It’s a Thursday. I am feeling optimistic, the trait Jupiter is synonymous with. I am excited when I am on the phone with Amma when she stops me in my tracks with “why are you delving this deep into astrology? isn’t it enough for you to have a passing knowledge?…”

My conversation with her meanders to other things but I keep coming back to the tone and the way her question was worded. I translate it in my head many times but keep coming back to this one.

“Why are you, a person who would otherwise be right in the middle of the bell curve, dabbling in things that would make you an outlier?” (See what I did there?)

The honest answer is because I want to, because I love it, because I am fascinated by the quality of time.

Can you imagine the moment of your birth being infused with, colored by the flavors of the deity that rules the day, the deity that rules the hour and the particular phase of the moon in its monthly cycle around the earth? There is something incredibly poetic about thinking of time in a non linear way. Time is the ultimate truth, the birth chart of the Universe, the kala chakra.

When I started learning Vedic astrology after having learned Hellenistic astrology for over two years, I was a curious learner, not a reverent one. In over half year, curiosity has given way to respect and now reverence. There is something incredibly overwhelming about thinking of the cosmos in terms of deities and puranic lore. The archetypes reveal themselves in my everyday life. There is magic in looking out my window and taking in the murmuration of birds or the lone bunny staring at me. There is magic in watching a fox walk fearlessly in my driveway, its tawny color reminding me of Mars.

Time has taken on a multi-dimensional form. I see patterns and themes repeating over days, months and years. I see the evolution of life in the way these repeated themes emerge, each a cycle of lessons and learning, until I master that lesson. The word karma, often overused, treated with blasé contempt by the world, is a verb. It is the unfolding of the purpose for which you were born, carrying on a cycle from across lifetimes.

Time is magic. Time is beautiful. Time is.

Astrology Time Astrology Jyotisa Muhurta Panchanga Time Vedic