Episode 6 - The Birth Chart as a Symphony score

0:00 Welcome And Introduction

Vedic Astrology is super complex (like life!)

As a student, it can be helpful to use analogies to put all of these pieces together

In the vedic-astrology.teachable.com Asheville Vedic Astrology Apprenticeship Program, Ryan Kurczak uses the analogy of fields and seeds

Today, I want to explore the birth chart as it was a sheet of symphony music

I love the idea of the conductor coming in with all these amazing tools at their disposal and everything written on a few sheets of paper producing 70 minutes of absolute harmony and perfection

Who might be interested in this episode?

I think today’s podcast is useful if you are student trying to put together all the different and valuable pieces of the astrology puzzle

And I think it’s useful if you are client to get an idea of how your astrologer turns all those numbers and symbols into a reading

Just like the conductor and the musicians make sense of their sheet music, that is what the astrologer is trying to do too – hearing the music of your energetic DNA in their head as they examine the strength, layout and timing of your internal orchestra

So I hope you will join me as we explore the orchestra and sheet music as an analogy

Obviously, it’s not a perfect analogy – I think some comparisons are super useful and maybe some others are a bit of a stretch

AND I would welcome your thoughts and insights too as you agree and disagree with my comparisons

05:00 8 Fundamentals of the Birth Chart

What are the fundamental of the birth chart?

1.       Signs

2.       Houses

3.       Planets

4.       Dignities

5.       Potencies

6.       Avasthas

7.       Vargas

8.       Timing

06:00 Zodiac Signs As Musical Keys

Key that the music is written in

The Key is the harmonic foundation of a piece of music

Although anything can be transposed from one key to another, the key itself is going to colour the music

So let’s take a look at some descriptions of keys …

“Affective Musical Key Characteristics”

Personally, they remind me very much of the descriptions in Yavana Jataka

10:15 Rasi Aspects as Closely Related Keys

Thinking of signs and musical keys allows us to explore rasi aspects too, for example

Keys that go together – 5ths away from each other (like C major and A minor, G major and E minor)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closely_related_key

It reminds me of ‘cardinal signs get rasi aspects from all fixed signs except the one next to it)

OK, so we’ve got signs as key signatures … what’s next?

11:10 Astrological Houses as Symphony Movements

This one is maybe a little harder to match

The Houses tell us where the karma is going to take place

For me, I resonate with the houses tell the hero’s journey

And for this reason, I think of houses and the musical themes in the symphony

1st house – 1st movement – brisk and lively (allegro) – dharma / inspiration

2nd house – 2nd movement – slow and lyrical (andante, adagio) – artha /gather resources

3rd house – 3rd movement – dancy (minuet, scherzo) – kama / explore

4th house – 4th movement – rollicking, light in character, doesn’t have a great deal of emotional depth, has a form all of its own – moksha / transcend

Repeat

“Classical Music: The Movements of a Symphony” for Dummies 

A difference to keep in mind, is that a Symphony is always played sequentially

Life and birth charts are happening concurrently

So this analogy suggests a timing sequence that might not be there in Astrology

Unless of course you think of profections

So we’ve got signs as key signatures and houses as movements, what’s next?

17:22 Planets as Instruments

What about planets?

For me planets have to be the instruments the musicians’ play

Planets are the ‘grahas’, the grabbers of our consciousness and the part of the chart that we can work consciously with

But how do we match planets to instruments???

This is where I invite your feedback, but I have decided to allocate them based on elements i.e. Fire, Water, Air and Earth

The orchestra has 4 main sections, Brass, Percussion, Wind and Strings

Sun, Moon, Mars and Jupiter rule Fire and Water signs (dharma and moksha signs)

Mercury, Venus and Saturn rule Air and Earth signs (kama and artha signs)

Therefore, I’m matching Sun, Mars and Jupiter with Brass and Percussion

Sun, perhaps a trumpet heralding the direction and vision, bright and shiny

Moon, percussion like piano, harp, xylophone, calming and liquidy

Mars, the snare or bass drum driving the orchestra to action, perhaps the gong or tubular bells ruling Scorpio?

Jupiter, apparently trombone is the voice of god?? And a French horn player assures that the French horn is a strong contender here too

That leaves Mercury, Venus and Saturn to embody the wind and strings sections

Mercury, perhaps a piccolo or a lute? Gemini does have a lute!  Or the violins busy managing the whole fabric of the symphony

Venus, sensual reeds like oboe or maybe flute

Leaving Saturn with Strings – a slow, low double base, a stressed and under pressure violin? (A listener also suggested Saturn as the pipe organ as per this video 

Now, obviously, these match ups are not perfect, but perhaps close enough to explore our analogy

I do like that tamasic planets Mars and Saturn end up with instruments made of animal skin (drums) and strings (cat gut and horse tails)

If we think of Saturn as the violins - I like that it takes a lot of Saturn’s to be heard! That they are the hard workers of the orchestra playing the most time and forming the basis of the music – but going unnoticed as individuals.

