** This post was originally written in May 2017. It is being published for the first time in July 2019. I have since seen Amma twice more and have had several wonderful, soul-stirring, divine experiences in her presence. Click here to learn more about Amma.
Over the weekend I was blessed to spend time in the presence of Her Holiness Amma Sri Karunamayi. Amma is the embodiment of Divine Love. She tours the United States every year and this is the second year I have seen her in person. There is so much I could say about my experience but all the words in the world could not encompass the wholeness and completeness and all-ness of being with Her.
My discovery of Amma came along at the same time my formal studies in astrology began. Those were the precursor to my opening up shop as a professional astrologer in 2014. It happened like this. My astrology teacher owns a yoga studio with his then-fiancee, and one of the yoga teachers there is an advanced devotee of Amma’s. Amma asked that teacher to write a book, Yoga is Union, which they sold at the studio, and I bought it one of the first times I went to practice there. The rest, with regard to following Amma, is history.
Here I specifically want to highlight the difference in astrology and my subjective correlative experience between meeting Amma for the first and second times (by year – I did see her several times in different locations last year).
The first time I met her – the visit spanned 3 days. Venus was combust in Gemini, both in the crosshairs of a mutable grand cross, and on its way to cazimi with the Sun. That cazimi represents a cleansing, purification, a home in the heart of the king (or in the lap of the Goddess), being born anew. I’m Taurus rising so Venus is my patron planet and its movements in the heavens are significant to me.
With regard to the cazimi – I truly felt I was very surely established in my spiritual practices before meeting Amma – after meeting her I felt that sureness was obliterated and, having learned so much from being in her presence, there was so much more for me to discover. I felt the blankness of my new slate. I felt the cazimi purification through being consecrated in and by the fire, after attending a sacred fire ceremony that Sunday. It was then that I experienced the truth in Divine Silence for the first time. My feeling was, what is there to say that doesn’t take away from the truth? Words were unnecessary, everything to know is already there to know in consciousness all around us. But at the same time I deeply appreciated her presence and her commentary because, big surprise, I am a verbal person. Words are meaningful bridges to understanding to me. And coming from such a person as she is.
Both the program and the astrology were different this year. There was no grand mutable cross or New Moon Venus Cazimi, and there was no personal sense of being hyper-cleansed in the ultimate sense that I experienced in 2016. Last year the swami presiding over the fire ceremony had done research in one of the Nordic/Scandinavian countries on the effects of mantra in attempts to revive people who are in comas. Last year there was the Mercury occultation that Amma spoke at astrological length about. This year we had a younger swami, and no astrological discourse from Amma. But she did mention that late August would be a positive point in the year, which I noted because the great solar eclipse in August is around that time frame. Astrologically eclipses are historically more challenging astrological events, so I noted that contrast. I did not gather up the worldliness or chutzpah required to ask in post-homa satsang if DT would still be President. (That eclipse is quite close to home in his chart – right on his Mars – Ascendant – Regulus situation).
Last year and this year make notable case studies for astrology. Since the atmosphere in Amma’s presence is so refined, the experience of astrological configurations is even more palpable. Discernment of their contours is more amplified. It says something about astrology. Mutable configurations break up and circulate energy clusters. Cazimi planets do undergo ritual purification, and this is actually profound. Planetary intelligences are just that, and revering them as gods creates a deeper connection with the divine counsel they are eternally emitting.
With love,
Ichrak
