[quote="rohiniranjan"]The way to learn astrology, to me has been simply how our ancestors began!

It must have been an evening when I felt secure -- no threat around that 'threatens' me firstly and those that I consider my family and friends?

SAFE in having arrived at that point in my EVOLUTION, I looked up for it was too dark anyway to look around and figure what was moving in the 'bushes' next to me!

But really more importantly -- if you can tune into that prehistoric mindset -- it was a MOMENT when the bushes were known and SAFE!

With that mindset (please humor me folks!) -- I looked up and saw the horns of a goat! Perhaps the goat had given me a lot of trouble today? Or maybe I just happened to have a wonderful meal TODAY that included goat cheese (TRUE)

I truly believe that astrologic did start with simple assumptions and beliefs like that!

It is up to US if we allow it to stay there or let it grow with us, individually or collectively!

Rohiniranjan.homestead.com[/quote]
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As they say on the TV game show, I shall use the lifeline given to me kindly on <<Sat Jun 16, 2007>> on this thread!

But I will not ask you as happens on the TV. What is there to ask? Well actually there are many many questions to be asked and previous claims challenged!

Most of us are always so in awe of Spiritual Masters that we dare not ask them any questions! Some of that SHIELD (that the wise grandpa who loves cats and watermelons? uses as his monniker! was asking!). It all melds into a collage is what I am marvelling at! The forums, the contacts and reconnects and the events that unfold as Masters ascend and transition etc!

The reason we have so many religions and paths and directions that all lead to nowhere ultimately must have to do with us and not the prophets and sages and saints that worshippers remind us about!

Once we cross the dozen mark (12 rashis) or 27/28 (nakshatras) or even finer divisions (all the way up to NADI, which to those who know bangla has a special meaning!) it is about time that we wake up and not be hit on the head with Mishir-jee's DANDA! Mishir jee the night watchman on a green hercules cycle is not an arbirtrary symbol sent to me and to you!

Green = Mercury (wakefulness, reasoning, ration, communication)
Hercules = Mars?
Watchman = Not Mars! Then who?? Homework!!!
Danda = Saturn
The confusion of the night = Rahu
The magical kingdom that comes alive at night = Ketu
Engagement and caring = Moon and venus?
Illusion = Sun! Yes, because the illusion becomes real and understood as a real entity is only when the SUN rises! Think about that!
Hope = Jupiter! That should not confuse or surprise you, even if you were betting on sun!

I always cheated, kind of :-(
I almost always finished homework at school because I wanted to have time to myself in the evening for things that keep me alive and engaged today. I think I made the right choice even though I was but a child and kind of figuring it out by myself!

We live in a very fast-paced metropolis now, even faster than it used to be in Superman's days before he fell off the horse and sadly became paraplegic but it must be the wishes of all those children who truly beleived that Chris Reeves was The Superman -- he overcame a Challenge which was rather dramatically straight out of the comic book reality: GREEN KRYPTONITE!

Before Thanevalas arrest me for digressing too far out of my permitted boundaries maybe I should return to the matter described in the header of this post!

In this Silicon Metropolis READINGS are a REALITY. And they are often dropped in wrong places and then the dedicated moderators spend personal valuable time and move it to the READING areas. Now I realize that reading seekers at times are distraught and also may be new to the metropolis and may not know exactly how to get to the Oracle. I have witnessed many requests moved to the right area but hardly ever have I read an expression of frustration from the moderators who are responsible for relocating the messages! Quodos to you brothers and sisters!

There will always be expectations on the part of those who post reading requests. Some realistic and other expectations somewhat unrealistic. And then we have the individuals who to give an analogy, perhaps undeserved and unfair on them -- pharmacy students going to a doctor for advice about their <horoscope!>

If the purpose of the request is to seek direction then first there must be trust built in the healing relationship. Hard to do on the impersonal internet with its doubts and deceptions, real and imagined!

If the purpose of the reading request is to learn, then it is deception and while many have 'passed', who has ever learned anything through cheating in the examinations? The successful ones may please speak up and adjust our reality!

