How to Use Eclipses in Vedic Astrology: A Practical Guide for Beginners and Experts

How to Use Eclipses in Vedic Astrology: A Practical Guide for Beginners and Experts

[00:00:00] Introduction and Welcome

[00:00:00] Fiona Marques: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Vedic Astrology Podcast. My name is Fiona Marques. 

I'm excited to be back with you here again after the summer break in Europe. And that kind of means that this is the start of Season 3! So well done Vedic Astrology Podcast. Here we are beginning a whole new season. And we have a really interesting solar eclipse coming up in the middle of October, 2023. It's about a month away from now. It's the topic of our AstroliJam. 

 If you're someone who is interested in playing around with eclipses and seeing how we can use them, you might like to come along. AstroliJam is a safe space for astrologers to practice reading charts. We always select a chart together and then do our research privately, turn up to the jam and share what we've seen, get feedback just by hearing what other people have picked up and also try out techniques that maybe we're not ready to with clients yet, also pick up techniques from other people. It's just like a jam, a musician jam session when get inspired. And this month for AstroliJam, instead of a person's chart, we are looking at the eclipse chart, the 14th of October, 2023. So for those of us, maybe you're a little bit like me, relatively new to being a Vedic astrologer, then you might understand very well from all of your working with clients and from all of your training, the static, the birth chart and perhaps you're experimenting with Prasna or perhaps, maybe like me and with the Patreon group, we have been exploring Varshaphal all summer break, getting a lot of insight into how to use the solar return chart.

The eclipse is another great way to explore using Vedic Astrology and having a look at a particular moment in time. And in thinking about this eclipse and preparing for this podcast, it's opened my mind to the karma that is actually taking place in all of these birth charts, in all of the work that we're doing.

I'm really feeling this journey that as a Westerner, often we can feel very personally responsible for things that happen in our life. There's that traditional approach way back in the day when everything seemed fated and one just had to surrender to one's fate. And then modern Westerners, we grow up in a much more individualized, individualistic society where everything is our fault.

You know, we take responsibility for things and whatever blockages I'm experiencing there because of my psychological wounds and traumas. And Vedic Astrology is one of those things that can help us see larger patterns in our life, help us have a little detachment from our own experience. And perhaps take things not so personally.

We have that Lajjitaadi Avashta in Vedic Astrology when Moon starves Mercury. And it turns that rational Mercury mind into really personalizing things and taking things very personally and losing the objectivity that is so important for a healthy Mercury. So Vedic Astrology opens up these ideas of seeing bigger pictures and bigger connections.

But as I was getting ready for this episode and thinking about eclipses, I'm thinking about how eclipses draw our attention to what will be the impact of this eclipse on the Earth. It's an event that happens at a specific place and time in the Earth, and it's very astronomically involving the Earth Moon Sun relationship.

So it's made me think about whether all of our karma that we think is so personal is perhaps all for the purposes of planet Earth. 

And if anything is going to bring that to our attention, it's the eclipse, because let's just recap what's happening in a solar eclipse, which is the one that we're talking about. A solar eclipse is when the Sun is eclipsed from our perspective. And that means that it's the Moon that gets in between the Earth and the Sun. And from us here on Earth, looking up there, it looks as if the Sun gets covered and it is the Moon that does that job. Around a couple of weeks before and a couple of weeks after the solar eclipse we also have lunar eclipses and that is when it is the Earth that gets in the way of the light that is shining from the Sun onto the Moon. So these eclipses, whether they're solar or lunar, really emphasize the relationship between the Sun, Moon, and the Earth. And it got me thinking about how the Earth is evolving through all of these eclipses.

We're going to talk a lot today about how cyclical eclipses are and how they move from the North Pole to the South Pole, or from the South Pole to the North Pole over thousands of years. And I'm just wondering about that detoxifying experience for the Earth. I'm really inviting you to join me on today's episode as we learn a bit more about eclipses. And if this whets your appetite, I invite you to come along and play with us at AstroliJam, which is on Thursday, the 28th of September. So then, let's jump in now and find out... What eclipses are all about. I'm going to share eclipse information from NASA to really look at the astronomy and to return us to a time when astronomy and Astrology were much more connected or were one in the same thing.

In fact, if you go to NASA's website, you are going to think you are looking at an ephemeris, looking at an astrologer's ephemeris. So we're going to look at the scientific side of eclipses, increase our knowledge. And we're also going to bring it into Vedic Astrology by having a look at Shadbala. 

