Saturn, Pujas and the Orion Arm

Namaste Gandhi

I hope I didn’t not offend you in my last reply. There was no challenge to you on my part, just that every time I turn to your page for planetary devotion, every planet looks favored except for Saturn and Venus which get no comment, picture or anything… ( I am very curious what you will have to say about them…!)

You didn’t offend me at all. Mercury was retrograde for the month and you can’t do much writing when Mercury is retrograde. Well, so say many astrologers. It is said that countries are populated by soul groups, and soul groups are distinguished by characteristics arising from their land and culture. So at times, I find it hard to go against the grain of a soul group in a Western culture which has powerful thought-forms about Mercury retrograde. Vedic Astrology says retrogrades don’t matter at all.

It’s just that the planets seem to have their own plans about when these pages will get done. I have gone to write the Saturn page, perhaps two – three – four times, and although I already have some material prepared for this page, – it seems the time to write that page is not yet now. I don’t mind Saturn at all and I have a devotion to Saturn which started during my Sade-Sati – and I plan to stay friends with Saturn, anyway, as he has played a number of jokes on me. Hard to explain, but in chanting the 108 names of Saturn, I have actually heard him repeat and comment on one or two of the names.

The other thing is that I haven’t found the image of Saturn I want. I saw a marvellous image of Saturn on a page earlier this year, and I never copied it, something I now regret, quite a bit. I have spent many nights searching for this image.

I actually don’t have any problems with Saturn. In Hinduism He is called Lord Sani Bhagwan, and he is one of the gods. I was reading an introduction to the Gayathri mantra are some days ago and I discovered that Sani actually rules Tapah loka – one of the seven heavens.

Long form of the Gayatri Mantra:

  • Om Bhur
  • Om Bhuvah
  • Om Swaha
  • Om Maha
  • Om Janah
  • Om Tapah
  • Om Satyam
  • Tat Savitur Varenyam
    Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
    Dhiyo Yo naha Prachodayat

Meaning of the mantra

O Self-Effulgent light that has given birth to all the lokas
(spheres of consciousness) who is worthy of worship and appears
through the orbit of the Sun , illumine our intellect .

Spiritual Planes Represented (Planets)

  • Om Bhur
    Earth plane (ruled by Mars)
  • Om Bhuvah
    Atmospheric plane (ruled by Sun)
  • Om Swaha
    Solar region (ruled by Venus)
  • Om Maha
    First spiritual region beyond the Sun :
    Heart vibration (ruled by Mercury)
  • Om Janah
    Second spiritual region beyond the Sun :
    Power of the divine spiritual word (ruled by Moon)
  • Om Tapah
    Third spiritual region beyond the Sun:
    Sphere of the progenitors.
    Realm of the highest spiritual understanding
    while still identified with individual existence (ruled by Saturn)
  • Om Satyam
    The abode of supreme truth:
    Absorption into the supreme (ruled by Jupiter)
  • Tat Savitur
    That realm of the truth which is
  • Varenyam
    beyond human comprehension

So I am busy exploring this for the time being. I find it really interesting that Saturn rules the third (and highest before Sathya Loka) spiritual division beyond the Sun. This somewhat changes the perception and understanding of Saturn, as gatekeeper toward spiritual progress. This is meritorious of much spiritual reflection.

As for Venus, I have done no in-depth study of Venus to date, except that recently I was reflecting on vedic astrology and how it depicts HIV-AIDS, and discovered a claim that Venus conjunct Jupiter is a common occurance, along with some other common repetitions of planetary placements. Venus conjunct Jupiter is called ati-kaama yoga, and produces excessive sexual desire. (No, I don’t have HIV – AIDS, I was just reflecting in compassion about its causes and how to find this affliction in charts.)

In vedic astrology, you have chart divisions, and there can be up to 60 divisions and other (harmonics) (called drekkanas). In 10 of these divisions – in my charts – Venus is in the same house. It is also Bhava lord, meaning it is the Birth Chart ruler. I’ll get around to Venus one day, when I am ready.

You came to mind, because there is a local astrologer by the name of Noel Tyl who is actually quite famous in the Western astology world. He resurrected the Quindecile aspect which somehow got lost on the wayside a century or two ago, but it seems useful in looking at full blown mental disorders or obsessions. In fact, a few of his students have devoted their work just to this aspect. Sometimes the obsession simply thrusts people forward into high achievement. Noeltyl.com is his site and you can proceed to his techniques tab for the quindecile work. Ricki Reeves is a student of his who seems to have written an entire book on the quindecile.

Thanks, I will take a look.

As I mentioned in my previous email, the worst issue I can speak of is probably the moon in applying square to saturn which has made me susceptible to chronic low grade depression. I do have the moon in separating sextile to ketu and trine rahu, but since those are easy aspects, the relationship would be positive, I think.

Rahu produces spiritual warriors when it is friendly and well placed;
Ketu aids progress towards liberation – freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth.

If this is going to happen, then their task is to produce periods of darkness and inertia, withdrawal from the world. This is because much detachment must happen, and much of the mind (which gets in the way of liberation) must go. The mind can be either helpful, or an albatross around the neck and drag you down. A discipline is to master the mind (in otherwords, guide it, tell it what to do, say NO to the mind and its outward going desires) and so become a mastermind. It is really an instrument which may be used to help one live at a much higher level of reality.

