The Vedic Astrology Podcast

Case Study: How does the Sun's Ayana and Chesta Bala affect the Earth?

August 12, 2021 Fiona Marques Season 1 Episode 4
The Vedic Astrology Podcast
Case Study: How does the Sun's Ayana and Chesta Bala affect the Earth?
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Join me for our first episode 'applying' Vedic Astrology to a real life case study.  I am going to walk you through the world of Shadbala (or Six Strengths) and examine how two of these strengths may be playing out on the stage of global geo-politics and exploitation.  Guided by the article "Rich countries drained $152tn from the global South since 1960" I will analyse the role of the Sun in Ayana and Chesta Bala as well as covering Chakras, Solstices, Geographic Perspectives, Pancakes and more!  Don't worry if you haven't come across Shadbala before because in this episode I explain each of the Balas and specifically look at how Ayana Bala applies for each planet - so it's a great way to learn through practical application in the case study!

If you want learn about Shadbala in depth, vedic-astrology.teachable.com hosts the complete Asheville Vedic Astrology Apprenticeship Program which features a entire semester on Shadbala.

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The Vedic Astrology Podcast Episode Four

“Case Study: How does the Sun's Ayana and Chesta Bala affect the Earth?”


Contents

00:00 Welcome. 1

00:30 Topic Areas of the Vedic Astrology Podcast. 1

01:15 Introduction. 2

02:57 The importance of terminology. 2

05:23 Vertical Zodiac. 3

11:39 What is Shadbala?. 4

15:17 Ayana Bala. 6

21:30 Chesta Bala. 7

27:35 Article for the Case Study. 8

29:45 Low Chesta Bala Sun. 9

30:54 Low Ayana Bala Sun. 9

32:48 Planets that do well in Ayana Bala in the North. 10

35:32 Planets that do well in Ayana Bala in the South. 11

36:10 Questions raised by the Article and this Case Study ….. 11

38:56 Astronomy, Chakras and the Natural Order??. 12

41:20 Differences Hemispheres, Different Perspectives. 12

43:12 Concluding remarks. 13

 

00:00 Welcome

Hello everyone 

My name is Fiona Marques and it is my pleasure to welcome you to The Vedic Astrology podcast.

I am a Vedic astrologer.  

I’m a graduate of The Asheville Vedic Astrology Apprenticeship program. 

I’m the host of the AstroliJam, a monthly get together of Astrologers, geeking-out over a pre-researched chart.

And I am a tutor on vedic-astrology at teachable.com.   

00:30 Topic Areas of the Vedic Astrology Podcast

Today I’m very happy to be presenting a new episode of the Vedic Astrology podcast.

This is a broad podcast covering everything from …

1.       What is this Vedic Astrology 

2.       How does Astrology work 

3.       Examining the knowledge and techniques of Vedic Astrology and 

4.       Interviewing Vedic Astrologers and finding out all about their fascinations and insights into Vedic Astrology and 

5.       the final topic area of The Vedic Astrology Podcast is case studies (where we see the application of Vedic Astrology in a person's chart) …

01:15 Introduction

… or in this case today ..

I want to talk about and explore with you how we see Vedic Astrology playing out on a planetary level.  This is a case study episode – not of a person’s chart but of the Earth itelf.

Today I’m going to be talking about the Sun - about Ayana Bala, Chesta Bala and the exploitation of the hemispheres of this planet.

It's going to be wide ranging podcast today 

·         First, we will revisit some of the things we covered in our first podcast episode called “What is Vedic Astrology”.  

o   We're going to return to that idea of the ecliptic, refresh our knowledge and look at how the Sun moves through the ecliptic (from our perspective).  

o   The cyclical up and down movement that the Sun makes in our sky during the year and – higher in the sky in Summer, lower in the sky in Winter.

·         Second, we’ll look at how we measure Ayana Bala and Chesta Bala for the Sun and 

·         then, we're going to look at some of the experiential differences being in the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere 

·         Finally, the case study we're are going to examine is how this plays out globally.  Do we see, on a global backdrop of geo-politics, the kind of behaviour that Vedic Astrology is implying in Ayana Bala and the Sun's Chesta Bala?

