I was born into a family that understood reincarnation. My name is Dorje, and one of the explanations for being named that given to me, a man of purely Northern European descent living in Northern America, which was spoken often of by my parents, was that when I was born, they believed I was a Tibetan Soul. When you hear something from the very first days of your life, it becomes a background natural understanding, or belief. For many in the west, reincarnation however is a concept that they have had to adopt upon discovery, or reject, as some do.
The idea of Reincarnation in the West is older than Christianity. Empedocles in the fifth century BC described being reborn as man, a woman, a fish, a bird, and a bush in varying lives, Pythagoras too, expressed that he remembered past lives. By the time of the Christian Mystic Oregin, and the Council of Constantinople in 553 AD reincarnation had fallen deeply out of favor in the west.
The idea started coming back again with the works of Blavatsky’s teachings on theosophy. It should be noted though, this was only in the European Western imagination. In India, China, Tibet, the belief system held strong, especially in Tibet where Tulku’s or emmanations, of teachers started taking successive named incarnations. One example is we live in the time of the 14th Dalai Lama, the 1st Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub, having lived in a human body from 1391 to 1474.
Theosophy gave a great deal of romantic joie de vie to the idea of reincarnation and eventual lead to a plethora of New Age thinking about the matter, with such fantastical ideas as people claiming they were reincarnations of Cleopatra, or other great historic figures. The other thing Theosophy did was open the door way for Western Astrology to examine reincarnation through the astrological chart.
Alan Leo, a committed Theosophist, and modern astrologer, interpreted astrology through karma and the soul’s development across successive lives. In his mind, the birth chart could describe the character and circumstances a soul brings into this incarnation, and the possibilities for further growth. Dane Rudhyar later explicitly identified Leo’s work as a joining of astrology with Theosophical teachings, including reincarnation.
Dane Rudhyar was skeptical that a souls previous lives could be seen in the chart, but he proved to be a bridge to the later evolutionary astrologers who ran with the idea. Jeffrey Wolf Green and Steven Forrest then developed distinct approaches that explicitly read the chart in terms of reincarnation and the soul’s development. Pluto and the lunar nodes became central to this exploration. In broad terms, the chart was found in their interpretation to contain symbols through which practitioners could find established patterns, attachments, and directions for growth that they were carrying forward from a previous life into this life.
Here we are
I spoke with Steven Forrest once about the Nodes representing past and future lives and the idea that a soul had continuity of experience. While I do believe the man is an astrological genius, despite the recent controversy concerning his cultural awareness, I was not entirely satisfied with his response. The result is that I am endeavoring to do a series of upcoming videos and interviews on the soul in astrology.
Before we get to that future project though, I want to take a moment to express while Venus is Retrograde Cazimi in the first degree of Scorpio on my opinion of reincarnation in the astrology chart, its value for the soul, and its value for your experience in this life.
The Soul in the Astrology chart from a Buddhist Perspective
You probably know I am at my core a deep follower of the philosophy of the Buddhist tradition, in particular the tradition of the Nyingma School of Buddhism and its philosophical and practitioner tenants.
In this school of Buddhism as well is most schools of Buddhism the idea of a Self is negated. This is very hard to translate into western metaphysics which relies deeply on the Being or Self or the negation of it in Scientific Materialism. My understanding after years of study is currently that the negation of self and being is based on the understanding that their is no permanent abiding self, which is what many people ascribe to the word “soul”.
That is a casual interpretation of soul though. In buddhism we do find the term of Kaya, which means body. We get three bodies (principally) they are the Dharmakaya, Sambkogakaya, and Nirmanakaya, which translate as body of truth, body of bliss, and body of form. My current view is that Kaya is a synonym for Soul. What is the difference you may ask then between the western idea of soul and Kaya. Kaya is considered illusionary, dream like, not real. This can apply to soul. We can have a soul, that is illusionary, dream like, not real. It is based on causes and conditions which come together and endure and then dissipate, it is not a permanent abiding thing.
That is an important clause when considering the soul in astrology.
Why Astrology works for understanding the Soul
The soul is hence, in my view a complex of aggregates based upon past intentions and actions. The birth chart is a moment for the souls embodiment (kaya, or Ku in Tibetan) into form that causes that soul/mind to experience material karma (results) as a result of past actions and intentions. The birth chart is a dynamic expression of form in space expressed through time. It contains interdependent links (planets, asteroids, etc…) that explain how that expression will unfold. It is temporary, dynamically changing, and continuously unfolding. The only part of it that can be said to “exist”, is the awareness that is observing the the dynamically transforming experiences of the temporary body the chart represents. In harmony with the philosophy of the Nyingma School of Buddhism, if you look for that awareness, you can not find a place where it abides.
The Nodes in reincarnational/evolutionary astrology.
The challenge for me in defining evolutionary astrology, is that the very name implies evolution. Evolution implies something that is moving in a direction of growth. Instead of such a premise, I see in the chart a dynamic that is subject to constant change. It is not necessarily growth, it is instead a path of coming into greater awareness of ones sphere of being (body) that is experiencing space and the forms that are coming in and out of it. Strengthening ones positive intentions within that context, and manifesting ones will towards love through that expression.
Studying a small amount under the evolutionary astrologer Kay Taylor, I have found that the Nodes do express that motion of the soul. Hence, I have come to the conclusion that past lives, in terms of the South Node, and future lives, in terms of the North Node, can be seen and described in the chart, not necessarily in detail, because as a buddhist, I do think, much like Empedocles suggested, that one could be born an animal, a ghost embodying a plant, or in even more extreme circumstances in a past or future life. The Nodes would describe the basic karmic energy of that, and as a human we can put that description into form in a mythological perspective that you can understand. The result is a workable way for the student of astrology to gain perspective/awareness on past energies one had to master, future energies one is learning to master in an ever dynamic and changing display of one’s own timeless awareness.
Doing so does not cause one to escape the suffering of being in form, but it does help one develop the compassion and love that makes that experience part of the spiritual path to wholeness and grants one mastery over the mandala of ones soul for as long as it continues in its intention.
To explain that part more fully from a Buddhist perspective, when a “being” attains Buddhahood, they manifest as the form and mandala of their bodhisattva (positive intention to awaken the mind) that they formed when they entered the spiritual path. As a mythological example, it is said that before Tara became a buddha, when she first awakened to the bodhisattva path, she made the great aspiration to become a female buddha to free all beings from fear and illustrate for all future women that a women could be a buddha. Hence, Taras enlightened intention will continue for as along as their is karma for beings to perceive a female buddha.
I would like to suggest then, that another way to look at the North Node in the chart, is it represents ones current manifestation of Soul Intention. This is not evolutionary, it is dynamic and transformative.
I would be thrilled to examine your soul path in your astrology chart. It is a very potent and amazing way of understanding how you are experiencing the karma that is arising in your life. If you would like to examine this very special understanding with me, please feel free to book below, and mention this article, so I know to orient towards that when preparing for your reading.