Transcript:
0:00
Hi everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology, and today I am doing the sixth part of a series that I've called "10 Things I've Learned in 10 Years of Professional Astrology." So I began this series, maybe a couple of weeks ago now, after realising this past summer that I'd been practising astrology for 10 years, it was kind of a milestone., and so I took the opportunity to try to calculate how many charts I've done over 10 years in all different settings, some very short, some, you know, your typical client hour long reading some longer readings, all different kinds of record airy readings, and tabulated that it's been somewhere probably between 10–15,000. And that was, it's been a lot of charts. It's something that I've been doing every day of my life for 10 years straight now full time. So as I as I sat down and reflected on that, first of all, I thought it was it was really surprising to me to realise that had been 10 years, I mean, that was just kind of like, wow.
1:01
But then I decided to take the opportunity to start reflecting about this, these experiences of, you know, being an astrologer every single day, usually for multiple clients every single day, and I came up with a list of insights that these the they sort of sort of crystallised as I sat and reflected upon this the past 10 years. And so I thought I would make a series based on these insights, to share with all of you in the hopes that these insights would help you to crystallise your own thoughts and feelings about astrology and about how or why it might be beneficial in your life or how it serves as a spiritual practice. And also, maybe it'll generate some unique insights of your own as maybe this stimulates your own reflections. So for every video, I recommend you started the first one, if you haven't already. And for this video, I have a title just like I do for all of the others. And this one in the sixth video, the phrase that I'm using is we feel happiest when we ask what each moment requires of us.
2:04
And this is an insight that I think is probably one of the insights, in terms of what is the best thing that that I think I give to people in a reading or that a reading itself as a unique entity gives to people or that astrology gives to people. When people walk away from a reading, what do I think the most valuable tangible thing is that they might have received. And there's a lot there's not just one thing, for example, you could easily say that the predictive value of a reading is hugely important for a variety of reasons. And one of my one of the future insights in this series, we'll get into that a little bit more. So there's predictive value in a reading and that's a hugely valuable part of a reading for a variety of different reasons.
2:50
But there's also this way in which an astrology reading helps us to navigate and participate in the unfolding of a season of time in our life. And that's what this insight is really all about. So let's break it down kind of piece by piece to unpack this inside a little bit more. So just like the I Ching, or Taoist philosophy, ancient astrologers saw the movements of the planets as resembling the ongoing changes that happen in the material world, they believe that we are spiritual beings inhabiting a realm of matter, a realm of material energy. And in that realm, the material energy is not stable or constant. It's like trying to hold water in your hand. So it's or it's like, you know, sand blowing in the wind. It's fleeting, everything is transient, everything is moving, you can't as Heraclitus said, "You can't step your foot into the same river twice."
3:56
So that's the world in which we live and in which we are experiencing. As a result of living in this world - and you guys have heard me say this so many times before - there are two basic ways in which we can live in relate to this transient energy that's always moving and changing. One is that we can become identified with the fluctuations of change, which means we get so deeply absorbed with the changes that we we can't tell that we are actually beings who are somehow unique and different from the energy. We have a relationship with the energy that's meaningful. The point is not to condemn the changing energies of the material world. But we're also unique and different and there's something about us that is relatively more permanent and stable. Even though the temple of our body, our mind, exhibits changes as well. Our cells are always changing our DNA can change our bodies change, our mind and intellect change. So change is a part of the very vessel we inhabit. And yet there's this sense of there being an indwelling Spirit-soul that is unchanging, that is unborn and undying; the consciousness within us. And when we get so fully absorbed in the changes and fluctuations of the material energy that we lose track of our indwelling Spirit-soul, typically, we're going to ride the roller coaster. So riding the roller coaster can look a few different ways. It can be fun, right there, you know, we know any of us listening to this knows what it's like to get absorbed into the material energy.
5:48
It's like a beautiful sunny day you wake up, the energy is lifted, the sun is bright, the weather's warm, there's a nice breeze, boy, can you can just ride that, you know? How good does it feel to be just totally absorbed in that? And of course, then the opposite can happen. If there's a wintry day. I mean, some people love the winter, I happen to love the winter. So it might be the opposite for me on some days, but the winter comes along, and suddenly you feel down, you feel depressed, you feel melancholic, it's raining like that. And of course, that analogy holds up for all of the other ebbs and flows and twists and turns of life. Sometimes we're up and sometimes we're down. Sometimes there's victory. And sometimes there's a crushing defeat. And these dualities of the material world they exist like that they they move and cycle through all different kinds of opposites and archetype or, or thematic webs.
