Good Stars Jyotish Michelle R. Dean

In this podcast episode, I talk about a recent encounter I had with a deer that I considered a good omen for a mantra practice I’ve recently started.
The universe often speaks to us, we just have to learn to slow down, tune in and listen.
This is where omens come in.
What’s an omen?
In Jyotish (Vedic astrology), for something to be considered at omen, it needs to be:
* an unusual occurrence
For example, with the story about the deer, I’ve sat at that same bench many times in the past ten years. Never once have I seen a deer in that meadow, let alone had one approach me out of the blue. If deer sightings and encounters were more common in the area, this experience would have seemed less like an omen I should pay attention to.
* happen shortly after a question or statement has been made or an action has been concluded
Let’s consider a more mundane example. Say you apply for a new job. You get your application ready, upload your documents and press send. Of course, now you’re wondering, “Will I get the job?”
A few minutes later you check your messages and see you’ve gotten a text from a friend with wonderful news (“We’re pregnant!” or “We got the house!”) or one with bad news (“I owe more in taxes than I thought.” or “My mom is ill.”)
Although this message isn’t directly related to your job application, the fact that it came through shortly after you completed this action could be considered a positive or negative omen about the final result.
However, this would not be the case if the text came before you sent the application or many hours afterward.
Don’t ignore, but also don’t overinterpret
It’s important to remain open and receptive to omens; however, you should avoid actively seeking them out at all times. The universe does give us answers at times, yes, but in my experience that does not mean she’s a Chatty Cathy.
That’s what makes omens special: they are only delivered when something really needs to be said.
Let’s move on now to Nimitta.
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Omenology: One of the Six Branches of Jyotish
Nimitta (omen/sign), or Shakun Shastra, is a very interesting branch of Vedic astrology that concentrates specifically on interpreting omens to gain deeper understanding or make future predictions.
Types of Nimitta include:
* Natural Phenomena: This includes unusual weather patterns, celestial events, or natural disasters.
* Animal Behavior: The actions and behavior of animals, birds, and insects can be interpreted as omens.
* Physical Sensations: Unexplained bodily sensations or experiences can also be considered Nimitta.
* Dreams: Specific types of dreams and their symbols are interpreted as predictive signs.
One of the most significant classical Jyotish texts with chapters specifically on Nimitta is The Brihat Samhita, written by the 6th century astrologer and polymath, Varahamihira. This book include omens connected with specific animals, such as birds, cows, dogs, elephants, and so on.
Reinterpreting ancient omens
Obviously, the world has changed quite a bit since the 6th century. However, that does not mean the omens listed in Brihat Samhita don’t have merit – they just may need to be modernized in some cases.
For example, elephants are obviously a bit hard to come where I live in Europe. However, if we consider what an elephant would be used for in the ancient world – namely, work and transportation – could we perhaps update the omen as being signified by a bus (i.e., large mode of transportation) or a crane (i.e., large machine for work and hauling)?
Or could we translate the omen of a crow landing on a dead tree as one landing on a city telephone pole?
Definitely omenology food for thought worth testing.
Omens never stand alone
In Chapter 96: Supplementary to Omens XI, Varahamirhira writes:
A person learned in the sciences of ome

Happy Monday everyone!
I started today’s podcast with a short rundown of the astrology for the last week of February 2021. The points worth mentioning for the week are:
Mercury stations direct on February 21
Venus enters the sign of Pisces on February 25
Full moon in Virgo on February 27 (culmination of the auspicious moon cycle that started with the new moon on February 11)
I plan to either write and record a quick podcast to cover the last two points later this week, but the main focus of the podcast is understanding planetary days and hours.
Before we go into more detail about what this means, take a minute to ask yourself the question: What is time?
Photo by M on Unsplash
In most cases, your definition is likely to be similar to the one I found when I google “time definition”. In a nutshell, time is a measurement either of periods or hours, minutes, seconds.
However, what if I told you there is actually an ancient system that speaks to the quality of time?
If you think about it, thinking about time in this way really shouldn’t be surprising. We all have experienced those times when we just couldn’t concentrate no matter how hard we tried, when there was a strange aggressive feeling in the air, or times when we find it easy to communicate or enjoy ourselves as well as times when the opposite is true.
You can analyze theses differences, as well as make choices for when to do what, by using the ancient system of planetary days and hours.
So what are planetary days and hours?
Good questions!
This system and method for measuring the quality of time hails back to the Hellenistic astrology, although it may have its roots in ancient Babylonia.
In this system, each day of the week is assigned to one of the seven classical planets as follows:
* Monday is the day of the Moon
* Tuesday is the day of Mars
* Wednesday is the day of Mercury
* Thursday is the day of Jupiter
* Friday is the day of Venus
* Saturday is the day of Saturn
* Sunday is the day of the Sun
This system was one so ubiquitous that it is still reflected in the days of the week. For example, the Romance languages still reflect the Greco-Roman tradition, e.g. lundi, lunes, etc. for Monday (Luna=the moon), but switched the weekend days to indicate “Sabbath” (e.g. sábado) and “the day of the Lord” (e.g. domingo) after the rise of christianity.
In English, we kept Saturn and the Sun for our weekends, and used the names of Germanic deities for the rest of the week, e.g. Thursday which is “Thor’s day,” the Germanic deity that is the equivalent to the Greco-Roman Jupiter/Zeus.
This same system of planets for each day is also reflected in many languages on the Indian subcontinent as well as a number of Southeast Asian language.
However, as the name of this post suggests, this system does more than just give each day of the week to a planet. This same system describing the quality of time is also divided into each hour of the day. Although the break-down of the planetary hours is somewhat complicated (more on that later), how it works as that the first hour at dawn always goes to the planet of that particular day.
For example, at dawn on Saturday, it is the hour and day of Saturn.
After this, the hours follow what is called “Chaldean order”. This describes the classical seven planets from slowest to quickest, and therefore goes as follows: Saturn (the slowest), Jupiter, Mars, the Sun (considered a “planet” in this system, as is the moon), Venus, Mercury, the Moon.
So, in other words, on Saturday (the day of Saturn) we start at dawn with the hour of Saturn which is followed by the hour of Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon and then Saturn, thus the cycle starts again.
This order is the same no matter what the day, e.g. at dawn on Wednesday (the day of Mercury) we get the hour of Mercury followed by the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus and then Mercury again, which restarts the pattern.
However, as I mentioned above