By: Erik Boen
Note: This articles gives an example of a delineation using the sidereal zodiac.
Eclipses have always played an important role in human history. They have decided over battles, over the fate of emperors. In this article I will try to link an eclipse to an enlightenment event, of Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), the great advaita teacher of India. More than 65 years after his death, he still is an inspiration to many spiritual seekers, in both the east and the west.
The techniques used here are a combination of parans (star and planets at the same time on one of the angles, based on the work of Bernadette Brady) and secondary progressions. One lot, the part of death is used because the event studied is a near or total death experience, resulting in enlightenment and a life dedicated to spreading self-inquiry as a sure technique to self-realization.
Ramana Maharishi had a near death experience at the age of 16, while still at home somewhere very near to 14 July 1896, given or take a few days at the most, the chart below is the secondary progressed horoscope[1]:
In secondary progression this is the horizon with Pluto, the planet of the Underworld rising . This makes sense as Ramana had a terrifying experience of dying, an experience which the sages say prepares the soul for enlightenment and spiritual work as the fear and limitations of the ego-mind are blown away. Once a soul conquers this experience in a still, observing manner,( not possible for 99,9 % of us normal mortals, and not possible without thorough spiritual practices like meditation) the final stages of the spiritual quest can start.
Ramana had this experience at the tender age of 16:
At the same time as Pluto is rising on the horizon, the star Deneb Algedi in Capricorn is culminating(on the orange vertical line), so this what we call a paran between the planet Pluto and the fixed star Deneb Algedi. Both star and planet have to be either at the horizon line or at the Prime Meridian, where all celestial bodies culminate or anticulminate. If you look in “Planet and Star Combinations”, you will find some 70 big fixed stars and the parans to all the planets from Sun up to Pluto. Brady delineates this paran:
Interest in the fabric of the Law, to want to understand the workings of society. To wrestle with the legal system.[2]
Following is the list of parans for the secondary progression around 8:54 am:
| Dschubba | Setting | 324°22′ | 00°ø 05′ | 08:48 | Crown of the Scorpion star |
| Deneb Algedi | Culm | 325°06′ | 22°ú45′ | 08:49 | |
| Lilith | Rising | 325°09′ | 00°ò 52′ | 08:49 | |
| Pluto | Rising | 325°32′ | 01°ò15′ | 08:51 | |
| Cor Serpentis | Setting | 325°44′ | 01°ø27′ | 08:56 | |
| Graffias | Setting | 326°13′ | 01°ø 55′ | 08:58 | Crown of the Scorpion star |
The stars Graffias and Dschubba belong to the “Crown of the Scorpion”
I see these stars also as the hood of the cobra,(Cobra on its tail or Scorpio) and connect this constellation to the Kundalini and the rising up of the spiritual energy from the Muladhara, the first chakra to the crown chakra, where the hood stands for the expansion of the spiritual energy (a thousand Suns) and connection to the cosmos.
Please notice that the sign on the back of the hood of the Cobra is the logo for the South Node, Ketu, indicating that Ketu indeed is connected to the final outcome of Kundalini, when the energy has risen to the region of the head. No coincidence that Ketu in Jyotish or Indian Astrology is called :
Jnanakaraka, the indicator of wisdom, the path Ramana followed through his relentless self-inquiry.
Mokshakaraka, the indicator of spiritual liberation.
These stars in the crown of Scorpio are setting at the time of the death experience : a strong kundalini experience was thus at work, cooperating with the Pluto rising and Deneb Algedi culminating : this is a very powerful mix for any kind of deep mystical transformation.
THE ECLIPSE OF 29 SEPTEMBER 1894
Start Max End
| 1890-Jun-17 | P | 10:44:58 | 32 | – | 11:53:55 | 16 | 292 | – | 12:53:02 | 03 | 0.461 | 0.343 | – |
| 1890-Dec-12 | P | 00:56(r) | 0(r) | – | 01:07:35 | 02 | 114 | – | 01:20:56 | 05 | 0.026 | 0.005 | – |
| 1894-Apr-06 | P | 01:26:59 | 10 | – | 02:32:57 | 26 | 088 | – | 03:47:13 | 45 | 0.901 | 0.872 | – |
| 1894-Sep-29 | P | 03:32:34 | 42 | – | 04:26:54 | 55 | 108 | – | 05:24:56 | 68 | 0.285 | 0.175 | – |
Some parans for the eclipse :
RISING – Stars of Your Youth
- Acrux as Mercury is Rising orb 00 mins 14 secs –
- A practical thinker who takes decisive action in solving problems –
Arising and lying hidden
- A practical thinker who takes decisive action in solving problems –
- Alhena as Sun is On Nadir orb 00 mins 21 secs –
- A leader with a mission, a person who is identified with a cause
- Vega as North-Node is On Nadir orb 00 mins 28 secs –
- The dreamer, the inventor, one who is devoted to a vision of the future
- Phact as North-Node is Culminating orb 01 mins 09 secs –
- A journey that changes everything
CULMINATING – Stars of Your Prime
- Alkes as Pluto is Setting orb 00 mins 06 secs –
- To be awed and humbled by the emerging story of life. To lose oneself to a larger theme.
