Ketu - South Node of Moon
Om Chitravarnaya vidmahe
Sarpa Roopaya Dheemahe
Tanno Ketu Prachodayat
Self empowerment
We consider Ketu, South Node of the Moon as karaka - disposer - of intelligence of a high order. As man is a unity of mind, body and spirit, then there are forms of knowing appropriate to the body, to the mind and the intellect, which is nearest the soul (the atma), and derives over 90% of its illumination from the soul. Ketu is also karaka for spiritual intelligence. In these days after the Summer Solstice of 2012, new energies are pouring forth from the Creative Source of All, the Central Source of all universes, and these energies mark the return of the 4th dimension, lost to man since the Fall of Atlantis.
With the Fall of Atlantis, the Earth fell out of the 4th Dimension. What, then, is the enhanced role and function of the planets in the return to the 4th Dimension? What is the spiritual order in the 4th Dimension? For answers to these questions, we turn to the shadow-planet (chhaya graha) Ketu, who is dispositor of Spiritual Intelligence.
Importance of Eclipses and Ketu
Ketu, south node of the Moon, is the lesser of the two malefic shadow planets. Ketu has a role in eclipses, when the flow of light is blocked to planets, creating further blockages of light to our minds, bodies and spirits. There are two principal planets which have primary effects on the human person: the Sun - which signifies personality, health and splendour - and the Moon which is the presiding deity of the mind. When lunar eclipses occur, there is blockage of light and energy from the Moon to the mind, the body, the spirit. Ketu is the planet which casts the shadow on the mind during lunar eclipses.
Eclipses - either solar or lunar - are critical points of transformation, as that which was in darkness, is now transposed to the domain light by the reflection of increased light energies by the planets. In this case, Ketu eclipses the Moon. The transposition of that which was in the dark is brought into the light of the mind, presided over by the Moon. As the Moon is receiving and reflecting new energies, new frequencies of light from the Creative Source of All, we must then ask ourselves, what is it that Ketu is bringing to the light, in our spiritual development?
The Moon is the presiding deity of the Mind. It is receiving and reflecting the energies of the Fourth dimension to the mind, to the so-called junk DNA, to the neurons in the mind. From this light, other parts of the mind receive light. The Mind is the key: turn the key to the world, there is bondage; turn the key to divinity, spirituality, there is release and freedom. The function of Ketu here is to eclipse the mind and allow that which is hidden, buried deep, to be exposed to the light within the mind ... directly ... to the light of the intellect.
That which is brought to the light from the shadow (by the shadow planet itself) is a tool for Self empowerment.
Self empowerment is an important aspect of this return to the 4th Dimension, and more so, an important aspect of spiritual intelligence. This is because spirituality does not require you to believe anything, but rather, invites you to examine your experience and reflect on what works for you; Ketu exposes that which is in the shadow (causing doubts and discontentment) and gives opportunity discrimination and detachment via the intellect. This is a facet of spiritual intelligence as problem solving skill.
Spiritual Intelligence has five components: transcendence, mysticism, sanctification, problem solving skills (all intelligence is problem solving skill) and spirituality as ethical and virtuous behaviour. As we have discussed, eclipses are points of tension where that which is hidden in the inner space becomes outer reality. This creative tension propels doubts and discontents from the introverted fields of the mind from darkness to light to be raised to a new order, a new skill, a new competency in the armour of spirituality.
This creative tension propels doubts and discontents: these are exposed to the intellect. Spiritual intelligence has a faculty of problem solving skill. Cognitive dissonance (the inner sense of wrongness, discomfort, inner friction inner unrest) is brought to the scrutiny of the intellect where we apply our problem solving skill. In the field of spirituality, our foundation of spiritual experiences (dreams, mystical experiences, visions and encounters with the divine teacher), our transcendence (selfless service of the other; feeding and clothing the poor, engagement in charitable works for the benefit of society at large. Transcendence is participation in workshops on spiritual topics and going on spiritual retreats. It is prayer and meditation in common, and participating in group prayers and prayers in the public domain), our sanctification (making our day holy with prayer, meditation, sacred reading, repeating the name of the Divine whom we adore, our affirmations or blessings of light and love to other people, our environment), all come to bear and add to our problem solving skill.
Ketu and Spiritual Intelligence
It is said that Rahu and Ketu are tamasic - the guna or elemental force to inaction (BHPS). There are three gunas, rajas, satva and tamas. Tamas is the obstructing quality that prevents us from realising happiness, whether spiritually or materially.
