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Astrology Notes: Astrology, Healing and
the Evolution of Consciousness
Exerpt from:
"Mirror, Mirror, Body and Mind"
(Book Two of the series, "Musings of a Rogue Comet - Chiron, Planet of Healing")"
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by Martin Lass |
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This is the second in a series of excerpts from the second book in my Chiron series. These excerpts are not in book order, but are specially selected each month.
Overview
This book is not an astrology book; rather, it is a book about the relationship between consciousness and the Body and Mind-in particular, about health and disease and how it manifests in the Body and Mind as a mirror of our consciousness, as a mirror of our issues and wounds. Chiron is our guide in this study-not astrologically, but ideologically.
This first excerpt is predicated on the preceding two thirds of the book, which offer extensive arguments and evidence to support the book's primary assertion: that health and disease are all a matter of consciousness. Change our consciousness-learn to Love-and so the Body and Mind return to their innate balance and well-being. Seeing this, we eventually realize that, as mirrors of our deepest issues and wounds, the Body, the Mind, health, and disease are all Gifts. Moreover, there is actually nothing wrong in us-nothing to fix, change, correct, repair, set right, or get rid of; the Body and Mind are simply functioning in the way that they were designed to function. There are only lessons of Love to learn.
Part Three, Chapter 3 ~ Illusions and Myths
(recapping from last month)
"The healer's job has always been to release something not understood, to remove obstructions (demons, germs, despair) between the sick patient and the force of life driving obscurely toward wholeness."
- Robert O. Becker, M.D.
From all that we have explored so far, we can say with certainty that the "obstructions" we must remove in order to Heal, as mentioned in the preceding quote, are our misperceptions, our illusions, our biases, stances, half-truths and judgments. As we do so, this is mirrored in our Body and Mind, which inherently strive for wholeness. Such is the aim of all Healing.
If we are now ready for Healing, then let us begin to question some of the illusions and myths upon which our lopsided view of our lives and the world around us is based. Let us question these illusions and myths, look for the flip-sides, seek out the other halves of their greater Truths. Let us question the many things we have taken for granted, taken as axioms, taken as immutable Truths and let us seek a larger view that transcends our narrow boundaries of consciousness. Let us awaken to a larger reality. Let us touch Actuality, beyond our misperceptions and judgments. Let us touch Truth. Let us touch Love. This is the Healing journey.
(New this month-see Archives for previous installment:)
Quality Questions
Although we will discuss the concept of Quality Questions in a later chapter, let's briefly describe this Healing technique, as it will enable us to begin suggesting ways and means of transcending the illusions and myths we will be discussing in a moment.
We have said that every charge or judgment represents an unanswered question seeking an answer, seeking resolution, seeking greater Truth. With respect to any given issue demanding resolution, if we were able to ask the right questions, we would be able to find the exact answers for which we are looking. The Healing technique of Quality Questions seeks to do just this. It seeks to find the right questions for a given issue.
There are specific guidelines that give us clues to what are the right questions in a given situation. One of the basic techniques is to ask what are the benefits, blessings, lessons and Gifts in a negatively-judged event, circumstance, situation or issue about which we are trying to come to a higher consciousness. Conversely, if we are judging a happening or issue more positively than negatively, we would ask what are the drawbacks, downfalls, limitations, stumbling blocks and negative ramifications in the happening or issue.
Asking certain specific questions, despite the protestations of our various personas that do not want to acknowledge the possibilities of certain uncomfortable and confronting Truths, gives us a way of opening ourselves to the flip-sides of our perceptions of the events, circumstances and situations that form our issues. The key is to ask questions that will reveal the hidden repressed flip-sides of the affair at hand. The aim is to bring balance to our overall perception of a happening or issue.
In order to begin seriously asking such Quality Questions, we must initially Trust that there are flip-sides that we are not seeing. Otherwise, our lopsided personas will simply refuse to budge, maintaining that their biased viewpoint is the only viewpoint possible. For this reason, third-party facilitation of this Healing technique is advisable and generally more profitable.
In answer to our protesting personas, here are the words of the great Austrian philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein:
"The riddle does not exist. If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it."
The specific application of the technique of asking Quality Questions will become clearer as we use it in relation to the issues we will cover in the next sections of this chapter.
Key Points
· Every charge or judgment represents an unanswered question.
· The technique of Quality Questions seeks the right questions for given issues.
· We need to ask what are the benefits, blessings, lessons and Gifts in negatively-judged things.
