Jerry Astrology

“Anger is the passion of fools; it becometh not a wise man. By whom, it may be asked, is any one killed? Every man reaps the consequences of his own acts. Anger, my son, is the destruction of all that man obtains by arduous exertions, of fame, and of devout austerities; and prevents the attainment of heaven or of emancipation.”

This is quoted from Chapter 1 of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa. My Jyotish Guru, Freedom Cole, expounded this to us in the very first session of his Year-2 Jyotish program (Science of Light). In this chapter, Ṛṣi Paraśara told his student Maitreya, when he learnt that his father was eaten by a demon (Rākṣasa), he was taken in by great anger and commenced a ritual to destroy all demons. His grandfather, the Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha, intervened and the quote above is his teaching to his grandson.

Anger is an emotion with great power and can be very destructive, both to others and to self, if we are unable to manage and channel this emotion properly.

Anger is common to us all, and a natural part of how we function. Anger often comes about when a boundary has been crossed, or when a value has been stepped on. This emotion, as an energy, arises as an aid to us to protect and defend our boundary. When we are aware and conscious of our anger, we are in a much better position to channel this energy in a way that is productive for ourselves and the situation. If anger gains the upper hand and is in charge instead of us, we might end up saying or doing things that may hurt relationships and damage our reputation.

In the birth chart, a tendency to anger is shown by Mars in placed in the 4th house of emotions or with the Moon, or Mars aspecting them.

If you have such placements and have experienced your anger blowing up in messy ways, a good first step to turning this around is to practice noticing and being aware of your anger when you get angry. This is a critical step, because if we are not aware of our anger, we cannot consciously choose our next action.

Then ask ourselves, what boundary is being crossed? Am I being disrespected, or perhaps the receiving end of an unfair treatment? What is the outcome that I want at the end of this exchange?

Then, most importantly, how can my anger aid me in achieving the outcome that I want? Our answer to this question points the way to properly channeling our anger in a productive manner.

As mentioned earlier, anger is an emotion, an energy that arises within us. And as the old adage goes, what goes up must come down. When the energy of anger rises within us, it needs to be released and allowed to flow if we wish to come back to a state of balance emotionally (sattva). The practice for us is “how” – how can I release (make use) of this energy productively?

What is deemed “productive” is highly contextual to the situation we are in, and the people involved. It may be a firm retort, raising your voice loudly, or may even be walking away from the confrontation, for now at least. Sometimes, the relationship with the person we are confronting is so important, that it may be better to take a pause and walk away for the time being, because anything said under such tension would only make the matter worse and damage the relationship. This doesn’t mean sweeping the matter under the rug, because the energy (anger) needs to flow and be expressed. It is about using our wisdom to choose a better time and space to express ourself so that the other person hears us without further damage to the relationship.

Coming back to astrology, the placements in our birth chart shows the karma that we experience this life. The karma indicated by the Mars placements mentioned above may manifest in our physical world such as being in an environment where we are constantly surrounded by angry people, or often finding ourselves in situations where we constantly have our boundaries crossed. And unless we have someone who is emotionally intelligent to teach us, and to model for us, how to express anger productively, chances are, we aren’t doing anger very well. That is also to say – we have a LOT of practice being angry, and expressing that anger poorly.

So, as we practice noticing our anger, and learning how to express it productively, let’s be gentle on ourselves. Habits don’t form overnight. Undoing habits will take time and patience.

ॐ 🙏