My Journey With Ayanamsa
It feels fitting that my first astrological post be a write up on one of my most profound astrological journeys. I started studying astrology avidly when I was in my teens, and soon discovered the magic of Vedic Astrology & Nakshatras .
Learning of the Nakshatras and the beauty of what they have to offer opened up a world of knowledge and patterns that feel almost criminal to be aware of. I mean, no amount of knowledge or spirituality can be a 'cheat code' to bypass enduring and navigating Earthly life, but it just shocks me the pure transparency of the cosmic patterns found applying Vedic astrology. I mean, Tropical astrology without Nakshatras was already magical to explore, but Nakshatras took the cake haha.
I noticed very early on that Lahiri Ayanamsa didn't seem accurate, but at the time I didn't know about Ayanamsa and was driving myself utterly mad trying to understand why not only my own, but other charts I'd observed seemed to off by at least a couple of degrees.
I am someone who is born at the end of a Nakshatra. The more I delved into Nakshatras, the more it became clear that somehow, I belonged to the latter Lunar Mansion to the one that showed up in many calculations.
Everything about me (and others who had the same dilemma), down to my personality, upbringing, mannerisms, art, outfit choices and even my physical appearance aligned with the prospect of calculations being altered at least a couple of degrees.
A lot of people told me that maybe some people are just anomalies, I even started theorising that maybe some peoples' spirits didn't inhabit their body until a couple of hours after birth (lol), but that was me clutching at straws- also, the ascendant would change too much if were the case & it were a birth time issue.
Eventually I discovered Ayanamsa, and I realised, I wasn't crazy!
I learnt that Lahiri Ayanamsa was the most commonly used Nakshatra only because it was the one selected by the Indian government. They needed one consistent, passable Ayanamsa to settle confusions & standardize dates for various celebrations.
The Ayanamsa was created by a Mathematician with little knowledge of astrology. There was just an urgent need to pick at least one definitive calculation irrespective of whether it was necessarily the most accurate. I mean, I'm sure they would've wanted it to be accurate too, but that wasn't the main goal.
I am quoting renowned Vedic astrologer, Ernst Wilhelm on this- but even NC Lahiri- the creator of Lahiri later admitted his own calculation was flawed, and noted that if he could go back in time he would have altered the Ayanamsa by a few degrees.
Before Lahiri Ayanamsa, the most commonly followed Ayanamsa were Revati based ayanamsas (True Revati, Usha/Shashi, Hipparchus, Sassanian).
Ernst Wilhelm devoted extensive time, observation, testing and intuitive understanding to cleverly creating his own Ayanamsa which ever since I discovered it, makes a world of sense to me. So many things in both my own chart & others' just clicked. There were a lot of inconsistencies I used to explain away by being like 'hmm it must be their d9' or 'huh, I guess their other placements are just stronger than that one'. I found that a lot of these things that didn't quite make sense were naturally rectified by using Ernst's Ayanamsa.
Before finding Ernst Wilhelm's Dhruva Galactic Center (I can thank @makingspiritualityreal for my stumbling across it on tumblr, thankyou for sharing your knowledge lovely!! ♡), I used Raman Ayanamsa. I wasn't certain it was the absolute best one, but it did seem to rectify a lot of the issues I was coming across- however there were many instances where I would for example; see and feel the influence of a transit a little bit before it occurred even using Raman calculations. So, I did suspect the degrees should be a little further forward, and Dhruva Galactic Center perfectly aligns with that.
The intuitive line of thought behind Wilhelm's Ayanamsa is also awesome! The concept that the 'correct' Ayanamsa would be based on the Galactic Center- the heart of our galaxy- which lies in the very middle of Mula, 'the root' 'the truth'... it just makes too much sense!
Since Ernst Wilhelm's Ayanamsa is only accessible through his Kala astrology software, I've been using Usha/Shashi Ayanamsa on Astroseek since it is ever so slightly different, but almost the same in value to Dhruva Galactic Center. EDIT: @bdandelion informed me that there actually is an Astroseek Ayanamsa called 'Galactic Center Mid-Mula' that is essentially the same as Ernst Wilhelm's Ayanamsa! I'm not sure how I missed this, I think I just got confused haha, but how exciting!!
I am and always will keep an open mind when it comes to Ayanamsa and all astrological things; if I closed off my perception because one guy said one thing, I would not know even half of the things I know, but for now, that is my story/journey with Ayanamsa :)
I'm so grateful to know what I know, because I spent a good year of my life (when I should've been focusing in school among other things, lol) frantically trying to understand why the astrology I loved didn't seem to make mathematical sense, why some people and placements weren't fitting. To me, this has been a big test of my faith in my own intuition. I knew something was up, and I did think I was going mad for a while, but I followed that trail and found a wealth of knowledge I am blessed to have.
To be clear, I have no desire to force other people to follow the same calculation- I understand it would also be jarring for people. It would shift quite a lot of things for some people and all, but for what it's worth, I think part of being a good astrologer is keeping that open mind and heart to potential new information. Like with science- keep an open mind, entertain every idea, and don't fully latch onto something until you have sufficient reason to believe it!
Peace and love my guys! ♡