· We need to ask what are the drawbacks, downfalls, limitations and stumbling blocks in positively-judged things.
· The key is revealing the hidden flip-sides to things.
· The aim is to bring balance to our overall perception.
· Initially, we are required to Trust that there are flip-sides.
· If a question can be posed at all, then it can also be answered. (Wittgenstein)
What We Judge in Others
With the help of Chiron and with a spirit of sincerity and resolved determination, what Quality Questions might we ask ourselves that might help us to awaken to the Truth that all we see around us is a mirror reflection of ourselves?
First: "For those persons I judge negatively, for each of their negative traits or characteristics, where do I have the same trait or characteristic, equal to them, perhaps in a different form? Let me search the past and the present." Then: "How does this trait or characteristic Serve me and others?"
Next: "For those persons I judge as superior, better, more Gifted or more blessed than I, for each positive aspect or characteristic, where do I have the same aspect or characteristic in myself or in my life, equal to them, perhaps in a different form? Let me search the past and the present." Then: "What are the drawbacks and disadvantages of each of these positive aspects to me and to others?"
Next: "For each negative deed done by others in the world, where have I done the same in my life, equal to others, perhaps in a different form?" Further: "Where do I still do these deeds today, perhaps in different forms?" Then: "How did (or do) these deeds Serve me and Serve others in positive ways?"
Finally: "For each positive achievement I admire, done by others, where have I achieved similarly and equally, perhaps in some other area of my life?" Further: "Where am I achieving similarly now?" Then: "What have been (or are) the drawbacks and disadvantages to me and others of each achievement?"
The first and major stumbling block to our Healing is the refusal to seek the answers to such questions. Our lopsided personas will assure us that these questions are unanswerable, pointless, a waste of time and barking up the wrong tree. After all, we are not like that! Or we will stop short of true balanced consciousness by claiming that we cannot think of any more answers. Resistance will tire us, disincline us, engender boredom and disinterest within us. However, if, in the face of all resistance, we simply persist, we will soon reap the rewards of Healing and evolution of consciousness.
Every Quality Question leads us closer to the discovery and acknowledgment of our own special Gifts and, hence, our unique Divine Design.
Remember: there cannot be negative without equal positive or positive without equal negative. This is a Universal Law, based upon the very physics of Creation. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour; every evil its good. Every faculty which is a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse. It is to answer for its moderation with its life. For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something. If riches increase, they're increased that use them. If the gatherer gathers too much, nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest; swells the estate, but kills the owner. Nature hates monopolies and exceptions."
Key Points
· We can resolve our issues by asking Quality Questions about those issues.
· Our lopsided personas will resist and fight against Quality Questions.
· Quality Questions lead us closer to seeing our unique Gifts and Divine Design.
· Universal Law states that there cannot be negative without equal positive or positive without equal negative.
The Illusion of Pain and Pleasure
"O Beloved,
put attention neither on pleasure or pain
but between these."
- A Zen aphorism
We have already touched on this subject in a previous chapter. We spoke of the illusion that there is more pain than pleasure or more pleasure than pain in the world and in our lives. Now let's look at it from the perspective that, perhaps, ultimately, the entire pain/pleasure construct is an illusion.
The sensations of pain and pleasure have their origin in our physiology. As such, they are interpretations of reality that are both relative and personal. Although many hypotheses and theories exist, postulating 'pain' and 'pleasure' centers in the brain, medical science has yet to discover the physiological basis for pain. What is painful to one person can well be pleasureful to another and vice versa. What's more, research and experimentation have shown that responses to stimuli - painful or pleasureful - can be 'programmed' one way or another, further showing the relativity of perception of pain and pleasure.
Carrying our understanding of expressed and repressed perceptions into the area of pleasure and pain now, we can now say that where there is perception of pain expressed, there is perception of pleasure repressed. Where there is perception of pleasure expressed there is perception of pain repressed. All events, circumstances, situations and happenings have an equal balance of pain and pleasure. The fact that we perceive one as being more than the other is a measure of our lopsided perception and our current state of consciousness around the given issue.
However, before entirely dismissing pain and pleasure, we must acknowledge the role our perceptions of these play in our Healing and in the evolution of consciousness. Our charges (judgments) attract and repel us throughout our life, guiding us towards awakening to our true nature and towards the eventual understanding of our life's purpose and calling that we have designated our Divine Design. The perception of pain and pleasure are also charges that attract and repel us from things in our lives. The two-fold Truth is that they simultaneously and paradoxically keep us from coming into a centerpoint of balance and Love, as well as guiding us towards those issues through which we need to work in order to come to this same centerpoint. In short, our perceptions of pain and pleasure Serve us.
