About Jyotish readings – Indian astrology

I am now offering Vedic astrology readings. Enquire here.

Vedic astrology is also known as Indian astrology, Vedic astrology, or Jyotish. The Sanskrit word Jyotish means knowledge of light and is a reference to both the outer light of the heavens and the inner light of your individual consciousness that illuminates your body-mind and spirit.

Jyotish is a system of knowledge, called a vidya, from the Sanskrit root "vid," meaning "to know."
In Indian philosophy, vidya refers to knowledge or understanding, particularly in the context of spiritual or metaphysical wisdom. Vidya is also personified as a goddess, especially the goddess Saraswati. Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, arts, and learning in Hindu tradition. The vidya is seen as a living presence in the depths of our unconscious guiding us forward when we call to her. 

Knowledge of light, Jyotish, is the key to charting the course of your entire life towards deep and meaningful fulfillment, one that is in tune with your dharma, your individual nature. It is the job of the astrologer, the Jyotishi, to blend knowledge of the outer and inner light.

Jyotish is also called kāla shāstra, which means knowledge of time.

It is important to know that Indian astrology differs from Western astrology.

Jyotish is over 5,000 years old, and relatively intact, unlike Western astrology, which declined in Europe at the end of the 17th century. As a result, much of its knowledge was lost. Jyotish has had an unbroken tradition in India, where it flourished in a benevolent and accepting culture as a living tradition.

Several great modern Indian astrologers have continued to develop new and powerful systems of divination. These systems empower you to peer into the future, to understand and map your karma and the trajectory of your life.

Jyotish is an oral tradition and requires that it be passed on from teacher to student, rather than learned from an online course. This is because it is difficult to learn and even harder to practice well. It requires great perseverance and determination on the part of the student to gain this knowledge and bring it to life. It also requires initiation by a teacher to bring the knowledge to life, connecting the student with the source of that knowledge buried deep in our unconscious. 

The light of Jyotish enables you to see to the invisible, called the adrishta in Sanskrit. You gain the ability to see the adrishta, which is mainly unconscious and which contains your karma.

I was blessed to study Jyotish with Hart de Fouw, who I met in 1991 when I was studying Ayurveda in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with Dr Vasant Lad. I had been travelling and teaching in Europe for a year in 1990 and was able to save enough money to travel to the USA to study Ayurveda for 3 months. It was at that time that I met my Jyotish guru, Hart de Fouw and my Jyotish mentor, Steven Highburger (Vedictraditions.com)