Letter Recieved:
Hello Freedom. I am contacting you in the hope that you will clarify something for me. I am a student of Pearl Finn in Ireland in Jyotish and a former yoga instructor. I have been asked by a yoga training in Dublin to give a lecture on Jyotish for yoga practitioners. My query is about the planetary rulership of the Chakras. As I understand it from Visti is that, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and the Sun rule the Chakras from the root. This makes sense to me but is not in line with any yogic texts regarding the Chakras and the elements. Most books I've read will show air as the predominant element of the heart and space at the throat. This also makes sense. Visti's point about the Moon being the embodied soul residing at the heart and that air is predominant at the throat, representing the Divine Will, makes complete sense also. As you are a yoga teacher and astrologer I am hoping you can finally clarify this for me. Many thank yous, [name deleted for privacy]
Reply:
I wish I could give you an easy answer; final clarity might not be offered, but a new perspective instead. I believe that just like there are different dasha for different events (shoola dasha for predicting death, vs. D10 narayana for career, vs. vimshottari for predicting general life events), there are different ways to work with the planets via the chakras, asanas and bandhas. [But I have not found this in any traditional textual reference.]
The main system used by Visti and taught (the most) by Guruji is based upon the lokas- root chakra as bhu loka, second chakra as bhuva loka, third chakra as svarga loka, etc. This is used primarily for states of consciousness associated with each of these lokas and how those ways of being are associated with each chakra. There is another system (more Greek influenced) that looks at the chakras in the order from the sun (or from the perspective of speed as the ancients saw it), starting with Moon (fastest) as the root chakra and Saturn (slowest) as the crown chakra. This is used more for an evolutionary or naisargika (growth) perspective. It can show the stages of life and the stages of our maturity in life as we age.
I have had no results mixing the elemental nature of the planets with the elemental nature of the chakras from a predictive perspective; but when Mercury (speech indicator) is afflicted you do see it in the throat (as he indicates speech), when the Sun is weak you see it in the chest and when the Sun is afflicted (esp by Rahu) you can see it in the solar plexus. Afflicted Venus can cause sexual issues (coming from second chakra blockages). Also from the astrological house perspective, when the fourth house is afflicted you do see it in the heart chakra. Saturn in the fourth will make it much more difficult to open the heart center. In the same way, Ketu in the second house can give stuttering showing up as throat center issues. So like this, "the natural indications of the planets line up with the nature of the chakras" more than the elements.
David Frawley has used a system where Leo and Cancer are the left and right eye, and Gemini is the yang of the throat, while Virgo the yin, and with the signs going over the chakras so that the Saturn signs rule the root chakra. With Frawley's system you can see where the planets are in your own chakras as opposed to another (like which one is Saturn blocking), though I can't give it predictive approval, but it makes for good talk.
In general, I stay away from talking about the chakras to less complex groups and in the yoga crowd I talk more about the paths of practice and spirituality of the different planets, like Sun is Advaita, while Moon and Venus are devotional, Jupiter is theoretical...A good Rahu is needed to understand Patanjali Yoga sutras, etc. Since in most yoga scriptures, Asana is the gateway to connecting with spirit by purifying the body and mind, and then we take on a larger calling (unless there is Mercury in navamsha trines indicating the path of the body), I find that Jyotish gives the yogi the best guidance by making sure their is a well rounded path. Many yogis that move into deeper spiritual paths from asana can also get lost in the huge amount of choice available these days, and they benefit from guidance that can help them get the greatest benefit.
Hope that helps a bit.
Blessings
Update: This is a post from February 2016 in Jyotish Currents:
Question posted:
Dear Members,I'm trying to understand the deeper relationship of Grahas & Chakras in the body.There are a wide variety of opinions on this topic.
Reply (among many others on the list):
My two cents: Planet to chakra correlation will be opinion based. If you are interested in new age models then you will have to choose someone's opinion- and best to choose someone you trust and who is on your wave length. Anodea Judith's correlation is a functional mapping- which relates the nature of the chakras as understood in the new age movement to the planets which have a similar functional nature. The problem with Frawley's writing (and system) is that he does not source his information- there is no reference to the actual text or verse numbers or anything which would allow you to self-verify his interpretation of what is purported to be Ganapati Muni. [I personally find lack of referencing bad scholarship and dis-empowering to the reader.]
