Nasca lines, lights out and Delhi

5:01 Delhi. Posting this by torchlight from Delhi as the lights have mysteriously stopped working. Or maybe I just can't figure out how to turn them back on. Anyway I am in complete darkness and too excited to sleep. Watched a documentary on Nasca lines in Peru and human sacrifices--reading light were not working at all on the plane so those of us who find it impossible to sleep on planes were at the mercy of the film screens in the seat in front of us. Coming into Delhi last night from the airport was surreal, bring up memories of being in Lima as a child and being driven around to exciting places down large circular roads with people wandering on the highway along with motorbikes, trucks and taxis. Our driver reminded us that Delhi was a city of 16 million people--"1 and 6" he said, not just 6!" One of the passengers asked him why everybody was ignoring the traffic lines and he said that was normal--the lanes were guides but optional. He did say that miraculously for the 2010 Olympics people had to follow them and things went very well but then after the Olympics people reverted to their looser, natural patterns. As we were curving around a giant bend and entering a smaller circle I thought this pattern was a lot like the spidermonkey Nasca lines, circular and concentric, mysterious and flowing.

No More Angst & Dread

Hari Om! Leaving for India this morning. Awakened by a howling wind around 4:30 a.m. I take this as auspicious - Rudra, a form of Shiva is known as The Howler.

These last few days have been a blur of work & trying to remember details for packing. It is a paradox that in order to pack light one must remember 1,001 more details than to pack heavy. Yesterday a friend surprised me with a little bag of travel essentials including an insect stick for putting on once one is bitten (because of course, one WILL be bitten!)

Skeletons

Ever have one of those days where you spend all day dealing with what I like to call "skeletons?" While we each have our definitions of "skeletons" for me, today, it was household chores that have to be caught up on that you'd much rather avoid or postpone. But yet I noticed that each time I worked on one I felt immediately better. In fact, it led to more energy to be able to work on the next one.

For example, I admit that a huge skeleton for me is simply going to the local grocery store to buy necessary but mundane things like milk, butter, vegetables, and tea lights. These are things that we routinely run out of and that although they don't necessarily comprise a dinner, must be gotten anyway. This afternoon, after procrastinating all morning, I finally went to the store, got the items, came home and put each item where it belonged, including the tea lights in the candle holders. I immediately felt a true satisfaction, a kind of nesting contentment that all was well with the world.

Maybe because today is Monday, the Moon's day, the act of dealing with these skeletons today also reminded me of the power of the Moon at birth to influence our attitudes towards food, towards taking care of ourselves and finally the resulting emotional contentment that comes from doing so in a way that is skillful and appropriate to our body type.

So why is such a seemingly innocuous task as going to the grocery store so challenging for me and so utterly simple for others? Tomorrow, more about full-moon people and dark-moon people . . .

Pigeons in Context

In response to yesterday's post, my husband remarked, "Does this mean that cities--virtually all of them these days--are especially fortunate places if they have a plague of pigeons?" Well, not necessarily. In both cases the pigeons' arrival augured something unusual or came at an important transition time. In Jyotisha, as in life, context is everything.

Pigeon Tales

Let's bring this down to earth . Outside our kitchen window, exactly 28 days ago on Mother's Day, Sunday May 5th, a pigeon hatched two eggs in the airshaft of our home in San Francisco's Sunset District. She did so in a small wooden "cat house" that had been sitting empty for the past 15 years. Turns out to be the perfect pigeon nest as it is protectively perched with its single opening to the air shaft roof's ledge, perhaps mimicking the steep caves that rock doves originally used for habitats.

I immediately took this as a good sign.

In Jyotisha, pigeons are the bird of the planet Jupiter, the great benefic. Although I can certainly understand why it might not always be a good idea to have pigeons nesting in one's air shaft, I paid attention because Jupiter had recently gone into the constellation of Pisces, a sign in which it has great strength. Also, this was not an everyday occurrence, but the first time in 15 years that the "cat house" had been occupied. The following Thursday morning, which is Jupiter's day in the tradition of Jyotisha, I put out some sunflower seeds for the pigeon family as a way to welcome them.

Last Sunday, while we were having brunch out by the ocean, my friend Anna told me a story about a pigeon that had unexpectedly flown into an evening musical performance in a tea house in downtown San Francisco. The event was the launch of a musical CD, a collaboration by international musicians. The audience was split between those who wanted the pigeon to be left alone in the rafters and those who wanted the bird to be gotten rid of because they feared the pigeon droppings. Since nobody could concentrate on the music, however, the restaurant staff ended up pushing the pigeon out with a broom.

Had I been there, I probably would have been on the side of just letting the pigeon be.

This is because being Jupiter's bird that pigeon symbolizes a great blessing--traditionally associated with wealth and prosperity as well as general good luck, all of which I think the musicians, the restaurant and the audience might have needed.

Welcome!

Om Gan Ganapataye Namah!

Welcome! The word Jyotisha or Vedic astrology as it is known in the West means "Lords of Light."

Jyotisha is a way of seeing, an inner light, as well as a life time study requiring the grace of a qualified guru or teacher. My teacher is Hart deFouw. I am indebted to him and his esteemed guru Mantriji. Whatever Jyotisha I have learned so far is a result of his profound and elegant teaching. (See My Teachers and Lineage)

The wonderful thing about this tradition is that everything and everyone around us can be an opportunity for learning, and for being surprised and delighted by how the astrological symbolism actually works, as Jyotisha's field is none other than the entire world we live in!

This is what prompted me to start these musings based on everyday life -- first to try to pay more conscious attention to events in my life and secondly, to solidify my understanding of Jyotisha's vast array of categorical observations of our world within the traditional shastras or texts.

Tomorrow, the tale of our pigeons.