Using Ayurveda and Vedic Medical Astrology

by Dr. Dennis Thompson

I am a chiropractic physician, and I practice Ayurvedic medicine in Boulder,

Colorado. I wrote a book called Ayurvedic Zone Diet, and I see everyone from what you
would call an Ayurvedic perspective. Ayurveda is the medicine that originated in India
5,000 years ago. The most famous doctor currently writing about Ayurveda is Deepak
Chopra.
According to Ayurveda, there are three basic physiological body types: Vata,
Pitta, and Kapha. A Vata person has a faster metabolism and is thus thinner but can
suffer from difficult digestion, nervousness, and anxiety. A Pitta person has a hotter
metabolism, resulting in what most people refer to as a medium build, and can suffer
from heartburn and gastritis. Kapha means a slower metabolism, so that person is
heavier and tends to suffer from problems associated with weight gain and the
respiratory system. All diseases can be classified by this method as being an imbalance
of Vata, Pitta, or Kapha. Therefore, all treatments are geared toward balancing these
forces in the Ayurvedic diagnostic system in other words, balancing the physiology
of the person.
If you are naturally a thin person, you are likely a Vata body type. If you are
more of a medium-build, muscular person, you are probably a Pitta body type. If you
are heavier and tend to stay that way no matter what you do, you are likely a Kapha
body type.
Each body type has certain strengths and weaknesses associated with its
physiology, and each has certain requirements for health that are different from those of
the other two types. The diet and lifestyle recommendations for each body type form
the cornerstone of Ayurvedic medicine.

Astrology and Ayurveda

What does Ayurveda have to do with astrology? First, it is important to
understand that you can be a Vata body type and have a Pitta imbalance, or a Pitta body
type with a Vata or Kapha imbalance, and so forth. It can get quite complicated. 1
Ayurveda is often very helpful in determining the right course of action for healing a
patient, but like everything else, some people dont respond as well as you would want
them to. So, you keep looking for new and better ways to help your patients.
Thats how I became interested in Ayurvedic medical astrology. I had heard from
several sources that Ayurvedic doctors of the past used Vedic astrology to help them
determine what illness was present, so they would have a better understanding of
which remedy would improve the patient's condition. At the time, I thought that it was
the most preposterous thing I had ever heard. As I delved further into it, I was
surprised and more and more delighted at the depth of health information that can be
found in a Vedic chart.
What kept me looking into Ayurvedic medical astrology was a profound piece of
information imparted by Tony Nader, M.D. Dr. Nader is associated with the
Transcendental Meditation organization, which is in large part responsible for the
increased spread of Ayurvedic knowledge and the promotion of Vedic astrology in the
United States during the last 20 years. In his book, Human Physiology: Expression of Veda
and the Vedic Literature, he points out the relationships of the planets and houses to
various areas of the brain. According to Dr. Nader, the Sun relates to the thalamus; the
Moon relates to the hypothalamus; Mars, to the amygdala; and so on. The houses
represent the cortical areas of the brain. The Sanskrit word bhava means house or
space. There are 12 bhavas that relate to 12 areas or spaces in the brain. These 12 areas
govern the entire function of the body.
Table 1 shows the basic relationship of houses to body parts. The list is far from
exhaustive.

Table 1
1st house Head
2nd house Face and upper neck
3rd house Lower neck, shoulders, arms, hands
4th house Chest and thoracic spine
5th house Liver, stomach, pancreas
6th house Small intestine
7th house Colon, lumbar spine
8th house Pelvis, lower colon, reproductive organs
9th house Thighs
10th house Knees
11th house Ankles
12th house Feet

The theory goes like this: A person may have a health problem, depending upon
what planet is placed in which house or sign. Since Vedic medical astrology relates to
the brain and therefore to the body, I thought I would give the theory a chance to prove
itself, even though at first glance I was dubious.
I decided to try it on myself first. To do that, I had to determine which Vedic
medical approach would work best and was closest to a scientific medical model. The
Systems' Approach as originated by Professor V. K. Choudhry from India and taught
by David Hawthorne in the U.S. gave me what I was looking for: a system with a
logical framework that was easy to understand and that related back to the brain, the
control center of the body.

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Systems' Approach Overview
Let me give a very brief and simple overview of this system and why I like to use
it for medical astrology. The first important point is that the degrees of the Ascendant
and the planets are vital in identifying the weakness or strength of each planet. This is
helpful for determining the timing of events (illness) as well as the strength or weakness
of each system of the body such as the immune system or respiratory system.
The other important point is that, for every Ascendant, certain planets are
automatically either malefic or benefic. Benefic means gentle action and good result.
Malefic means forceful action or possible bad results. For an Aquarius Ascendant like
me, Mercury and the Moon are malefic, along with Rahu (the North Node) and Ketu
(the South Node), which are malefic for everyone, regardless of Ascendant (see Table 2).
(All sign placements discussed in this article are in the sidereal zodiac.)

