Understanding Karma in Astrology
It will be proper to understand first the notion of Karma. According to Wikipedia :
“Karma commonly refers to the cycle of causes and consequences related to the existence of sentient beings. It is the sum of an individual’s past, present and future actions.”
I won’t go further into the “encyclopedic definition of karma”, I leave the reader unfamiliar with this concept existent in many philosophies and religions so he can do his own research…
See : Karma on Wikipédia
Karma is therefore a chain of causes and effects (action / reaction) which results mostly by deeds as by words, but above all, emanates from the mind… The primary cause of every action is the thought.
It is our interactions in human relationships that reveal who we truly are and permit us to understand karma in the first instance, before we think about freeing ourselves from it.
Astrology is basically karmic and reincarnationist in essence. Analyzing a birth chart is a kind of “Karma state”.
Not everyone can necessarily integrate this aspect of things, particularly because of cultural or social obstacles, but we must respect each person’s choice.
How do you live your karma ?
We must live the karma of our birth chart to the fullest, rather than looking for justifications for our psychological problems or external events that we seem to be experiencing and that we believe are karmically attributable to us (see in particular How to overcome the suffering of a bad birth chart ?, Birth chart – going beyond or missing out on and Finding one’s Ikigai).
If you switch too much into astrology, desperately waiting for a “convenient” transit or conversely fearing a “difficult” transit, what do you do with your present horoscope ?
Do you really think you can escape your karma like that ?
Every advanced karma is obliged to produce its consequences (good and bad), all events and circumstances depend on it, however its weight and impact, depends on the level of evolution of the individual concerned.
What may seem like a “mountain” to a person still trapped in illusions, will be relativized by the Wise One, and completely ignored by a man freed from karma …
Your karma is permanently active in the present moment, we have the duty to use the potential of our birth chart at every moment to realize ourselves, to grant us the best possible Individuality.
If we do not consciously use it in the sense of liberation from karma, external events will in turn push us into our entrenchments in this direction (see in particular How to live the transits of slow planets).
We have the faculties of free will and intelligence to take the lead, astrology is a tool, a language, which helps us to this awareness, far from being trivial “deterministic alibi”, let’s think about it.
Back to here and now
One of the goals of great spiritual masters of all times and cultures has been to teach that only the present exists, karma can either grow or die except by our present’s “actions”.
Concerning the term “actions”, we have seen above that thought is the root of all actions. It is therefore necessary to constantly practice “right thinking”.
An individual must first acquire a full and right understanding of the present, it is through reflection, a permanent return to the here and now, that he will understand that “here” is everywhere and “now” is eternal.
At this point we arrive at the Absolute, the primordial unity that exists between the observer, the thing observed and the Creator.
As long as the individual does not partially integrate this “perfection” of the present moment and does not take the initiative to use it wisely, he flees “elsewhere”, at the risk that what is germinated in his birth chart, his innate hereditary tasks and his latent potentials, will end up imposing themselves on him, and at that moment, one can most often be no more than a simple spectator, or at the risk that he will completely miss out…
We must focus on the present, only the daily routine is real, important, relevant; past dreams or future fantasies have no concrete reality, and are often counterproductive because they take us away from it.
No karma whatsoever (negative or even positive, for that matter) can be easily overcome and transcended, and invariably takes time to do so.
When the Buddha was asked about nirvana and metaphysical transcendence: “What then is “That” ? ”
He simply replied : “Abandon your attachment to your desires and you will become “That” which is simple and beyond all conditions.”
And we are not all equal in this work, the karma to be treated is not the same, we each live our attachments differently… as examples, and by remaining in the generality, Fixed signs will have difficulty to detach themselves from their assets, while Mutable signs easily manage to turn around ! As for the Cardinal signs, they will easily succeed in initiating the actions necessary for their evolution, but at the risk of adding extra karma through their passion… One could make the same kind of succinct analysis with the Astrological Elements.
Using Astrology from a Karma Perspective
In this quest to reduce the karmic footprint, we can already start by analyzing the Black Moon, the Lunar Nodes and the Intercepted signs, but in any case we will have to use the Planets that are at our disposal ! notably :
- The Sun expression through its sign and its full realization, just like that of the Moon which carries our hereditary memory, are correlated with the axis of the Lunar Nodes that guides us and gives us direction.
