by Robert Wilkinson
Our level of spiritual awareness determines how our charts will function in the real world. As we expand our awareness and ability to function in the four worlds of human existence, how our charts manifest changes dramatically, and often in miraculous ways which are completely different from how they did when we were unaware.
I offered you this about a year ago in a different form. Over the years I’ve had numerous discussions about whether the astrological chart show us how evolved a Being is. One Spiritual Brother offered that “casting a chart of an individual is ascertained from our understanding of where this soul stands on the point of evolution” and then quoted a passage from the most advanced “spiritual astrology” source we have:
As a man evolves, the mechanism of response, or the vehicles of consciousness likewise steadily improve. His reactions, therefore, to the planetary influence, and to the energy of the various constellations, change with equal steadiness, and allowance must be made for this. It is consequently essential that the modern astrologer begins to study the point in evolution of the subject, prior to casting his horoscope. He must ascertain his appropriate place on the path of evolution.from the Tibetan Master DK (via Alice Bailey), Esoteric Astrology Vol III, A Treatise on the Seven Rays
This passage by the Tibetan Master makes two things clear. First, as I’ve offered students over the years, each Being responds according to their state of awareness and mastery of the three components of personality. As we evolve, our responses do in fact “steadily improve.” A square works differently in the life of a dysfunctional personality than it does in the life of a conscious Disciple, regardless of the path. And even there, due to the differences in forms of Self-realization, our planets still operate in a unique way due to our individual Light expression via the personality.
Second, while ideally it is “essential” for an astrologer to “study the point in evolution of the subject,” this is impossible for the vast number of astrologers, who know the craft but are not conscious disciples of any truth outside of Astrology. There are many astrologers who are not very aware spiritually. An astrologer can only advise at the level of their own awareness.
To “ascertain his appropriate place on the path of evolution” would require an awareness which does not involve the direct feedback of the Being, since no Being can adequately represent their level of awareness. Even Initiates are not allowed to speak of where they’re at, and only Higher Initiates can understand the level of less-evolved Beings due to having attained that broader scope of deeper and vaster awareness.
I responded to the original statement by the Tibetan Master DK with this:
I have never found any consistent astrological markers that indicate whether the Being is on a path, or what level of awareness they are operating at. That said, my approach always opens doors of higher awareness to my clients due to my approach to the chart. Often I find that once they have a certain level of understanding of their life, the doors to higher awareness open and they are given the choice to "break on through to the other side."So I do their chart session first, and then we have a discussion about how much they want to learn about transcendent things. All that said, after almost 50 years in the craft, my clients tend to be self-selecting. No gamblers, but a lot of disciples on various paths find me these days.
The Power of Choice
Any chart could produce a Gandhi or a Stalin. At each fork in the road of our lives, we all choose to take either the high road of love, wisdom, compassion and understanding, or the low road of ignorance, fear, and dysfunctional actions. That implies Saturn has everything to do with our spiritual state of awareness, since a dysfunctional Saturn chooses to be enslaved by half truths and limited understanding, whereas a healthy Saturn brings us the maturity and understanding we need to become our Higher Self in action.
That’s why I associate Saturn with the “Guardian/Dweller on the Threshold,” since as we approach the threshold of a greater awareness, it inevitably brings up fears related to what we’re leaving behind, as well as fears related to the potential unknowns about what we’ll have to deal with as a result of our willingness to “lift the bar off the Gates of Gold” and claim another facet of our Divine Estate. Over the years it’s become clear that any true spiritual growth must involve our coming to terms with the virtues of our inner Saturn, since that alone can guide us on our journey from darkness to light, the unreal to the real, leaving our fears behind as we become spiritual adults in our world. You can find more about this crucial evolutionary factor in our lives by consulting Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend.
Saturn gives us strength and power in its own way so that we may persist as long as it takes to fulfill Dharma, our “true purpose” for being alive in a body. When we are younger, Saturn brings challenges which if we meet them, create an understanding we build on throughout out lives. As we continue to make our inner Saturn our friend and guide, we begin to express the greater understanding and maturity Saturn represents, and at times find ourselves expressing our Higher Self, our Atma-Buddhi-Manas “Soul Spirit” which seeks to shine the Light of Higher Awareness on all within our sphere of existence.
