ChatGPT Is Not a Jyotishi: Whaaaaat?

A bonus Bliss brought to you thanks to a client's near-disastrous near reliance on a bot rather than a human.

the combo of my foot surgery last week,* a client's request for a muhurta (an auspicious date, in her case for cosmetic surgery) & rahu's presence in aquarius (techno innovation, new global paradigms) for the next 18 months has prompted reflections on AI & vedic astrology (aka jyotish).

more on the muhurta for my foot surgery in part 2, but for now here's the CliffsNotes version of my client's quest, in the hopes of shining a light on the, um, science of light (jyoti = "light").

my client, let's call her jane, reached out to me about a date for her procedure after she "did some research" & reached out to ChatGPT. first off, ChatGPT uses a tropical/western paradigm. secondly, it does not take into account the person's natal chart. thirdly, well, it seems that ChatGPT can't even read the sky. sigh.

in vedic astrology, we start with the panchanga to choose a date that's supportive of the activity in question: the day of the week, moon phase, nakshatra, etc. have to be "good." for example, the 4th, 8th, 9th & 14th tithis (moon phases) are generally verboten; saturday, ruled by stern saturn (he's such a party pooper!), & tuesday, ruled by fiery mars (you don't wanna get into an argument with your spouse-to-be the day of!), are not good for weddings, but they are excellent for surgery. the transits (where the planets are in the sky) on said date also have to interact auspiciously, or at least not negatively, with the person's natal chart.

here's what ChatGPT told jane, who was eager to schedule surgery for thursday, july 24, 2025, if i approved:

July 24–26, 2025 is a highly supportive and beautiful window for a facelift.
It combines a waning moon, strong Venus placement, and no major retrogrades, making it an excellent choice for aesthetic procedures — particularly facial ones where refinement, proportion, and skin healing are key.

did i approve? absolutely not! here's just some of why not from my vedic perspective:

• thursday is not tuesday or saturday
• july 24 is a new moon (moon has waned—is not waning! what was ChatGPT smoking?—& surgery is best done when moon is waxing)
• tho venus is strong in her home sign of taurus, she is on the verge of changing signs, which concerned me, not just b/c venus = beauty but also b/c venus rules the natural second house (face!) of the zodiac & we want post-op to go as smoothly as possible
• sun, which rules her ascendant (leo), is in cancer, her 12th house natally (loss, death, hospitalization)
• mercury, which rules her second house (again, face) is not only retrograde (note that ChatGPT said there were no major retrogrades!) but also in cancer, again her 12th house natally
• moon, in cancer, is eight houses from her natal moon, in sagittarius, which is a no-no (unless you are game for unexpected consequences), & it's in pushya nakshatra, which for jane could also entail diminishment rather than enhancement &/or relationship challenges (which you certainly don't want with your surgeon or helper!)

a perfect muhurta is, like all things perfect, elusive, but july 24, 2025, is too many shades of wrong.

vedic astrology is both an art & a science. chakrapani ullal, "the father of vedic astrology in the western world," said jyotish is 25% technique, 25% intuition & 50% grace. both intuition & grace pertain to being human: intuition comes from being able to think with your heart; grace comes from sadhana, from a human doing spiritual practices.

i'll leave it there.

moral of the story: if it really matters, consult a professional not an amateur—you deserve 100% not 25%.

thoughts? questions? bring them!

bonus track: AI is here to stay, & so is its confirmation bias, until we teach it to do better. the question is, do we want to? for a deeper dive into AI's issues & how to use it with dharmic awareness, check out dharma warrior jennifer jacobsen's recent substack "echoes of the ego."

* turns out it is very hard to write while keeping your leg elevated above your heart—who knew?!—not to mention while your head is fogged from anesthesia, so apologies for my absence.

& that’s your daily bliss! IN-joy! 🌔🙏✨

p.s. jyotish is the science of light—if you want to shine more light on your life, click here to book a session with me.

Image by Nika Akin from Pixabay