This week while doing research on the unconscious, I rediscovered Carl Jung, the imminent Swiss psychiatrist who ultimately broke his collaboration with Sigmund Freud when, in my limited estimation, Jung outgrew the childish fixation Freud had on the importance of the sexual instinct. Jung was simply a much brighter candle than Freud. Perhaps it was his association with the spiritual philosophies of India during his trip to India in 1937-38 — I suspect Jung had always been a bud waiting to blossom in the right soil.

Jung noted how people often have two different personas. For example, one persona at home and a different persona at work, one of which is more authentic than the other. Interestingly, he surmised that this is not a problem if you are aware you are playing a role in the inauthentic one. However, if you are unconscious of your inauthenticity, you invite neuroses. Can our struggles be as simple as this?

The Shadow Mind
This view goes hand in hand with one of Jung’s most well-known hypotheses, that of the shadow mind. According to Jung, the shadow mind is the unconscious aspect of ourselves that contains repressed thoughts, feelings, and impulses we have deemed unacceptable or undesirable. Jung believed that the shadow mind is not solely negative but also contains valuable attributes such as instincts, emotional energy, creativity, and realistic insights we have suppressed. In essence, our shadow mind is our repressed authenticity which is always seeking to get our attention, sometimes through aggressive, self-sabotaging, or even violent behaviour. 

Astrology, Ketu, and the Shadow Mind
In Vedic astrology, Ketu (South node) represents your unconscious, those aspects of your authentic nature you have repressed. To escape their feelings of suffocation, disillusionment, and confusion, you seek relief through unconscious choice. Rahu, the North node, represents these unconscious actions and the resulting dead end and suffering you create for yourself.

The Mirror
Jung says we can get hints as to what is suppressed by paying attention to what it is we most criticise in others. In yoga, we informally call this “the mirror theory” which basically cautions that whatever you don’t like in others is simply a reflection of what you don’t like in yourself and what you don’t like in yourself is your repressed authenticity calling out to you for help. When repressed, our authenticity transforms into what we hate the most.

The Cry of the Heart
Vedic astrology points us towards where we are suppressing our authentic nature. Simply look at the sign which holds your Ketu, then the house it occupies by counting the number of signs from the Ascendent. This will tell you where you are keeping your opportunities and circumstances stuck because of past life experiences.

More
There are many layers to this, but doing this simple technique will give you a great start. A little knowledge in this sense does go a long way. Knowing where you are stuck reveals your shadow mind and where you are trying to protect yourself. These areas are where you are micromanaging your life and the reason you struggle. Once you know where these areas are, do what you can to loosen up, relax, and not take life so seriously. It is only ourself who keeps us locked in the cage, but the really crazy reality is we have the key to let ourselves out. We are like the poor man lamenting his misfortune when all the time he has a diamond in his pocket…

Uranus
Fortunately, we have a dear friend coming to visit in Gemini who wants nothing better than to see us embrace our authenticity. He has not been to our house in Gemini since 1949, before must of us were born. Sometimes he gets a bit carried away in his excitement and will throw us into many unexpected situations, but he never creates anything on his own; he simply uses a torch to shine a light on our shadow mind and encourages us do the work with a friendly nudge. He’s going to be a guest for about 7 years — I hope he doesn’t overstay his welcome. We should bend to his will, not the other way around. 😉

In the meantime, examine Ketu and its location in your chart. Then check your pockets. You have the key; you’v’e had it all along. All you need do is use it.

 🤗

David 🔆

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Dear wonderful neighbour and fellow traveller;

I began my search at the age of ten for someone who could introduce me to God. Jesus was no longer in the flesh, so my prerequisite was that this person needed to know God personally. I was not interested in theory or assumption or faith. Faith was for those who did not know. I yearned to know, so I needed to find one who themselves knew God.

Though my quest was not fulfilled until after I turned 21, the process of seeking eventually brought to me an enlightened being who opened the door and showed me the way. Up to that point, as far back as I can remember, a nightmare had visited me each month. It was always the same: I would find myself walking down a dark, foreboding corridor with a door at the end. I did not want to open this door under any circumstances. I did not want to see what was behind the door — I was terrified — but my hand always reached for the knob… 

I always awoke in a cold sweat just before the door opened, my heart pounding wildly, looking across the room in the darkness at my older brother’s bed for assurance. Three months after I met my guru, I again had this dream only this time I had the courage to open the door at the end of the hall. What I experienced was Love… nothing but pure, unattached, unconditional Love which filled every part of my being. I woke up absolutely ecstatic. Never again did I have that nightmare. Indeed, I have never had any nightmares since. That was several decades ago. 😉

Guru Purnima marks the brightest full moon of the year and is the day celebrated in India that celebrates the day Adiyogi, the first yogi, shared his knowledge with seven sages over 15,000 years ago (though Sadhguru has informally told us it is closer to 40,000 years). It was from Adiyogi that the yogic sciences first originated and from his directive this knowledge was imparted across the world and became the basis for all spiritual paths.

Sadhguru tells us that Adiyogi had no desire to teach, but on this day, his compassion overflowed; he was compelled to become a teacher, a guru:

On Guru Purnima, there is a certain alliance between the Moon and the planets which creates a receptivity in people to that dimension which we refer to as the guru… So, this month is the month of Grace. Grace is like manure for growth, that a human being can catapult himself to another dimension of existence, capability and possibility.

