Tag Archives: saturn

Aquarius – The Maker Of Tanks, Ponds, And Things Related To Shores

The Sun is now in Aquarius, and it got me thinking. Aquarius is the sign of being involved in making “tanks, ponds, and things related to shores” according to the Rishi Jaimini’s Upadesa sutras. Aquarius rules Islands, this is one way we can see it. It also rules people that live and work around Islands or “shores” in some way. People that live or work on boats, or near the water often do have prominent placements in this sign. Even the pro-surfer Kelly Slater has his sun in Aquarius, and he has made his living from the shore. I am a surfer, and I have noticed a lot of the people that hang around my funky beach town in Charleston, South Carolina have more placements here than average.

What does this concept of “things related to shores” symbolize? I think one aspect of it is that Jaimini is hinting at how Aquarius rules fringe groups and underground cultures, especially ones that promote new ideas or new things. In the old days, new and far away things came from the shore, like a ship bringing spices from a distant, exotic land. Aquarius is a dreamer, sitting or standing in the shore, dreaming about what the sea might bring them.

Aquarius rules progressive or underground movements, like being a Yogi in Los Angeles in the 40s, or being a surfer in the 70s, or an environmentalist in the 80s, or a skateboarder in the 90s and 2000s. Why is that? It rules these fringe groups because that’s what the shore is, the shore is the “fringe” or outermost edge of the world. That’s what the water bearer is really about, being away from the center of the world (which is symbolized by the opposite sign, Leo). Aquarius is at the very edge of the world, not at all at the center. If there was any further part that could get Aquarius further from the world, Aquarius would probably be involved with that thing too. The water bearer is the sign of enjoying the world, working to make it more bearable, but eventually detaching from and moving beyond it. Aquarius is done with the world. Aquarius is starting to turn away from the world and beginning to look out to the vast infinite sea. This is why it rules the shores and things related to them, because they are the outermost edge that one can stand on before being fully immersed in the sea, symbolizing spiritual enlightenment, and the next sign of Pisces.

So Aquarius is the last stage, just before one is fully enlightened or “in the sea” of Pisces. Pisces is like heaven, the work is mostly already done at this point, but Aquarius is that last bit of psychological work we all must do to turn ourselves away from the maya of the world, and towards the “sea” of truth. The water bearer is ruled by Saturn, a planet that has a ring around it, again hinting at this separated, detached, fringe-like quality that Saturn is comfortable with. Saturn is also the furthest light we can see with the naked eye, again symbolizing being at the fringe of reality, being “out there” as Aquarians are often described. (How the ancients knew that Saturn was the furthest of the planets is another mystery!)

I also talk a little bit about this theme of “things related to shores” in this video on Aquarius as the sign of skateboarders and surfers:

To learn more fundamentals of Astrology, check out the ongoing Jyotish and Yogic philosophy course at my new online school: https://eye-of-the-veda-university.teachable.com/

Saturn in Sagittarius- Update “Fall from a Height” (Part 3)

Saturn seems to have been very busy in the sign of Sagittarius. When I first wrote about this back in 2016, I never would have guessed we would have seen so many patriarchial male role model figures take so many falls from heights during this 2.5 year period. By the time I put the 2nd one out it was seeming very clear and so I wanted to share. Now there have been many more stories in the media that correlate to this whole transit, so here is a part 3.

I want to begin by saying that these are just my observations, and I do not wish to offend anyone who has followed or learned from a guru, role model, or church leader that I mention. I am not a spiritual authority and I cannot say ultimately about some of these topics since I was not there myself.  But after writing part 2, I was told of a number of other incidents that seemed to “fit the bill” of this transit of Saturn in Sagittarius and “a fall from a height”. (I thank all of you readers who shared feedback of other events.)  So while I do not seek to condemn anyone myself, I do wish to write about this in order to reiterate the very important point that when Saturn and other cruel planets are transiting and rasi aspecting Sagittarius, there can be accidents or falls from heights.  If gentle planets are there or aspecting, this can prevent it. And also with Sagittarius being a sign of teachers, it does seem logical that if a teacher or guru figure was not being genuine, that he would be more likely to face the negative consequences of his karma and take a fall at this time, as opposed to other times. (But in truth, each individuals chart will show the details, and a teacher could take a fall at another time because of other factors, of course. )

