By Sat Siri Kaur, Vedic Astrologist
Narsingha Deva is worshipped in the Vedic scriptures as one of the primary avatars of MahaVishnu the Divine Sustainer. Half-man and half-lion, this divine force is referred to many times in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib ji with the story of Bhagat Prahlaad*. This energy was rising in the east at the Solstice that is the seed time for how the ashram came to be planted and grow in this valley.
This relates to the tremendous amount of work and energy that would pour down to move piles of old tires and auto wrecks off of the land and turn the main house into a sadhana room and gurdwara and living space and turn the barn into bunk rooms then kitchen and langar hall and office space. So many expansions on and on to the present day where we continue to grow produce on the land, build and improve at Ram Das Puri and are about to install two magnificent chandeliers to further embellish the gurdwara. The gurdwara used to be a dirt-floored storage room for apples…but there also was a fireplace right where the new gurdwara expands out from the small gurdwara in the niche, so the Mars fire was there in seed form.
The Mars in the Solstice maps is further magnified by being joined to the planet called Rahu, also known as the Dragon’s Head, the point in the sky where eclipses occur, and which is called the point of Karmic Control. Rahu and its opposite end of the axis are both mentioned in Siri Guru Granth Sahib. This eclipse axis points a direction of flow in the heavens. Rahu with Mars is a phenomenal massing of energy, and one of the things Rahu rules is foreign influence, that which causes one to go beyond borders. It well presages the birth of the Khalsa and the appearance of the form of the Khalsa here in the valley and mountains of New Mexico. The Singhs and Kaurs with their turbans and beards and chunis would take some time to find acceptance but ultimately become befriended and loved by the people of the valley. The kids who used to attend the Sombrillo school across from the property would come and watch the men making adobe bricks for the niche that would become the small gurdwara alcove, and make fun of the techniques saying “My grandpa does that faster than you vatos!”
Going next around the diagram we come to Mercury in the North and following it is Sun in the Northwest direction; the two of them are fused together in the same degree in the chart to make a special yoga giving exquisite brilliance, expertise in techniques, high energy and siddhi (yogic skill). Obviously this refers to the vast gifts of Kundalini Yoga and Sikh dharma which the Gurus and our spiritual teacher have endowed the sangat with. The degree of this Mercury-Sun combo is full of magic and mantra and arts and skills. They perch on a double-edged sword however, which is evident in the way they are placed in the horoscope. Mercury and Sun in Gemini are in the eighth house, which is a house of deep spiritual transformation. It is where the phoenix rises from the ashes of old karmas. These are the very best techniques the mind of God can bestow for ending the hold of old karmic debts. But planets in the eighth house are challenging to bring out to the outer world to capture worldly and commercial success. The tension is built in here with Mercury on the diagram in the North where it has greatest mastery and prosperity of all kinds, but opposed to Saturn in the southern direction. Mercury opposed by Saturn means the treasures and gifts face opposition and barriers from all kinds of causes, from normal entropy, aging, apparent death and decease, to enmity, jealousy, lies, scarcity, stealing and the normal lower self processes that always have to be overcome by untiring work and no-cutting-corners earning of spiritual crowns.
Next around the Kalachakra diagram we come to Sun in the Northwest and at the other end of the axis is Jupiter. Sun represents leadership, and it is under a moving and windy energy in the Northwest. The finding of the Hacienda de Guru Ram Das came about on the earthly level because of a quirk of leadership--the Kundalini yogis who had been teaching and gathering the group of aspiring yogis around them, suddenly flipped and changed course. The early experiences at their land on West Alameda had been intense. There were regular group self-examination sessions called “Saturn circles” where everyone’s psyches were probed and the group was cemented in closer self-revelation, but it was not to be permanent. Given a rapid eviction notice, Wha Guru Singh had to come up with an alternative quickly and before cold weather would settle in. Later in 1984, Wha Guru Singh himself and some of his close friends suddenly also abandoned the ashram and new leadership was sent by the Siri Singh Sahib—Guru Terath Singh and Kaur. Sun opposite Jupiter means the high ideals and vision and burden of representing the Gurus’ mission as part of the Golden Chain weighs on any individuals. It warns against adopting too closely any illusion of control.
Jupiter was rising in the horoscope that Summer Solstice in New Mexico. Whatever is in the rising sign is worthy of worship. Jupiter of course represents the Guru, as the divine inner knower and omniscient disposer of all things. Jupiter then was retrograde, representing the unfulfilled call. It was opposite the other huge marker in the chart, Moon, which was exalted in Taurus and joined to Venus also in its own sign of bounty and bliss, Taurus. Moon and Venus joined together especially in the high dignity of Taurus shows compounding of soul qualities, reduplicating and increasing the direction of soul growth. This Moon and Venus shows the ties binding the siblings of destiny. People with Moon-Venus conjunctions are natural leaders, possessing the charisma and inner certainty that gives many many individuals the inclination to follow them. Moon and Venus are planets of jala, the water element, the force of affection and love. Together they make the Sukh Sagar, ocean of peace and bliss found in Shabad and Gurbani.
