Karma and The Elements
As you continue your journey of self-observation, getting more familiar with how you flow your energy in different situations, and noticing how you react and respond to different people, and how that relates to the elements, you might begin to notice associations: "Whenever this happens I notice I always feel this, or say that, or do something else".
When your self-observation reaches that point, you are beginning to see your own conditioning. In other words you are beginning to see how your body and mind has been conditioned in this and past lifetimes to react or respond in specific ways to specific events.
At first you might not be thinking about Karma, but that is what you are observing: your own 'karmic mind'. In the Tibetan tradition karmic mind is described as your ordinary, everyday mind, as opposed to 'clear space' or your mind's expansive true nature. Because of their fundamental connection to the true nature of reality, the elements also play a role in the formation of karma.
Karma is a complex topic, but for the purpose of understanding your Soul Astrology it is helpful to simply think of karma as everything you have ever learned in this and past lives. In the Tibetan buddhist tradition they use the analogy of 'seeds': as though everything you ever learned (positive and negative) is lying dormant as a 'seed' in your mindstream, and under the right circumstances, these seeds can ripen.
An example would be a young child who is not from a musical family and has never been taught how to play, but when he picks up a flute he just knows what to do and plays a tune. The 'seed' of a memory from a past life was already in his mindstream, and the circumstance of feeling the flute in his hand and putting it to his lips caused the seed to 'ripen' and he recalled how to play.
Or a young adult from a tee-total family who walks past a bar and find the smell and taste of beer irresistible, only later to discover they are an alcoholic. According to the Tibetan tradition the 'seeds' for strong attraction (addictions) and/or strong aversion, are set out through associations that you made in past lives. This is your Karma.
You will have your own individual karma, family karma and group karma based on the society that you were born into. Your group karma is behavior that is based on the culture and traditions of the society you were born into, that vary from country to country. The normal 'codes of behavior' if you like. Within that you will have 'familial' karma that is based on the 'codes of behavior' or habits of the family you were born into, and then within that you will have your own unique experience, and the 'seeds' you are carrying from past lives and will therefore have your own behavior based on your individual karma.
As you continue to observe your reactions and responses, and relate that to the elements, you will begin to see how the elements are a very practical way for you to understand your own karma more deeply.
You can also see how it is possible for people to have the same experience, yet have a different reaction or response to that experience based on individual karma and their individual balance or imbalance of the elements.
Three Women On A Bus
The following story illustrates how, based on our elements (and karmic conditioning) we will each react differently in a given situation. I have been telling this story so long now I have forgotten the original source but to give due credit I believe I adapted it for a presentation I was once giving, from a similar story in Sue Knight's "NLP At Work"!
So the story goes, that (once upon a time, not so very long ago) three women get on a bus. Before they pay they start debating where they were going to get off, "oh did you want to get off at the library, or shall we stay on to the grocery? Or shall we get off at the pub and go for lunch first?"
After some time the bus driver loses his patience and shouts angrily, "Why don't you ****** women decide where you want to go before you get on the bus?"
The three women pay their fare and quickly hurry to the back of the bus. The first woman bursts into tears saying, "Oh I'm so embarrassed. He's right. We should have decided before we got on."
The second woman was as angry as the bus driver. "He is not 'right'." she said, "Who does he think he is to speak to us like that? I've a good mind to go down there and poke him in the eye."
The third woman burst out laughing. The other two looked at her. "What are you laughing at?" they asked.
"Oh" she said, "this reminds me of home. Where I come from the bus drivers are always grumpy like him"!
So what can we learn from this story?
1. We all will have a different reaction to any given situation, based on the conditioning of our karmic mind.
2. The bus driver didn't cause the women's reactions - their karmic conditioning did. This is really important to remember.
Did the bus driver make the first woman sad, the second woman angry and the third woman happy? No! He doesn't have that power. Their reaction was created purely by their own mind, as a result of their conditioning.
Mostly we go through life thinking the other person caused how we feel, when in actual fact the root cause is deep within us, and the other person only contributes to the conditions for our karmic seeds to ripen.
3. We can, if we are observant, see which elements are at work: if they are active and whether they are balanced or imbalanced. The angry woman probably had an imbalance of fire; the sad woman an imbalance of water; while the happy (contented) woman could have been dominant in balanced water (contentment), balanced fire (joy) or in fact (which is most likely) a balance of all four elements.
Over time, these reactions from your karmic mind become habit. Then they form part of your ego-personality and if not corrected will contribute to recreating more of the same karmic seeds for the future.
Choice Points
As you go deeper with your self-observation you will become more skilled at correcting imbalances in your elements. Initially you may do this by bringing in the appropriate element to balance the energy (see last week's newsletter).
With practice you may become so skilled at noticing when an imbalance is about to happen that you will be able to 'drop it' energetically without acting it out. Just like a wave rising and falling. This then becomes a choice point. I first heard about 'choice points' from my mentor Anya Sophia Mann*. Basically a 'choice point' is where you recognize and old reaction and have the conscious awareness to be able to make a different choice in the moment, which shifts the energy.
With practice you may become so skilled at correcting imbalances, that you are able to shift your energy most of the time. That is when you begin to set yourself free of your karmic mind and move towards true liberation.
