ASTROLOGY OF THE CYBER-REALITY THAT SURROUNDS US

BY
Rohiniranjan
EST August 2008

1In the April 2007 issue of EST, as the introductory paragraph in my article, “Jyotish on
internet: Silicon snake oil or the new reality?”, wrote, “October 29, 1969 was a fateful
day! Around 10:30 PM a child was born in UCLA, Los Angeles. It was a feeble birth,
suffering a few gasps and creating some anxious moments in its birthing team. A month
later, definite growth was noticed. Over the next several years its potential was seen first
by military, then university and by mid to late 90's it had conquered the world! The name
of the child was ARPANET and when it came of age, it began to call itself INTERNET.
It was to be known worldwide and loved by mankind to become a household name.
“Now we know the rest of the story!”, as a popular radio serial from Chicago says!”.
Then I went on to discuss some of the observations I had made over the years where a
massive but gentle new-age, spiritual uprising rode on the back of the links and networks
that the internet infrastructure provided and supported.

Some milestones on the launching of internet:

On July 3, 1969 the announcement was made by Leonard Kleinrock (The father of
internet) that UCLA will become the first station in a nationwide computer network
which will make it possible for different makes of computer in different places and using
different machine languages to become one time-sharing process. Perhaps akin to the
moment of conception

The first node connected to the network (UCLA) was on September 2, 1969 at around 10
AM PDT. For the first time two computers were connected and could communicate.
On October 1, 1969 Node 2 was connected at the Stanford Research Institute and then
UC Santa Barbara on November 1 and University of Utah in December 1969.
October 29, 1969 at around 10:20 PM was the historical moment when the first message
just saying, “Lo” got sent to all nodes. This to me was the first cry, the moment of birth!
ARPANET and even Baby Internet remained cryptic, unwieldy and mysterious beasts
only to be messed around with by computer geeks and pizza and coke guzzling
programmer types who woke up around noon and worked until early hours when birds
wake up and begin singing. On August 6, 1991 something happened. Tim-Berners Lee
and his colleague Robert Cailliau launched the first ever website from Geneva, marking
the birth of what we take for granted: World Wide Web. Tim has been a visionary and
one of an altruistic mien. This is reflected in his not patenting his invention so that it
could remain in public domain. It was a wise decision which has helped the entire world,
although it has also raised a few problems and headaches through its connectivity. The
benefits far outweigh the risks as nearly all would agree.

Tim who was working as an independent contractor at CERN had been working on the
concept and parts such as HTML (hypertext markup language) which essentially was the
main basis of uniformity as display formats go. Starting in 1980, it took nearly 11 years
before the product could be launched. The fascinating history can be accessed at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web

Many others also have been the pillars without whose hard work, creative brilliance and
dedication, what we have today as the modern Kalki Awatar, would never have come to
be. However, for this article, I wish to look at it from a simple approach, through an
examination of the birthchart for Arpanet, and the chart for the World-wide-web and
perhaps in a future article that of its primary creator, Tim Berners-Lee. While we know
the launch moment for Arpanet, we are limited to having only the birthdates for the other
two charts of interest. Jyotish deals with such situations by focusing on the lunar chart.
Also, by itself and in situations where the moon sign changes during the day, looking at
the sunrise chart (birth of the day) is helpful. Western tropical astrologers often use the
noon or midnight chart. Let us use the sunrise charts for the world-wide web for this
article and its creator perhaps in a subsequent article.

ARPANET and INTERNET: But first a look at where it all began on October 29, 1969 at
10:20 PM Pacific Standard Time in San Francisco, California, USA. The moment when
internet was launched to the world and in that sense was born.

