ABCs of Medical Astrology

Ayurvedic Pharmacy

The medicinal science of Sanskrit culture (ayur-veda) primarily approaches health as a balance between three primary factors (doshas) in the body:

• Tissue (kapha)
• Metabolism (pitta)
• Circulation (vata)

A unique ratio of these three blends to constitute each individual’s health (prakriti). The more unbalanced the ratio, the more there is illness (vikriti). Various types of imbalances create specific varieties of ill health. For example, excess Tissue leads to weight retention and trouble riding the body of toxicity. Excess Metabolism leads to stress and the concomitant maladies. Excess circulation causes systemic frailty.

In this system of medicine, diagnosis is most often done by physical proximity. The most thorough and utilized diagnostic tool is an extremely sensitive and sophisticated method of reading the patient’s pulse. Other diagnostic tools exist as well, which observe various focal points in the patients physical and mental being. A substantial number of doctors in this discipline also avail themselves of Astrology as a diagnostic tool; the birth charts are a sort of “DNA” which these doctors (or their astrologers) can read to foretell the nature, depth and duration of a patient’s illness.

Since I am an astrologer, not a doctor, let me outline some of the basic astrological principles pertaining to the three primary health factors of Ayurvedic medicine. The key to deciphering which astrological factors pertain to which medicinal principle is to use the four primordial elements as a link between the two.

Factors Indicating Tissue (Kapha)
Tissue forms as a result of the primordial element “Earth” holding within it the primordial element “Water.” These elements, particularly Earth, therefore indicate the nature of an individual’s Tissue.

• Strongest of all, the planet Mercury promotes the Earth element. Jupiter, though not technically an Earth-element planet, also supports the Tissue principle.
• Earth exists strongly in three zodiac signs: Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn.

Factors Indicating Metabolism (Pitta)
Metabolism is a result of the primordial element “Fire” being held is liquid substances, the primordial element “Water.” In astrology:

• Foremost agents of Metabolism (in order) are the Fire planets: Mars, Ketu, and Sun.
• The fire signs are also significant: Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius

Circulation results from the primordial element “Air.” Air represents itself astrologically like this:

• Foremost agents of Circulation are (in order): Saturn and Rahu.
• The air signs are significant: Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius

Basics of Reading
You, of course, cannot hope to successfully diagnose a medical condition after merely reading an introductory article – but this article can start you on your way to proficiency. One thing to do is to examine the planets of a particular medical constituent. Let’s say you want to know if a person has a healthy Tissue principle. You could begin by looking at Mercury. Is Mercury in a sidereal (of course) Earth or Water sign with Earth or Water planets (Venus and Moon)? If so, it is one factor indicating that the Tissue principle is strong. But if Mercury is in a Fire or Air sign with Fire or Air planets, it is a factor suggesting that the Tissue principle is thwarted by the other principles. Repeat the observation for the other planet concerned with Tissue, Jupiter.

In this way you can build up a list of positive and negative points for and against the health of a patient’s Tissue principle. Repeat that process for the other two health principles, Metabolism and Circulation, and you will have a valid basis for making a diagnosis about the nature of the person’s health constitution.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Dhanvantari - the God of Medicine

Case Study of Blindness

The patient is a woman, born March 15, 1947 at 10:06 in Kurume, Japan

Factors Indicative of Blindness

1. The Lord of the First House, Venus, in Saturn‘s sign (Capricorn) and under aspect from Saturn. Key points making Saturn very, very difficult health wise in this chart:
   • He is on his mrityu-bhaga degree in Cancer – the degree which causes medical problems
   • Cancer is, in this case, the sign of a great enemy.
   • His vargavimshopaka is only 7. Vargavimshopaka is a score given for the sign occupied by a planet in all the subdivisions of space. Below 10 is a weak score.
2. Rahu in the first house, joined with the Ascendant within less than a degree of distance.
   • Rahu is stationary
   • Rahu is “exalted” which, in Rahu’s case really means he is troublesome.
3. The Second and Twelfth lord (for the left and right eye) are conjoined in a malefic sign (Aquarius) in a nakshatra called “1000 doctors.” This nakshatra belongs to Rahu, and is known as the cause of significant medical problems.
4. The Sun (source of light and vision) is at zero degrees of his sign.
5. The Moon (the other source of light and vision) is in the second pada of Moola nakshatra, which the classics define as contributing vulnerability to blindness.

