Miracles and Spiritual Experiences

AN ANALYSIS OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE

Part I Uranian techniques used
Part II Neptune and Spirituality (miracles)


INTRODUCTION

Sri Ramakrishna, a 19th century Indian mystic, regarded as a saint and an avatar by his followers around the world, is a direct link between the modern western world and ancient India’s spiritual traditions.  This article: (1) examines events in his life for illustrations as to how Poseidon---the Uranian point most closely associated with illumination and spirituality--operates with other stellar influences. (2) Applies those illustrations to the charts of others who've experienced extraordinary spiritual events. (3) Identifies other astrological components found in these charts and (4) examines how a planetary picture works in its entirety as well as in parts.

Ramakrishna’s life-long devotion to a sect which worshiped a goddess, the result of his brother’s connection to a wealthy and pious woman, is encapsulated in the natal pictures:

Mercury=Admetos=Poseidon=Moon/Cupido (semi-octile - 12’-13' orb at its' widest point)

Sun=Moon/Poseidon (semi-octile 15-20' orb)

This is part of a larger picture with a wider orb: Sun/Saturn/Pluto=Moon/Poseidon (1 degree orb at its' widest point)

The Moon/Cupido=Mercury=Admetos=Poseidon configuration can be read as a whole, but as events unfolded, they demonstrated how the components of  this planetary picture can also be read in parts.

For example, Mercury/Poseidon (semi-octile 11' orb) is just part of the larger picture, but could also be seen operating by itself.  Delineated in RPP as “spiritualized thinking...ideals”, Mercury/Poseidon also corresponds with ideology in a Mercury context: education, publication or--as in Ramakrishna's case--siblings. When progressed Poseidon was 1’ from natal Mercury,  Ramakrishna’s scholarly older brother Ramkumar began a Sanskrit academy near Calcutta and encouraged the 18 year old younger sibling to join him there hoping Ramakrishna would pursue his education.

Another part of the larger picture was Mercury/Admetos.  Among the delineations in Rules for Planetary Pictures (RPP) for Mercury/Admetos alone is “Serious or limited thinking”. Mercury/Admetos also symbolizes brief, small or limited publications, education, speech and (less frequently) cognitive function (Mercury/Admetos and Autism).  As a child, and later when he was entreated by his brother, Ramakrishna exhibited “a supreme indifference” to a “mere bread-winning education.”   He left no writing of his own; he could not write his own name.  The translations of his spoken words are a source of controversy, with some scholars asserting that his disciples sanitized his crude Bengali dialect.

When he was 39 years old, the Mercury/Admetos/Poseidon configuration--observably working all together--described the circumstance and marked the time  when he first attracted followers. Jupiter transited through his 10th house while transiting Admetos was conjunct natal Mercury--activating the Mercury/Admetos/Poseidon configuration--when a series of short articles led people to him. “Ramakrishna could not even touch a newspaper, lest its worldly ways rub off on him  (he) would not even handle a hand-written letter, unless of course it dealt with religious topics”   But the printed word ignored the saint’s reproaches “ and a short article” called “The Hindu Saint” led to two more short articles and “was instrumental in making famous the very saint who would not touch it.” 

The connections between the Moon and Poseidon (Moon/Cupido=Poseidon and Sun/Saturn/Pluto=Moon/Poseidon) represent the essential and pivotal roles females played in his spiritual life. Although male and female energies are blended in Hindu mythology,  the traditions of spiritual practice for a 19th century holy man were almost always passed from a male guru to a male student.  Beyond observing his mother in prayer and maintaining the deities at home, it was uncommon for females to play a significant role in the spiritual development of a male Hindu. But the centrality of women---in physical and deity form--cannot be overstated in Ramakrishna’s life and horoscope. There may be no male guru, spiritual leader or teacher more identified with feminine energy than Ramakrishna.  "It was a dream (even in) his childhood, he told later on, to be reborn as a little Brahmin widow, a lover of Krishna who would visit her in her house.”  As a young man, while attending to his duties in the temple, he spent long periods in a ‘handmaid state’ dressing in women’s clothes and jewelry.  And although he ultimately accepted all religions, he was first and foremost a worshipper of the goddess Kali.  He was instrumental in changing the long held conception of the goddess as a dark force to the more modern regard for Kali as the benevolent mother goddess. “She herself has become everything...mother, daughter, wife, sister, and so many others”.  Ramakrishna is arguably Kali’s most famous devotee.

