Akiane Kramarik

Akiane Kramarik

The subject of this astrological assessment is the child prodigy Akiane Kramarik. Akiane started drawing at age 4. She not only paints amazingly detailed paintings, usually of a spiritual nature, she is also given otherworldly visions whereby she sees directly into heavenly realms and has communication directly with God during the process of creating her art. This has allowed her to draw with incredible detail, beauty and soul.

We will look at the affects of Akiane’s First house, Tenth house, Twelfth house, and the planets therein.

Akiane’s First house is Gemini, with Mercury and Mars posited there. Gemini is a sign known for its great curiosity and exploratory nature. Gemini is the sign that learns through trial and error. A Gemini Ascendant person must learn everything through direct experience, and they are open to a wide variety of experiences. Gemini’s ruler Mercury is in the First house, its Own Home. Mercury is very strong here, not only through having good dignity, but also through Dig Bala or directional strength. Mercury in Akiane’s horoscope has a quite high IxSxSD (Ishta, Subha and Subha Dig) of 11.7 and Mercury also happens to be Vargotama, being in the same sign in the Navamsa. Mercury is a self-factor for Akiane, being her first house ruler and also the Atmakaraka (being the planet of highest degree, excluding Rahu and Ketu). The fact that Mercury is Vargotama indicates that Akiane is the same in her approach to life and at the Soul level. The two aspects are congruent, and this makes Mercury all the more capable of fulfilling it’s purpose. All of these factors make Akiane an exceptional person both personally as well as artistically.

Akiane has likely been developing her artistic ability from previous lifetimes with such a strong Atmakaraka, or soul indicator. Mercury rules artistic ability and dexterity with the hands. Akiane is also a poet, which may in part be attributed to her powerful Mercury, which may make her compelled to communicate with not only art but words. However, Venus is the planet that is said to bestow poetic ability, or “the ability to create meaning where there is none” (as relayed by Ernst Wilhelm in translations of the Jaimini Upadesa Sutras), and Akiane’s Venus is in the Third House which relates to skills, talents, interests and communications.

Mars is also in the sign of Gemini in Akiane’s Rashi chart. Mars does not like to be with Mercury nor in the signs ruled by Mercury, as they are Natural Enemies. Mars loses his ability act instinctively and quickly as he is designed to do. When with Mercury or in Mercury’s signs, Mars tends to overthink his actions and then misses the chance to act in a timely manner, when and how it would have had the most benefit. Mars in this horoscope rules the Sixth house of obstacles, suffering, and delays and the Eleventh house of gains, achievement, highest desires and friends for a Gemini Rising person. These are both rather difficult houses (the Sixth for obvious reasons and the Eleventh for being the Sixth house from the Sixth, making it a second indicator of the Sixth house), especially being ruled by a poor dignity Mars. Mars is helped and may cause fewer difficulties over time, as he’s in his own home in the Navamsa. This can help to relieve his Great Enemy status in the Rashi chart over time.

The First house is also being Rashi aspected by Saturn from the Tenth house of Pisces. Saturn is in an Enemy’s sign in the Rashi. He owns the difficult, crisis, but transformation oriented Eighth house as well as the fortunate and blessed Ninth house. Saturn is helped by being Exalted in the Navamsa. Saturn also has very strong Shad Bala, with 177% strength. Saturn can do well in the Tenth house, as one of the karakas of the Tenth, he gives the ability to do the hard work necessary to succeed in one’s activities and to be able to endure even great difficulty while actively pursuing one’s goals. Saturn is being Rashi aspected by Mars and Mercury from Gemini. Both of these planets are helping to support Saturn, as a Friend and Great Friend respectively. Saturn also has a Graha aspect from Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces, and although they are Enemies, because Jupiter is aspecting his own sign, he will still be helpful to Saturn, though not to the same degree that he could if they had Friend status.