Joel Olsteen falling from a height – In short, as the Hurricane Harvey ripped through and laid waste to much of Houston, Texas, a leader of a megachurch in Houston refused to open the church’s doors for the safety of the people. People were outraged because he even claimed the church was flooded and yet people were taking pictures of the massive facility looking completely accessible and safe, posting them to twitter and shaming him into opening the church eventually.  This man was a huge Sagittarian/role model/church leader figure for the area, and he was rightfully called out and taken down by the common folk on twitter, pointing out his hypocrisy and blatant lies. (we must remember that Saturn rules the common folk.)   olsteenhubris

(it is also worth noting as the “Lajjitavastha” aka the “shame” condition, was occurring in the sky. This )Note that the Sun was rasi aspecting with Saturn in Sag, so one more factor pushing for a fall.

This daily mail article below literally says it all in the title, although it is a ridiculously long title for an article : “How social media shamed Houston televangelist Joel Osteen into opening his dry megachurch to Hurricane Harvey evacuees after he claimed it was inaccessible and flooded”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4837472/How-Pastor-Joel-Osteen-shamed-Hurricane-Harvey.html#ixzz50yz15eSs

 

https://www.capitalgrio.com/sites/news/1143026-joel-osteen-fails-to-address-hurricane-harvey-scandal.html

Lars Anderson Rocks the Archery World

larsHere is a more fun and positive example of Saturn’s transit. Sagittarius is the sign of the Archer. As we know, Saturn is the planet of great changes in life, as he moves the slowest and signifies the greatest increments of change in the flow of time. He has more lasting effects than the rest.  In South India, they have a saying: “when Shani (Saturn) decides to give, no other planet can take away”.  This man taught himself Archery, by sheer practice and time, and even going back into ancient texts and trying to be as true to them as possible, even if the techniques were not considered to be acceptable in the mainstream archery world. The things he learned and was able to do were not “in vogue” and so he sparked a lot of controversy and negative reactions from people.  This is often the case with Shani, he has to do many of the deeds that others would deem unpleasant, and he is often wrongly looked down upon by others. He is the servant amongst the grahas,  after all.  This video came out within days of Shani first entering into tropical Sagittarius, in January of 2015. The youtube video below was uploaded on January 23rd, 2015.  Saturn had just entered Sagittarius on December 23rd, 2014. So this is really a remarkable synchronicity. At the time of this writing, it has 44 Million views! As you will see in the video, his whole approach is “unorthodox” as is the nature of Saturn. But Saturn is the most practical and keeps things from being overly complex.  Notice how simple his style is, taken from the ancient archery masters he studied.  Even his dress is what I have previously described in my article Astrology and clothing, to be the “uniform of Saturn”; AKA blue jeans and a black t-shirt. Saturn rules simplicity, looking to the past, blue jeans, and the color black.

But Shani also tends to reveal to us our own failures and weaknesses.  Perhaps it is this that made the archery world so outraged at this video. There were a few videos made to rebuke this mans claims and undeniable skill. So much that he actually had to make a follow up video where he does even more crazy archery stunts and clarifies his approach.

His skill is obvious. But still it may take time before the archery world shifts and adapts to this newer (but actually older) way of doing things, just as Shani is a necessary force, but is often unwelcome at first. Most people that are in the archery world are not into this guy at all, or try to act unimpressed by him for various reasons. He is very controversial. But no one can deny his authority in this area. But again, this sort of petty human behavior is common when we face someone who is way ahead of our time, as it is much easier to reject one person than to consider that they may be correct and that we have been the one who was not correct for such a long time.

 

Rockstar Baba with Millions of followers gets sentenced to jail

I will just leave this article here and you can read it if you want to, but it is an unpleasant topic. So dont even read this article if you are sensitive or easily bothered by unpleasanat news stories. This person was first being investigated back in 2002, and it seems during this transit his karma is finally catching up to him.

