FOREWORD

It has always struck me as odd that, although most astrologers in the world are Indian, so little is known about Indian astrology in the West. That’s especially inexplicable in the case of Britain, given this country’s long love affair with the Indian sub-continent, and the fact that a substantial group of British visitors to India, such as the theosophists, broke with the stuffy conventions of the Raj and actively studied Hindu philosophy with priests and gurus. We see a few of the early 19th century British astrological magazines flirting with Hindu astrology, but for some reason, although Indian philosophy proved particularly seductive to the western mind, the technical complexities of the sub-continent’s astrology were ignored. In fact the impact of Hindu teachings was, through the work of Alan Leo, to take Western astrology in a loose and non-technical direction, widening the gulf between Western and Eastern practices still further. So, while Western astrologers have long had a simple understanding of karma and a familiarity with reincarnation, they have had almost no concept of, for example, planetary periods.

Of course, we in the West have always known that Indian astrology existed. When I joined the Astrological Lodge in the ‘70s there was always a book by B.V. Raman on the bookstall, and in 1985 the AA asked Jeyar Sekhar to give a day workshop at its Nottingham conference. It was a the rediscovery of the complex practices of Medieval and Classical astrologers after 1985 which awoke astrologers in the English speaking world to a whole new approach to astrology, preparing receptive ground for the first Council for Vedic Astrology in the USA and, since 1997, the British Association for Vedic Astrology.

In India astrology is known as Jyotish, a term whose meaning Komilla explains in her introduction. The word doesn’t easily translate into English and writers such as B.V. Raman preferred the simple term Hindu astrology. The name Vedic astrology has been adopted by the West as a label which is at once more recognisable than Jyotish, while avoiding any preconceptions Westerners may have about Hinduism and maintaining the connection between Indian astrology and its spiritual foundations. Although there is little sign of astrology in the Vedas themselves, the sacred texts lay great emphasis on the election of auspicious moments to perform significant rituals, providing the rationale for all subsequent Indian astrology.

Indeed, we might argue that the primary focus of Vedic astrology remains electional: it is estimated that ninety-five percent of Indian marriages are arranged with at least a partial reliance on astrological considerations, an astonishing figure which means that, in view of India’s immense population, a substantial proportion of the world’s marriages are astrologically elected. True, prediction is central to Vedic astrology, but to what end, we might ask? To arrange the future and to live harmoniously with the cosmos might be the answer. Vedic astrology is essentially a guide for living within a cosmic framework.

Vedic and Western astrology are cousins. They share origins in the third millennium BCE, in the river valleys of Mesopotamia and, we increasingly suspect, in those of Northern India. Two thousand years ago, astrologers in Athens and Rome would have practised a very similar sort of art to those in Varanasi, but since then we have grown apart. Yet, while Westerners have rediscovered the technical astrology of the classical world, it is shorn of its ancient philosophy. Vedic astrology, on the other hand, is still deeply embedded in an extraordinarily rich vision of the human spirit, arises out of an ancient cosmology and is intimately linked to spiritual practices. For all these reasons I welcome Komilla’s efforts to educate Westerners in its techniques, traditions and wisdom. Some may wish to become practitioners of Vedic astrology, others merely to familiarise themselves with its basic tenets. Many will be fascinated by a divinatory discipline which is of immense importance simply by virtue of the extent of its use in one of the world’s greatest countries.

Nicholas Campion December 1998