Akiane has talked about an immense amount of suffering that she goes through to create her art, and I believe this is in part due to the level of feeling that she experiences from her great sensitivity and complex spiritual perceptions. Saturn gives her the ability to preserver, to work hard and push through to accomplish great works of art. She spends most hours of the day creating her art and she generally lives a life of isolation (this relates to her Twelfth house Ketu) as she requires extreme focus and doesn’t want to disrupt to flow of creative and spiritual energy. She is extremely disciplined and able to endure much difficulty to complete her paintings. These are all a testament to her Tenth house Saturn.

Akiane was born into Saturn Mahadasha, and it was while still in Saturn Mahadasha that Akiane became recognised for her incredible talent, when she made an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show at age nine, about a year after completing her most well-known painting. With Saturn in the most visible Tenth house, this makes much sense.

The influence of Sixth and Eleventh house ruler Mars and Eighth and Ninth house ruler Saturn on Akiane’s First house is seen in the life that Akiane was born into. Her family was destitute when she was born and in her younger years. Though she was born in the US, Akiane’s family lived well below the poverty level in what sounds like Third World country type conditions. She was born at home – in a “dilapidated shack”, her mother delivered her and her siblings alone, with no medical help. They had no kitchen, almost no furniture, and lived next to a nuclear power plant. Her father became ill just after she was born, she believes it was likely due to toxic water from their well. Life in general for her family was very difficult. They had no friends, they were harassed and threatened. Someone even attempted to burn their shack down. It was a very bleak life in every way, except that the family was close, and they had a strong bond and love for each other.

There was a time when her mother created a business of selling dried edible seaweed to support the family, and after a couple years of work, enlisting the children to work with her, the business suddenly became a great success and the family moved into a 10,000 square foot mansion. This reversal of fortune, the extremes from rags to riches, have the flavour of both the Eighth house of sudden changes or transformation and Ninth house of blessings and fortune. All the suffering the family endured is also a very Saturnian experience. Mars also plays his part, as ruler of the house of difficulties, suffering, and obstacles (Sixth house) and the Eleventh house of great gains. Mars also represents siblings, and the Eleventh house is older siblings. Akiane’s older brothers were her best friends and constant companions (Mercury is Akiane and Mars is her brothers together in the First house). Although they had many challenges as a family, which they always faced together, the parents and children all did their best to keep the mood as light as they were able. They tried not to wallow in their difficulties.

Next, we look at Akiane’s Twelfth house, which is in the sign of Taurus, with Ketu on his own. Ketu in the Twelfth house is, I suspect, one of the main reasons Akiane has such a direct line of communication with the Divine, along with her very well positioned self-indicator, Mercury. The Twelfth house is a Moksha house and is associated with the realms beyond our sight, the spiritual realms and the afterlife. It’s a house of isolation, contemplation and when activated will often invoke a desire to experience the more beyond our material plane. With Ketu being the planet of Moksha (spiritual liberation), Akiane was gifted with Divine sight and revelations. Akiane does not just paint, she is immersed in her work in an obsessive totality (also a Ketu quality). She lives and breathes her art. She cuts herself off (Twelfth house isolation) from everything and everyone while she’s working on a painting to become a pure conduit for the art to express itself through her hands and body. With Ketu in Taurus, her spiritual gifts are very tactile, sensually expressed and vibrant with life and colour. If you look at her paintings of Jesus, you can see the power coming from his eyes. She has created an exquisite work of art, the first of which was completed when she was just eight years old, which she named Prince of Peace. The Prince of Peace was sold for $850,000. Today her art-work sells for up to $3,000,000. I don’t think money is her main motivator, but her unique talent and the way she touches the people that see her art makes her work worth a lot to the people that buy it.

References:

Kurczak, Ryan: Teachable Online Vedic Astrology Bhavas Course.

Kurczak, Ryan: The Art and Science of Vedic Astrology, Vol. 1

Wilhelm Ernst: Jaimini Astrology Course on Ryan’s Teachable Apprentiseship Course

www.akiane.com