BBC Article on Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

Here is a video of him, he has a large following. One article said there were riots at the court when he got sentenced.

 

 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar facing controversy over comments sri sri ravi

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a very well known guru around the world, and got a lot of attention for some comments he made. (Again, this is not a judgemental thing here, just watching cause and effect of the planets and people. As above, so below.)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-sri-sri-ravi-shankar-says-malala-doesnt-deserve-nobel-prize-20160502-story.html

Malala is a powerful Saturnian individual in the world right now, and I do feel she deserves the Nobel Prize. She stood up to terrorists and was shot in the head and still somehow survived, talk about a strong Saturn. She works hard for women's education rights and education all over the world. Also, she first made her debut to most western audiences on one of the nights of Navratri, the 9 nights of the Goddess.
Malala is a powerful Saturnian individual in the world right now, and I do feel she deserves the Nobel Prize. She stood up to terrorists and was shot in the head and still somehow survived, talk about a strong Saturn. She works hard for women’s education rights and education all over the world. Also, she first made her debut to most western audiences on one of the nights of Navratri, the 9 nights of the Goddess.

In this article posted above, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar reportedly said that, when asked if he would accept a Nobel Prize if it was offered to him: “I was in the past offered the Nobel Peace Prize, but I had rejected it as I only believe in working and not in being honored for my work. We should always honor only to those who deserve it, and I am totally against honoring Malala Yousafzai with the prize and it is of no use,” he was quoted as saying in the Deccan Chronicle, a reputed Indian newspaper.

The article points it out very clearly further below: “He went on to say that Yousafzai had done nothing to merit the Nobel and that awards generally were not his concern, especially the Nobel. A quick perusal of the Art of Living Foundation’s website shows that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is commonly conferred with the double honorific in front of his given name, has been the recipient of countless awards. They include this year’s Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor, and Mongolia’s Order of the Pole Star, that country’s highest recognition. He has earned 15 honorary doctorates, and the list of bestowed titles requires some scrolling to get through.”

I have to say that the writer of the article does make a strong point here, and it seems unnecessary to criticize Malala for her incredible good karmas she has set forth in her life.

So it seems Shani, the lord of Karma, was also displeased by this, as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar faced more bad publicity from this event than most of the publicity of his good efforts he has made, which seem to have been many. And maybe if he had a different name Shani would let it slide, but how can one criticize giving people honorary titles when they themselves have two honorary and excessively repeating titles in their own name? Saturn is not a fan of hypocrisy, or spiritual jingoism. Not in the least.

 

To be continued… 

 

Example of Childbirth Using Caranavamsa and Vimshottari Dasa at Once.

The native's rasi chart.

In this post we will examine how to see the possible birth of children happening in the chart of a woman, by using both the vimshottari and caranavamsa dasas together.  Everyone uses vimshottari, but it is always better to use more than one technique or timing system to see something before predicting it with confidence.  The more techniques, the better, or else, why would Vedic Astrology texts have so many different techniques?

This person had their first child around September of 1981, and the second child around February of 1987. We will start with the first child.  But before we go into the example, certain principles need to be known to fully appreciate this example:

  • In the chart of a woman, the 9th house often is equally or more important for children than the 5th house, which is more commonly known. This is important to know.
  • Similarly, the saptamsa varga (D-7) is the most important varga for childbirth and is a bit more important for a female in this context than it is for a male.
  • With vimshottari dasa, it is always an important time for a varga when the period and sub-period are connected by one being ruled by the other, or both.  For example, if Venus rules Mercury, then Ve/Me period becomes more important for the areas of life that are represented by the Varga that this is happening in. If Venus rules Mercury in the navamsa, we can bet some important marriage related events could occur during this time.
  • Of course, Jupiter is the karaka of children, this must be understood.
  • Saturn and Jupiter conjunctions particularly indicate children according to Vedic Astrology texts.
  • With caranavamsa, it’s all about the rasi and its strength, and whether it is getting manifested or not. There is much more to it than that, but for brevity’s sake, I will have to keep it simple here. (The way I learned how to make caranavamsa dasa actually make sense is basically not found anywhere online except for Ernst Wilhelm’s courses, so go take those if you want to understand this example more completely.)

