60 Spiritual Astrology
Orthodox astrology has not much in common with the
astrology of the wisdom school. The traditional and
orthodox scholar of the Ve-da-s denies that there exists a
subject like Ve-dic astrology but a true student of the Ve-da,
who has trained his inner sense organs in tune with his
intuition at the feet of his guru, knows how the astrology
of the wisdom school is concealed in the Veda, Bra-hman.a,
Ithiha-sa and Pura-n.a literatures. Many of the fundamental
concepts of the subject differ from those of popular
astrology. We should not, however, discard the popular
branch of astrology and its skeleton, astronomy. Like the
skeletons and physical bodies of the men of the material
plane of living, they contain what the average man wants,
and conceal the inner content to be revealed to those
seeking after it.
Just as the uninitiated does not respond to the effects
of his chakra-s and certain glands, so also the higher
planetary expressions and the mysteries of the zodiac
above the level of the physical Sun, Moon and other
planetary bodies remain away from him. Similarly, he is
blind and deaf to the light and music of the planets of the
higher octaves. Hence great sages like Para-s’ara, Jaimini
and Vara-ha Mihira separated the portion of astrology
required by the average man from the larger and the
higher. Only here and there did they hint at the true path.
They reserved the original path for those who followed
the hints. Para-s’ara and Ve-davya-sa gave the whole wisdom
of the lights in the form of simple stories in the Pura-n.a-s.
The stories of Manus, the Seven Oceans, the Seven Islands,
the Seven Nodes, the Seven cosmic and solar Breaths
(Maruths), the stories of S’iva, Vishn.u, Brahma, Twashta,
Praja-pathi
-
s, Agni-
s etc., contain the secrets of the true
astrological wisdom of the Ve-da-s.