Your post to another triber's question about the Seven Rays of Light:

"The Prism of Maya

Before we get much deeper into the world of Astrology it is important not to forget the universal perspective. Astrology, like other Vedic Sciences is a tool to help us reunite with the highest truth, beyond the illusion that we are merely a mind / body / ego. Here is an example. Visualize light shining through a prism. In your mind’s eye, see a shaft of white light entering on one side, then broken up into its seven component colors. Vedic Astrology views the Planet's relationship to the world in a similar way.

Visualizing light through a prism, the world of Maya (illusion) is represented by the fragmentation of the one ray of light into seven colors. It is through the prism of the mind / body / ego that light appears to be its 7 component colors. The prism separates the colors from each other and from their source. In reality their rays are one with each other and with the source itself.

Similarly there is a false sense of separateness that we have from each other and from our collective source. We try to understand the wholeness of reality through these limiting qualities of form and thought. Without a prism there would be no separation of light. Similarly, without the ego and the limitations of the body / mind phenomena there would be no division of the true self into the component qualities of the smaller self and its desires. (instinctive emotions/connective emotions/the intellect/the ego)

The seven rays of light indicate the planets and their forces. All seven colors fully shone and integrated comprise the original, single ray of light. Yet we struggle with even the individual rays in their full expression. From an Astrological perspective, spiritual growth is learning how to express the full energy of all of the planets. It is learning to allow the rays of each planet to shine fully through us. Enlightenment is when someone has fully reintegrated all seven rays into their being, fully understanding the forces behind them. (The psychological and elemental qualities of the planets are referred to in the section on the Chakras, as Chakras are simply the planetary forces in our Astral/mental body) But since we are not yet complete, we express their energies through our limitation. All human suffering is a result of the inability to express the full energy of the Planets.

For example, Venus in her full expression brings selfless love – divine love – compassion. We try to express this through the love we make with our partners. But we suffer in love because we fall short of this fullness and are not able to express this truth and beauty. Jealousy, envy and over-sensuality are by products of Venus filtered through our limited ego. Venus gives exactly what we need to love fully all the time, but we are not able to express her full energy until we purify the fears and desires associated with our smaller self, the ego. Thus Yoga and other disciplines give techniques on how to purify.

Suffering in love feels like a loss of Self because we are this love to our very core. We feel it, but we cannot express it through our limited bodies and perceptions. We suffer when we experience love through our limitation. In the case of love, we experience Venus in limitation. With Mars, for example, we suffer when we experience limited power -- with Mercury limited skills and knowledge -- with Jupiter, limited understanding, etc.

It is the goal of our lifetimes and the hope of the other planets that we learn to express their full energy."
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You just give me goose bumps. I am so sorry I did not meet you when I lived up there.

I am SO trying to understand why San Francisco seemed to me to be a vile, self-indulgent, energy-draining place that I had to run from as fast as I got there. Fifteen months was all I could take. The pyramid shape of the city gives it a very strange and intense energy, and the combination of that and the fact that everyone is "literally" living and moving through different planes of existence due to the construction of the city below, around, over, above, and through hilltops intensifies whatever path you happen to be on when you arrive there. (I am curious to know what it is like to have been born there and to not be aware of this intensity as an unusual phenomenon). Everywhere I looked, I found that whatever a person's particular individual life path involved was manifest to the EXTREME - for example, if you are prone to substance abuse, living there worsened it on an algorithmic scale. If you are prone to the advancement of your position in work, without regard to the Truth and to the needs of others, you manifest as a monster capable of bulldozing a path of destruction through the lives of those with whom you work. If you are prone to the sensitivity of paranormal activity and the thoughts/feelings/experiences of others, (as am I), the screaming inside your brain becomes so intense that you just want to constantly sleep and/or escape the waking state because it is such a burden to operate within. The questions raised by these experiences remain unresolved in my brain and have bothered me ever since I had the experience of being transplanted there at age 36 with the pure and unselfish goal of earning enough money to repay debt incurred while I was thrust into the financial and emotional caretaking role for my mother, who had a kidney transplant in 1995 that racked up thousands of dollars of debt even while I worked two jobs in Dallas for years and gave every penny away for her care, only to find that my employer misrepresented the job I was hired to do, that living in San Francisco stripped me of all conception of control over my material surroundings, path, and destiny, that I could find no comfortable place in the city to EXIST, that I felt like a small fish in shark-infested waters, and that one of the single biggest sighs of relief in my entire life was when San Francisco was in my rear-view mirror cruising south on the I-5. When I return there from time to time, I often wonder what it MIGHT have been like if, instead, I had met more persons on spiritual journeys such as yours and mine and had found a place there to develop roots and to grow. Alas, my professional and spiritual destiny is apparently centered here in the Los Angeles area, given the events since my arrival here. Nevertheless, the feeling of uncertainty caused by the experience of having "the rug pulled from under my feet" in San Francisco is so disturbing that it has become the point in my psyche from which I measure my progress in many areas, and, as you might well imagine, my measurements and perceptions are distorted because of the incredible distance between "then" and "now" leaves me unable to fully appreciate how far I have actually traveled in a very short three and one-half years of being here in SoCal.

<WHEW>

Sam, you are a gateway through which I can see and communicate very clearly. I am looking forward to an amazing transformation which I sense is looming.

Namaste
David