So stick with me in the episode as I know that we're taking now a very deep dive into a specific area of Vedic Astrology.  You may not have heard of Chesta Bala or Ayana Bala before or even of Shadbala, but stick with me as I’m going to try and bring us all along for the ride and I hope to make it a very interesting and thought-provoking podcast.

02:57 The importance of terminology

Let's begin by remembering in Episode One of the podcast, I spent quite some time talking about the importance of the ecliptic.  Perhaps I even laboured over that topic! 

And you will recall that the ecliptic is that stable reference point that humans found and were able to use as a stationary reference point in a moving universe.  and 

I also took some time explaining that the zodiac were segments of this ecliptic and that the zodiac itself was not seasonal.

I did that because it's easy for us to think that the zodiac is seasonal.  It seems to map the movement of the Sun higher into the sky during the Northern Hemisphere Summer, so it can be easy to think that Aries is the start of Spring because we thing the zodiac is seasonal.  But the Sun, from the Earth's perspective, is moving its way up and down this axis along the Earth and that's really important for what we're going to talk about today.

This highlights the importance of explaining concepts correctly from the beginning - even when it seems to make things more complicated.  I smile as I tell you this, because here at home, every Saturday morning we make, what I call in pancakes.  I’ve always told my daughter that we're making pancakes.  But, in fact, I actually make pikelets.  (I’m Australian and pikelets were popular when I was growing up.  They are small pancakes that are thicker and apparently they're halfway between a pancake and a crumpet.  I’ve always enjoyed pikelets rather than pancakes and I just lazily used the generic term pancakes to describe because they have the same ingredients and the same cooking process).

But of course what happens is that that my child grows up learning that that's what a pancake is - this tiny little pikelet thing - so I’m smiling because if we just take the time to use the right words from the beginning then we don't end up in these disputes over what's a pancake and what's a pikelet!

And that's also why it's important to do all that we did in the first episode about the ecliptic and how the zodiac are segments of that ecliptic and not a seasonal movements of the Sun.

05:23 Vertical Zodiac

Let's get back to astrology.  We are going to begin, by manipulating the zodiac in our minds.  We are going to do that in 2 stages.

So first, in your mind's eye, I want you to visualize the zodiac.  You might see it as the ecliptic in space, see it as a circle if you familiar with a Western Astrology chart or if perhaps you use a South Indian chart, you can see the zodiac, in your mind’s eye as a square.  Whichever way you visualise it, I want to ask you rotate that zodiac so ‘Cancer’ is at the top, and ‘Capricorn’ is at the bottom.  Then to imagine that you are pulling that chart by its solstices.

That is that you imagine that you're grabbing a hold of Cancer and we're grabbing a hold of Capricorn, and I want you to pull those two solstices away from each other, lengthen out the chart.  If it was an elastic band, you are taking is from it’s round shape, and making it vertically longer by pulling opposite ends away from each other, one end up, the other end down and away.

Eventually, in our visualisation today, we’ll get to totally a skinny chart.

But on the way there, in this first stage of today’s manipulation of the zodiac, let’s pause at a milestone along the way called a Polarity chart or the Chakra-Planet Correspondence chart.

As you pull these solstices apart - Cancer to north and Capricorn to south -  you'll notice that the Masculine and Feminine signs become attracted to each other. The negative and positive polarities attract.

And, in this first stage we end up with Cancer and Leo at the top and Capricorn and Aquarius at the bottom.  You can see how these polarities attract each other - That is, Cancer being Feminine, Leo being masculine.  Gemini and Virgo - Gemini being masculine, Virgo being feminine being attracted to each other.  Then, Taurus and Libra - Taurus being feminine Libra being masculine attracting to each other. And so on.

There are many beautiful insights in this Polarity or Chakra-Planet Correspondence chart.  

·         We see the Sun and the Moon at the top of this chart.  Moon ruling Cancer, Sun ruling Leo 

o   And it shows neatly that idea that the whole zodiac belongs to the Sun and the Moon.  

o   How they delegate to the other planets the other signs and make them ‘deputies’ but the Moon rules or has a connection with all the feminine energy in the zodiac chart the Sun has a connection with all the masculine signs in the chart.  

