We have finally arrived at the final instalment in the Foundations of Soul Astrology series. I trust you have enjoyed the ride and that you have found it to be both informative and transformative! Who knows where you are going. Who knows where you will end (if ever). Buddhist philosophy says you are an infinite stream of mental moments without beginning and without end.

It is my sincere wish that this series has been beneficial to you and that you recognise the magnificence of your own true nature as a Divine spiritual being and, if not, that you at least begin to catch a glimpse of your Divine nature. You are a being of love and light, anything less than that is a result of your karmic conditioning from this and past lifetimes. Any perceived flaws, failings and shortcomings in you, are not an inherent part of your true nature, but have simply been learned at some time. This means they can also be unlearned, so that your true nature can shine through. Soul Astrology is simply a tool that can help you to see these learned (karmic) patterns more clearly, so that you can finally let them go and rest, as you.

What's Next For Your Soul?

I'm often asked, What happens after the Soul completes it's journey from Aries to Pisces? The truth? I don't really know. No-one knows for certain, unless you are a fully enlightened being like the Buddha! What I will do though, is share some thoughts and ideas, based on my current understanding of this vast and complex subject. My best guess is that it begins again in Aries, on a higher turn of the spiral. This may be immediate if your mind-stream has the karma to propel itself forward, or it could be after some time spent resting in the light of pure consciousness (time being a relative thing at this level). I'll let you know for sure once I've been there and returned with enough clarity to remember the journey!

Your Soul May Not Be Permanent

In areas where I don't have personal experience, I usually defer to a wisdom greater than my own, more often than not this will be from the Buddhist tradition, because this would be in accord with the teaching of the Tibetan himself, given that he was a lama in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. The Buddha taught that nothing that exists is permanent; that every thing that we experience in manifest existence is "free from permanence and free from non-existence" (the exception to this would be consciousness itself, which is said to be infinite). This is where buddhism differs from other faiths that teach that the Soul is eternal. In a conversation about the permanence of Atman , the Hindu concept of core self, or soul, the Buddha is thought to have simply said "it's not like that". Indeed questions about self, and self-identity are among the questions that the Buddha said were unwise to contemplate because they can lead to unhelpful beliefs and distract us from direct experience of our own true nature (See "The Unanswered Questions").

Your Soul's Journey

To the best of my understanding, in both Esoteric Astrology and especially in The Labours of Hercules, The Tibetan suggests that the Soul is going through developmental stages, which can be identified using the twelve zodiac signs from Aries through to Pisces. Some Astrologers believe that the Soul spends up to eight lifetimes, or physical incarnations in each sign. This would be in accord with the Buddha's teaching that the soul is neither permanent, nor 'non-existing', but that it's essence has a starting point, passes through changes (stages) over time, and has a final 'destination'.

Three Buddha Bodies: Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya

With up to eight lifetimes in each sign, and there being twelve signs, we might then deduce that a Soul is about 84 human lifetimes old! So the Soul seems to exist for a time, and then return to the light of consciousness, in contrast to pure consciousness itself, which is eternal. This makes sense from the buddhist perspective of the three buddha 'bodies'  of dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. Before going further, it might be helpful to remember what a 'buddha' is. Aside from the historical Buddha, Gautama, the word 'buddha' itself is a Sanskrit term which simply means 'being awake'. So a buddha in a general sense is simply one who is awake to their own true nature.

Dharmakaya is the eternal light of pure consciousness. In Tibetan buddhism it is said to be the primordial 'ground of all being', which is without beginning and without end. The sambhogakaya is said to be the first 'realm' of existence that emerges from the dharmakaya, and it is of the nature of light and energy. This is where we have a light body, rainbow body and/or energy body. In other words we have a 'body' of light and energy that is immaterial in nature and is known by many names in various traditions. It is the realm of holy beings, buddhas, bodhisattvas and angels. Indeed all forms of 'light beings' are said to inhabit this realm. From the sambhogakaya emerges the nirmanakaya, or physical body. This is where the buddha has a physical body, as do you and I.

The Journey of Your Soul IS Life's Greatest Adventure

So where does your Soul fit into this picture? What we call our Soul is likely to be our individual light body, or rainbow body, that emerges in the sambhogakaya realm, and from which emerge each of our physical bodies (for up to 84 lifetimes). The Tibetan seems to be pointing to the Soul as a body of Divine consciousness, energy, and light, that arises and passes through the specific developmental stages that we discuss in Soul Astrology (and in this series) before returning to the light of pure consciousness in the dharmakaya realm. In the dharmakaya realm consciousness itself is eternal, and can arise again as another Soul, at another time.

What would be the purpose of this journey? So that we can simply experience the truth of life. So we can experience the beauty and magnificence of Divine Consciousness, Divine Presence, in physical form, as ourselves. Life itself gets to have the greatest adventure ever, as your Soul... and YOU! And those that recognise their true nature (in other words they remember who they are), can remind the rest of us, when we forget!

The Nature of Time

For the sake of simplicity, and to assist understanding, in this series we have spoken about time as though it is linear, because that is how we experience time in our daily lives. We wake up in the morning and time seems to pass, in a linear fashion, until the sun sets and we go to bed at night.

However, according to Albert Einstein, and contemporary scientific theory, time does not exist like that at all! Scientists now believe what ancient spiritual masters have been saying for centuries: that everything already exists. There is no past, present or future, but only an endless experiencing of now.

