The way I teach Vedic Astrology totally encompasses crossover into Western psychodynamic and evolutionary astrology, as well.
When you have an Astrology Reading with me, I give expert sharing both of what your Western astrology reveals about you, and also what is seen in your Vedic Astrology.
So, what’s the difference between Western and Vedic Astrology?
Well, the Sidereal zodiac of Vedic Astrology expresses our nature at the soul level, our destiny, our karmic mission, our incarnational life purpose. As such it’s ‘anchored to the stars’. It states the spiderweb of our destiny (see featured image above).
The Tropical zodiac of Western Astrology, on the other hand, expresses our psychology: our psychological reactions to that destiny that Vedic Astrology declares.
See my Pt 1 video:
And see my Pt. 2 video here.
The Tropical Zodiac is based on the Sun’s position on the first day of Spring (The Vernal Equinox, March 21st) and the Sun’s position moves against the backdrop of the stars by a degree every 72 yrs.
So, it’s Sun-based, and as such, it’s orientated to the psychology of our Self (= The Sun, our Egoic Self).
The number of degrees difference between the Western Tropical and the Vedic Sidereal Zodiacs is called the Ayanamsha, and I have found that this is most closely accurately stated by the Lahiri Ayanamsha (by which the two zodiacs were 23 deg 51 apart in the year 2000).
So why do we need both Western and Vedic Astrology?
It is so necessary to have the Western Astrology declaration of the nature of our egoic self. And note that in Western Tropical Zodiac Astrology, even destiny issues like past life matters are presented by Western Astrology (e.g. Evolutionary Western Astrology) in terms of how we experience them and how we react them psychologically.
But we have to learn that our goal in this life is not to reside in our psychological reactions. Rather it is to grow in relationship to our destined karmic challenges and to grow our soul talents, and to raise our consciousness thereby, to come to fuller connection to the Divine.
So totally essential though it is to know about and understand, Western Tropical zodiac Astrology is stuck in the false self, the therapy. We are left underwhelmed and dissatisfied with the psychological total emphasis, and this accounts for the growing popularity of Vedic Astrology.
In western evolutionary astrology, note that even our past life issues are expressed in terms of the way we react to them psychologically, lost in self-absorption. Whereas Vedic Astrology’s declaration of our past life issues and our karmic direction in this life, on the other hand, is a road map for the soul.
So, western astrology is a crucially-needed road map for the growth of our psychological awareness, even though this is with the finally important ‘ultimately leaving that behind’ as the needed focus.
There has been such a lot of acrimony recently as to which Zodiac to use, and I do not post this in the spirit of acrimony, but from the heart because I don’t want people to have their astrological learning ruined, nor to have them led on the less helpful path.
So, I want to share here that I have found from my own experience that if Sidereal Zodiac and Lahiri Ayanamsha is the one that must used for Vedic Astrology.
If you use the Tropical Zodiac for Vedic Astrology, you lose so much, you get a lot of wrong declaration.
For example, if you use the Tropical Zodiac for Vedic Astrology, you lose the nakshatra boundaries, the Gandanta zones identification, the vastly meaningful and accurate padas of the Nakshatras, the planetary rulerships so that you have your planets declared to be in the wrong sign and thus having the wrong Ruler.
You get inaccurate declaration of the wonderful Vedic Astrology strength statements of each planet in your chart.
House cusps become wrongly stated.
The planetary rulerships of your planets and Houses are wrongly declared.
The Varga charts become wrongly constructed (The Varga Charts are the wonderful Divisional Charts of Vedic Astrology each of which makes such a peerless invaluable declaration about a key different area of our life).
So, please be clear, what I am saying is that, as incarnated human beings, it is so necessary and so illuminating and so valuable, to develop perception as to our psychology – and indeed to do and vividly learn from planetary psychosynthesis work (applying my psychodynamic background to astrological declaration).
But it is also totally necessary to access the Sidereal zodiac Vedic astrology declaration of our soul purpose and destiny.
And I want to say that I have found wonderful results in my Readings and in my on-line Courses, doing psychosynthesis roleplay from psychodynamic western Astrology, and also at the same time drawing on Rashi Avasthas: how your planets treat each other, from Vedic Astrology.
