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Synopsis Of Key Points A.
The Struggle For Globalization B.
Ancient
Karmas C.
Religion
and Divination -- Astrology D.
Confronting
Those Ancient Karmas E.
Some Astrology
A. The Struggle For Globalization This Forecast follows the May 26, 2004 Forecast #52 The Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction - A New Twenty Year Era which postulated,
The Mideast is an obvious center of struggle, an early key battleground between national sovereignty and internationalization in this double-decade clashing between the East and the West from 2000 to 2020. Archaic kingdoms and dictatorships are the weak cement binding medieval tribal societies together, often with national borders contrived by Western economic interests, not to forge national identities. These fundamentally frail and dysfunctional nations have become the focus for the future -- the region's oil dominance is the irresistible nectar nourishing the world economy and upon which the Mideast's future rests. Religion is an inescapable political component, for political ethics issue from philosophy, which derives from religion. This astrological Forecast is secular, or at the very least nonsectarian, in applying only basic Hindu universal knowledge -- karma, reincarnation, self-realization... --that form the underlying foun- dation for India's astrology. Astrology in India is integral to Hindu thought, and these concepts are already well incorporated into thinking in both the East and the West. I am, after all, only an astrologer and cert- ainly not a theologian . It appears, in fact, that in this conflict, religion has become a pawn, not a central issue, and certainly cannot be the solution. Also, in my view, religion is properly woven into the larger societal fabric, which then becomes the garment into which politics is fitted. In any event, no criticism of anyone's religion is intended here; there is only a search for truth from the order in the cosmos that astrology interprets.
B. Ancient Karmas Current anthropological theory, confirmed by DNA research, proves successive migrations out of Africa spreading humanity throughout the world during the past 200,000 years, or more. Science has traced the genetic beginnings of all humanity to ancient Africa, and science has further identified humanity's primary route out of Africa to be through the eighty mile narrow isthmus between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea -- where the Suez Canal is now. In tribal bands, successive adaptations of ancient man traveled out of modern-day Egypt through the Mideast funnel to spread west, east and north for Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
Each migration wave, to pass through this area, first confronted residents from the previous migrations. This geographical bottleneck has thereby been contested since before the dawn of history. Further, as each new migration was the future of humanity, and indigenous Mideast residents the past, each migratory clash mixed the past with the future. The blended result still consisted of tribes, albeit tempered and enrich- ed by confrontation, which integrated spread outward to populate the world. From tribal unit eventually came the national identity integral to today's nation states. While migrations through the Mideast is also the model for later human expansions (from the empires of antiquity to those of the recent colonial period) and is thereby a universal trait rooted in our common DNA, it began in the Mideast, where the history of global humanity was first forged. As the discord from these recurring ancient clashes touched everyone, it became a pervasive and deep- ly ingrained aggressive karma within humanity's nature -- an instinctual but protective memory, like fear of heights, not a cultural dictate passed on such dress and diet. (Note: It is provocative to consider astrol- ogy's interpretation of karma as the knowledge construct that preceded modern scientific DNA, especially as the accompanying concepts of reincarnation and evolution of the soul also describe what we now call evolution.) Our collective experiential Mideast karma is therefore not of the conscious, but of the unconscious. It is not of the mind that knows but of the unknowing mind bound by karma -- our attachments remaining from past lives. (We can't remember, for example, the ancient memories of falling from heights, but we hold a karmic fear of heights shielding us from harm anyway.) It is therefore basic to growth of global conscious- ness to finally and definitively confront this lingering aggressive karma of expansion in the Mideast, where it was engendered -- and festers still. We together must surrender exclusive tribalism and the equally ex- clusive nation states concepts as outdated karmic attachments that no longer serve to advance us but rather to destroy us. Humanity can then move to the next integrative step -- inclusive globalization.