·         It demonstrates a double helix / figure-8 infinity shape that you see in DNA.  

o   You see figure-8 lines crossing over each other in this Polarity chart.  

·         We see how the masculine and feminine polarities are balanced and attract each other throughout the zodiac 

·         And you can follow the sign ownership down the chart. When we have Cancer and Leo at the top of the chart.  Under them we have Gemini and Virgo both ruled by Mercury, Taurus and Libra both ruled by Venus, Aries and Scorpio both ruled by Mars, Pisces and Sagittarius both ruled by Jupiter, and at the bottom we see Saturn ruling both Aquarius and Capricorn.

So we see well how beautifully this chart displays so many of the interconnected polarities and balances in the chart.

If we want to, we can also see the chakras there in this chart as well.  Starting at the bottom there with Saturn, we can think about that as the first chakra, the root chakra, working all the way up through Jupiter second, Mars third, all the way up to the sixth chakra with the Sun and the Moon at the top.

So this is a neat way to display the zodiac chart and perhaps a podcast episode all in its own right for another day.

For today's discussion let's keep moving to stage 2 of our manipulation of the zodiac.  Having taken a pit-stop to explore that neat Polarity chart now I want to ask you to keep pulling the solstices away until we really do have Cancer (the beginning of Cancer – the 21 June) at the top and we have Capricorn solstice (21 December) right at the bottom.

We've pulled Cancer to the north and Capricorn to the south.  We can see that as the Sun goes through each of these zodiac signs, or each of these segments of the ecliptic, it's moving from the North to the South and then from the South up to the North again.  (Interestingly, remember from Episode One, it makes a figure-8 in its annual journey from our perspective and we call that an Analemma – which repeats the DNA double helix, figure-8 pattern that we noticed in the Polarity chart).  Back to the solstices chart we’ve made, when it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, the Sun is in the North and Summer in the southern hemisphere is when Sun is in the South.  Equally, Winter in the northern hemisphere is when Sun is in the south and Winter in the southern hemisphere is when Sun is in the north.

Okay, now I’m asking you to visualize Cancer at the very top Capricorn at the very bottom and that the Sun moves along this ecliptic and we can trace the summer and winter in either hemisphere based on this north and south movements that the Sun is doing.

This is important because in Vedic Astrology we use this north south journey for various calculations.  Today we are interested in it because this north south journey is used to calculate Ayana Bala and for Chesta Bala.

11:39 What is Shadbala?

Before we get into the detail of Ayana Bala and Chesta Bala let's examine briefly what these Balas are all about.  What is Shadbala? 

Shadbala is a way of quantifying the potency of a planet.  It shows us how powerful a planet is. Does the planet have enough power to achieve its agenda?

This quantification of potency is made up of six strengths or Shad Balas. They are …

1.       Number one, Positional Strength.  This is called Sthana Bala and comes from where the planet is positioned in the chart.

2.       Number two, there is Directional Strength based on the cardinal directions, North, South, East and West.  We call that Dig Bala and it helps us hear the planet.

3.       Then, there is Temporal Strength which we call Kala Bala.  It is based on how many times the planet is in the corresponding day or year or month etc. of those time calculations. 

4.       Then, the fourth strength is Declinational Strength.  That's Ayana Bala.  It’s the focus of today’s episode and it's about how far the planet is from the Earth's equator in terms of the ecliptic 

5.       And the fifth strength is Motional Strength called Chesta Bala. It’s generally about how fast the planet is moving.

6.       And then finally we have Drik Bala which is Aspectual Strength - whether the planet is receiving aspects from other helpful planets or whether it's getting sabotaged by unhelpful aspects from malefic planets.  (Side note:  I love Drik Bala and I hope that we get to have podcast episode all about that!)

To summarise, Positional Strength, Directional Strength, Temporal Strength, Declinational Strength, Motional Strength and Aspectual Strength.  These are the six strengths and you can see that these strengths tell us a lot about the placement of the planet.  They're in a way more astronomical than the dignities because dignities are based on friends and signs - more relationship based. Whereas Shadbala is largely based on the position that the planet is in - more measurable in a mathematical / astronomical way.

