make it change and become the future.

UP, UP, AND AWAY – THE SKY AND SPACE

Just as Rahu’s awareness focuses on the future, it also focuses on moving upward and outward. The great sky is Rahu’s domain. And even more so is the void of outer space beyond.

Rahu is the force behind science fiction. In fact the reason why we associate flying and spaceships with the future is because Rahu rules both: he rules the future and he rules outer space and the sky. Rahu is the master of airplanes, spaceships, and all futuristic forms of travel like teleportation.

In our recent history we have dabbled with space exploration. Interestingly, at least in America, it has been very connected with liberal presidents and government platforms. This is because Rahu, who is the master of space and space travel, is also the prime force of liberalism and radicalism.

SUMMARY

Outer space and the sky is a symbol of our future. Rahu wants to transform the present into the future and therefore tends to destroy it, creating a full spectrum of chaos as he goes about toppling old systems of tradition and outmoded authority figures. He does all this so that he can transform us from what we are into what we must become.

~ * ~ * ~

Rahu is the present transforming into future.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

© 2010 Vic DiCara, All Rights Reserved