Book Review

PATH OF LIGHT

Volume 1: Introduction to Vedic Astrology
Volume 2: The Domains of Life

by James Kelleher

Available at: http://www.jameskelleher.com/books.html
(James Kelleher is a CVA member and ACVA approved tutor)

Path of Light, a flavorful and bounteous introduction to Vedic astrology and a mind-whetting expansion for advanced practitioners, is the culmination of over ten years’ work by James Kelleher. These richly illustrated volumes offer, along with their sweetly imaginative plates from a contemporary artist in classical style, much to ponder. James Kelleher has been a leading western practitioner of Vedic astrology since the beginning of its world-wide spread in the 1980’s; he was a co-founder of the American Council of Vedic Astrology and is a CVA member. Mr. Kelleher has embarked on adventurous travels to seek out meetings with the most adept jyotishis, yogis, gurus, and swamis in recondite areas of India, and personal stories of his encounters with these sages and the receipt of teachings expected and inadvertent are sprinkled through both volumes of detailed, well-thought-out instruction.

The contents provide concentrated doses of the reasoned approach familiar to Mr. Kelleher's students at conferences, classes and symposia. It is a point of pride to the author to research and prove through his own analyses of many charts that every technique he uses has empirical application. He balances interest in both the inner condition of the human mind and soul and the ways in which outer, seemingly random events fit into a vast and partly, for sure, totally, to some rare beings, predictable cosmic plan.

In the first chapter, the author details two views of cosmic time, or yugas, explaining that according to the prevalent view, we are in Kali Yuga, the time of darkness, for a long time still to come. "During a time of darkness, a little light goes a long way....during Kali Yuga, those who do practice virtue have a tremendous influence on the rest of the world. Ironically, taken in this way, Kali Yuga becomes an excellent time for spiritual development." There is a discussion of the theory of karma and examples of the uses of nimitta, or omens, in reading horoscopes. Then the book goes into the signs, with more extensive psychological descriptions of the 12 rasis than are found in most Vedic astrology texts. An example: “Pisceans are romantics…However they frequently feel the other side of the romantic coin—depression, disappointment or even despair. This is the price they pay for their intrinsic attachment to the romantic drug. They learn the hard way that there is no up without a down, no elated high without a low. The aware Pisces person finally realizes that the process of creating personal attachments always falls short of giving them the love and joy they desire….The spiritual path for the Piscean is one of transcending illusion, fear, doubt, and moodiness in order to experience boundless consciousness and bliss. In order to transcend the imagination they must use the imagination as a vehicle.”

The section on planets is illustrated with eye-catching black and white line drawings. The descriptions of planets do not only outline the primordial psychological effects of their influence, but also go into the mythological stories that vividly explain the sacred contracts these archetypal bodies enforce in our lives. The strengths of planets, the signs and houses, and their significations on many levels are extensively explained, along with further principles resulting from combinations. For instance, “If the ruler of the twelfth house is afflicted and placed in the seventh house, the person will have marital difficulties. Sometimes this means that he simply finds it difficult to find a suitable romantic partner. Frequently, this is partially due to having high or unrealistic expectations. As a result, he either remains single, or feels chronically dissatisfied with his partners.” The many explanations of how the placement of house lords in other houses plays out is an excellent resource for practicing astrologers, full of interpretations that are fresh, unusual, and borne out by the author’s experience.

Volume I is rounded out by a thorough explanation of the nakshatras, including their symbols and shaktis, or powers given through meditation on the nakshatra. The author goes into the deeper levels of these mysterious realms beyond the solar systems, explaining the Vedic attributions of desires and deities to these areas of your chart, and the stories behind them. The illustrative plates are richly colored and entrancing.

Volume II is devoted to chart analysis, and as with all the preceding, the rich content is presented from a practical viewpoint, sharing the author’s commonsense notions on the attitude of humility and openness needed to be successful as a student of jyotish.

The author organizes chart interpretation around five important principles, houses, house significator planets (bhava karakas), yogas, divisional charts, and symbolism of nakshatras and drekkanas. For yogas, the author supplies the telling detail, such as his finding about Gaja Kesari yoga: when asked to do horoscopes for all seventeen employees of a New York advertising agency, Mr. Kelleher found that all seventeen had Gaja Kesari yoga, “a combination that makes a person able to package and present things in such a way that it becomes attractive to others.” For divisional charts, the author provides many tips that answer some of the knotty questions even advanced practitioners have about how to apply these most precise instruments. Additionally, Mr. Kelleher is unique among western Vedic astrologers for having studied and applied in modern contexts the drekkana symbolisms of Varahamihira, one of the classic masters, and these interpretations are enhanced by another set of vivid line drawings.

Chapters follow on dashas and transits, and then lessons on how to profile each of the pressing concerns of the average astrology client: personal psychology, health, career (an especial strong point for this author), money, marriage and relationships, children, place of residence, siblings, vehicles, education, even pets, and, finally, spirituality. There are a number of case studies that make one want to rush to one’s own chart database and apply the author’s methodologies, for many new insights will brim over. One profound example is the taking of divisional charts as their own independent charts; thus, a divisional chart is a full chart within the larger chart, like a Mandelbrot set, complete horoscope within complete horoscope and so on in a kind of white hole into the infinite. Mr. Kelleher reads nakshatras within, say, the navamsa. Many jyotish programs allow setting a divisional chart as a chart with its own degree values for each graha, so it is easy to specify which nakshatra a planet within the divisional chart occupies. Looking at the nakshatra of any planet within the navamsa can reveal its own deeper meaning within this already microscopic look at marriage or spiritual destiny.

Path of Light, Volumes I and II is indeed a rewarding work, one that students of all levels will profit from revisiting again and again, one that encourages gripping independent thinking while guiding the mind along the deep grooves of Vedic astrology.

Sat Siri Khalsa