Not Just a Mirror: A Map of My Journey With Astrology

During the Covid pandemic, I was stuck working from my apartment on Greville Street in Prahran. I counted myself lucky to still have a job, the building industry was considered essential. Over time, I slowly became friends with a girl from another part of the company. We’d jump on video calls for work, but the banter was easy and light. One day during a chat, she suddenly asked,

“What star sign are you?”

“I’m a Leo,” I said.

“Oohhhh, it all makes sense,” she replied

Then came the questions:

“What’s your rising sign?”

“What’s your moon?”

I didn’t know.

I’d never really looked deeply into this stuff.

But something lit up in me that day, just a small flame of curiosity.

And that spark grew.

I started learning.

Whenever I’d meet someone, I’d try to understand them through the lens of astrology.

It was more intuitive at first, just a sense of there’s something to this.

It was easy to spot the other Leos.

I knew that energy well.

Eventually, I found out my rising sign is Aries, and my moon is Taurus.

And the deeper I looked, the more I saw that astrology could actually offer insight. Personality, patterns, attraction, even misunderstandings. They all made a bit more sense.

A few months ago in Tiruvannamalai, I met a woman from Spain.

We became friends, and one of our conversations was about astrology.

We were chatting, and at one point the topic of birthdays came up.

She asked me about astrology, and I asked for her time of birth.

She started laughing:

“I can’t give you that, you’ll know everything about me!”

She wasn’t wrong.

She added: "I like to get to know someone naturally.”

Fair enough.

Most people who know a bit about astrology usually only know their Sun sign.

Like me, born July 1992, which makes me a Leo in Western astrology.

But when I looked deeper through the lens of Vedic astrology (also called Jyotish) — I discovered something unexpected:

I’m a Cancer.

Nothing in the sky changed.

What changed was the framework.

Here’s a simple breakdown:

Western Astrology

• Based on the Tropical zodiac (seasonal)

• Emphasizes your Sun sign

• Focuses on personality traits, ego, and self-expression

• Often uses simplified charts

• Doesn’t account for karma or reincarnation

• Lacks spiritual remedies

• Found in horoscopes, apps, and pop astrology

Vedic Astrology (Jyotish)

• Based on the Sidereal zodiac (star-based)

• Emphasizes Moon sign and Ascendant (Lagna)

• Tracks your karmic timeline using the Vimshottari Dasha system

• Uses divisional charts like Navamsha (for marriage), Dasamsha (for career)

• Offers remedies like mantra, gemstones, fasting, puja, and prayer

• Rooted in dharma and spiritual liberation (moksha)

• Deep, precise, and sacred

If Western astrology is like a mirror, helping you see yourself more clearly…

Then Vedic astrology is a map, guiding you through the deeper turns and terrain of your life.

If Western astrology helps you feel seen, use it.

But if you’re craving something deeper, something that speaks to your purpose, timing, and soul evolution then Vedic astrology is worth exploring.

It’s soul mapping.