- Alpheratz as North-Node is Culminating orb 00 mins 07 secs –
- The desire to better oneself – Curtailed passage
- Ankaa as Sun is On Nadir orb 00 mins 32 secs –
- The desire to alter and transform
- Capulus as Mars is Culminating orb 00 mins 40 secs –
- Willing to deal with the difficult or macabre
- Ras Alhague as Venus is Setting orb 01 mins 01 secs –
- A person who expands the collective’s options by increasing the information available
- Canopus as Jupiter is Culminating orb 01 mins 21 secs –
- The hero or the heroine
- Canopus as Sun is Rising orb 01 mins 26 secs –
- Leadership which can be inspirational or dictatorial
- Acrux as Sun is Culminating orb 01 mins 44 secs –
- Sort of crucifixion of the little Ego, to make place for the true Soul
All the texts are from Brady, Star and Planet Combinations, I just changed the ones from Acrux, as they do not do justice to the star’s energy in my opinion. Where I changed the text, it is cursive.
Note the presence of Ankaa, the alpha star of the Phoenix, the bird that rises out of its ashes and so embodies a renewed life!!
If we make a bi-wheel of Ramana’s natal chart and the eclipse on the outside:
The eclipse degree is square to the natal Sun of Ramana (12°Virgo/ecl – 14° Sun/ram) but look at the eclipse lord, the planet ruling the degree of the eclipse(12°Virgo). It is Mercury, so Mercury rules this eclipse. This ruler is very close to the ascendant of Ramana,(1°12 Libra for Mercury and 1°46 for the ascendant). The eclipse of 1894 will have a major effect on the life and personality of Ramana in the years following September 1894 through the square to his Sun and through the ruler of the eclipse Mercury.
The three white dots on the horizon near the vertical purple line are the crown stars of Scorpio. We see that for India and for the exact place where Ramana was residing, the Cobra (or Scorpion) indeed stands on its tail (Shaula Sargas) and that the crown is just setting.
If we start from the eclipse to the actual death experience on mid July 1896 through secondary progression we get this horoscope:
PARAN ANALYSIS for the 14 July 1896, here in secondary progression counted from the moment of the eclipse on 29 September 1894:
VENUS is rising, the planet that is lord of Ramana’s Libra ascendant and following stars are all on the angles of the horoscope(either rising, setting, culminating or anticulminating):
- Ras Alhague – Anticulminating orb 02 mins 03 secs –
- To physically try and make a difference, to be pro-active in seeking change
- Alnilam – Culminating at the Mid-heaven orb 01 mins 13 secs –
- To care about precision and detail in the way you live your life, the star of Dattatreya, the Adiguru, Guru of all Gurus.
- Aculeus – Anticulminating orb 01 mins 08 secs –
- A lifestyle where wisdom is learned in the school-of-hard-knocks
- Denebola – Rising at the Ascendant orb 01 mins 09 secs –
- A lifestyle of struggling against establishment thinking, to seek a life on the edge of society, a loner, to be drawn to alternative groups. To do one’s best work when one steps outside of established systems.
I could have expanded even more on other techniques beside stars and parans and one Arabic part (lot) but there is enough evidence that secondary progressions in combination with parans work. Key to remember:
Eclipses are also sort of gateways, or key moments when big changes can occur if the eclipse hits an important natal planet or point (Asc, Mc, Ic, Desc) and if the eclipse is visible at the location.
In honour of Bernadette Brady and Rumen Kolev, two of my teachers and sources of inspiration.
- Sirius 2.0, astrological software by David Cochrane. As a siderealist, I use Fagan ayanamsha.
- Brady, Star and Planet combinations, p.153.
- Robert Zoller : Lost Key of Prediction, p.107. The Lot of Death is one of the Arabic parts, counted by adding the degrees of ascendant and 8th house cusp , then deducting the degree of Saturn: Asc= 181°46 + cusp 8= 31°44’ minus Saturn = 346°11 : 181°46 +31°44 -346°11 = 213°30 -346°11 = 573°30 -346°11= 227°19= 17°19 Scorpio.
- https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html Starlight, astrological software developed by Bernadette Brady.
- Starlight, astrological software developed by Bernadette Brady.