C. Religion and Divination -- Astrology That three of the world's great religions arose out of this tiny caldron brings a most basic philosophical quality to the challenge. Each belief religion offered a way beyond conflict, although often the belief systems were corrupted by government-inspired sectarian separativeness to promote and justify expan- sionary war. That astrology too was born here speaks to the region's predestination in God's cosmic plan.. Together, these guided migrations through the Mideast and then onward to humanity's expansion over the globe. Knowledge of God, faith and spiritual practices empowered the migratory tribes, and astrology was the time map, the key to knowing when and where to advance and when not to. For ancient cultures, religion and astrology were ever partners - the former being our relationship to God and the latter interpreting the order in the universe to perceive God's plan for groups, the world and for each of us indi- vidually. Religion was man's understanding of the universe and astrology was simply and only a spiritually inspired craft casting light upon the dark path ahead - to divine the future. In this regard, the astrologer must be pure of heart to offer accurate and compassionate information, but he wouldn't be a priest of any sort. For individuals, astrology identified the soul's remaining attachments and revealed when they would be actuated during the life. Astrologers were truly then travelers in time. The astrological chart gave indi- viduals personal karmic time maps to identify and overcome at the right times their attachments -- and thereby enable progress on the journey toward detachment. The goal of complete detachment was unity with God, variously termed self-realization or enlightenment, as explained and taught by religion, the other partner in knowing the universe. This is understood, at least by Hindus who most fully developed under- standing of consciousness, to be a multi-lifetime process through the soul's repeated incarnations into the world. It is imperative to understand this relationship between religion and astrology, to know astrology was always only a guide to the spiritual maturity taught by religion. Astrology never pretended or intended to replace religion in the understanding of God, or in spiritual teachings of the paths leading to self-realization, heaven, nirvana or whatever universal construct a religion identified. Religion was always the vessel and astrology only the compass. Still astrology was discredited, especially in the West, by jealous and power seeking churches, often in partnership with governments, seeking domination over their flocks. Thus, the inspired leadership for which religion was perverted for worldly gain. By the 17th century, astrological skill and knowledge in the West and in much of the East was lost. Astrology also fell into disrepute in India, but unlike the West, which created its modern astrology by fitting bits and pieces into a modern psychological frame, enough of India's ancient oral knowledge and written scriptures have been preserved to enable a recent resurrection. Further, unique perhaps to the entire world, India's indigenous language of Sanskrit has persevered, enabling grasping and translating the subtleties inherent in ancient astrological knowledge. As try as linguists do, they cannot recapture the linguistic nuances and delicate flavors of the dead languages from long destroyed indigenous cultures, such as in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Linguists also then cannot translate accurately and specifically astrological scriptures from surviving clay tablets, papyrus scrolls and architectural carvings. Looking at the above map, one can see how India is situated away from the major migratory routes and accompanying tribal conflicts. This suggests that geography was one protection enabling that culture to survive uninterrupted for 5,000 years or more. It is also true that India's philosophical heritage has sus- tained its culture and is sustained by India itself through wars, pestilence and invasions beyond counting. (Of course, this cultural persistence has also hindered India's modernization.) It is thereby more than interesting that India, although in ancient times the scene of expansions and invasions, in modern history has almost entirely abandoned exclusivity for inclusivity and has not invaded another country. This issues from Hinduism, perhaps the only truly inclusive religion, embracing all basic religious knowledge and all the saints, compared with many other religions' church-fabricated exclusionary position to maintain power -- my god is the only god, everyone else is an infidel, humanity is divided into goy and gentile, only Jesus can save you, you're either with us or against us... A British philosopher once said that India contributed more to the understanding of consciousness than any other culture. Perhaps now with India's accompanying ancient astrology regaining a revival, this most ancient and accurate form of divination can once again be the compass, this time to advance humanity's common path to maturity through growth of inclusive consciousness in a final Mideast challenge.
