PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA BIRTH CHART ANALYSIS
Let's look into the chart of a very wise man, a Yogi from India known as Paramahansa Yogananda (original name is Mukunda Lal Ghosh), a spiritual teacher who popularized the practice of Kriya Yoga all over the world. He is known as "the father of meditation in the west".
His book "Autobiography of a Yogi" gained huge popularity, to the extent that after George Harrison from The Beatles read the book, Yogananda was featured on the cover of the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Steve Jobs also has read this book several times.
Virgo rising, Mercury in Sagittarius, the sign of spirituality, in the 4th house of home and parents. His parents were spiritual, they practiced Kriya Yoga, and they were disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya, a great Guru who taught a whole line of teachers. This definitely means that he came from a spiritual home, he had a spiritual upbringing which shared his life direction. Sagittarius is the sign of Travel also. And Mercury is about transportation. His family moved around a lot when he was a child bc his father worked in a large Indian railway company.
His moon is in the 12th house. This can show a deep bond with the mother and sometimes loss of the mother figure in one way or another. Paramahansa Yogananda was deeply affected when his mother passed away during his childhood, then the Divine Mother appeared to him in a vision and told him that She is the one who was taking care of him all along. The 12th house is also about foreign lands. He had great success abroad in the USA where he founded an institution to initiate disciples into the practice of Kriya Yoga and teach them. In year 1925 he founded The International Center for the Self Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles,California,which is near his sun-ascendant line & Uranus-midheaven line in astrocartography. He was meant to "shine" there & get recognition (sun-asc line) & he got sudden success(Uranus-Mc line).
His Ascendant and moon, according to Vedic astrology, fall in the Lunar Mansion called Magha. This is the Lunar Mansion or Pitris (ancestors). People with this lunar mansion honor their forefathers. They don't have to be related by bIood though! Paramahansa Yogananda chose his own ancestors who are the line of Kriya Yoga masters and teachers: Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri who was Yogananda's teacher. He followed and honored ancient wisdom. Also if you're one of those who believe that Nakshatras have a planetary lord then Magha is ruled by Ketu (the South Node) which purifies the shallowness of material life, this shows detachment from the material realm and a tendency towards austerity.
This is what the 2nd century astrologer Vettius Valens says in "Anthologies - Book I" about the bound of Yogananda's Ascendant, the Mercury bound of Virgo :" lofty, procurational, an arranger, handsome, organizing great affairs, most intelligent, entirely noble and eminent..". I think it describes him accurately. Also the fact that his asc is in the bound of Mercury contributed to the immense success of his autobiographical book (Mercury is writing and books). The 12th part of Mercury is also on his Ascendant. His natal Mercury is actually debilitated. This is a proof that debilitation isn't the end of the world. His book sold four million copies.
His out of sect malefic is saturn is in the 2nd house of wealth. He was not interested in wealth and making money which caused his family- especially his older brother - to criticize him a lot. He was only interested in what transcends the material world which we live in.
He met his teacher Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri when he was 17 years old in 1910, and he was in a level 2 peak period when releasing from the Lot of Spirit. In 1915 when he was 22 he formally took his monastic vows, which was in another level 2 peak period. In 1917 he founded a school in India for young boys which teaches Yoga and spirituality, which was another level 2 peak period, but now under level 1 Gemini period, and Gemini rules schools and education. In the pre-LB period, in 1924, he was on a successful tour in the USA. In 1925, he was in a level 2 peak period and that was when he established the Self Realization Fellowship in California.
He has his 1h ruler Mercury conjunct his benefic of sect Venus cause he has a night chart. Venus rules his 9h which is all about gurus and teachers so the best thing in his life is his guru and teacher Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri. Yukteswar had a stellium in Taurus (Sun, Mercury, Mars and the North Node), and they all fall into Yogananda's 9h of teachers. Nice fact: Yukteswar was an astrologer.
Yogananda composed a lot of spiritual music ("Cosmic chants"), he has Mercury-Venus conjunction which imo gives musicians and musical abilities. I am not using asteroids much nowadays but I couldn't ignore his chiron conjunct Ascendant: it's clear in his book that since he was a child he realized that he was not like other people, that he was connected to the spiritual world which shallow people didn't even pay attention to, that he didn't desire to get a high position, accumulate wealth, get married, have children etc ... he didn't care about all that,he desired a union with the divine and that was his desire only. In a much corrupted world back in his days as it is now,his teachings brought inner peace to people. In this way he is a healer, & he devoted his life not to personal material ambition but to a higher purpose.