Hanging with them to throw some ice in the sweet lemonade or drop some boulders across the winding upward road was Saturn in Taurus, meaning this forceful power of soul redoubled could not come to be without some cost, long delays, struggles, bitter disappointment, betrayals, the ever-present need to grow in grit. Not everyone could make it, not at all.
This consequential combination has deep historic ties to other horoscopes of the great ones who inspired this latest rebirth of the Panth Khalsa. The birth chart of Guru Nanak Dev has Moon and Mercury in Taurus conjunct this Summer Solstice Yoga. Also the Siri Singh Sahib’s natal Jupiter is conjunct this yoga of Moon, Venus and Saturn in Taurus. And the birth chart of Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Master, has exalted Mars conjunct this Summer Solstice Mars.
“Waho Waho Gobind Singh Aape Guru Chela…Hail Hail Guru Gobind Singh, He Himself is the Guru and the Disciple.”
After this summons coming down at the Summer Solstice, the actual purchase of the land and the siblings of destiny moving into the old farmhouse came about three and a half lunar months later, at the end of September 1971. The Moon returned to Taurus, and now Sun had moved to the sign of Virgo. A spectacular grand trine in the heavens formed among the Mars and Rahu in Capricorn, the Saturn still in Taurus, and the Venus and Sun now together. Virgo is the sign of Guru Ram Das’s nativity. The sign of purity, sweetness, innocence, and the painstaking eradication of faults and karmic obscurations, Virgo with Sun and Venus gave the presence and blessing of the patron saint of the ashram, the Fourth Guru.
Another axis of note in the Kalachakra is the axis of Rahu and Ketu in the Northeast against Venus in the Southwest. The Northeast is the direction of the Teacher; the southwest is the province of disorder, unruliness. The teacher is Rahu, who represents the powerful control of Karma that comes with commitment to the path of higher consciousness, and its effect is to tame the vagaries of Venus in the unruly Southwest, certainly much harder than herding cats. Venus is a rajasic planet, showing the restless craving of the emotions, the passions that can run away with the stability of mind and peace, and run away they do, until gradually with sometimes the painful sting of Rahu or fate’s corrections, we find the means to go beyond passions to a higher bliss.
In this chart Rahu is in the Northeast corner representing the teacher and what an unusual teacher. The teacher with an unending repertoire, so many techniques, and some that can seem foreign or extreme: forty days of fasting on celery juice, 120 days of doing Sat Kriya for 2.5 hours per day, whatever the need of a situation—yet the mixing of the two, Rahu and Venus, in the best outcomes fuses to make a new culture and an indelible highway of elevation. Each person can find a unique formula among the feast of teachings to fulfill one’s own deepest desires for expression and transformation.
Now, what about timing? The planetary cycle that applies to this Kalachakra diagram lasts 108 years before the start of a new octave.
Each planet predominates for one cycle of time; the cycles are called dashas. For the HGRD chart, the cycles go in this order (counterclockwise around the Kalachakra):
Mars 8 years - 1971 to 1979
Building, transforming the land, doing powerful sadhanas, anchoring our foothold in the Valley of Espanola, which Siri Singh Sahib wrote a poem to as “God’s Real Home.”
Rahu 12 years - 1979 to 1991
The teachings poured forth in amazing detail and effectiveness from the Siri Singh Sahib and were put into practice in farther and farther territories around the world. We bonded as Siblings of Destiny. So many marriages were performed and Venus spread its wings and healed its wounds.
Mercury 17 years - 1991 to 2008
The teachings became written and codified. Kundalini Research Institute and International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association grew and expanded to promulgate the methods and reach students everywhere. The businesses became complex and multifold. In 2004 our guide and teacher left his body and students had to take up their own mantles. Mercury opposing Saturn led to tests and divisions.
Sun 6 years - 2008 to 2014
Leadership issues were the focus in many ashrams, and legal challenges continued.
Moon 15 years - 2014 to 2029
The hearts and souls of the original cohort of students were tried and tested on the Guru’s touchstone. Moon is conjunct Saturn and receives an aspect of Rahu, so scandals and accusations erupted and waves of falling away from the central vision and purpose rocked the boat of the ashram, as has happened in Sikh history from its beginnings in medieval times, but as Moon is exalted and fortified, nothing could pervert the strength of the Shabad and Gurbani keeping its devotees intact. Moon is the Mother, and the mother has to let her children grow as their karmas and fates dictate, and this wisdom that holds through the crossing from one generation to the next became the gift of this stage as the chakra passes through its Western horizon.
Venus 21 years - 2029 to 2050
Venus is conjunct Moon in a fantastic trine with the Mars and Rahu. The image will grow ever stronger as many will be attracted to this loving and divine pathway of growth. The lifestyle will spread more and more all over the world.
Saturn 10 years - 2050 to 2060
Saturn is the lord of the sign of Mars and so it carries the energy of the exaltation of the Man-Lion. The protection of the Gurus will be very strong in this era.
Jupiter 19 years - 2060 to 2079
Jupiter, the Guru among the planets, will have full sway in this time, and the master plan for the Age of Aquarius will be manifesting.
Humbly contributed by Sat Siri Kaur Khalsa, jyotishi (Vedic astrologer).
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