“As Above, So Below”: Lived Astrology in the World Teacher Trust

This paper examines astrology as a form of lived religion within a transnational spiritual organization called the World Teacher Trust, a movement rooted in the esoteric teachings of the early twentieth-century yogi Master C.V.V. and institutionalized by Ekkirala Krishnamacharya in the 1970s. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in India and in online study networks, including participant observation in astrology classes, English mantra recitation, and study groups, the paper explores how practitioners translate planetary principles into ethical discipline and everyday practice. Within this community, astrology functions not simply as a predictive technique but also as a primary cosmological framework through which individuals interpret karma, cultivate self-regulation, and orient their actions within a wider cosmic order. While planetary cycles sometimes become linked to narratives of cultural or national destiny, the movement’s emphasis on celestial relationality and flux also produces a cosmology that complicates fixed notions of identity and belonging.