I am making this brief post to reflect on my experience of Kal Sarpa Yoga: the phenomenon in Vedic Astrology where all your planets are caught between the axis of the Nodes of the Moon: Rahu and Ketu in your birth chart. Rahu and Ketu are the North and South Nodes of the Moon – always opposite each other in the birth chart.
There’s areas of debate in Vedic astrology about whether this yoga is still deemed to be effective if any of the three ‘debate cases’, namely, I would say, three areas of debate in particular as follows:
Firstly where your planets are exactly conjunct either Node,
Secondly if any of your planets are just outside the Nodal axis albeit in the same signs as the Nodes, or
Thirdly if one of your planets is ‘out on a limb’ all on its own yet all the other planets fall within the Nodal axis.
(We don’t take the outer planets of western astrology into account in defining Kal sarpa yoga.
I would like to say that in my experience I have found that the individual feels the Kal Sarpa yoga energy not only in the ‘pure’ example of all planets inside the Nodal Axis, but also in the case of these three ‘debate cases’ as well.
OK, so what is the Kal Sarpa energy? What will it mean in your life if you have Kal Sarpa Yoga in your Vedic birth chart?
First of all: what are the Nodes of the Moon? As so often in astrology, the ancient myth gives us some clue.
At the feast of the Gods, a demon serpent slid in between the Sun and the Moon and slurped the nectar of immortality proper to the Gods, luminaries and planets. Lord Vishnu discovered the thief and beheaded the interloper. The demon serpent’s cut off-head became Rahu; his headless body became Ketu, however the two halves had become immortal. This was because they had drunk the nectar before the beheading took place.
Why are the Nodes demons? Well, it is because of their dark power. The Nodes of the Moon are the eclipse points, the intersection of the apparent orbits of the Sun and the Moon round the earth. And eclipses are our darkness. This is because they have the power even to devour the Sun or the Moon. So in our birth charts, they are our greatest darkness, but thus, because Vedic astrology is tantric, also the gateways to our enlightenment if only we can learn to perceive and understand them correctly and purify them accordingly. So the Nodes of the Moon are demonic energies until we understand them. Rahu is the driven energy of this life time getting us to where we incarnated to get in terms of expressing our talents, learning the selected lessons. Ketu is the sharp dissolving energy revealing our past life in our birth chart. Both are totally spiritual; both are hard to learn how to handle.
So that about the destiny of a Kal Sarpa Yoga person, where all his or her planets are caught up in the Nodes of the Moon?
Obviously the manifestation will be different dependent upon the signs and houses the Nodes fall in in your birth chart, and especially what planets conjunct the Nodes, but one meaning is that the person’s life/consciousness has the challenge of being imbalanced. The person will be stuck in some sort of imbalanced mode of consciousness and living in a conscious or unconscious way. Think of it: all planets in one half of the chart. A second facet of the meaning is that the person’s energy can be very lunar (indeed fluctuating) if all the planets are in the western half of the chart; or very solar and ‘me first if they’re all in the eastern half. Imbalanced personality can undermine health, stability, mental soundness, mental stability or success. And a third feature is that this energy can be very divisive. Maggie Thatcher had Kal sarpa yoga. She divided a nation! Joseph Goebbels had it: Adolph Hitler’s propaganda minister. Obviously you have to check the signs the Nodes are in in your personal birth chart to really understand how this yoga will manifest in your life. Jawahar Nehru India’s first Prime Minister had it. Dhirubhai Ambani the famous Indian businessman had it and his whole rise to power was marked by allegations of international subterfuge, and his empire seeded the divisiveness of his sons. Nelson Mandela had it and half his life was spent in prison. The risk is that Kal sarpa will bring an excess of serpent energy into your chart for you to deal with, which can, if in negative signs include such features as venom, secrecy, delusion, link to mass movements, ranting, driven energies or proneness to sudden melt-down. Of course, these features can be purified and healed.
And what about the third case above where all the planets are inside the nodal axis but one planet is on a limb outside it. I think this gives great instability for the out-on-a-limb planet! This is especially hard if the on-a-limb planet is the Moon. Iris Murdoch the British novelist had kal sarpa yoga with Moon on a limb outside it, and she went demented and some of her novels hold the icon of enlightened spiritual teachers yet neurotic and perverted followers (The Bell, The unicorn). And to have Venus three creates a tough script for love.
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