Q: How do Jyotish and Ayurveda weave together in your practice? What sparked the beautiful journey of blending these ancient sciences for well-being?
Jyotish and Ayurveda are both Vedic sciences. They both support well-being. Ayurveda supports the mind-body constitution, and Vedic astrology addresses the Atma, that invisible, indivisible, indestructible, immortal self within you and all living beings. Jyotish helps us with those deeper questions of why we are here, what is our purpose, who are my people, will I love and be loved, do I belong?
Yet how do we find belonging and freedom along with authenticity and individuality? Jyotish really helps us see the true nature of a person, their karmas, and their dharma. It helps us see beyond conditioning into the essence and purpose of you. Ayurveda sees the unique mind-body constitution which helps us understand health tendencies, digestion tendencies, capacities for healthy habits, lifestyle, and even healing or recovery when needed. Ayurveda can be described as health, healing, and well-being, while Jyotish is more about depth psychology and spiritual growth. But there is overlap, and they are sister sciences. They both emerge from the Vedas, the same source as Yoga. So the understanding that we are alive in an intelligent world, radiant with creativity and consciousness, is fundamental to both systems. Both systems then have tools and practices to help optimize our potential.
The Vedic perspective is that we are alive to creatively and consciously participate in the creative evolution of consciousness itself. So the question becomes, how do we support that? How do we ignite the consciousness within that is both the healing power and the power of belonging, authenticity, and freedom?
What sparked the beautiful journey? Simply that when I was a child, I used to love to look up at the stars at night. I used to love to go to the lake on summer days, or winter days, mornings or evenings, and just watch. I’d watch the waves, the birds, the way the light moved across the lake. It was a sort of meditation before I knew what meditation was. From that I learned about nature and fell deeply in love. I love nature's capacity to restore and to inspire. And in nature, I myself always felt held and loved. So when I first discovered Ayurveda, I discovered a science that elucidates that. Yoga and Jyotish were natural evolutions. They work together in an integrated way, and they also work together to remind us we are surrounded with love, with light, with support, with affirmation, with healing, and with wholeness. So that we never walk alone. Once you are living Ayurveda and living Jyotish and living yoga, you never again walk alone.
Q: What drew you to the stars and Vedic astrology? How has this celestial wisdom illuminated your approach to healing and wellness?
Again, I loved laying down under the stars at night. I used to do that with my dad. Later, when I was a teenager, I had a good friend who loved astronomy. We used to look at the stars and the constellations and recall the myths and stories of each. Jyotish was a natural evolution. To learn through Jyotish that we are the coming alive of that matrix of light, energy, and intelligence is thrilling. It really impacted my life and helped me heal from difficult, debilitating challenges. Once I was alive to that, that we are the stars, I wanted to share that with everyone. I want everyone to know that you are that light, that you are that individual, unique Atma come alive to shine, that all life emerges first from the belly of a star - and you too are that.
So how does this celestial wisdom illuminate your approach to healing and wellness? To remind people that in addition to getting better physically, many of the experiences we have in our life are prompting us or pushing us, grating even, in ways that are designed to help us grow. We can see this in the chart. And that's powerful, because when you can step back and look at your life with the distance and objectivity of the witness, then you can see the grace of it all. And that's often very, very healing for people.
Q: Ayurveda celebrates our individuality through Doshas. How can we discover our Dosha, and how might it dance with our astrological chart to influence our well-being?
The most important thing is to know that we are nature and nature is made up of five elements - space, air, fire, water, and earth. These five elements combine to make three doshas, or bio-energies. The air and space element combine to make Vata dosha which governs all movement in the body. The fire element, with a little bit of water, makes Pitta dosha which governs temperature regulation, digestion, transformation, and even the light, or capacity to see. The water and earth elements combine to make Kapha dosha, which gives lubrication and structure. No person can be alive without all five elements and all three doshas.
To know that you are a miracle of these energies, every bit as beautiful, bountiful, mighty, majestic, sacred, and sumptuous as anything in nature, is an important place to start. This will help you cultivate a relationship with nature, with each element, and dosha and to notice how each plays upon you, works through you, and disturbs or harmonizes in you. To notice, for instance, how you're influenced by a cloudy, rainy day versus how you're influenced by a hot day, or how you're impacted by the wind, and how you can dance with it in order to create balance and beauty in your own life. Jyotish helps us see our Dosha in finer detail, as well as our tendencies to feed our imbalances or lean towards health.
To know your specific Dosha, you can take my free Dosha Quiz here. To get your own Jyotish chart for free, you can go to my website here.
Q: How can sprinkling a little Jyotish wisdom into our daily routines foster a deeper connection between our mind, body, and spirit?