Each eternal Being has their Dharma to fulfill, and creates karma by every choice they make along the Way. No one is compelled to do good or bad; each chooses in each moment what awareness they want to express, and whether to follow a dysfunctional path or find a way to shed their chains of mental slavery.
Frictional Aspects Are Times To Choose Wisely
I have experienced oppositions as extremely oppositional people, but also as an awareness of duality allowing me to find ways to transcend those false premises. Any opposition give us the opportunity to see “the whole picture” and choose a wider view within which the opposition functions. We learn as much by polarization as we do by inner fusion, as these two states are part of a greater cycle of evolution.
With my numerous oppositions and squares, I have been blocked and countered this life by extremely dysfunctional people who needed a drama, and yet have used those encounters to find a greater awareness of the human condition, the great Mayic illusion we all live within, and more effective ways to transcend that illusion. A transiting square helps us turn a corner, whether on a situation, a person, or an attitude. It can help us put the brakes on a certain trajectory, or show us the time has come to take a different path.
As I have served a greater good for many years, though I’ve dealt with many unfortunate people, those who didn’t rise to the challenge of being their Higher Self all fell away like dead leaves in an Autumn breeze. While in my early years I had all kinds of clients under all kinds of illusions, some fairly nasty, because I’m fairly consistent in who I am and what I will and will not do, my clients began self-selecting over the years with many falling away while other seekers presented themselves for counsel. Over time, as I maintained my integrity as an Astrologer, I began to attract clients who wanted to learn more about their uniqueness and how their Higher Self might express itself.
I have found all of us in the “helping and counseling” professions, including astrologers, attract exactly the clients we need to attract to improve our skills, regardless of the client's state of awareness. Over time, we can see how we’ve grown in our abilities through reflecting on how we helped who we helped when they found us. I have seen that difficult clients always lead astrologers to question who they should be attracting!
Becoming A Vehicle For Greater Good
Because I only want clients of good intention and good hearts, I tend to attract those who want to experience a higher truth, both of life and themselves. So I don't really have to assess my client's "spiritual state," since their spiritual state will naturally come forth as a result of what I say about their chart. I may not know the state of my client’s awareness before the session, but when the session is done each of my clients sees elements of their Higher Self and ways to practice it. Rather than pre-judge my client, I simply appeal to the best in their chart, offering them ways to use their uniqueness as they see fit.
That way, each rises to their level of intention to become their Higher Self, each life challenge becomes an opportunity to turn friction to harmony and understanding, and each revelation becomes a stepping stone to ever-greater awareness. Each perfects how they express the various Ray energies over time, perfecting themselves in ways which allow them to become part of “the corrective force of Nature Herself,” which is ultimately what all of us come to, whether we know it or not.
As we learn to deal with difficult aspects we find ways to transmute the friction into opportunities to serve a greater good in our world. As we overcome the traps of the lower self, we naturally find those who also are dealing with those traps, and can help others overcome them through our understanding, and their willingness to apply that understanding in their own unique ways. So a square could very well bring two or more disciples together in a greater good, whether they know it or not.
I’ll close with a phrase I’ve offered countless people across the years. I firmly believe “A person doesn’t get it together because they see the light; they only get it together when they feel the heat.” Heat is frictional, and created by the frictional angles between us and others, us and ourselves, and us and Nature. Each time we go through friction we engage “Fire By Friction,” and evolve in our awareness.
As we overcome tendencies to become attached to assumptions, or avoid facing something, or fall into illusions or pessimism, we have the ability to counteract these in situations. As we evolve and kill out fear, vanity, and inappropriate desires, we become the turning point of the square; we become the awareness generated by an opposition; we become the agents of transformation in our world. That’s the value of being a Spirit in the material world. That’s the value of being a spiritual Astrologer.
© Copyright 2020 Robert Wilkinson
A lot of wisdom behind those words and the 50 years of experience on the craft!
Yes, the Law of Attraction (and Repulsion) is clearly seen at work through your comments. This discriminates the people we find and work with.
Also, your post clearly shows that we all have free will and responsibility over our life and this is an extraordinary aspect to value and cherish.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | November 16, 2020 at 08:38 AM
Thank you for this explanation and reminder. You can't even tell from a chart whether it is a puppy or a human being.
Posted by: Lalia Rae | November 16, 2020 at 09:36 AM
Hi, Robert,
Love this article, first because I've learned so much from you over the years...
And second because I couldn't agree more. Like you, I find my clients are self selecting. Every one is an opportunity to learn on my part as well as one to be of help to someone else. So much so that I examine every interaction from the perspective of what is Spirit wanting me to learn this time?
And so we all move forward together. Thanks!
Posted by: Jo Garceau | November 16, 2020 at 02:13 PM
A wonderful article. All astrologers would gain from reading. Sharing.
Posted by: Bonnie Orgren | November 19, 2020 at 08:31 PM
That deeply feels like the right perspective on astrology to me: a blend of the deterministic, ever-dynamic cosmic design, and the key role of the developing individual consciousness as it increasingly awakens to its ability to focus these cosmic energies constructively.
I'm not proficient in, and certainly not a practitioner of astrology; but I have a rapidly developing sense of connection with those godly objects in the night sky, and I am drawn to voices such as yours, which translate my subjective experience of connection into a context of existential ideas, concepts and precepts.
Reading your piece I found myself considering my growing understanding of my own chart's squares and oppositions; particularly the testing opposition between my wonderfully aspected Sag Ascendant Saturn, and my equally well-supported Gemini Descendent Mars. I have felt the development of my own understanding of the potential this aspect points toward, for many years now. I can see how Saturn inexorably, gradually transformed my original Martian impulsive, wilful, result-oriented aggression into patient service to an emerging natural design with long-term objectives that may span more than my individual life-time. And to let Mars express itself in the "filling-in" of emerging life-patterns that contribute to Saturnian purpose, without assuming an independent, separate authority. They can and do work together, these two, even if I can only feel their apparent contrast at times, and the mutuality of their contribution may not always be obvious to my limited understanding. I, the soul, provide the context of patient space for their cyclical resolution first slowly emerging into focus, then returning to nebulous chaos, before swinging back into new shapes of creation.
Posted by: Marco Menato | November 20, 2020 at 02:04 AM
A fabulous piece. Thanks for sharing 💛. What you write makes perfect sense. I especially liked your interpretation of the aspects as they can be viewed from a positive and spiritual perspective (how they affect a person on the Path). You filled a void. I have looked in vain among esoteric astrologers for such an interpretation (finding only something resembling your words in Vedic astrology). And of course yours words on Saturn. Reading it I recalled a passage from Alan Leo in his book : Esoteric Astrology. He connects Saturn to the “Antahkarana” as does HPB in her Esoteric Instructions (where she shows correspondences between the planets and our ‘Seven Principles’ according to theosophy) . He begins with a quote from William Q. Judge :
‘ “The Higher Ego is, as it were, a globe of pure white light, a light from a higher plane, on which there is no differentiation. Descending from a plane of differentiation it emanates a Ray, which it can only manifest through the personality which is already differentiated. A portion of this Ray, the Lower Manas, during life may so crystallize itself and become one with the Kama that it will remain assimilated with matter. That portion which retains its purity forms Antahkarana (Saturn). The whole fate of an incarnation depends on whether Antahkara (Saturn) will be able to restrain the Kama-Manas (Mars) or not. …”
Saturn acts as a bridge between the personal, mortal, part of man and the higher spiritual and immortal part; thus Saturn may be said to purify, refine, and spiritualize the essence of the Moon and Mars, and transform their colors... ' (Alan Leo, Esoteric Astrology, pp.95-96)
Posted by: Patrick Chouinard | November 29, 2020 at 10:57 AM