Let’s look at a topic that I never talk about: astrology.
I’ve been blogging since 2010, and I don’t know that I’ve mentioned anything about star signs, planetary conjunctions, and so forth.
And for good reason.
Spiritual Starting Points
There are a lot of spiritual starting points. Many people have a sense that there is more to life than what meets the eye, and that leads to many people exploring ideas around ghosts, aliens, angels, saviors, resurrection, reincarnation, and star signs.
It’s okay to start some place.
We all have to.
It is okay to leave that place as we mature.
Because as we mature on the spiritual path, we see that astrology is mainly used to reinforce ego, not let it go.
Who Are You?
Are you a Pisces?
This is a trick question.
You are not.
That is an idea. You are not ideas, and you will never be an idea.
A common response is to say, “We’ll it’s in my nature.”
What is your nature?
Where does that come from?
What about your biology?
What about all the things stored in your subconscious that you don’t remember?
Usually, people run away from these questions. However, these are the real questions that lead to answering the very important question of, “Who are you?”
And if we’re not trying to actually answer this question with astrology or any spiritual or religious tradition, then we are most likely trying to validate our beliefs.
The Ego Validation Game
Again and again, the ego wants validation for whoever you think you are. Standing at the edge of uncertainty, we grasp for anything that gives us a sense of
security.
Fundamentally, the ego is a construct seeking security, and astrology commonly plays a role in that for the vast majority of people.
All of that is part of attempts to create a sense of control.
Reinforcing Your Ego With Astrology
Again and again, people turn to spiritual paths and religions not for spiritual freedom, but to reinforce what a person already wants to believe about themselves and better controlling outcomes in life. These paths are not interested in dissolving identity–they validate and rebuild it.
The ego needs this because it doesn’t exist anywhere. It can easily be forgotten.
Everyday, the ego has to remember every day that you’re a Cancer or Gemini.
What happens if you woke up one day and forgot?
Would you cease to exist?
Might you suddenly find a whole bunch of behaviors and ideas that didn’t fit that mentality are now available to you?
Ego identities limit us.
Limitation causes endless suffering in a vast universe of possible.
Limiting Beliefs and Core Beliefs
7 Signs of Spiritual Progress (and 6 Signs that Are Not Progress)
Dropping Astrology
If you don’t believe in astrology, you will still be here now.
You will still be awareness.
You will not have lost anything real.
For those at the beginning of their paths (which has nothing to do with time, btw), they typically find a whole bunch of fear that their astrological beliefs were trying to medicate.
But like any kind of poor medication, it didn’t get rid of the fear. It only hid it.
This is true of countless other spiritual beliefs. And blindly believing in science and progress is not about seeing truth either.
It’s about making a person feel safe and in control from experiences in themselves and the world that they don’t know how to handle.
Which is why people can become really upset when beliefs are exposed as not real–they are already lost in fear.
Freedom from Fear and Ego
For those who want out of the fear and ego, we let go.
This is a path of loss.
We lose beliefs like those in astrology to find deeper beliefs and attachments inside.
We then work on losing them.
And then losing the next ones after them.
And the next ones after them.
Until we are clear as we can be to see the nature of reality.
2 Comments
Hello there
I hear what you are saying and tend to agree with it. But I’m curious (and a bit confused) about where direct experience fits into all of this? For instance, I was always neutral on the idea of reincarnation. Then, many years ago, I had a huge and direct experience of another version of myself living in a simultaneous alternative reality. It would have rivalled a Hollywood movie it was so unbelievable, and it was traumatising and destabilising. So it’s not a ‘belief’ in an ‘idea’ or ‘concept’ of reincarnation, but a direct experience. Or I guess you could say, it’s a belief in reincarnation BECAUSE of a perceived direct experience, in the same way I believe I’m sitting here typing to you on the computer, right now, because it seems like a direct experience. Because of what happened, it’s a reality (and not just a conceptual belief) for me.
I hope I’m making sense?
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thank you.
Hi Amanda.
I appreciate the question.
I have a lot more questions, however, for you.
How the brain constructs ideas–particularly if there is trauma–is a thing we learn to inquire into us. Again and again, inquiry is about really, really looking at these sensations, emotions, and ideas that make up an experience to figure out how and where they came from inside of us. We must exhaust every possible route before we come to conclusions like reincarnation. And usually, what we find are old unresolved experiences from our recent past that once resolve shed new light on these types of experiences.
I encourage you to come to a class if you want help learning how to do inquiry. It’ll also allow me to ask you more questions.
In kindness,
Jim