- We have seen the main importance of the “root thought” in the production of all karma. Mercury manages the extended function of the mind as an auxiliary of the Sun.
- Venus will partly define our attachments by regulating our notion of value and by harmonizing human relations that are formative for our Being and in our reflection.
- The planet Mars plays an important role in self-affirmation, in the initiative of action (Aries and 1st House ruler) and in its culmination (second ruler of Scorpio, 8th House), the planet therefore structures the conscious and unconscious identity of the native, it often gives rhythm to a part of creation and karmic limitation.
- Jupiter, planet of excess, is double-edged : it can plunge us into attachment to the lowest materialism as it can open the doors of metaphysical questioning that will lead us to mysticism..
- Saturn is perhaps the planet that best symbolizes the notion of karma in its binding aspect.
It connects us to our past actions, obliges us to assume our responsibilities and present’s constraints to the best of our Being, but it gives us the structure, stability, slowness and perseverance to push through and finally overcome them.
It is from this journey that the meaning of our life is born; the planet actually brings us the freedom to become ourselves, to achieve our goals, and thus leads us to the fulfillment of our Sun.
If we run away from these imperatives, if we shun our responsibilities, only then will the planet be experienced as a weight, a heaviness, a slowness, like a “Père Fouettard” (a restrictive father) who prevents us from quietly going around in circles…
This awareness of the reality brought by these saturnian energies is salutary for those who know the need to be rooted in the present of daily life.
Some people are eminently afraid of all this. - Uranus could be the necessary spark for awareness by producing a permanent questioning : Am I in conformity with my highest aspirations ? What is the value of what I’m realizing right now ? What can I change in my life to be more in line with it ? How can I reform myself thoroughly ?
And the planet can easily provide the impetus for a new beginning, it has the energy for that. Read in particular the psychological schema of “Security / Freedom” duality. - Neptune, planet of dissolution, intervenes more at an advanced stage, after awareness, it leads us to the path of self-forgetfulness, until disembodiment (Pisces, 12 th House). Read How to use Neptune properly, learn how to catch a fish.
- Pluto acts a little like Mars, but in “the opposite direction” if we can say, first by destroying the action, but with a view to transcendence and a “new beginning”… It draws from the depths of Being to allow the emergence of concepts from the subconscious and the realization of our metamorphosis in a permanent regeneration in the present.
The individual must not deny the destructive nature of existence and of the world, for it is through this phase of decomposition and reset that all evolution occurs.
See Humanistic Astrology and Evolutionary Psychology, and how to experience the slow planets transits.
Here we must take the time to point out the difficulty of an astrological interpretation based simply on the karma’s angle. Because put in its context, if we accept the idea of transcendental evolution, of reincarnation, therefore of past lives, we have to analyze a great number of information which unfortunately we have little control over. It is also – and above all – for this reason that a karmic astrology must imperatively remain centered on the “Here and Now”.
Conclusion on Karmic Astrology
One of man’s greatest misfortunes that prevents him from evolving is the fact that he is constantly trying to escape from the present moment… When you are with your family, you think about work; when you are at work, you think about holiday; and when you are on holiday, you rush to the first television or your smartphone to tune in to the latest news or answer your e-mails… rarely, very rarely, do you fully occupy the present moment.
To paraphrase a Chinese proverb about the best time to plant a tree :
When is the best time to be yourself ? to fully express your Sun ?
That was yesterday…
Well, what’s the second best time ?
It’s now !
Even though you expressed your sun yesterday, even though you will express it tomorrow, only the ability of Being in the present matters, it is one of the great teachings of the Buddha, it is necessary to Be now, right now, spontaneously and without calculation.
This full presence in the present (a form of pleonasm) is one of the keys to the dissipation of karma.
If you never invest in the present, if you don’t “plant” in your mind at every moment, you are not really occupying your life…
Whatever our fundamental philosophical, cultural or religious beliefs (see Quest for meaning and Astrology and Metaphysics), it is important that we reflect on the benefits that these practices can offer us.