Now let’s look at the first example. Here is the saptamsa chart of the native, and the vimshottari dasa. The first child was born during Sa/Ke dasa, which is not naturally a dasa that relates to having children, but let’s look more closely. Saturn rules Venus which sits in the 4th house, suggesting motherhood could be coming soon. Venus is also the Matrukaraka and Putrakaraka, the “Mother-producer” and “Child Producer”, respectively.

vimshottarri-d-m
Vimshottari Mahadasa and Antardasa of the Native.

Ketu is ruled by Venus in the rasi, and so giving the results of Venus, which is to say that Ketu has the same children focused agenda as Venus. Saturn is in a sign of Jupiter, and Ketu is being rasi aspected by Jupiter, showing the connection to children (Jupiter) of both Saturn and Ketu. Jupiter is the planet of children and progeny, so here is another connection to children with Saturn and Ketu. But it gets better when we look at the Saptamsa.

saptamsa-dm
Saptamsa of the native

Here we see that Saturn is conjunct Jupiter, the karaka of children, in the key varga of children and fertility. Further, it is in the 9th house, the key house for a woman when it comes to childbirth. Even further, Ketu, the sub period lord, is ruled by Jupiter, so acting like Jupiter. Now we see that Ketu has an especially strong agenda to also produce children, even though you wouldn’t think that because its Ketu.  Ketu is also in the 5th house, the main important house for children. Notice also how the important 7th house of the Saptamsa holds Moon and Mars, two key planets of motherhood, further confirming this woman is meant to be a mother. This Mars also rasi aspects and gives “manifesting strength” to Aries, enabling it to manifest its indications more smoothly, and its indications are to produce children as we can see. Also, it is important to remember the rule that Saturn and Jupiter conjunct often indicates children, which is working nicely here. Also, when the sub period lord is in a trine to the main period lord, then things work out more smoothly.  All of these factors may also have helped buffer the fact that Saturn was fallen here in the D7.

So now we can see how Sa/Ke period was a very important period for this Native to have a child and have the course of their life change completely as a result.  But if the course of life is going to change greatly, then we should also see this from caranavamsa dasa, as this is great for seeing big changes in our path unfold. (Cara means “change” and the Navamsa we know has a lot to do with the changes on our path, so the name itself implies this)

Caranavamsa of native
Caranavamsa of native

We can see that the native was running Cancer/Aquarius period at the time of the birth of the first child (Sept 81′). In the rasi chart, Cancer is the all important 9th house, the very important house of children for a woman. It holds its lord, the Moon, which gives it “manifesting strength”. Cancer and the Moon are also the most appropriate planets and signs for Motherhood as well. Aquarius holds Venus, which we already know has an agenda for children (PK) and is aspecting the Moon in Cancer, while the Moon aspects back to Venus in Aquarius.  This shows that the Cancer rasi and the Aquarius rasi both have a karmic connection (rasi aspect) and an agenda to yield progeny. This is further indicated by Jupiter rasi aspecting the Aquarius rasi, giving Venus strength to manifest. So both the Cancer and Aquarius rasi have an agenda for children and are being manifested to do so. Is it any wonder, then, that a child was born to her during the time that these two signs were letting their karmas play out? On top of what was playing out from Vimshottari as shown above?

Looking further at the saptamsa, Cancer is manifested by the Moon and Mercury, and Aquarius is manifested by Saturn and Jupiter, so it is even further confirmed in the saptamsa that children are likely to change her path during the Cancer/Aquarius caranavamsa period.

2nd Child:

The second child was born around February of 87, when Saturn/Moon period was running. The Moon sub-period running just makes sense, as we have already seen how important that 9th house moon is for making her a Mother and for childbirth.  All of those same Moon factors were being triggered again in the rasi chart and I don’t need to repeat myself here.