Saturn being in very poor condition with health-concerns aspecting her 1st Lord Venus in his own sign is the first, primary, over-riding indication of ill health. Rahu being stationary and “exalted” and exactly upon the Ascending degree is almost equally alarming and imperative. Further because his dispositor is Venus, he takes on her dignity, and therefore the affect of Saturn upon Venus also affects Rahu. This shows that her body (1st House) would suffer very unusually (Rahu).

We have still not yet seen blindness specifically – but seeing the lord of both of the eyes being in Rahu’s satabhishaka (“1000 doctors” nakshatra) we would have quite reasonable hope to suspect that the health illness will manifest towards blindness. Finding the Moon in the 8th House and in Moola, and the Sun at 0º would also help us identify blindness as the most likely or initial manifestation of her serious health concerns.

Timing of the Blindness

The patient developed onset of blindness in 1968. Within 5 years it had progressed to a very tangible state wherein she could no longer walk without assistance. By the year 2000 her blindness was complete.

Onset

1968 was the patient’s Venus / Saturn cycle (Vimshottari Dasha system). The primary horoscopic indication of ill health is the influence of very poor and mrityu-bhaga Saturn upon her Fist House lord Venus. Therefore it may be somewhat readily expected / predicted that this is a possible time for onset of the blindness.

The patient does not recall exactly when in 1968 this began, but in my opinion it must have happened shortly after April 12th of 1968. My reasoning is that on that date she entered Venus / Saturn / Jupiter / Mars. In this cycle all of the planets are either malefic or inimical towards her ascendant lord, Venus. But what is far more important is that this cycle began on a total lunar eclipse!

When this cycle was beginning there was a total lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses always involve four planets: The Sun, Moon, Rahu and Ketu. But this one involved an additional three: Saturn, Venus and Mercury. Saturn in particular was very close to the eclipse axis. The planets outside this axis were only Jupiter and Mars. Jupiter was retrograde, the lord of the 8th house, aspecting her natal Mars and Moon. Mars was aspecting her natal Saturn, Ketu and Jupiter.

The Eclipse took place at 25º Pisces / 25º Virgo, with Sun, Rahu, Saturn, Mercury and Venus in Pisces. Saturn in Pisces, of course, aspects Taurus – which is the patient’s First House.

Critical Manifestation

That was when the patient’s blindness began. She reports that five years later it had become critical. It took Saturn exactly 5 years to move from the eclipse point and actually arrive in her First house – at just about the same degree in Taurus as the eclipse occurred at in Pisces – 23 – 25º.

Meanwhile, on April 15th of 1973, as Saturn approached this degree in her first house, She entered Sun / Mars / Saturn cycle while the Sun tightly conjoined Venus in her 12th house (Tight Sun / Venus conjunctions are also somewhat indicative of vulnerability to blindness). Mars was transiting her Venus, and Saturn was of course in her first house and thus aspecting her twelfth and second house lords which occupied her 10th house.

Completion

The patient says it was not until the year 2000 that she became totally blind. This means that the deterioration of her vision progressed over a course of 27 years, from 1973 to 2000. Any astrologer should recognize the significance of 27 years, because that is the amount of time it takes Saturn to move through the entire zodiac. So her blindness became clinical or literal in 1973 when Saturn first entered her first house after the eclipse. It progressed year by year as Saturn traversed the zodiac signs. And 27 years later, when Saturn again returned to her first house, the blindness was total and complete.

Eerily, almost, this coincides with her Rahu / Saturn cycle.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com