(This article dwells on the connection between various astronomical discoveries related with planets and other cosmic bodies, with their Psychological impact on human beings, as described in Astrology. It is an effort to deepen the logical and scientific foundation of Astrological knowledge.)

There have been immense debates about the inter relationship of Astrology and Astronomy for a long time. There are astronomers who brush aside Astrology as a superstition and can not understand how the far off objects in the sky can impact the human being. On the other side there are astrologers whose knowledge have been reduced to the horoscope placements of planets and these vast cosmic objects have just got reduced to figures on a paper. They seem to have lost their understanding that these are real objects in the skies which impact us because of their very nature. As a consequence their astrological knowledge is still backdated and remains restricted to the classical texts and they are not able to benefit from the recent astronomical discoveries. The connection between astronomy and astrology is very crucial to understand for every astrologer, as this provides with highly scientific basis for Astrology. Every new revelation of astronomical facts by way of scientific methods can add to the reservoir of astrological knowledge, if one is aware of this connection.

This article will explore the various astronomical facts related with various cosmic entities such as planets, Nakshatras and Zodiac signs and their various dimensions as experienced by human beings on the planet earth. The purpose of this article is to make you familiar with the fact that the astronomical qualities of any cosmic body have a direct bearing on the thought patterns experienced by the humans on earth. The magnetic field of such entities also interacts with the magnetic field of earth and hence impacts the events taking place on the planet earth.

Now let us now consider the character of some of the planets. These examples are just to demonstrate the connection between astronomy and astrology and hence are not supposed to be exhaustive details.

- Sun personality is associated with ideas and intelligence, which leads to immense energy for creation. Why? Because constant nuclear fusion of Hydrogen into Helium is going on at the core of the Sun, which releases immense energy. Life on earth depends on this energy. That is why Sun depicts the personality and the energy, with which we live our lives. Why Sun oriented person is a poor listener? Because the sound travels poorly through sun, as the mass density is quite low. Why Sun based person is so much stressed? Because there is a constant burst of gaseous pressure created by the explosions.

- Moon based people always appear to be controlled by the past memories, both good and bad. He never forgives for your bad deeds as well as never forgets the good you do to him. Why? Because Moon is full of craters, which are created by the striking asteroids and they get filled very slowly because of the inert atmosphere and absence of water. Why a Moon person always likes to depend on someone or follow someone? Because Moon has no light of it’s own and it has to depend on Sun for that.

- Why Mercury based person never takes a firm stand and he can be swayed so easily? Because all it’s magnetic field has been burnt because of it’s proximity with Sun. Why he like to follow and appears to have no followers? Because it has no satellite Moons. Why he never appears to be in tension? Because there is no atmospheric pressure on Mercury.

- Mars have always been associated with the courage and bravery. Why? Because the surface of Mars contains 13% Iron. Hence clearly the impact of Mars is to ignite the Iron like qualities in us. Why he forgets quickly, both the good and bad done to him? Because the craters gets filled quickly because of it’s deserts like surface. Why he give vent to the anger boiling inside him so frequently? Because there are mega volcanoes on Mars, which keep erupting regularly.

- Why Venus person look glamorous and attract the powerful? Because Venus is the brightest of all the planets, as the clouds around it’s surface traps the solar energy. Why Venus person is always in tension and hence keep scheming? Because Venus has a very dense atmosphere, which is full of poisonous gases. Hence she may appear very bright from outside, but the inner reality is starkingly different. (Isn’t this the story of those involved with the glamorous professions, which are controlled by Venus?)

- Why Jupiter based person appears to be expanding his horizons without much struggle? Because raging storms are always on, which move in beautiful colourful patterns effortlessly. Why he often attracts the people around him? Because it has huge number of satellites (27 have been discovered till now) moving around it, as well as a huge magnetic field which is supposed to be double than that of Sun.

- Why Saturn based person appears dull and restricted? Because it has a dull atmosphere of frozen gases and restrictive rings surrounding it. Why he is not transparent? Because planet Saturn has difficult to see through cloud patterns. Why Saturn people are very good to give concrete shape to ideas? Because Saturn consists of gases (Ideas) , which have gotten solidified (concretization) because of cold (hard working )atmosphere.

- Why Uranus oriented people display eccentric and radical behavior, which is not in tune with general society? Because magnetic field of Uranus is slanted at an angle of 60 degrees from its axis, while for all other planets it is parallel.

- Why Neptune based people are so dreamy and have feel oneness with the whole humanity? Why they have a special interest in anything related with ocean? Because Neptune have got the deepest and largest oceans known on any planet.

-Why Pluto oriented people are so mysterious and secretive? Because Pluto is very small in mass (the manifest), but it has a huge magnetic field ( unmanifest)

Similarly, if you study the astronomical characteristics of zodiac signs and Nakshatras, you will discover stark similarity between their astronomical characteristics and their astrological descriptions. For Example, Mula Nakshatra includes the black hole, which is the center of our galaxy. From this black hole even light can not escape and it is understood that whatever goes into it, gets transformed and reaches the root of life. Similar is the character of the “Mula person”. He always looks at the roots of life and have a tendency to suck and destroy the material world in his search for the eternal. Let us look at the astronomical character of the zodiac sign of Leo, which mostly consists of Nebulas, which are the stars in formation. Similarly, Leo person possess immense energy and intelligence towards any new creation.

