This article has been published on Elephant Elephant Journal at this link I was speaking with one of my first yoga teachers the other day. He’s doing quite well for himself teaching yoga in Rishikesh and Dharmasala these days. He knows asana very well and has earned the success that comes to him. He told…
At first glance Tantra and Astrology appear to be at odds with each other: astrology confirms the hand of destiny while Tantra confirms the freedom of our will. An astrological birth chart is none other than a map of how we are bound in our human condition. Tantra is the map of how to overcome…
Most people in the west recognize the concept of maya from Buddhism or Vedanta philosophies. Following these modes of thought, maya translates as illusion. The path of these philosophies is a path of negation (neti neti: not this not that) to distinguish the real from the unreal. They say that only god is real and objective…
A friend recently asked me how the stones or whatever remedies work? I partially answered this question in a previous blog post, but I wanted to give a more direct answer to this question. I have been studying astrology for only a few years. I’ve always had a skeptical rational mind. Most of my life…
The new age is fond of embracing some sort of mediocre perfection and proclaiming it to be the highest law if tantrism or tribalism or some such thing. We are all perfect just the way we are. Accept your faults your pain and your suffering because it’s all part of a perfectly balanced world. Regardless…
Everything has a root! Every idea, every action, every thing that ever is has some root. Getting at the root is often like the voice of a curious child. Where did the apple come from? Where did the tree come from? Where did the sun and the earth and the river and the sky come…
I want to share a few things about how Vedic Astrology works. Vedic astrology uses predictive methods to test the chart. Quite often one or two fairly specific things will pop out at an astrologer from your past that they will be able to predict to a time frame. The ability to give such accurate…
Traditional culture goes by a lot of names these days. Every region has their own ancient practice. The Americas have their shamans connecting man to nature and the cosmos thru fire and smoke rituals, chanting, and vision questing. China followed the Doa and yin yang with the precise awareness of balance that found expression in…
Adavasi: In India this word is used to describe people who come from traditional societies living without modern convenience or codified natural law. They are tribal people outside of the caste system because they do not follow or fit with the social laws and customs prevalent in the land. “They live like animals,” I am…
To hear some people speak, you would think that humans would die out quickly if we stopped the mental chatter about past and future. Many people are attached to this chatter and there is nothing wrong with this: it’s the differences that make life. To have just one of something is not possible to recognize…
Have you seen this? Have you seen that? People always ask about my travels. But what am I going to see? What is seeing this or that going to give me? One of my unique blessings in this life is to have so much time like this to just sit back and try to figure…