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Since time immemorial Humanity has looked to the heavens for answers to the four cardinal questions of existence: 1) Where did I come from? 2) Why am I here?  3) Where am I headed?  and 4) Who am I?  From the ancient witch doctor / shamans to the astronomers and astrologers of today, the question of the meaning of life has been sought with an upturned face and an open spirit of inquiry.  Many ancient cultures, religions and philosophies developed a deeper understanding of the celestial realms in relation to the questions of human terrestrial life.  Amongst these were the Hindus, the Sumerians, the Babylonians and the Egyptians.  The most ancient teaching, and the one from which all others descended, was the great Hermetic teaching with origins around the Atlantean period.  These teachings and understandings of astronomy and universal laws still exist today in a direct lineage, but are hidden from common view.
One of the great paradoxes that has confronted Humanity from that time forward, and that is still being pondered by today’s most advanced physicists, is the question of whether reality exists outside our perception of it.  The seer, the seeing and the seen are apparently inseparable.  Science is reluctantly admitting now that just by observing an event the event itself seems to be influenced.  Ultimately, without perception nothing seemingly exists… all is perception… all is consciousness.
What does this mean for us in our ordinary lives?  It implies that what we see outside us in our lives and in the world is nothing more or less than our perception and interpretation of what is.  Furthermore, what the ancient teachings tell us is that what we see outside us in our lives and in the world is quite literally a reflection of ourselves.  Your outside world is a mirror of you.

The Mirror
In order to understand this let’s take a concrete example.  Everyone knows the expression, ‘to get up on the wrong side of the bed.’  When you do, for whatever reason—maybe you had a late night or an argument before bed—everything during the day seems to go wrong.  You feel out of sorts and see everything in your life coloured by your mood… in short you can see nothing right with the world.  On the other hand, if you have just had a windfall—won the lottery or something—and you are feeling like nothing could go wrong… you might then look out into the world with an amiable and optimistic attitude that only sees good in the world.  In both cases, you think the world is the way you feel it is.  The fact is, the world is the same world in both cases.  What you see, however, is a reflection of how you are inside.
This analogy can be carried over to everything that we perceive.  One person perceives an event or circumstance in one way and another person perceives it in quite the opposite way.  Who is right?  Both are.  Each person perceives the world according to what their issues are… according to what they have learned to love in themselves and what they have not yet to learned to love in themselves.
So no matter where we look, outside us, we will see what we need to see and experience what we need to experience in relation to the lessons we are learning at any given time.  Life is a mirror reflecting our lessons back at us, giving us the opportunity to grow in consciousness.  Humanity has developed many different ways in which to make use of this understanding of life.  One of the most ancient ways is the art of astrology.  Astrology is saying that our lives personally and globally can be seen in the mirror of the stars… that our lives and the movement of the planets tell the same story… that by examining the movements and positions of the planets at our birth, we can understand ourselves and our lives better.
Science and ancient knowledge agree now that we live in a holographic universe.  The holographic view says that all the separate parts of a thing are exact replicas of the whole thing itself.  For example, if we take a hologram picture of an apple and cut it into four pieces we have, not four partial pictures of an apple, but four complete pictures of the original apple!  The universe is like this in every aspect.  Our lives are painted in the mirror in the sky.  It is also true to say the each one of us has the entire solar system inside us.  Let’s now explore some of these themes that we have presented above.

Drops in the Ocean
 Science has re-discovered that every human being and every planet has a field of electro-magnetic energy around it.  In ancient times, and now in the new age, this was called an aura.  These fields or auras all interact with each other depending upon how far they are from each other, how fast each of them are moving and the direction of each of their movements.  To illustrate this, let’s consider the planets first…
Imagine the solar system as an enormous ocean or lake, its shore being what astronomers call the magnetopause.  Suppose we drop a pebble in the middle of the lake… this is the Sun.  The dropped pebble creates ripples that expand outwards in ever increasing concentric circles.  Eventually the ripples reach the edge of the lake and rebound back towards the centre and so on and so forth.  Let’s presume that the ripples don’t lose energy over time, but continue to ripple back and forth constantly.  This is the Sun’s field.
 Now let’s drop another pebble a little distance away from the first one (the Sun).  Let’s call this one Mercury.  It, too, creates ripples that begin to expand outwards.  However, these ripples and the ripples of the Sun begin to intersect with each other.  At certain places the ripples combine and intensify.  At other places they cancel each other out.  The interaction also has the effect of slightly changing the shape, the direction and the intensity of the original waves.  (See Diagram 1.)