An extremely interesting chart with lagnesh in the 12th in mithun, the rashi of
connectivity in an almost kemadruma partly cancelled by Jupiter being in its Kendra,
though with neecha venus and gulika. Jupiter is not very strong in shadbala and in
awasthas. Venus though neecha gets three cancellations, by virtue Jupiter (dispositor of
exaltation sign) being in kendra from venus and moon and mercury its dispositor being in
Kendra from lagna. Retrograde and neecha Saturn in the tenth aspects the afflicted budh-
aditya yoga. Sun is neecha too. Sun gets its cancellation of debility through venus being
in Kendra from moon and exaltation lord mars being in the 7th in exaltation. Mars is
extremely powerful in this chart and also bestows cancellation to Saturn. Saturn and sun
both get cancellation through venus as stated earlier. On the surface or on cursory glance
a somewhat weak chart but due to all the connectivities and cancellations the chart has
enormous potential despite initial balarishta or poor growth in early age. Indeed the first
few years of Arpanet were kind of hidden and then the growth took place. It is interesting
that initially Arpanet was designed with military usage in the background (mars). Up
until 1981 august, the dasha was of rahu, then until 97 jupiter and thereafter Saturn until
February 2016, then mercury. Rahu is in the hidden house and during its dasa internet
remained away from mainstream culture or knowledge but during jupiter’s dasha it grew
and showed its remarkable connective and communication potential. Jupiter is in the star
of mars and hence the dasha gave the effect of extremely powerful mars. The explosive
growth, exposure fit the astrological bill very well and the cancelled debility of venus
being in association with dasha lord describe well the beautification of the interfaces
between 81 and 97. During this period, internet became widely available and took on a
playful and aesthetically pleasing look and feel. Very revealing pattern. From 97 to 2016
saturn’s dasha operates. Saturn is in the 10th retrograde, debility cancelled, strong in
shadbala and in the nakshatra ruled by ketu. Firmly seated, fully established, having
attained maturity technically speaking and having reached pretty much everywhere,
amongst the masses of the world, we also observe during this part the negative aspects of
internet, its role in virus attacks, hacking, and its connections with the underworld. In the
2nd half, the pendulum of shani will swing the other way and piracy and copyright issues

will become less of an issue as also the vanishing of the ‘honeymoon’ with internet
among the masses. It will continue to remain an essential tool and having reached the
acme will only stabilize and improve in quality. After 2016 February when Mercury’s
period begins, we shall see the best period in the development and usage of internet as
this period will be characterized by the expression of the budha aditya yoga from the
fourth house with budha being in the star of mars. Budha is very strong and placed in a
friendly zone.

WWW: The sunrise chart for the launch date of the worldwide web, on august 6, 1991
has in a sense a stronger chart with lagnesh being exalted in the 11th house, sun and
exalted Jupiter in lagna with retrograde Saturn in Capricorn in the 7th. According to
information available, the first website became available during the afternoon and by then
moon had moved to Gemini (notice resemblance with the chart of internet)
The presence of Saturn in the 7th makes it digbali (as does Jupiter in lagna in the sunrise
chart). The primary raison d’etre of the www was to share multimedia information with
the masses, although it has been of incredible importance to financial and educational
institutions. The lord of 10th, mars is placed in the 2nd with venus and mercury and their
dispositor sun associated with the hamsa yoga Jupiter and the sasa yoga Saturn by aspect
underscores the inherent natures of mars, mercury and venus, namely, energy and volatile
growth, information and networking, beauty and flashiness and esthetics. It is no use
denying that there is a lot of superficiality, shoddiness and a certain degree of immorality
that exists in the www realm. The fourth house signifies the inner state of a nativity,
organization. It being venus in this chart which is retrograde, and the fourth being
occupied by gulika points towards the darker aspects of the world wide web. The benefits
outshine the risks as we have seen so far. The current period is of rahu which is in the 6th
and currently being transited by Jupiter while Saturn transits the 2nd house in the sunrise
chart. It is still a phase of formation, adjustment, growth as we see daily. From October
2014 as per this chart, jupiter’s period will start. Jupiter is the atmakaraka in this chart
and being placed in the first house highlights the karako-bhav nashaya principle as I have
described in an article published in an earlier issue of Express Star Teller magazine.
Chara atmakaraka in first house generally leads to some major shake-ups and
metamorphosis in life with rises, falls, reshaping, retuning. I have a feeling that after
2013, worldwide web as we know it today will change into something different and more
powerful, more benign in tune with the nature of Jupiter. It will be utilized more
expansively and would lead to a general uplifting and spiritual growth of humankind as
we know it today.

The times that lie ahead point towards an escalation of internet activities and overall the
trend is positive and moving towards healthy practices and styles and the world will
finally be really moving towards becoming a global village and it will not remain just a
fancy vision of some statesman.