Escaping Destiny – Astrology?

Astrology…

Is just a way to make sense of what is happening in the universe by looking at the configurations of the universe itself. Since you can use math to rewind those configurations into the past or fast forward them into the future, astrology also becomes a way to make sense of what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.

In astrology there are 9 planets 12 signs and so on. In the real world there are 94 quintillion zillion gagillion possibilities per minute. So obviously the configuration of the stars, planets, and signs of the universe don’t literally spell out the past, present and future for you. You have to “interpret” the configuration. In other words the configuration is an abstract symbol and if you want concrete details you have to interpret them from the abstract symbol.

There is a very valid reason why the astrological configurations are abstract. It’s because destiny is somewhat abstract. It’s not written in stone that you will get bit by a mosquito 3 cm above your left elbow at 6:38 on March 29th 2013. But it is written in stone that you will feel uncomfortable on your skin around then.

If a person loses a loved one, was that their destiny – or could they have done something to change it? The real thing to understand is that the events of the world, pleasant and unpleasant, are not altogether real in the same way that we instinctively think they are real. There is a reality to them, but it is not what we instinctively percieve as reality. The reality of a situation like losing a loved one is the necessity to experience loss, pain, to increase (or otherwise affect) ones affection for dear people, etc. – in other words, the reality of a situation is more abstract than the concrete details we focus on. So, could we have done something different and avoided the loss of our loved one? Probably not, practically speaking – because such a catastrophic event is very deep and already quite abstract and terribly profound. But even if for argument’s sake we say, “yes, you could have” but the you cannot escape the underlying reality of what is in your destiny – so if you escape one permutation of it taking shape in one way, you only cause it to come at you from a different angle in a different permutation.

The essence of destiny is unavoidable.

Of course this is not fatalism, because destiny is merely a response to our choices of how we use our freewill. So by choosing wisely to be selfless and loving in all ways possible, we create a bright and progressively positive destiny for ourselves. Our future is not out of our control, but our past is. And the present is a mixture.

Astrology vs. Freewill

Image via Wikipedia

Fate & Freewill Are Not Opposites!

Astrology is founded on the idea of “destiny” – the idea that you were destined to be a certain way, and that certain events and experiences were fated to occur in your life. It goes a step further and says that the lights in the heavens have something to do with all this. Somehow by observing the patterns among the heavenly bodies we are supposed to be able to understand the destiny of people and things down here on earth.

This is quite a claim, I admit. The opposition protests, “I make my own destiny. I have freewill and the stars do not have power over me!”

I agree. You make your own destiny. You have freewill and the stars do not have power over you. But I will go a step further and tell you that you make your own destiny because you have freewill!

Freewill Causes Fate

There used to be this board-game, Clue. My parents, aunts and uncles used to enjoy playing it and I would join them, to the best of my elementary-school ability. The game was about trying to figure out who killed who in which room and with what. “The butler killed her in the drawing room with a candlestick.” So let me ask you, Who is responsible for the murder: the butler, the drawing room, or the candlestick?

Simple: the butler. Yes the candlestick, drawing room, etc. were accessories, but the guilty party is the butler and I presume that after the game is over the police of the board-game universe are going to take him to trial and put him in jail.

Why is it the butler, not the candlestick that goes to jail? Simple: the butler is a person and the candlestick isn’t. What’s the difference? One is alive and the other isn’t! One has freewill and the other doesn’t. The candlestick and the drawing room have no freewill so although they were directly involved in killing the poor fictional lady, they are not put on trial. The butler has freewill, therefore he is the one that gets put in the slammer.

Thus I say, “Fate exists because freewill exists.” The ability to make a choice includes the responsibility for the repercussions of that choice. Fate is nothing but being held accountable for the “good” or “bad” results of the free choices we make and have made.

And so I also agree that the stars do not “have power over” us. The stars do not influence, create or decide your fate. You do. What do the stars do? They enforce fate.

Actually, even that is a little bit misleading. The stars and planets themselves do not directly enforce your fate. Rocks and gasses floating at tremendous distances from us cannot enforce anything, no matter how “new age” you try to slice it. However, these heavenly bodies are observable extensions of the universe which is the true enforcer of fate; much like the hands on a clock are the observable protrusions of much more complex clockworks operating beneath. It is the universe herself which observes all of our decisions and holds us accountable for the repercussions we call “fate.”

Why The Universe Corrects Us

Why does the universe hold me accountable for my choices? Because she is our mother.

A mother takes care of her children and sees to it that they grow up right. When a child does something negative the mother must correct, and when the child does something positive she must encourage. The child is pretty oblivious to the whole thing. To him it just seems like sometimes mom is nice and sometimes she is nasty. But gradually the child grows into a good adult, in spite of himself, largely as a result of the kind and often laborious corrections and encouragements of his mother.

Similarly to us it seems like sometimes life sucks and at other times it is a bed of roses. The truth is that all of our fate is the kind hand of our mother.

How Can Paterns in the Sky Have Anything to Do With This?

How can the positions of observable celestial bodies reveal the nature of my destiny? Because a mother cannot just silently punish and reward, she must also communicate with her children. At certain times and circumstances the universe wants to communicate more directly with us. One way she does so is through “body language” – the positions of the stars and planets that form what we can see of her body.

In short, the position of planets and stars communicate to us about our destiny simply because the universe wants it that way and makes it that way.

