CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

You are totally unique.

A birthchart cannot be duplicated within a period of less than twenty-five thousand years. All the planets are traveling at different speeds around the Sun, and it takes more than twenty-five thousand years for all of them to line up the same way twice. Consequently, in terms of the astrology chart, each individual is totally unique. Astrology is not a study of general truth but rather a key to specific knowledge that can unlock the power of one's inner self.

A common denominator of all astrologers is the use of the basic mathematical tools of the planets, signs, and houses. There are as many different approaches to interpreting the astrology chart as there are astrologers. This is because each of us is unique, and the astrologer brings the dimension of himself or herself to the science and to the interpretation of the basic symbols. The meaning of the birthchart is filtered through the biases and basic outlook on life of the astrologer who is interpreting. For this reason the validation of your inner self is the ultimate judge of the accuracy and completeness of the insights offered you, as is the case with psychiatry, psychology, and any of the other social science approaches dealing with the uniqueness of a human being.

Different astrologers see different things when they look at a birthchart. Consequently, I wish to share some basic premises I hold about life as a whole, my biases, so that you will know consciously the filter through which this information is being presented. I also want to share my goals in coauthoring this book and the practical benefit that I feel it can be to the reader.

Many people believe that everything in astrology is predestined, that free will is precluded. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The astrology chart is simply a picture of the inner person just as the physical body is a picture of the outer person.

Without boundaries there is no free will or choice; there is nothing to choose between. In that sense your astrology chart, which shows a picture of your inner self, is set/predestined in the same way that your body is set/predestined at the moment of your birth. Your physical body, though it grows and matures, remains essentially the same. It is still your body, unique from others on Earth and the only body you have. In the same way, the astrology chart pictures your intangible body. It is a picture of your inner being, unique from everyone else on Earth and the only inner being that you have. The tangible aspects of a person, the body, can be seen physically. The intangible aspects of a person, the being within the body, can be seen mathematically through the astrology chart.

It is how we use what we have that the area of free will, or choice, enters in. Physically, we are aware of choice. We know what actions lead inevitably to pain, and if we do not want pain, we do not do those actions. On the intangible level the guideposts are just as inevitable, yet not as obvious except through mathematical tools that can display the energies graphically, such as astrology.

For example, if you were to start your automobile, "rev it up" to forty miles per hour, and drive into a brick wall, you know that would inevitably lead to pain. There is no way of getting around it, pain would be an unavoidable consequence of taking that action.

On the other hand, on the intangible level, each of us is continually putting into motion factors that inevitably lead to experiencing pain emotionally, mentally, and/or psychically. The only difference is that we are not as aware of the connection between cause and consequence when it is not on the strictly physical level. Astrology is a means of becoming aware of that connection on the intangible levels of experiencing oneself. Psychologically, we are doing things just as foolish as driving a car into a brick wall and then wondering, What went wrong? Why isn't life supporting me? I use astrology as a means for objectively getting in touch with brick walls for myself and others.

I'd like to share with you what I'm actually "up to" with astrology. I'm interested in experiencing happiness while on planet Earth, so for me astrology is a tool, not an end in itself.

The first thing I notice about personal happiness is that most of the people on this planet don't believe in it. Most of us are operating (consciously or unconsciously) out of a belief structure that says life is about suffering. We therefore go along with major compromises in our lives: we give away bits and pieces of ourselves; we stay in self-destructive situations; we give up our heart's dreams until one day we cash in all our chips and out we go. I have no retention of being on this planet (or any other) if I'm not going to enjoy myself and feel all the love of the universe flowing through mc in a way that works for me and for everyone around me. The challenge is creating personal happiness on a planet that doesn't believe in it.

In order to do this realistically, the first thing we need to do is get in touch with the laws of happiness operating here and begin to cooperate with them rather than resist them. The most important thing to notice about happiness is that all the joy we have ever experienced on this planet has been felt in one place and one place only: inside our own hearts. That's where we have experienced happiness, and that's where the source of it is. Personal happiness is a by-product of the times when our minds are centered inside the heart. When the mind is inside the heart, it's happy because it's home.

