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A brief summary of my studies and experiences with astrology

Astrology has always been in my family to an elementary degree. However, when in 1982-83 several repeated sessions with an experienced Western astrologer could not really answer my burning question whether and when I will leave Hungary and move into another land, I thought that something was sorely missing. I supposed an “astrology of the ancients” could answer those type of questions. My first impressions on Indian astrology (Jyotish) came from a white-robed pandit in Washington, D.C. in 1990, who was pondering over a printout for a few minutes, then pronounced that my parents had been divorced around my first or second year of life and that I had left Hungary in the fall of 1984! (Naturally, he had not been informed of these details.) Immediately I knew that was the kind of precision I had been after. Pretty soon I found myself engulfed with books, looking up my Western and Indian astrology significations, and comparing them. Soon I acquired a DOS software, the basic classic Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra (“BPHS”), and I began to look up friends and family members. It was only in 1997, though, that I could enrol in an official workshop arranged by the Transcendental Meditation folks. (By that time, I was already back in my native Hungary.) I did three blocks of Maharishi Jyotish courses (in English, mostly from video recordings of Maharishi Jyotish masters), under the tutelage of Vedic Astrologer Zarko Trisic from Beograd. Another breakthrough for me was James Braha’s book: Ancient Hindu Astrology for the Modern Western Astrologer. That book could be used as a beginner’s handbook, in contrast to the difficult language of BPHS. I started to look at the horoscopes of everyone around me.

It was odd that despite being impressed by the turns of fate being described so accurately by Hindu astrology, I actively disbelieved in the theory of reincarnation until 2001. The change came when I married second time. My wife, a Yoga teacher desperately wanted me to meet Chandra Om, a mysterious vedic astrologer just passing through Budapest. I scheduled a reading with Chandra, and if the reading by the pandits had stricken me with the deep chords of fate, Chandra's knowledge struck me at a more direct emotional-spiritual level. I decided to enrol in Chandra's classes and discovered that I had known close to nothing compared to this master. Also, Chandra Om reinforced my blossoming belief in reincarnation, and tied meanings together in a way that was entirely unfamiliar to me even after having studied jyotish as a hobby for over ten years. Through Chandra's repeated readings, I found a direct connection to higher powers. I soon began to look at Chandra Om as my true astrology master. It was after a couple of years of intense studying with Chandra that I ventured to offer readings for the general public, and by 2004, I started beginner’s classes myself.

It is interesting that Chandra Om had practiced Western Karmic astrology for years before Indian astrology. Chandra's thinking is unique among Indian astrologers, it encompasses some of the more spiritual elements of Western astrology. For example, Chandra uses the 27 nakshatras of ancient Hindu astrology more extensively than most jyotishis, with the exception of the school taught by Krishnamurti. (In respect of those traits, the only jyotishi I have ever found on the web or in writings is the American Joni Patry based in Texas, whose writings and courses I heartily recommend.) In addition to Chandra's rich experience with thousands of clients, this teacher has an original contribution to the worldwide theoreticians of astrology – of which I have just published a book in Hungarian (English edition is forthcoming in 2013): some of the meanings attributed traditionally to the nakshatras can be explained by an extension of the ancient bhavat bhavam principle.