Customer Reviews

The Ascendant: The 108 Planets of Vedic Astrology

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This book does an excellent job explaining sometimes hard to understand vedic concepts. He talks about the elements, the gunas and the chakras and how they are tied to our birth chart - what it all means! Sadasiva definitely has a clear understanding of these primal transcendant energies and that really comes through in this book.

The second half of the book is all about the way the planets act through different signs and this really helped me get a clear idea of how a planet like Jupiter or Venus does not behave the same way for every sign.

It is a good book to pick up off the shelf and start learning right away and also serves as a good reference book for years to come. There are some advanced concepts that he presents for the more experienced, but mostly it is an easily accessible tool that everyone will be able to spiritually profit from immediately.

I'm a new student of Jyotish and this book has really helped me understand the unique qualities, strengths/weaknesses and planetary relationships of the different ascendants. We bought Svoboda's 'Light on Life' first which is thorough but overwelming. Next we got Bloomfied's Intro to Vedic Astrology which is great for showing the dynamic nature of charts and for getting comfortable with where everything is in any specific chart; however, because each ascendant introduces different relationships between the planets/houses the results predicted by Bloomfield's simplified analysis do not always pan out. The Ascendant fills the gap between these two books perfectly. My only criticism of the book is that it lacks illustrations or sample charts(I don't think there's a chart in the entire book!) that could show the differences that make each ascendant unique.

August 16, 2008
By A Customer - See all my reviews

Sam Geppi's book is a valuable tool for understanding the complexities of Vedic astrology. As a western astrologer and vedic student, I was able to grasp the basic and more advanced principles which he has succinctly set forth. This new understanding has clearly helped me in my western practice and has fanned the fire for further studies into this ancient yet still very relevant system. I highly recommend this book to beginners and advanced students alike.

Pam J.
Washington

This book truly is a life-saver in terms of understanding and digesting complex core principles of Vedic astrology - namely the role of lordships according to each ascendant.
For example why would Saturn be a giver for some people and why would Venus be utterly malefic for others? These are crucial principles for understanding Vedic astrology and attempting to make sound predictions. Sadasiva explains all that very clearly and also gives insights into what psychological and spiritual make-up is in store for each ascendant, in other words, how such lordships "guide" us on our path to self-discovery - for example, what can we understand of the make-up of a Leo rising/lagna with the Moon as ruler of the 12th house as opposed to an Aries rising/lagna, when the Moon then rules the 4th?! And what else does that say then when such a Moon is debilitated in the 8th or exalted in the 2nd for an Aries lagna, debilitated in the 4th or exalted in the 10th for a Leo lagna?! These are the kind of questions you can hope to get answers to.
I haven't found one single book on the market that explains these principles in such a clear straightforward manner that will leave you with no questions afterwards; and that's why I really recommend this book to the serious student - and I assure you, your skills will improve after working with it. I personally made a giant leap forward after discovering this book and I always keep it handy now when I'm working on a chart.
I'd classify The Ascendant as one of my first three "must-have". But it wouldn't be the first. This is mainly a reference/study book. I'm saying this because no chart image is given, no real life chart examples are being studied either and this is the kind of stuff one would need to get into Vedic astrology as a complete beginner. It's a book to understand core principles and archetypes once you have some idea what Vedic astrology is about and are looking for ground rules/principles that you need to grasp in order to perfect your interpretative skills and move to the next level.
Apart from that, the book also has sections on the elements, the gunas, the planets, the signs, all planetary relationships being explained, and the nodes of the moon, etc - all with little clues and key words to help you understand and memorize it all.
A nice touch to the book in my opinion is Parashara's quotes (translated by astrologer Ernst Wilhelm) to complement Sadsiva's analysis and interpretation.
The Ascendant: The 108 Planets of Vedic Astrology

I apologize ahead of time - this is my first review and so I am not very expert. I am an intermediate student in Vedic Astrology.

I recommend that all Vedic Astrology students have The Ascendant: The 108 Planets of Vedic Astrology in their reference library. It will help you to program your mind so that the charts you translate will come alive to you.

This is a very good book that I can recommend to any friend who wants to learn astrology. (I would not waste their valuable time by recommending a book which isn't very helpful.)

