VEDIC

Three Models of Vedic Astrology


Judgmental astrology :

This form of astrology aims at judging the different aspects of the life and character of a person:Their health, longevity, career, finances, marital happiness,level of intelligence,stage of spiritual evolution, and so on. It is similar to the predictive method, but looks to general capacities rather than to specific events.

Most importantly, it has an ethical or spiritual side that some people are sensitive about.Judgmental astrology places a value judgment on astrological positions. Some aspects are said to be good or bad, some planetary combinations are said to make a person good or evil, or intelligent or stupid.



Astrology should be capable of providing helpful judgments in life that should not be underestimated. But these should not be simplistic or subjective. They should be based upon spiritual goals and should not exalt worldly success or outward happiness as being of ultimate value. For example, a chart may indicate disease. This, however, is not necessarily something bad. It does not necessarily mean that person did something evil in their last life for which they have to pay. Disease can be an important means of awakening the soul. Therefore judgments in astrology should be applied with discretion. While astrologically we can see trends and tendencies, we should never deny the freedom of the soul to awaken and transcend its karma inwardly, even when it cannot change it outwardly.

Judgmental Astrology

Both the Predictive and the Judgmental models of astrology have a fatalistic note about them. Predictive astrology tells what is going to happen to us, as if we had no free will in life. Judgmental astrology tells what our nature is, as if nothing could be done about it. If we apply them in too matter of fact a way, we will encourage a fatalistic attitude in our clients. They will take their good fortune or misfortune too seriously, with finality, and lose the capacity for creative and spiritual growth in life. They may feel insulted or degraded by negative judgments and predictions, or flattered by the positive one's. Neither response leads to right action in life.

This fatalism occurred in medieval Western Astrology that also was judgmental in nature. It was linked to a culture that believed in the predestination of the soul, and in an eternal heaven and hell. Such fatalism cannot exist in the Vedic system which is based on karma. Karma is not fate or predestination. It is a law of cause and effect in which our present state is the result of our past actions. We create our own destiny but we do so through time, in which who we are today has already been shaped by what we did yesterday.

Vedic Astrology does recognize the limitations of past karma, which can be very difficult to overcome, but it also teaches us that we can change our future. The future is the result of present actions, just as the present is the result of past actions. Vedic Astrology therefore encourages individual effort, not passivity, which is why remedial measures are so important. That past actions have influenced our present state does not mean that we should just accept our condition as limited. It means that we should act in a way today so as to ensure a better future and a more positive forward movement of our karma.

The Predictive method, if applied superficially, becomes too mundane in nature. It can turn the astrologer into a mere fortune-teller. It gives people the impression that their destiny in life is fixed and that a good astrologer can remove any mystery about what will happen to them.

The Judgmental method can be too harsh. It can deprive people of the capacity for growth. It can reinforce any negativity in the chart. Even if the outer chart has many weaknesses, it should never be forgotten that our inner Self and true Being inherently transcends the influences of time and space. This method is particularly dangerous with passive, self-negative types of people who easily believe what is told to them, and are ready to accept something negative about themselves. It often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The astrologer should act in such a way as not to deprive the client of his or her own power of judgment. The astrologer can give clients information or tools to work with but they must not take power over their clients. The astrologer is not God and the birth-chart is seldom so fixed that all astrologers will interpret it in the same way.