It seems clear that one’s level of spiritual level of awareness determines how our charts express themselves in our life events and responses.

This brief piece comes from several discussions about a specific topic: Can the astrological chart show us how evolved a Being is? This came from a Spiritual Brother, offering that “casting a chart of an individual is ascertained from our understanding of where this soul stands on the point of evolution” and then quotes a passage from the most advanced self-professed “spiritual astrology” source we have:

As a man evolves, the mechanism of response, or the vehicles of consciousness likewise steadily improve. His reactions, therefore, to the planetary influence, and to the energy of the various constellations, change with equal steadiness, and allowance must be made for this. It is consequently essential that the modern astrologer begins to study the point in evolution of the subject, prior to casting his horoscope. He must ascertain his appropriate place on the path of evolution.

from the Tibetan Master DK (via Alice Bailey), Esoteric Astrology Vol III, A Treatise on the Seven Rays

This passage by the Tibetan Master makes two things clear. First, as I’ve also long maintained, each Being responds according to their state of awareness and mastery of the three components of personality. As we evolve, our responses do in fact “steadily improve.” A square works differently in the life of a dysfunctional personality than it does in the life of a conscious Disciple, regardless of the path. And even there, due to the differences in forms of Self-realization, our planets still operate in a unique way due to our individual Light expression via the personality.

Second, while ideally it is “essential” for an astrologer to “study the point in evolution of the subject,” this is impossible for the vast number of astrologers, who know the craft but are not conscious disciples of any truth outside of Astrology. There are many astrologers who are not very aware spiritually. An astrologer can only advise at the level of their own awareness. To “ascertain his appropriate place on the path of evolution” would require an awareness which does not involve the direct feedback of the Being, since no Being can adequately represent their level of awareness. Even Initiates are not allowed to speak of where they’re at, and only Higher Initiates can understand the level of less-evolved Beings due to having attained that broader scope of deeper awareness.

I responded to the original statement by the Tibetan Master DK with this:

I have never found any consistent astrological markers that indicate whether the Being is on a path, or what level of awareness they are operating at. That said, my approach always opens doors of higher awareness to my clients due to my approach to the chart. Often I find that once they have a certain level of understanding of their life, the doors to higher awareness open and they are given the choice to "break on through to the other side."

So I do their chart session first, and then we have a discussion about how much they want to learn about transcendent things. All that said, after almost 50 years in the craft, my clients tend to be self-selecting. No gamblers, but a lot of disciples on various paths find me these days.

Any chart could produce a Gandhi or a Stalin. At each fork in the road of our lives, we all choose to take either the high road of love, wisdom, compassion and understanding, or the low road of ignorance, fear, and dysfunctional actions. Each eternal Being has their Dharma to fulfill, and creates karma by every choice they make along the Way. No one is compelled to do good or bad; each chooses in each moment how awareness they want to be, and whether they will choose the way of dysfunction or find a way to shed their chains of mental slavery.

I have experienced oppositions as extremely oppositional people, but also as an awareness of duality allowing me to find ways to transcend those false premises. I have been blocked and countered this life by extremely dysfunctional people who needed a drama, and yet have used each encounter to find a greater awareness of the human condition, the great Mayic illusion we all live within, and greater ways to transcend that illusion.

As I have served a greater good for many years, though I’ve dealt with many unfortunate people, those who didn’t rise to the challenge of being their Higher Self all fell away like dead leaves in an Autumn breeze. While in my early years I had all kinds of clients under all kinds of illusions, some fairly nasty, as I have been consistent in who I am and what I will and will not do, my clients began self-selecting over the years so that now I do mostly attract clients who want to learn more about their uniqueness and how their Higher Self might express itself. I believe an astrologer attracts exactly the clients they need to attract to improve their skills, regardless of the client's state of awareness. And it seems that difficult clients always lead astrologers to question who they should be attracting!

Because I only want clients of good intention and good hearts, I tend to attract those who want to experience a higher truth, both of life and themselves. So I don't really have to assess my client's "spiritual state," since their spiritual state will naturally come forth as a result of what I say about their chart. I may not know the state of my client’s awareness before the session, but when the session is done each of my clients sees elements of their Higher Self and ways to practice it. Rather than pre-judge my client, I simply appeal to the best in their chart, offering them ways to use their uniqueness as they see fit.

That way, each rises to their level of intention to become their Higher Self, each life challenge becomes an opportunity to turn friction to harmony and understanding, and each revelation becomes a stepping stone to ever-greater awareness. Each perfects how they express the various Ray energies over time, perfecting themselves in ways which allow them to become part of “the corrective force of Nature Herself,” which is ultimately what all of us come to, whether we know it or not.

As we transmute difficult aspects to opportunities to serve a greater good in our world, we find that as we overcome the traps of the lower self, we naturally can help others overcome them through our understanding, and their willingness to apply that understanding in their own unique ways. So a square could very well bring two or more disciples together in a greater good, whether they know it or not.

I’ll close with a phrase I’ve offered countless people across the years. I firmly believe “A person doesn’t get it together because they see the light; they only get it together when they feel the heat.” Heat is frictional, and created by the frictional angles between us and others, us and ourselves, and us and Nature. Each time we go through friction we engage “Fire By Friction,” and evolve in our awareness.

As we overcome tendencies to become attached to assumptions, or avoid facing something, or fall into illusions or pessimism, we have the ability to counteract these in situations. As we evolve and kill out fear, vanity, and inappropriate desires, we become the turning point of the square; we become the awareness generated by an opposition; we become the agents of transformation in our world. That’s the value of being a Spirit in the material world. That’s the value of being a spiritual Astrologer.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with persmission from Robert Wilkinson.