The Planetary Powers as Cakras (II)
http://groups.msn.com/astrolcabala/swetha.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=30
In the West the above Cakras (or horizontal slices through a human’s psychic body) can be seen as a process of psychological growth. For example, Carl Jung, the Depth Psychologist, once gave a series of lectures on Kundalini Yoga where he expressed the idea that the ego-function in humans always is down in the muladhara area, in the base or earth cakra.
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But man can suddenly become aware of something up above, in the fourth storey, in ‘anahata’, and that is the ‘self’. That self, in Indian terminology, is ‘Purusha (man).’-- from Kundalin Yoga
And Jung equated this experience with St. Paul’s expression (in the New Testament):
‘But it is not I that lives, it is Christ that liveth in me.’ (ibid)
Jung obviously saw the ‘self’ (Purusha) as a way of living in this world which is not the individual’s own, but the life of a greater One, called Purusha. And here is where Western astrology could then lay out the course for the individual’s spiritual evolution, as he or she slowly climbs the stem of the Lotus. And this journey, obviously, would require the course of several lifetimes to complete.
My own feeling about Jung’s process, relative to Indians, is that this way of thinking would be rather alien for anyone born and raised in that country. For example, Indian astrology – which strikes me as being closer to sidereal that to tropical astrology, is mostly centered on what I call ‘social participation’, on a harmonious totality that accepts and absorbs minor quarrels and differences.
I will have to use an example, from my own life, to clarify what I mean by ‘social participation’.
I once traveled some distance, to Palo Alto California, to hear a concert by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Kahn. And when the concert began, I became totally absorbed in experiencing the beautiful music. But a large party of Indians had taken seats in the row immediately behind me, and they soon began a rather loud conversation. I could not – because of the language barrier, understand what they were saying, but they had broken my own thread of concentration, so I finally turned around and demanded (quite rudely) that they ‘please shut up’!
My experience, here, was this: the form of the music creates – for an Indian, an atmosphere with which they could meld harmoniously and become a ‘social whole’. And this ‘whole’ was equally enjoyable for both audience and musicians because EVERYONE WAS PARTICIPATING IN A SHARED EXPERIENCE.
And I have this strong feeling that the ‘meaning’ of Indian astrology (whatever ‘meaning means’) is also and similarly an arena for shared experiences; and differs from the West in that Indian astrology has little or nothing to do with ‘evolution’ of the individual's psyche. (*)
Perhaps I am in error here, and someone can correct me?
shantana
(*) I am speaking philosophically of course. The average Western interprepitation has nothing to do with spiritual evolution.
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