Malleable Fixity: Indian Astrologers on Destiny and Human Choices

By Audrius Beinorius

Contemporary investigations into the history of science reveal the close interweaving of religious, scientific and magical discourses in traditional cognitive strategies. And astrology is India’s richest and most vibrant tradition, with obvious religious, social and medical-psychological dimensions (Beinorius 2017).

However, there is still prevailing perception that Indians’ commitment to the so-called “law of karma” involves them in some sort of fatalism – an attitude of resignation in the face of some inevitable future event. But is the causal account inherent in the functioning of the principle of karma of a deterministic nature, or does it actually lead to fatalism in Indian society?

During my recent anthropological fieldwork in Kolkata I conducted an semi-structured interviews with 15 professional, experienced and well-established astrologers. I tried to find out a number of related questions: what is their educational background and religious affiliation, where and how did they study astrology, and to which school or practical branch of astrology do they ascribe themselves?

Jyotish pandit Animesh Shastri in his office, South Kolkata

It was also aimed at finding out more about the clients: what age and gender are they? What brings Indian clients to an astrologer: to find out what to expect in the future, or to find out how to behave presently? What approach is emphasised in the consultation – fatalistic, deterministic or proactive, based on “personal choice”? What role does the clients’ religious worldview play in astrological counselling therapy, and what specific religious tools are prescribed? Among many other topics, I examined their (and their clients’) understanding of free choice, destiny and karma. As the Indian psychologist Sudhir Kakar once put it, “the way a culture values and develops ideas of time and destiny provides insight into the psychological organisation of its individual members” (Kakar 1978).

For five of our astrologers it was a family heritage and transmission, learning from their fathers, grandfathers or other family members and they later continued with other teachers. Eight of them went on to study at various astrological schools or colleges. In four cases we have home learning, studying at astrological schools and private learning from other teachers. Two astrologers started learning themselves from the books they could obtain.

Most of the astrologers I interviewed (11 out of 15) primarily use natal astrology (jātaka – making a horoscope for the time of birth). While others emphasize either interrogational (praśna – making a horoscope for the time of the query) or electional (muhūrta – choosing the right time) branch of astrological calculation. Two of them were active in palmistry (hastarēkhābidyā) and one in Indian geomancy or favourable home design (vastubidyā). Almost all of them actively involved in compatibility of partners (so called „matching charts“).

Tantric astrologer Shri Nemay Thakur in his home, North Kolkata

In terms of the main issues on which clients come for consultations, we have noticed that the issue of marriage, and especially compatibility in the arranged weddings, is at the top of the list, and this is perhaps the primary task of astrologers – to select and match life partners according to certain astrological parameters and compatibility attributes. The second most important issue is health, medical problems and professional career. This is followed by family relationships, education (mostly of children) and unstable financial situation.

Most astrologers confessed that what clients are expecting to learn is  about both, their present and their future. As many as 14 astrologers reported that clients are indeed interested in changing future events in their lives. It is no coincidence that the issue of “free choice” (bināmulyē pachanda) is discussed with clients during consultations.

Divination is employed to discover the source of trouble in order to remove it, whether by sacrifice, counter-sorcery, or other means of purification. Gems dominate as the main tool for therapy and solutions. They are considered powerful in their own right because of their natural strength. All other popular remedies come from a list of religious tools that have been known in India for centuries, such as mantras of the planets and deities, kavachas – protective amulets, pendants, rudrākṣas – prayer beads, pūjās – worship of the deities and planets. Clients are also often advised to perform religious chants and prayers, visit temples, perform tantric rituals, and even prescriptions for drugs from medicine and rāsāyana – Indian alchemy (Beinorius 2008).

Pujari-astrologer Banshi Chakraborty at Navagraha (Nine planets) temple with prevailing Śani (Saturn) worship, South Kolkata, near Kalighat

Unfortunately, it has to be acknowledged that anthropological perspectives still often overlook critical aspects of astrological advisory sessions, especially those aspects which deal with the increasing person’s awareness of their experiential situation and promoting a proactive psychological attitude. Early scholars of divinatory practices even concluded that clients must be gullible, superstitious, illogical, or even “prelogical”, that means, culturally immature.

