In today's office hours we explored swami Satchidananda's chart - though I only revealed that at the end.
To me, he is mid to late second stage spiritual. A soul who brought forth authentic spiritual teaching and guidance for many, but whose center of identity had not yet shifted entirely from "ego" to the "soul". Without knowing specific context of this life, we were able to discern some of the core karmic dynamics he BROUGHT into this life as indicated by his Venus in Scorpio in the 9th squaring the lunar nodes, relative to his Pluto Cancer 4th. To me it's incredibly evident the unresolved desires that this soul had not yet worked out and the specific issues of dishonesty that had already been generated PRIOR to that life.
Here are some articles so we can learn more about how these dynamics played out during his life:
https://www.culteducation.com/group/1243-yogaville/26498-an-open-letter.html
And this includes some basic biographical context which is useful for our learning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Satchidananda_Saraswati
I'm most interested in seeing the conditioning context this soul set up for itself: it's early life upbringing, what home life was life. I'm most taken this part from Wiki:
Satchidananda began working in his family's automobile import business, learning how to weld.[1][3]At age 23, he became a manager at India's National Electric Works.[3]He was a temporary manager of Perur Temple, and met his wife there.[3]He married and had two sons; his wife died suddenly 5 years into their marriage.[1][4]
After the death of his wife, Ramaswamy travelled throughout India, meditating at shrines and studying with spiritual teachers including a brief period with Sri Aurobindo.[4] He was initiated into pre-sannyasa in the Ramakrishna Thapovanam and given the name Sambasiva Chaitanya. While at the ashram, he cared for orphaned young boys and studied along with Ramana Maharshi. He left the Sri Ramana Ashram when he could not bear the suffering of Ramana's arm cancer and treatment procedures. He travelled to Rishikesh, a town in the foothills of the Himalayas on the banks of the Ganges. There, he discovered his guru, Sivananda Saraswati, founder of the Divine Life Society, who ordained him into the sannyasa in 1949 and gave him the name Swami Satchidananda Saraswati.[5] The name Satcitananda (Sanskrit: Saccidānanda) is a compound of three Sanskrit words, sat, cit and ānanda, meaning essence, consciousness and bliss, respectively. The expression describes the nature of Brahman.[6] In all, he studied under Sivananda for 17 years.[4] Along with Vishnudevananda, he became one of Sivananda's known missionaries.[7]
This to me brings forward the question - what happened with his 2 sons? Did he sustain relationship with them? Apparently, he left them in the care of their grandmother.
To me, think this point back to the 10th house 4th house dynamics. The 10th house Mars Sun is very expansive, goal driven and ambitious. And yet look at what it opposes. I'm not saying what he did was "wrong" in leaving his sons, but what I'm curious about is how did he deal with it? How did he integrate the responsibility of being their father? Did he process the emotional reality, did he sustain connection, or was this an unintegrated polarity within his soul?
Very curious to learn more about that.
For those who either attended class, or have caught up on the recording (specifically the last 30 minutes or so where we delved into his Venus skipped step signature) feel free to continue to exploration here. And be welcome to share more resources that you find helpful if you come across any.
My guru, Sai Maa, also left her two children to follow the path of spiritual calling. From what I understood of her sharing about it occasionaly, it was like the ultimate initiation, the leap from the conditioned world view into surrendering to the calling, to God and to the Guru. Hard to imagine what that takes and even harder to drop the judgement about it. But I somehow get the idea that the lessons or sacrifices on that path of releasing all attachments to the material realms get more and more substantial and hard to understand from the consensus moralistic mind reality.
Swami's Venus inconjunct Saturn in 4th and square the nodes, could that be about the necessity to surrender to the path of sanyasa (wandering the world as a poor monk, leaving home and security) even tho he was a wealthy factory owner and had two motherless sons who needed him?
Venus skipped step, maybe in a previous life he missed his own opportunity for liberation because he stayed for some family obligation or difficulty releasing the security of wealth and status, so in this having been born into wealth in this life and needing to choose to leave the obligations of running the family legacy (6th house) and become a sanyasi (12th house)...?
Sai Maa once warned me personally about that, she made a very big deal about choosing one's soul path, not the instinctual need to care for family, that lesson is still pending for me so that is what I could read into it...
Swami's Venus inconjunct Saturn in 4th and square the nodes, could that be about the necessity to surrender to the path of sanyasa (wandering the world as a poor monk, leaving home and security) even tho he was a wealthy factory owner and had two motherless sons who needed him?
Well it's Saturn conj Pluto in the 4th - balsamic. So he had some unfinished desires to work out relative to the 4th house. This corresponds to family and responsibilities. And maybe having children and getting married etc was a part of that, which was then naturally released when his wife died.
It is important not to judge because each path is unique and these children knew what they were getting into. For sure the fact that there was some kind of "completion" of the family life seems to be reflected in that Saturn Pluto. The limits and restrictions of family life were perhaps at some point lifted. That's one perspective, I don't know for sure if that is true of course.
I would venture to say that in prior lives he had done the monk path and has held positions of responsibility/ roles etc (sn leo 6th, sun in 10th. also 10th house = family legacy) but had unresolved desires/responsibilities he needed to fulfill.
Venus skipped step, maybe in a previous life he missed his own opportunity for liberation because he stayed for some family obligation or difficulty releasing the security of wealth and status, so in this having been born into wealth in this life and needing to choose to leave the obligations of running the family legacy (6th house) and become a sanyasi (12th house)...?
That's interesting. That can be true, I don't know. Clearly the issues have been a split between that 6th house 12th house dynamic. What I can say is that with this Venus in Scorpio in the 9th, the unresolved issue coming into this life was one of misusing his sexual energy and not being honest with himself (or others) about these patterns. Venus is ruled by Pluto in the 4th so I would venture to say that what has kept him back has been unresolved desires relative to women, the feminine. And that Saturn enforcing that in life time some lessons are learned and possibly completed.
The fact of these sexual accusations and his dishonesty about them points to this skipped step wasn't fully resolved during his life. This to me is about integrating his sexuality or being able to transmute it - but that requires total honesty and a willingness to put all the cards on the table. Relative to the Leo 6th and its ruler the Sun in the 10th, there's a lot of status and self-importance that would have gotten in the way. But he needed to be willing for all that to be challenged so he can truly take responsibility for his unresolved desires and then actually integrate it by way of that total honesty.
Most souls who are celibate have not yet evolved to a state of (what Jeff Green called) natural celibacy. It is forced and usually within a dogmatic framework but not necessarily transmuted. In my perception this more often than not leads to distortion and it's all rooted in the suppression of the feminine.
Sai Maa once warned me personally about that, she made a very big deal about choosing one's soul path, not the instinctual need to care for family, that lesson is still pending for me so that is what I could read into it...
Interesting! I'm sure this is unique for each soul. Since you have the SN in Cancer, I can see how that advice might be relevant for you personally.