Leveraging Jyotish to Unlock the Lost Insights of the Greek Pantheon
Prologue
As I walked along the lush green grass on that bright vibrant morning, with my two sons in either hand, the younger one tugged at my right arm. “Daddy, look, there in the sky” he quipped with excitement, “it’s a crocodile”. Lost in the thought about the pantheon of the Greek gods and their various stories, I was jolted back to the present looking up at the sky to where his finger was pointing at. There, indeed, was a cloud formation passing by with an unmistakable shape of a crocodile.
|| Vam Varunaya Namaha || I exclaimed!
What a Nimita (Omen) to receive as I delved into the intricate tapestry of the Greek pantheon, unraveling the link to Lord Varuna as the key to revive some of its lost knowledge. The parallel ‘puranas’ of the fight between Zeus and Chronos, Indra and Varuna, of the stories of fathers and sons, brothers and kings. The divine and the mortals. It was only fitting that it was my son, who pointed it out to me.
It was late July, and the Sun had entered Cancer, the sign that holds the key to unlocking the Greek story. Lord Varuna, the Aditya of Cancer, was the link, and here, I found the sign that perhaps I was on the right track. With this blessing and guidance, I embarked on a journey to translate the meaning behind the key mythological stories of the Greek pantheon. I wondered how these stories had been misunderstood in the present day, how much knowledge had been lost to the ravages of time, conquest, and religious persecutions.
The pre-Abrahamic cultures across the globe shared more similarities than we often assume. Those who dedicated time and effort to questioning and exploring the nature of the universe and their own place within it arrived at similar conclusions, yet they presented them in their respective cultural contexts, historical periods, and languages. They encoded this profound knowledge in oral traditions, using stories, poems, and allegories to preserve it, passing it down through the generations by the masters of these living traditions.
It is therefore not an improper hypothesis to propose that the sole surviving classical tradition, the Sanatana Dharma, holds the key to unlocking the mysteries that have been lost to time. The methodology thus lies in its eyes, the Jyotish shastra.
The Begining
In the beginning, there was Chaos. A very misunderstood concept. We may translate Chaos as the Void, as Nothingness, as Sadashiva, as the Avyakta Vasudeva (the un-manifested).
For creation to come into manifested form, we first need the Gunas to come into being. In the void, first stirs Nyx. She is the personification of the Tamas Guna and of Time. One of the most powerful entities in the whole of the Pantheon. The one who is feared by even the Titans and the Olympians.
Next, we have the emergence of Eros, the Rajas Guna, and Gaia, the Sattva Guna due to the disturbance of the equilibrium created by Nyx. These three goddesses are the Iccha shakti (Eros), Kriya Shakti (Gaia) and Jnana Shakti (Nyx or Kali) of Avyakta Vasudeva or Sadashiva or Chaos, collectively impelling creation to come into manifestation.
In the tantrik equivalency we can represent the three goddesses as the following yantra. It is Sri-Shakti, [ Gaia, Ma Durga or the Kriya Shakti] that impels the Avyakta Vasudeva [Chaos] through the power of Kala, [Nyx, Ma Kali or the Jnana Shakti] or Time, to come into Vyakta to experience itself in the Lila of desires [Eros, Iccha Shakti].
Thus, we now have the first phase of the creation of the universe mapped with the emergence of the Gunas.
Chaos is impelled to descend as the masculine force of Erebus (Sankarshna, or Mahakala). Nyx and Erebus create the Jivatma and this is described as the various challenges of mortality: Doom, Retribution, Affection, Aging, Death, Strife, Deceit, Distress personified as their children.
A key observation is that the yogic and the tantrik systems of Sanatan dharma have had more time to explore the creation than that was given to the Greek system, thus in some cases there is much better resolution of a specific component of the system. The Greek system combines many parts of the into one specific personification whereas the yogic and tantric systems tease them further apart for a finer resolution on the fabric of reality. This becomes very useful as a blunt instrument may have unintended and potentially harmful consequences when applying to nuanced practical remedies and energy work.
And in some cases, not enough work has survived today such as the resolution of Eros. There is very little literature and theology surrounding Eros. Furthermore, we need to differentiate the primordial desire represented by (Higher) Eros with the earthly desire represented by (lower) Eros as the child of the illicit affair of Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus). This is represented by the gandantha yoga of Mars and Venus indicative of uncontrolled desire that manifests in affairs and scandals. The Higher and Lower Eros must be differentiated.
As Eros (Rajas) would be the cause of the emanation of the Mind or manas, the lack of knowledgebase is indicative of the significant work done in the Tantric and Yogic systems on exploration of the Manas as compared to the Greek system.
From Gaia, Sri Shakti, and Avyakta Vasudeva we derive Aniruddha and with Aniruddha and Gaia we get the Ahamkara. It is from the Ahamkara that the maha Bhutas or the Tattvas are derived. These Tattvas are personified as described in the table
Here there is our first differentiation where the Greeks attribute the spawning of Agni and Akasha tattva to Nila Shakti as the first emergent property whereas the Tantrik traditions clubs all the tattvas as emergent from Sri shakti.