PERSONAL REASON:
I do have a particular personal reason for believing that the Sidereal Zodiac and Lahiri Ayanamsha are the correct zodiac for Vedic Astrology, and must be used for Vedic Astrology.
This is because I have found that Sidereal Zodiac and Lahiri Ayanamsha fully and accurately states the very unusual circumstance of my birth and early childhood, and the unusual destiny and life issues that created for me.
What I found out in 1994, was that Tropical zodiac and Western Astrology know nothing – knew nothing at all of that vast truth of my unusual start in life, whereas in that year, I discovered that Sidereal Vedic Astrology with Lahiri Ayanamsha instantly and totally accurately declares it.
And so, here’s the astrological detail.
I share this because I want to share with others the important and valuable truth that Sidereal Zodiac with Lahiri Ayanamsha instantly and accurately declares my unusual start in life and the destiny that this created, and so it can instantly and accurately declare your life destiny and soul purpose too – and the circumstances that constellated around that life purpose at your birth, and the circumstances that will unfold as your life progresses: circumstances that Vedic Astrology can help you with good perception that can lead to the sorts of healing and empowerment work that I do.
I share this also because I was so shocked to find Vedic Astrology Courses which insist my Moon is in the wrong Nakshatra (Nakshatras are the wonderful 27-sign Lunar Zodiac of Vedic which so supremely declares our emotionally based identity and consciousness, warts and all).
I am so very much a Revati Nakshatra Moon, so it felt shocking and so misleading and unhelpful, to be told I was an Ashwini Moon, the false declaration being due to the wrong zodiac and the wrong Ayanamsha being used for Vedic Astrology.
And there’s far more to it than that!
The Sidereal Zodiac and Lahiri Ayanamsha states that my Moon in my birth chart is at the very end of Pisces: at 29 deg Pisces 56 minutes.
The first point to make about this concerns the unique Vedic astrology concept of Gandanta. Being at 29 Pisces 56, my natal Moon is therefore very deep in the Pisces/Aries Gandanta Zone (the Gandanta Zones are the three transition points from water sign to fire sign, and they render one’s experience of the solidity of this world very insubstantial, but can attune one to great spiritual realizations, if one can survive that).
And to have one’s natal Moon in one of the Gandanta Zones, especially so very deep in the Gandanta Zone, means that ‘mother will not be there for him’ – and she wasn’t, see below. Vedic astrology was breathtakingly and unexpectedly so totally accurate about my life.
The second Point to make is that my Moon with this very great sign longitude becomes my Atmakaraka or Soul Indicator. Your Atmakaraka or Soul Indicator is, in some ways the most important planet in your chart – stating a very major strand of your destiny.
And so, to have Moon as one’s Atmakaraka not only states that Mother will not be there for you, but also states the karmic life-purpose meaning that the person has as a key destiny that ‘he must learn to mother himself’. Of course, the Western Tropical zodiac does not declare my Moon to be at the end of Pisces, but I know deeply that that is my Moon nature – totally!
What western astrology declares is my egoic psychological reaction to my destiny.
It so shocked me when I once enrolled on a course that I found unexpectedly to be using tropical zodiac for Vedic astrology. And this chart depicted me as an Aries Moon, as an Ashwini Nakshatra Moon, and not as the Vedic Sidereal Zodiac accurately states it: to be a Pisces Revati Nakshatra Moon.
This shocked me first because this tropical zodiac course declared nothing of my key destiny and start in life, a life start and destiny that Sidereal Vedic Astrology so instantly and totally accurately declared.
It shocked me also, because it knew nothing of the Gandanta Zones – and finding out about these was what decided me to take up Vedic Astrology in the first place: because they so instantly declared my destiny and life history whereas Western Tropical Astrology, for all its vast value, knew nothing of them.
It shocked me because I am so very, very, very much a Revati Moon (Revati is the Nakshatra at the end of Vedic Pisces) and I am so NOT a Ashwini Moon (the first Nakshatra at the start of Vedic Aries).
It denied from me the key perception that I have a Moon Atmakaraka.
And the other crucially important twist to this tale is that if you do not use Vedic Sidereal Zodiac with Lahiri Ayanamsha, you get all the magnificent Vedic Predictive Periods, the Dashas (and their sub periods) occurring at totally the wrong time: totally the wrong dates.