Not far from his brother’s Sanskrit academy a wealthy and pious widow, Rani Rashmoni, was completing the construction of an opulent temple devoted to the goddess Kali.   Shortly after  Ramakrishna joined his brother,  Rani hired Ramakrishna’s brother to be head priest and Ramakrishna to assist in temple.   The  year was 1855.  Progressed Pluto had reached Ramakrishna’s natal Moon/Poseidon midpoint (exactly), transiting Kronos was conjunct his natal Moon and Saturn in Gemini trine his natal Sun. About one year after the temple opened, his brother died.  Rani had observed Ramakrishna, just 20 years old,  distinguishing himself in his temple duties and had enough faith in him to make him head priest of the large temple, laying an  important foundation of his career.  She was the first to regard him as a saint.   

When he was 25, another woman would have a significant impact on his spiritual course.  A wandering yogi, 20 years his senior, visited the temple and observing something extraordinary in Ramakrishna, stayed to train him in Tantric yoga.  Afterward, "She called a meeting and after learned discussion by the Pundits, (she) insisted that the theological authorities should give public recognition to the new Avatar”   When they met, Ramakrishna’s natal Moon/Node midpoint was activated in several ways: (1) progressed Kronos (=progressed Chiron)=Moon/Node ( 2) transiting Vulcanus and Poseidon (semi-octile to one another)=Moon/Node (3) solar return Vulcanus/Poseidon=Moon/Node. The precise date of their 1861 meeting is uncertain, but transiting Neptune was never further than one degree from a conjunction to natal Venus, part of the natal Venus/Mars/Aries configuration. (Tantric yoga has sexual components, although there is no evidence he had sex with his teacher.  Read more about this in a later section of this article Ramakrishna, The Man.)

Across the globe in Europe, 75 years after the birth of Ramakrishna, Francisco Marto--whose life was also changed by a notable spiritual event involving siblings and a female divinity--was born with natal Poseido also connected with the Moon and with Mercury.  Like Ramakrishna, he had natal Sun=Moon/Poseidon (4' orb), part of a larger picture with a wider orb Sun=Moon=Mercury=Mars=Neptune=Poseidon (2 degrees orb).  Along with his sister and cousin, he witnessed a vision of the Virgin Mary, an event known as the Miracle of Fatima. His cousin, Lucia Dos Santos, who saw the apparition first, had--like Ramakrishna-- natal Poseidon=Moon/Cupido.  At the time she saw and showed the apparition to her cousins, progressed Mercury was stationary opposite Poseidon (1’ orb), while transiting Poseidon was opposite natal Mercury.   Mercury=Node=Poseidon appeared her solar return for that year.

Therese Neumann, German mystic and stigmatist, was also born with natal Poseidon=Moon/Cupido.  After praying novenas, her blindness was healed on the day Saint Therese of Lisieux was beatified.  Three weeks later, when Saint Therese was canonized, Neumann, who said she was called by the saint, was cured of her paralysis and other physical ailments.  (Transiting Uranus was trine to her Moon in Pisces and transiting Jupiter had just stationed at a conjunction to the Moon.) 

Bernadette of Lourdes' vision of  the Virgin Mary was also described by Moon/Poseidon.  At the time, progressed Poseidon=Moon/Zeus, and transiting Poseidon=Moon/Cupido.  Her natal chart contained MC/Uranus=Moon/Poseidon.  

Some of the other pictures in  Bernadette's Progressions: P. Chiron=Poseidon (64H/exact)
P. Mars=P. Uranus (exact)
P. Pallas=Saturn 

 ADMETOS/POSEIDON 

Delineated in Rules for Planetary Pictures  (RPP) as “Ideas, culture, education, mental depth, fine, subtle material”, Admetos/Poseidon also  corresponds with sects and specialized ideological groups.  Ramakrishna was born to a devout family belonging to a major Hindu group, and later on in life, after studying Islam and Christianity, he came to believe “God is One. Sages call him by various names”.   But from the age of 18 until his death, Ramakrishna never wavered from the relatively small cult that worshipped the goddess Kali and arguably, to this day, he remains Kali’s most famous devotee.  Admetos/Poseidon pictures marked turning points in his affiliation.  When he was introduced and initiated into the sect at age 18, progressed Admetos was between 3-4 minutes from an exact opposition to natal Poseidon. When he became temple's head priest, two years later, progressed Poseidon was exactly opposite natal Admetos.