Those of you who listen regularly know how much I love understanding planets in a person's chart by looking at and analyzing the Shadbala. And Shadbala uses a lot of astronomical measurements. It's very much about where the planet is placed. Shadbala tells us how powerful a planet is going to be in a person's chart. And really it's telling us how powerful that is from the perspective of receiving those aspects here on Earth. And because of that, we take these astronomical measurements and view them through the lens of planet Earth.

And that's what we're going to do as well. We're going to have a look at the eclipse, the scientific side of it, and the Shadbala side of it, particularly the Kala bala as a way of understanding time and which planets are being emphasized by time. So I hope you will join me as we dive into this journey of understanding eclipses better and examining what this eclipse is all about because each eclipse has its own theme. And this eclipse is particularly positive in a way because it helps us to free up from things that we might be stuck. With it's targeted push in the right direction, and we could all use that from time to time, right?

And we're going to look at which planets and which positions in the chart are most emphasized by this eclipse. If you want to know how to apply this Eclipse with clients or in your own chart, we are going to look at what planets were involved in the very first eclipse of this series, and those planets are going to be the ones that are important.

We're going to look at where those planets are in this particular eclipse and highlight which planets and ascendants that will affect the most right now as we move into the middle of October. Great. Let's get started.

[00:09:41] NASA as a source of information about Eclipses

[00:09:41] Fiona Marques: Eclipses happen in the sky. They're an astronomical event. And for that, whenever it's this kind of thing, I love to go to NASA and read the way these things are explained scientifically. My background is not in Astrology, so I'm always more comfortable perhaps coming at things from a scientific perspective.

And if we just go to the NASA website and inquire about Saros cycles, we'll find out that eclipses actually happen in patterns that take thousands of years. And each and every eclipse that we experience, that we have experienced, that we will experience is all part of this repeatable, predictable series called the Saros series.

So I'm just going to read for you directly from the website, because this is just so fascinating, just the way it is explained on NASA's website.

"The periodicity and recurrence of eclipses is governed by the Saros Cycle, a period of approximately 6,585.3 days, and this equates to 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours. It was known to the Chaldeans". 

And I think why they've popped that into this document is because the Chaldeans were an ancient culture around, even at biblical times in that kind of Mesopotamian cradle of civilization So this cycle of eclipses the 18 year, 11 days, eight hour repeating of an eclipse cycle was known even back in biblical times "when lunar eclipses seem to repeat themselves, but the cycle is applicable to solar eclipses as well".

And then this next part of the NASA website is really fascinating. "The Saros Series arises from a natural harmony between three of the Moon's orbital periods". So there are three ways of measuring how the Moon orbits the Earth. There is the Synodic Moon, which is when you measure from one New Moon to the next New Moon.

And this is actually the longest way of measuring it, it is 29. 530589 days, or 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 3 seconds. There are two other ways of measuring it. One is called the anomalisticmonth, which is from Perigree to Perigree, and that is 27.554550 days or 27 days, 13 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds.

And finally there is the Draconic Moon, which is from node to node, and that is 27.212221 days or 27 days and 5 hours, 5 minutes and 36 seconds. 

So there are three different ways to measure the Moon's orbital period. One of them is around 29 and a half, another one 27 and a half, and another 27 and a little bit days.

And if we think of it in our own minds, as the Moon is doing its changing that we recognize from New Moon to Full Moon and back to New Moon, planet Earth is orbiting and rotating as well. So that 29 days is that the Moon kind of has to catch up to where we've moved on our own orbit around the Sun.

Okay. So get this "One Saros is equal to 223 Synodic months. And at the same time, it is 239 A anomalistic months and 242 Draconic months".All of those different month periods are adding up to the same amount of time to within a couple of hours. 

So these three different ways of measuring the Moon's orbit around the Earth, or its own cycle, have a harmony, and this harmony is what is creating these Saros Cycles. Mind blowing, right? 

And "Any two of these eclipses separated by one Saros cycle share similar geometries. They occur at the same node with the Moon at nearly the same distance from Earth at the same time of year. Because the Saros period is not equal to a whole number of days, its biggest drawback is that subsequent eclipses are visible from different parts of the globe. An extra one third day displacement means that Earth must rotate an additional eight hours, or 120 degrees, with each cycle. For solar eclipses, this results in the shifting of each successive eclipse path by 120 degrees westward. Therefore, a Saros series returns to about the same geographic region every three Saroses. That is every 54 years and 34 days". 