It appears that the principal interest of clients, according to the astrologers I interviewed, is not in what will happen in the future, not in the predictions of life events, but in how to strengthen one’s own capacity to cope with the difficulties and adversities of the present. This only confirms my assumption that astrological counselling is not about stating a fatalistic inevitability and encouraging a passive or resistant attitude, but on the contrary, about developing a pro-social and pro-active attitude. 

It is by acknowledging the fixed and determinate part of our fate (the one that does not depend on us) that people can assess their responsibility in managing the part that does depend on them. In this way, the important function of astrological divination is the legitimation of the difficult decisions.

In traditional society astrological counselling can help remove psychological uncertainties, validate uncomfortable decisions and give people more confidence in their choices. Certainly, often the astrologer counsels the establishment of relationships with people whose strengths counterbalance the client’s weaknesses. This kind of advice reflects an Indian emphasis on compatible relationships, while the partnership itself should provide a model for imagining how to correct certain situationally unproductive ways of thinking and behaving.

Jyotish pandit Ashish Bhattacharya with Sanskrit volume Bhṛgu Saṃhitā of karmic astrology, Kolkata

It seems to me, that ‘prediction’ or ‘fortune-telling’ is only the astrologer’s apparent activity; he is actually engaged in a heuristically motivated, hermeneutical procedure in which destiny is not only revealed but negotiated and corrected also. Thus, astrological counseling constructs a new narrative of life and dealing with “malleable fixity” (Elliot & Menin 2018) affirming the active coping with obstacles and reintegration of the individuals within the society and cosmos.

The implementation of will and choices is possible only within a necessary causal chain but this causal chain does not leave the agent at the disposal of an unalterable fate. For divine or personified agencies of misfortune, or even impersonal forces like the planets, more exact diagnosis and more specific remedies are generally held to exist, so that these explanations tend to be more attractive because the clients see some real hope of dealing pragmatically with their suffering.

A north Indian saying compares the use of an astrologer’s forecast to that of a weather forecast: “You can’t stop the rain, but you can carry an umbrella“. Such belief enables clients to maintain positive views of the self because they believe that even though they cannot overcome these constraints, they can work around them by “managing” their fate in different ways, including various religious practices.

References:

  1. Beinorius, Audrius. 2017. “Tracing the Will of the Stars: Indian Astrology and Divination about Natural Disasters and Threats”. In Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe. Edited Gerrit Jasper Schenk. Springer International Publishing, pp. 223-239.
  2. Beinorius, Audrius. 2008. “Astral Hermeneutics: Astrology and Medicine in India”. In Astro-Medicine: Astrology and Medicine: East and West. Edited by Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim. Firenze-Sismel: Edizioni del Galluzzo, pp. 189-208.
  3. Elliot, Alice and Menin, Laura. 2018. “For an Anthropology of Destiny.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 8 (1/2): 292-299. Kakar, Sudhir. 1978. The Inner World: A Psycho-analytic Study of Childhood and Society in India. Oxford University Press

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Audrius Beinorius is full Professor at the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies, the Head of the India Research Center at Vilnius University, Lithuania. His research interests include Indian philosophies and religions, esoteric doctrines and practices, history of divination and astrology in South Asian, cultural psychology and anthropology. He has published four books and numerous articles on Indian philosophy, divination, and astrology. Among recent publication has edited volume „The Phenomenon of Esotericism: Between East and West“ (2023).

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Image 1:  Jyotish pandit Animesh Shastri in his office, South Kolkata (by author)

Image 2: Tantric astrologer Shri Nemay Thakur in his home, North Kolkata (by author)

Image 3:  Pujari-astrologer Banshi Chakraborty at Navagraha (Nine planets) temple with prevailing Śani (Saturn) worship, South Kolkata, near Kalighat (by author)

Image 4:  Jyotish pandit Ashish Bhattacharya with Sanskrit volume Bhṛgu Saṃhitā of karmic astrology, Kolkata (by author)

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