Looking at the saptamsa, we see that Moon in the seventh house in Aquarius again. Note that again the idea of the Mahadasha and Antardasa lords ruling each other or connecting in that type of way makes it an important time for the varga where it is occuring in. Here we see Moon in the sign of Saturn, and both of them Rasi aspecting with the aforementioned children agenda and so it is really very logical that in the Saturn/Moon period another child was born. The Moon is also in the 11th from Saturn which is a favorable Mahadasha/Antardasa house alignment and leads to more gains in the period. But this may just be canceled out by the fact that Saturn and Moon are in 6th/8th house positions which can imply disharmony and friction in the period. The period certainly had its share of challenges which is to be expected when raising one’s second child while the first is only five years old.

Looking at the caranavamsa dasa, the Cancer/Leo signs were running. Cancer was still running its karmas and so much of what was said above was still true of this time in her life. Leo was the sub-period, and Leo is the 10th house of her rasi chart. Leo also has strength to manifest as it is aspected by Jupiter, and it’s lord the Sun, both giving manifesting strength (Leo also holds the pada of the Sagittarius rasi, which is where the lagna lord sits, for those who study padas). When we look at the

When we look at the saptamsa chart, we see that Leo is the lagna, so of course Cancer/Leo period will be important for saptamsa things (progeny).  Leo again gets manifesting strength from the Sun (who is fallen though, so not much) and Jupiter (who is strong and making up for it) in this varga as well, so childbirth is further confirmed in the saptamsa again by using caranavamsa dasa.

Conclusion:

Is it not fascinating to see how both these timing systems were able to pinpoint two very important times for children to be born, using the same techniques and principles in a repeatable fashion? This is when Astrology begins to really become scientific, if you ask me. When we can repeat techniques over and over on the same chart or others and still get good results 75% of the time, that is an amazing thing. There is more to Astrology than just science and repeating techniques of course, but this is a very important facet and one of the features that distinguish Jyotish from other occult systems. I hope this serves as a good example of that.

Saturn in Sagittarius – “A fall from a height”

In the Jaimini techniques, having the Atmakaraka fall in Sagitarrius in the navamsa chart gives one a lifelong theme of Sagittarian qualities.  Jaimini describes this swamsha in a few short words, “In Sagittarius, while proceeding, a fall from a height”.  This conveys the idea that Sag is not just a sign of aiming for the goal, but also the sign of missing the goal too!  How can it be both?  Well, it simply depends on what is happening to the Sagittarius rasi, whether the person hits the mark they were shooting for, or whether they miss the mark.  If cruel planets (Saturn, Mars, Rahu, or Sun particularly) aspect or are in the rasi, then Sagittarius leans towards the falls from heights as described above.  But only then is it a sign of falling from heights.  If no cruel planets aspect or are in Sag, then the person is more likely to attain the goal they pursue.  The worse the dignity of the cruel planet, the worse the fall from the height is.  Gentle planets in Sagittarius help the person reach their goals in better ways and more easily. (Often both gentle and cruel planets are aspecting, and the situation is more mixed.)

We can see how true this is by observing the mundane current events and seeing how many “falls from heights” have occurred since the onset of Saturn’s transit through Sagittarius.  It’s an especially challenging transit because Rahu and Ketu are also rasi aspecting Sag, and have been since around last November (2015).  Of course, falls from heights will occur all the time in a world as big as ours, but there has been a noticeable increase of events that seem symptomatic of an afflicted and overconfident Sagittarius rasi.  With Saturn currently transiting this place, it is a time to be cautious and have humility and patience with approaching our goals and with our ideals (the things Sag represents) rather than rashly or impulsively think our ideals and beliefs are correct about a certain matter…only to charge into it and fail miserably, hence the fall from the height.