So all of these eclipse cycles that are occurring in their 18 year periods are moving a little bit westward each time. And that's why it takes a few cycles for them to line up to the same place that they were originally.

Okay, the other thing to know about Saros series eclipses from the NASA website a little bit further down is that "Solar eclipses that take place near the Moon's ascending node have odd Saros numbers. Each succeeding eclipse in the series shifts progressively southward with respect to the center of the Earth. On the other hand, solar eclipses occurring near the Moon's descending node have an even Saros number. Each succeeding eclipse in the series shifts progressively northward with respect to the center of the Earth". 

This tells us that those eclipses, solar eclipses that are near Ketu, which is the descending node, they're going to have even Saros numbers and they're going to progressively move northward.

Whereas if the eclipse is taking place near Rahu, the solar eclipse, then it's going to have an odd Saros number and the series is going to move from the north down to the south. 

Then they've got an amazing diagram of how it's all set up because not only is all of this harmony naturally occurring, but it also accurately predicts whether the eclipse is going to be a partial eclipse or an annual eclipse or a total eclipse. So there's a pattern to all of that. I just find it really fascinating. And I love when NASA's website ends up looking like an astrologer's almanac, of times when to predict things. 

What about our eclipse that is happening on the 14th of October.

And in fact, if you live in the U.S. you might be able to see it. 

There's a great map of that on NASA's website and it gives you times to look at as well.

But even better is they have an animation on the website that shows you and you can look from various perspectives. It shows you how the Moon is blocking the light from the Sun. So you can watch it if you want to watch it on screen. You can see it in the animation that I have on screen now from the perspective of the Moon.

So you are looking at the Earth and you see where the circle of the Moon is going to make this shadow on planet Earth. But you can play with the animation as much as you like. You can go forwards and backwards. And you can see it from the Sun's perspective, from Earth's perspective. So I have it on screen now, but you may just be listening.

But if you're watching it on screen, you can zoom out, see the Moon, zoom all the way out. and see the Sun as well, so that you can get a real perspective of how this eclipse is going to take place, to help us get our mind around what is actually happening during a solar eclipse. 

Now, one thing to keep in mind, this being an annular solar eclipse, 

the Moon is just going to be a little bit too small to fill the whole space of the Sun from Earth's perspective. So around this Moon will be some of the Sun's light naturally coming through. So it's not a total eclipse.

And you may remember like me, that we've recently had a couple of super Moons in August. We had two Full Moons in August and the Moon was very large. That's why it was called a super Moon. So what is it that's happened in between now and the eclipse that means that the Moon appears smaller? 

And they actually have a great graphic for that on NASA's website as well (so I will include all of these links) where you can see the animation of every single Moon phase for the whole of 2023.

[00:20:19] NASA and Moon phases 2023

[00:20:19] Fiona Marques: And when you go to that website, you get a really big picture of the Moon. And as each day passes, the Moon's image updates to reflect the way that the Moon will look in the Northern Hemisphere. Because remember that in the Southern Hemisphere, it is upside down. Unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere and you look at this, then of course the Northern Hemisphere looks upside down to you. So we have those different perspectives.

But as well as a very large image of the Moon in this animation, right in the middle of the background, there is a graphic explaining the Moon's movement. And how close or far away it is from the Earth. And as I have stopped it here on screen on the 14th of October, and we can see that the Moon is in between these markers 30 and 32. So it's at the far away side. But if we take this animation back to August, when we had our Full Moon in August, you will see that the Moon is right, just about right as close as it can go to its distance to the Earth and they have a little graphic on the left side as well, which shows you as you change the Moon phases, it shows you the Moon going around the Earth. 

It's very helpful to go have a little look at these resources from NASA if we want to understand what it is that we're seeing in the night sky and what our Astrology charts are based on. 

[00:22:05] All about Saros 134 Solar Eclipse

[00:22:05] Fiona Marques: Now, we know a little bit about the eclipse from NASA that it is going to have a Saros number to it. And why don't we go find out what Saros number it will get. And you can find that out from looking on, for example, Wikipedia, so if you just put in the solar eclipse of October 14, 2023, it will give you on the right hand side, a map of where the eclipse is going to take place. And right at the bottom, it tells us that this will be Saros series, 134, 134, and then we can go and look that up on NASA's table. And that will give us all the information about Saros Series 134.

And when we go and have a look at the information for Saros Series 134, this is what it says on NASA's website. "Solar eclipses of the Saros 134 all occur at the Moon's descending node, and the Moon moves northward with each eclipse. The series began with a partial eclipse in the Southern Hemisphere on 1248, the year 1248, June 22nd, and this series will end with a partial eclipse in the Northern Hemisphere on August 6th, 2510, 2510.