6:45
And what I've noticed in my practice, of course, this is a part of the fact that I'm immersed in yoga as well, right? Is that people and you guys, again, you've heard me say this probably a million times at this point: People are not as happy, if they become so fully absorbed in all of those changes, that they lose track of the being that is experiencing those changes, when we start to realise that our inherent happiness, our our, our inherent bliss, truth, that the most intimate and satisfying form of beauty, truth, bliss and happiness is found in who and what we are, and not in the ups and downs, and twists and turns and changes of this material energy. And that is not to condemn the material energy, it is to say that the only stable place from which to experience those twists and turns so that any of them and all of them can be meaningful to the soul is to is to experience them from the position of the soul.
7:55
How do you do that? And how does an astrology reading serve that process? Well, there's one really important way that it does. When people come into a reading, and they want to know what's happened, what's happening, or what will happen, past, present or future. And we as astrologers try to help a person understand not only which themes and patterns in which areas of life are coming at which times like what's the karmic weather, which is equivalent to saying, what kinds of material energies are going to be changing in you and your work, with your money, or with your love life or whatever. We map that out for people. And some of the karma is unchangeable, meaning there's some stuff you just can't change, okay? And there's some things that you can and astrologers rarely know when you can change something or when something is more fixed. We don't know to what extent things can change. But we know that not everything is changeable and we know that not everything is totally fixed. We have some free will, there's some ability to change our karma. And there's more karma that is more rigid and unchanging. And any good reading should be helping a person map out what themes and patterns are coming in, what areas at what times and the list of different possible manifestations that we could see. But then there's this really, really important piece, which is to ask ourselves, and I use the phrase in a recent video that I'm going to use again, because it's applicable here, which is we ask how to be a midwife of my own experience? How do I act as a midwife of whatever season of karma is upon me is coming in, you can do this retro retrospectively as well by looking at how to hold and relate to the past? And how do we act as midwives for our current experiences and for the seasons that we're predicting to come?
9:57
Now the reason that that is such a hugely important question is because when we ask that question, we are acknowledging two very important truths. And the acknowledgement of these truths tends to align us again, especially if we've kind of fallen out of alignment or it keeps us aligned if we're already in alignment. And the two things that it puts us in touch with is that there is an asker, the one saying, How do I serve this moment? How do I act as a steward, a host of midwife for the next experience, whatever it might be, wherever the material energy wherever the karma may flow? How do I serve it? By asking that question, we're acknowledging that I am a spiritual being, and that I am not the changes. So even just by asking the question, regardless of how well we do in answering it or executing, you know, executing it.
10:53
By virtue of the fact that we are asking the question, we are coming back into our centre and saying, I'm a spiritual being in a material world, how do I relate, interact, serve and be aligned with the flow of energies in life around me? And when we asked that question, our integrity returns, our heart returns and our good intentions return. It's possible that we mess up that we're not always in integrity, that we fall out of it. But the most important thing is that we just keep coming back to asking that question, what does this moment require of me? What does this day or week or month, ask of me? An astrologer should be able to help us understand that in terms of the planetary qualities that are going to be a part of our experience. A Saturn experience asks something of us that is different from a Venus transit of Venus retrograde, it's a very different experience compared to a Pluto transit or a Uranus or Neptune transit.
11:56
So by virtue of just asking the question, How do I serve the moment? that's the voice of the soul speaking. Even if it's a practice that we have to kind of force ourselves to do because it's not natural, we have to sit down and go like, Okay, I have to literally write it down on a piece of paper, how do I serve today? It's not natural for us to maybe ask that question, but if we make it a practice to ask that question, we start reinforcing that I am a spirit soul, who has a higher intelligence that I have to keep directing my mind, my body, my ego back to in service.
12:36
So the second thing that asking this question, how do I serve my season of time? Or how do I act as a midwife to the next experience of my life? the next thing that it reinforces, is that I am not the controller. This is really important, because while we each have some degree of creative, participatory agency, because we are co creators, but when I acknowledge that I am not the the measure of all things and when we acknowledge that I am not the ultimate, I am not the arbiter of all things, and I'm not the controller of all things, that degree of surrender to the planets who are of course, thought of as representatives of source, of Godhead, the gods are like the different aspects or features of God, and they all are all a part of the administration of the unity of the cosmos. And so when we ask, How do I serve this moment, we're also asking how do I serve the greater whole of which I am apart? And typically, when we ask those two questions, we are reinforcing I am a soul in relationship with the divine. And the divine could be in the world in a big, macro cosmic sense, as in the gods and God and the big picture, but it can also be something that permeates our lives in terms of seeing everything in relation to God, how do I serve today, cecause today is God's day? Or how do I serve today because today, I'll meet people who are all God's children? or anything like that.
