My sister, Pisces and a bonafide psychic had a lot to say about past lives. While her psychic ability has been proven to me countless times, her past life stories were never credible (the way the soldier’s are), however the theories she developed over the years were very interesting to me and in fact have impacted me profoundly. For example if I don’t like someone or if someone burns me, I always try to just walk away.
I am almost always successful with this but that is not to say that you could or would or should be because you are of course a different person with a different plot. But my sister’s idea was very simple. She assured me if I cut someone I didn’t like to ribbons, I could count on meeting that person in another life and as my family is into leaving (Jupiter) and escape (Neptune) – well who would want that?
No, if we don’t like you, we’d like to just be done with you now and forever so I have lived this way for many years… try 30! ::smiles:: And the other night I thought I would run my sister’s notes by the soldier, see what he thought.
Well he doesn’t know. He said his information is way too vague. He is simply not sure but he is absolutely and unequivocally sure about one thing and that is, you don’t get away with anything.
“You don’t get away with shit,” he said. “Nothing, nada, you pay for every single thing you do, just wait until you see what happens,” he says…
In whatever case I could not really blend or marry their thinking on this but it did come up again tonight as we are facing considerable hardship (again). And the soldier will be the first to tell you, it’s just the way it is (for him). He fully expects to have a difficult time for many, many, many lifetimes to come and he will also tell you he deserves every bit of it.
This leads to interesting questions when you think of my destiny tied to his but here’s the upshot. Here is why I wrote this:
“I tell people all the time. I tell them they shouldn’t do shitty things to people but everyone thinks I’m a whack job…”
I’ve got nothing to say to that, do you?
if nothing else, _you_ remember (even if not consciously) and the best way to keep the internal counter from running backwards is to even the score… i think there’s a part of anybody that isn’t fooled by rationalization and justification and can only feel good about existing by _being_ good… but maybe i’m a hopeless optimist that way.
Question: What about doing bad things to yourself? e.g. someone who tries to control everyone else just makes themselves mostly miserable. And people can really beat themselves up for no reason sometimes.
The thing that irks / bothers me about this line of thought is that possibility that people can get into a “blame the victim” mentality — bad shit is happening to a person (illness, financial woes, cheating lover, whatever, etc.) — man, they must have really screwed up in the past to have to go through that now. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. Sometimes shit just happens, and you have to deal with it, without it being some punishment for a past transgression.
I do think you work through some life lessons though. So maybe I’m looking for some kind of balance between karma (i.e. you don’t get away with anything)and chaos (it’s all random even if it appears to have a pattern). Sigh.
More stuff to ponder, thanks Elsa! 🙂
Years ago when I was lamenting about my hardships (God, I do that a lot—) a wise friend quoted some famous philosopher, can’t remember who or the exact quote, but it went something along these lines: we are born into this life and the next one and the one after that for one reason, and that’s to solve problems.
And what I took from it is, we get to be creative. We get to experiment. We always have choices. When I forget this I usually end up feeling like a robot, and a pretty helpless one at that. Ick. One other thing: sometimes I get so hung up on questioning my destiny, I literally get stuck in a pit of inaction… ick ick ick!
I agree with you about not doing shitty things to others. I believe if we treat each other the way we want to be treated and do no harm we are way ahead of the game.
About Karma, maybe the hard times are experiences our soul choose before this incarnation, who knows?? But I do believe in Karma in this way every action has an equal and opposite reaction, period.
I just try to live my life, try to be kind to others, and learn from my mistakes by reflecting on my actions. Sometimes I am quite embarassed by my actions, especialy while driving,lol.
I’m finding it’s also good to remember that we need to make good choices for ourselves and making our own lives healthy. when we make good choices in our own lives it positively impacts those around us, just as the opposite is true.
This is to me one of the most distinctly and deeply carved lines between people: Those who understand that how we treat others matters. supremely. And those who are oblivious to it.
And it’s interesting that you would link this notion to past lives, because my own behavior gave me my first inkling that there might be something more at work here. I can’t even look at a neighbor’s Sunday newspaper (I live in NY and papers are placed outside our door — many lazy people grab someone else’s) without getting a huge pang. I just know that if I did even the smallest thing that would hurt or even inconvenience another, my awful feeling about it would, well, it would never allow me to do it in the first place. It’s like I walk around with an invisible line that I will not cross for the world. And I feel this in my bones. And then there are those who go around slaying people on all levels on a daily/hourly basis. Why? Even if astrology explains it, why? I’m not sure I buy the notion that some people are more spiritually advanced. Some people who do great amounts of good can also turn around and do ill.. Is it that people who treat others badly gave themselves that makeup in this life in order to learn the lessons that this kind of behavior would bring?
Interesting topic..
P.s. Just to complete the picture, I’ve also done things that have truly hurt people, things that I believed in and had no choice about and, given the same circumstances, would likely do again. I ended 2 different relationships where the other party was extremely hurt, slain, didn’t want things to end. I can be righteous about justice (strong 9th house) in ways that I’m sure people take in various ways.. Maybe it’s that we each have our own boundaries and awarenesses and making our way through the turbulence and undertow it all creates is part of why we came here.
People’s shitty actions can become free manure is how I see it. (8th house stellium!)