Hence understanding the co-relation between Astronomy and Astrology deepens our astrological knowledge by studying new discoveries. At the same time it also provides the much needed scientific basis to the subject of Astrology. It will also serve a great purpose as the human race is able to feel it’s unity with universe and start to move in harmony with the cosmic plans.

(This article explores the deep roots of various astrological methods being used currently. Our present life is the sum total of the karmas or the unfinished business from past lives, soul’s longing to evolve through challenges of present life and the possibilities of a blissful divine expression in future. This article describes the reasoning behind the various astrological methods related with the past, present and future and how they should be interrelated to understand the human life in totality.)

As we discussed the process of carrying forward of the past lives by our soul through Mind Body, while the evolution process is carried through our Astral Body, previous article “Astrology: Indicator of Soul’s Journey”, this article will discuss the connection of the life we live with all the previous lives and process of evolution experienced by the soul through various challenges.

You may have this question in your mind, that if we choose out own birth time and hence the horoscope, then we should always be choosing a comfortable life to live which is full of luxuries and comforts and not a life which is difficult and full of crisis. However, we need to understand that we oscillate between easy and difficult life times. As we all know that we evolve only through difficulties. If you go deep in the process of cultivation of your special talents and capabilities, you will realize that all that happened when you were going through extremely difficult and confusing times. In fact, your so called good time was the result of your evolution through your so called bad times. Now the question is, why we always get in touch with our special capabilities only during our tough times. The answer lies in the fact that in our good times, we are purely motivated by our ego or the mind body, which is the collection of our past memories and it can not push us forward, as it is limited by the past knowledge and hence can not keep in touch with our evolution. When we are motivated by our ego, we are just being driven by all the knowledge we have accumulated in past. Let us understand the meaning of crisis in this context. Any turn of event, when we are not able to handle any situation with all our past knowledge, can be termed as crisis. While in the clutches of an immense crisis we feel so helpless, and in such moments we realize the futility of our ego or the mind body, as the present situation is unprecedented and hence can not be solved by our past knowledge. In such a state the ego collapses and we get in touch with our astral body, the pathway to our final destination. Hence in such moments the talents surfaces with the divine blessing, which becomes our tool to move forward in life towards accomplishing various feats.

Hence, when the soul longs to evolve, the astral body takes control and takes a challenging birth. This is why, most of the successful people all over the world have difficult horoscopes. (Please refer to the article “Why Successful people often have difficult horoscopes). But sometimes there is too much past karma to be dealt with, which can suppress the soul and it may not want to move forward on its path, until the past baggage is cleared. This is the case with most of the souls, as soul just want to take a back seat and let the mind body takeover to handle it’s own consequences, and this results in easy lives devoid of much challenges.

In our lives, the events are created by way of both the level of existence: The Astral Body and The Mind Body. The events created by Mind Body are purely the consequences of the past karmas, both good and bad. Nakshatras can be understood as the store house of past karma, which keep resurfacing over the period of time. In my understanding Nakshatra based astrology mostly deals with the past karmas, hence it is very important for the masses. The events which are described by way of all the methods related with Nakshatras such as Vimshottary and other Dasha systems and Krishnamurthy Padhdhati etc. are the consequences of our past karma. These methods do not describe the circumstances or the events created by the longing of the soul or the Astral body, for which one needs to use the methods based on Ascendants, such as Parashara system of twelve houses, Ashtakvarga, various methods based on progression as well as the transits.

So until now, we have seen the events created by accumulated memories and the circumstances created by the soul to fulfill it’s longings. Now, the question arises, if the longing of the soul to evolve has been fulfilled and it has taken the leap it desired, then what is the kind of life one will live. In other words, once one is free from the slavery of the past and have learnt to live moment to moment, than what is the kind of life one will be blessed with. Such a life is blissful and is lived in complete harmony with the cosmic forces. In such life, Soul lives mostly through the Ananda Shareer and derive immense bliss out of it. This life can also be understood as the play of divine through the individual soul. In astrology, such a life can be outlined by way of Navamamsha Horoscope. However, you must note that this horoscope is valid only for those who have learnt to live in bliss and gratitude and they act only in tune with the divine play and not by their ambitions, desires and reactions.

Now, you may have noted that there are different methods to deal with the different existance of the soul by way of various level of bodies. Most of the people live by way of mind body, hence the Nakshatra based methods work very well for them. However, one needs to combine the Ascendant based methods. Even though such combinations do exist, but they may be quite insufficient and may not tell the whole truth. Hence new methods are required to understand the life. It is very rare for people to live in bliss; hence Navamamsha may not attain highly important status in terms of predictions. However, people do receive their destiny by way of this horoscope in their moments of bliss. Such moments can turn out to be the defining moments of their lives and hence Navmansha horoscope attains significance. However, for the people of very high awareness, this horoscope may be the main influence in the shaping up of their lives. However, even such people have the longing of the soul as well as unfinished karmas, hence all the three kind of methods must be combined to understand the true picture.