In the ancient mystery schools, the first thing that a priestess would have to do is devote many years of the learning know thyself and know the earth. Anything that would then approach her or that she’d see outside of herself was understood to be part of the earth, part of herself, and an opportunity for a deepening, as through it, she reflected and knew herself further. Through this deepening of self knowledge, she would also then discern what was hers and what wasn’t, what she wanted or needed to further develop and what she’d reject.
A lot of the new-age movement in recent years has unfortunately presented spiritual concepts that are not complete or not properly understood, and this is when things can get tricky because when a spiritual concept is not properly understood, it can even become quite detrimental to someone’s growth. For example, the statement “you attract what you are” doesn’t mean that if you attract someone who hurts you then you are also a bad person; as a big part of knowing who we are is knowing who we are not. So in every mutual interaction with someone, we receive an opportunity to see who we are through how we react or choose to respond, what we allow in our lives, and who we become when we have the upper hand in something or power over someone. These are moments that define us. Only when we know who we truly are can we know who we are not.
We all come from a ocean – or a pot of tea. And then each one of us is dropped into a little cup, into our own bodies, now having hands and lips and feet and minds – and through the walking our life we learn about ourselves. Essentially, this life is an opportunity for a deepening. The purpose of incarnation, as understood by most mystics, is that we are here to know ourselves more deeply. When we are in the pot of tea, in the seas and oceans where all tides are united, we are streams of consciousness but still in energy only. But as we come down the energy is more dense, and more dense, and here on earth everything is so dense that it has shapes – and through these shapes, and with the gift of our mind, we can observe all and ourselves more, and learn – what’s us, what’s isn’t, how do we want to be, and to grow on a soul level, thereby then rising in our energy and consciousness thereafter. And yet, the great mystery, the holy mystery, must always be honoured for we’ll never know it all.
The reality is that all beneath heaven on our earthly plane is unstable and we live in unknowing. This unknowing is uncomfortable and the way we deal with this is by being obsessed with information, categories, boxes, charts – we want to give ourselves some sense of control and some comfort in this uncertainty that life is. We want to know what will happen. We want to know who we are and what our destiny is, so that we can relax. And the more unstable we feel, the more we tighten up our grip in control.
And indeed, when we shape something into a box, or a sentence, or definition, we are then better able to study it, explore it, observe it from all its angles as it is now a more tangible thing, rather than an abstract. This is helpful to us, which is why naturally, tools such as astrology can be helpful also – it gives us a hawk eye’s view on how our life has paved forward through its twists and turns, and it gives us a rather deep glimpse into the hidden corners of our psyche. However – once we are done with the observing, and we’ve taken the insights that resonated with us or helped us, we then need to dissolve that box, or just let it sit somewhere on a shelf. It is no longer us, just something that we learned from. We are constantly moving and shaping and changing, so you cannot ever be fully captured or shaped. Human beings as complex and nuanced, and absolutism sinks us in the water like stones.
As I always tell my clients, our natal charts are essentially a spiritual study of all that has been consumed by time. Every single one of us is a little seed, which has its unique burns from the sun, impressions and imprints from all the past lives, and its own nutritive cycle that it needs to grow as beautifully as it. Once we understand our nature, our soil, our underground, the weather and the climate, then we know better how to grow in our own way and come into our full essence. Our natal charts show us these natures and cycles – for we need to know what to burn, what to eat and what needs to be devoured completely so that we reach our soul’s purpose.
The stars, the moon, the planets, the constellations, are all only great indicators of the signs of time – of how time consumes us and how things are woven into the cosmic fabrics of consciousness – it is our understanding of a current moment, it is a language longed to be understood but will forever remain somewhat mystical because one of our greatest lessons in life is to trust and uncover our own secrets.
Surely, it is going to unveil some deep things and diving into you’ll need to understand that and approach it with a prepared mind. There are no quick fixes, no easy paths, no guarantee against aches and hurts and obstacles even when we are aware in life and we’ve “done our work”. Spiritual astrology is not for the faint of heart, but real love too is not for the faith of heart.