Sagittarius is the sign of one’s higher ideals and beliefs, even one’s religion or sense of dharma.  We can see how currently in mundane affairs, there is quite a lot of strife about how the world should be working, how the law should work (Sag is the sign of Law as well), how kshatriyas should conduct themselves (Sag is a fire sign, fire signs are signs of kshatriyas aka the warrior/leader caste…think about police and government and all the corruption that has come up in that caste/career field.).  Everyone seems to know and be so confident that their philosophy is the right one for everyone and for the world.  This naturally sets one up for a fall or an accident of some kind when one’s inner ideals meet with the harsh reality of the real world, which is Saturn’s domain.  So with this transit, it is not a time to be too pushy with one’s ideals, religious  beliefs, or simply with one’s expectations of how the world should be.  It is much better to have a sense of detachment from one’s beliefs and ideals at this time.  To be cautious and patient with approaching our goals is much wiser.

Here are some examples of “falls from heights” that I have observed since the onset of this  2.5-year transit.  I have compiled them on my Eye of the Veda facebook page as well which can be seen here.

NOTE: These are upsetting situations, and I do not mean to make light of them.  I only share this information here for the wellbeing of all people, that we may learn from these examples and potentially be able to better guide clients that come to us with this information.

Hot Yoga founder ordered to pay out millions  – Many people already knew about this in the yoga community, but it seems that the founder of the Hot Yoga studios, Bikram Chowdury, was ordered to pay millions in compensatory damage over sexual assault/rape cases.  It is interesting that allegations had come up about this for a while but the fall didn’t occur until this period.

Tony Robbins hot coal walk injures dozens. – As we know, Sag is also the sign of Gurus and teachers, and as a well-known self-help guru, Tony Robbins would fall under this category.  It seems he may have been a bit overoptimistic about the outcome of his students walking on hot coals to overcome their fears.

Woman falls to death while hiking in Grand Canyon –  This is a tragic story.  This transit can also speak to actual dangerous falls that one has. Sagittarius is a big sign of accidents when cruel planets are in or rasi aspecting. It seems just shortly after posting a beautiful photo to instagram, while hiking down the Grand Canyon, A woman fell and died.  This may not have had anything to do with one’s beliefs or being overconfident, but it is rare that this happens for people so I included it here.  This was on July 12th.

Man falls to death at Machu Picchu – Another tragic story of a man who recently fell off an edge of Machu Picchu and died.  Again, it is rare that anyone ever falls to their death at a park or monument, and so two in the last month is quite a “coincidence”.  This was on July 1st.  Within 12 days of the aforementioned fall.

China Confirms Its Space Station is Falling Back to Earth – This is something that has been suspected for some time apparently but is official now. The space station is expected to fall somewhere on Earth sometime late in 2017. This is interesting from a mundane astrology perspective, as Saturn in Sagittarius has been having the rasi-aspect of Rahu in Virgo. Rahu represents new and innovative technology, and rasi aspects show things being concretely tied together. So Rahu’s rasi aspect does support the possibility of falls from heights being concretely connected to new and innovative sciences or technologies.  This is why this space station falling to Earth seems to fit so nicely from an astrological point of view.  In a general sense, I have noticed a trend of many articles coming out in the last year talking about how some scientific ideas may be flawed and may need to be revisited in a new way, and this would also speak to Saturn in Sagittarius.  People seem to be more aware of the limits of seeing things from just one viewpoint.

These are just a few examples, hopefully, there won’t be any more to share during this transit, but if I see some more I may add them to this list.

In the meantime, if you are out hiking on a cliff, please be extra careful.

Saturn And The Crow


OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
This post is about a very interesting talk that was given by Joshua Klein on Crows and their intelligence, on the TEDtalks website.  It has particularly fascinating information for Astrologers, as the crow has a symbolic association with the planet Saturn, and this video unintentionally demonstrates that affinity very well.

