Look at the names of the Greek and Roman gods. See how they are connected to the planets/ Sun/Moon and Earth. When the ancients blamed the bad events on the gods not being happy they were talking about rough astrological positions.

Astrology is archetypal, where did it begin? Mayans used it, Egyptians, Mesopotamians had observatories, they’ve even found star patterns in Neanderthal cave paintings. Connecting to the stars is ancient beyond conception. How many times have you had your stars read (in this life and before)? How many lives have you lived looking at the stars and working with them on some level. Where are you with them now, how will you connect closer to these archetypal forces that played such a prominent role in human life for so long. What can they do for you, are you ready to open up to them, see what they reveal to you through an astrologer or your own study and then work with them consciously in your life.

Your astrological birth chart is a map of your karma. There was a synchronicity at the moment of birth with your samskaras and the sky, it was not chance. How this is interpreted depends on the astrologer- and what astrologer you see depends what you are attracting to yourself, there again, it is not chance.

Vedic astrology shows our perceptions, behavior and situation changes through time. It can show good and bad timings for what we want in our life, it can show our good and bad proclivities, our spiritual path and it can make predictions about the future. Vedic Astrology has another deeper side as well, it has the ability to expand your consciousness like it’s sister sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda. Are you ready to question your conceptions of the universe, are you ready to expand your views and see how everything is so deeply inter-related and dependant. You already knew it was deep but it keeps getting deeper.

How did I get into Vedic Astrology? The first time I heard myself called an astrologer was while I was working with a teacher in Pune and he introduced me as an astrologer from America. I had never considered myself an astrologer before that, I was just having a love affair with the stars. A month later I was one of the speakers at a workshop on astrology at the International Academy of Ayurveda in Pune, India.

My introduction to Jyotisha was at the end of the New England Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine course where one of our last sections was on medical astrology. I saw that I had gone from a Venus period into a Sun period at age 19. I had been in art school at RIT my first year of college, but left for a degree in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts. I never understood exactly why, I just knew it felt right. I saw that I had been in a Venus period which is connected to art and that I went into a Sun period, which is associated with psychology. I saw Jyotisha explain my past.

Then I was shown that I could see the karma behind disease, when it started, when and if it would end. It’s an x-ray into the health of an individual, how could I practice Ayurveda without it was my only thought. For example, I saw an individual who had depression for most of her adult life. I looked at her chart, and then I saw she had been in a Rahu period for the last 17 years. I asked her if that was when it began and she said that was when she left home and started living a party lifestyle and that it did begin about them. So I put together some herbs for her and counseled her about it getting better in a year when Rahu ends its 18 year period. If she was only half way through and still had 9 years of Rahu, I would look like a bad herbalist because it didn’t go away.

So I dedicated myself to learning Jyotisha. In Sanskrit, the science of Jyotisha is called the Jyotir Vidya, which can be translated as the science of light or as the Goddess of Light, for Vidya is a word that has meanings deeper than English can express. Vidya, can be translated as Science or Goddess, because the science is her body, science is the goddess, the Vidya. It is said that you don’t get Her she gets you, she makes you Hers and devours you. To understand Jyotish, the Jyotir Vidya must come for you.

Ganesh is considered the deity associated with Astrology. Gana means division and esh means lord, so he is the lord of divisions. Astrology is dividing the sky up into parts and interpreting it’s meaning and effects. There is a branch of Vedic Astrology called Muhurta, which is choosing an auspicious time to begin an event. Just like a person’s life can be seen from their chart, anything begun has a birth and therefore a chart. I can interpret the course of a marriage by the date people get married. So with that knowledge it is considered wise to pick a good date to begin important actions/events. Ganesh is invoked in beginnings to remove obstacle from the path of progress. He is the deity connected to the science of picking a successful timing. My favorite form of Ganesh is shown holding an arrow. Like an arrow it will not change course once it is released from the bow. So proper aim before it is released is crucial, just like the intent and timing of the beginning of any project will play a crucial role in the outcome. Aum Gang Ganapatiya Namaha.