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Happy New Year 2015 |
| By Juliana Swanson |
| And now we welcome the New Year. Full of things that have never been. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke How hopeful the New Year feels as we imagine all the possible great new �things that have never been.� I am quite happy to share that the first month of 2015 does promise enormous spiritual and creative potential. There are actually a few significant happenings which will come together starting right away on New Year�s Day. First, the United States is having a Ketu year. I base this on a Nadi astrology technique shared by my friend, Vedic astrologer A.V. Sundaram. He described it as a �mini dasa� for the New Year; you can use it with your own natal chart to get an idea of how 2015 will be for you. Here�s how it works. Start with your birth star (janma tara), which is your natal Moon�s nakshatra. You have to use a table of nakshatras to now count (inclusively) from your natal Moon nakshatra to the nakshatra of the Moon at sunrise in your locale on January 1. Multiply that sum by 7 and then divide that amount by 9. The remainder is the number you will use to determine the year lord (starting dasa lord). This is based on 360-day year:
Here follows an example of this calculation using the astrological birth chart of the United States. You see I like to use the Kelleher chart rectified by Vedic astrologer James Kelleher for July 4, 1776 at 18:30 in Philadelphia. It reveals the placement of the US Moon�s janma tara in Satabhisha nakshatra. Once we locate the janma tara of the chart in question, we then locate the year star (nakshatra) which is calculated for the Moon�s nakshatra in place at sunrise on January 1. For 2015 in Washington, DC, capital of the US, the year star is Krittika; that is, the Moon is in Krittika nakshatra in Washington DC at sunrise on Jan. 1 2015. Counting (inclusively) from Satabhisha to Krittika we get 7. So then, 7 X 7 = 49. Dividing 49 by 9 gives a remainder of 4, which means Ketu�s cycle will be the first of the year. In my own interpretation of this technique, the starting dasa lord becomes the year lord. This is because the starting dasa lord sets the stage and lays the ground for the year ahead. As the leader of this new year journey, it conditions the mind and governs free will and all our reactions. In the case of the US chart, the year lord conditions as well as reflects the collective mind. Once we know the year lord, we have to apply all the usual methods for analyzing the year lord in its natural, temporal and progressed significations in various natal and transit charts, to try and understand what a Ketu year might mean. A Ketu year can be quite unpredictable, as the nature of shadowy Ketu is quite often mysterious and unfathomable. In the USA Kelleher chart, Ketu is in Capricorn, sign of business and government, in the second house which relates to the nation�s financial condition. Ketu�s effect can reflect extreme, sudden and unexpected gains *or* losses. Ketu, like Pluto, can be dispersing and transformational. Sometimes under Ketu, the chickens come home to roost and we have to face up to and deal with challenging karmas of the past. Ketu is also quite the astrological newsmaker lately for another reason, which is that it is coming up to a very rare conjunction with Uranus soon. They are moving closely together now and will conjoin exactly at ~19 degrees sidereal Pisces on January 20, 2015. Ketu and Uranus are both �awakeners� and when they come together like this�especially in the spiritual sign of Pisces� this can indicate the potential for visionaries and visionary ideas to be born, and for some to have unusual mystical experiences. However, this combination can also be scattered, delusional and erratic depending on other factors. The last time Ketu and Uranus conjoined in Pisces was in 1847. This was the year when two of the most inspired inventors of all time were born, Thomas Alva Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. Also in 1847, the Mormons began to establish roots and grow their church in Salt Lake City. According to John L. Brooks in The Refiner's Fire, the Mormon cosmology �promises the faithful that they will become �gods� through the restoration of ancient mysteries and regain the divine powers of Adam lost in the fall from Paradise.� This sounds a lot like the radically different kinds of religious and philosophical ideas that can develop under Uranus and Ketu in Pisces. In the USA Kelleher chart, Pisces falls in the fourth house and this relates to land, landed interests, disputes over land, war, seismic eruptions, landslides and floods. As an example of what this can look like with these two rabble rousers conjoining in the fourth house, the Mexican War took place in 1847 following in the wake of the US annexation of Texas, which was considered by Mexico to be its own territory. Ketu, like Mars, can be a bit of a war monger, and Uranus influencing Mars or Ketu can indicate land or territorial disputes, unexpected violence, war, revolution, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and so forth. However, there is another very interesting astrological configuration happening now, involving Ketu and Uranus. They are forming a grand trine�three 120-degree aspects which are considered fully harmonious and blessed�with Saturn in Scorpio and Jupiter in Cancer (sidereal zodiac signs). The participants of the trine are not all in a close orb but still, many astrologers read a large geometric formation like this just by signs without counting degrees. I discovered that we are actually in an unprecedented time with this trine. It comprises the moksha/spiritual/mystical signs (water signs) and all the moksha/spiritual/mystical planets too, as Jupiter, Ketu and Saturn are these three significators of spirituality. I searched to see when this configuration of Uranus and Ketu in Pisces; Saturn in Scorpio; and Jupiter in Cancer occurred in the past and could not find it going back over 6000 years. (I double checked with one of the best astrologers I know just to be sure). The last time Jupiter in Cancer, Saturn in Scorpio and Ketu in Pisces occurred was in the mid-1400 but the addition of the great awakener Uranus conjoining Ketu takes it to a whole different level. This rare moksha trine involving the addition of Uranus gives hope for some kind of spiritual, creative and innovative salvation in our troubled times, through the intervention of higher forces of grace, wisdom and goodness. So here's a big happy yes! to what Rilke said... "And now we welcome the New Year. Full of things that have never been." Each of us as individuals and together as a collective is so full of immensely vast potential. All we need to do is tune in, let go and let it all flow! Here�s wishing you and yours all the best in 2015, with great love and light for all.
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