Bhadaka, Blockages and a new way of Navigating

Experience seems to be defined as much by our blind spots as our clear vision. I have at times felt myself to be a walking blind-spot, aware in a peripheral sort of way of all the things I’m missing, but not quite able to put my finger on either what they are or how to tether my attention to them.

The foremost blindspot in the system of Vedic Astrology is called “bhadaka” and refers to a blockage causing area in the chart which can cause all sorts of confusion, mistakes and even health issues. The person’s life can actually end up being built around this bhadaka, if it ends up being a prominent feature of the chart, because they have to compensate for all the things they’re not seeing. Let’s say this blockage is happening in the 7th house. This is the place of relationship, which is seen on the other side of the eastern horizon from your ascendant. So the 7th house in your chart contains the stars that are just about to move below the earth at the moment you are born. This is supposed to be the person who stands across from you in life; who you’re looking at.

If this is a blockage-causing area, as it will be naturally for all those with Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces rising, then difficulties in this area can become center-stage in your life and everything else must take shape around that. Bhadaka can be a bit like a kink in the fabric, causing everything around it to be slightly distorted because of it. For dual ascendants (the ones I just listed) the blockage usually arises from problems with seeing another’s perspective. There is a tendency to become fixated on the way they think things should be, or an assumption that everyone else will or should have the same viewpoint as them. Frame-switching can be a nice exercise for these people, attempting to really inhabit the viewpoint of the partner in conversation.

the blockage usually arises from problems with listening. There is either selective hearing or inattentive listening or preconditioned expectations about what they’re going to be hearing from their partner, etc. So bringing your full presence to conversations with partners becomes important

For other ascendants it will be either the 9th house of teachers and authority figures or the 11th house of gains and goals. (To understand what the hell I’m talking about when I say “houses” check out the upcoming basics course). For fixed ascendants (Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio) the 9th house is the area of blockage, which can be with authority figures, father, spiritual life and dharma or purpose. The root of this is in the faculty of touch, or emotional sensitivity. These people can tend to become blocked on the level or emotion and this impedes their ability to move forward in a natural way. So being aware of emotional or physical numbness is a good exercise here.

Moveable ascendants (Capricorn, Aries, Cancer and Libra) are naturally blocked in their 11th house, which is related to listening. There is either selective hearing or inattentive listening or preconditioned expectations about what they’re going to be hearing. So bringing full presence to conversations, particularly with friends, is important. I’ve noticed that with these ascendants the ability to fully listen can be impeded by the conversation that is happening in their heads which tends to be louder than any other voices which might intercede (including the voice of nature). These people are also of “moveable” nature, inherently (in contrast to the fixed and dual nature of other ascendants) and so it can be that their fast pace is contributing to the inability to stop and listen to the cues around them which might actually allow for proper goal setting (an 11th house activity).

Outside of the actual house of blockage there will also be a blockage-causing planet (bhadakesha) which can wreak havoc in the area of life it is placed in in the chart. For some people neither of these areas is going to present a big problem in life. For others it will be a center piece, depending on placements. If the bhadakesha goes to sit in the rising sign then the individual carries this blockage around with them everywhere they go. For this Vedic remedies are prescribed to bring some clarity into life.

The surest way to become “blocked” is to not actually know where you are. It’s impossible to navigate when you aren’t sure where your current waypoint is. So, regardless of astrological particulars, I was thinking this morning of the importance of context in becoming “unblocked.” The lunar node Rahu is considered to be a universally blockage causing planet, and he tends to take us into our heads and divorce of from the intelligence of the body. So context can include where in space and time you are, where you came from (historically, ancestrally, geographically), what’s going on in your body (maybe your blood sugar is low, maybe you’ve been feeling depleted for years, maybe you just had a jolt of caffeine) which will set the stage for what’s going on in your mind, what’s going on in nature around you (season, weather, stage of growth of particular plants and animals), and also what’s going on in the stars (which will be driving many of the other contextual factors already considered).

Bhadaka and blockages tend to bring about a misty, hazy sort of unknowable feeling of confusion and disorientation (this is the planet Rahu by definition). So the lower you can get to the ground by way of making friends with your environment in the ways just mentioned, the better you are able to navigate by a different sort of vision. With your center of gravity lowered, you may not be able to see where you’re going but you might just be able to feel it. Encountering bhadaka and blockages is the ideal place for development of intuition, which involves deeply getting to know the sensation of being blocked, maybe beginning with befriending the cloudiness of confusion and descending into its own intelligence from there.