Llewellyn's Astro Update

Stephanie Clement
Karma, Relationships & Astrological Synthesis

Nothing causes your heart to beat faster than a powerful romantic or sexual relationship! Astrologers get more questions about romance than just about anything else, so you need the best techniques to analyze charts with partnerships in mind. In this column you can read about three different facets of astrology that you can use to explore relationships—past, present, and future. Not an astrologer? Skip to the section on Ex-Relationships.

Past Karma

If you have not associated karma with your astrological chart, maybe you will want to take another look. Your chart reveals your entire experience, including something about your past lives and how they influence your present relationships. In fact, every part of your chart points to key karmic factors—understand them and you will learn how to engage in more fulfilling relationships.

Whatever your sign, one sure path to spiritual understanding is through someone of the opposite sign. For example, in Karmic Astrology: Past Lives, Present Loves, author Ruth Aharoni states that the karmic purpose of Gemini is “gathering information and passing on knowledge.” Sagittarius seeks higher meaning, and Gemini brings Sag back down to earth with “just the facts.” You can deepen your understanding of relationships in the present by considering karmic indictors in your chart—they can explain your spiritual attraction to your partner.

Ex-Relationships

How many of you are with someone who has had a prior relationship? Did you ever think about the karma you face in dealing with your partner’s ex? Rowan Davis can show you exactly why you come up against certain problems, and she shows you how to handle the formidable problem of dealing with your partner’s relationship karma. She is right on the money!

The Ex Files: A Zodiac Guide to His Former Flames by Rowan Davis will answer a lot of your questions about your partner and his past:

What his ex is really like
How his children play into the picture
What he misses about her
What he surely does NOT miss!
How to piss her off (if you choose to go there)
How your Sun sign can best deal with the situation

Buy this book to get valuable insights into your partner’s ex. If you consult with clients, this book can add a bit of humor to difficult discussions about anyone’s most significant relationships.

Into the Future

Astrology is the most accurate prediction tool you have. The art of good astrological interpretation rests on figuring out how the relationships between the planets will play out in a person’s life. Most astrologers use aspects to provide information.

Now you can use another set of indicators—midpoints—to reveal how planetary energies are interwoven in your chart. With Midpoints: Identify & Integrate Midpoints Into Horoscope Synthesis, Don McBroom puts together a fabulous text that provides a sure-fire way to achieve synthesis in your astrological work.

Beginning with the basics of what midpoints are and how to identify them. McBroom then discusses all the finer points of midpoint analysis. He details the two most important midpoints, Sun/Moon and Ascendant/Midheaven, and shows how to use midpoint analysis in birth charts, progressions and transits. AND he reveals how to bring all these bits of information together in a meaningful synthesis.

These three books cover topics of interest to just about everyone. The Ex Files will make a great gift for anyone who has an EX in the picture. For the spiritually minded, you will definitely want to read and study Karmic Astrology. Every serious astrologer will find Midpoints a handy reference tool.

CHAPTER ONE

Karma, incarnations, and the birth chart
Upon bursting forth from the womb
The passing moment was imprinted
By the celestial seal
And the universal soul inspired in you
The touch of immortality.
-Ruth Aharoni

The word karma has by now earned itself a respected place in our language, having been accepted into the modern-day lexicon. In popular use, karma means fate, yet this usage is simplistic and compromises the dignity of the original meaning.

The literal meaning of karma in Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language from which it came, is action or act; that is to say that any action—physical or mental—is karma. Deeds are physical karma, and thoughts, emotions, desire, imagination, and will are mental karma. Mental action precedes physical action, or actually creates it; that is, every deed or act is preceded by an initial thought.

It's a universal truth that exes are annoying. However, using the principles of astrology, you can better understand what to expect when getting into a new situation with them. Some are more likely than others to cause problems, and some will do little besides make a minor attempt to regain the interest of their lost partners. Using astrology, you can understand the degree to which a person will go to ruin any new relationship her ex attempts to have, and even to hurt both the ex and his new partner individually.

There is one basic interest shared by most exes, despite their astrological sign: the desire for self-preservation, including one's self-esteem, ego, and social standing. A breakup can be hard on both parties, regardless of who actually left whom, and in reality few people remain friends with their ex-lovers. The negative feelings surrounding the division of a union—be it marriage, sexual, or romantic—are often projected on anyone who causes further friction, especially new romantic interests. This leaves people, who may have had nothing to do with the actual disintegration of the first relationship, dealing with a huge amount of the baggage.

We are all diamonds, and we have many facets to our personalities. We can show one aspect of ourselves to one person and another to someone else. One of our attributes may come out in a certain situation, and a different side may rise to the surface in another. Sometimes we feel energetic and ready to take on the world, and sometimes we need our solitude, and want to reflect on where we are in our life journey.

Since we contain such a multitude of personality traits, it's good to know that we can find representations of ourselves in the Cosmos, especially through the three gems of the asteroid belt, namely, Pallas, Juno and Vesta.

First, it's true that we are now in a great time astrologically, since so much of the myth and psychology that is involved in astrological analysis and assessment is being echoed in the wider world, through astronomy, the offshoot of ancient astrology. Every time another astronomical discovery or decision is made, another goddess is brought into the world consciousness, and her astrological attributes become more disseminated, and more widely understood.