Waking away is also my preferred mode. But recently it had consequences. I ignored a girl’s backhanded venom (a repeat occurrence) as I thought it was coming from insecurity. But if I had set her straight right there and then -in a room full of people- she might not have dared manipulating the same group while I was not present. But I did not cuz my being assertive can either meet with or comes out as aggression: an aries mars on dc dilemma, any suggestions welcome! So in the end I end up learning something. I dont have to be nice. I had nothing to loose: the outcome could not have been worse, and it might have been better.
Karma wise I’d like to believe that such people are teachers… at a soul level wouldn’t they have to have courage to inflict us with pain? or is that really wacky?
Growing up, I was always trying to “wipe the slate clean”, i.e., immediately fix any transgressions so I could stay “pure.” I didn’t keep that habit up in adulthood, probably should have. (although I did recently seek out someone from my youth to apologize for something I did long ago).
I wonder why some (myself included) have so much easier lives. Just out of chance, at least in part, although I think I’ve made some good decisions, too. A friend who believes in reincarnation opines it’s a “resting phase” life. I dunno. It may be that the challenge is to step out of the comfort zone offered and seek out tough times in service of others. If so, I’m failing miserably!
I’m not a person who is into the threefold rule of KARMA WILL PUNISH YOU 3X, but I do think “try not to be an asshole” is a good rule of thumb, because we’re already stocked up as is.
I think I’m with the soldier: I did a lot of evil in the past (I guess? going off the chart, I must have been a dictator) and even though I’m not inclined to do so now, I will suffer for a long time for it. I know I’ve done one thing in this life that was just horrible. I literally could not do any better than I did at the time, but that was not enough and I know I deserve to pay and pay and pay for that failure. Whee.
karma and future lives aside, it’s some damn good advice anyway. why be a part of the ugliness?
i have tried to adjust my opinion somewhat of people i don’t like, by thinking of it as them providing a service to others. people whom i don’t like or who i feel have wronged me or others somehow provide me tremendous opportunities to grow. doesn’t mean i wallow it in. i get the hell away as quickly as possible. but by looking at it from a different light, i can erase a lot of the frustration and negative feelings that get attached to problemmatic people.
“i think there’s a part of anybody that isn’t fooled by rationalization and justification and can only feel good about existing by _being_ good”
I completely agree Wyrdling. In the end, if you screw someone over, you will be stuck with that knowledge and it will weigh on your conscience regardless of anything else.
Doing nasty things to other people is a horrible investment with results far out of proportion to the original deed. It’s just so much easier to avoid doing something like that in the first place. And those who make a career out of hurting others, given enough time their own actions will set themselves up for misery – all you have to do is let them have their way.
I think if you have gone to church – there is a lot of discussion for forgiveness of sin. Sin in my mind – missing the mark of doing the best we can do – be the best we can be. From a liberal protestant perspective – I think a lot of this endless cycling starts to stop when you start to forgive yourself and just be more mindful of what you are doing. No one is perfect – and you can’t be afraid of life. The other part took me forever to get – and people always always always leaving it out when talking about karma. It is truly about the end of the day evolving to perfection – and children have to learn their lessons by having their experiences – but you would not love a child any less for having made a mistake – nor would the one that made you – even it if the one that made you is your higher self cycling through lifetimes. My two cents at least – and that was after years of feeling miserable and afraid. The other thing – I have practice yoga for 20 years – that whole thing is about raising your energy level – your vibe – to wipe out bad experience – and bring in better experience. Finally – there is always the sin of ommission – you cannot be so afraid to act that you do nothing – in the face of the Hitlers of the world – as that too is a trap.
ok – too much and I know you all don’t know me for this kind of sharing. Disappearing now – have a good night.
all the best
K
A new light out of an old window- I started praying again. I started when I made a journey back to an area where I experienced a past life. It seemed right at the time, but I have continued. You see, this is different for me because, I have been a self actualizing dude for so long that I haven’t felt the need to pray. Now it seems that there are so many more things that are out of my control, and that to some extent I am being swept along by circumstances and events that are outside of myself. It is discombobulating. I still have faith and confidence in myself and still believe that for the most part I manifest my reality, but…now I am praying. I am offering thanks for this life and for all of the incredible blessings I have already recieved. I am praying for guidance and for strength of spirit so that I may help my family, my friends and clients through what looks to be unusually difficult times.
🙂
Thanks Elsa. Glad I did not over-reach.
No problem, K. My bitchiness while it may be legendary, has been overblown. 😉
I agree with the soldier, but would add an extra. As I’ve got older and a little wiser, I’ve noticed that sometimes the payback doesn’t hit me directly, but can hit someone close to me instead. That’s even more painful , and even more reason to watch yourself. I think it ties in to the old thing about the ‘sins of the father’.
Arrgh. Sins of the father. I’ve written about that one somewhere.
Aargh,,runs off to search!
Oh my. Eighth house eh?
Liz Greene wrote a really interesting article on all this based on the ‘Curse of the Kennedys’. I think it’s available on astro.com for anyone who’s interested.
Suffering for the sins of the father is extremely unfair. Even more in cases like mine, where I’m the main victim of an evil father.
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I wish so much that the soldier is right. What I like most about the idea is that he knows his future fate! Because then I can be right when I say that I won’t incarnate on this planet again.