 It will give you all the information that you would like to know about all of the eclipses. And you can even click on an animation to see this eclipse. And I'm going to put that on my screen now. 

And as we watch it, we can see that it began in the southern hemisphere, it turned into a full eclipse. And then through the, as it moves up northward, it became a partial eclipse. As we know, we're somewhere in the middle of that. 

But that animation was a little bit fast for me, so I'm just breaking down here the picture by picture of that. So let's go have a look at the 

very first eclipse in this series. And now we have a picture of the Earth with the eclipse happening, as they said, in the South Pole, Antarctica somewhere. And we know that it was June 22nd and so we have a little X also marking the position of the Sun. And that is well above the equator because June 22nd is right on the solstice, isn't it? Somewhere around June 21, 22nd is when we get the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. And then frame by frame, this animation maps how this eclipse evolved and moved its way northward. So that took centuries and it didn't become a full total eclipse until 1428, still well low in the Southern Hemisphere.

And then it became a annular eclipse from 1861, happening much more now around the equator level in the middle of the sky. And we are in that annular part of this particular Saros series of eclipses. There was one on September 23rd, 1987. There was one on the 3rd of October, 2005. And now we can see the screenshot for October the 14th, 2023, running right through North America and South America.

And then when this eclipse ends, It's going to be in August. 

So we can see the very little eclipse right at the top of the North Pole. And our Sun marker is once again above the equator because this is occurring in the Northern Hemisphere summer. 

So there are loads of resources to help us understand the astronomy of this particular eclipse. 

[00:26:25] Date and location for the first Saros 134 Solar Eclipse

[00:26:25] Fiona Marques: And what about if we want to turn that scientific information into some astrological information?

We know that the first eclipse in this series happened in the year 1248, June 22. We want to have a look at what was this eclipse like when it really very first began. So this we want to go and plug into our software and see if we can produce a chart. 

However, there's just this little hiccup, which is, of course, that these dates from the past are using the Julian calendar and we now use the Gregorian calendar where we caught up because the Julian calendar was not quite correctly measuring the exact length of a year. Little by little, we were drifting out of sync with our orbit around the Sun. So if you want to go put this in your software, so you can have a look at what was happening with the rest of the planets when this was happening on planet Earth, you can go to an online converter somewhere and ask how to convert Julian to Gregorian calendar, put in the 22nd of June 1248 and I come up with the 29th of June 1248. 

So if you would like to map this very first eclipse onto your astrological software. You need to do that conversion to take it from Julian dates to Gregorian dates, because that's probably what your software uses. And then you can do that for the place where you live or a place that you consider to be significant on Earth, like maybe the capital city of the country that you live in.

Or if you follow Ernst Wilhelm, you might be aware of Yamakoti, the idea of a ancient prime meridian, the Earth's ascendant meridian. And if you want to add that to your software, you can go search on Google, just put in Ernst Wilhelm and Yamakoti, and you'll come up with an article on "The Mystery of the Zodiac", which covers many things, but if you then search for Yamakoti, you will find some coordinates there. So see if you would like to do that, if that's the way you'd like to approach it, or just keep it for the place where you live or the place that is significant to you. 

[00:29:06] Chart of the first Saros 134 Solar Eclipse

[00:29:06] Fiona Marques: One of the reasons that an astrologer might like to do that is to see what sort of energy was suggested by the placements of the planets when this eclipse cycle started.

 If we use Yamakoti, it becomes a Cancer Ascendant, with the Sun and Moon in Cancer, and Neptune is also there. You might... automatically realize that there is not a node there in Cancer, and we just need to look over into Gemini and see that Ketu, as we expected, the descending node is the node that caused the start of this eclipse. It's in fact in Gemini, the Moon and the Sun were in Cancer. And again, that's expected because, as stated on NASA, this was a partial eclipse. So the Sun and the Moon, when it was a New Moon, were not directly very close to that node. Close enough that there was a partial eclipse though. So we have the Moon and the Sun and Neptune in Cancer.

We have Mercury and Mars in the second house in Leo. No planets in Virgo, nothing in Libra. And then we have Pluto and Saturn conjunct in Scorpio, and we have Jupiter and Rahu conjunct in Sagittarius. Nothing in Capricorn, Uranus was in Aquarius, nothing in Pisces, nothing in Aries, and Venus was in its own home in Taurus.

