It's all in the Stars. Is it?

Astrology brings up the issue of “free will” versus “fate”

People often resist the idea of planets having an effect on ones life, as that seems to reek of superstition and fatalistic thinking. We are the captains of our own ships are we not? Yet if you went on a sea voyage you would need to consult the stars to navigate (nowadays it’s via satellite...same idea) and use sea charts to be sure of the shoals and reefs that could sink your ship. We are dependent on our environment in so many ways.

I personally feel that we always have a choice in how we respond to life events, and our birth chart will show us what our personal tendencies are. I also believe we are evolving beings and chose our birth time to create the perfect template for our continued soul development and growth.

Now no one can prove this and it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is to understand the patterns of behaviour we manifest in our life and learn to become more conscious of what operates within and around us so we can optimize our short time here on planet earth.

It has been said that if we don’t live our lives consciously, then the things that happens to us “happen” as “fate”. So what do we have control of and what is beyond our control?

“Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto represent transpersonal forces that affect EVERYONE. The rising or sinking tide that floats all boats, so to speak.”
Robert Wilkenson
http://www.aquariuspapers.com/astrology/2006/02/duality_good_an.html

The rest are called the “personal planets” and describe our own distinctive expressions of self (Sun) through emotion, feelings (Moon), desire, will, action (Mars), relationships, beauty, love (Venus), restriction, structure, lessons (Saturn) and expansiveness, travel, learning and Joy (Jupiter) .

So the idea is that the outer planets bring situations into our lives that are (seemingly) out of our control and the inner planets describe how we will respond to them.

Through our free will or choice, we learn and grow and develop a sense of who we are and why we are here.

It is our true essence that remains when the template is thrown away, so who we are is bigger than all the manner of expressions we live through in one life. Yet I want to know both: the expansive me that transcends this mortal coil, and will go on when it ends, and the personal me that has to live in this world, here and now, and has its own proclivities and tastes and wishes and desires.

I see getting the two together as the great task of life; bringing harmony and balance between the fragments of self and weaving them together as a beautiful whole. Harmonious and disharmonious experiences are part of that evolution, and the challenges of life that are flagged up by the passing planets, will motivate us to examine the nature of the current gift or lesson(or both).

Sometimes we must tear down old structures and ways of being to allow for new growth to emerge. This tearing down can be a painful process and sometimes ignite fierce resistance (look at the world right now). The current Pluto Saturn square with Uranus opposite Saturn is definitely giving us a chance to experience this kind of tension and change (see earlier posts). Having this same configuration in my own chart, I often find myself resisting change… even though with Uranus conjunct my Sun I also continually invite it.

As I surrender control and allow the winds of change to take hold of my sails, I can look up at the stars to steer my way home. Then again...wherever I go, there I am.

Comments

  1. very cool post Sue, I like how you break it down and make it understandable. I have never heard this described before - as inner or outer planets. Interesting, too, how your experiences with self-knowledge and understanding of life feed the astrology. Cool mix.

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