D. Confronting Those Ancient Karmas Yes, it can only be the oil that now brings humanity back from the most distant lands to the most ancient of all battlegrounds in the Mideast. But oil is just the bait to draw the festering karmic memory of conflict for gain to that place. If one doubts this view of racial memory, just look to Israel, founded and populated by Jews scattered over the world and whose group identity persevered through thousands of years. There is no falsity in the Jewish soul-level belief in their holy land, even though it was denied them for a couple of thousand years. There is no falsity either in the passion of the resident Arabs to regain complete control over their ancestral lands from the West's economic colonists. There is, finally, no falsity in the West's efforts to control the oil, much like our ancient ancestors sought to control the Mideast in their migration through that bottleneck, where, as it has always been, indigenous peoples stand in the way. Yet again, the future confronts the past. Perhaps this time we can get it right by understanding our expansionary mode of the past 200,000 years has only brought strife and never resolution. Humanity's spreading across the globe through aggres- sion was long ago completed. God hid the oil under the Mideast deserts before humans stood upright so that at the right time, oil would draw us back to our common home in the Mideast to confront again our differences. We can continue the karmically-rooted violent inheritance or abandon that disunity and exclusivity for the lasting peace and prosperity that can only come from unity and inclusivity. As stated, Hinduism's universally acceptable inclusive religious/philosophical framework honors all belief systems, and India's accompanying astrology can illuminate the way.
E.
Some Astrology Because Jyotish is truly an astrology about time, Ketu and Rahu are the craft's most fundamental symbols. Astronomically, Ketu and Rahu are the Moon's Nodes, the ever-moving calculated points where the Moon crosses the ecliptic to signal eclipses. Thus, Rahu and Ketu are called shadow planets. From this astrological vantage point, humanity's current focus on the Mideast reclaims humanity's common history, where Rahu's worldly cravings and desires have long brought so much malefic karma to that region. creating Ketu's past that now draws us there again. (In a corollary, spiritual sites traveler, Martin Gray, believes ancient temples are reservoirs of positive spiritual energy, accumulated during eons of prayer and mediation, and it is this energy that draws pilgrims. See http://sacredsites.com/ ) Ketu is also gas and oil -- fiery, even explosive, energy from the past. Incidentally, but maybe not, Ketu is smoke, which also results from burning oil. Rahu is science and airplanes . As Rahu is materialization into the world from spirit, Ketu is the spiritual process of the soul's evolution -- return to spirit. Rahu is like condensation and Ketu evaporation. Ketu is a worldly malefic and a spiritual benefic, for it causes sorrow and loss that ultimately turns the person to God. Ketu is insight. Rahu can be a powerful worldly benefic but must be a spiritual malefic in turning us away from God to the world. Wherever the Nodes are placed in the astrological chart is an area of psychological intensity, a churning in the life that we are challenged to address and conquer. Thus, the Nodes are known as the soldiers of karma. Hopefully, these descriptions and imagery give readers flavorings for these complex and unfamiliar planetary symbols. In this Forecasts' upcoming sequel, Part 2 The Timeless Mideast Bottleneck Iraq, Israel & Saudi Arabia, we'll look at charts of those nations for insight into their astrology, and most particularly how Rahu and Ketu influence. As Jyotish also, of course, is used for charts of individuals, it is useful to set the stage for understanding the Mideast by commenting upon Rahu and Ketu in the chart of the most powerful man in the world, whose karma is fated to be played out in the region. Because Rahu is the future and Ketu is the past, when these are placed in a chart so that all the planets fall on one side, a Yoga (special combination) is created called Kala Sarpa. This translates to time ser- pent, meaning the life is predetermined, or fated, for all the other planets are shackled by Rahu's future and Ketu's past. (Nelson Mandela has Kala Sarpa, explaining his thirty years in prison followed by liberating South Africa.) When a chart has Kala Sarpa, the life is often divided into two parts -- a rise followed by a fall or a fall followed by a rise. President Bush has Kala Sarpa. Posted free on the website is the October 24, 2003 Forecast, #3, The Bush Presidency -- Profile and Prediction. This discusses how his Kala Sarpa Yoga was activated, bringing Bush's fated rise to the presidency, to be followed by his downfall caused by invading Iraq. That Forecast concludes by stating,
Offering just one observation on a national chart, it seems too coincidental that Saudi Arabia's chart also holds the Kala Sarpa Yoga, and even more provocative, that Kala Sarpa is activated in the Saudi chart from June 1988 through June, 2006. Although not fully or absolutely proven in the above narrative, these threads certainly appear to be knitted together into a karmic fabric challenging humanity to bring unity out of disunity.
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