And what I have to share with you, in my effort to help you use the accurate zodiac, is this:
The Dashas/Predictive Periods based on the Sidereal Zodiac with Lahiri Ayanamsha accurately and spot-on to the exact day, declared the next key event that happened to me in the unusual circumstances after my birth:
The Dashas, with that zodiacal basis, declare the date I left my first Dasha (Mercury- Saturn) and entered Ketu Dasha at age 6 weeks.
And what happened on the date I entered Ketu Dasha?
To the date when I entered Ketu Dasha, where my natal Ketu is in my 4th House, what happened was that my young single homeless Irish mother gave up the struggle and placed me in one of the infamous Catholic nuns’ Bon Seccours Convent Orphanages (see my brief life early history below to make sense of all this).
So Vedic Sidereal Zodiac was spot on in declaring this vast event to the very day. To the very day.
Western Tropical Zodiac knew nothing of it.
And Vedic Astrology using Tropical Zodiac got it completely wrong, too.
So, you can see how my unusual case proved to me the necessity to use Sideral zodiac and Lahiri Ayanamsha. I I want to share this to benefit others.
And, of course, there’s a lot more detail in my Vedic birth chart that backs this up by declaring my unusual destiny immediately.
It’s breathtaking how accurate and immediate other bits of my Vedic chart are but only if the Vedic Sidereal Zodiac with Lahiri Ayanamsha is used – not otherwise:
For example, using Sidereal Zodiac and Lahiri Ayanamsha, my Sun is at 1 degree Libra (I was born under a Full Moon Eclipse).
And thus my natal Sun has a record horrifically weak Shodasha Varga score (Shodasha Varga charts give strength scores for each of your planets across a number of the Varga charts, where each Varga chart focuses on an area of our life so magnificently).
So exceptionally, my Sun across all the Varga charts has a strength score of only 1 strength point.
Now, Sun is the karaka or indicator for Father: I only met him once, in my 40s. The Tropic zodiac knows nothing of this fineness of declaration, of course.
Last year, I had a stand at a Healers Fair here in the NW Ireland, and a Medium called Anne-Marie Carlin who was there, and who I had never met before, turned to me at a Mediumship Demonstration that she gave in the afternoon, and she asked me if I would act as a ‘guinea pig’ saying she was ‘drawn to work with me’.
She then astounded the audience when she asked if my father was in the army, and I answered yes. She had got it right.
I answered that yes, he was in General Sikorski’s Polish Army of Resistance against the Nazis.
She then told me that my father saluted me, and he congratulated me for surviving all that had happened to me.
And as the months have passed, what she told me has meant more and more to me.
And of course, in our astrology chart, Sun is also our self: the divine charioteer who drives the chariot of self. And it’s a very big challenge to have a weak charioteer driving the chariot of yourself. Indeed where in my case the other planets (the horses who pull the chariot of self), are so much stronger than the charioteer.
Note that in Vedic Astrology, my Sun is in 4th House – meaning that mother will act as father.
I now mention some other eye-opening revelations revealed by the Vedic Sidereal birth chart, I do this because I sincerely hope it will help your own choice of the correct zodiac/Ayanamsha to use with Vedic Astrology, and thus gain the vast and peerless spiritual declaration (which of course also so needs to be combined with western psychodynamic and evolutionary astrology, as I explain elsewhere in today’s blog posts). So, I add that:
My Moon is in 9th House meaning that mother will act as father. Correct.
My Sun is conjunct Ketu and Mercury.
Sun conjunct Ketu is ghastly for ‘father’ and for ‘Self’ indications. Correct.
(but can give spiritual insights and talents if you survive it).
My Mercury is karaka for siblings, and rules the 3rd house of Siblings, as well as the 12th House of Loss, as well as being conjunct Ketu of course (and receiving an aspect from Saturn).
Correct: My siblings issues (natal and adoptive) are total nightmare.
So I am telling you this, so that you can note my start destiny and start circumstances in life are prophesied instantly at a glance by my Vedic Sidereal Zodiac/Lahiri Ayanamsha chart, and only in this full sense by that.
And what my Sidereal Vedic chart declared happened.
Sincerely, the Western Tropical chart for all its vast gifts, knew nothing of this destiny, but Sidereal Vedic Chart got it simply and quickly in one.