There's a few things that we might pick up straight away from the start of this cycle. And the thing that probably stands out most is that we have Saturn and Pluto conjunct. They're quite close. Saturn's at five degrees of Scorpio, Pluto's at eight degrees. And they are in a trine with Cancer where the eclipse is happening.

In fact, the Sun and the Moon are eclipsing at eight degrees and three minutes in Cancer. Pluto is at 8º05'. So there's very much a trine occurring here. And at the same time, that is all happening as there is a square between Pluto Saturn and Mars. Mars is at 8º33' of Leo, Saturn is at 5º of Scorpio, and Pluto's at 8º of Scorpio.

So this has got the tension of the square between Pluto Saturn and Mars, which we imagine has got quite some tension to it. But then this very graceful trinal energy between Pluto Saturn and the eclipse itself. So perhaps we can interpret that there was like a release valve for all of this squaring tension that was going on.

This might give us a hint as to what is important for this particular eclipse cycle as it moves its way through its very long journey from the Southern Hemisphere from the very bottom all the way to the North Pole through the Northern Hemisphere out the top. Perhaps this is a kind of releasing the intensity, some things that were maybe blocked to get a chance to be released.

And if we wanted to get any confirmation about that from what other astrologers have to say, then we could consult the book called "The Eagle and the Lark", by Bernadette Brady. And she does this great service of listing all of the eclipses. And for each eclipse, she gives a short statement.

She tells you when the first eclipse was, and then gives you the placement of the planets, and a summary of what's happening, and then a little paragraph. And for this one, the paragraph is, "The immense power, anger, and force of Mars squared to Pluto is channeled into this family of eclipses via the trine.

The individual experiencing this series will find that huge obstacles will suddenly or easily clear. On the negative side, a pending potential crisis will suddenly manifest and move through his or her life very rapidly. Either way, the individual will feel that everything is moving at great speed". So this is what we have to work with the energy of this particular Eclipse.

That was a little bit looking at it from a Western astrologer perspective, we're talking about trines and squares. If we put on our Vedic Astrologer hat, we can just notice that there are many planets in an awake state because we have the Moon in its own home in Cancer and we have Jupiter in its Moolatrikona in Sagittarius, Venus is also in its own home in Taurus.

[00:34:53] Kala bala of first Saros 134 Solar Eclipse

[00:34:53] Fiona Marques: So we've got some awake planets there, that's always helpful. 

And then as the eclipse and everything we've spoken of is so astronomy based, that brings to mind for me Shadbala. And I think this is one of the reasons why I love Shadbala is because many of the Balas that make up Shadbala are astronomy based. They are measuring where that planet is in space and allocating a weighting to how powerful it can be based on where it is in space. So if we think about especially the middle set, Kala bala, Ayana bala, Chesta bala, these are all based on astronomical measurements. Let's work them backwards. Cheshta bala is based on how fast the planet is moving. So that's an actual measurement. Obviously it is from our perspective on Earth. But from our perspective on Earth, it is a measurement of movement. And the slower that it's moving, the higher the Cheshta bala, because when the planet has time, it's able to do its job well. And when it's moving very fast, it might miss things. So Cheshta bala is one of the six strengths. 

Then Ayana bala also measures whether the planet is In the northern pass or the southern pass. So if we think about that solstice that we have in the northern hemisphere for summer happening in Cancer. If we think about that as being north, then everything from Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, that's like the northern pass. And if we think about Capricorn as being in the South, that solstice will be the darkest day in the Northern Hemisphere. Then everything from Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, they will be considered the Southern pass. And some planets do better in the Southern half and some in the Northern half.

The Northern is considered the realm of the gods. So we have the Sun doing well there, Mars doing well there, Jupiter doing well there for our Ayana bala. And Mercury does well at the extremes. So This is a measurement also of where it's located. 

And then Kala Bala is really the Bala that gets into the astronomy placements that I think are very fascinating. And I think the eclipse is a great way to get our heads around Kala Bala. So if we pop up on screen, in Kala you can right click on and bring up the choices of menus, and if you click on the middle of the far right column, there's a Shadbala table, and we can see that in Kala, Kala bala is measured by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 individual components.

The first component is called Natonnata bala, and it is about the day strengths and the night strengths. There are planets that get more strength during the day and planets that get more strength at night. We have Moon, Mars and Saturn getting their highest score at midnight during the night. Sun, Venus and Jupiter getting their highest score at noon. Just like Ayana bala, Mercury gets a full 60 points. So it, it always gets the best. And perhaps this tells us a little bit about Mercury and Kala bala. It gets a high score here in the day and the night strengths. So I just want to draw your attention to the groupings. So the planets that get their strength at night, Moon, Mars, Saturn, the planets that get their strength during the day, Sun, Venus, Jupiter.