23:55 Natural Friendships as Sections of the Orchestra

The specifics of natural friendships perhaps don’t correlate

Do trumpets hate double basses and vis-a-versa?

Do trumpets and flutes/oboes hate each other??

But I can see how the drums could hassle out the double bass

And maybe a piccolo gets on the nerves of a drummer??

Is the French horn or trombone being seduced by the oboe? And hassled by the piccolo?

But maybe the main friendship groups remain … that is …

Sun, Moon, Mars and Jupiter hang out in the brass and percussion with a sense of righteousness bossing the rest of the orchestra around, happy to be a marching band, while

Mercury, Venus and Saturn deal in the pragmatism of harmony and melody?? With a more Baroque or Chamber Orchestra feel

26:00 Recap – Signs, Houses, Planets

So even with these 3 basic analogies, we can feel that we are adding some richness to our Astrology now.

Some instruments do well in certain key signatures, and struggle in others

Some movements lend themselves to certain key signatures

Some instruments do well in certain movements but not so well in others

And Dignities almost spring up in front of our eyes in this analogy

27:10 Planetary Dignities as Seating Arrangement

A proud planet is perhaps a soloist, standing out among the crowd in its natural zone

Moolatrikona is perhaps ‘first’ in its section, and

Own home ‘second’ in its section

Great friend – right next door to its section

Friend – in the same friendship group i.e. brass/percussion or wind/strings

Neutral – not in its section but with space around it

Enemy – not in its section and in the wrong friendship group

Great enemy – not in its section, in the wrong friendship group and surrounded by enemy instruments

Debilitated – not in its section, wrong friendship group, surrounded by enemies and unable to be heard / without a view to its colleagues

31:00 Planetary Aspects as Sightlines

Seating arrangements are key in the orchestra

If you close your eyes and remember back to the last time you saw a symphony you will notice that

The Violins sit at the front, starting from the left

Moving into Violas and Double basses as the front row arc stretches left to right

Wind instruments sit behind the strings

Brass behind them and

Percussion at the back

Perhaps with a piano or harp off the left side

This is like Dolby surround sound in physical layout

And this seating arrangements leads to many useful additions to our analogy

·         Dignity

·         Shadbala

·         Even lajjitaadi avasthas

32:10 Lajjitaadi Avasthas as Seating & Sightlines

Seating arrangements are also a good way to think about Lajjitaadi Avasthas

Where the instruments are seated, not only affects how much we can hear them, but who they are seen by in the orchestra

Delighted – seen by friendly colleagues in the orchestra who can help you keep time, rhythm or pitch

Or any instrument seated next to the French Horn (Jupiter) – who’s gentle round sounds makes any instrument feel important and cheered up

Conversely, eyeballing unhelpful colleagues who put you off your rhythm and pitch

Or, any instrument sat next to the double bass who takes up so much space, starving the musician of space, access to the rest of the orchestra and who sounds melancholy no matter what it plays

Or worse, being right next to the loudest, brightest, most righteous heralding trumpet and feeling inadequate and frustrated

Or even worse, being in the ‘5th movement’ with a malefic enemy instrument or any ‘movement’ with a malefic enemy and Rahu or Ketu and getting ostracised to a seat outside the orchestra!

35:15 Shad Bala as Orchestra Layout

Shad bala describes the potency or strength of each planet based on a myriad of factors

Sthana bala – positional strength – how many members in each section – is this orchestra strong on pianos or violins etc.?

Dig bala – directional strength – can the instrument see the conductor? Can the conductor see this instrument? 

Kala bala – temporal strength – how many things suit the instrument i.e. key signature, the tempo, the note lengths etc. etc.

Ayana bala – declinational strength – how far from the conductor? Some instruments work better near the conductor, some far away

Chesta bala - motional strength – the time someone has to care for their instrument over time, is the person racing in to play this symphony and leave? Or have they been practising, maintaining their instrument and having time to clean the instrument after the symphony, have they developed care and confidence with the instrument?

Drik bala – aspectual strength – are other musicians actively stealing your reeds, your spare strings OR making sure you have spare string whenever you need them?

38:45 Vargas as Harmonic Resonance

Maybe my absolute favourite analogy between Astrology and Music is the Vargas or harmonic charts.

These are something that I have personally found it hard to wrap my head around and music helped me greatly.

Have you noticed how a ‘middle C’ played on piano and cello and trumpet (or whatever) sounds completely like a middle C but also completely different from the other instruments?

