(Estratto da conferenza tenuta in Bangladesh in occasione dell'Asian Astrologer's Conference 1999)

Agli inizi del XX secolo siamo stati testimoni in Occidente della nascita di nuove scuole di astrologia che, ispirandosi alle filosofie orientali, svilupparono nuovi metodi di interpretazione della carta natale. La profonda insoddisfazione, vera fonte di sofferenza che caratterizza la nostra società fin dal dopo guerra e che porta alla continua ricerca del vero significato della vita, ha reso necessario individuare un nuovo approccio all'astrologia.

Il karma e la sofferenza quali mezzi di purificazione e crescita

In Oriente la legge del karma è una risposta esauriente alla sofferenza in questo mondo: essa afferma che la rinascita non è che una "purificazione" dell'individuo da una vita all'altra. E in Occidente la Religione Cristiana non si allontana poi tanto da questo concetto quando parla di sofferenza fisica ed emotiva come mezzo per comprendere la vita nelle sue espressioni più elevate, e quindi raggiungere la "purificazione" di corpo ed anima. Ambedue i punti di vista, quello cristiano (occidentale) e quello karmico (orientale), ammettono che vi sia un sentiero che l'individuo deve percorrere perché possa "crescere" spiritualmente e che la sofferenza terrena potrà essere minore se questa "crescita" o "evoluzione" viene sperimentata in modo consapevole.

Le nuove scuole astrologiche pongono l'individuo al centro dell'universo, evidenziando più l'aspetto "spirituale" e psicologico della persona che quello previsionale classico, inteso come individuazione dei soli eventi "materiali". Il metodo di previsione tradizionale non soddisfa più. Se da un lato è vero che ogni giorno dobbiamo confrontarci con esigenze di ordine materiale, nel nostro intimo sentiamo che queste non sono altro che la manifestazione di un qualcosa che va oltre il conosciuto. Oggi si sente più forte la necessità di individuare e interpretare nella carta natale la crescita interiore della persona. Nel mondo moderno ciò che più conta è capire come fare uso delle buone opportunità che offre la vita, così come delle difficoltà che inevitabilmente vi si incontrano. Vogliamo essere consapevoli del nostro percorso per essere pronti ad affrontarlo, sperimentando tutte le potenzialità descritte nella carta natale.

Individuazione del percorso di crescita nella carta natale

In un certo senso, queste nuove scuole di astrologia cercano di dimostrare che c'è una relazione fra karma e carta natale. Per individuare il processo evolutivo dell'individuo nella carta natale vengono esaminati in particolare i Nodi Lunari Sud e Nord, che sono punti virtuali dello spazio corrispondenti astronomicamente ai due punti d'intersezione dell'eclittica lunare con quella terrestre. I segni, le case occupate e gli aspetti che i Nodi Lunari formano con gli altri pianeti, mostrano le "tendenze latenti" della persona, e laddove la filosofia della reincarnazione non viene riconosciuta, il Nodo Sud assume il significato di "carattere" della persona alla nascita, mentre il Nodo Nord indica il "carattere" che la persona dovrà acquisire nel corso della vita. Ad ogni modo, il giusto percorso per una crescita consapevole prevede che non ci si debba liberare dalle tendenze del Nodo Sud di nascita, ma che si raggiunga un equilibrio fra Nodo Sud e Nodo Nord.

Questa nuova lettura della carta natale mette in evidenza l'importanza delle nostre azioni in relazione al tempo presente, più che al passato o al futuro. Ed infatti, le ideologie del XX secolo vertevano su questa visione dell'esistenza. Il filosofo indiano J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) che in India, negli Stati Uniti ed in Europa è stato fra i primi a parlare di concetti quali la libertà di pensiero, il distacco dal passato, la libertà dalla sofferenza, l'amore senza condizioni, la consapevolezza di sé, nonché dello studio e delle tecniche per il raggiungimento della crescita spirituale, nel 1969 diceva: "L'uomo vive in base al tempo. Inventare il futuro è stato il suo gioco preferito per fuggire". ("Libertà dal conosciuto", 1969).

Non solo non fuggiremo più dalla realtà del presente, ma riuscendo ad individuare nella carta natale quelle energie che dobbiamo sviluppare per "purificarci", e quelle che dovremmo controllare per limitare le nostre sofferenze, ci confronteremo anche con esperienze esistenziali difficili, ed è così che diventeremo consapevoli del nostro particolare ruolo nella vita, obiettivo della nostra esistenza che istintivamente cercheremo di portare a termine. L'istinto ci guiderà sicuramente verso il nostro scopo, ma la consapevolezza potrà rendere più facile il nostro cammino, che sarà così segnato da meno sofferenze e depressioni (che sono una conseguenza dell'ignoranza), aiutandoci a mettere a fuoco il nostro obiettivo, la nostra "missione". Naturalmente, noi siamo gli unici a poter portare a termine questa "missione", e nessuno potrà aiutarci, se noi non lo vogliamo veramente.

