Know Your Demons

How well do you know your demons? If you can’t point to them, they’re probably lurking in your blind spots, right where they can make the most mischief.

I’ve been quietly working up a way of shedding on light on this shadowy topic. It centers around the a mathematical point in the heavens known as the north lunar node or, in India, “Rahu.”

Mythologically, Rahu is the head of the dragon. Once upon a time, this head was severed from its other half by Vishnu’s flung discus. (It was kind of a crazy party.)

This severance took place just after Rahu had managed to swallow a few precious drops of immortality juice, the fabled amrita that he’d been promised by the gods—who then tried to cheat him out of his fair share. You see, Vishnu took on a sexy lady form to distract the demons while the gods downed the elixir. Resourceful Rahu managed to disguise himself and get him a few drops before he was ratted out by the Sun and Moon and cut in two…

You can’t blame Rahu for obsessing over his betrayal or being oriented toward vengeance. He’s got a genuine gripe with the deutas, after all. And eternity is a long time to spend at odds with oneself.

One result of this ancient drama is an immortal being whose very trauma was rendered permanent by what was supposed to be a divine medicine. It’s paradox whose consequences we all have to live with.

With appetite divorced from satiation, Rahu became the original hungry ghost. And he’s still with us, sitting in each of our lives and birth charts. He represents the particular shape of our insatiable hungers and egoic drives: in short, the demon in us.

Everyone’s got a portion of this energy, it’s part of the human architecture. But not all demons are alike.

Some are blatant, some sneaky.

Some like to disguise and quietly insinuate themselves.

Others like to taunt and cajole. There are countless varieties of tis particular trouble.

Astrologically, the analysis starts with the house Rahu is sitting in: this will be a site of insatiable hunger or restless ambition on some level. Rahu in the 7th house, for instance, has a way of destabilizing relationships due to desire for some novelty not on the menu, perhaps. Rahu in the 10th house of career, meanwhile, can make for ‘restless professional’ syndrome: always another frontier to cross.

The houses are a good starting point; next we factor in the celestial backdrop, i.e. the signs and naksatras (which are akin to the so-called fixed stars of the western tradition.

Rahu in dharmically-oriented Sag behaves differently from Rahu in dark, secretive Scorpio.

Rahu in Pushya, the star of nourishment and plenty, is a very different look from Rahu in Visakha, star of ambition and victory.

One can give an endless appetite for ice cream, hand-outs, freebies from a sugar mama/daddy. The other can become an addiction to ambition itself, a relentless drive to dominate.

Enter the timing piece. There are phases of every life--major and minor periods--where Rahu is empowered, put on center stage. And there are times each year when we’re all subject to his outsize influence: eclipses.

Eclipse season has lnog been considered inauspicious for major new beginnings: not a time to get married or launch a business. But it’s a good time for spiritual practice, including studying one’s own shadow tendencies.

The invitation is open for those who’d like to get to know their demons better this eclipse season.

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