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Taj Mahal: History in the stars




The Taj Mahal ( Crown of the Palace) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658) to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself.

Mumtaz Mahal died at age 38 (7 July 1631) while giving birth to Gauhara Begum in Burhanpur.  According to historians Shah Jahan was noted as being "paralysed by grief" and weeping fits. Qazwini records that he even considered abdicating his throne and becoming a religious recluse, such was his sense of loss after Mumtaz Mahal's passing. Her body was temporarily buried in a walled pleasure garden known as Zainabad Her death had a profound impact on Shah Jahan's personality and inspired the construction of the Taj Mahal, where she was later reburied.

In this post I shall attempt to show how the Emperor’s grief and the construction of the Taj was written in the stars of his birth horoscope. Presented here is the chart of the Emperor as provided by Astro-Databank [1].


Notice that the TNP Admetus was rising on the Ascendant making hard aspects to Cupido, Zeus, Neptune and the Moon. The table below includes the asteroids that pepper the configuration. 


Admetos
22 vi 12'20"
Requiem
22 vi 36'51"
M87
25 vi 13'28"
Valentine
0 li 12'18"
Astraea
2 aq 13' 3"
Orpheus
2 aq 17'16"
Moon
7 aq 15'15"
Zeus
7 sc 21'42"
Cupido
7 ta 34'25"

Martha Wescott provides the following definitions:

ASTRAEA: Blocked closure; staying to “the end” (the sometimes bitter end;) believing that “it ain't over 'til it's over”—even if it already is; an inability to read beginnings and endings or to “let go” of things, people or events.

ORPHEUS: Sense of mourning and loss; grief (for what you don't have—what has gone out of your life--  “might have been” or what was); contact with death.

ADMETUS: Paralysis.

REQUIEM: Connection to the ceremonies of death (and the formalization of grief)


VALENTINE: Love and passion.

CUPIDO: Building, decor; artistry; sense for art.

NEPTUNE: Ethereal; fantasy; ideal; transcendental.

ZEUS:  Enthusiasm for and planning of creative projects.

MOON: Woman, wife.

Putting the pieces together, we have:

Moon-Orpheus : Death of a female relative (wife).

Astraea-Orpheus: Inability to let go of sorrow. With Admetus, paralysis accompanying grief.

Cupido-Requiem: A mausoleum…with Neptune…one that fulfills an ideal or fantasy.

Finally we look at the major transit that was taking place in the Emperor’s chart at the time he began the construction of the Taj Mahal. Notice that in 1632 Neptune which was square radix Cupido was completing an opposition to Cupido. The Emperor was planning a creative project (Zeus) …the building of an ethereal mausoleum for his beloved wife.

DYNAMIC REPORT

Dynamic Chart (2):
 Shah Jahan - Natal Chart
 15 Jan 1592 NS, 10:25 pm, LMT -4:57:12
 Lahore Pakistan, 31°N35', 074°E18'
 Geocentric Tropical Zodiac
 Koch Houses,  True Node

Selection: Outer transit aspects

P1 (H)    Asp         P2 (H)    EXL         Type       Date                        Pos1       Pos2      

Nep (2)  Opp        Cup (8)  (X)          Tr-Na     3 Jan 1632 NS       07°Sc34' D            07°Ta34' R
Nep (2)  Opp        Cup (8)  (X)          Tr-Na     16 Mar 1632 NS   07°Sc34' R            07°Ta34' R
Jup (8)   Cnj          Cup (8)  (X)          Tr-Na     13 May 1632 NS  07°Ta34' D           07°Ta34' R
Nep (2)  Opp        Cup (8)  (X)          Tr-Na     28 Oct 1632 NS    07°Sc34' D            07°Ta34' R

*** END REPORT *** 



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