As well as calculating the day or the night strength, we also look at the fortnight strength. So this is the second calculation in Kala Kala bala. And you can think about this as being related to the lunar cycle. There's the waxing part of the cycle and the waning part of the cycle.

The benefic planets, Jupiter, Venus, and Moon, like to be in the... increasing part of the cycle. And the malefic planets, Sun, Mars, and Saturn, like to be in the waning part of the cycle. So where is this chart that we're looking at? Where is it in that waxing waning cycle? And therefore different planets will get different number of points. 

Then the third calculation in Kala for Kala bala relates to, once again, the day, and that there are three parts of the day and three parts of the night. Depending on what time you are born, that is the birth time that is on the chart you're looking at will be allocated to one of these planets, depending on whether it was the first third of the day, the second third of the day, or the third third of the day.

So Mercury rules the first third. Sun rules the second, Saturn rules the final third. And then if it's at night, Moon will get it if it's the first third of the night, or Venus for the second third of the night, and Mars for the third, third of the night. So one of these planets will be allocated 60 points based on owning the particular third of the day. And Jupiter always receives also 60 points. So in this particular calculation, two planets will get 60 points. 

Now, each of these are a little bit difficult to get our heads around, but what I think is interesting is that we can see different groupings of planets in each of these various Bala calculations. 

So when we looked at the day night scores, we had Moon, Mars, Saturn receiving their highest points at night and Sun, Venus, Jupiter receiving their highest points during the day. However, when it came to the period of the cycle of the Moon, then we had Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon in the growth phase, and Sun, Mars, and Saturn in the waning phase.

And finally, in the third of the day group, we've got Mercury, Sun, and Saturn in the same group for the day, and Moon, Venus, and Mars in the same group for the night. So each of these three sub calculations inside Kala bala uses a different groupings for the planets. So I think that's really fascinating.

I'd love to know more about how that came about. Sometimes people point out that in Kala bala, the Sun and Saturn, which are often considered to be mortal enemies, are actually in the same group for the third of the day group, and they are in the same group as well for the Moon cycle group. It's interesting to think about that enmity between the Sun and Saturn. Two out of these three sub balas, they're actually in the same group together. So something to keep in mind. 

Then the other calculations that make up Kala bala are related to the year, the month, the day, and the hour.Whichever planet rules the year gets 15 points. The ruler of the month gets 30 points. The ruler of the day gets 45 points and the ruler of the hour gets 60 points. So you can see how the planet that rules the hour is going to get that big bonus of 60 points. And when we add all of those together, that is how Kala calculates Kala Bala. 

And if we look at this very first eclipse, in the Saros series 134, then we see in terms of day and night strength, it is Mercury getting the 60 that we would expect. Everybody else is across the board around about halfway full, 30, 28, 31. There's no real big differences there.

Then in terms of the Moon cycle. Of course, every solar eclipse is going to be a waning Moon. The Moon has just returned. It's at its very weakest, so it's going to get zero, and the Sun is going to get 60 for the daytime eclipse. And so does the malefics, Mars and Saturn. So when you look at eclipses, you're going to see that same pattern. Sun's going to get 60, Mars going to 60, Saturn's going to get 60.

And then in terms of the thirds of the days and the nights, Jupiter always gets 60. And in this particular case, Mercury got the other 60. 

But what I'm particularly interested in is having a look at the year, month, day, hour contributions. Because in the starting of this eclipse, actually one planet ends up getting both the day and the hour.

So Mars gets the 60 points for the hour and the 45 points for the day. This will depend on where you put your ascendant, which depends on where it happens on planet Earth. Do that in your own calculations might be different to mine. 

But why I think this is important is that it lets us know how much Mars is important in the starting of this eclipse. It's getting the 60 points from the Moon cycle. It's getting 60 points from the hour and it's getting 45 points from the day as well. And it tells us that Mars is really resonating with this eclipse. 

Interestingly, some softwares include Ayana bala inside the Kala bala calculations. And if we were to do that, we can notice that Mars is also in this initial eclipse, very close to Cancer where it would be getting the highest points possible. So it's getting a very high Ayana bala score as well. And we know that when Mars has high Ayana bala, it is very wise in the battles that it picks. So it is not that reckless kind of Mars that is shooting off the gun from the hip and asking questions later. It is a Mars that realizes the cost of conflict and picks its battles accordingly. So a very well placed Mars in this initial chart of the Saros series 134. 