One way to open the door to grace is to spend time in the company of those who have made friends with God. To this aim, Sadhguru is offering a live webcast 10 July. For more information, visit this page.

During my readings, I always tell my clients that Vedic astrology is a great tool, but without a guru, a spiritual master who has climbed the highest peak, like any tool, astrology is limited. You may have the best Italian paints, canvas, and brushes, but without an accomplished teacher, your efforts will be limited.

One of the great mysteries is though we have a teacher for everything else in life, we are hesitant to find one who will show us the mysteries of Life and Love, the nature of our existence. May this Guru Purnima remove all your hesitancy and bring to you the one who will show you across the ocean of worldy existence.

 🤗

David 🔆

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Dear wonderful neighbour and fellow traveller;

This week, Juneteenth (June 19th) is celebrated in America to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth traces its roots to June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans of their freedom. To its credit, the United Kingdom gave full emancipation to its slaves in 1838, nearly 30 years before America. Yet, it must be asked, “How many of us are truly free?”

Saints, sages, and Siddhas from all traditions are very clear: the experience of freedom arises from within and has nothing to do with external circumstances. This means a prisoner who knows the source of his existence knows freedom whereas the billionaire who has every desire fulfilled but is ignorant of his divinity lives in the chains of his own making. For the astrologer who understands the nature of both, he considers the difficult chart a blessing and the comfortable chart a curse. It’s only through the smelter’s fire that ore reveals the gold.

Saturn and Jupiter each have a role to play in our unfoldment: Saturn is the “hard knocks” of life which unexpectedly befall us. Yet, Saturn is a stern schoolmaster who believes in us more than we do. Saturn is our karma manifested and through the expansive eye of Jupiter are we able to discern the rhyme and reason in the challenge. Jupiter is the compassionate god who grants understanding and wisdom and when we allow Jupiter to fully manifest in our life, we prosper both materially and spiritually.

Is there a rhyme and reason? 🤔

In life, terrible things happen. Nevertheless, as an old astrologer-colleague once said to me, “Pain is obligatory; suffering is optional.” As difficult as it seems in those darkest moments, something eternal within your own being is calling to you to let go everything you have known to be true. Only in the space created when something leaves, will you find your answer and that answer will be in what comes in to fill the void.

Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.
― Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

As hard as it seems, I believe in you. You got this. You really do. 

 🤗

David 🔆

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Dear wonderful neighbour and fellow traveller;

As a mystic who embraces yoga science and philosophy, I am quite optimistic about the road human beings are traveling. On the other hand, as an astrologer/archaeologist, I always make sure my seat belt is securely latched. It takes skilful driving to avoid the potholes, traffic jams, and unnecessary detours, a tall task for humanity, but a real possibility for the individual — global harmony begins with us.

I am going to go out on the proverbial limb and make a declaration: though Saturn is now in its ‘fall’ (Aries), the road ahead has the potential and possibility to be one of the best periods of your life. Will there be increased friction and turmoil over the next three years for you and the rest of humanity? Absolutely. You can count on it, but each of us have the potential to turn Saturn’s fall into a resurrection

If your eyes are fixed on the rear-view mirror, you’ll miss that important turn coming up. ~ Richard Branson, English business magnate and entrepreneur

Make no mistake; your boundaries are at risk. Saturn means boundaries and in the home of Mars (Aries), your boundaries will be pushed, pulled, and tested and retested. And this is a good thing. If you remain as you are, you will continue to be tossed asunder in an endless cycle of pleasant and unpleasant experiences. One day you own the world because you have what you want, then the morrow finds you battling anxiety because what was once a tailwind has now become a gale against you. There is a safe harbour and Saturn in Aries will help you find it as long as you understand the process.

Saturn is both boundary and boundary buster. As an extension of your karmic trauma, Saturn is the walls you have created to protect yourself from more trauma, but just like an adult who is afraid to venture outside their house because of a traumatic experience as a child, the fear that holds up your self-created boundaries is a figment of your pain body. It holds no reality. Saturn is both the disease and the medicine. Through self-effort, applied discipline, perseverance, steadfastness, objectivity, and grounded living, you begin to change the narrative.

This is not easy to do on our own, of course, so Saturn uses our own karma to free ourself. Saturn comes along as a “bad time” from our own karmic imprint to push us to greater depths of understanding and greater heights of wisdom. Saturn is change and only through change can we be transformed from what we are not to what we are like the caterpillar who is turned to mush inside the chrysalis only to emerge as a butterfly. Saturn is your Superman, the force of dispassion who wears an ‘S’ on his chest, the S of Shiva, the Adiyogi who resides in you as you.

For the next three years, let go and allow yourself to be reborn. Saturn in Aries is an opportunity to discover where you are stuck, a tremendous blessing, for to see clearly is half the battle won. Then, through the power of Mars (Aries) you’ll have a clear direction. In this way, you’ll need no Google Maps: the star by which you guide your life will be the one within you, the one that has always been with you, and the one that will always lead you to safe harbour.

 🤗

David 🔆

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