And Shadbala is not about conjunctions in the way that Lajjitaadi Avasthas and Prosperity and House Annihilation are.

That's one way to think about Shadbala - it's a bit more astronomical or mathematical about placement of the planet.  Your astrology software is going to calculate all of these things

If you want to learn how to do it yourself you can sign up on teachable.com to the Asheville Vedic Astrology Apprenticeship Program and there is a whole semester devoted to Shadbala and we go through each one of balas and look at the formulas for calculating Sthana Bala, Dig Bala, Chesta Bala etc. so that you understand really where the potency is coming for each planet in each unique horoscope.  Then you can see where can a planet draw its power from? If it's in a good placement it's going to have that strength to draw upon.  But if it's in a weaker situation, it just can't gather up the strength that it needs to achieve its agenda.  I will put a link to that course in the show notes, description and transcript.

Shadbala is an important part of understanding how a planet is going to perform in everyone's chart and for the purposes of our podcast today we're interested in two out of those six balas.

We want to talk about - Number four, Declinational Strength and, Number five, Motional Strength or Ayana Bala and Chesta Bala

15:17 Ayana Bala 

Ayana Bala is based solely on that skinny, vertical solstice chart that you and I just created in our minds.  Ayana Bala says that certain planets get Declinational Strength when they are North of the equator and others get Declinational Strength when they are south of the equator.

This aligns with Vedic mythology where the north is the realm of the gods and the south is the realm of the demons.

Ayana Bala tells us how each planet will perform in conflict or under adversity.

Some planets are going to do better in the north where when it comes times of conflict and adversity.  The North is the realm of ideals and values.  It’s the godly realm.  In the south - the rubber hits the road and planets that do well in the South are those that are able to deal with the real world and take adapt and take the real world as it is.

Let's see which planets do well in the north of the ecliptic and which of them do well in the south of the ecliptic. 

Think of the space between Aries and Virgo that is Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo –that is the ‘northern half’ of the ecliptic.  

·         The Sun does well in the north where it's a beacon of inspiration it's like that lighthouse it guides us.  It's inspirational.  Something that we can aspire to.  It pulls us up.  If we're ever lost, we look at the lighthouse, we know our direction. The Sun does well in the north of the ecliptic 

·         Mars also does well in the north of the ecliptic because mars works best on ideals a warrior fighting for dharma for what is right.  Mars has a strong sense of idealism and right and wrong.

·         Jupiter also does well in the north of ecliptic because its great contribution is seeing the big picture.  When we go through conflict, when we go through adversity, if we can understand the enormity of all the context of life, suddenly adversity or conflict falls into place we understand why sometimes these things happen.  Jupiter needs to see the big picture.  It works better in the north

·         And finally Venus also works best in the north for Ayana Bala because Venus is all about leading us to higher fulfilment.  That is its mission.  And it needs to be in that northerly space to see those higher values and that higher fulfilment.

So we have the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Venus doing well in Ayana Bala in the northern half of the ecliptic.  That is, from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer and back to the equator.

That leaves us with the planets that do well in the south.  That is from Libra to Pisces – Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.  These the planets that do well in the south are

·         The Moon, because the Moon's great strength is its adaptability.  It doesn't actually do well if it gets stuck on ideals.  It's watery, it's flowing.  It smooths out. It provides that ability to adapt to adversity, to conflict, and to respond appropriately.  If it's in the north, it gets stuck in ideals and trying to impose ideals from the personality or from the egoic perspective.  Those ideals does much better in the south where it can adapt – “When in Rome do as the Romans do”.  It can adapt to the conditions and be effective.  So the Moon does well in the southern part of the ecliptic and 

·         Saturn also does well in the southern part of the ecliptic because it is the planet of reality.  It expects life to be real.  Saturn does not expect life to be idealistic in any way so it's ready to deal with the world as it is which is what life is like in the south.  If we take the mythology of the world of the gods and the world of the demons, Saturn is like “okay well I was expecting it to be rough, so that's fine, that's normal”.  Saturn doesn't waste and energy on thinking that it should have been fair or it should be righteous.

Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Venus do well in the North.  Moon and Saturn do well in the South.  When we zoom out, now that we know a little bit more about Ayana Bala, we notice there are four planets doing well in the north of the equator from the equator to the tropic of cancer and back again and there are only two planets that do well from the equator to the tropic of Capricorn and back again.

There's an imbalance.  More planets do well in the north, less planets do well in the south.  In fact, it's double - four to two - four do well in north only two do well in the south.

We're not mentioning Mercury because Mercury does well everywhere!  It gets half points at the equator and increases in strength the further away it gets from that equator.  It’s strongest as the solstices, but even at the equinoxes, it never gets lower than 50% Ayana bala.  So mostly we are leaving Mercury to one side for today’s case study.

Therefore, we've got our four planets doing well in the north four planets doing our two planets doing well in the south.

Having examined Ayana Bala, let's now go pick up Chesta Bala as well - because these are the two balas that we need to examine for today's case study

21:30 Chesta Bala

Chesta Bala is motional strength.  It recognizes that the slower a planet is moving, the more confidently or the more brightly it can achieve its agenda.  When we look in the sky, it's when planets slow down or even when they are going retrograde that they become brighter.  Chesta bala likes retrogradation, which provides more brightness and more confidence to a planet.  That might be a little out of step with things that you've heard about retrograde if you follow astrology in glossy magazines or on your news feed.  (If you are anything like me, you news app will always be sending you articles about how Mercury retrograde is going to mess with you over the coming weeks etc.).  It’s not seen that way in Vedic Astrology.  In Vedic Astrology, we think that that gives the planet more confidence in achieving its agenda. It's taking its time, it's got the time to execute what it needs to achieve.  Perhaps, even time to go over its work, review it and improve it.  It's not whizzing on by, flustered and in a rush.  

Chesta Bala can only be measured for planets that orbit the Sun.  For this reason, the Chesta bala of the Sun and the Moon are calculated differently to all other planets.

For today’s podcast case study, we are focused on the Sun, so let’s look at how Chesta bala is measured for the Sun.  The Sun doesn’t change speed in this same way as other planets, because it's the centre of our solar system and we're all spinning around it.  So the convention is that for the Sun for Chesta Bala we use its Ayana Bala.

This important because we've already noticed the stacking of Ayana Bala with planets in the north, right?

And now, not only that, but we have the Sun also getting strong Chesta Bala when it's in the north.

We're really seeing a bit of a focus here - a bit of a weighting of more planets being attributed to the northern part of the ecliptic.

And as someone who was born in the southern hemisphere, my ears pricked up when I learned this in astrology.  Because basically, what we're saying in Vedic Astrology is, that if someone is born on the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere, that is the day with the most sunlight all year - then the Sun in their chart will receive a low Chesta Bala score. And someone born on the shortest, dimmest, coldest day of the year in the southern hemisphere is going to get high Chesta Bala Sun, even though the Sun was only up for a short period of that day.

That doesn’t sound right – does it?

It puts ‘front and centre’ that, in Vedic Astrology, the sun's light, when it is stimulating the earth's southern hemisphere is less confident, less pure and less righteous - even if it's bright, high in the sky and been up long, long hours of the day.

Because of this contrast between my default perception (sun high, sun bright) vs Vedic Astrology (Sun south, not bright ‘Chesta), I’ve always wondered how could we do any research to prove or disprove this.  It's one of those things that, I’m sure all of you listening if you're born in the southern hemisphere, it's just one of the things that you think about because experientially it's counterintuitive.

And I thought about research that I could do …

Could I find celebrities born on the Northern Solstice and born at the Southern Solstice and compare their inverted comas “brightness” or inverted commas “inspiring-ness”, their “confidence”.  Would that help?  How could I make that extensive enough?

As an aside, for the podcast, I did asked the internet for political leaders born on the 21st of December and those born on the 21st of June.  Disturbingly (maybe?) there are more political leaders born on the 21st of December than on the 21st of June!

That's straw poll may tell us that to make it in politics, one needs some deal-making and compromise. 

