Are We Better Off?

This question’s been with me for a long time.

In fact, it refuses to go.

Are we better off knowing our own horoscopes?

Does life lose its spontaneity?

Does dancing to the tune of a predictable pattern render life boring?

Ha, the basic question has an army of other questions backing it!

Well, being an Astrologer, I obviously know my own horoscope. That’s the first act performed while learning Astrology, isn’t it? After Lesson101, you kick open your own chart and try and figure out your own lot in life…ha ha ha, I remember the eagerness and the voracity while attacking my own chart…!

The question being asked here is, is that such a good thing?

Yes, yes, I know you can’t avoid it, and that now you’re stuck with it, but that’s not the point being discussed.

So, good for you, or bad for you?

I’m actually quite comfortable knowing my Mahadasha pattern. However, what I end up doing is that I say, this is for Saturn, and that we’ll defer for Mercury, and you know what, I’m not even attempting this other vigorously active looking opportunity because Mars Mahadasha is never going to come as long as I’m alive.

Hmmm, this smells of complaecency.

I attempt less. Stuff is judged and discarded as per its fit to the chart and to the Dasha pattern.

Whatever little spontaneity was present at birth is now grossly diluted.

The silver-lining is the recognition of above facts.

Once this recognition happened, I started to do my best to forget the Antaradasha pattern. Soon, I forgot the dates when any particular Antaradasha would start. In an emergency the urge would be there to look up the Antaradasha, and a couple of times I actually looked it up, but then I would do my best to forget the dates again. Life became a little more spontaneous, and yes, more enjoyable.

It is not as easy to forget chart specifics.

Nevertheless, one can try and use the information to one’s advantage,

For example, if you know that you’re Manglik, you can constantly remind yourself to tread softly in the environment of your marital partner. You have the natural propensity to not tread softly perhaps, but knowing the fact can be a deterrent. Constant reminder leads to memory translating into DNA.

Strong Jupiters seem to give water-retention and a tendency towards diabetes, if not full-blown diabetes. The sweet-tooth rendered by strong Jupiter is tough to control. Recognition of the tendency can lead to exercise of control. Or can it? Strong Jupiters also seem to be prone to go beyond boundaries and control in their benevolence.

Well, the jury’s still out there. I don’t know the correct answer here. I do know that I’m stuck with it, and I do know that I have to deal with it, so that I can use the knowledge to do maximum good, even to my own self.

Our family Panditji and I hit it off since the beginning, especially once he found out that I was interested in Astrology. On his home-visits, he used to carry our horoscopes, scrolled up, and my mother used to sit with him, engrossed in deep discussion about our lives. Of course I used to eavesdrop. Panditji understood. He spoke to me sternly, and said, “Once you learn Astrology, keep your own horoscope in a place where it’s out of reach for you.” I didn’t understand his words then.

I do now.