We spend so much time building straight and direct concrete roads and highways, but the paths of life are full of twists and turns, and we will never know it all. With our conditioned minds and limited human understanding, we will never know it all. The humility of this deserves to be treasured.
And yet we still try our best. We go to our astrologer, we get a human design reading, we do tests to see our Myers Briggs, we go to our psychic, we go to our priest, we study psychology. We try it all. And yet – there is always something we will not know because we are meant to explore it on our own.
Our greatest spiritual lessons in this life is trust. Trust in self, trust in God, trust in the divine timing of your life, trust in life itself working through others’ palms to give you what you need at the right time. There are clocks beyond our human made clocks, and there, time is unstrikeable and unclockable by us.
Self-awareness tools such as astrology, are indeed amazing and they do truly offer so much insight. My clients often tell me how much it has helped them, and more importantly, how much it has reconnected them to their inner trust and confidence. And this is why I do what I do, and this is why I so deeply love what I do. But what I want us all to remember though, is that at their very essence, astrology, human design, and all else along these lines, is: perspective.
There were twelve monks sitting around an elephant. Each monk was asked to describe what they saw – and each described it truthfully through the clarity of their eyes and mind. One saw the trunk, the other the leg, and so it went – each saw a different part, a different angle, and through a different shade because of how the light of the sun was reflecting on the skin of the elephant. So which monk was right? Was one more right than the other? Their descriptions were surely different, so where is the truth?
Well, perspectives. Some people’s perspectives in life may be quite tainted and not of clarity of mind nor eyes; and a lot of people wear blindfolds without even ever knowing they do. Others’ perspectives are clear, pure, and truthful. Still, they are perspectives. The sum of all of them is perhaps that one Truth. But this one Truth is not for us in human bodies and human minds to ever fully see.
Stay curious in your life, and spend time learning about yourself. Learn from these various perspectives whenever you feel drawn to them, take what resonates and leave the rest to the winds. If something triggers you or you feel strong resistance to it, use it an opportunity to listen more deeply, to understand why you feel that way. And use all in your life as an opportunity to expand in your own perceptions within, because this is what spirituality is at its core: expansion of perceptions. Our life’s purpose isn’t a straight path and it isn’t a one sentence definition, nor a goal, but it is art of apprenticeship and it unfolds through our steps every day.
“If you have a golf-ball-sized consciousness, when you read a book, you’ll have a golf-ball-sized understanding; when you look out a window, a golf-ball-sized awareness; when you wake up in the morning, a golf-ball-sized wakefulness; and as you go about your day, a golf-ball-sized inner happiness. But if you can expand that consciousness, make it grow, then when you read that book, you’ll have more understanding; when you look out that window, more awareness; when you wake up, more wakefulness; as you go about your day, more inner happiness.” ~ David Lynch, filmmaker
And the more we open in our perceptions, the more a book is no longer just a book; and the song we once heard now has an entirely different world within it that opens, and opens us in worlds within the worlds; and all else in our life begins to speak with more meaning and purpose guiding us along our path and filling us with inspiration.
The most important thing in our life is to know ourselves. If we don’t, we might be confusing what’s ours and what isn’t. The more self-aware we are, the more we know the corners of our psyche, the easier it becomes to discern and to know what tools we need to solve any challenge that comes our way. Self knowledge is also about understand the unique language of our body, so that we can understand what it is telling us. Our emotions too speak their own language to us, and have messages they want to tell us. We all walk within our unique physical, emotional, mental and spiritual inner wildlands – and there, it is only us that can hear and see, and through intentional listening, deepen into understanding.
The know thyself practice is essentially an initiation of discernment, and discernment is actually one of the most, if not the most, powerful spiritual gift. Without discernment, not much else can truly be harnessed and practiced appropriately. Many people pray for intuitive abilities, but the truth is that without discernment, no psychic ability even matters because it’d be constantly influenced by the emotional and mental bodies without clarity. Only when the vessel is clear, the channeled is clear. Self knowledge is how we reclaim our power.
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