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Sigmund Freud started his career in medical research investigating nuero-anatomy. His work on the Petromyzon Marinus species is not widely recognized. However it was important research detailing the nature of nerves.

Freud then experimented on the benefits of cocaine. But he let that go because he faced a lot of criticism.

Freud then, on a travelling scholarship, met Jean-Martin Charcot, a doctor in a Paris hospital. Charcot was considered the founding father of modern neurology, a 'Napoleon of Neuroses'. Charcot had done some groundbreaking work on hypnosis and hysteria. And Freud was deeply influenced by his work.

Freud returned and got married. His research work didn't pay enough to support his new family. And so, he began to practice as a consultant for hysteria.

Milton Erickson (my favorite hypnotist) says that Freud had a neurosis of his own. Freud didn't like touching his patients. At that time in the history of hypnosis, practitioners often used tactile methods while working with their patients. Since Freud wasn't comfortable with this approach, he pioneered a new form of therapy. And so psycho-analysis was born.

And for the Western world it was path breaking because it introduced the idea on a large scale, that mental illness had a root and could be worked on and even cured.

Ghar Ki Murgi

Hysteria is an interesting term. It was coined by the Greek physician Hippocrates. The word itself comes from the root that means 'the uterus'. Early physicians thought the uterus could move around the body due to lack of sexual intercourse or barrenness, causing illnesses.

After centuries, Jean Charcot changed that opinion, and linked it to the nervous system, and treated it as a psychiatric disorder.

In India, there a completely different attitude to this kind of phenomenon.

People losing control, shaking of the physical body.....are not seen as 'women's problems'......rather it is seen as the God/Goddess taking possession of the person. Whether male or female...space is made for the person to allow that energy to shake itself through. Rather than seeing it as a mental illness, it is seen as a necessary part of letting yourself go every once in a while, so that the nervous system gets a chance to release that pent up energy.

There is emphasis in the culture on rituals like trance, dance, drumming and releasing energy.

Because....

Let's admit it....the world becomes too much to deal with sometimes.

And we swallow a lot. We repress a whole lot. And rather than spilling it out as words to a therapist.....sometimes you need to shake it out through the body.....reach those parts of you that go beyond words.....

Beyond Words

We are now in the final house of the KalaChakra Kundali, Pisces/Meena. The Fish.

Logic equates the final house with death. Psycho-logic is a different ball game altogether. Death was in Scorpio, the 8th house.

Pisces amongst a whole lot of themes, is the house of spirituality.

There are a lot of people in cults at the moment. Imagining themselves as being spiritual. But everything that comes under the Godman/Godwoman pyramid scheme, religious set up, belongs to the 10th house, ruled by Saturn. The house of social structures. These are games being played by ham actors in bad costumes. Using the gods and goddesses as tools.

Saturn And Neptune In Pisces

It's an interesting time to be alive.

This Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Pisces has been revelatory.

For so long now, we have considered Saturn to be the icon of reality. He stands at the final frontier. The last thing we see. The guardian between the known and the unknown.

And Neptune, who is the co-ruler of Pisces, is considered the whimsical fantasy spinner. The ruler of the intangible. The dream. The dance. The illusion. The unknown.

The imagination.

Ever since Uranus was discovered, the world of the invisible opened up. The radio, television, internet, wi-fi... And then with Neptune our collective consciousness saw the rising and spread of the ideas of hypnosis, spirituality, telepathy, synchronicity.....

And now the paradigm is shifting so rapidly. It's a real pity that astrologers in India are not looking at the outer planets.

Look Around You

At the rigid social structures. Look at the top. In politics, lunatics are destroying everything. In tech they are lying through their teeth. In entertainment they look vacuous and stupid.

And they expect us to treat them as the real deal.

If we do climb the social ladder.....are these the people we want to hang out with?

As human consciousness expands, more and more people are rejecting the rigid social structures. You will be surprised, maybe, that the question I get asked most often by my customers is whether they have placements in their chart for spiritual growth.

What You Could Never Measure

I never have the complaint that my education was useless. I chose to study Literature. The least practical thing for the social ladder, some people may say....

Somehow writers changed me. Ideas built who I am. Poetry opened windows to my soul...

It is all these impractical things like dance, art, conversations, feelings, emotions......that make life valuable.

The importance of these 'soft skills' can never be emphasized enough.

Practicing 'soft skills' has been the most important thing in my various jobs, businesses and projects.

It takes a lot of emotional labor. Yeah even to write this blog post.....

It takes a lot of creativity to try different things, often in the face of failure.

And these 'soft skills' are not exclusive to the arts alone. Every single job can use more emotional labor. Every single relationship can use better human connection.

There is not enough emphasis on these Neptunian/Piscean/ Artistic/Emotional skills in today's world. Doesn't help to have a dry AI pretending to feel something it doesn't. Or pretending to care when it doesn't.

And it doesn't help to have people do the same as well.

The Week Ahead

Today the Moon is cozying up to Jupiter in the most beautiful way.

Venus just moved into the daring sign of Aries. If you want to be a bit flamboyant.. with romance...trying out a new look.....I say- Why not!

Hang on a bit about the need to over communicate to someone else. Mercury and Rahu in conjunction in Shatabhisha. You really want to use this energy to write things down. Arrive at some clarity, maybe. Or just get it all out. Write down the things that need to be taken care of. Communicate to yourself in a healing way. Be gentle. With yourself.

29th of March we can expect POTUS to stop being Lotus-Eater. He will get a reality check. Probably face some kind of a health thing. Maybe end the madness he started.

Sun, Saturn and Neptune in Uttarabhadra pada. We saw so much of death. Heartbreaking.

And very rage inducing. To see the futility. The waste. The horror.

We get some relief with the Moon breaking out of the Kalasarpa coil on March 28th.

April 1st is a special day to launch any new ventures. Celebrate things. It's Panguni Uthiram. A time to take stock of your resources. Strengthen wedding vows, make promises, share....etc....

2nd morning is the full moon....make sure you take some time to look at it....on 1st night and 2nd night

And I'll see you on the 2nd.....the day of the full moon....

We are going to explore Pisces in greater depth next week.

As we were discussing earlier, Pisces, is the house of spirituality.

Here, you take the journey alone.

After all, who do you think can connect you with what is in the deepest part of your heart?