The Vedic chart using the Tropical Zodiac, I sadly do have to say, didn’t get any of it right at all. Indeed, it constructed a disastrously incorrect picture.
So, I am drawn to share this so that others can benefit by hearing my personal statement: now, at this time, when the issue of ‘which zodiac?’ has got into such a sad mess.
So briefly, to help you make concrete sense of what I am stating here, this is what actually happened:
I’m half Baltic, half Irish.
My paternal Grandfather was a Yakut Tribesman who was driven out from a tribal settlement on a river mouth on the coast near Archangel by the persecution of the last Tsar, Tsar Nicholas, in the run-up to World War I.
My Paternal Grandfather fled to the Baltic, worked on Danzig based shops, married a woman from a little farm in the Danzig corridor who lived between Danzig and the German border, land that was part of Germany then, and so my father was born there.
But by the time of his birth, the Treaty of Versailles had happened following the end of World War I, and to punish the Germans, the Danzig corridor land had been moved from Germany to Poland
But Hitler invaded the Danzig corridor without declaration of war in September 1939. Hitler’s forces shot up those people in the little village on the Baltic beach who were denounced to the Nazi troops as having Jewish blood.
My father, then aged 14, told me the one time I met him, when I was in my 40s, that he saw this from the fields, watching it with his best friend of the same age.
He knew that his mother had some Jewish blood. They saw it was the Jews that were being shot and their houses burned, so he and his friend fled along the road to Danzig, with thousands of others, German war planes machine gunning the refugee families as they fled. There, my father and his friend joined General Sikorski’s Polish army of Exile, and they were taken to the North of Norway, then taken by Royal Navy ships to Scotland, and then he served in England, in East Anglian airports during the 2nd World War.
After the war, it was in East Anglia, waiting to be de-mobbed, that he met my mother.
My mother went to England as a Land Army girl because her family of 13 siblings in a remote Connemara coast hamlet could no longer support all the children.
She was assigned to live with other Land Army girls in former RAF huts in East Anglia. There she met my father, and became pregnant.
However, they were not married, he did not want to support a child.
Then the representative of the Wellingborough and East Rushden Child Protection and Moral Welfare Association lined up all the girls, denounced my mother as an example of moral wickedness and made her homeless. And after I was born, my Irish mother and I were homeless for 6 wks, when she put me into one of the notorious Bens Secours convent orphanages (on the exact date I entered Ketu Dasa). The priest who baptised me told her she would burn in hell forever if I went to non-Catholic adopters.
Unfortunately, the order of nuns who ran the orphanages were much worse than terrible.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Secours_Mother_and_Baby_Home
The Catholic Bon Seccours Nuns at their nearby Tuam convent orphanage threw the bodies of at least 790 orphans into the cesspit (at same time as I was in one of their other orphanages).
They sold 1,000 orphans to the United States for adoption.
There is currently an Irish State Commission of Investigation.
The institution run by nuns was one of many “mother and baby” homes across the country where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth in an attempt to preserve the country’s devout Catholic image.
So, to jump many years forward in time: it was in 1994 that I discovered how Sideral Zodiac Vedic Astrology so accurately stated my destiny – at one stroke, whereas western astrology which I knew well by that time, could not.
I was studying a joint western-Vedic course on the Astrology of Death with the late Richard Houck at this time, and I was so blessed to find out the power of sidereal zodiac Vedic astrology using Lahiri Ayanamsha.
Since that time, I have offered many most valuable Readings all over the world, uniting western psychodynamic Astrology with Vedic Astrology.
And my courses all contain the option of crossover.
So, if you are studying one of my Vedic Astrology courses, you can totally cross-reference to your Western psychodynamic and evolutionary astrology.
And if you are studying one of my Western Astrology Courses, I am glad to teach cross-over to your Vedic Astrology.
I hope this statement which is both theoretical and also personal, proves to be of great help to many.
Michael
You can book an Astrology Reading with me at: https://www.starwheelastrology.com/buyanastrologyreading.html
Or you can enrol on one of my courses at: www.mastervedicastrology.com
My wife, Maggie Pashley, offers a range of Healing modalities worldwide. Find out more at: https://maggiepashley.com/ or email Maggie at maggiepashley@gmail.com or call her on +353 899799642 (0899799642 from within Ireland).