 If we keep dropping pebbles in this lake, each corresponding to one of the remaining planets, we will gradually have a two-dimensional picture of the fields of the planets of our solar system.
All the fields in the solar system, no matter where their origins are, all become a single wave-front at the shore of our hypothetical lake… at the magnetopause.  Science has proven this.  This shows us how all the separate parts of something can become One… that is, by expanding our consciousness, like the ripples in the lake, to include more of the bigger picture, we can eventually see how everything is connected into a unified picture.
 Now extend this picture into three dimensions… the circles become spheres.  The fields are spherical realms of influence, extending in all directions to infinity.
Each one of us also has such a three dimensional field around us.  Your personal field or aura also extends right to the edge of the solar system and beyond.  Science has not yet found the limits of any given field… ancient teachings tell us that all fields are infinite.  Your personal field or aura interacts with the fields or auras of each of the planets in the solar system.
 These fields are fields of consciousness… they are living and sentient.  Your interactions with the planets’ fields are living interactions with the consciousnesses of the living planets.  Scientists such as biologist, Rupert Sheldrake, have suggested that these fields of consciousness are organising forces behind each aspect of Creation.  The new age calls these organising fields devas or nature spirits or angels.
 Our lives (as opposed to our innate consciousnesses or Soul) are neither more nor less than the sum total of the interacting fields passing through a single point that we call ourselves.  (See Diagram 2.)

This sum total of interacting fields of consciousness at the moment of your birth is called your natal horoscope.  This sum total determines how you will perceive the outside world in your life.  Within this birth pattern lies all of your lessons, your challenges, your gifts and your talents.  Within this birth pattern lies the divine design of who you are meant to be in this lifetime.
 From this point of view, we can see that the planets’ influences are literally in us.  Remembering that your personal aura extends through the planets and out to the edge of the solar system, then perhaps you can see how it could be that the planets could be in you as well.  The great philosopher, Hermes Trismegistus once stated, ‘as above, so below.’

Day and Night
 So, having figured out this much, what other understandings can we come to about our human experience on Spaceship Earth?  Let’s explore further…
 From our vantage point on Earth, each planet and the Sun ‘shine’ towards us.  The side of us facing a particular planet can be considered to be the ‘light’ side and the side facing away from that planet can be called the ‘dark side’… in short, we have a day and night in relation to that planet.  (See Diagram 3.)

In terms of human psychology, these two sides—light and dark—represent our expressed and repressed personas.  Each planet ‘produces’ ‘light’ and ‘dark’ personas in us.  The ‘light’ or expressed personas are what we call ourselves—our expressed personality.  The ‘dark’ or repressed personas are what we either deny, judge, hide in ourselves or what we attribute to other people, but not to ourselves.  To understand how this happens we need to look at what actually happens when we perceive something.  First, though, let’s draw a picture of our body/mind/Soul.
 In Diagram 4. we are looking at the three layers of our lives.  In the middle is what is called the Higher Mind… this is you as you know yourself to be—your point of consciousness of yourself… your awareness.  Above this is what I have called the Soul.  It could also be called, Higher Self, Universe, Guidance, God… whatever you are comfortable with.  In any case, it represents your highest potential for spiritual actualisation.  Below the Higher Mind is what I have called the Lower Mind.  This is your animal self, your passions, your sense-driven existence.

 The Lower Mind, seated in the Solar Plexus, perceives the world, through the senses, in terms of duality:  hot / cold, loud / soft, rough / smooth, pain / pleasure, good / evil, black /white, right / wrong.  The Lower Mind runs from pain and seeks pleasure.  It is the one that makes judgements of right or wrong, pain or pleasure, good or evil about what it perceives.  Without the senses, you could not perceive the world around you.  Without the experience of life on Earth, you could not know that you exist.  However, by the very nature of your physiology, your perceptions are distorted into dualities.
 The Soul, on the other hand, knows the Truth that lies beyond all illusions.  As a Higher Mind having an earthly experience, you have the choice whether to listen to the messages of the Lower Mind or whether to hear the messages of the Soul.  Your task in life is to transcend the apparent dualities—paradoxes, conflicts, one-sided thinking, right/wrong paradigms—into greater Truth, greater unity and greater wholeness.  This is also called: healing.  We all do this one issue at a time in our lives.  When we have learned one lesson, we move on to the next.  The Truth of any given issue is, ultimately, Love.
 So, coming back to the Lower Mind, every perception that you have, from the moment that you were born to the moment that you die, splits you into two separate personas… a ‘light’ or expressed persona and a ‘dark’ or repressed persona.  (See Diagram 5.)