There are certain materialistic experiences, common to most of us, that can temporarily produce that state of happiness. One of these experiences is falling in love. If you have never fallen in love, the experience of infatuation is an effective facsimile. Before you fall in love your mind runs around telling you, "If only I get this, then I'll be happy"; "If only I get that, then I'll be happy"; "If only that person will go along with me, then I'll be happy." And the time comes when you fall in love. Well, since the mind is not programmed to handle love, as soon as you feel it, it "pops" the mind from its attachment to the world back into the heart center (where it is naturally attached), and for a while you're happy because for a while you're "home."

And it feels great when you're in love. There is a feeling that everything is "right," regardless of what seems to be happening in the external environment. When shopping at the supermarket, if somebody bumps into your cart, you don't mind. You just flow with it. If you happen to pass people arguing with each other, you still feel love. You may stop to help, but you don't stop feeling the joy inside yourself to do it. And you don't become less effective. You still work and play and wash your hair, and do all the things you normally do, but everything has a feeling of magic about it, a feeling of joy.

This is your birthright. Living in this state of consciousness is how it's supposed to be for all of us, all the time. It's natural.

Now we all know that the happiness you experienced when you were in love had nothing to do with the other person because if the other person stays around long enough, the mind goes out and tries to change the other person. The moment it does that, it leaves the heart center, and the restlessness, the sense that something is "missing," comes back.

There are other materialistic experiences that can temporarily produce happiness. Reaching a goal is a good example. Let's say you want to make a million dollars. It's easy to reach goals here -- you simply put all your life energy into it to the exclusion of everything else, and sooner or later you'll get there. So one day you wake up, look at your checkbook, and it says "plus one million dollars." Well, the mind is not programmed to handle success (like love, the feeling of success is spiritual), so as soon as the goal is reached, it pops the mind from its attachment to the world, and back the mind flies into the heart center.

And for a while you are happy. That happiness lasts until the mind becomes restless and begins to say, "Well, if a million made us this happy, think how happy two million will make us. Probably twice as happy!" And out the mind goes into the world to make that second million. When it does that, it leaves the heart center, and the unhappiness comes back, the incompleteness, the feeling that "something has to happen" in order for you to be happy again.

Other things can temporarily produce happiness, such as a moment of beauty in nature. Seeing someone do something nice for someone else, with no motive for personal gain, can produce joy as the mind tiles back into the heart again. But then you walk a little farther down the street and see a neighbor kicking a dog, and the mind goes out to make a judgment. The moment it does that, it leaves the heart center, and the unhappiness, the vague dissatisfaction, returns.

So obtaining personal happiness has to do with getting the mind to go into the heart center and remain there. Then we can do whatever we like -- experience romantic love, make lots of money, do all the things that are happy and fun. But everything is approached from a feeling of lightness, of "play," because we already have what we need: that feeling of internal happiness.

Two basic approaches can bring this state of consciousness about on a permanent basis. One is some form of meditation. Meditation works because on a daily basis it takes the mind away from its habit of attachment to the world, turns it inward to the heart, and gently says: "Here's where the happiness is; it's inside, not outside." And little by little the mind, which is a slow learner, begins to get the idea. With proper meditation, the power of contacting reality within yourself for even twenty minutes a day can grow so strong that you can spend the remaining twenty three hours and forty minutes of the day out in the world without losing the feeling of assurance and inner joy.

In the second approach to claiming personal happiness on a permanent basis (and there's no reason not to use both approaches simultaneously), we have to ask ourselves: Why does the mind go outward to begin with? When you were in love, why did the mind go out and try to change the other person? When you reached a goal, why did the mind go out and immediately try to reach another one? When you had a high meditation and felt joyous, why could somebody "push your buttons" and send you out again? This has to do with basic imbalances reside the mind itself that are karmic, stemming from past life patternings and tendencies.

