For reasons known to a small group of dedicated healers here in the UK who are helping me to deal with some complicated karmic issues that are now surfacing, I am revisiting some of the brilliant lectures/retreats I’ve attended over the years with Judy Hall starting back in August 2000.
This series of blog posts is dedicated to all of them and intended to help healers and clients alike more quickly get to the crux of their own karmic issues.[1]
What are we meant to achieve?
Souls incarnate at a particular place and time to deal with any number of issues, most notably leftover emotions from prior lives such as fear, desire, joy, and grief especially in relation to one or two particular persons.
In this regard, reincarnating souls usually fall into one of two distinctly different groups:
- Destiny – those who desire to remain bound to their ‘past patterns’ of dealing with their karmic issues, or
- Free Will – those who desire to learn a new response to their karmic challenges rather than simply repeating what they’ve done over and over again perhaps across multiple reincarnations.
In order to get some sense of which group into which an incarnating soul falls, it’s important to look astrologically at the zodiacal sign, placement, and contacts (especially by outer planets) made by their Mercury, which gives important clues as to the thought patterns and expectations at work in this incarnation. It also gives clues as to any karmic communication issues you may have brought into this incarnation with you. For example close Mercury/ Pluto suggest expectations of abuse of power – either as the perpetrator or the victim – whilst close Mercury/Saturn aspects suggest expectations of communication problems – often due to lack of education or social status. By contrast, close Mercury/Neptune aspects suggest expectations of being overwhelmed by the thoughts/emotional needs of others.
Finally, it’s helpful to think of karma as falling broadly into certain categories, or types of karma. The following are some examples as well as some of their chief astrological significators.
| Type | Description | Astrological Signifiers |
|---|---|---|
| Classic | Very black and white, this is the classic eye for and eye and tooth for a tooth karma of retribution. | Moon in Capricorn (often deals with collective classic karma) and/or challenging aspects in the 6th and 12th houses. |
| Recompense | This is the present reward for what you’ve got right in prior lives especially regarding making sacrifices to for another soul’s growth. | Easier aspects like trines and sextile especially when involving more difficult planets like Saturn or Pluto. |
| Redemptive | Classic for those who always want to ‘help’ others either by bringing light into their lives or relieving them of their suffering. | Heavy contacts of personal planets with Neptune/ Neptune in 12th house / North Node in 12th House. |
| Merit | This is the ‘karmic piggybank’ – the reward for what you’ve learned in past lives. | Planets in the 2nd house, especially the heavy-hitter outers like Saturn/Neptune/Uranus/Pluto. |
| Attitude | An excess of entrenched attitudes – usually manifesting into either being too hard-hearted or too easily giving of oneself. | Look to aspects with and placement of Mercury. |
| Organic | Past over-indulgences that manifest in chronic present illnesses and injuries. | Look to the ruler of the 6th house (Placidus) and it’s sign/placement/aspects/ look especially to placements of Jupiter in the either the 6th or 12th houses. |
| Karmic Treadmill | Often the result of alcoholism and other addictions including repeated relationships. | Look to fixed houses (2nd/5th/8th/11th) as well as a high concentration of planets in fixed signs (Taurus/Leo/Scorpio/Aquarius). |
| Work | Behaviour in past lives leads to problems in the work-place – for example, lack of integrity in prior lives may lead to your business partner cheating on you in this life. | Look to the 6th/ 10th houses. |
| Technological | Revolves around past lives where people played with nature (or tried to stop those who did) – often relates to the lost island of Atlantis, the Industrial Revolution, factory injuries, or other technologically caused maiming. | Look to Uranus in either the 6th or 12th houses or Uranus with difficult aspects. |
| Vocational | Current day healers who had prior lives as monks or nuns and with to carry on with their work – which may be appropriate or not. | Look to 6th/10th house rulers and planetary placements. |
| Communication | Too vocal or not vocal enough as well as difficulties being understood. | Look to Mercury placements especially by house as well as planets in the 3rd house. |
Example
For example, my own chart is very Mercurical in nature – (Moon/Jupiter in Mercury ruled Gemini in the 12thhouse) and Mars/Venus in Mercury ruled Virgo). This suggests the placement and aspects made to my Mercury are important to my present incarnation.
My Mercury (in Libra) is caught up in a tight conjunction with Saturn and Neptune. This suggests that at least part of my karmic journey during this life is communication. That Saturn/Neptune conjunction is symbolic of the karmic dilemma known as the mystical/pragmatist -where I am torn between ‘floating on my cloud and meditating’ and ensuring that my bank account is nicely topped up. I assure you that many have accused me of just this especially when, back in 2006, I left a job in London where I had a six-figure income to attain an MA in the Study of Mystical and Religious Studies at the University of Kent in Canterbury (btw, it was totally worth it!!!).
Whilst on a retreat at Glastonbury Abbey (behind the Abbey ruins is a very comfortable retreat house owned by the Church of England) back in 2002 with Judy Hall and a select group of other would-be karmic astrologers, I experienced the following ‘message’ during a visualization exercise.
“Story-telling is my specialty. My Mercury/Neptune/Saturn easily makes stories that humanity has always wanted (and will always want). My Pluto in the 2nd house has experience all the phases of human evolution and as the result, can offer a broad viewpoint to others to help them put things into perspective. My Moon in Gemini also has a fairy-like connection with fantasy and my inner child. I can bring that to through my stories as well as a found of knowledge to myself. In Egypt, I have undergone the ‘sacred ‘marriage’ and have touched the Falcon God Horus. Because of this, I can bridge the light of day with the fantasies of night and help otherwise (as well as myself) to escape the dark dungeons where they/we may others stay imprisoned.
So how will I proceed to deal with my communication karma and related issues, especially as relates to the mystical/pragmatist dilemma which is so clearly highlighted in my very karmic 4th house?
(to be continued)
[1] For these purposes, karma is defined as a promise to pay for what you now get. It’s important to remember that karma is not just about dealing with the past but that you are making karma for the future in the here and now. It’s also important to remember that the little things that we do each and every day do add up and often create more of an impact on our karma than the ‘big’ decisions/actions we take.
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