Importanza della consapevolezza

Nel Terzo Millennio questo significato dell'astrologia avrà un'importanza maggiore che in passato, e questa nuova visione costituirà un passo in avanti verso l'evoluzione di tutta l'umanità, perché sentiremo crescere sempre più in noi l'esigenza di conoscerci meglio. Krishnamurti insegnava che ".... la conoscenza di sé è l'inizio della meditazione.... quella che nasce dall'investigazione di sé stessi, cioè dalla consapevolezza di sé." Ed anche: "Nostro compito non è perseguire l'inconoscibile, ma di comprendere la confusione, il tumulto, la miseria in noi stessi; e allora, oscuramente, nascerà quella cosa nella quale vi è gioia." ("La prima ed ultima libertà", 1954). Credo che l'astrologia possa pienamente soddisfare questa visione della vita, e cioè renderci consapevoli a tal punto da dar inizio alla meditazione per far germogliare il seme della gioia che è in noi.

Nel XX secolo, l'opinione pubblica ha riconosciuto l'importanza della psicoanalisi come strumento che aiuta la gente a conoscersi nel profondo. Auguriamoci che il Nuovo Millennio possa riconoscere finalmente l'astrologia come strumento per capire e risolvere i conflitti psicologici dell'individuo attraverso la consapevolezza di sé. Ma perché questo si realizzi, è necessario che l'approccio all'astrologia divenga "olistico", e cioè che l'astrologo tenga conto non solo delle esigenze materiali ma soprattutto dell'anima dell'individuo. Questa è la vera unione fra Cielo e Terra, fra Yin e Yang, tanto auspicata dalle filosofie orientali. Basta solo esserne consapevoli.

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The influence of eastern thought on Western Astrology: Astrology as a tool for a conscious evolution

(Lecture delivered on the occasion of Asian Astrologers' Conference 1999 in Dhaka-Bangladesh)

The influence of eastern thought and the law of Karma

When at the beginning of this century oriental philosophies took root in the U.S.A. and were spreading into Europe, also astrologers became inspired by these new ways of thinking and they gave rise to new ways of reading the natal chart. We have therefore witnessed to the birth of many astrological schools emphasizing particular aspects of the chart, giving special importance to some planets, or to the lunar nodes in the interpretation of the chart. However, these schools were all sharing a unique feature: they were trying to give the individual a central place in the universe, and to re-consider his free will, by emphasizing the so-called spiritual - or psychological aspect of the horoscope.

The birth of these new schools is somewhat still going on, maybe because the deep unsatisfaction which characterizes our society makes people continuously search for the true meaning of life. The art of astrology today reflects this same unsatisfaction, as we now seem to be no longer happy with the traditional way of reading the horoscope, which was mainly predictive. Prediction of material events alone does not satisfy people's needs any longer. If it is true that every day we have to deal with material needs, on the other hand we somehow feel that these needs are only a manifestation of higher purposes that we may reach and which may unveil the true meaning of the outer world and all the hardships in life. Therefore, in the chart we look to find these higher purposes, because we want to know about our inner growth. We want to find out how to make use of all the good opportunities as well as the hardships we encounter in life, in order to grow as responsible individuals. We now want to be conscious of our own path, in order to be ready to face it, experience our full potentials in this life and be happier.

Someone might object that the idea of a search for an inner meaning in the horoscope is not new to Astrology. This is partly true, but to fulfill this purpose, during this century western astrology has strongly been influenced by the wisdom of the eastern philosophies, but especially by the law of Karma.

In the western countries, we nowadays speak of Karma sometimes by giving to karma the same meaning as "destiny", a meaning our culture is more familiar with. Anyway, when we speak of karma it is because we need to give an answer to our suffering. And Karma answers well the question why we suffer in this world.

Christianity, on the other hand, is not far from the concept of karma when it speaks of physical and emotional suffering as a means to comprehend life in its highest expressions, even leading to a "purification" of both mind and body.

This same "purification" can be found in the karmic law of cause and effect. Both views, the Christian (western) and the karmic (eastern), admit of a path that the individual has to follow for him to grow spiritually. Through this "evolution" or "growth", when it is consciously experienced, suffering may then be partly reduced.

This evolution is consequently like a "purification".

Reincarnation, the theory linked with the law of karma, although it answers well those questions related to the evolution of the individual and the experiences he has to go through in order to fulfill his so-called "life project", is yet too far from the western way of thinking, and therefore, only a few people in the West truly believe in reincarnation and karma in their original meaning.

