posted May 05, 2004 11:01 PM              

According to astroved.com, here are my "Astro Details":
Birth Star : Punarvasu
Birth Lagna: Taurus
Sun Sign : Virgo
Moon Sign : Cancer

In western astrology, I'm a Libra w/Cancer Moon. My Rising is Taurus 29.48 degrees.

I signed up for the newsletter. Here's some interesting stuff I've NEVER heard of. You would think that in India, men rule. But according to this...

"Goddess or Eve: The Concept of the Feminine

(The following note is a summary of lecture that Baba Sri Siva gave to the Department of Asian studies, University of Pittsburgh about 15 years ago.)

"Ancient civilizations worshipped the goddess. Pre-Pythagoran philosophers had been in direct communion with the goddess for their knowledge. Even Socrates had a woman Guru by name of Diotima. The goddesses like Minerva, Venus and Diana were well-known in Greek and Roman mythology. The Egyptians had their own goddesses.

But most of the goddess worship is dead today. One thing that is curious about India is that it has sustained a living tradition of the goddess. The goddesses are present in the Indians singing as early as the 3rd Millennium BC during the Indus Valley Civilization. India had past through both matriarchal and patriarchal societies. Remnants of both have continued to this day.

The goddess if very much alive in the Hindu pantheon. The goddesses are not simply mythological figures, but they are actively worshipped in homes and temples.

The concept of the goddess or the archetypal feminine is very unique in India philosophy. Paradoxically, the goddess is the symbol of strength in Indian Meta-physics. She is called Shakti in Sanskrit. Shakti means power and energy.

It is somewhat confusing to conceive of the female as power. Usually we think power or energy goes with the male. But in Indian philosophy, male is a stationary force without energy. Siva, the archetypal male, is often pictured as one a dead body. His wife Parvati or Kali on the other hand is the power. This is represented graphically of Kali coming out of the dead body of Siva.

That the god is motionless and the goddess full of energy is not simply a concept unique to Hinduism. Sylvia Browne has channeled a lot of material on this subject. The channeled materials say that power and energy is with the goddess. The god simply is without power in the absence of the goddess.

Shankara, the greatest exponent of Indian philosophy became depressed. It is the goddess that put him back in a blissful state after he started worshiping her. In his last work called "The Waves of Bliss", he maintains that the world is the goddess and without her nothing can exist.

Who is the goddess?
The goddess is the archetypal feminine energy that is both within the human males and females as part of their unconscious. A human female has more of the goddess energy than the human male. It puts the woman on an elevated pedestal. She holds the key for success or failure.

There is a common saying that a woman is fundamentally responsible for a man's success. Conversely, the woman is also responsible for a man's fall as well. This brings us to the discussion of my title, whether a goddess or an Eve.

As a goddess the woman can do good things; or as Eve she can bring destruction as well. During the upcoming Satya Yuga, we will increasingly feel the power of the feminine. Days are not far off when there will be a woman President of the United States. Personally, I look forward to this happening. Why?

A woman is full of love. She is the nurturer. The man plants the seeds in the womb and becomes aloof. He has no role in growing the embryo and then later on, to nurture the baby when it comes out of the womb.

Freud had profound understanding of this male-female behavior. He pointed out the phenomenon of millions of sperms running around, directionless as the basis for the typical male behavior. The eggs sitting on the other hand, disallowing the entry inside is the basis of the female behavior. I want to stop here, my aside on the male-female eschatology.

On a practical note I want to say something about the goddess. The human female and the archetypal female (the goddess) have a symbiotic relationship. You can access the archetypal goddess energy of primordial power through the human female. She can be your mother, your girlfriend or your sister. Being nice and kind to the human female pleases the goddess immensely. In India there is a tradition even today to worship the woman as goddess herself.

If you want quick material benefits like getting a house, car, relationship, etc., you can go to the goddess. Primarily there are three goddess archetypes very active in the Hindu tradition. They are Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, Saraswati, the Goddess of Music and Education, and Parvati, the Goddess of Energy and Enlightenment.

-- Baba Sri Siva"

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I found SEVERAL versions of the image Kali:

posted May 05, 2004 11:04 PM              

I'd like to meditate on this. Here's some more info on her:

"Kali, annihilation aspect of Sakti, standing on Rati and Kama,
who personify the primordial desire which gives rise to all creation.
The garland of human heads symbolizes wisdom and power. Her
blood-red tongue signifies the power of Raja-guna, the kinetic force
which gives impetus to all activities. The sacrificial sword and the
severed head are the symbols of dissolution and annihilation directing
the Sadhaka to shed his 'ego sense'. The girdle of severed hands signifies
one's Karma, action.

posted May 05, 2004 11:06 PM              

One of the most terrifying aspects of Prakriti are violent emotional expressions. Tantra's basic basic philosophy is based on a dualism, and the terrifying image projects the negative aspect of the creative life-force. In the creative aspect, Sakti appears as an enchantress. In her negative aspect she is demystified and transformed. The image has a naked intensity, so fierce that the incommunicable ceases to be a mystery. Kali, one of the most important tantric Dasamahavidyas, in her negative aspect appears as a conglomeration of terrifying elements.

