First Yoga, then Meditation and now I'm ready to step into my next challenge....the Science of Light.

The Science of what...?  It sounds a bit dramatic, right?!

So, how did I get to where I am now going to study Vedic Astrology?

I love that my inquiry into “what’s it all about?” began when I hooked up with Chris. He was a non-conformist which didn’t sit easily with me initially, but I was curious as he was so different to other younger boyfriends I’d had. I was the typical 20 year old wanting to fit in, be accepted and liked by all who I encountered. Really, I guess I was playing the role I was raised to play – the good girl, the likeable girl and the girl who would follow the middle, mainstream Australian path.... meet the guy, get married, work hard, buy the house, have the family, and so on.

Well, I found the guy!  But he looked at life through a different lens. He had the dream to build his own house and at the same time was delving into an “alternative” lifestyle – surfing was a love and he even found his way to karate rather than the usual Aussie guy sports of footy (AFL of course) and cricket. At one stage his dream was to build a mudbrick house on acreage near his favourite surf spot on the Torquay coast and ride his horse with his surfboard to the beach.... note – he didn’t have a horse!!  He did build his house, but on 2 acres of bush on the outskirts of north-east Melbourne. We had a goat, but not a horse!

My deeper inquiry of what is life all about began when grieving my father’s death, 6 weeks before my 21^st birthday. Chris was a wonderful support at this time. He’d read books by New Age authors such as Carlos Castaneda and connected with the more spiritual aspects of Karate and the Bushido code – a moral code of the Samurai in Japan which emphasizes the virtues of courage, compassion, respect, righteousness and honour. Anyone who knew Chris can see he followed Bushido with his heart.

We read widely and spent time with other seekers through organisations such as the Theosophical Society, the Silva Mind Control method (understanding thoughts can powerfully change our reality and open us to our inner knowing) and meeting random people in our day to day life who offered different insights, awakening us to there being something bigger than our tick-tock life. Around this time was when we made the move interstate, following our inner voices of accepting change as being timely and necessary. We stepped into the unknown, this was our path to tread. This is when I believe the magic really began. Making decisions that didn’t make logical sense! We held the faith.

Fast forward to our move over the ditch to New Zealand and finally rolling out our mats to experience Yoga. The body protested. The breath made me feel alive...ahem, of course it did...dah! but I was now really feeling my breath and aware of the sense of calm and lightness it bought to my being. After 14 years of a stressful business venture this was liberating. Initially Yoga was an exercise, moving the body. Gradually I was becoming open to present moment awareness, feeling my body move through pain and tension, eventually opening to spaciousness in my body and mind, this was the perfect time for an awakening. For me there was no religious association to the practice. There was however a deeply spiritual query coming to mind again – What’s it all about? There was cross-over from my early exploration of the New Age thought movement. I now remembered reading books about the mystical Himalayan Masters who could perform incredible feats of breath control, materialising in several places at once and other such hard to explain actions. I re-read Yogananda’s seminal book Autobiography of a Yogi – I did struggle at times with his intense devotional language. With time and study, I now also embrace devotion to Creative Intelligence, God, the Divine, the Universe – or whatever your name is for a power greater than us but is all encompassing. Visiting India has stirred this devotion within. I never expected this.

Since Chris’s passing, as you probably already know, I dived deeply into my yoga practice and the ancient knowledge and wisdom of the Yogis. Firstly in my Yoga Teacher Training and more recently with Georgia my Vedic Meditation teacher.

I find refuge on my yoga mat when life spirals into chaos and uncertainty. I feel the natural rhythm of my life unfolding and evolving on my meditation cushion. Surrendering... has been an interesting lesson, which is still a process.

This leads me to the training I’m about to embark on next month in India – Jyotish, the Science of Life, or Vedic Astrology. It is not “woo woo” and is not superstitious, dogmatic or predictive as found in many modern uses of other astrological systems. And it’s greater than Sun signs and personality traits.

Vedic Astrology was known to the ancient seers as highly sacred, yet it has been taught in a systematic, scientific and experiential way. Verification is through direct observation. It helps us to understand our individual expression of our Self as we move through time and space – the material world.  This is the astrology of timing, cycles and deeper patterns in our life. It’s based on where the planets and zodiac signs were located (in the constellations/nakshatras and houses) on our birth day/time/place – when our soul chose to incarnate. As well as where they currently sit (in the Dashas or time periods) and how they’re affecting the flow of our life today.  An astrology reading allows an understanding of how the planets influence our life - helping us gain clarity of where we’re going, the timing of things and why we may be feeling stuck. It really is very interesting!

I’m excited to be furthering my studies with Jyotish training. Then at the end of the year, I plan to undertake a 3 month intensive Vedic Meditation teacher training.  I’m trusting that the world situation doesn’t worsen.... I’m wondering about the planetary influences at play??!

Is 2026 throwing you unexpected challenges? Maybe a Jyotish reading could shed some light on the situation! I’ll let you know how the training goes.

Namaste,

Julie x