Nevertheless, many of the schools of astrology nowadays are trying to show how karma is related to the birth chart. The North and the South lunar nodes (Rahu and Ketu), their positions in the houses and their aspects with the other planets in the birth chart, may show the "latent tendencies" of the person and the path he has to walk through in order for him to evolve. Those astrologers who do not feel like referring to the chart as a reincarnation of the person, give Ketu (the South Node) the meaning of the person's "character" at birth, and Rahu (the North Node) the "character" he will have to achieve. Anyway, in order for the person to evolve, he will not have to get rid of Ketu's tendencies, but find a balance between Ketu and Rahu. This is, in short, the importance given to Ketu and Rahu when looking into the chart for the evolutionary process of the individual. This same insight may also be used in reading the annual horoscope (or Solar Return): Ketu and Rahu can tell a lot about the direction of the evolution of the person during a particular year, or what particular field of life (or house) will be favoured for him to evolve.

In my opinion, those who use karmic or spiritual reading in astrology should not fall into the usual astrologers' temptation to look into the future events of the client. If astrology was born as a means to predict material events, it does not mean that we should go on making this only use of it. The use of astrology to help predicting natural phenomena, is of course very welcome. But, is it necessary to predict that a person will be facing a bad period, for instance? A Sri Lankan lady told me that her father stopped going to the astrologer after the astrologer had predicted that her elder brother's life was going to be full of hardships. I asked the lady (who is now in her 50s) if the astrologer was right about her brother. She replied that her brother did not suffer any particular hardship in his life, and that he was leading a normal life.....

Now, are we going to evolve faster or better by knowing that, for instance, after two years we are going to get a promotion, or that tomorrow we are going to lose our money? On the contrary, in reading the chart the karmic or spiritual way, it is important to stress the present time situation, the "here and now", rather than the past and the future.

If you do not mind, I would like to dwell on this subject of time and future, because it is very important in eastern philosophies. Of course, I have tried to relate this way of thinking with a possible new approach to astrology.

I would like to quote the Indian philosopher Krishnamurti (1895-1986) who used to preach in India, the States and Europe freedom of thought, detachment from the past and freedom from suffering, love for others without conditions, consciousness of oneself, the uselessness of all rituals, study and techniques towards a spiritual growth. In 1969 he was saying: "Man lives on time. Future has been the favourite game he has invented in order to escape". ("Freedom from the known", 1969).

In the same way, I believe that astrology should not be an escape from reality. Through astrological knowledge we can go deep into the human psyche, to understand the unconscious motivations that lead the individual to a certain behaviour. It is a tool to know oneself and to understand the others better. And, consequently, to live better with ourselves and be happier.

The meaning of astrology today: Astrology as a tool for a conscious evolution

Therefore, assuming that in the birth chart we find those energies that the individual must develop in order to "purify" himself, and those he will have to control in order for him to limit his sufferings, then we understand that in order to grow - or to evolve - we also need to overcome difficult existential experiences, and we then start becoming conscious of our particular role in life. We will therefore instinctively try to fulfill this role, which will afterwards become the objective of our life.

Our instinct will surely lead us to our scope, but consciousness may make our path smoother, with less sufferings and depressions (which are a consequence of ignorance), helping us to focus our objective, our "mission". Of course, we are the only ones who can fulfill this "mission", and nobody can really help us if we are not willing to.

If this meaning of astrology is fully understood, we may then start using it in a way that can meet the real inner needs of today's individual. And the consciousness deriving from this new vision of astrology, is already a step forward towards one's own evolution: we want to know ourselves in order to improve and therefore realize our potentials. Isn't this a truly conscious growth? Krishnamurti was teaching that ".... the knowledge of oneself is the beginning of meditation...... the one that springs out from the investigation of oneself, that is from one's consciousness." And also: "Our task is not the one to go after the unknown, but to understand the confusion, the tumult, the misery in ourselves; and then, obscurely, that thing in which there is happiness, will spring out." ("The first and last freedom", 1954). I believe astrology can perfectly satisfy this vision of life, that is the consciousness in oneself for meditation to start and happiness to spring out.

Now, what we have to face in our society in order to use astrology according to this vision of life is our fear of introspection: the majority of people fear to discover that their character is not like the stereotypes in our society, and therefore they fear they are not able to accept themselves for what they really are. They do not want to investigate further, and they identify themselves with the type of individual that for them is successful. Consequently, they prefer not to be themselves, as long as they are sure they are accepted by the others for the way they behave, for what they do, for what they "have" (Erich Fromm "To have or to be?", 1976), even for the way they love. It may sound absurd, but this is the reality.

