Snapdragon asks on The Day The Police Came To Get Me also around the bad things that tend to happen to me.
“Elsa, do you believe in past lives? (not sure that I do) I’m just wondering if you chalk it up to your chart, or to karma, or what?”
Snapdragon, I have been exposed to the concept of past lives since I was a child. I have reserved judgment on the topic because I just DON’T KNOW, however I have never found anyone’s claim especially credible up until I reconnected with the soldier.
Now I still would not say that I believe in past lives, only that he does and I believe him but this is very different that knowing that we have past lives. He knows we have past lives, I believe him but have no such knowing myself.
As for what I attribute my experience to, I do credit my chart. I think we choose our chart (and our parents) and I just don’t place judgment on my experience as in, “Oh my karma is bad.”
Now he does place judgment, you may or may not be interested to know but I am just an astrologer. And when I look at my chart I see a person who is going to be attracted to intense experience and by God, I was born right into it.
I also have the chart of someone who is going to be attracted to the odd in life, the anomaly as I call it so I am grateful it crosses my path so frequently.
Further, I have the chart of a storyteller so I would be quite up a creek with no story to tell so I guess you get my drift, there has been no accidents here.
For the record I would not say I have “bad karma” this is all in your perspective. Perhaps I’m just blessed with a non-boring life.
i think karma’s a lot more complicated than “good” or “bad.” unpleasant experiences may be necessary to teach us what we need. sometimes they’re stepping stones to better things or greater strength. in buddhist teachings there’s an emphasis on nonjudgemental approaches to life, and this includes our experience.
…when i talk about, say, “karmic debt” imean something more like living in such a way i can respect myself, and righting ancestral wrongs, so to speak.
i don’t think anyone should be forced to fix the screwups of their ancestors (they’re not the same people, after all, even if you do believe in reincarnation, people change) but they can choose to take on the tasks…. there’s been a lot of blood spilled over the years that’s still staining the ground people live on.
*shrug* this is such a weird topic.
I agree with wyrdling – I believe that karma is neither good or bad, it’s just history we bring with us when we’re born and, just like the influences present in our charts at birth, it’s up to us to decide how we are going to respond (in this life) to lessons we set ourselves up for when we were in the spirit world, planning our blueprints for this go-round.
At least, that’s what makes the most sense to me.
And I see what you mean, Elsa, about being a person “who is attracted to intense experience.” I can certainly relate to that, and also to how the elements of a person’s chart make this so. It’s a tough life, a life of hard knocks sometimes (like what happened to you at that airport) but it is never, ever dull. I admire your spirit and enthusiasm for such a life, and for the courage you display in accepting it for what it is, and for not backing down from it.
Elsa, would you say you are a Plutonian character?
my karma ran over my dogma 😉
Seriously? Experience teaches, resistance is futile, if you want to blame something or someone, look inside first. Most of our circumstances are governed, at least in part, by the will and whimsy of others
Our only real freedom is the attitude we have towards those circumstances, and that detrmises what we make of them.
maureen – here you go:
https://elsaelsa.com/astrology/open-question-are-you-a-plutonian-character/
🙂
I like this non-judgmental philosophy. There is just so much stuff out there about ‘bad karma’ it’s discouraging.
“I think we choose our chart (and our parents)”
So then what explains why a person would deliberately pick a difficult chart? Why sign up for a lifetime of difficulty/pain if you don’t have to?? Is this really our choice or is it God’s choice for us so we can keep growing?
For what it’s worth, here are my 2 cents:
It seems as a person evolves they become more complex, so it makes sense that they would require greater intensity of experience and increasingly greater challenges in order to continue growing and evolving. In such a scenario, only a more challenging life than the one before could enable continued growth, anything less would be regressing. Just as an athlete trains progressively harder/longer if they want to continue to get better, because anything easier would be stagnating/going backwards. So it seems God delivers just the right combination of intensity/challenge for a person to keep moving up. Perhaps our chart is a reflection of where we are in our life training. As well, it seems people link up with others who have similar/complementary charts for a reason – they are the ideal partners to further each other’s progress. But of course I don’t KNOW this, curious what other people’s explanations are?
Wow, great comments everyone. Elsa, would you mind expanding (lol) a little further and tell us what in your chart says that you would be a great storyteller?
Snapdragon, Jupiter rules storytelling and I have Jupiter rising, mars and mercury in the 9th (Jupiter’s house) and more….
When I first started writing in 2001 someone said, “she can’t possibly have another story..”
ha ha ha ha
Fact is, I can’t possibly NOT have another story and they are all true (also Jupiter).
Person like me can’t write fiction.
Hi,
I like this topic, it is close to the questions that I am asking myself (and others) all the time. Alan Watts and D.T. Suzuki notwithstanding, I am a more than a little curious about Westerners (aka “modern Americans”) eventually decide on these ideas that come out of the East. Why? well, in the East, (other than in South Asia (aka India, & SE Asia) speculating about these matters is not something that the general population talks about. You know, such concepts and ideas are like, part of their very DNA. So we’re the ones trying to put these ideas into the context of our own experience, and, “testing” them anew, so to speak. I am still trying to work out what I believe, and that’s not trivial because I am very much a ninth house person, and I’ve already lived nearly six decades.
When I was a boy, my mother (a staunch old-school Catholic) was always quoting me from Hamlet, a little inaccurately, that “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy!”
Still in my quest to understand….
Can I ask anyone/everyone a general question? There have been discussions of empty houses – I have several empty ones myself. However when I look at my chart, there are signs in the empty houses. How does a person read that? (I know this has been discussed a lot, but I have never really got a handle on it) Thx.
Snapdragon,
I’ve heard different opinions about this myself, but not particularly strongly held or stated opinions.
So I’ve decided for myself, that yes, the sign(s) in an otherwise empty house “color” that sector of one’s experience, but that on the whole, empty sectors sort of fall into the background, mostly unnoticed, or “not causing trouble” or even are “under developed” areas of experience (if you want to get kind of negative about it.) So I guess empty houses are after all something interesting to look at, in their own right. And what would you do. If you have an empty fourth house, would you, or do you try to compensate in some way?
Thanks JJJ, I’m gonna have to think about all that…do some research. Frig, I’m never gonna get off this computer!
I just never realized how much there was to know about astrology. A person could go their whole life… apparently.
How about Whole House Signs? Anyone have an opinion on that topic?
Many lifetimes. If I had any want it would be that I don’t have to start learning from square one every time around. If I have to keep coming back, I want to bring all my learning with me.
i believe that souls choose to take on various tasks in different lives, and those who select difficulty do it probably in order to grow in a particular area or be of service by carrying and transforming the shadow for others.