Vedic Astrology Center Blog

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On Sunday, the Sun entered sidereal Sagittarius, the sign of the archer. This sign is ruled by Jupiter, expressing himself in his external, masculine temperament. When the sun goes into Sagittarius it illuminates the path of activating higher teachings and spirituality in our life. The keyword with the sun is “illumination”. Wherever the sun is transiting, that area of life is “lit up” by the nature of the sun. Just like when the sun rises, suddenly we can see where we’re going. There is enormous promise when the sun goes through Sagittarius each year. It is the opportunity for us to purify and deepen our teachings. But before we can purify, first we must be able to see the darkness. No one goes out in the middle of the night to weed the garden. They wait for the sun to come up so they can make sure to pull up weeds, not the plants themselves.

Between now and January 15, when the sun goes into Capricorn, there’s a great opportunity for us to illuminate those darker corners of our spiritual psyche, and actually do something about it actively. These are the traits of Sagittarius. Connecting to teachers, teachings and spiritual practices that give us an experience of our true nature is supported. In many ways, it is quite appropriate that our holiday season falls with the sun going through sidereal Sagittarius. Amidst all of the clutter and hubbub surrounding the holidays, underneath it all there is a lot of spiritual beauty. This time of year is actually a celebration of the solstice, and the days finally getting longer.

In addition to the sun entering Sagittarius, Mars will also enter Sagittarius on December 18. Both Mars and the sun will be in Sagittarius for more than three weeks, adding a very active and courageous approach to the lessons I mentioned above. However, the nature of Mars is to be destructive. He is a Tamasic planet, one that destroys weakness. At best, a Sun/Mars conjunction will have these two fiery planets working in tandem with each other. The sun enters the house, illuminates the darkness and then Mars destroys the weakness, because now we can see it. This process just happened with the sun and Mars in Scorpio. However, there is also the possibility that rather than destroying “our weakness”, Mars takes it upon himself to destroy “other People’s weaknesses” – though arguing and conflict. This is the unfortunate and typical nature of Mars, not because Mars is “bad”, but because we tend to lack patience and maturity. Mars is the energy that shows us acting destructively through impatience and immaturity. This tendency is exacerbated now as Mars is still quite combust. From a place of weakness (our own mental weakness) we *argue with others* over our principles, rather than put them into practice ourselves. We must be very careful not to make a mistake of arguing about our principles rather than practicing them for the next three weeks. Sagittarius is a very candid and frank section of the zodiac. Jupiter is a benevolent planet, but he is more interested in clearly delineating the truth and inspiring us toward it. A person who has strong opinions but not a lot of mental strength can justify doing battle over those strong opinions when Mars goes through Sagittarius, the sign on our active philosophies.

Have you noticed this week, suddenly people are battling over their principles a lot more than they were last week. This is because the sun just entered Sagittarius, as was said, this battling nature will likely get worse once Mars enters. So, be alert.

Ask yourself:
Are you actually putting your principles into practice through your actions or just defending them to others / arguing over them?
Are you walking the walk or just talking the talk?

One thing to realize, once you start feeling anger welling up in you because someone is saying things that are stepping on your “sacred cows”, Mars is about to come out and defend your principles verbally. Be very careful. Make sure the argument is worth having. (are any of them actually worth it,.. BTW?) Make sure that expenditure of energy is actually worth it. Do you have another choice with that energy? Are you actually embodying the teachings you are about to defend? Because you see, the willingness to suffer for your principles in a verbal conflict, is also a willingness to endure physical and emotional discomfort *yourself* in order to grow spiritually – a choice you also face in that moment. Because you’re uncomfortable with what’s being said, and the other person is obviously “wrong” you can justify the anger/violence/mental suffering you are feeling by inflicting onto the other person.

However, realizing yourself as the true source and the solution to your discomfort, Mars also gives the mental strength and courage to internalize the heat of that anger toward the truth, not vindication or revenge – toward a more spiritual goal. This inner heat and internalization is called “Tapas” in yoga. It is what compels serious spiritual seekers to deprive themselves of sleep, deprive themselves of physical comforts like tasty food or sex in order to get more spiritual energy, clarity and insight, etc.

It is also the strength to deprive *ourselves* of the short-term satisfaction and adrenaline rush thrill of telling another person to go to hell because of what they said. As much as we may not like to admit this about ourselves, we feel good and fulfilled when we argue and defend our principles. We love to talk about our little victories and battles.

This capacity for discipline and to sacrifice winning the battle for winning the War (against our real enemy – ignorance) is also the energy of Mars, but a higher vibration.

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