Fall Equinox 2022 COMET

American College of Vedic Astrology

Letter from the president of ACVA

Greetings dear ACVA friends, students, alumni, and faculty:

We hope this finds you and your family doing well. It’s been another busy quarter for ACVA as we continue to perform our seva of offering the highest caliber Jyotish education. The college is benefitting from the brilliant skills of our experienced and high-functioning faculty and staff, and from contributions from generous friends of ACVA.

Thanks and gratitude to Nicholai Bachman, who has generously donated his excellent audio files of the proper pronunciation of Sanskrit terms for Jyotish application. These audio files are now embedded into our Level 1 curriculum – they sound wonderful!

ACVA is also in the process of receiving two separate rare book libraries, from international friends of ACVA. Thank you! And as ever, I am personally so very grateful for the contributions of our volunteer Team, tireless I.T. staff, and donors.

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Charlotte Benson (Jyoti Devi)

President, American College of Vedic Astrology

The Observatory

June 2022 Solstice Edition

Dr. Lynn Bootes

ACVA Dean of Students and Registrar

registrar@acvaonline.org

Dear Readers,

The rapid transitions after the equinox from September to midOctober bring us lots of action in the Virgo/Pisces axis, and the welcome attention of benefic grahas Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter in these signs. There will be many days and times when these grahas will make helpful combinations or yogas for auspicious events, reunions, opportunities for study and other activities in promotion of arts, dharma, and communication. This month is also a great time to begin serious study of Jyotish at ACVA! For those who quickly get into overload when so many dual signs and vatapromoting planets are holding our attention, you can apply some of the suggestions in Julianna Swanson’s article. Note that the shower grahas continue to move in retrograde motion and keep their places with no sign changes. All the attention is on the Sun, Mercury, and Venus as they move through the zodiac signs almost in lockstep. Mars has moved to Taurus, providing a contrasting slower pace of action.

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Gola – Autumn 2022

By Julene Louis,

Jyotish Visharada, ISAR-CAP

ACVA Provost

Gola is the observational astronomy limb of Jyotish. For most of the autumn we can observe Shani and Guru in the evening sky. Mangala will have late night and early morning visibility until opposing Surya in December and becoming visible at sunset. Budha, whose cycle around Surya is 88 days will make a morning appearance in October and evening appearance in December. Shukra’s morning visibility ends as autumn begins. Shukra will then travel too close to the sun to be observed until becoming an evening planet in December. Chandra’s 27.5-day cycle through the zodiac provides opportunities to witness conjunctions with each visible graha every month. Go out and locate the grahas in the night sky as they travel through rashis and pass the primary stars of nakshatras. Commune with them in the heavens and experience a level of Seeing, beyond a computer screen, that deepens your understanding and practice of Jyotish.

Autumn kicks off with Shani and Guru visible in the evening sky. In late-September and early October, locate Guru in the east and Shani in the south-east at sunset. Guru will be among the dim stars of Mina, below Algenib of Pegasus marking Uttara Bhadrapada Nakshatra. Shani will be east of Daneb Algedi in Makara and below and east of Sadulsuud in Kumbha – the stars marking Dhanistha nakshatra. Mangala in Vrishabha will rise before midnight and be visible until dawn. At the beginning of autumn, Mangala will be above Bellatrix in Orion, marking Mrigashira Nakshatra. In early December, retrograde Mangala will dip back into Rohini Nakshatra as he moves westward toward Aldebaran.