Admetos was opposite Poseidon for much of the 19th century, with other, slow moving points such as Kronos and Vulcanus coming to travel in tandem with the opposition, refining the attributes of the planetary combination.  Ramakrishna’s most famous disciple, Vivekananda was born 27 years after his guru. The opposition was one degree and 7 minutes from exact.  By declination, his horoscope contained MC//Mars//Admetos//Poseidon, with Kronos=Admetos/Poseidon (11' orb). chart?  The RPP delineation is "Special education or training.  Specially gifted as trainer or teacher",  but to this writer/astrologer, the picture also describes the leader of a religious sect, his guru Ramakrishna.

Vivekananda is credited with bringing Yoga (not just the postures) and Hinduism to the west.  While Ramkrishna was alive, Vivekananda was clear-eyed about the limited appeal of Kali worship in India, even with his charismatic guru (Ramakrishna had Venus at zero degrees of Aries) at the helm. With natal sun and ascendant in Capricorn, Vivekananda aimed for wider acceptance in the west and result moved towards the more inclusive Vedanta “the least common denominator of all religious belief... the basis of all sects”.  Two years after Ramakrishna's death, his historic lecture at The Parliament of Religions ("Sisters and brothers of America...")  exhibited his awareness of the limits of the cult, describing Hinduism as having ‘sucked in, absorbed, and assimilated each new sect into the immense body of the mother faith”.   His thinking and effort bore fruit and today the Vedanta Centers he spawned are still active in  many  parts of the world.

Many 19th century ideological developments reflected Admetos/Poseidon.  Offshoots of every major religion as well as alternative philosophies sprung up and thrived, noteworthy for their number and  rates of survival--many still exist today.  Mormons, Pentecostals, Christian Scientists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, 7th Day Adventists, B’Hai’s, Zionists, and Theosophists, as well as explicitly anti-religious ideological movements such as existentialism and Marxism were founded by individuals with the natal symbolism or launched at the time of the opposition. Although planetary contacts with personal points emphasize the importance of events and circumstances, when planets form aspects for decades, they reflect the zeitgeist of an era and it was a time in history when people were ready for new variants of beliefs--in part for reasons having nothing to do directly with ideology--such as the advent of industrialization.

When the Theosophical Society came into being, Henry Steele Olcott, one of the founders, had progressed Mars=Admetos/Poseidon (1' orb) Madame Blavatsky, the co-founder, was born a year before Olcott, but both horoscopes had natal Hades=Admetos=Vulcanus=Poseidon within one degree of orb.

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The first meeting of the Mormons was held on April 6, 1830, when transiting Admetos was opposite Poseidon(12’ orb) and 9’ from a conjunction with transiting Saturn.  Three years earlier, On September 22, 1927, founder Joseph Smith's progressed Mercury=Admetos/Poseidon (semi octile 1' orb) when “‘a heavenly messenger’ appeared (to him) and unfolded to him the scheme of the Book of Mormon”  The American historical magazine, Volume 2 By Publishing Society of New York, Americana Society an event which was the basis of a religion with almost 14 million members today. Friedrich Nietzsche, who coined the phrase ‘God is dead"--the foundation of the existentialism--had the identical midpoint picture Mercury=Admetos/Poseidon (semi-octile 16’ orb) in his natal chart.  Both instances involve publications with ideological content from which religious/philosophical sects sprung.  The reader will recognize this picture also appeared in Ramakrishna's natal chart and was active when news articles led his first followers to him.

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Pio Padre, saint and stigmatist was a member of an ascetic Catholic sect, the Capuchin order.  Born with natal Jupiter (14’ orb) and Vulcanus (precisely) on the Admetos/Poseidon midpoint, when he received the Visible Stigmata--which was to last for 50 years-- progressed Sun=Admetos/Poseidon (12’ orb).  