Table 2
Rising Sign (sidereal) Functional Malefics

Aries Mercury, Rahu, Ketu

Taurus Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Rahu, Ketu
Gemini Rahu, Ketu
Cancer Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu
Leo Moon, Rahu, Ketu
Virgo Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu
Libra Mercury, Rahu, Ketu
Scorpio Venus, Mars, Rahu, Ketu
Sagittarius Moon, Rahu, Ketu
Capricorn Sun, Jupiter, Rahu, Ketu
Aquarius Moon, Mercury, Rahu, Ketu
Pisces Sun, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu

NOTE: Any planet that is not listed in this table functions as a benefic for the person with
that Ascendant; there are no "neutral" planets in the Systems' Approach to Vedic
astrology.

Mercury corresponds to the nervous system and the lungs; therefore, according
to this system, I would likely have some dysfunction in these areas for the theory to be
considered accurate. I entered a Mercury mahadasha in the early 1990s. Maha means
great or large, and dasha is a time period unique to each planet. The Mercury dasha
lasts for 17 years, and mine just ended in September 2007. Did I have any chronic
problems associated with my lungs or nervous system? Not before 1990. After that, I

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began suffering from shortness of breath and had more frequent bouts of lung
infections, which turned out to be quite debilitating at times.
Maybe there was something to this system! I kept checking it out. I began doing
Vedic charts for all my patients and observed a high incidence of patients exhibiting
symptoms of the problems suggested by their birth charts. I began to think that this
theory might have validity.

The Clincher and a Crisis

Then, a most challenging and frightening thing occurred during the summer of
2003. My 30-year-old son called me to say he had some pain in his colon. I told him to
come over and I would check him out.
My son is a Pitta body type and a very fiery individual. I asked him about his
symptoms, palpated his colon, checked his pulses, and used what I call Ayurvedic
Kinesiology to determine what was going on with him. I treated him and told him to
take some vitamin C, along with Trifalla and other Ayurvedic herbs, to help detoxify
him. I also suggested that he clean up his diet, reinstitute the healthy regimen that he
grew up with, and then call me in a couple of weeks to report on his progress.
A month later, he told me that he had felt better for a while, but the pain was
coming back again. I decided to check his Vedic astrology chart for some extra insight
into his health cycles. What did his chart tell me?
My son has a Libra Ascendant (see Chart). From the perspective of the Systems'
Approach, the Libra Ascendant has three malefic planets: Mercury, Rahu, and Ketu. My
son is in a Mercury mahadasha that began in 1994 and will end in 2011. Mercury relates
to the lungs, the brain, and the nervous system. In March 2003, he entered a secondary
dasha or subperiod (bhukti) of Mars that would run for about a year. According to the
Systems' Approach, the secondary dasha is the system you are currently operating
under, and it has a stronger effect on what happens to you in the now.
My sons Mars is located in his 8th house. The Systems' Approach maintains that
a planet is weak if it is located in the 6th, 8th, or 12th house. Mars is associated with the
immune system, which is the defense system of the body, and in my sons chart it is
weak. I wondered whether he had a problem with his immune system that was
triggering his symptoms, so I researched Mars in the 8th house using William Levacys
great book, Beneath a Vedic Sky.
The descriptions of Mars in the 8th show the favorable or unfavorable qualities
associated with the Mars bhukti. When examining a medical chart, I use the terms
healthy or unhealthy cycle. Some of the words in Levacy's book that described the
unfavorable or unhealthy cycle were as follows: worried, vulnerable, victim, lack of self-
sufficiency, broken relationships, accidents, burns, poisonings, surgeries, reproductive
inflammations, shortened life, and inflamed body. None of that sounded good.

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 After looking at my sons chart, I said to him, Not only does your colon hurt,
but I bet your left testicle hurts as well.2 He was shocked. How did you know that? I
havent told anyone about that. Now, I was shocked.
For the last few months, his left testicle had been swelling and becoming more
painful. He didnt tell me or anyone else, because he thought it would go away. Denial
is such a peaceful place But his denial of what was going on caused the disease
process to become much more advanced. I told him to consult a medical doctor
immediately and get himself checked out. He called me a couple of weeks later from an
oncologists office: Dad, I have cancer of the left testicle, he said, and my abdomen
and my lungs.