Furthermore, the perceptions of pain and pleasure Serve the survival of the species by causing repulsion from things that threaten continued existence and by causing attraction to things that perpetuate existence. The innate urge for survival and its connection to the relative and personal perceptions of pain and pleasure is baffling and mysterious if considered only from a physiological point of view. It is only when the broad metaphysical picture is considered that this innate urge becomes meaningful and understandable, ultimately being seen as a part of a larger and consciously-intentioned Plan.
What we have proposed so far, is that where there is pain, there is equal pleasure and vice versa. However, this Truth is not immediately evident to our lower animal nature - the lower mind - due to the fact that the very act of perception - rooted in physiological origins - expresses one half of the picture and represses the other. On the path towards Healing and conscious evolution, we will gradually discover the repressed pleasures that lie behind our expressed pains. Conversely, we will gradually discover the repressed pains that lie behind our expressed pleasures.
The idea that we get 'stuck' in a place where there is more pain than pleasure is an illusion. Basic human nature states that we do not remain in a place where we truly perceive more pain than pleasure. In Truth, we get out as quickly as we can. If we do not remove ourselves from situations that we claim engender more pain than pleasure, then this is an indication of unacknowledged side benefits and pay-offs with which we are consciously or unconsciously unwilling to part. All excuses of "can't" and "unable" are but masking this hidden truth.
Conversely, the idea that there is a place somewhere in the world where we will have less pain and more pleasure is also an illusion. The grass may seem greener on the other side of the fence, but when we get to a place that initially seems more pleasureful than painful, we gradually begin to see the pains, drawbacks and disadvantages to which we were previously blind. A prime example of this illusion is when we run away from one relationship into another and gradually realize that the same issues are still there, despite the change of view. Gradually we realize, often with awakening horror, that the person we have run away from is standing before us, now in a different body! The lessons of Love follow us wherever we try to run.
We spend much time, effort and energy trying to get away from where we are, both in time and in space. We live in the illusion that 'tomorrow' will be better or that some other place other than where we are will be less painful and more pleasureful. Our attractions and repulsions in this respect take us inevitably to where our lessons are. These lessons are ultimately designed to teach us to Love ourselves and our lives, just as they are, in our present location and in the moment of Now.
Simultaneously and paradoxically, these same illusions are the guidance system that leads us eventually to our Divinely-Designed calling in this lifetime. Loving ourselves, Loving our lives and embracing our Divinely-Designed calling, just as they are, become one and the same thing.
So, what are pain and pleasure? They are the two polarized sides of Love, kicking us back and forth across a centerpoint. This movement we call life. The centerpoint represents our potential for balanced consciousness, Truth, Oneness and Love. Ultimately, when we relinquish the dual illusion of pain and pleasure, we will come to rest in this place of Stillness and Love.
What Quality Questions might we ask in order to begin to see that all pain has equal pleasure and all pleasure has equal pain? What might we ask in order to begin to Love ourselves and Love our lives, just as they are, at this moment and in this space?
First: "For a given event, circumstance, situation, etcetera, past or present, that I feel has caused me or is causing me only pain with little or no benefit or pleasure, what were (or are) the benefits? What were (or are) the pay-offs? Where was (or is) the 'pleasure' in the situation? What was (or is) good about it? What part of me enjoyed (or enjoys) it and took (or takes) secret pleasure in it? Let me continue asking these questions, rejecting the illusion that there can be more pain than pleasure in anything."
Then: "For a given event, circumstance, situation, etcetera, that I feel has given me or is giving me only pleasure and little or no pain with few if any drawbacks, disadvantages or downsides, what were (or are), in fact, the drawbacks? What were (or are) the disadvantages? What were (or are) the downsides? What was (or is) bad about it? What pain did it cause (or is it causing) others and me? What part of me didn't (or doesn't) like it at all and felt (or feels) pain as a result of the whole situation? Again, let me continue asking these questions with respect to the given issue, rejecting the illusion that there can be more pleasure than pain in anything."
Then: "What do I not Love about myself that causes me pain and suffering? How does this aspect or characteristic Serve me in positive ways? What does it give me in positive ways? How does it give me pleasure and satisfaction in ways that perhaps I have not been acknowledging? What is truly wonderful about this aspect or characteristic? How is it a Gift to me and to others?"