And perhaps that is why we can interpret this eclipse so positively that it seems like the purpose of this eclipse is to release any block, frustration, tension from Mars through the trine into the eclipse and help us to quickly, easily resolve problems and obstacles.

If we want to just very quickly dig a little bit deeper into Kala bala, just to point out to you that some softwares are going to include Ayana bala in the software calculations. And that is because it's mentioned in two places in Brihat Parashara.

When it is in Chapter 29 verses 8 and 9, it says that Ayana bala is part of the elements of Kala bala. So it seems like the first statement in Chapter 29 verses 8 and 9 of Brihat Parashara we include Ayana bala. But a little bit later down in Chapter 29, in the verses 34 to 36, Parashara actually gives a minimum value for Sthaana bala, Chesta bala, Kala bala, and Ayana bala. So separately, there's a minimum value required for Ayana Bala. So we can see why there is this confusion about whether to add Ayana Bala or not into the calculations. So I'm going to let you investigate that and decide which one you like. 

[00:49:03] Chart of the current Saros 134 Solar Eclipse 

[00:49:03] Fiona Marques: So let's just bring that all to our current eclipse on the 14th of October 2023. You can create your own chart and make the ascendant where you would like. In this particular case, I have it set to that Yamakoti position, and that gives me a Libra ascendant with Ketu, Sun, Moon and Mercury all in Libra.

Then, just like in the original eclipse, I have Mars in the second house, but this time it's in Scorpio. Nothing in Sagittarius, I have Pluto in Capricorn, nothing in Aquarius, Saturn and Neptune together in Pisces, Rahu in Aries. Jupiter and Uranus in Taurus, and then nothinguntil we get Venus in Virgo.

So there are some interesting similarities between this eclipse and the starting eclipse for this cycle. The one that probably stands out is that once again, we have Pluto, Saturn, and Mars in significant positions. This time Saturn is six houses away from the eclipse, but it is trining the Sun and the Moon because they're at 20 degrees and Saturn is just not even fully in the first degree of Pisces, so we have once again, this trinal energy to the eclipse from Saturn. And Saturn is trining with Mars as well, so perhaps this is going to be even more opportunity, this particular one on the 14th of October to release things that we may have gotten stuck in, that we're frustrated about, that we didn't even realize that were a problem, but this eclipse is so speedy, it's going to perhaps bring it to a head and sort it out all in this very short amount of time.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Pluto is involved once again, it is square to the eclipse energy. So it's happening in Capricorn, and the Node and Sun Moon, the luminaries, are in Libra.

[00:51:32] Kala bala of current Saros 134 Solar Eclipse

[00:51:32] Fiona Marques: If we have a look at the Shadbala, as we did before, and look at the Kala bala, we can notice just a few changes.

Of course, Mercury's receiving 60 points for the day night measurement, everybody else is actually in the middle, around the mid 20s to mid 30s. The same thing for the Moon, because of this being a solar eclipse, the Sun's getting 60 points. And so are the malefics. So that's exactly the same. In terms of the third of the day and the third of the night, Jupiter is getting 60 and this time Mars is getting 60. So once again, we see this emphasis on Mars. 

And in terms of the year, month, day and hour, they're a little bit more spread out than they were last time, but guess who gets 60 for the hour again? It is Mars. So this Kala bala, just like last time, is telling us that Mars is going to be the planet in the right place at the right time. That's what I think in some ways, Kala bala is measuring. 

I think that is very interesting because Mars is also in Scorpio in its own home. So it's the Jagarat planet of this particular eclipse. So maybe we're going to see some real support there for Mars. 

Now, all of this is a way for us to get our heads a little bit around Kala bala because it's easy to just take Shadbala and look at the overall total score or ranking. That's already providing a lot of information. It's another thing to dig into each layer and see how it's performing in Sthaana bala or Dig bala or Ayana bala. But now we're taking this opportunity to really dig down into Kala bala. 

[00:53:26] How does Kala bala show up in people's lives?

[00:53:26] Fiona Marques: And how is Kala bala showing up in people's lives? We've got a few takes on this.