Astrology is the fastest, most precise technique I know for getting in touch with those imbalances on an individual basis and making the corrections. That's why I use astrology.

Because each of us is so totally unique, an individual astrological reading is required in order to see the overall pattern in your life, (stemming from past lives) that is seeking to be corrected so bliss can be obtained permanently. Knowledge of the pattern is obtained through a synthesis of the factors that need purification in each of your planets, signs, and houses. As each of these factors is purified individually, your entire inner structure becomes harmonized and resolved.

It is for this reason that I have divided each of the planets into the "static" and "dynamic" categories as they travel through each of the signs. The "static" category is a picture of past life tendencies, habitual karmic responses that result in personal defeat and isolation from inner joy. The "dynamic" category suggests the purification process that can provide the antidote for the specific past life self-defeating tendency.

It's an experiment. As you begin actively practicing in your daily life one or more of the approaches outlined in the "dynamic" category (with the appropriate planet and sign placement in your individual birthchart), you will find yourself less affected by environmental stimuli throwing you off the center of inner joy.

I do not view your astrology chart as an accident. The moment of your birth, which is what your chart is based on, is perfect and very carefully chosen on the spiritual level of your own soul. Our soul chose its moment for manifestation, how it wanted things to be, only we forgot and lost the authority of our own energies. The curtain dropped, and we forgot that we chose it all. In this way the birthchart is a means of getting back in touch with the way we wanted it to be, our life or soul's direction. The astrology chart defines precisely the path we need to follow in order to fulfill personal potential and gain the satisfaction of self-completion. It is, in terms of individual completeness, the map back home.

When I look at an astrology chart, what I see is the soul's direction, the specific direction that one's life wants to go. Your life is going in the direction it's going whether you or I approve of it or not. When you are cooperating with your own direction of energy, everything on the physical plane works (love, sex, money, friendship, business, and so forth). When you are resisting the natural flow of your own energy, everything on the physical plane stops working in those areas where resistance is occurring. The idea is to have it all on a physical level by aligning and cooperating with the direction of one's own internal energies.

The purpose of this book is simply exposure -- to show the choices for action in planets located in specific signs. It is then possible to exercise free will within the framework of what is going on. This book addresses the specific challenge of each of the planets in each of the signs. Essentially, it says: "If you do this...you experience these things..." (that is, happiness); on the other hand, "If you do this...you experience..." (that is, unhappiness).

The astrology chart is a means for objectively viewing the intangible (nonphysical) dimension of oneself. When the intangible aspects of oneself are seen in a tangible way, it is at last possible to create realistically the unique conditions that will lead to individual satisfaction and happiness in life. To attempt to deal with the nonphysical aspects of oneself without scientifically knowing the dimensions and form of that self is to seek satisfaction from life on the levels of blind belief, happenstance, and superstition. It is neither scientific nor realistic and thus does not produce results that are consistently satisfying.

The astrology chart shows the inner person and where the individual needs to manifest potential outwardly in order to experience satisfaction inwardly. We all want to be happy, yet there are no magic rules that lead to happiness for everyone. For example, a person whose Moon is in Cancer can find emotional security through establishing a deep, intimate connection with another; a person whose Moon is in Libra finds emotional security through establishing a sense of harmonious cooperation in relationships. What works four one person does not work for another. The idea is to get in touch with what works for you. It is in recognizing and respecting the differences between us that individual happiness and satisfaction can be established in a realistic way.

A belief in reincarnation is not necessary to receive practical value from the reading of this book. Again, so that you may know my biases, I accept the idea of reincarnation and know that the moment of your birth was not an accident. You are not a victim of your birthchart, and it is not a matter beyond your control. I view the planets and signs in the birthchart as totally perfect and appropriate for the individual involved; it is exactly what the individual needs for completion and happiness. The chart is a scientific picture of the life that one's soul has chosen as a process for its own growth and completion.