RAMAKRISHNA, THE MAN
Ramakrishna's sexuality and relationships with women as human beings were complicated and conflicted.  The only major planetary aspect to his natal moon was a semi-octile to Jupiter (between 25-37' orb).  By declination the Moon was approximately 16’ from Saturn.  Apart from configurations connecting the Moon with Poseidon, the closest midpoint pictures containing the moon could be construed as problematic, being at the midpoints of  Hades/Apollon, Saturn/Vulcanus and Hades/Zeus.  He admitted "I am terribly scared of women.... I see them as a tigress coming to devour me. Besides, I see large pores in their limbs. I find all of them as ogres....If my body is touched by a woman I feel sick.... The touched part aches as if stung by a horned catfish”   When asked by a disciple whether he was a man or a woman, he replied, "I don't know.” 

At age 23 he married a five year old, not freakish by the standards of his place and time. His solar return for that year contained Moon=Saturn=Uranus (21’ orb).  In the first 13 years of their marriage, they spent 3 months together, while he familiarized her with his spiritual practices.  She became his first disciple and was worshipped by his followers as Divine Mother.   The marriage was never consummated. According to a disciple, Ramakrishna married to order to show the world an ideal of a sexless marriage. 

Ramakrishna’s sexuality has been scrutinized by direct disciples and modern western psychoanalysts alike. A torrent of primal and unconscious energies, by turns controlled and unleashed, his horoscope contained a semi-octile of Sun/Saturn/Pluto (38' at its' widest point) as well as a number of elements that highlight sexual issues: Saturn in Scorpio, the south node in Scorpio and Venus/Mars=Aries/Poseidon (see Sex in the Horoscope). Despite his Tantric training and 27 year marriage, there is no evidence that he ever deviated from his path as a renunciate, but in word and deed he exhibited a pre-occupation with sexuality largely directed towards his young male devotees. “What I am telling you--all this is not for others to hear--I want to kiss and embrace man as a woman”.  A follower who chronicled each day of the last four years of the guru’s life, asked himself “Why does he caress the body and feet of Narendra (Vivekananda) so?  ...What love! He is crazy for Narendra and the other boys. He cries to bathe them, to lay them down, and to see them. He flatters and sweet talks people into bringing them to him...Where lust is not, there is the Lord present...Was the Master all excited about the lord?”. 

Jiddu Krishnamurti's horoscope contained two placements referring to sexuality similar to those in Ramakrishna’s chart: Saturn in Scorpio and Poseidon (+Jupiter) on the Venus/Mars midpoint.   When progressed Poseidon was just 1’ from Venus/Mars, 14 year old Krishnamurti was walking on the beach in India when he was spotted by Theosophical Society leader Charles Leadbeater.   Upon laying eyes on him, Leadbeater pronounced Krishnamurti the “world teacher’” for whom many Theosophists had been waiting.

Three years earlier, Leadbeater resigned from the Theosophical Society in the face of accusations and evidence of pederasty and had been re-admitted just six months before meeting Krishnamurti.  In 1906, the year of his resignation, his solar return contained Poseidon=Venus/Mars.  The sexual implication of his relationship with Krishnamurti was also obvious enough to attract attention. An article entitled 'Psychopathia Sexualis in a Mahatma' (21)CITATION resulted in a lawsuit filed by Krishnamurti’s father stipulating his child not be in the same room as Leadbetter. All of this occurred while progressed Poseidon remained stationary 1’ from Krishnamurti’s Venus/Mars midpoint. (see Venus/Mars midpoint)

THE NEPTUNE DILEMMA

The frequency and duration of Ramakrishna's visions and trance states--sometimes losing consciousness for days as a time--evoked questions about his sanity by his family, townspeople and co-workers earlier in his life, and later, the astonishment of his followers.  Neptune rising and a Piscean Moon convey the symbolism for the psychic components to transcend ordinary reality. Neptune’s only major aspect--a square to elevated Saturn--symbolize Ramakrishna's attempts to draw himself back to reality as well as others' persistent doubts of  his stability.