If the purpose of the request is to show off one's knowledge then to those the simple advice from this ant would be: Please begin to believe in yourself and your capabilities and begin to GIVE readings as opposed to seeking those! This healing camp needs more healers and readers than patients!

If asked, many practitioners would give different answers to the question: Where to begin when looking at a horoscope. Some would recommend lagna, moon, atmakaraka, lagnesha, pada of 1st house or any of the many "personal indicators" (to jog the memory of those who may have read that).

$wamiji always recommended that one first look at indicators of longevity. If the horoscope is of one who will not survive, why even bother giving five hundred page readings that will probably be buried or cremated with the deadbody!

But but how to determine longevity? TA slipped in the question just as $ was slipping into his post-prandial oblivion after having consumed his bowl of daliya (porridgy thick soup of various lentils and other stuff).

"Read the chapters $@#$@%..."
Obviously TeenAger was too slow and let the opportunity slip away. Now it will be another sleepless night and lot of midnight oil to be burned :-(

A$hram had recently got a few new futuristic books on longevity determination and TA greedily pored over those. Tattwas and pindas and this interesting jaimini grid and amshayu, alpayu, madhyau, deerghayu and OH WHAT FUN!

When the cock crowed, the bleary-eyed and hungry (missed his meal reading all those books) TA shook himself free from the books and realized that he had wasted another night without learning anything.

"You look tired and upset, beta!", $ kindly patted TA on the head and gave him the morning off. When TA arrived at his bed, he found a small package waiting for him. From past experience he knew that this would contain a bunch of charts and a note describing the homework.

Wearily, he opened the package and it had a note which read:

"Start Simple
2-3-7-8 then <1>
No house becomes a home unless it is occupied and sudarshan!
Tomorrow will be another day!"

Later on, $ came in to check and covered the shivering, cold TA with some warm thatch...

The way TA's bed was placed, when the sun arose, it fell right across his face and woke him up. By training and practice, as soon as he woke up he performed his morning prayers and rituals. The practice continued even when he eventually moved to a nordic country where during winter, the sun was visible for only a few hours. He would be out of work if he woke up at sunrise there! Interesting -- how much the human body and mind can adjust very quickly. And if these do not, then reality makes sure that that gets rectified in a big hurry.

TA being the curious brat always was looking into books and notes that $ did not think he was ready for, yet. 'BAH HUMBUG!', the naughty and marginally belligerant young one im-claimed [AuN: EXplosion/IMplosion, EX-claim/IM-claim...]. $ was pretty rigid about this. "Before you wander into the jungle, Beta, you must first know your home varga, home territory where most will live most of the time."

"But, $ji, navamsha is so much more fun and the other 14 are even more exciting!". "14? ONLY 14!", $ had a sly look in his eyes and with a wink he wiped away the confusion that had risen in TA's mind!

"Let us play a game", $ suggested to his disciples one day. "Let us not change anything -- the bed remains in the room where it is, the kitchen utensils stay in the kitchen, the cows remain in the Gaushala, the sacred library remains where it is and the temple remains unaltered, the well remains where it is and so on...". "But let us change the labels! Let us eat in the bedroom, let us pray in the kitchen, let us study in the temple, let us play in the library and let us sleep in the gaushala!

TA was already seeing some practical problems. He hated stinky cattle and those strange noises they made at night :-(

But he had no choice! The first day was very confusing. For one thing they had to be continually and repeatedly reminded of the new labels. When books were there in the library, it was difficult to play. Eating in the sleeping area was not a big problem or studying in the temple but sleeping amidst those stinky beasts was simply too much. The second day was even more confusing and some fights actually broke about between the calm and well trained ashram children! TA was beginning to hate this place where rules were first put in place strictly and then suddenly overturned and changed the next day! Little did he realize that $ was preparing him for the real world and a world far far away with different rules and norms! HECK! Even the sun rose at weird times and set at even weirder times ...