If you have been feeling affectionate or romantic lately, there might be a good astrological reason.  From February 16th -March 12th,  Venus and Mars have been transiting Pisces.   Teaming up with Uranus and Ketu, this four-planet conjunction is a recipe for romance, especially the imaginative or exotic kind.

Venus and Mars are the planets of passion and attraction.  Uranus and Ketu are connected with foreign or exotic things. The sign of Pisces rules inspiration and imagination.  Put them all together and you get love and romance with a flair for all things foreign, like an Indian wedding.  That's one of the things we have been up to during our travels in India.  Two of our trip members expressed a desire to get married in India, so we put on an Indian wedding for them, complete with all the trappings and ceremony.  The wedding took place in Pushkar, the site of the only temple to Brahma in India. 

So if you have been finding yourself attracted to someone from a foreign country, or just thinking about going on an exotic trip with your spouse, there's still time.  The combination continues until March 12th.

One of the most interesting events taking place in March is the Vernal Equinox on March 20, at 3:45 p.m. PDT.  That's the day when day and night are exactly equal in length.  It's also the beginning of Spring, a time of new beginnings.  For the world, this day is very significant.  It is so significant that Western astrologers have been marking it each year as the day that the Sun moves into the sign of Aries.

Of course, the Sun does not really enter Aries on the Equinox any more.  It did enter Aries on the Equinox around 1800 years ago, but since then the date when the Sun enters Aries has changed a little bit each year.  That means the Sun's position in the Zodiac, at the time of the Equinox, has slipped back farther and farther as well.  This is what we call the precession of the equinox.

This precession, which is currently taking place in the first part of Pisces, actually marks the age or Yuga through which we are passing.   At the moment we are passing through Dwapara Yuga, a bronze age, which is characterized by the growth of science and technology.  Dwapara Yuga began around the time that the printing press was invented, when science and technology began to develop. 

It is interesting that even the larger trends in the world can be described using Vedic astrology.  The ancient seers had an amazing ability to use astrology to shed light on the events and trends of our world.  They not only mapped out the ups and downs of civilization, but also described larger Yugas that coincided with universal trends of creation and destruction.  They had an expanding and contracting model of our universe, and they believed that the Universe was several billion years old.

Not bad for a bunch Yogis, sitting in caves around 10,000 years ago.  How did they even come up with such sophisticated ideas that are so close to modern concepts of the Universe?  The answer to that is called direct knowledge.  The nature of the mind is pure silence and pure knowledge.  All one has to do is to simply experience the pure, silent nature of the mind, and any knowledge can be revealed directly. 

It sound's easy, but it is easier said than done.  Our minds are filled with restless chaotic thoughts, and we are constantly distracted with various desires.  Our modern world doesn't help.  In ancient times, Yogis spent long periods in deep meditation.  Their total focus and fascination was with their inner experience.  Instead of getting a PhD in engineering, they got a PhD in the science of their own minds.  The result was the ability to access knowledge without reading books and without speculation and theory.  They got their knowledge directly, from the Source.

And that's why they got paid the big bucks and why we call them Seers!  Right?  In fact, you don't have to be a 10,000 year old yogi in order to experience the silence within your own mind.  All you have to do is learn to meditate.  Meditation is something anyone can do. It is simple, natural, effortless, and it delivers a state of rest to the body that is deeper than your deepest  sleep. It releases stress and has a wide range of physiological and psychological benefits.  It might not make you a seer overnight, but it can certainly improve your intuition.  So why don't more people do it?  Beats me!  Maybe it's because there isn't an app for it yet.  But I'm sure that will just be a matter of time. 

By the way, even though there is no app for meditation yet, there is a class.  Check it out on my website, or send me an email for information.