Kali is the symbol of the active cosmic power of eternal time (Kala) and in this aspect she signifies annihilation: through death or destruction creation, the seed of life, emerges. Just as the destruction of the seed leads to the birth of the tree, so disintegration is a normal and necessary step of nature moving towards further progress or unfolding. Kali is the embodiment of creation, preservation, and annihilation.

She inspires awe and love at the same time. As a disintegrating tendency, Kali is represented in black, so all names and forms disappear into her' (Mahanirvana Tantra) The density of blackness is also identified with the massive, compact, unmixed, Pure Consciousness. In Tantric hymns to the goddess Kali, she is described as 'digambari' garbed in space - in her nakedness, she is free from all covering of illusion. She is full-breasted, her motherhood a ceaseless creation denoting preservation. Her disheveled hair, 'elokeshi', forms a curtain of death which surrounds life with mystery. Her garland of fifty human heads, each representing one of the fifty letters of the sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes the repository of power and knowledge; the letters are nuclear sound-elements symbolizing the power of mantras.

She wears the 'girdle of human hand': hands are the principal instruments of work and so they signify the action of karma or accumulated deeds to be enjoyed in subsequent births, constantly reminding one that ultimate freedom is conditioned by the fruits of one's action.

Her three eyes govern the three forces of creation, preservation, and destruction. Her white teeth, symbolic of Sattva, the translucent intelligence stuff, suppress her lolling tongue which is red, indicative of Rajas, a determinate level of existence leading downwards to Tamas, inertia. Kali has four hands: one left hand holds a severed head, indicating destruction and the other carries the sword of physical extermination, with which she cuts the thread of bondage. Her two right hands dispel fear and exhort to spiritual strength. She is the changeless, unlimited primordial power (adyasakti) acting in the great drama awakening the unmanifested Siva, a passive onlooker. Their inseparable union reflects non-duality.

The image of a wrathful appearance can agitate the eye and transport the spectator to a supernatural world. From an aesthetic point of view they suggest a flight from reality and an awareness of a profoundly different world: the poignant, restless and aggressive. These images unveil reality so that it is stripped bare, and have the same mind-altering capability to induce extra-ordinary experience which arouses intense inward states of rich spiritual content. Their most characteristic feature is that of images which seem to have sprung from anon-rational source but nevertheless have a rational basis within defined limits.

For example, Chinnamasta, the beheaded goddess, holds her severed head; apart from its symbolic meaning, the dismemberment of the body ought not to be confused with actual distortion: the image is not dissociated from its meaning, which underlies and generates the image; where dislocation appears it is to heighten visual impact.

The terrifying aspects of these images are completely dispelled in the tantric asana forms in both sculpture and painting. In art we are confronted with an ecstasy of joy in all its plastic possibilities. These united male and female figures are drawn together in creative force towards the awakening of the inner spirit, new dynamic asana-forms. Filled with ecstatic conviction, they are no longer torn between the contradiction of life and social existence.

The interlocking figures represent the antinomic principles; they are symbols of transcendent union, which do not in any way convey the gross sexual intercourse depicted, which illustrates an earth-bound level of existence.

posted May 05, 2004 11:07 PM              

Anyone have any ideas on how to go about meditating on this?

And does anyone have any advice on how one should incorporate Vedic Astrology with western?

posted May 06, 2004 01:16 AM              

Thanks for replying. I'm having trouble with that link. Please check it for me?

posted May 06, 2004 05:40 AM            

to tell u more kali i s another form of goddess DURGA.
so its like when there was a lot evil on this prithvi loka(our earth as it is called in the hindu mythology)DURGA changed her form in order to kill the asuras (the evil beings ).as she changed herself she forgot everthing.she killed every thing which came on her way.

by seeing all this the gods became worried.as this kali had such powers which could destroy the world.

posted May 06, 2004 11:19 AM              

You cannot "copy" images here, you have to insert it using HTML, and the image has to be in the public domain, as opposed to your hard drive.

And thanks for the info too!

posted May 06, 2004 01:07 PM              

Try this link: www.astroastro.com

Go to the Personalized Tutorial link towards the bottom of the page. They are great! You will have to register at the site first.

posted May 06, 2004 03:52 PM              

You are welcome Solane Star.