There are many books which give the usual yogas, house lords, aspects, or direct translations from the ancient texts. In the study of Astrology, there comes a time when you need to be shown how to put it all back together. You have the wood, the nails, the hammers, but you need to learn to read the blueprints.

This book has really helped me to become more multi-dimensional in my chart translations. The information is already there in the chart, it simply needs to be understood nicely and translated accurately.

The Ascendant: The 108 Planets of Vedic Astrology takes a great deal of the parts of astrology that need to be learned in order to understand a chart and weaves them back into a more unified view of a chart.

This is important since the chart only represents the person behind it. But these parts alone can never equal the whole.

This point is what separates a great Astrologer from a mediocre Astrologer. The ability to recreate a four dimensional persona from a two dimensional drawing.

Astrology is the study of life through the study of the celestial lights. Each chart is as complex as a beautifully crafted spider's web. Most of the time the chart is just as tangled as a spider's web.

The key to understanding is not to just tear the chart apart and examine the parts. These parts should be examined, but only in relation to the chart as a whole.

Each sincere student of Astrology will find a time when linear thinking must be left behind. We must all come to a point of holistic thought.

Sadasiva has spent much time on this kind of thought and it shows in his book The Ascendant: The 108 Planets of Vedic Astrology.

Each chart is like an amazing jewel that can only be appreciated by viewing it from as many angles as possible. This book really helps me to see things from a lot of angles.

Sadasiva deals with the motivations behind the Ascendants and the planets according to their placements as house lords, exaltation houses and debiltation houses in each ascendant. This not only gives valuable information, but it helps to create a mental programming which enhances astrological skills.

In order to be quick and accurate we have to develop habits of thought which are efficient. We need to program our minds to see rythyms and patterns. This book helps to do that by showing the patterns to be found in the Ascendants and how the planets relate through each Ascendant.

If this book is used properly, you will find that you have a more synergetic view of charts and the flow of energies through the charts.

I recommend to read it through from beginning to end to begin to program this kind of thinking and to refer back to it each time you read a chart.

Go specifically to that Ascendant and begin to understand how each planet works through that Ascendant. You will see how the person you are trying to understand really is expressing much of what you are reading in their own unique way.

I keep it open on the desk while I read a chart and meditate how the planets are speaking through the current Ascendant. Slowly but surely, this is becoming second nature to me.

Please remember that Astrology is not an easy subject. It requires a lot of work and sincerity to even begin to plumb it's depths. One book will not answer all your questions or solve all of your problems. If that were true, then Amazon would not have much to sell....:-)

Vedic Astrology, like a Qabalistic approach to the Bible, does not reveal its secrets all at once. Its very foreignness makes it intimidating to many. Fortunately, with Sadasiva's work, you don't have to puzzle over idioms and cultural references that only make sense if you know Sanskrit -- he's translated the Parashara texts into English for you.

The Rising Sign, not the Sun Sign, is what really "drives" the chart in the Vedic system. You could have been born in September, but still be considered an Aries by this reckoning. If you don't know your Rising Sign, or have only a vague idea of the time of day you were born, not to worry -- Sadasiva can do a rectification for you. Once you know your Rising Sign, you can read the chapters that apply to you in "The Ascendant."

If you don't "get it" right away, again, not to worry. You will find yourself returning to this book again and again, as you evolve, as you gain greater life experience and wisdom, and more and more of it will make sense to you. It may help you if you coordinate this book's teachings with those of other wisdom teachers.

Example: As a Taurean by Rising Sign, I have the following interpretation for the Sun: "A strong Sun will try to liberate the natives by bringing isolation, aloneness and expenses into their domestic and emotional lives. This forces the natives to look beyond the expectation of stability, teaching them to embrace life's ups and downs as a necessary part of growth." Not exactly what I wanted to hear! But it began to make much more sense when I read this passage from Wayne Dyer's "Power of Intention": "While it's crucial for you to have a firm vibrational match-up with the all-creating abundance of intention, it's just as crucial fo your to know that you can't hang on to and own any of the abundance that will be coming your way. You must avoid becoming attached to it. Feeling abundant surpasses the money in your bank account. Genuinely feeling abundant and successful is possible when you detach yourself from the things you desire and allow them to flow to you, and just as important, THROUGH you. When you hang on to that which arrives, rather than allowing it to move through you, you stop the flow. You hoard it or decide to own it, and the flow is disrupted. You must keep it circulating, always know that nothing can stop it from coming into your life except any resistance you place in its way."