Finally: "For each imagined pleasure or benefit that I think tomorrow will bring or that I think lies somewhere else, apart from my life at present, what will be the drawbacks, disadvantages, the downsides and the pain that these will bring if and when I ever attain or obtain them? Also, where do these things I wish for already exist in my life here and Now, perhaps not in the forms I expected? Let me keep asking these questions until the Truth reveals itself. The growth of Love within me is dependent upon the unveiling of this Truth."
Let us now proffer a deeper definition of pain:
Pain is the experience of fragmented consciousness, the unexpressed and semi-conscious awareness that we are not whole, not complete. It is the paradoxical and oft-unspeakable feeling inside us that there is a greater Oneness of which we could be a part, but from which we feel disconnected. Pain ultimately drives our search for Healing, Oneness and the experience of Love.
What, then, is pleasure?
Pleasure is the transient illusion of unified consciousness, completeness and wholeness where, in Truth, consciousness is still fragmented. The test that separates pleasure from the real experience of unified consciousness is that pleasure inevitably becomes pain after a time, whereas Truth, Oneness and Love do not change... they expand.
A further test is that pleasure is something we talk about, that we can describe to others and ourselves and about which we can still have questions. On the other hand, the real experience of unified consciousness, Oneness and wholeness, includes both pain and pleasure. Pain and pleasure, brought together within us in the same moment and in the same space is the ineffable experience of Love. At this moment, there are no words, no questions, no definitions, no translations possible. And yet, Love is such that it radiates wordlessly to all around us.
Key Points
· Pain and pleasure are interpretations of reality, both relative and personal.
· Medical science has yet to discover the physiological basis for pain.
· What is painful to one person can well be pleasureful to another and vice versa.
· Where there is perception of pain expressed, there is perception of pleasure repressed.
· Where there is perception of pleasure expressed there is perception of pain repressed.
· In Truth, pain and pleasure are always equally balanced.
· Our perceptions of pain and pleasure drive and guide us through our lives.
· A place where there is less pain and more pleasure does not exist.
· Pain is the experience of fragmented consciousness.
· Pain is the unexpressed and semi-conscious awareness that we are incomplete.
· Pleasure is the transient illusion of unified consciousness where consciousness is, in Truth, still fragmented.
· Pleasure inevitably becomes pain after a time.
· Truth, Oneness and Love do not change... they expand.
· The experience of true unified consciousness includes both pain and pleasure.
· We can talk about pain and pleasure, but in the experience of Love, there is only Silence.
For April 2004
Poem/inspiration/channeling from "Love Makes the Worlds Go Around - The Living Planets Speak":
Whether you are aware of it
or not,
there is a miraculous Plan
behind everything
in your life,
an invisible guiding hand.
You cannot take a wrong step.
You cannot make a 'mistake'.
There are no accidents.
The shortest route, however,
lies through your Heart:
the acknowledgment
of Divine Order,
in Gratitude,
in Love.
That Divine Order
is you.
What a miracle!
(Uranus)
From Martin Lass' Poetry book: "Love Makes the Worlds Go Around - The Living Planets Speak"
http://www.martinlass.com/lovemakes.htm
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Go back to Martin's column |
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Martin Lass,
Astrologer
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Martin Lass
Professional Practising and Research Astrologer
Research Member of AFA (American Federation of Astrologers)
Member of ISAR (International Society for Astrological Research)
Certified practitioner of "The Collapse Process"(TM) of Dr. John Demartini (The Concourse of Wisdom School of Philosophy and Healing, Houston TX).
Martin Lass specializes in Chiron Astrology--the astrology of Healing--as well as actively researching the origins of astrology and astrology's wider metaphysical connections to every possible area of human endeavor and expression.
He writes for various trade journals, has authored numerous books (see below) and presents lectures/seminars/workshops worldwide on a variety of topics from astrology to healing to the connections between mythology, physics and metaphysics, to name a few.
Author of the three-volume book series, "Musings of a Rogue Comet - Chiron, Planet of Healing" and of "Love Makes the Worlds Go Around - The Living Planets Speak"
See:
www.martinlass.
com/chbk123.htm
Author of spiritually-based fiction and poetry
Professional musician (violinist), composer and entertainer
Book designer for Print-on-Demand (POD) printing process (primarily for self-publishers - e-books and trade paperbacks)
websites:
www.martinlass.
com/astrohome.htm
(astrology and healing site)
www.martinlass.
com
(music site)
www.galactic
publications.
com
(PDF book design site)
email:
MartinLass7@aol.com
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