Conscious Cosmos

Nature, with her intelligence, created humans

The Yantra of Shukra

Geometric shapes and Magic Squares of Navagrahas.
Geometry and Magic Squares of Navagraha Yantras

Venus is one of the two inner planets of our solar system. It, therefore, does not swerve too far from the position of the Sun in the sky. Consequently, one can only see Venus close to the Eastern or the western horizon. Venus appears for a few weeks in the eastern sky before dawn. After a gap for few weeks, it appears in the western sky immediately after the dusk.  Anyone charting the positions of the visible locations of Venus, can stumble upon a startling discovery, namely, a Pentagon shape. Vedic astronomers specialized in pre-dawn and post-dusk observations. They made the Pentagon an integral part of the Yantra of Shukra or Venus. A magic square is also a part of the Yantras of the Navagrahas like Shukra.

Astronomers recognize the above pattern as the five petals of Venus. Secondly, we can plot the relative rotations of the earth and Venus using astronomy software. We can notice five petals over eight cycles of Venus (watch the web-story video below) in these plots. New age spiritualists revere the petal formation as the Pentagram of Venus. Dan Brown, the author of “DaVinci Code”, popularized the pentagram of Venus. However, many civilizations know of this cyclical pattern from earlier times. For example, the Mayan Calendar (“THE MAYAN VENUS CALENDAR AND THE GOLDEN PROPORTION” | Venus Calendar) has an idea of the Venus Round. The Rishis chose the Pentagon shape and not the petals as an apt signature of the visual phenomenon related to Shukra.

Shukra Yantra - numeric
Magic Sqaure of Shukra

Magic Squares as Yantras

Like the Pentagon, a 3×3 magic square is also an integral part of the Yantra of Shukra. In fact, every member of the Navagraha family has a magic square (Reference Book Fredrick Bunce). The numbers in their center form a nice sequence. Similarly, the Rishis associated a specific flower, fruit, grain, metal, gem and animal with each Navagraha. Shukra is associated Jasmine, Fig, black eyed pea, silver, diamond and horse. These are significant in the worship of the Navagrahas.

Shukra, the Guru of Asuras

Venus is important in the cosmology of the Mayans. Shukra is the Guru/teacher of the Asuras in Hindu cosmology (Read my post on Power paradox and Asuras. Good and bad are relative. Consequently, Devas (representations of positive) and Asuras (representations of negative) complement. This complementary logic is true also among the Grahas. Secondly, the Grahas are influencers or signifiers of Karmic tendencies in human beings. Venus of Shukra is the Guru or Asuras. Therefore, his counterpart is Brihaspati (Jupiter)

An Asura named Maya is the author of the famous treatise on Hindu astronomy.

Animation - Venus and Earth rotations
Picture Credit - Matthew Henderson
Dance of Earth and Venus .GIF credit Matthew Henderson

The magic squares of other Grahas

One response to “The Yantra of Shukra”

  1. Harini Avatar
    Harini

    What magic squares of other planets

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