Maybe you’ve heard it called ‘timbre’ or the tone colour?  Or another way to describe it is with ‘harmonic resonance’

Basically saying that each instrument has a unique pattern of resonating tones that it generates when playing the main note – watch this for a great visual representation

Why I like this for Vargas is that – we are always interesting in the main note or fundamental tone i.e. the D1, the rasi

But the quality of the harmonic tones or overtones brings a richness to the sound of the instrument and the orchestra

If an instrument is weak in some of these overtones the fundamental tone will not sound as rich

If the instrument is weak in the fundamental tone but rich in the overtones or harmonic – it might produce a very pleasing sound that won’t be strong as first listening

Varga charts are like a spectrum analysis – allowing us to evaluate the richness of the planets contribution to the life of the person

42:40 Balaadi and Jagradadi Avasthas

There are a few other Astrological terms that we can explore in our analogy, for example

Balaadi Avasthas – based on the number of degrees into a sign a planet is – this could be the age of the musician, the number of years they have been playing

Jagraadi Avasthas are based on dignity, but for this analogy we could think of them as the ability of the musician to concentrate

Awake – clear sight to the conductor and surrounded by colleagues

Asleep – in the wrong section with not line of sight to colleagues or conductor

Aspects – how different instruments can see each other in the orchestra

So where does that leave us

So this is what my experience of preparing for a reading is like

I’m looking at the sheet music, listening to how this unique orchestra is going to make the sound

43:45 the Client as the Conductor

Just like a birth chart is missing ‘planet earth’

Obviously it’s not, because that’s the lagna

So, what is missing from our analogy is the conductor

For me, this is the person themselves

The awareness, how aware is the person

The musicians all have their individual scores and could play their notes without a conductor – just with a metronome?

But if the conductor can be present and alert they can bring out the best in the orchestra

45:20 Timing as Visiting Conductors & Performers

There are so many timing techniques, this could maybe be its own podcast!

Are the Vimshottari dasas conductors that were previously musicians of a particular instrument?

With their own inevitable focus on their instruments, key signatures and movements?

Are profections repeating the symphony over and over, over time, one movement at a time?

Are transits visiting musicians who bolster or mess-up particular sections?

46:49 Rahu and Ketu as Unusual Musicians

I’ve left Rahu and Ketu to the end because they really are not planets in the way that we think about them

They are disembodied

For me, Ketu is the super-experienced musician who comes into to any section with hundreds of pencil notes on their score from the countless times they’ve played this piece for countless conductors

The ‘ground hog day’ musician who’s expertise has been honed and honed but who is out of time with the present, doomed to repeat the same experience not matter what they do

Rahu is the bizarre young musician who won’t even wear the ‘blacks’ and is obsessed with experimenting with their instrument, playing it in water, with grains of rice, with half the strings or holes covered.

The potential virtuoso who is half genius, half mad scientist and cares not for convention but wants to take risks and experience all their planet can do

48:27 Applying the Analogy

What about a Sun, exalted, a herald’s trumpet golden, burnished and bright, standing tall in his section, commanding attention and guiding all like a beacon

Competing with an exalted flute, sensual, feminine, liquid seducing the Sun’s Jupiter so the trombone loses its position 

While this trombone is also trying to keep up the with the high and fast notes of the piccolo ruining the trombone’s rhythm cutting him off entirely from this glorious herald’s trumpet

Or

Saturn, the first lord, the double basses supposed to be in charge of the lively and bold start to the 1st movement but sitting in the 3rd house surrounded by 27 snare drums as this chart has very strong Mars sthana bala.  The double bass intimidated by Mars constantly speeding it up trying to hold down the ‘allegro’ and the ‘minuet’ of the 1st and 3rd movements

But, whenever they can, the piccolos stand up and turn to face the double bass stuck in the percussion section and their friendship makes the double bass keep going

While the oboes join Saturn’s 1st movement melody and reassure it that it’s all worth it

Or

The piccolo and flute who would love to run away with the happiness of the melody stuck with a double bass between them, that no matter how the double base tries, it just can’t do light and silly, so the piccolo and flute feel heavy and restricted

Or how everyone feels delighted when the gentle French horn Jupiter coaxes more joy out of them than they ever thought possible

Or the wind section that was doing so well under one conductor who are now stifled and silenced by a strong brass call to action crescendo under the new Vimshottari conductor

52:10 Conclusion

I think it helps as Astrologers to realise how complex preparing a chart is

And inspires us that composers wrote this, so we can understand it!

As student it helps us see how the complexity of the chart comes together

And it helps us be realistic about how long it takes to get good at this – you don’t land a gig in the orchestra on your first day of picking up an instrument

As a client, it helps us realise that all charts are out of balance, they have wonderful things and disharmonious things

With the help of an Astrologer, the client can work on improving their symphony experience by understanding the discordant elements and by doing our job as the conductor of our own symphony

What did you think?

Do you agree, disagree

Do you find it helpful to look at a birth chart as a symphony score?

What would you change?

I notice that I didn’t use timing signatures! Or notes themselves in this analogy

How would you include them?

I look forward to your thoughts

And hope that you will join me again on the Vedic Astrology Podcast!