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As a child  "...the first time I was seized with ecstasy...I became very soon absorbed in an extraordinary mood and my external consciousness was lost. I fell down..people saw it and carried me home".  His first vision of Kali (Ma) could have been construed as a psychotic episode.  " 'Ma!  Show yourself to me!'  He would fall down suddenly as if he were mad...his eyes were rolled up back into his head...He would defecate and urinate unconsciously, and yet he  was only able to say 'Ma' unconsciously, and yet he was only able to say 'Ma' .  "Just then I suddenly attained a strange vision of Ma and fell down unconscious!  After that I know nothing of what happened in the external world anywhere for the rest of that day and the next.  But within me flowed a....stream of bliss as I realized a  direct Vision of Ma' " is patroness Rani, was urged “Please dismiss your priest for he seems to be somewhat mad”.  She responded “He is not insane. His is afflicted with the superior madness of a saint”.   Bhairavi Brahmani, his Tantric instructor confirmed  “Who calls you mad, father?  You are not mad. You are in the great ecstasy".

He recounted that as he grew older "The slightest cause aroused in me the thought of the Divine Ideal.  One day I went to the Zoological Garden.  I desired to see the lion but when I beheld him, I lost all sense of consciousness and went into samadhi".   His states were compared to drunkenness by his followers  “Before we saw the Master we could not even conceive that without taking intoxicants, that a man could be in such a drunken state...his constant loss of normal consciousness”.

More recently, Ramakrishna has been examined through the lens of psychoanalysis. “The Madwoman and the Saint “La Folle et Le Saint” compared him with a mystical French woman who was hospitalized for insanity.   Other biographies deduce his behavior was the result of repressed homosexuality  although Christopher Ishwerwood, gay author and follower of Ramakrishna, wrote "I couldn't honestly claim him as a homosexual, even a sublimated one, much as I would have liked to be able to do so"

In a sample of 14 charts of people who'd had extraordinary spiritual experience such as visions, healings and stigmata, a wide variety of planetary configurations appeared.  Some included Poseidon--Jupiter/Poseidon, Mars/Poseidon, Kronos/Poseidon, Venus/Poseidon and even Chiron/Poseidon--and some were symbolized by other planetary contacts such as Mars/Uranus, or Jupiter/Uranus.  Sometimes the natal charts or the symbolism at the time of the events included Hades/Poseidon or Saturn/Poseidon, reflecting  problematic conditions such as unsympathetic outsiders or uncomfortable physical conditions that sometimes accompanied the experiences.

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But the most common factor was Neptune angular or in aspect to Moon, Mercury or Mars, found in 11 of the 14 charts.  If Neptune conjunct the cadent side of an angle is included, the incidence rises to 13 out of the 14.   5 of the 14 had Mercury/Neptune aspects with an orb of 18' or less.

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Moon/Neptune
Lucia Dos Santos- Miracle of Famtima (conjunction 1’ orb + Neptune stationary)
Mary Baker Eddy - Christian Science Founder/healing through prayer  (semisquare 8’ orb +Neptune 1st house)

Mercury/Neptune
Francesco Marto - Miracle of Fatima (conjunction 11’ orb)
St. Catherine - Vision of Jesus (semictile 4’ orb)
St. Josemaría Escriva  - Founder of Opus Dei/Message from God (semioctle 18’ orb)
Krishnamurti (parallel 10’ orb)
Mary Baker Eddy (135 14’ orb)

Mars/Neptune
Gemma Galgani - Stigmatist (Mars/Neptune=Aries 36’ orb)
Pio Padre - Stigmatist  (Mars conjunct Neptune 1 degree orb)

Angular Neptune:
Saint Bernadette - Vision at Lourdes (Neptune in 10th House)
Ramakrishna (Neptune 1st house)
Mary Baker Eddy (Neptune 1st House/intercepted)

Neptune conjunct Descendant
Therese Neumann - Miracle healing (less than 2 degree orb)
Mariette Beco - Vision of Virgin Mary) 3/25/1921 5AM Louveigne, Belgium) (Neptune 3 degrees on the cadent side of descendant)
Brazilian (miracle cure) 8/12/1934 Amazam, Brazil) (Pisces Asc. and Neptune 6 degrees on the cadent side of descendant)

3 of the 14 experienced a miracle healing and a health problem commonly includes Neptune symbolism, as do trances, visions and psychic experiences.  However,  to the astrological investigator, the illusory attributes of Neptune can’t be ignored in light of claims of connecting to the divine.  In the words of Ramakrishna:  “...people who think a particular thought and believe it to be God's commandment.  Such an idea is quite a mistaken one.”