Abhinavagupta (Tantraloka) doesn't use a chakra system in this way, but relative to the tropical signs being mapped into the body, the summer solstice relates the uppermost 'chakra' above the head, and the winter solstice is at the opposite end. This is similar to the sign layout used by Frawley (though tropical not sidereal), but from Abhinavagupta, it does not relate to the seven modern chakras in any way.
From a traditional approach, I recommend researching about the lokas and/or the dvipas. And then these are mapped onto the body, you can see this mapping into the body happening in the Tantras and Āgamas (an example is Tantraloka chapter 7 and 8) in practices where the body is visualized as the cosmos. Pandit Sanjay Rath works with a loka model which comes from his family tradition, I am sure you can find his views searching online. For an understanding of the dvipas and planets, I appreciate Richard Thompson's "The Cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana". It contains some good perspectives about the dvipas in the Purāṇas and how they relate to the planets. And then as Chris Wallis makes clear, these are projected into the body. Abinavagupta uses the term "kalpana sthana" which I translate as 'imaginal places' - these are places in us where we create an energy by visualizing, which is different that predicting.
I have never seen any astrological chakra prediction material in a standard text. The chakras are meditative/
Abhinavagupta (Tantraloka) doesn't use a chakra system in this way, but relative to the tropical signs being mapped into the body, the summer solstice relates the uppermost 'chakra' above the head, and the winter solstice is at the opposite end. This is similar to the sign layout used by Frawley (though tropical not sidereal), but from Abhinavagupta, it does not relate to the seven modern chakras in any way.
From a traditional approach, I recommend researching about the lokas and/or the dvipas. And then these are mapped onto the body, you can see this mapping into the body happening in the Tantras and Āgamas (an example is Tantraloka chapter 7 and 8) in practices where the body is visualized as the cosmos. Pandit Sanjay Rath works with a loka model which comes from his family tradition, I am sure you can find his views searching online. For an understanding of the dvipas and planets, I appreciate Richard Thompson's "The Cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana". It contains some good perspectives about the dvipas in the Purāṇas and how they relate to the planets. And then as Chris Wallis makes clear, these are projected into the body. Abinavagupta uses the term "kalpana sthana" which I translate as 'imaginal places' - these are places in us where we create an energy by visualizing, which is different that predicting.
I have never seen any astrological chakra prediction material in a standard text. The chakras are meditative/
yogic/pranic techniques. It is important that an 'imaginal place' is not considered a fantasy place though- if you imagine the Sun glowing in your chest- it will open up the breath and alter the posture. The energy in the body
moves as our mind directs and 'images' it.
At the same time, I am open to research that has some level of validity factors- where the planets can be seen within the body's energy system- presently no ancient text or any actual research on chakra-graha-horoscopic- astrology exists (that I have seen) other than opinions. And people will jump in with their opinions and tell you how good it works, but presently, there is nothing that has been written that I would recommend- just modern day opinions. And these new age approaches are fine if you are into them, just be clear that they are not Vedic. Properly sourcing and representing your information/techniques is the key to integrity in our field.
When we understand the psychological states that arise from various planetary placements and transits- we also can understand the corresponding subtle body-pranic activity that is happening within a person. This takes personal development and awareness of one’s own subtle body dynamics and a certain developmental level of awareness of mind-body. I think just looking at a chart and hoping to understand which chakra is blocked is an oversimplification of how we as humans function.
At the same time, I am open to research that has some level of validity factors- where the planets can be seen within the body's energy system- presently no ancient text or any actual research on chakra-graha-horoscopic- astrology exists (that I have seen) other than opinions. And people will jump in with their opinions and tell you how good it works, but presently, there is nothing that has been written that I would recommend- just modern day opinions. And these new age approaches are fine if you are into them, just be clear that they are not Vedic. Properly sourcing and representing your information/techniques is the key to integrity in our field.
When we understand the psychological states that arise from various planetary placements and transits- we also can understand the corresponding subtle body-pranic activity that is happening within a person. This takes personal development and awareness of one’s own subtle body dynamics and a certain developmental level of awareness of mind-body. I think just looking at a chart and hoping to understand which chakra is blocked is an oversimplification of how we as humans function.
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