What determines which side is expressed and which side is repressed, you might ask?  It is the position of the planets concerned in relation to you… your natal horoscope.
Ultimately, the expressed persona is then on a journey of awakening… to seek out and rejoin with the repressed persona.  Each of the two personas represents a half-truth.  Together, they represent a greater Truth.  It is the symbol of the Soul-mates in search of each other.  Another way to put this is to say that each of the two personas represents an illusion.  In bringing the two sides of the question together, you can collapse the illusion into greater Truth.  In doing so you are learning to love the issue itself… to love that part of yourself that the issue reflects.
Life teaches you this by attracting to you exactly those issues that reflect your repressed personas… it is getting you to look at your stuff!  That’s synchronicity!  Remember that it is all in us!  The outside world is a reflection of us.  What we see in the outside world is, in truth, in us.
 What is the point of all this happening in the first place, you might ask?  The point is that, the journey of the expressed or ‘light’ side of us and its seeking for the repressed or ‘dark’ side, results in you becoming what you have been divinely designed to become… and that this is your Service to the Creation.  You are on a kind of cosmic production line!

The Celestial Map
 Let’s look into the mirror of the sky now.  The journey of your life unfolds over time in direct reflection to the distances of the planets from you at the moment of your birth.  (See Diagram 6.)

 When you were born, the closest planetary influence came, obviously, from the Moon.  It is the same for all of us.  Then, according to the positions of Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Sun at the time of your birth, you traced a path from one to the next to the next in increasing spheres of distance from Earth.  From here, you trace a path from Jupiter to Saturn to Chiron to Uranus to Neptune to Pluto and finally to the magnetopause of the solar system… our distant shore of Unity of consciousness.  At this point, you will have reached the level of the Soul.
 It is worth noting here that your spiritual journey and the astronomical journey described above are one and the same journey… literally.
 This planetary path can be described in psychological and spiritual terms as follows:
1)  Moon: Early emotional protective and survival patterns ingrained.
2)  Venus: Seeking warmth, comfort, nurture, harmony, beauty, love.
3)  Mars: Seeking physical independence, self-determination and freedom to decide one’s course in life.
4)  Mercury: Development of the intellect, associative thinking, ideas, synthesis of perceived fragmentary world.
5)  Sun: Emergence of will, self-awareness, ego patterns, self-expression and creative principle.
6)  Jupiter: The call from the Heart to follow one’s dreams… to honour the highest potential and calling from within.
7)  Saturn: The acceptance of personal responsibility for one’s life in all aspects.  Getting serious about deeper questions.
8)  Chiron: Addressing deep seated wounds, blockages, mis-understandings, unresolved and un-reconciled issues… the healing journey.
9)  Uranus: A glimpse at the bigger picture, the divine Plan, the blueprints of Creation.  Seeing the Truth beyond the illusions and the dualities.
10)  Neptune: Feeling the true connectedness of everything existing.  Knowing in the Heart that all is Love and that all is One.
11)  Pluto: Understanding and utilising the power of personal spiritual transformation… alchemy.  Becoming the master of one’s life beyond all illusions of dualised personas.
12)  Magnetopause: At the rim or shore of the solar system, we have become as we truly are.  We have loved all things about ourselves, allowing ourselves to shine our true Light into the universe at large.

An interesting point worth mentioning is that Humanity’s collective consciousness—the average of all consciousnesses on the planet at the moment—sits at about the orbit of Chiron, the planet of Healing.  This is why we are witnessing the emergence of a new paradigm of Healing and spiritual awakening in the last few years with more to come in the next few years.

Getting Practical
Now let’s talk about how to use these understandings of the planets in your daily life… to make a difference in your understanding of your life.  If our job in life, whether consciously or unconsciously, is to transcend our illusions, half-truths and fragmented personas and find greater unity, truth, wholeness and healing, then each planet can help us to do this.  How?  Let me explain…
1)  First list the so-called ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ attributes of each planet… the more the better.  In the lists below, I have given examples of each.  There are many books on the market that give numerous keywords for each of the planets.
2)  Then tick off each attribute that you think applies to you in some form or other.  Some may be ‘positive’ and some may be ‘negative’.  The ones that you tick off represent your expressed personas… the ones that you own up to… the ones that you call yourself.
3)  Then, for each attribute that you did not tick off, ask the question, “Where do I have this attribute in my life?”  Here, you are trying to uncover your repressed personas… the ones that you may be denying, suppressing, judging or attributing to other people, but not to yourself.  Keep asking the question, “Where do I have this attribute in my life?”  Don’t accept “no” for an answer.  Perhaps you will discover the attribute in you in a different form from what you expected.  In any case, the universal law states that all people have all attributes… it may be in a different form from the next person, but it is there.
4)  Then, when you have finally ticked each attribute in humble acknowledgement of its existence within you,  take each attribute in turn and ask, “Where do I have the opposite of this attribute in me and my life?”  If you look deep enough and hard enough, you will find the opposite attribute within you.
5)  Finally, for every attribute in this list that you feel is a ‘negative’ attribute, ask the questions, “How does this attribute serve me on my quest for love and growth?” and “How does this attribute in me serve others in their quest for love and growth?”  All things serve.  There are no mistakes in the universe.  All paths are paths from love, to love and of love.  Only the form varies.