Each chart is perfect. In terms of reincarnation, before you were born your soul said something like this:

"Okay, now this time I'm going to handle (this)...and (this)...and...(this)....I want to complete this one, so I'll set it up this way....That should complete it. I'll also handle this and this...and as long as I'm at it, I'll take care of this one in the process. Okay. That's it."

And then turning to the angelic beings:

"See ya!"

And in you came as a baby on planet Earth and took your first breath. So the birthchart is a picture of how you wanted it to be. It's the role you promised yourself you would play, the individual you said you would be (in the wisdom of your soul) in order to make your completions. In making your own completions, you simultaneously contribute to the rest of life. The birthchart shows the role you promised you would play, and when you are who you said you would be, life works. Happiness, joy, fulfillment are realistically available for everyone in the process of keeping your promises and being who you are. There are no victims.

Frankly, I'm a Leo, and I love victory. I see life as a very clear process of winning and losing. Winning is what works -- what produces happiness, joy, an increased level of clear energy for the individual. Losing is what does not work -- what produces unhappiness and a lowering of energy for the individual.

Consequently, this book is written in the context of "static" and "dynamic," now to lose and how to win. When I refer to victory, I do not mean at somebody's expense but rather as against the self-negating ways of one's own patterns. When you defeat self-negating patterns and emerge victorious over those fears and aspects that keep you miserable, not only do you win but through your upliftment everyone around you also wins.

If you were in bliss all the time, I would love it. What I see is that, as a process, bliss is obtained through alignment with one's inner self. Basically, there is you and there is your soul. If you were at one with your soul, everything you touched would turn to gold, to joy, to love, to peace.

Between you and being at one with your soul is a pile of unconsciousness, and each of us has a personal, unique pile of unconsciousness. The astrology chart is a key to seeing the unconsciousness on an objective and specific level that is capable of dissolving it. This book exposes that unconsciousness so that it can rise to a conscious level and be released, and then it offers alternative methods for handling the individual energies.

The unconsciousness (or static condition, as it is referred to in this book) is like a dark room. Turn the light on, and the darkness is dissolved with no contest. It is the same with the unconsciousness. There is nothing to figure out or do with it. It is not psychological. Simply expose it, and the light from your inner self will dissolve it. Expose it, and then it can be released and a new choice can be made.

As you determine the location of each of your planets in the signs, either through an already prepared astrology chart or through the tables from Part III, you are ready to read the static and dynamic descriptions for that planet in the sign that you have. As you read the static category, the corresponding unconsciousness is stimulated and rises to the surface to be released. It's okay to feel totally devastated after reading the static condition. In fact, it is appropriate. The degree to which you allow yourself to feel totally hopeless when reading the static condition is the depth to which the unconsciousness can be cleared out and released, being replaced with a sense of inner freedom and ease as you read the dynamic description.

None of us breaks ancient patterns of unconsciousness all at once. It's a process, a game of choosing to do things a little differently, with a little more awareness of what's going on, step by step. It's gradual. Take one aspect and experiment with expressing that area of yourself differently in daily situations of your life. See what happens. It's an experiment. The idea is to use what works, what produces an increase of happiness and ease in your relationship with life.

Your own soul is the only entity with your total records, and you are the only one who knows what things are so for you. For this reason the validation of your inner self is the ultimate judge of the completeness and accuracy of the insights offered you. On some planets you may feel an inner sense of "Yes, that's exactly how I experience it," and on some planets there may be no immediate recognition. You are the authority. Your practical experience of what is leading to productive and nonproductive results for you is the best measurement.

JAN SPILLER

Part I copyright © 1985, 1988 by Jan Spiller

Part II copyright © 1988 by Karen McCoy and Jan Spiller

Part III copyright © 1988 by Jan Spiller and Karen McCoy