WHY MOON IS SO IMORTANT IN VEDIC ASTROLOGY?

The aim of this short blog is to explain the logic of why Moon is an extremely important planet and is given utmost importance in Vedic Astrology. Here we go…

*** This blog will be using the most basic terms of Ayurveda. Hence here is a brief in simple and layman language for those who are not aware about the three fundamental forces of Ayurveda called as VATA, PITTA AND KAPHA which in Ayurvedic language are collectively termed as DOSHAS. Kapha represents the nutrition consumed through food, water, sunlight etc. which moves throughout our body and then gets stored in it in different forms inside various tissues and organs. PITTA represents various chemicals that move this nutrition into different parts of the body by generating electricity/heat. It also represents those chemicals that convert, the consumed or stored nutrition into energy for our routine works. Vata represents hollowness in the body which creates channels through which Kapha moves from one place to another pushed by Pitta’s power. Together these forces will be referred as VPK (Vata, Pitta and Kapha) in this blog and are essential for our existence because it is them which give rise to intelligence. It is easy to infer that all of us are made from different combinations of these forces. For example some have more Kapha (dense tissues) but less Pitta and Vata due to which their body is too dense making them sluggish/slow on metabolism. On the other hand, some may be having too much of hollowness (excess Vata) in their body resulting in very less density thereby pushing limited kapha in a haywire manner.

As per Ayurveda, the sequence of formation of tissues in our body starts from Rasa (the nutritional fluid that we start absorbing from our mouth itself through the inner lining of the GI tract) which then nourishes blood, muscles, fat, bone, bone marrow and our reproductive fluids including the most refined fluid in our body. The logic is simple that Rasa and blood are movable which create rest of the tissues (or say provide nutrition) that are more or less fixed at their place except that part of them circulate through Rasa and Rakta in the body.

Thus it is the direction of flow of Rasa and Rakta that creates firm tissues (whether it is muscles, fat, bones) thereby creating a firm flow of direction which can be visualized as rigid pipes with gradient towards one direction that ensures that most of nutrition that we eat moves more towards a specific direction due the gradient of the channels (pipes) inside our body thereby creating more Kapha (tissues) there. Higher the gradient, more the difference between the density of tissues in two different points in the body thereby creating more Vata imbalance with higher Vata where less tissues are present. This is why Moon’s position in the birth chart is considered extremely important in Astrology as it determines the flow of Rasa (through its gravitational pull) which in turn determines the density of Kapha in different parts of the body. Of course in turn, it is affected by other forces/planets which can be seen in the birth chart. In other words, the initial position of Rasa creates a firm structure which contributes to one’s basic constitution (Prakriti) which can easily be read from one’s chart. And if there is distortion (Vikruti)  in constitution (Prakriti), in terms of excess Vata imbalance between two different parts of the body, then the only way to undo it is by Asanas because only Asanas can redirect the flow of rasa in the body by pushing rigid channels/tissues in the desired direction.

*** Since Rasa creates tissues, the ever changing position of Moon in the sky keeps pushing Rasa in different directions and thus building tissues too in other places where Rasa moves. This is over and above the deep seated tissues due to Moon’s position in the birth chart. This doesn’t mean that tissues degrade immediately when Rasa moves away from their area. Instead they stay there and get nourishment again when rasa returns there when moon returns to the same position in the sky.

*** Rahu and Ketu which are formed due to gravitational differences created by different alignments between moon’s orbital plane and earth’s orbital plane, represent nothing but the extent of this Vata imbalance only.

*** Since Vata Pitta Kapha determine the wiring of our body and mind, moon’s position plays the most important role in creating it. Hence Moon’s position represents  that “Mann” (mind) of the soul at the time of taking birth is sitting in which aspect of life. On the other hand, Sun’s position represents Pitta (the power/electricity) meaning that which aspect of life will be given maximum power by the higher world.