Tamasic qualities are: attachment to sense objects, hypocrisy, sympathy, an undeveloped sense of “ought”, want of self respect, inactivity, stupidity, dullness, shyness, imperviousness to reason, callousness, dependence through want of capacity, procrastination, moroseness, deception, carelessness, negligence, strong feelings of obstinacy and anger when chastised for faults but careless when not chastised and simply asked to mend faults, crookedness, duplicitous, intellectually bent but heartless, lustful, covetous, a stealing propensity, a begging nature, superstitious, treacherousness, habitual untruthfulness, and shrinking attitude or lack of self-confidence.
Tamasic qualities are transformed by self empowerment. Self empowerment, as aspect of spiritual intelligence lies in the domain of spirituality as problem solving skill. It is here that self-empowerment transforms these attitudes and behaviours. Rise and fall in human life is dependent on human effort. While the planets cast their energies and light, we may undertake action toward self-transformation instead of being passive victim. Recall the teaching, the energies of the planets may either raise us up or pull us down. While there is planetary influence in signs and houses, the spark of the divine resides within; none are without the skill of turning within and taking up the positive side of the planet which influences us. The prayer Asatoma seeks that we go from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real, from death to immortality. When we invoke the aid of Ketu as karaka - disposer of intelligence, we may apply our energies to these tamasic, entropy-causing activities and attitudes. We do this with the aid of the intellect, which bestows discrimination and detachment.
Human beings are gifted with two innate functions of the intellect: discrimination and detachment. Discrimination makes us seek the goal of life: What is the base, the support of all life? The intellect - nearest the soul and deriving over 90% of its illumination from the soul - guides us to what is the basis of life, what is not the basis of life; it guides us to cognise what supports our lives, what does not support our lives. Detachment comes into play when we discard all that which holds us back from attaining that knowledge, that basis, that support, that goal. Ketu, the shadow planet which disposes intelligence of a high order, brings our attachments, our attitudes, our habits and our character and places them before the light of the intellect and our discrimination. It is the task of Ketu to strike the match which brings the flame of self-empowerment. Self empowerment examines attachments, dullness, imperviousness to reason, obstinacy, shrinking attitude and lack of self confidence with discrimination and detachment; we may keep, discard or manage various shadow aspects of our personality and character. We choose self-empowerment with the light of the intellect, the light of the soul.
Self empowerment is the journey to personal excellence along a continuum of knowledge, skill, balance, insight and identity. It is the evolution of self confidence. It is learning to do, a life-long learning skill, for no human is born to inactivity. It is acquisition of culture: culture that teaches you to revere mother and father, culture that teaches you to respect teachers, elders and the laws of the motherland. It is acquisition of skill, something that Ketu has in spades. Ketu - like any worker requiring skill - may engage in drill, rehearsal, repetition, refinement, evaluation and further drill, repetition and refinement to an extra-ordinary high degree of skilful behaviour and delivery with competence.
Acquisition of competency leads to self-knowledge and awareness, which leads to self-confidence, which leads to self satisfaction, then on to self-sacrifice and then self-realisation. We learn to know ourselves, we acquire and apply skills, we learn to live together, we learn to be ourselves. These are the stepping stones to self-empowerment, a fundamental task of Ketu as planetary deity who takes us from conscious to conscience to consciousness. Ketu is Lord of the three nakshatras (asterisms) which begin the journey and lead to liberation, moksha, freedom from the cycle of birth-death-and-birth-again. Ketu's task is to take us to liberation, freedom from this cycle of birth and death.
Is it conundrum that a malefic planet is tasked to take us to liberation, moksha? All the planets are amsa, parts of, representations of, departmental divinities placed in charge of certain aspects of creation. All of creation is on a pathway to the ultimate goal, from evolution to involution, from creation to absorption into the Divine. There is a plan, and that plan is perfect, whether a planet - or shadow planet - is benefic or malefic.
Ketu is a malefic because he first hides those areas he affects in addition to bringing about that eclipse-borne transformation and, thereby, freeing us from attachments. Although Ketu hides the areas he affects by causing feelings of doubt and creating discontentment when character traits are exposed to the light of day, Ketu has an important task in the in-breaking 4th Dimension: as shadow, to take that which is in the shadow, and transform the base metal to gold, to transform self-doubt and discontent to self-empowerment.
