At the Lodge - 14th June 2004

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This week we were delighted to welcome a new face to the Lodge. Pratibha Pachisia has recently gained a diploma from the Faculty of Astrological Studies and she proved she was worthy of it tonight. She investigated the putative curse on the Nehru/Gandhi family of India, who, like the Kennedys of the USA have always been associated with power, prestige wealth and tragedy. It was fascinating to see, through the charts, how successive family members turned the boon from the Gods into a curse.

She commenced by showing the father of them all Motilal Nehru, then the chart of his son Jawaharlal (Pundit) Nehru. Then came Indira Gandhi. She served her father for 20 years. She married into the Gandhi family in 1942 but it fell apart after a year. In 1955 she was a member of the Congress working committee. Her husband died in 1960. In 1964 Nehru died and left her nothing as acknowledgement for her work. In 1966 she was offered the job of Prime Minister.

Over the next three years her political prowess came into being. Her chart is strongly linked to the chart of India. She had two sons, Rajiv, the eldest, and Sanjay. Rajiv got the license to import cars. He was the corrupt of the two sons, very charismatic. Together he and his mother ousted everyone in the party who opposed them. They eventually caused an uprising resulting in many deaths in a Sikh temple so she fired all her Sikh workers. She was defeated in the polls only to be re-elected 2 years later. However her two Sikh bodyguards finally assassinated her.

Rajiv took over power and was eventually assassinated too. The younger surviving brother then decided it was his duty to carry on the family work, against his wife's wishes. He too died when a plane he was flying crashed.

What was most fascinating was the karmic Axis of the Nodes through Cancer/Capricorn running through all the members of the family who took office and led the Congress party through the years.

They have all succeeded in either business or Politics and those who went on to move up into power did so out of duty to the family, rather than out of choice. The latest person in line was Sonia Gandhi, born in Italy, who has refused to take the power, having lost her husband, Rajiv. Her Nodes are not on this axis. However she and her daughter, Priyanka, have Moon in Cancer. It looks as though Priyanka may follow in the family footsteps.

The Gods who sprang to mind in all of this were Hera (greek Goddess, wife of Zeus, who presides over family), Cronos (Saturn) and Durga, the warrior goddess who in myth kills a demon.

Maybe it is the action of Sonia that will finally lay the curse to rest.

Carole West

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