The Huge Scale of All This

Every single baby is born with a different fate. Why, because they all have made different choices in their past. But what is the past of a newborn child???

Now we have to talk about reincarnation.

This brings in a whole religious connotation. Personally I am a big fan of religion, but for a lot of people it brings up irrational emotional issues which don’t help us think clearly. So if you don’t mind I would like to avoid religious connotations and discuss this in a more scientific manner. There is a physical law called “conservation of energy.” It states that energy is never lost, merely transferred from one state to another.

That’s reincarnation.

You and I are a wonderful type of energy and therefore we never cease to exist. Death is merely our energy going through a “change of state.” You and I have existed beginninglessly. That’s a long time. All that time we have had freewill, and all that time we’ve been using it. We’ve got a lot of fate piled up as a result. No child is truly “newborn.” We are all carrying over the lessons and encouragements remaining from our previous lifetimes’ use of freewill.

The scale of astrology is huge and it’s really quite a shame to see it used so lamely in such debased forms and in pursuit of such thoroughly mundane concerns with little or no awareness or knowledge of its grand, spiritual scale. Although love, romance, and bank accounts are not unimportant and are valid topics for astrology – the much bigger and more important topic is that we are eternal beings who for some strange reason currently exist in a temporary universe and that universe herself is trying her best to help us “grow up” and attain our true inherent potential as supra-universal, transcendental spiritual beings.

I would like to give you an understanding of astrology which is aware of and benefits from both its common mundane applications and the uncommon transcendental context.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Is My Fate Written in Stone? Can I do Anything About It?

Image via Wikipedia

Question: Is it that my destiny is written and fixed and I cannot shake it off? I am keen to understand the concept of free will and repaying karmic debt?

It is fixed that you have already done certain deeds in your past. That cannot be changed. It is like a child who has picked on his younger brother. The offence is already made. That much can not be changed. Now, the child must be improved. That is also a unchangable given. The parents will improve the child, but the exact means through which they will do so is not set in stone. It depends largely on how the child reacts now, in the present.

If the boy is arrogant and stubborn, saying, “yeah, I hate my brother and I will beat him up again!” then the parents will have to resort to very strict and elaborate and prolonged means of correction and punishment to correct the child. If, on the other hand, the boy is humble, meek, accepting and open, saying “I am sorry! I wish I was better. How can I be a better brother?” then the parents correction will almost not even feel like punishment at all – it will be very warm and friendly.

So how you will experience your karmic destiny all depends upon your current attitude! Astrology is meant to help open you to the fact that the things happening to you are happening to you for good reason, because they are destined to happen to you as a result of the actions have have taken in past lifetimes. This understanding is meant to make you humble, meet and accepting towards your mother and father – nature and God. With this attitude the exact subjective shape of your karma changes dramatically and instead of feeling like a prolonged punishment, your karmic destiny begins to feel like warm and loving guidance.

This is the true purpose of remedies and mantras and astrological readings.

Do the Stars Control You?

Why does astrology work? What is destiny? Does it co-exist with freewill? What is karma and, more importantly why is karma… what is its purpose? What role do the stars and planets play in this whole thing? Is the destiny they seem to create for us something inescapable and unalterable – or can we alter our own fates?

Astrology works because you have freewill. If you did not have freedom of choice you would not be held responsible for your choices, and therefore would not have the “destiny” or “fate” which an astrological chart can foretell.

I could not possibly stress how important it is to thoroughly grasp this.

Thus, freewill and fate – choice and destiny – are a cause and effect, a “yin and yang,” two opposite poles on the same axis. The axis itself, the circle of yin and yang, the marriage of freewill and fate is a single phenomenon we call karma. Karma is both the freewill to make choices, and the fated destiny which arises from our being held responsible for those choices.

Who holds us responsible? The universe herself, with all her stars and planets. She observes all our free choices and actions. She bestows their just rewards and punishments.

Why does she do so? Because your deepest soul is currently a torn and divided being. You wish to be in this world and enjoy it, but at the same time you feel that there is something inherently lacking – that you are out place here. This sort of feeling is a lot like being a teenager and not yet knowing where you truly belong – but it is metaphysically far deeper and more troubling. The universe is your metaphysical mother, and her role is to help you “grow up” and “find your true place in the world.” She does this through the workings of karma, by holding you responsible for your deeds. She allows you to be in this world and enjoy it, but at the same time helps you gradually figure out for yourself exactly what it is that is lacking from this worldly experience. Karma allows you to create your own future, but it also encourages you to gradually evolve and “grow up” by only truly rewarding your more selfless acts, and only truly punishing your more selfish ones.

The stars and planets move into configurations like hands on a clock, revealing the deeper clockwork of the universe – the mechanism of karma itself. That configuration, particularly at the time of your birth, tells you how the universe is configured towards you, and thus allows to understand what karmic fruits the universe will bestow to you during this lifetime.

Can you alter your fate? What an odd question! Has anyone else but you in fact created your fate in the first place!? The stars do not create your fate, they simply enforce it. They enforce it with a power that is impossible to oppose, yes. But still it is you and only you who command the power and responsibility for your own destiny. You can not change the destiny you have already created. But you must change the destiny you create today, by using your freewill to react to your own fate in more and more enlightened and selfless ways.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

© 2010 Vic DiCara, All Rights Reserved