About astrological counselling

In such a framework, most of the people are not of course interested in approaching a discipline that brings out the good and the bad of what is inside them and their life. In the 20th century, public opinion has acknowledged the importance of psychoanalysis as a tool to help people in deeply knowing themselves. Let us hope that the new millennium will finally acknowledge astrology as a tool to understand and solve the psychological conflicts inside the individual.

To come back to the beginning of my report, I believe that the system of astrology we decide to adopt is not as important as our approach to astrology, which should be holistic, and whose predictions are mainly meant to single out the evolutionary process of the individual.

What is needed in this kind of approach is that the individual who asks for counselling be willing to change, control, develop something of himself, otherwise counselling itself would result useless or even dangerous. On the other hand, if the person cooperates by really wanting to improve himself, unite his energies to the ones of those planets that can better help him towards this direction, then I believe that through the analysis of his chart he can overcome his unconscious fears, fight his obstinacies and accept himself for what he is and not for what he is not and will never be, by understanding that we are not all the same in this world.

In a world where wealth and attachment to material goods are considered the only life patterns that should be achieved - without taking into account the person's sensitivity and the different values which we dispose of - understanding oneself can be a truly new experience that can fill our lives with joy.

Chogyam Trungpa, a Tibetan philosopher who lived and preached in the United States in the early 1970s, had experienced the spirituality peculiar to the West, which is a blend of spirituality and materialism. He in fact wrote a book in 1973 entitled "Cutting through Spiritual Materialism" in which he explains that by spiritual materialism he refers to our deception "into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques.". I believe this warning is true for astrologers as well, because Astrology is also a spiritual technique. Astrologers should therefore be careful in giving spiritual advice, and those who approach astrology for the first time should remember that, as Trungpa says: "walking the spiritual path properly is a very subtle process; it is not something to jump into naively".

In the same book mentioned before, Trungpa talks also about the different schools of psychotherapy in the West, which use a traditional interpretation leading the person to "feel that he has no escape, that his situation is hopeless, because he cannot undo it". As I consider astrological counselling to equal psychotherapy in that they are both tools for the individual to know himself, I believe the same may occur in traditional interpretation of the birth chart: the person may feel trapped in his chart with no way out. Trungpa goes even further by saying: "This kind of interpretation can be destructive, because it hinders involvement with his creative aspect of what is happening now, what is here, right now". But if the chart is presented with the emphasis on living in the present moment, working with present problems then, as for psychotherapy, we would work in the right direction. "The idea is not to regard the spiritual path as something very luxurious and pleasurable, but to see it as just facing the facts of life." (C. Trungpa, "Cutting through Spiritual Materialism", 1973).

About teaching and learning astrology

Teaching is a very delicate task, because by teaching we do not only give our knowledge, but also something of our intimate selves to others, our way of thinking. Therefore, both the teacher and the student should be critical, as a saying in the Tibetan scriptures goes: "Knowledge must be burned, hammered and beaten like pure gold. Then one can wear it as an ornament." Therefore, "when we receive spiritual instruction we must burn it, hammer it, beat it, until the bright colour of gold appears." (C. Trungpa, "Cutting through Spiritual Materialism", 1973).

Conclusion

Those who practice astrology know how the material and spiritual aspects of life interweave. I hope that in the coming millennium the inner or spiritual gifts of the individual will be appreciated more than in the past. And astrology has a lot to tell about these gifts: it helps us to single them out, in order that we can make good use of them for ouselves as well as for others. In fact, astrology teaches that we are not alone in this world, that we are part of a Whole, of a Cosmos in which we must interact in order to be ouselves: we all give something of ourselves to the people we are in contact with, and this interexchange of energies is mirrored in the birth chart. Astrology is a fascinating subject, because it speaks of the wonderful gift of life, and all that it implies.

Assuming that, as the famous psychoanalyst C.G. Jung (1875-1961) is said to have believed: ".....the birth chart is but a conversation among the planets", then, in my opinion, it is about time that the east-west interaction of thought be put into practice, and that the astrologer may simply open, letting himself go to experiencing the "here and now" rather than the past and the future of this conversation.

Life is an everlasting inner growth, and my wish for the coming millennium is that astrologers may finally live astrology, live what they teach and believe into and, trying to keep themselves out of spiritual materialism, "surrender" to a new approach to astrology, an harmonious blend of western (materialistic) and eastern (spiritual) thought.

Seneca, a Greek philosopher who lived in the 1st Century, said that we have two choices in life: either be guided by fate or be dragged by it.

Let us hope that there will be more and more people who will consciously choose to be guided by fate, than people who choose to just be dragged by it.