Astrology for Yogis
By Mehtab

Many people who practice yoga are also interested in astrology.  Like astrology, yoga also teaches us that what is outside ourselves is a reflection of what is inside ourselves, or as the ancient Greek mystics said, “As Above, so Below.”

Yet not many yoga students and teachers in the West fully appreciate the supporting and major role that astrology plays in the development of a yoga practice.

Like Yoga and Ayurveda, the astrology of India (or Jyotish) was one of the original Vedic sciences. The great masters of yoga deeply understood the value of both the healing regimen of Ayurveda as well as the karmic potentiality of Vedic Astrology for those pursuing the path of yoga.

While Western astrology has much to offer the spiritual seeker, Vedic or Eastern astrology (Jyotish) provides the yogi and yogini with a set of powerful tools to discern the most appropriate types of yoga practices for an individual and the optimal times for their practice.  I have found that Vedic Astrology provides the yoga teacher with something that is vitally needed but not provided in the western approach to teaching yoga: A reliable diagnostic tool that works hand in glove with the practice of yoga.

Vedic astrology prescribes the use of different mantras based upon the individual’s birth chart, specific meditations based upon the planetary energies, and even appropriate asanas for remediation and healing.

As an example, a woman came to me who was experiencing chronic depression. An examination of her birth chart revealed a Moon heavily challenged by Saturn – a classic recipe for depression. In Vedic Astrology the Moon corresponds to what the yogis call “Manas” or the sensory and emotional nature of the mind.  Saturn exerts a contracting influence that can be experienced as “weighty” or limiting.

Saturn also provides discipline and stability for meditation. Saturn with the Moon in a birth chart can be ideal for developing a meditative mind or it can produce depression in those who do not use the energy of Saturn appropriately. I suggested a mantra to strengthen her Moon energy, a pranayama to activate the Lunar flow of prana, and a meditation suitable for her constitution.

On an elementary level, yoga practices can be done that are appropriate to the planetary energies of each day: warm and vital practices on Sunday (Sun), feminine and introspective practices on the Moon’s day (Monday), expansive meditation on Thursday (the day of Jupiter or the Guru energy), and so on.

While yoga provides the framework for self-transformation, astrology gives us the personalized roadmap. It is a way to understand our karmic DNA, the challenges and the opportunities that the soul has brought into this lifetime that the practices of yoga can address, and ultimately our dharma, our destiny, and the means for our liberation.

Like Yoga and Ayurveda, Jyotish or Vedic Astrology is a rich field for lifelong study and application.  There are many ways to begin a study in this area, from starting with a good book on the subject (I recommend Astrologer of the Seers by David Frawley or Light on Life by Robert Svoboda), to taking workshops, and eventually entering a training program that can lead to certification as a Vedic Astrologer.

For thousands of years the three sister sciences of Yoga, Ayurveda, and Jyotish were taught and practiced together. Each has a gift to offer us, and as yoga students and teachers we can benefit from them.

“Then, as before, did the One fashion the Sun and the Moon, the Heaven and the Earth, the atmosphere and the domain of Light.” – Rig Veda

Mehtab is an ERYT-500 yoga teacher and licensed teacher trainer as well as a certified Vedic Astrologer.  He has conducted one of the first courses in the West on the relationship between Yoga and Jyotish and offers yogic consultations and life readings in Vedic Astrology. Mehtab is also the founder of Yoga Yoga. For information on his next Vedic Astrology training see http://www.yogayoga.com/sevedicastrology. For individual appointments and astrological readings, please visit http://www.yogayoga.com/privatesmehtab