Victor Damien DiCara
An Astrological Autobiography
I was born July 27th, 1970 at 7:38 in the night. It happened in America - Bay Shore, Long Island, New York. On an Indian calendar they would count it as the 11th waning moon in a month dedicated to hearing sacred texts. They would call it "Krishna Ekadashi of Shravana" Whatever the calendar... I’m pretty happy about my birth.
You see, I was born when the Moon was in Taurus, in the part of Taurus called Rohini, while Taurus was the Fifth House of the sky. As an astrologer would expect, the first phase of my life (controlled in my case by the Moon) was filled mainly with happiness on an unparalleled scale. My mother (Moon) and I were very close and from this I gained tremendously in my formative years.
When I turned 9, Mars began his cycle in my life. In my horoscope, Mars is "complicated" and as a result I am extermally a very un-martial person. But still during my Mars cycle I got into a few fights at school, and showed some interest in some sports: Little League Baseball, Skateboarding, and BMX Freestyle. I even achieved some public notoriety from these sports since the leadership of the sun acts conjointly (and often incompatibly, I’m afraid) with Mars in my horoscope.
Pretty soon I turned 18, put away my skateboard and bike, and started playing punk and thrash metal on a guitar. Yep, it was time for Rahu - the anarchist, misfit outcast of the planets - to exert his influence. In my horoscope Rahu really supercharged for so many reasons and in tons of relationships, especially with Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury.
Rahu therefore made me a fairly well known guitarist and songwriter. I’ve toured the world as a musician 3 or 4 times, and written and recorded about a dozen studio records with artists from well known bands like Rage Against the Machine, Linkin Park, and Quicksand. My own band, to this day, is the heavily occult/ spiritual/ and Krishna oriented hardcore band: 108.
Rahu makes you redefine the way you live. In my particular horoscope this played out in a very spiritual way. When Rahu's cycle began, I renounced the "material world" and for eight years took up monastic studentship ("brahmacarya"). I met my guru, Sripad Dhanurdhara Swami, who initiated me into the maha-mantra and later give me an additional initiation granting me the gayatri mantras and symbolic thread of a brahmin - signifying blessings to operate as a spiritual and philosophical guide. Through him I experienced and studied all aspects of spiritual India, including jyotisha - the ancient hindu system of astrology.
During this period of my life I was writing prolifically, and that writing was widely published and distributed. I was the president of a large Hindu Vaishnava temple in New Jersey, constantly lecturing and teaching on Vedic philosophy and practices. I was the “headmaster” (what great title!) of a school for the study of important Sanskrit literature.
This went on for about 8 years. Then came Ketu's part of Rahu's cycle. Ketu is a planet of sudden, abrupt, dramatic changes. So, suddenly, I completely changed my monastic and celibate lifestyle and got married within a month or two to the love of my life and my truest friend: my wife. In my horoscope, my main planet Saturn is powerfully uplifted by it’s relationship with Venus. And so my wife has been a very important uplifting, centering and strengthening force in my life since our marriage in 1997.
I had two boys (I have an exalted Moon in the house of children) and made the transition from penniless ashram monk to married man supporting a family. My father, always exceedingly helpful, made this transition a lot easier by providing employment in software development. (I have Jupiter, the beneficial planet of fortune, in the house of father and career).
The closing years of Rahu's cycle were chaotic and confusing for me. After all, Rahu is the planet of chaos and confusion. But in 2004, the downward trend started to slowly but surely reverse as I headed into my current life cycle - the cycle of Jupiter. I returned to the public eye dramatically, recording albums again and touring now and then as a musician. I started putting the rather scattered pieces of my life back together again in a more meaningful and deep structure.
Saturn's portion of Jupiter's cycle was a dramatic milestone, signifying through much hardship the completion of my return to a meaningful and clear outlook on life. My wife acted in the role of a guru and pointed me towards utilizing my knowledge to develop a career as an astrologer.
My horoscope is full of things that describe me to be an astrologer. The simplest and most profound is the planet of the occult in the house of the occult, in the sign of past lives (In astrological shorthand that is "Ketu in the 8th House, in Magha nakshatra, amidst a raja / tantra-yoga").
And so, I became a practicing astrologer - accepting my first reading in mid 2007.
Now, in Mercury's portion of Jupiter's cycle I have moved to Japan, am writing a book on astrology, studying dilligently, teaching constantly and giving readings to people all over the world every day.