This is important to bear in mind because when we study astrology, we are studying cycles of time. In astrology we observe how repeating patterns in nature are associated with stellar events. So if time is an illusion, how are we experiencing repeating cycles? This is due to our karmic conditioning. It is our conditioning (karma) that keeps us repeating habitual cycles (patterns) of behaviour throughout infinity until we step off the wheel of death and rebirth.

Beyond The Three Times

Many buddhist scriptures refer to 'going beyond the three times'. Once we become enlightened like the buddha we are said to be free from the confines of the three times, but what does this mean? If we observe our thoughts for any length of time, we can see how we constantly experience thoughts of past, thoughts of the future or thoughts about the present moment. This constant engagement in thought is actually an obstacle, preventing us from experiencing this present moment directly.



When we have the ability to rest continuously in our experience of the present moment, we are said to have gone beyond the three times.

The Reversed Wheel

In Esoteric Astrology the Tibetan refers to the returning (or reversed) wheel vs the wheel of 'rebirth' or outgoing wheel. What does he mean by this? I believe he is talking about an advanced stage of spiritual progress whereby we are no longer driven by the demands of the outside world, but neither are we lost in our inner world either. We have transcended the dualistic plane of 'inside and outside' and are now simply present, resting, awake and aware, in our own being-ness. This is what the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition refers to as 'the natural state'. The 'wheel of rebirth' would refer to the wheel of death and rebirth, otherwise known as Samsara.

In Samsara we are driven by our karmic conditioning and therefore 'wander' unconsciously through repeating cycles of existence. According to buddhist teaching this is normal everyday life for the majority of us, as we follow the habits and tendencies of our ordinary conditioned mind. When we are fully spiritually awake so that we are no longer driven by our unconscious habits, then we are in the process of returning to our natural unconditioned state and may be said to be on the reversed wheel.

Understanding our true nature, the natural state, and the real nature of time, is essential to really understanding what the Tibetan means when he talks about the 'reversed wheel'. We cannot grasp this from the intellect because mental concepts merely serve to add more confusion. Rather this is a state of conscious awareness that is to be perceived directly and fully experienced.




The Light of Astrology


When we combine a deep understanding of our horoscope, together with deep spiritual practice (experiential knowing) astrology can help us to develop deeper awareness of our own karmic patterns. If you enjoy astrology, and this method resonates for you, you can use astrology to identify karmic patterns that are ready to be released, and to help understand your own true nature as a spiritual being. Of course astrology can only ever be secondary: it is a tool that can help you shed light on your own conditioning, but it is not the goal. Nor is it suitable for everyone. If it is keeping you 'in your head', stuck at the intellect stage of your development, then you would be very wise to drop it and go meditate instead! As in the old Zen adage, astrology can be a 'finger pointing to the Moon' but it can never be the Moon itself!

To ensure you are using astrology wisely (and not becoming yet another deluded ego in the world) become a sincere practitioner of Soul Astrology. Practice mindfulness throughout your day, and become familiar with the patterns of your ego-personality (indicated by the personal planets), as they play out in the form of your daily habits, tendencies, predilections, attachments and defence mechanisms.

The Tibetan said the astrologers of the future would be intuitive. As we evolve through instinct> intellect> intuition and illumination to emptiness (clear light mind), astrology will naturally evolve into an astrology of nonduality. Eventually the astrologers of the future will be practising from clear light mind, and their abilities will be equal to those of the great kalachakra masters.(For more about the kalachakra masters see issue #19 in this series: Saturn, Catalyst For Self-Mastery)

Clear Light Mind 

How can we ever recognise truth for ourselves? Anything we hear and understand with the intellect is speculation and hearsay. It's like a theory that hasn't been tested yet. What our spiritual journey calls for each of us to do, is to test these ideas from our own experience. In order to do that we have to be clear enough to perceive reality directly. At the moment we can't do that because our vision is clouded by our conditioning, our karmic mind. Once we are able to perceive reality directly, we go beyond the illusions of our conditioned mind and enter the clear light mind beyond. It is said that in clear light mind we can access what is called clear light wisdom.

From this higher perspective it is said that everything becomes clear and all can be known without doubt. It is like being able to reach a mountain top and suddenly being able to see all around. There is no more doubt, and no need for speculation, because you can see everything clearly, exactly as it is. This ability is called 'omniscience', or all-knowing. It is often spoken of in terms of the 'miracles' that manifest on the path to enlightenment, but great spiritual teachers, including Jesus Christ and Gautama the Buddha, were emphatic that we all have this potential, we only have to remove the obstacles of our karmic mind and recognise our own light.

Presence: Your True Nature

Your own true nature, and the true nature of reality are one and the same. This cannot be grasped intellectually, but can only be known through experience. The more you can sit in silence and be fully present and aware, the closer you will come to realizing this truth for yourself. This is what every great spiritual teacher has been pointing to. The Tibetan himself tells us that there is no separation. The very fabric of reality, and you, are one and the same. ...and the nature of that reality, the nature of existence, is consciousness. It is through your own awareness that you will fully know and understand the true nature of reality, because awareness (yours and everybody else's because they are not separate) IS reality.

there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’

doesn’t make sense any more.” 

There is a field of pure consciousness (above we saw how Tibetan buddhist's call it 'dharmakaya') and within this field of consciousness all that is known arises and falls, but never at any time is it separate from it's original source. This source consciousness is alive, and aware.