Jyotishii Query

[mgansten at sbbs.se]

Girish Beeharry wrote:

>> What is the significance of the of the North and South nodes of the moon?
>> 
>They are not 'real' grahas but upagrahas. raahu is related to the outside 
>world, egocentric behaviour, dealings with the public and is linked to what
>one is supposed to achieve in the present life. ketu is related to the inside
>world, spirituality, secrets and is linked to the karma of previous lives.

I would be interested in seeing a textual reference for these
significations, since I have never seen any classical text supporting the
idea that rAhu and ketu are in any special way related to present and
previous lives, respectively. To my knowledge, this is a modern, Western
conception advocated by Martin Schulmann and others. The traditional Indian
view is of course that the whole horoscope, not just the nodes, has
everything to do with the effect of previous lives on the present:

yad upacitam anyajanmani s'ubhAs'ubhaM tasya karmaNaH paktim
vyaMjayati s'Astram etat tamasi dravyANi dIpa iva

"The maturation of good and evil actions accumulated in another birth is
illuminated by this science, like objects in the dark by a lamp."
(varAhamihira)

Incidentally, the nodes are not generally known as upagrahas but as
chAyAgrahas (shadow planets). The five upagrahas mentioned in
bR^ihatpArAs'arahorAs'Astra are dhUma, vyatIpAta, parivesha, cApa, and
upaketu, all mathematically derived points. Apart from these, there are five
kAlavelas (gulika etc).

>Some people think that their influence is akin to mangala and shani. I think
>ketu is linked to shani and raahu to mangala but I'm not sure.

The traditional dictum goes: s'anivad rAhuH, kujavat ketuH: rAhu acts like
Saturn, ketu acts like Mars.

Martin Gansten
mgansten at sbbs.se