When we study it in the Asheville Vedic Astrology Apprenticeship Program, we talk about when you have high Kala bala, it means that the right person is in the right place at the right time. For example, if you have high Kala bala Jupiter, that teacher that you're looking for, you will just need them to walk on by and something in you is going to realize this is a great opportunity. I have to follow this up and you'll go and connect yourself with that flow of Jupiter energy. However, if you were to have low Jupiter energy, the greatest saint can walk right by, shake your hand, give you advice, and it's just not going to register as being important. Because Jupiter is not receiving those right place, right time kind of placements.

And Ernst describes it slightly differently that Kala bala is what we end up giving time to because of where the planets are placed, resonating at the right day and the right time, we give attention to those planets, they take up more of our time and therefore they become important in our life.

So I think it's great to reflect on Kala bala in your own life, maybe in this particular eclipse and think about how it's showing up for you. I'm wondering whether Kala bala is what helps us latch on to things. To know, even just with a sniff of something that it's important. And then we use it with our Dig bala to take action. And that's also why such a great remedy for Shadbala issues can be our contemplative practices on the planet. So if you have a planet that is low in a particular Bala, you can do a mantra practice for that planet. You can make your mindful attention practices on the day of that planet.

And by doing that, we're doing what Ernst is suggesting, give more time to that planet. And then naturally it's going to become more important. Although it may feel unnatural at the beginning to do it. 

[00:55:54] Peculiarities of Kala bala

[00:55:54] Fiona Marques: So I would love your thoughts on Kala bala. I think it's really interesting for a couple of reasons. One is by including Ayana bala, that's the way that it's articulated in Brihat Parashara. It brings the tropical sidereal debate right into focus. Because Ayana bala is a tropical calculation. So it's very interesting for those people who like to talk about Sidereal and Tropical. This is a place in Brihat Parashara where we can see how that's represented.

And then if you are interested in other astrologies, like Hellenistic Astrology or Medieval Astrology, you might notice an idea similar to "Sects" coming through in these groupings of the planets. 

So if we go look on, for example, Wikipedia about sects in Astrology, you will see that Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are in a day group together. Moon, Venus and Mars are in a night group together. So that's another reason why Kala Bala is important. It's like this tiny hidden away part of Shadbala, which is hidden away part of Vedic Astrology.

And yet in this one Kala Bala, there's very interesting things to say about Tropical Sidereal and interesting things to say about sects and the cross pollination of Astrologies, the ideas of which planets perform better in which times of the day. 

[00:57:28] Conclusion and invitation

[00:57:28] Fiona Marques: So if all of this has whet your appetite for. Having a chance to explore eclipses a little bit more I want to invite you all along to AstroliJamat the very end of September. Our chosen chart instead of being a person is this very eclipse. So you can load up the 14th of October on your own chart, and you can put the Ascendant at your capital city, wherever it is that you live, and see how this works this eclipse might be impacting your place on the planet. Or you could look at it in relation to your own chart, or you could look at it in relation to, for example, the U.S. We've got some very interesting things happening in the world. The U S has it's some of its primary election process in Australia here we have a referendum that we are hosting to include the voice of indigenous people in the Constitution of the country. I am wondering if this eclipse might help break what seems to have come up many obstacles to voting yes for that referendum. Perhaps this eclipse will help with that. We also have Ukraine and Russia situation. You might like to put this eclipse. in Kiev or in Moscow and have some interpretation of what might be going on there. 

So I invite you all to come along to AstroliJam. It's on Thursday, the 28th of September. You can book on my website or if you are a Patreon subscriber at the correct level, you are automatically part of AstroliJam every month. So come along and have a look on Patreon and see if you want to become a regular or otherwise just book for this eclipse. I would really love to hear what you do to understand the eclipses as they happen over the planet each year. thinking about eclipses makes me think about karma and how personally we should take karma because perhaps if the Saros cycles are telling us anything, are they hinting at that this energy is actually for planet Earth and the evolution of Earth? Are all of these planets. Actually communicating directly with Earth and should we stop taking all of this personally and just realize that we are part of a symbiotic system, helping the Earth raise its consciousness, cleansing, and it is doing that through all of the living beings. And if that is the case, we can step back and just do our karma in service to planet Earth, a little bit like Lajjitaadi Avastha teaches that the Moon starving Mercury means that we can take things too personally. Maybe we have been taking all of our karma a little bit too personally. And perhaps the eclipses are inviting us to just be of service to planet Earth.

So I don't know what you think about that. I don't know what I think about. It's just what reflecting on eclipses made me think about that.

All right. So lovely to be with you. Look forward to seeing you in AstroliJam and next time on The Vedic Astrology Podcast. Bye for now.