 

The nine planets in Jyotish are said to produce all the many things in the world and in nature by mixing and blending their influences.  Each planet is a “karaka”, or producer, of a particular concrete thing in someone’s life. For example, Saturn “produces” one’s servants.  So in ancient times, if a King wanted to know how his servants would be, and whether they would work honestly and dilligently, or whether they would be dishonest and lazy, the skilled astrologer would look to the condition of the planet Saturn.  The astrologer would look at other things too, but the producer of that correlating archetype in the physical world is very important.  For learning about the King’s soldiers or ministers, we would look to Mars and Venus, respectively.  There are many other factors the astrologer would look at, but this is perhaps the most important.  Another way to say it is that one has to look at the planetary archetype that matches the physical entity in one’s life and “as above, so below”.  So if there is a difficult Saturn “above” in the heavens at this king’s birth, then there will be difficult servants “below” in this person’s experience of an earthly incarnation. This is a foundational concept in the occult sciences in both the east and western cultures.  It can be a hard thing to comprehend, so if it is difficult to grasp, just imagine it for now.

If you study astrology, then you probably know that crows relate to the planet Saturn and should watch the video first and observe the similarities yourself.  If not, then you can read this list of congruencies and hopefully begin to appreciate this connection.

I will list some of the archetypal synchronizations I noticed below:

  •  To begin with, the speaker, Joshua Klein, has a simple, intelligent, and capable look to him. These are the qualities of a strongly placed saturn.  He wears a black t-shirt without a logo. Saturn is related to the color black, and is mythically said to have a black or dark complexion. He even tells a bit of a “dark” joke about the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds.  These traditions of Saturn relating to the color black is still evident in the Jewish tradition, where on the holy day, the Sabbath, they traditionally where black.  The Sabbath is Saturday, which is the day of the planet Saturn.  The spelling makes it obvious, but all the days of the week are actually related to the planets.
  •  He says that he began his interest and research in crows when a friend at a cocktail party tells him that they are useless and should be killed. His very saturnian response to it is that they could probably be trained or used in some way that is more helpful for human life.  This is very evident of a strong Saturn, while Joshua’s  friend displays the typical pessimism of a poorly placed Saturn, Joshua says “no”, and decides to think differently about the matter.  Saturn’s astrological role as a planet is to help that person become who they need to be so that they may do what they need to do to help the world the most.  So right away Joshua is looking at what could be viewed as an annoying pest, and seeing how it could potentially be turned into an animal that actually makes life more bearable and enjoyable.
  • At about 3 minutes into the video, he shows an amazing clip of a crow bending a metal wire into a hook to get a worm out of a tube in a science experiment, which the crow had never seen done before, showing great ingenuity and inventiveness.  At 4 minutes in, he states that the brain of a crow is in proportion to the brain of the chimpanzee.  Saturn is found well placed in the charts of Inventors and people who are somehow improving the quality of life for everyone.
  • The clip of the crow at the five minute mark, with its clever trick of letting the car crack the nut for it, demonstrates patience, a key attribute of Saturn. Taking 30 years to go through the zodiac, it is the slowest of the main planets, symbolizing patience and endurance.  A squirrel would never be able to wait that long.  Also, it is said that the difficult karma that Saturn brings out in a chart can tend to afflict one the longest, because of its slow movement through each sign over 2.5 years.  Sounds familiar to the story about the crows hassling the scientists, and remembering them even months and years later!
  • He makes a strong point overall about how crows seem to actually benefit from cleaning up our human societies messes and roadkill, and that when trained can actually help us clean up debris from events or find lost change.  Saturn’s role in the medical aspect of astrology is quite similar, ruling the immune system.  Saturn is the planet that is responsible for removing waste from the body, keeping off disease, and is said to rule our longevity. Here we see evidence that crows are cleaning the city streets in an analogous way.

Overall I think this video is fascinating even without respect to Jyotish, but for those with interest in astrology and mythological symbolism, you can see there is much to be appreciated between the Crow and the planet Saturn.  And by appreciating the symbolic value of our environment and the life around us, we can feel more like we are a part of something greater than our little self.  In this way, mythological symbolism can have therapeutic properties for our minds.

If you notice any other interesting astrological correlations between the behavior of crows and the symbolism of the planet Saturn, please share below in the comments section.

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Photos: Mythological image of the graha Saturn, said to ride upon a crow or vulture.