What we bring with us from past lives is a big topic in spiritual circles. As astrologers, we often look to the lunar South Node and the fourth and twelfth houses for clues about what may have happened to us in previous incarnations and how that may be affecting us in our current tour of duty on the physical plane.

I don’t believe in past lives per se. I believe that we have an energy imprint, and that while this imprint is not uniquely our own, the way it manifests as an individual human incarnation is unique. This may seem like splitting hairs, but it’s an important distinction, because it recognizes the underlying energy (spirit) and means that through conscious awareness of this energy, we have the power to change not only our own karma, but the collective karma as well.

We have the power to heal.

A couple of years ago at a NORWAC conference, I met Kim Marie, a teacher of a relatively recent branch of astrology called evolutionary astrology, which is very much concerned with past lives. I owe to her the discovery that I was born four hours before Neptune went retrograde, which for evolutionary astrologers is a very big deal. I meditated on that concept for weeks before reaching the conclusion that it provided me a lifelong door to what’s beyond the physical plane. Indeed, my whole approach to astrology is based on observing how the invisible energies in the universe manifest on the physical plane.

In previous posts, I’ve written about the current series of eclipses in Leo and Aquarius and how the conjunction of Neptune, Chiron, and the North Node opened a pathway to deep healing. As I noted, this healing can include wounds we brought with us into this lifetime. Think about that for a moment. By healing your own deep wounds, you are in essence healing the “wounded” underlying energies of the universe.

One of the deepest wounds we face in our time is the split between the masculine and feminine. It is a deeply disturbed relationship, and I believe that the split happened several millennia ago. For us, it seems like forever, and we seem to take for granted that “that’s just the way it is.” I’ve lost count of the latest scientific studies “proving” why men want multiple sexual partners, why women cling, why women fall for jerks, and so forth. There’s nothing scientific about it, and it’s not a given. It is not what we are about, and it is not what we ultimately want.

But I digress. What I really want to say here is that we have the choice to heal, and there is no time like the present, with this astrological window wide open. We want to believe that we are somehow victims of “bad karma.” Well, each time we let an opportunity to heal pass — whether because it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient, or we’re afraid of change or afraid of whatever — we compound that wound, not only in our life and the life of anyone else involved, but the collective wound of humanity.

We desperately want to be whole (heal and whole come from the same root), we crave it. Make that leap of trust and faith. Choose to heal.

Wishing you much love and courage…

Posted by Pat

Image: Chiron and Achilles, by John Singer Sargent, c. 1925.