As an incorrigible reincarnationist, difficult is, for me, to separate astrology from reincarnation. Simply because I see both as natural parts of life and of the universe laws. If the astro chart is a “compass”, or our “manual of instructions”, and if we are products of the choices we’ve done in our past lives, it’s not difficult to conclude that our astro chart is somewhat tied to our past experiences.
The American psychic Edgard Cayce talked about the interrelations between astrology and past lives in his readings. According to him – and that may sound a bit controvert to many - astrology does not make sense without the notion of reincarnation. He also warns against the general tendency of blaming on the planets for our misfortunes, considering man as a weak and unprotected being, totally at the mercy of the stars. This belief releases us from our responsibilities towards life, what creates a feeling of dependency that can be very comfortable for some of us – but that it’s very far from truth.
The French scientist and educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail – more known as Allan Kardec – no doubt granted us the most complete study of the spiritual nature and reincarnation. In his body of work, books and articles composed in the second half of the 19th century, Kardec opened the definitive scientific and philosophic study about what he called spiritism. Since I’ve been a student of his works for many years, it’s based on his concepts that I’ll attempt to give you some brief, basic explanations about reincarnation.
We call reincarnation to the idea, or belief, that our spirit, surviving the material death, will return to Earth in another physical body. This concept has been shared since the antiquity by all the existing religions, being banned from the Christianity by the Second Council of Constantinople, in the 553 century, thanks to demands of the emperor Justinian. Among other arguments, it’s said that Justinian’s wife, empress Theodora, could not stand the idea of being born again in a humble life... Reincarnation is cited in the Bible in several passages, which one of the clearest ones can be found in Matt 17:10-13, when the disciples ask Jesus about the coming of Elijah the prophet. Then Jesus answers that “Elijah has come already, and they did know him, but did to him whatever they wished, ” and the disciples understood that he was talking about John the Baptist – meaning that he had been Elijah reincarnated.
Why do we have to reincarnate?
It’s a law of nature that every living being needs to evolve towards perfection. But to become perfect the spirits, created “simple and ignorant”, according to Kardec, need to accumulate knowledge, result of a long road of learning about life. In our evolutionary degree, not very high yet, the best way to learn is living a material life and going through all the experiences, good and bad, that our adorable little planet has to offer us.
How many times do I have to reincarnate?
It varies according to how fast we learn (and apply) our lessons, how much we can achieve in each life. We can compare Earth as a big school; some do real good and advance through the grades, some don’t and keep stationary or have to repeat that same grade until be qualified for the next one. Here we have many freshmen, sophomores and seniors, according to their progress in life. And every little thing, good or bad, that we achieve, is purely an offspring of our own efforts and skills. This is why we find so different people around, different levels of intelligence, character, appearance, even of material resources and achievements. Our life is something we construct day by day. There is nobody to blame for our good or bad “fortune” but ourselves.
Could I be born in an animal body?
No, this is not possible since it would mean to retrograde; it’s incoherent to the idea of evolution. If you are a 7th grade student it’s impossible to come back to the 1st grade and let go all you have learned during all your school life.
It sounds a lot of work to me. Why don’t we simply be born “ready”, or the way we are?
Because it sounds like a big, big injustice. A world with sick and healthy, poor and rich, geniuses and retarded, good and evil, people who die in early age and in advanced age… It’s unreasonable and hard to understand why so much injustice (and so many blessings) happen to so many people without being deserved. Otherwise, a world of pure and free happiness and equality would not teach us anything. We would be like students whose diplomas were granted to without even have entered a classroom.
What about the karma? If I suffer in this life does it always mean that I did something bad to somebody else in a former life?
The word karma was taken from the Sanskrit, and means action. It does not necessarily mean a bad thing, but the result of the action-reaction law, which says that every action produces an equal reaction – good or bad. We don’t need to be afraid of our bad actions of the past. Reversing the bad karma is possible through it’s transformation in dharma, or the right way of living. Jesus, Buddha and other enlightened souls taught us that “love covers a multitude of sins” and that “all component things in the world are changeable,” meaning that through a work of love, compassion and service it’s possible to change the conditions of suffering we may have created in the past.
In the second part of this article we’ll see a little of how the astro chart can be read as a sort of “spiritual resume”, and what points of the chart are the most intimately related to our past experiences and lessons to be learn in our current life.
