In Vedic Astrology we are always referring to “your karma.” This term is generally understood as the sum of all of your actions of past lives and the attendant consequences that manifest in this lifetime. (The word karma technically means a lot more than that, but for the purposes of this article we’ll stick to this accepted definition.) Through the analysis of your Astrology Birth Chart the astrologer constructs a picture of what sorts of potentials you are born with; your inherited karma. Your actions in this lifetime, the manner in which you involve yourself with your environment, is how you work through your past karma as well as create new karma for the future.

This “interaction with your environment” introduces another significant factor: the karma of your surroundings. The narrative shown by the natal chart does not exist in a vacuum. The world responds to your energy; the world has its own considerations, its own karma that needs to be expressed. It’s doubtful that all those people who died in the 9-11 event had planetary patterns in their natal charts indicating the end of their lives on that day. Rather, they were overwhelmed by circumstantial karma: the karma of the World Events; the karma of the United States. Similarly we all live in a Karma Matrix which we are subject to, of which our own karma is only a small part.

You may have amazing talents as an artist, but you can still be rejected by the surrounding culture through no fault of your own if the world is not ready for your artistic expression. You may be doing a fine job for the company you are working for and contributing to your employer’s success, but if another company has better karma for success, you may become unemployed nonetheless. Improvements in technology can even make your profession obsolete.

Thus the birth chart analysis, as much as it tells us, is not the whole story. We live our lives in a context, in a world that has its own destiny, a lot of which is unknowable to us. There is a part of astrology called Mundane Astrology which tries to address this problem. In fact this was the original use of astrology: watching the Heavens for developing planetary patterns that indicated postive or negative outcomes for everyone, and then adjusting your actions and expectations accordingly. For instance, during 2010 the pattern of Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Pisces has been a major feature, indicating amongst other things unusually intense water and weather events. So if you live along a river or on the coast, this information should prompt you to make certain preparations in the event your area gets impacted.

The effects of the Karma Matrix are most obvious in personal relationships. Close interaction with another person is the sum of the expression of your own karma plus the other person expressing theirs. The potential for your karma to manifest can be enhanced, or limited, by the karma of whoever you are in contact with. This is why Vedic Astrology has so many techniques for analyzing relationship compatibility. Most famously this is used for marriage, but the same approach can be used to check out mutual karmic influences of parent on child, child on parent, boss on employee and employee on boss, teacher on student, etc.

For instance, if you have unfavorable karma for having children, marrying someone who’s karma for children is strong will improve your chances of having a child. In traditional India, when a child is born, the parents rush to the astrologer for a natal analysis to find out if the child’s karma will be such as to bring prosperity to the parents. Here’s an extreme example: probably it is not your karma to be murdered in this lifetime, but that does not mean you should go and stand next to someone who’s karma it is to murder people; their karma to murder may be stronger than your karma to die peacefully.

The world we live in is like a karma pot luck party. Your astrology birth chart shows what dishes you bring to the party. And your world –your partner, your parents, your employment, your city, your country –is a banquet that feeds you and transforms you, forming the Karma Matrix that you dwell in and interact with during this particular journey on Earth.