14:25
Any way in which we're asking How can I serve the moment? is a choice to see the orchestration of every day and event and season of our lives as something that is divine. So asking that question regularly, is, you know, really, really important and an astrologer. When I'm at my best, and I'm not always at my best, but when I'm at my best, I feel like the best thing that I give my clients and a reading is some sense of not just what's going to come because that's important, but also helping gently steer a person in the direction of How do I serve this moment? and that helps them remember, I'm a spirit-soul in service to a larger divine whole that is going to meet me in my life today through nature, through people, through places through circumstances, all of which are a reflection of God's hand in creation. And if I can, if I can help people start to look at their lives like that, I think it's a successful reading. Does it happen all the time? No. And not everyone is necessarily asking those questions or, you know, some people come in with a lot more anxiety about things in the material world and maybe a lot more absorbed in their concerns about the material world. And that's totally okay. People can I give room, I try to give room for people to have that level of existential, you know, material anxiety, and to address it because there's no penalty for being absorbed in the material energy other than riding that roller coaster for as long as we want to. It has no beginning and it has no end and the patience for for us from the divine in terms of how long we want to be on this rollercoaster is there's infinite grace and patience for us. And this rollercoaster naturally teaches us about the nature of what's happening and who we are if we pay attention long enough.
16:25
And so, generally speaking, why shouldn't I be patient with people who come in and have questions? Tomorrow, I could be anxious about something that's really mundane compared to the high horse I might sit on while teaching a yoga class or something else. So it's important as astrologers that I think there's there that we have patience for ourselves and for others, when we get really anxious, and we tend to approach the Oracle from the standpoint of our investment in the material fluctuations of karma. But I keep bringing it back to how good it feels for me or for my clients, when you have a sense of like, what is the Saturn transit like? And what does it ask of you? You know, and I don't know that I always have the answer to that question, if I can just get a client into the frame, my frame of mind even care about that question... there's a sacredness.
17:18
It's like, we don't realise that we're in this profound temple sometimes we go it's like Indiana Jones. We love like the the sense that all of the sacred stuff exists somewhere, you know, deep in the past. I mean, I fall prey to that to heck I teach a class called ancient astrology for the modern mystic. So I like ancient stuff, you know, has this kind of numinous deep, mysterious quality to it, like the real good, juicy stuff was somewhere thousands of years ago, in some, you know, temple at the bottom of pyramid or something like that. But the truth is that when we ask ourselves, when we say today, God is going to approach me, God is going to approach me through people through places through things. And I don't mean God, like some old dude with a white, you know, white beard up in the sky, right? I mean, the powerful, intangible, beautiful, divine, intelligent being that's connected to all things that we all find our unity and harmony, in that essential divinity is going to approach me today in very personal ways, and ask questions of me and talk to me and ask me to participate. Then the world becomes very sacred and very mysterious. And it hums. You know what I mean? There's something humming just a brick right below the surface. And I can't walk a day in that world without things like mantra, you know, without mantra meditation, without a little bit of stillness without my notebook without reading a book without listening carefully to what people say. I just start paying more attention when I see the world that way. And if astrology session can give us that feeling that we're walking in a sacred world, then I think it's done its work.
19:06
And, of course, an astrologer can't tell you exactly what to do or how to handle a transit. But what they can do is they can give you a sense of, you know, what each season of life tends to ask of us or what kinds of archetypal themes and patterns are going to come up. And when we have some sense of that, we typically know how to sacrifice something of ourselves to the moment and that is so important. There's a great verse in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna is talking about how when we're talking about a sacrifice, and Krishna says, you know, I'm going to paraphrase but "I am the ceremonial offering. I am the offering itself I'm the ablation I'm the chance I'm the ceremony. I'm the sacred fire. I'm the words that are chanted. I'm the priests. I'm the outcome."
20:00
Right. And in that way, God is pouring God's self into God in sacrifice, in prayer. One of the favourite things that I ever heard a Swami say that I really, really appreciated was that even God loves to pray, you know. And so, to me, if we can understand that these planets are inviting us into this prayerful singing reality, that's just beckoning us to sing along, find our sacred step with life, then it doesn't really matter what happens, the ups or downs, because there's this excitement that fills the air, there's this hum or this buzz.