I think the easiest thing to do is to go outside and notice the sky each night. Look for the Moon, notice if she is waxing or waning. Notice what stars the Moon is near, see if you can find and identify certain constellations. Notice how it feels when the Moon is in one constellation or another. Notice how it feels when the moon is waxing? How does it feel when the moon is waning? What do you feel when the moon is a full moon? How's your sleep? How's your mind? What thoughts do you notice? What are you feeling? That's a great place to start. The other thing you might notice is the retrograde motions of the planets. Mercury Retrograde, for instance. Every year Saturn goes retrograde too for about four and a half months. Jupiter goes retrograde for a few months every year too. So get those dates and start noticing what your life is like with those movements because it can teach us so much. Learn from nature itself. It is the best way. It also helps to study with or be mentored by a seasoned Jyotishi.
Q: I love how Ayurveda and Jyotish can come to life in our kitchens. Do you have any astrologically inspired remedies or practices using everyday ingredients you’d be willing to share?
I've been doing a series on my Instagram feed (@food.a.love.story). I just do it casually and irregularly, but a series of recipes that relate to the planets. So I take a red cabbage, slice it in half, oil it up with salt and pepper, and roast it until it's tender all the way through and just starting to brown on the outside. When you pull that out of the oven, it looks like Saturn with its rings. In Jyotish, Saturn is said to radiate purple light. Golden milk is very Jupitarian. Moon foods would be anything white or salty, so simple rice, with a bit of gomasio or sea salt, would be a moon dish. Venus is anything really nourishing, appetizing, and delicious. Mercury relates to the color green, so leafy greens. And Mars is fiery, so relates to spices that fire up digestion.
It's mostly just playing, but it's fun. You can add this in on the planet’s day, so choosing at least one moon food on a Monday. If you need Mars's heat, then you boost your heating spices on Tuesday. Wednesday, you make sure to have leafy greens. Thursday, you include yellowy-orange foods like sweet potato or yellow carrot. Friday is Venus’s day, so that might be the one day of the week you allow a little indulgence. It doesn't have to be unhealthy but something that just reminds you of the beauty and bounty of life itself. Saturday is Saturn's day, so that is a good day to fast or to eat very simply. Sunday is the day of the sun, which relates to all foods that are vibrant, giving good energy, helping us with our healing, or with building strength. No wonder so many older cultures have the tradition of the Sunday lunch.
Q: With lifestyle diseases on the rise, how can we turn to Ayurveda for solutions? How do ancient principles help tackle modern-day stress, obesity, and more?
I would say with lifestyle diseases on the rise, it would be good to find a really good Ayurvedic practitioner. If you want to invest in really learning Ayurveda, I have a 6-month Ayurveda Integrative Nutrition Consultant Training, which is a great place to start because digestion is the central engine to all wellness, while in every disease there is an element of digestive impairment.
Ancient practices help tackle modern-day stress and chronic disorders by restoring us to our true nature, which is always regenerative. So it’s that beautiful and simple, though the implementation of it can be more complex.
Q: What are your favorite daily rituals for syncing up with the universe’s energy? Maybe something simple we can all do to feel a bit more connected?
I like to start my day by connecting to my breath. I do it while I'm still in bed. Then I listen to the birdsong and listen to that for a while, and then I'll sit up to meditate. I go for walks in nature, and really pay attention. I garden, I talk to my plants, I hang out with my puppy. I think there comes a time when you've been doing this long enough that you just feel you're always synced and you're always in that sacred, sumptuous relationship with life itself.
With every meal, you can put your hands over the food, close your eyes, and just try to feel the energy of the food, giving thanks before you take your first bite. Try to make your own meals, feel it with your hands, smell it, listen to the sound, the chop-chop, or the seeds popping as you prepare. Bring your five senses online and onboard and use each of your senses to be present to life, to nature, to the cosmos because it's magical - and it wants you to know that you belong to this, you too are that!
Q: For those of us eager to explore more about Vedic astrology and its links to our health, where should we start? Any resources or advice?
The way to start is to set up a Jyotish Consult. I also have an online course, just one about the planets from the Jyotish perspective, and a course on the Nakshatras, the 27 asterisms the moon passes each night, on her monthly journey. It’s a really, really rich course, especially if you study your own nakshatra because that's your birth star and that's what you're here to be, to grow, and to shine.
You can also get your birth star and its bija sound, to tune yourself to your unique starlight. It's a booklet that gives you all the details about your unique birth star and the sound vibration that goes with it. Recognizing that you have a unique song, a sound signature, is life-altering.
Q: And for anyone feeling called to explore Vedic astrology or Ayurveda further with you, where can they find you? What can they look forward to in consulting with you?
My website is lauraplumb.com where you will find loads of information and freebies. You can also sign up for my Free Moon Guide: New & Full Moons 2024.
In a Consult, we will begin by drawing the map of the sky at the moment of your birth. I think of that map as the Yantra or the matrix of you. So that alone is powerful. Then we will explore all the beauty of this light - significant planets, nakshatras, placements, etc. We will also look at current conditions, the current transits, and Dosha period. So many people also want to know “What's my Dharma?” “Is this a good time to ask for a raise at work?” “Am I doing the right work?” “What about relationships?” “What about family?” So we'll explore the questions that you have and we will tailor it to your personal needs and desires.
