In my 50 years of studying the craft, I’ve found that Astrology is truly “the intersection of fate and free will.” We may feel like many things in our lives are destined, but in fact there are only two things in life which are fated, while the rest is free will.

The Intersection of Fate Street and Free Will Street on Eternity Boulevard

Given the amount of choice we have in every single moment of our lives, I’ve come to the view that literally everything is determined by our "free will" except for two things: 1) To be born where we were, when we were, into a certain family, and 2) The timing on when certain choices will be offered. Not what choice, or how that choice came to be necessary, but the timing on when we will have to make a choice.

Everything else is dependent on someone’s "free will," whether ours, our parents, our bosses, and so forth. All things related to free will involve habits in thinking, feeling, and doing, and moments when we choose to act consciously or unconsciously. Even to defer to an unconscious response pattern is using our free will, if only in a passive way.

As I stated in A New Look at Mercury Retrograde we are always acting, reacting, or being acted upon. We can see these points of choice and change using astrology, which can help us anticipate what’s coming and when. However, in the final analysis astrology cannot tell us how we will choose, or in any way negate our responsibility to act as best we are able.

Astrology serves as a road map and weather report as we navigate the tides and times of life, and even shows us the forces at work in any given situation, but it can’t make us act in a productive way. Regardless of how favorable our stars are, we still have to learn certain life skills and coping mechanisms or our lives will be run into a ditch from time to time due to our errors in judgment or response.

That’s why a trine may be the ease with which we slip into a bad habit or relationship or attitude, and a square may show us when we must reorient toward a better intention. Astrology helps us with the timing on our choices, but we must still practice self-discipline of the mind and emotions if we are ever to reach our higher potential.

There Are Four Sources of Suffering in Each and All of Us

According to HH Dalai Lama and other venerable Buddhist teachers I’ve sat with and/or studied across the decades, our mind has four fundamental afflictions that are the source of all human suffering, our own as well as others. Though they have been expressed in many ways according to local tradition, I will describe them as 1) Attachment, 2) Aversion, 3) Delusions and illusions resulting from misunderstanding of the cause-and-effect process and why things appear and disappear, and 4) The mind suffering over its own suffering.

Of course, these are interrelated, as we seldom find one at work without at least one of the others as well. These are also common to all of us, and the true source of many problems, individual and social. One or more of these 4 causes of suffering are present in every individual and international misunderstanding, all hurtful behaviors, all crimes against people or property, animals or the Earth Herself, and every other kind of human mischief that can be imagined.

When attachment, aversion, illusions, and pessimism are mixed with the four fundamental emotions of fear, vanity, desire, and attachment to sensation, we humans have a great big problem that won’t go away by itself. Until we’re ready to face it, deal with it, and persevere in taking a higher road regardless of the ignorance, violence, willful egotism, and avarice that pervades our planet, we’re just rearranging the deck chairs as the boat sinks.

The good news is that there are antidotes to these afflictions that are hardwired into the human existence. These also are offered in Buddhist philosophy. At this juncture I’ll point out that since Buddhism does not compel belief in anything, it is not a religion. It is a way of living that decreases the causes of suffering as a daily practice, and so a way we may claim our divine power to choose our responses at crucial life intersections.

Points of Crucial Choice and Change

We can know the crucial life intersections and the energies we’ll confront using astrology. It is said we do not get our act together when we “see the light,” but more often when we “feel the heat.” The frictional aspects in astrology provide the heat and perspective we need to cut and polish the diamond of our personalities to perfection.

Oppositions are perfect times to see a bigger picture and a more complete understanding of the wholeness of any polarity. We can come to see other points of view with ease, and find ways to resolve any opposing views or positions. Regardless of the tension, oppositions are the way to greater realizations.

Squares are when old belief systems collide with new requirements. They are when we must choose to turn one way or another, or stop what we are doing. Though this usually works out through other people, still, if we are troubled by a square, or having a problem during a square, we must examine the source of the trouble within ourselves, and find an antidote to whichever source of suffering is creating the problem.

Semisquares, squares, sesquisquares, and oppositions are perfect times to examine our attachments, aversions, delusions born of misunderstandings, and our suffering over our own suffering. They mark points in the “whole cycle” when we must find the right response to whichever causes of suffering and friction are presenting themselves.

This of course requires consistency, since weeds are tough to exterminate. Over time, we can maintain the focus in the midst of the friction, and not be thrown off balance by the 4 primal emotions and the 4 causes of suffering in each of us.

Remember – either we’re driving our boat, someone else is driving our boat, or no one is driving the boat except the current and the wind. In examining the forces which push and pull us, it’s useful to remember that we live in a hyper-distractible reality and most of what our world and local belief systems try to sell us is a lot of overblown opinion based in vain imaginings. We have the power to step back from the illusion and take command of our personality so we no longer fall into suffering or get confused at another’s suffering.

In part 2, we’ll discuss the antidotes to human suffering, and ways we can stop generating anything which leads to suffering. Until then, take a deep breath, and remember that since all of this is impermanent, we should not take a lot of the illusion too seriously or too personally. Even when we suffer, it's impermanent, and in remembering that, we identify with the timeless aspect of ourselves, that aspect of pure consciousness which is beyond suffering.

We have a body, we have feelings, we have a mind, but we ARE Spirit. We are Eternals having human experiences, dipping into various aspects of "reality" in an eternal journey into ever-greater awareness of All-That-Is.

We are not our suffering. We are not our fear or any other impermanent thing. We are not our 5 senses or our mind. We are timeless Beings that live, learn, and are forever free to explore the nature of light, life, and love. And that's a very good thing.

© Copyright 2020 Robert Wilkinson - https://www.aquariuspapers.com
Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with persmission from Robert Wilkinson.