An equally quick internet search of spiritual leaders also brings up more born on 21st of December than on 21st of June!  Perhaps now we’re scratching our heads but maybe it says a lot more about the Sun being in Capricorn and hard work.  Or the way one has to work with reality on a planet like this.  It’s a research project that needs more defining and planning.

Meanwhile, what about this dilemma - it's counterintuitive that the longest day of Sun would produce low Chesta Bala?  But how can I prove if it's right or wrong?  What can I do?

27:35 Article for the Case Study

So imagine my interest when the following article came across my news feed …

Rich countries drained 152 trillion dollars from the global south since 1960

This article is an opinion piece from the al Jazeera website.  It’s written by academics from UK, Australia and Pakistan.

They estimate that “the global north drains 2.2 trillion dollars from the global south each year.  Apparently that is enough money to end poverty globally 15 times over”.

The wealth that the north takes from the south has “outstripped the rate of economic growth”, which means that those figures of growth that we see the economy growing in northern countries is actually coming more, from taking resources from the south, than from increased efficiency or production in the north.

And “the losses the south experience far outstrip foreign aid transfers” to the tune of losing 14 dollars for every one dollar of foreign aid.

And there are many factors involved in this.

·         There's lower wages in the global south. 

·         There's the makeup of international regulatory bodies like the world bank and the IMF

o   which are overwhelmingly comprised of leaders from the global north rather than the global south 

·         and of course, we have resource and mineral distribution perhaps more in the south than in the north

The article is super interesting.  I’ll include it in the show notes and transcript. I really encourage you to read it in full.  I can't do justice to it in a couple of minutes on the podcast so I hope you'll go ahead and read it.

You see how this poses an interesting contribution to my research about whether, the way Vedic Astrology measures Chesta Bala and Ayana Bala, is correct.

29:45 Low Chesta Bala Sun

So let's revisit what low Chesta Bala Sun really means.  When the Sun is in the south, it's going to have low Chesta Bala.  That is, it's going to lack the confidence to be bold to stand at the front and take a beating.  To stand up for what it believes in.  It will falter in following its path and in taking care of others.  And it won't be able to shine or be a beacon of inspiration to others.

When we reflect on those qualities of low Chesta Bala Sun, do we see that in the case of leadership (which is a quality of the Sun), that those countries that are getting Sun in the south are lacking a presence in global leadership?  And we do!

That's one of the things that the article points out - is this disparity of the makeup of uh international monetary regulatory bodies and policy bodies.  So it does seem to be having some bearing on what's happening globally.

30:54 Low Ayana Bala Sun

And what about Ayana Bala? We know that the Sun's Chesta Bala is entirely based on its Ayana Bala.  What are the qualities of a low Sun Ayana Bala? The person tends to be more selfish.  Perhaps they're willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish their goal (which could even end up hurting other people).  And they can change their principles.  Circumstances can force them to change sides.  This is in contrast to the noble behaviour that we see in conflict of a Sun that is high in Ayana Bala (that is, when the Sun is in the north).

And doesn't this describe well the disconnect - if we think back in history to the Age of Enlightenment in Europe - that is, in the north where there were all these principles and high ideals but at exactly the same time, those same cultures were colonizing and exploiting the southern hemisphere?

Now I have to acknowledge that unfortunately humans exploit humans everywhere.  I’m not trying to say that Europeans didn't exploit their own citizens as well (because that happened!) or that cultures in the southern hemisphere didn't have ideals and high philosophies.

Obviously, the world is very rich I don't want to simplify it down too much.  But, at the same time, if we want to examine if the southern part of the ecliptic (that is from Libra all the way through to Pisces) is imparting a different quality to the Sun.

And if these two hemispheres of the ecliptic are so important to Ayana Bala, we do want to see something global

So, I am very interested in what this article is contributing to the conversation.

32:48 Planets that do well in Ayana Bala in the North

Let's take a look at how the other planets perform well in the northern part of the ecliptic.  

·         We've got Mars doing well.  It's righteous in conflict when it's in the north whereas in the south it can get involved in conflict just for conflict's sake.  It um doesn't have that grounding in the principles and idealism of the north, of the realm of the heavens.