20:40
In Minnesota, I would compare it to the feeling that I get about this time of year in the fall, which I've been just starting to feel again and went on a walk yesterday, and I've been, I was feeling it. And it's that it's this electrical feeling in the air where you can feel the air is getting cold, it's as though you can feel the electrons moving around. And there's this sense that snow or frost will be coming soon or you get that very crisp feeling. Anyway, if you live in the Midwest, you live in Minnesota, I'm so delighted to be back home and experiencing it again.
21:16
But at any rate, we need to have that sense of present attendance to the moment. And an astrologer should offer you options, should give you options, should say, look, here's what Saturn tends to need or want, here are the themes that Saturn calls forth from us. Saturn is a good example. Because sometimes people get really bummed out, it's like, Saturn is basically calling you to go into maybe something that's a little bit more wintery, or dry, or a tunnel or dead or distant or remote or still are lonely or quiet, you know, sometimes heavier. And we think to ourselves, I can't possibly do that. Because I really like summer, and I really like to be up and I really like you know, maybe another planet like Venus or Jupiter or something. But it turns out that you know, it's the poetry, it's the beauty, it's the attendance to the moment that brings out that poetry and beauty and love and all things. And so if we can access the imagination of a planet, the imaginal realm of a planet, and think to ourselves, how do I enter into that realm, and think of it as a sacred, beautiful, interesting experience that wants to engage me, then it doesn't really matter what the concrete events are, because we're interested in them. We're attendant to them, we see God in them, right. So an astrology, reading, when it's at its best gives people that sense that they should be excited to participate in what is about to happen, whatever it may be. Here's some of the concrete things that could happen. But here is the call here is the you know, here's the melody, or here's the rhythm, that is also going to call to you. And it's very important that you participate soulfully. I think personally that the takeaway of this insight to me as an astrologer has been over the years to ask, stay very aware of what's happening and to ask, what do the planets, what are they asking of me right now? You know, what, how can I serve as a host, to the unfolding of the next events, and I'm not talking about and we should do it very subtly.
23:39
People can hear this, and I've seen it a lot, you know, because I've been in, especially in the yogic world, and so forth, that it's not about taking a posture to life, like, I'm some kind of sacred Sage that's going to go out and you know, do the mindful best thing all the time. And I have to put on airs about it, or, you know, make it really clear to people that I'm just trying to be present and serve the moment and you should keep this a secret even to yourself, right? That's something that my Guru has said a number of times, which is that this kind of, you know, deep intimacy with God that we're looking for in the way that we serve as a host to our experiences is something that should be subtle. Because when it's subtle, and we're getting our we're getting our ego out of the way, that's when we're truly serving as midwives to the experience and the experience itself will do the speaking to others, to the world around us. The experience itself will be gratifying to us and not the ego stake that we have in going out and acting and behaving as midwives for our own experiences. So don't put on the mindfulness costume. You know, don't put on mystical Sage who's mindfully handling everything, Guru garbs, you know what I mean? Just go out and do it and do it, do it quietly.
25:11
But take joy in it take joy. It's amazing how much more joy there is when we allow things to be subtle and when we, when the things start, when, when the really amazing stuff starts coming up, and we start really getting to see the powers of the planets or the archetypes in our lives. There's a way in which sitting with it, and allowing yourself to see it and observe it, but also protecting it, keeping it somewhat concealed, delivers such a much more intense depth of gratification, and it also lasts longer, we are able to sustain the connection longer. It's like, you know, it's like intimacy. What is the advice that you hear in most, books, workshops, talks that people give on how to sustain intimacy, one of the things that's always said is, you know, don't ever get rid of the necessity for foreplay. Whether you know, you've been with someone for a day or 10 years or a lifetime, make sure that you pay attention to the small things and don't just rush for the, you know, the big finish, so to speak. So it's similar that we have to learn to be careful, attentive lovers have our own experiences as well. And astrology just gives such a nice way of doing that by helping us understand what each of the planets are asking of us. So that is what I wanted to share today.
26:45
I hope that this has generated some good insights of your own, please feel free to share some of the insights that you've had while listening to this talk below. And I also invite you to listen to the other videos in the series if you haven't yet. I think that you'll you'll hopefully you'll find that they add to your ongoing you know studies of astrology, so thank you. And don't forget that my new class Ancient Astrology for the Modern Mystic starts on November 14. there's still room in the class if you want to check it out. You can learn more about it my website nightlight astrology calm, and hope to see some of you in class soon. Take it easy, everyone. Bye
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