I did encounter a description of kaal sarp yoga as being partial even if you have two planets outside of the rahu/ketu division of the chart. What is your take on it? (I have all my planets on one side except for the Moon and Jupiter.

If you have planets outside the Rahu-Ketu axis, then you do not have Kaal Sarp Yoga. It is not partial. This is clear. The nodes have a task to do with regard to karma; there are no partial resolutions to karma. Ketu is the karmic container – look at its symbol) and karma is disposed by Rahu (Rahu is karmic dispositor – look at its symbol) to be finished off. While the Gods may speak sweet on many topics, on the topic of discipline, the Gods are firm. Discipline must be embraced and integrated. Thereafter, in an expanded state of awareness, founded on discipline, the gunas and karma cannot touch you.

However, kaal sarp yoga can occur once or twice in a year during transit periods and when that happens, we all have it. It has happened already this year, twice, to my recall.

Do I need a puja?

I can understand your question, for we humans on the level of mundane existence limited by the body and mind, feel and suffer in the gloom and darkness and wonder if the day will ever come when we will be free of such afflictions and inner, private suffering

.

Every day can be puja day. Every day we can do an inner puja of love to all around us. Every day, silently, we can offer a puja of love, sending love and light to all whom we encounter, all whom we think about, all whom we care about or have ever had relationship with.

In Hinduism, this puja is done as a simple prayer or affirmation:
Samasta loka sukhino bhavantu – may all beings, in all places, have happiness.

Offer this puja daily. Silently offer a puja of love to all whom you encounter, all whom you serve, in whatever manner and fashion, be it in your daily labours, in music, in the home, in the world. Samasta loka sukhino bhavantu reaches all beings in all places. Done three times, first for yourself, second for all on Earth and the Earth herself, and third, to all beings in all the worlds and dimensions beyond us. There is nothing – nothing we do – which does not have an effect in the other worlds. So your puja of love may reach far and wide.

What recompense do we get for such a puja? It comes to my mind daily that in some fee simple, divine grace requires human effort. Trashed as heresy in times past when the emergent church tried to deal with Donatism and Pelagianism, the church dismisses human effort as sinful. Hinduism tells you, you make effort, then grace will seize you. You must know that planets are called grahas in Vedic astrology, and graha means to seize, to grasp. Grace in Hinduism is called anugraha, that which is the smallest of the small, and the largest of the large, seizes you and takes you into its own reality. So make effort and do your puja of love. Your inner puja – sacrifice – tapasya – setting yourself and inner suffering aside will benefit both others and yourself. But also, take the rule of Krishna, nishkama karma, do the action without desire for the benefit. This pleases the Lord the most and erases karma. So there is your puja!

Recently, I travelled Sydney and visited my brother and his family. I asked myself, “What shall I read on the journey?” I took Frawley’s Astrology of the Seers. I read where Frawley says all light comes from a Central Sun of all the Universes. Frawley places the central sun of all the Universes at Sagittarius 6:40 – this is the central source of all light for all the universes and galaxies. The Central Sun, the sun that is the Source of All.

View a chart for 21 December 2012 and look for the nakshatra Moola and go to the time point when the Sun is at 6 degrees 40 in Saggitarius.

  • The sun is our solar system and all the other planets that are aligned with that sun.
  • That solar system is also aligned with the Galactic Sun in our Galaxy and there are many other solar systems that are aligned with that Sun also.
  • We are in the Orion Arm of our Galaxy.
  • Orion-Cygnus Arm

  • The Orion Arm is one of many arms of our galaxy which take 24,00 years (or thereabouts) to rotate around a central sun, said to be in the constellation of Sagittarius A. This procession or rotation is mentioned in Sri Yukteswar’s book, The Holy Science.
  • Our galactic sun is receiving energy (or vibration) from the Central Sun of the Subtle Universe
  • That Central Sun of the Subtle Universe is said to be as large as our Solar System
  • We are about to come into alignment with the Central Sun of the Subtle Universe, the central sun of all material and non-material universes and galaxies

This alignment has been coming about for a number of years. Just as planets give their effect some days or months before they change houses, so too, energy has been giving effect to us prior to this time of alignment. It is and has been a time of upheaval … but if you hold onto the strength of God from the Source … you will ride with the wind of change. There is nothing to be afraid of … people will survive … it is a lot to do with the soul, his Self or her Self, has chosen. There is a lot happening … you can see that for yourselves, on the television and in the newspapers about the changes, the climatic changes that are happening here upon this Earth. It is meant to happen. Read more on www.cosmicsaibaba.com

The Solar sun of your Solar system is giving off radiation which is affecting that climatic change. There is a calm at this time but it will become stronger. The change is for good … when the alignment takes place in a time in our measurement of 2012 – 2013 … the climate itself will be calm. And in so doing that, the changes within everybody on this Earth, will also be much calmer. Life will go on. It is a cycle. It has happened before upon this Earth planet. (See Cosmic Sai Baba)

When the Sun is at 6 degrees 40 in Sagittarius a beam of pure (light) (energy) (consciousness) will come right from the Central Sun of the Subtle Universe, the Central Sun of all the galaxies and universes right through our Sun to this planet. I’ll be writing a bit more about this shortly.

Namaskaram

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