·         Jupiter we know does well in the north because it's able to see the big picture.  This makes conflict worth it when it's in the north.  This really brings the discussion that is the Bhagavad-Gita between Krishna and Arjuna to mind.  Krishna explaining why we go through something.   What is about to take place, in the story of the Mahabharata at that point, and it shows that Jupiter can learn from conflict.  Think about how that text has taught so many of us for so long, for so many generations.  Whereas in the south, Jupiter gets lost in the detail of conflict.  He becomes overwhelmed by the reality of conflict and it can't find purpose.  He just can't learn from that conflict.  He’s bogged down and overwhelmed.

·         And Venus does well in the north because when it's there it knows what is worth fighting for.  The property of Venus that is leading us to high fulfilment - it works well in the north and it helps us pick which conflicts are worth it.  Venus in the north also has a sense of higher humanity that we all have to participate together so we can get as much as we can in a peaceful way.  Whereas, when she’s in the south she can't evaluate which conflicts are worth the suffering.  Also, Venus can't use any of her diplomacy in the south because everybody's in this world of the demons, where the reality of conflict is that the people are so hurt at the time, that they can't be reasoned with or be reasonable.  Diplomacy doesn't work when everything is so raw and traumatised.

That's an examination of the planets that are doing well in the north.

And if it is the case that the Chesta Bala of the Sun, the bold, pure, inspiring, leadership ability of the southern hemisphere is weak, how is the south supposed to address this adversity when Ayana Bala stacks that double the amount of planets to do well in the north?

In the south, what are we to do if it is the case that the southern hemisphere or the global south is being exploited by the north?

How will that balance ever be redressed when we have all these planets that are only doing well when they're in the north?

35:32 Planets that do well in Ayana Bala in the South

In the south, only the Moon and Saturn perform well in adversity.  That's the fastest moving planet and the slowest moving planet.

·         The Moon is doing well because she’s naturally adaptable.  She won't be stiff and rigid and imposing her ideals on the reality of adversity. She’ll be finding a way to smooth things, to make things flow 

·         and Saturn does well because it has the power to endure.  It's a planet of reality, so it doesn't expect ideals.  It's expecting life to be tough.

36:10 Questions raised by the Article and this Case Study …

How can planets in the global south prevent this exploitation by the global north?

Can that exploitation be changed without ideals?

Are the Moon and Saturn going to have the kind of potency to make a change here without the northern planets?

Australia and New Zealand interestingly are not counted in the global south generally and that is because they generally have higher wages than the rest of the global south.  They also have some membership of regulatory bodies.  Although I would, in my opinion, think that the exploitation of minerals from Australia and the way that that is achieved in the treatment of the native or traditional owners of that land, for me, I would argue that that fits the trend of the global north exploiting the global south.  

It's interesting at the moment if you follow the news to see how both Australia and New Zealand are dealing with China as China experiments with taking land and seeking territory in the South Pacific.  How is the nation of China in the northern hemisphere treating the south, that southern pacific region?  Australia is using arguments that it thinks are principled and virtuous but it's not being taken seriously by China.  Australia is trying to make a stand about these things but it's a small country compared to China.  From Australia’s perspective, China's belittles Australia’s attempts to be principled - so it's very interesting.  

Where are those leaders in the south that have strong Suns and inspire global change?

Maybe another case study for another podcast is Jacinda Adern who is the current New Zealand Prime Minister because she has managed to inspire people even in the northern hemisphere!

However, in general, I would say by trend that leaders in the southern hemisphere aren't taken as seriously um as leaders in the northern hemisphere.

I wonder, wherever you are in the world, is the northern part of wherever you are richer than the southern part?  Can you see this pattern wherever you are?  Is it something that happens universally?  Is the northern part of the U.S. richer than the southern part?  Is the northern part of Portugal richer than the south?  Are northern Europeans richer or more principled than southern Europeans? and if so, does that come from historical exploitation?

It is really interesting to think about how the Sun's Chesta Bala and the Ayana Bala of all the planets are affecting um humanity globally across these different hemispheres.

38:56 Astronomy, Chakras and the Natural Order??

Now so where does that leave us with the northern and southern portions of the ecliptic?

Is astrology and astronomy providing us with an explanation of this north-south exploitation?  

What do you think?  

