The Gospel of Grandpa [part fifteen]
Astrology and Sexuality

Ram has brought us a new episode in the Gospel of Grandpa just in time for Valentine's Day! Now that the children are moving into adolescence, they are becoming more interested in the birds and the bees, so Grandpa gives them the good oil on the way astrology explains sexuality in terms of polarity, the expression of the divine energies through sexuality in the world.

John Gray courted fame by choosing Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus as the title for his book that explores psychological differences between the sexes and counsels possible approaches that may help in surmounting them. He could not have chosen a better one! From a slightly different albeit related perspective, the placements of Mars and Venus in a birth chart also appear to determine the way an individual perceives sexuality that colors her/his interaction with the opposite sex.

Time had marched on, as it has always been doing. The children had graduated to adolescence and this transformation had brought in its wake thoughts appropriate to this status. The grandparents believed that it was better to tackle situations head-on and immediately rather than be devious and procrastinate.

The children had been on a study tour from their school to ancient temples which had also taken them to the temple at Khajuraho famed for its erotic sculptures. While describing about what they had seen, the children wondered how could eroticism and a place of worship have anything in common!

Grandpa thought this was the opportune moment to explain to the children about what perhaps could be said to be the fundamental requisite of life – sexuality. People may talk for it, talk against it but they cannot keep from talking about it. He began with the idea that whatever is in nature is part of creation and if one were to worship the creator, then all that has been created should be equally worthy of worship. The differentiation of what is correct and what isn't is a human indulgence subject to situations and cannot be attributed to the creator. This argument appeared to satisfy the children's misgivings about the coexistence of sexuality and divinity.

Having established a working platform to explore the subject in further detail, grandpa went on to describe how different attitudes toward sexuality could be unravelled through birth charts. Mars signifies energy and Venus signifies love. When there is a close combination between the two it produces passion or energetic love. Passion too manifests itself in various hues. This is explained by the characteristics of the two celestials, corresponding to their placement in the chart. The interaction of other celestials with this duo bring about a whole range of attitudes toward this phenomenon – from abstinence to over-indulgence, from looking at it as a means of liberation on one hand to one of depravity, sin and condemnation on the other, from free and unabashed exposure to secretive, private or reserved observance.

Naturally, for individuals attuned to a realm of thought in one extreme of the spectrum, the other extreme would appear to be unacceptable and hence 'bad', while their own position would be 'good'. Such sectional attunement of individuals from the astrological perspective is not by choice or chance, but design and is immutable and binding. Restricting sexual expression to only one hue or a closely related set of shades is an impossibility. This would be akin to wishing that one or more celestials vanish from existence during certain periods of their orbits and reappear from nothingness at certain others! A particular bent of thought on sexuality is not only astrologically relatable to individuals, but also to institutions, religions, countries, eras.

The world considered as a whole will always have a sprinkling of all manner of attitudes toward sexuality, but their distribution would vary with time and space – constantly.

As to the specific question of sexuality and worship, grandpa reminded the children that one of the revered symbols of religious adulation is the phallus. For some it is the icon of self-restraint and celibacy, for others it is an idol of procreative power and for yet others it is both, depending on where those individuals relate to in the thought and attitudinal spectrums. Similarly an inverted triangle, a pentacle or a five petal rose is the symbol of pleasure for some, fertility for some and the divine feminine encompassing both, for others.

Astrology, said grandpa, takes an unbiased and dispassionate look at the surfeit of manifestations and expresses their occurrence as a function of time. It has no axe to grind, no ramparts to defend, no faith or belief to assail. It is all encompassing, unprejudiced, supreme. It goes much beyond what any individual, society or religion has to say but neither contradicting them nor supporting them. It is merely a mirror that reflects the truth in all its diversity.

To the children or should we call them henceforth as young adults, the world appeared much less complicated and much more understandable when looked at from this perspective. Their views on sexuality, though inherently in tune with what grandpa explained, imbibed further clarity and objectivity. Their respective birth charts should certainly have indicated this condition.