Correlation of Symptoms with Keywords

My sons official diagnosis was cancer of the left testicle, cancer of the abdominal
lymphatic system, and lung cancer. Cancer is associated with inflammation. His cancer
affected his reproductive organs, which are associated with the 8th house. The testicular
cancer produced a great amount of swelling from the inflammation. He had abdominal
pain, which was the result of lymphatic cancer associated with inflammation. Mars
relates to the immune system and, in the 8th house, makes my son's immune system
dysfunctional (inflammation). The lung cancer came from smoking cigarettes, which
caused an inflammatory process in his lungs, further leading to immune system
dysfunction and more inflammation. Mercury is malefic for him and relates to the lungs.
He developed lung cancer over time, but it erupted during the Mars subperiod. Mars is
about fire, and his lungs got burned.
My son ended up having surgery on his testicle. He had to undergo
chemotherapy, which basically introduces a poison into the system. Testicular cancer
results in an almost certainly shortened life. He couldnt work and lacked self-sufficiency
for a long time. He suffered from a great deal of anxiety and worried about every aspect
of his life. He was completely vulnerable. He was the victim of the cigarettes he had
smoked for 15 years. His marriage of one year began to break up and ended in divorce
(broken relationship).
Of course, this doesnt mean that everyone who has Mars in the 8th house will
have testicular cancer. (How Mars in the 8th will manifest depends on the specific
qualities of the chart as a whole, as well as the cycles and transits running at the time.)
But it could mean that the immune system may be suppressed for a while, as the Mars
bhukti progresses, and the person could experience ill health, at some level, for the
duration of the planetary subperiod.

A Hopeful Outcome
Just so you know, my son survived and is doing well. He went through surgery
and chemotherapy. When he began chemotherapy, we asked what dietary guidelines

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would be helpful. One doctor said, He can eat at McDonalds. It doesnt matter. That
made us a little crazy. The doctors told us later that they expected him to die. With the
help of my daughter, who is also a chiropractor, we put my son on a holistic cancer
protocol that included Essiac tea, Ayurvedic herbs, immune-stimulating nutrition of all
kinds, and a macrobiotic, whole-foods diet. His mother and sisters are great whole-
foods cooks, so he was nurtured at every level.
The doctors were surprised that his tumors melted like ice cubes over the
three-month course of chemotherapy. Remember, they thought he was going to die.
After he was done with chemotherapy, he began a long and arduous recovery process.
He slowly got better. (Then, he was out of the Mars period into a more malefic cycle of
Rahu, but thats another story for another time.)
If I had known then what I know now, I would have made some significant
suggestions to him; perhaps these could have altered the course of his illness, which
totally debilitated him almost to the point of death. So, when he entered the Rahu
period, I didnt hesitate to offer advice based on what his chart indicated was coming. I
still do that on a regular basis. I do it for myself, and I do it for my patients. I find it
helps to know the personal weather pattern that people are experiencing. If it looks like
rain, I tell them to bring an umbrella. If it looks like snow, I tell them to button up and
wear a heavy coat. Theres nothing really mystical about it, I guess. But it is fascinating.

Author's Note: My friend, David Hawthorne, a Systems' Approach astrologer

who co-wrote Astrology for Life, was of great assistance in helping me to understand the
nature of the cycles my son was going through. You can check out the Systems'
Approach and its originator, Professor V. K. Choudhry, at www.yournetastrologer.com.
David Hawthorne's Web site is www.astroview.com. Find out more about William
Levacy at www.vedicsky.com
If you would like to participate in a research project to help correlate, with
greater numbers, the constitutional indications of a Vedic chart with the medical
symptoms that people experience, send me an e-mail at
doctordennyt@doctordennyt.com

Chart Data and Source

Chart data are confidential, but the source is rated AA: birth record.

Notes
1. The three energies (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) are present at birth. Nobody is purely one
form of energy or another; most have a combination of all three. A person's innate
constitution never changes (and is always considered perfect), but any one of us can get
out of balance in any of the three energies. A person with a Pitta imbalance may exhibit
symptoms such as indigestion and heartburn; someone with a Vata imbalance could be

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constipated or have dry skin. A Kapha imbalance might be evidenced by lung
congestion or loss of appetite. However, these are only some of the more common
manifestations of the three types of imbalance.
2. In my son's chart, Mars at 25 is on the left side of the house it occupies.

For Further Reading

Hawthorne, David, and V. K. Choudhry. Astrology for Life: How to become your own Vedic
Astrologer. Sunstar Publishing Ltd., 1999, 2000.
Levacy, William. Beneath a Vedic Sky: A Beginner's Guide to the Astrology of Ancient India.
Hay House, Inc., 1999.
Nader, Tony, M.D. Human Physiology: Expression of Veda and the Vedic Literature.
Maharishi Vedic University, 1995.
Thompson, Dennis, D.C. Ayurvedic Zone Diet. Lotus Press, 1999.

2008 Dennis Thompson, D.C. all rights reserved

Dr. Dennis Thompson is a graduate of Northwestern College of Chiropractic (1985), with

continuing postgraduate education in advanced chiropractic, nutrition, sports medicine, internal
diagnosis, Ayurvedic medicine, x-ray/radiology, and family practice. His first book, Ayurvedic
Zone Diet, achieved international distribution in 2000. His second book, The Twelve Ways of
Love, focuses on the role that good relationships have in health. He is writing another book,
entitled Designing Nurturing Relationships in the Healing of Cancer, Heart Disease, and
Other Chronic Illness. He can be reached by telephone: (303) 247-1515; via e-mail:
doctordennyt@doctordennyt.com; Web site: www.ayurvedicmedicalastrology.com

CHART CAPTION:
Author's Son
Lahiri ayanamsha