Is the Sun in the south having a global impact? 

And, if we go back to the Chakra-Planet Correspondence chart - is the Sun in the southern ecliptic really stimulating the base chakra and the Sun in the northern ecliptic really stimulating our sixth chakra of higher ideals?

Could that be an explanation for what's happening?

Do you agree with that?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And then the question comes, is this something that we should be living in harmony with or is it something to fight against?

When you think about the way minerals are distributed across the planet, is that by design is that because it's supposed to be exploited?

Remember, when the Sun is in inverted commas “in the north” from our perspective the Earth is really below the Sun.  That's why the Sun can shine onto the top or the northern part of the planet.  When the Sun is inverted commons “in the south” from our perspective, the Earth is really above the Sun.  That is, the Sun is beaming up from ‘under’.  The southern part but the earth therefore must be above.

Is that mixing up the natural order of things?  Is it the case that the Sun is supposed to be above the Earth and shining down onto the north of the planet?

What do you think?  Could that possibly be the case?

And what does this mean for your own chart?  In which hemisphere was the Sun when you were born?  How do you find that that affects your ability to stand strong in your vision to be a beacon and to protect others?

That's your Sun’s Chesta Bala.

And how do you find the balance of Ayana Bala potency in your chart?  Where were all of your planets in relation to the north and the south of the ecliptic?

If you were born in the southern hemisphere, how do you feel about the Sun getting high Chesta Bala in winter and low Chesta Bala in summer?

Now obviously if I had a standpoint I’m naturally against the idea because it's just so counter-intuitive from an experiential point of view - that on this shortest coldest dimmest day that the Sun would actually get strong Chesta Bala.

41:20 Differences Hemispheres, Different Perspectives

We have to keep in mind the significant experiential changes when one is in the northern and southern hemisphere.  For example, did you know that the waxing Moon in the northern hemisphere looks like a D and the waxing Moon in the southern hemisphere, on the same night, looks like a C.  The Moon's shape, the shape that the crescent goes in the curve is exactly opposite of each other on the same night.  

They're upside down to each other because, in the northern hemisphere, we look south to see the ecliptic.  In the southern hemisphere we look north to see the ecliptic.

There are significant differences- like the shape of the Moon is the opposite to each other - every night of the year.

This applies to all of the other planets and constellations.  If you are in the northern hemisphere you look south to see them.  If you're in the southern hemisphere, you look north to see them.  And therefore, they look inverted commas “upside down” compared to the view from the northern hemisphere.  Saturn, you it looks upside down, all of the constellations, all the planets we are looking at them from these different perspectives - so obviously the experience of seeing the night sky is different whether you are in the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere.

43:12 Concluding remarks

We've talked about how counter-intuitive that is for someone that lives in the southern hemisphere - to think of strong Chesta Bala on the 21st of June for the Sun because it's such a short cold dim day 

But I have to say, I have found the article that we've discussed today to be a really valuable contribution to the data around the power of the north and the southern portions of the ecliptic.

I find it really thought provoking and I wonder what you think and how this enrichens your perspective of Ayana Bala of Chesta Bala?  Of the Balance of power between the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere? 

I am here looking forward to your thoughts on how this inspires your thinking and informs the way that you apply Shadbala, and specifically these balas to charts that you research.

Thank you so much for taking the time to be here with me today as we have examined the Sun, Ayana Bala, Chesta Bala and the exploitations of the hemispheres.

I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts and also to being you again on the next episode of the Vedic Astrology podcast.

I hope you'll join me.

Until then best wishes and stay well.

Welcome
Introduction
Terminology
Vertical Zodiac
What is Shadbala?
Ayana Bala
Chesta Bala
Finding an Ayana&Chesta Bala Case Study
Article "Rich countries drained $152tn from the global South since 1960"
Low Sun Chesta Bala
Low Sun Ayana Bala
Which are the Planets that do well in Ayana Bala in the North?
Which are the Planets that do well in Ayana Bala in the South?
Questions raised by the Article and this Case Study ...
Astronomy, Chakras and the Natural Order??
Your own Birth Chart
Different Hemispheres, Different Perspectives
Concluding remarks