 After completing the above exercise for a particular planet, realise that all the attributes of the given planet are in you.  If they are in you then the planet is in you!  Each planet is trying to teach you to love all the issues and affairs associated with it… because, in truth, all those issues and affairs are in you!  The planet is a perfect mirror!  Here are some attributes of each of the planets to help you get on with the above exercise:

1)  Moon: nurturing, protective, caring, supporting, mothering, guarded, smothering, whitewashing, avoiding, hiding, sleepy, passive, needy, emotional, childlike, childish, immature.
2)  Sun: bold, bright, expressive, creative, wilful, self-motivated, extroverted, acting, bombastic, loud, brazen, brash, ego-centric, selfish, stealing limelight, pompous, superior, arrogant, magnanimous, generous, leadership, ruler, dictatorial.
3)  Venus: warm, beautiful, balanced, harmonious, peaceful, fair, ambient, amiable, compliant, complacent, no backbone, weak, flaccid, easily upset, easily thrown off-balance, gives away power to others, wishing to please others, not stand up for self, easily influenced, needy, dependent.
4)  Mars: bold, brash, brazen, energetic, impulsive, initiative, go-getter, doer, independent, active, angry, leap before looking, violent, argumentative, pushy, thoughtless, out-going, adventurous, impatient, short attention span.
5)  Mercury: quick, mentally agile, intuitive, expressive, good communicator, alert, perceptive, scattered, talkative, ditsy, vacuous, changeable, chameleonesque, poor concentration, unreliable, fickle, friendly, tolerant, intelligent, dilettantish, stuck in the head.
6)  Jupiter: expansive, optimistic, adventurous, wise, broad-minded, philosophical, generous, visionary, shallow, excessive, loud, bombastic, addictive, spendthrift, rose-tinted glasses, soap-box preacher, intolerant, narrow-minded, dogmatic, joyful, lucky, compulsive.
7)  Saturn: serious, hard-working, disciplined, responsible, task-master, forward-thinking, ability to make long-term plans, strict, restrictive, controlling, manipulative, frugal, cold, uncaring, dull, dour, boring, strong, practical, pragmatic, business-like, business sense, blaming.
8)  Chiron: healing, balanced, grateful, wounded, unbalanced, compassionate, forgiving, accepting, caring, avoiding, escaping, hiding, repressing, blaming, just, even-handed, disassociative, fragmented, no conscience, courageous, seeking healing and well being.
9)  Uranus: connected, perceptive, contrary, rebellious, illuminated, innovative, myth-breaking, precocious, presuming, arrogant, aloof, cold, disconnected, alienated, misunderstood, free spirit, dances to a different tune, inventive, original, law unto self.
10)  Neptune: connected, loving, accepting, forgiving, wholistic, intuitive, religious, humble, compassionate, understanding, mysterious, alluring, charismatic, deceitful, living in illusions, neurotic, confused, vacuous, vapid, backbone-less, flaccid, limp, weak, unreachable, in fantasy, dreamy, vague, unrealistic.
11)  Pluto: confronting, challenging, conflicting, argumentative, destructive, violent, rocking the boat, transforming, willing to move on from old patterns, unwilling to move on from old patterns, powerful, manipulative, defensive, wary, suspicious, afraid, shoot first and ask questions later, uncaring, insensitive, bulldozer, creative, willful, determined, evolving.
 

The extraordinary thing that will occur, when you have completed the above exercise for a particular planet, is that you may actually feel the presence of the planet within you!  You may even be able to have a kind of dialogue with it.  It will have become more of a conscious guide to you and your life.

Divine Design
If you look back at your life and carefully consider every event—particularly the ones that you feel were ‘bad’ or unjust—and try to find the hidden blessings, with the help of the planets and the above exercise, you will gradually begin to see a clear pattern running through you life.  You will gradually realise that everything in your life had a purpose and pointed you in certain direction.  In the process, you became what you are today and will continue to do so, slowly acknowledging your special place in the world… your divine design.  You will gradually realise that there are truly no accidents in the world and that there are no mistakes either!  You will become aware of the invisible hand that has guided you in your life towards the opening of your Heart and towards the acknowledgement of who you truly are… a divine being of Light.
With this will come a growing appreciation of the magnificence of the divine plan that ties together the planets and your life into an intelligible and coherent picture.  You will gradually become aware that you are not limited to being a terrestrial being, but that you are simultaneously a celestial being.  We live astronomical lives to the degree that we acknowledge our special place in the plan.  The degree to which we allow our consciousness to expand outwards into the universe, seeing the unity and order where we previously saw only chaos, is the degree to which we will understand what lies deep within our Hearts… that burning point of Love from which all things spring… that still point of God that lies in the centre of our Being.