The DK Foundation

In the second of these articles on reincarnation the focus is upon the personality, and upon what horoscopy is able to show of the past-life inheritance.

In horoscopy the sign and house position of the Sun represent the sense of self, the identity, which is consolidated by the inferior planets: Mercury and Venus. The astronomical Mercury and Venus are the planets the orbits of which are closest to the Sun. This new identity is impressed upon the consciousness developed by past life. It gives coherence to this 'package of opportunity'. Mars and Jupiter are the planets that represent the urge to move on and in this capacity they serve the Sun. 

Continuity is represented by i) the Moon and Saturn, and ii) the Ascendant and the ruling planet. The Moon symbolizes the quality of astral consciousness developed by past-life experience and Saturn the mental. To consider jointly the respective house placements of the Moon and Saturn in a chart is to see the anatomy of the past-life consciousness which can be said to be the foundation of the present lifetime. The Moon and Saturn represent, therefore, the evolutionary aspect of continuity.

 The Ascendant (Rising Sign) and the ruling planet represent the supervisory aspect of continuity. They are the points of interface between the soul and the personality. They supply an energetic framework which gives coherence to lifetimes in different personality forms. The Ascendant and Rising Sign remain constant over a number of lifetimes even though the Sun sign is likely to change, moving the sense of self into different zones of the zodiac and different houses in order to restore and maintain balance.

The outer planets - Uranus, Neptune and Pluto - represent the collective or the transpersonal energy principles that act as agents of a kind of change that appears to bypass the Law of Cause and Effect which cements personal reality. The principles represented by the outer planets introduce factors and situations that may be neither of our choosing nor within our capacity to understand. They take us, therefore, beyond ourselves, exposing us to possibilities which we would not otherwise recognize as opportunities. They define and enforce a group identity that we may or may not acknowledge or recognize. In horoscopy, the outer planets are reflections or representatives of higher planes of consciousness. They step down the qualities of these planes to make them functional, if not comprehensible, to human beings in incarnation. They provide a glimpse of what lies beyond the perimeter fence of personal reality.

A horoscope reveals how the principles that make up consciousness co-operate and conflict with each other. It reveals the relative strengths of past-life memory and the new identity;  the ease or difficulty involved in moving on into new kinds of experiences and away from what past life has made familiar; and the ease or difficulty experienced in fitting in with generational and social groupings. It is the blend of continuity and newness that each personality encapsulates which makes incarnation a state of opportunity and transformation. It is the state and the means of change. There is, therefore, a wisdom in respecting the shape and direction which the personality would give to a life rather than suppressing or distorting it in the name of some preconceived ideal, a practice encouraged by many of the religious systems of the world, the founding of which predates the awareness of individuality and identity that now exists in western consciousness.

In the West, because of the growth in our understanding of individuality and the strength of our personalities, we need to think again about the function of personality, and not simply repeat clichés which have their origin in eastern spiritual thinking, the repetition of which , unfortunately, has become something of a mannerism amongst the spiritually aware, especially those whose temperament inclines them towards mysticism. We can denigrate our personalities if we wish. We can despise 'ego-consciousness' and can lament the fate that consigns us to this place of separation, sin, selfishness and partial understanding. Thinkers, writers, poets, teachers and followers have been doing this for centuries and, at most, they have reminded us that there are other planes of consciousness for which to strive. Their complaints and yearnings have altered nothing: the physical plane remains the place of suffering and learning, of purification and transformation, and the personality remains the form that permits participation. The partiality of personal reality permits a kind of specialist learning. D.K describes the personality as ‘the vehicle of manifestation of the soul’.  Where would we be without it? This is a serious, not a rhetorical question. Respect personality for what it is and do not damn it for what it is not. The horoscope will show how to get the best out of it (see Endnote).     

Endnote: