Astrology and Reincarnation

Astrology and Reincarnation

Millions of human beings around the world believe that they have lived other lives in the past and that they will continue to live other lives in the future. In other words, they believe they will never really die.

This belief reminds me of the last line in the classic film, “Lost Horizon”, in which one of the film’s characters was asked if he believed in a place called Shangra La, where people lived long, healthy lives and never grew old. His reply was that he did believe in it because he wanted to believe in it.

Human beings are essentially energy systems. As energy is indestructible, so is the essence of a human being and of all living things. Taking this concept into consideration, the argument for reincarnation is not whether or not something of our lives survives our physical existence. Instead, it is a question of whether or not the part of us that is indestructible and does continue on can be understood in a personal context. In other words, does any part of our personality transmigrate into another body? Or is it universal consciousness, the spark of divine light that continues, imprinted with memories of the past that may be derived from many lifetimes and many different personalities.

The original concept of reincarnation was developed through the religions of the East, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism. These religions put forth the concept of the soul, a universal rather than a personal entity. The soul could be comprehended as a record of many life experiences, a composite consciousness composed of eternal energy and information that continues on and gains wisdom while living upon the Earth in a physical vehicle.

A record of life experiences! A composite consciousness of eternal energy and information! These are the elements of our nature that survive our mortal existence.

Although the original concept of a supreme deity in the western world was beyond the personal, western religious leaders eventually were able to persuade millions and millions of individuals that God was there for them in a personal way because God, itself, became a personality. Now a more modern approach in the west as well as in the eastern world is to view God as a process–a creative, living, evolutionary development in which the light of the universe expresses itself in every conceivable way.

The misunderstanding about reincarnation and the inclination to make it a personal experience is similar to the misunderstanding many people have about astrology. If we today use our current state of mind with its available frame of reference and apply our three-dimensional perception upon a reality of cosmic proportions, we wind up indulging our egocentricity. In believing that our individual personality, which was formed by a story that each of us was temporarily born into, has the capacity to enter different earth suits and play out different scenarios over a period of centuries, we are making our personal story as big and important as the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. The universal light that was granted to us to serve the universe on a particular mission becomes something we believe we can own forever and that it belongs only to each of us and us alone.

If instead we could view ourselves as the universal light itself, rather than as a singular being perpetuating a sense of separateness, then we would be the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. We could then connect our sense of identity to the creative source that brought all celestial bodies into manifestation. While we would be inaccurate in stating that we personally lived other lives, we would be perfectly correct in stating that other lives from the past are now living through us and that we are all links in the great chain of humanity.

Reincarnation in a personal sense makes no sense. If every person that ever lived on the earth (a number estimated at over 100 billion) continued to return over and over again, each time taking on a different form, can you imagine how many more people there would be here than there already are?

Reincarnation is a truth; however, the process cannot be individualized. Perhaps those who cling to the idea of living other lives, past and future, are in some way divinely discontented with the present one and feel cheated out of a quality of happiness that they perceive others have more than they. Perhaps they have a sense of inner power that they cannot channel successfully into a structure that the world currently accepts.

Then there are those who come to earth and while in their childhood, vividly remember other lives in details, specifics that can be verified. There are those who in their adult years undergo a past life regression and see images that spell out such specifics. Just because an individual contains the memory of past existences, however, does not mean that he or she lived them out at another time. For the soul contains memories of many personalities and lifetimes and this is obvious to anyone who realizes how truly interconnected the entire human race is.

It then becomes a choice on our part to decide if we are going to continue to fortify our sense of separation and continue to make reincarnation a personal ego trip.

The Jewish people fortified a sense of separation from the rest of humanity and six million were exterminated in the Holocaust. The Japanese people fortified a sense of separation and they remain up to now the only nation that has ever been atom bombed.

The universe is aiming for unity. There is unity in heaven and the divine intention is to mirror that heavenly state by bringing the human race into a communalized focus. Yes, we are far away from materializing the divine intention because we are still working things out at present.

Instead of complaining about the current state of affairs, we would get closer to heaven if we observed without judgment, accepted what was previously unacceptable and then moved on to see past the veils of illusion into the real reasons things are the way they are.

Out of all the many countries in the world that I have visited on my journey through life, the ones that are the most peaceful and the most prosperous are the countries where people have a modest approach to life. The inhabitants of these countries are not boastful. Their behavior enables others to perceive the value they carry without shamelessly needing to push their agenda. The citizens of these countries are highly aware of personal boundaries and do not normally attempt to take up so much space that their actions have the effect of diminishing the other people around them. So it would be most helpful for every one of us to arrive at a collective understanding that who we are now and what we are doing in this lifetime is what counts. All the rest is either fear-based belief or wishful thinking.

The universe spoke to the ancient astrologers thousands of years ago and revealed some of its secrets to them because they were pure of heart. It does not speak to most of us today, as it did then, because our minds have been educated to be left-brain oriented and skeptical of anything that is not immediately obvious. This is why many people can only see the source of life as a person, made in their own image. This is why they can only view reincarnation as a personal experience for to them what other experience is there?  Why would they want to embrace a philosophy that puts their personal story in its proper perspective, where it is only meaningful in its relationship to everything else? Perhaps many of us do not yet realize that in each of our lives, parameters must be drawn as a counterbalance to personal expansion so that all that grows inside us can be crystallized to serve the greater good. Paul Six June 9th, 2012

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