Learning this from another wisdom teacher, and coming to terms with it, seems to dovetail quite nicely with another of Sadasiva's interpretations for Taurus Rising, this time about Jupiter: "Jupiter shows the Taureans' ability to gain from life's ups and downs. Not only can they gain, but they may learn deeper lessons as well, given Jupiter's natural status as Guru." I guess this means that lacking financial stability may not be such a bad thing after all, if I can use my own life as an example to other people to teach them how to bounce back from anything.

Does this mean I have to stop being afraid of the downturns, just relax and ask, "OK, what am I supposed to learn, here?" Hmmm, seems that might be the deeper meaning behind another of Sadasiva's pronouncements about Jupiter, and also Mars: "When these natives welcome transformation and dissolution, their vitality will cease being depleted and positive gains are possible. Courage is a big theme for Taureans."

See where I'm headed with this? This is a book that grows on you, and becomes more and more illuminating if you come back to it every couple of months.

As we all know, Vedic astrology uses not the tropical but the sidereal zodiac for its charts, thereby gaining an exact picture of the sky at any given moment. The `planets' include all the usual inner and outer planets, as well as the Moon's nodes, but not the trans-Saturnian ones.

Of course, there are not 108 planets in Vedic astrology; 108 is, metaphorically speaking, the range of functions of the 9 planets through the 12 signs of the zodiac, with each planet behaving differently with any of the 12 possible ascendants.

These planetary roles, and their effects on the chart as a whole, depend on which houses a planet rules, as well as in which house of the chart it would have strong or weak placement, ie. exaltation or debilitation. Yes, the nature of the house a planet rules does principally define its behaviour towards the other planets and houses, with its houses of dignity further influencing the final outcome.

The concept detailed in this book is based on the Vedic sage Parasara's classic on astrology, Parasara Hora Sastra. In writing The Ascendant, the author Sam Geppi did an extraordinary job of the impossible: further translating the relevant verses of the Vedic scripture into today's usage for a contemporary audience, while introducing his own insights into the matter.

On reading this presumably first volume of a remarkable series on various aspects of Vedic astrology, I was tempted to call this method `planetary function by house of dignity', in accordance with - as you might have found out by now - my own Vedic ascendant being Scorpio.

It is an eye-opening exercise to read this book either as a beginner, intermediate or even professional astrologer. The author's reverence for, and deep knowledge in, the complex subject matter makes it a pleasantly acquired course for all of us who always wished to understand this ancient science of the stars more deeply: we might as well consider it a gift from the enlightened Vedic era, brought to us by the person responsible, Sadasiva himself.

While his next book is in the making, you may wish to check out the author's web site for his free courses in Vedic astrology and Ayurveda on DVDs, and also for his articles and free weekly videos on both subjects. Who would dare say he is not unprecedentedly generous as a professional astrologer?

I can highly recommend this book - while still available - to those wanting to gain deeper insight into either the Vedic or the western system of astrology, particularly as for the functional nature of planets relative to the ascendant.

The author has done an WONDERFUL job of presenting the meanings of the houses ruled by each planet as well as their exaltation and debilitation sign meanings for each of the 12 possible Ascendants! For me, this is often the information I use to launch my reading for someone. Additionally, he has provided a wealth of introductory material which, IMHO, makes this a must-have book by the person beginning their study of Jyotish, Vedic (Hindu) Astrology.

The book on ascendents by Sam gives a great deal about the ascendant and he has indepth knowledge about vedic astrology. It is very useful for the learners as well as practitioners. a good addition to the library in astrology.

sam geppi is an invaluable voice in the modern movement to make vedic astrology globalized. he inertrpets the ancient indian knowledge with just the right down-to-earth clarity, to make it accessable to ordinary westeners. in this book he takes a unique approach of viewing the twelve houses (and all that implies) from each possible rising sign. this results in a very comprehensive overview of the various ways astrological forces shape every aspect of life. i highly recommend his book, and any of the many courses he may teach.