There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. -Mark TwainThe dance along the artery. The circulation of the lymph. Are figured in the drift of stars. -T. S. Eliot
The scientific paradigm that assumed the world was ‘out there’, separate from the observer, separate and apart from everything else has finally, thanks to the discoveries of the quantum revolution, been busted. We now know those die-hard assumptions, the ones on which most of our materialistic world has been built upon, are false. The world is not only ‘out there’. That level is surface, it is the level of manifestation – and may be the least of it. It’s as if the universe, the Creator, OM, God was playing with us… because we just don’t see it! But the invisible world is where ‘reality’ most truthfully lies. When we neglect (in our ignore-ance) the invisible, we create a division within our own souls – and our bodies, that can take lifetimes to heal.
The study of time is an interesting one and can help us to see the division more clearly. To the materialist, time is linear – moving in sequential order from past to present to future. To the mystic, poet and dreamer, time is unity, eternity, infinity. It is happening now and always will be. Two different worldviews, two ways of perceiving reality. The truth about time depends on who is looking at it. In the Newtonian worldview, time was uncomplicated, it was linear and that was that. Then Einstein shattered this shell of belief and linked forever, time with space – bringing to our awareness the truth that time is relative – a concept in fact. But the materialist continues to view time as linear – and, to all intents and purposes, so do most of us as we go about our day to day lives, compelled as we are to live in a predominantly material reality. Unless we access a portal to a different level of consciousness (drug or spiritually induced) we ‘feel’ the passing of time – and it feels to be moving from past, to present, to future.
Men say time passes. Time says men pass.
To the astrologer, the question of time is particularly pertinent. The birth or natal chart is constructed for themoment in time in which the incoming entity takes its first breath. As Carl Jung said so well: “Whatever is born or done this moment of time has the qualities of this moment of time.” Each moment in time has a particular quality, a pattern to it – comprised of the planetary energies of the cosmos – and this pattern becomes stamped onto the DNA of the newborn, forming a spiritual and physical template for the life ahead. Thus, a moment in time is imperative, in the knowledge system of astrology – which so beautifully links the material with the spiritual. From the entry point of a moment in time, its birth into the material world, the individual is set on the linear time pathway. It has entered the world of separateness, the playground of duality, the place of division. But the Soul, and the other ‘bodies’ (emotional, mental and higher) which make up the individual entity – reside still in that other reality: unity, eternity, a place of timelessness.
It may sound lofty, or perhaps, confusing, but the birth chart is a perfect example of the intersection of the two ways of looking at time: science and magic are united in the symbolism of the birth chart. The cross of matter being the two axes, vertical and horizontal, creating the division of the four elements that make up the physical world and the circle, enclosing the cross is the snake eating its own tail – representing eternity, without beginning or end. I cannot think of a more perfect representation of the wholeness that we are. We are indeed spiritual beings having a human experience. The celestial sphere of the circle houses the planets – each unique fields of information, with frequencies that directly interact and influence our own fields. Because they exist within the circle – they have, as we do too, a time-bound aspect and a timeless one. Again, it depends on how we are seeing them – which time perspective lens we are using.
The birth chart can very successfully be read, and usually is, within the context of this one lifetime, and in the linear timeframe. But the symbols can also be read from the other perspective: the infinite, eternal, timeless one. In this ‘reading’ – everything in the chart is karmic. That is, it arose from something that went before. We can see in the planets, ancient wounding – and we can see too, when we shift our perspective, the healing potential of those same planets.
In evolutionary astrology, we acknowledge the existence of the Soul and accept that the Soul is timeless and infinite. We accept that the Soul carries within it, every experience we have ever gone through. Every lifetime we have lived, is therefore with us still. There is no past, present, future, where the Soul is concerned. Everything is just now. The Soul is having a human experience in the now, and this experience is inevitably and indelibly shadowed by the wounds of division – inflicted at some stage, any stage, on its long trek through countless lifetimes. The Soul carries the wounds of physicality as a form of memory that becomes lodged in the cellular structure of subsequent bodies – if they are not brought to awareness and released.
We attain our greatest freedom when we recognise our limitations. -Anthony Storr
There are spiritual laws and man-made laws – we cannot break either with impunity. Our free will is free only insofar as we recognize that we are not, ultimately free. We are born into this life bearing the scars of all our previous lives – because they are with us still as energetic holding patterns. The horoscope is a map, if you like, of these energetic holding patterns. And there are many more beyond the scope of our current understanding of the chart – and probably beyond astrology. But the chart does reveal the individual laws that govern us in this present lifetime. It is a map then, like it or not, of our fate. Our freewill is the power we have been given to recognize it and work with it. We may rail against our fate, but let us not despair – just as physical scars can heal, so can Soul wounds. It is true they are not easy to heal and this is because the most important quality we need to heal them, is patience. We need to get out of time. Be timeless. When we do, our minds and bodies soften and we connect with the natural world. We become open, trusting, honest – as opposed to the time-bound state where we are constricted and closed, rushed, anxious and fearful.
In this brief lifetime, where time passes, more quickly it seems the older we get, there is a background feeling of urgency and busy-ness. We do not easily or willingly set aside the time and patience needed to get to the root of our issues, our pains and wounds. We want a quick fix – so we look to doctors,psychologists, therapists of all description. We have not been taught to trust the body’s self-healing intelligence. We do not know how to be still and listen to our heart’s intelligence. We don’t have time to connect with nature. And in a culture that has repressed the truth about reincarnation, we haven’t a clue that we carry wounds from former lives into this one; and that our pains are often ancient scars alive and well in the now. We have wounds that may take more than one lifetime to uncover and heal. This healing journey is one we are all on and it is one of the reasons for which we took birth.
It may help then, to step out of the materialist mind-set and see time through the lens of the mystic. There is no time. We are infinite. We have eternity to get it; whatever our particular it may be. We must not lose heart, even when it feels like such a struggle. The struggle is part of the purpose and while it might seem as if we take two steps forward in life, and one back – no one is immune from the challenges. Our suffering is not unique to us alone. Patience, insight, compassion for oneself, enquiry, stillness, trust, connection – to the natural world, to animals, to each other – we need them all. We need to see our life, our body, our challenges and issues as experiments. Life is in fact an experiential exercise – that is all it is. We cannot easily get out of it so we might as well play the game. Experience it: the good, the bad and everything in between.
And while we do, let us not forget what we have been told by those who have had their consciousness taken out of this life and gone into the infinite, and then returned: beyond this linear lifetime, the overwhelming nature of the universe, the place we will go when we leave here, is pure love.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” -William Blake
About the Author
Linda George is a writer and evolutionary astrologer living in New Zealand. She has been deeply involved in astrology, alternative health, spirituality and metaphysics for 35 years. Author of two books on consciousness and astrology – both finalists in the Ashton Wylie Mind/Body/Spirit book awards, she is committed to joining with others in ‘spreading the word’ in these waking times. Please join us. Her blog is www.acosmicride.wordpress.com
**Read other articles from Linda George, here.**
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