I have to tell you, I am sort of the reluctant astrologer. And even the first time I went to a psychic, I rush home with all of the ‘facts’ and created an excel spreadsheet, classifying everything said and creating a column for a check mark for the moment the prediction came true. The idea of past lives is one that not only causes me to question my own religious up bringing, but also is something that in my mind defies proof. So do past lives exist?
In astrology we often hear the word Karma. The north and south nodes are where you are going and where you have been respectively. Certain connections with planets and the nodes may indicate past life karma to be worked out. Saturn works in much the same way. A Saturn placement and connection with a planet can indicate karma to be worked out in this life… So is there a last life? A past life? With this question burning within me, I got the fire in my belly to find out. When I saw that there was going to be a workshop at a psychic fair on past lives, I dragged my friend to go check it out. The workshop was scheduled to start at 3pm. We sat in the audience chatting and waiting. 3:10 came, then 3:15… No past life speaker. Finally at 3:20 a gentleman got up and said that they could not find the speaker, but that he was her husband and he would talk about the topic, which he was also knowledgeable on. He went around the audience. “hello please” (he was French Canadian) “you” , he pointed to a man “you love boat”, No I don’t like boats the man replied, “don’t worry, you did in your past life” he dismissed and moved on “you, he pointed to my friend sitting beside me, but he had nothing, so he moved on to me. “Hello Please” he said, shifting his gaze to me “you were a doctor in France”. Okay?! I thought…. He continued like this for a while with various members of the audience. After a while my friend and I rolled out of the workshop laughing our asses off “Apparently you had no past life” I said to her…” Doctor help me” she said to me! Our conclusion… What a crock of sh@t!
I decided to give it another try. Brian Weiss was going to be speaking at a conference AND he was a medical doctor! This somehow gave a level of credibility to his words. I got there and it was a popular talk filling up a theatre auditorium. He talked for a bit and then said he would do a group regression. He warned that it might be experienced like a dream, but just to relax into it and see what came up. Out went the lights… It was pitch black and I relaxed back into my seat and listened to his voice. Honestly, I felt as though I were making up a dream in my mind. Fantasizing. I imagined that I was in a field. It seemed like England or Scotland or something like that. I was lying on the ground with a fatal wound in my leg. Suddenly I felt a pain.. A real pain in my leg. I still felt like I was making up this dream. I lie in the field knowing that there were men around me dead or dying and though my wound if attended to could save my life, I knew that would not happen. I was calm and philosophical as I lie dying. The session ended and I was still not convinced that I had experienced a past life, but one thing I can tell you, I continued to have that pain in my leg all day.
Months later I decided to go to Nepal on a trek. Past lives in Nepal are just accepted as fact, both culturally and religiously. We were meant to meet a Rinopche, but he had died just weeks before we arrived and instead we met his father who was reincarnated as his son. What???? I was told that there was a process of determining if one was actually a reincarnated Rinopche. At three years old they are brought before their old belongings along with some fakes and the one who is the Rinpoche is able to identify their belongings correctly. The process that is documented in a movie called the Unmistaken Child. Fascinated by this I brought it up to my leader on the trek. By coincidence, she told me she was trained in doing past life regressions. As I walked along I told her of my experience within Brian Weiss’s workshop. She starts to ask me questions to go further into it (She was not hypnotizing me, just questioning me on my experience). I told her I felt like I made it up, but I continued to describe what I felt about the whole incident. “I’ve just been wounded” I say, “and I am going to die because I am bleeding and all of my men are dead around me. These are the moments before death and I am thinking first that I have let my men down and then that I am pissed that I’m going to die and I won’t be able, or have a chance to retaliate and win back. Then I start to feel ‘what is this all for’ and there is immense sadness at who I am leaving behind and how they will feel and all in the name of what seems to be some kind of materialism and greed. I am of course a man in this and I feel like I have done this in many many lifetimes” I told her that If I did have past lives, I think in many of them I have been a man and have led battle and wars. And I told her that I certainly feel that my purpose in this life is to bring balance between masculine and feminine elements of society in a world where we have gone to far into the masculine.
As I described all of this to her, I still felt like I drummed up the whole story on the spot, but she was convinced It was a real past life.
What was even more interesting was that during that trip in Nepal I met two men and I learned after this experience and conversation with my group leader that both served in the military, one the British Army and the other in the US army, both in very high level positions. I felt instant connection with both. One a little more than the other. It’s that feeling you get when you’ve only just met but you feel as though you’ve known them forever. Both men had come to a place in their lives within which they themselves had become philosophical about war. Both of these men were Virgo’s, a sign often associated with service, including armed service (and is also, by the way, associated with medical service). AND My South Node, the point in my chart that points to the past and past life, is in Virgo. Could this all be true? A Virgo south node would suggest that I may have been a doctor or even Military leader. Not surprisingly the men I met both had important planets connected to my south node which in astrology suggests that they WERE important people in my past lives.
I still do not know if there are actual past lives. I am too much of a proof person (which is probably proof in itself that this is real… that is the nature of a Virgo south node!) . But I do think that the coincidence of the story lines up with the path outlined in my astrology. And in that alone I can find meaning. Maybe the better question is what am I here for? I definitely feel a purpose beyond myself. And that is exactly what my North Node in Pisces life purpose all about.
Well Bob Marley would say ‘if you don’t know your past you don’t know your future”…. The north/South node are axis points in your chart. If the north node is at one point, then the south node is at the exact opposite side.
If you want to know what your future direction should be, here is a quick and dirty:
Aries North Node/Libra South Node: Moving away from living your life for others and trying to keep the balance and moving towards defining yourself. You may attract undependable or self absorbed types and they help you to define yourself.
Taurus North Node/Scorpio South Node: Moving away from loss or intense experiences and being attracted to the drama, and moving towards material gain, security and dependence on yourself materially. You are moving towards figuring out what is yours and what is mine.
Gemini North Node/Sagittarius South Node: Moving away from certainties to possibilities. In the past you may have had strong beliefs and are now moving towards holding complexity, varying ideas and experience.
Cancer North Node/Capricorn South Node: Moving away from being ambitious and status oriented towards the realm of feeling and nurturance. You can be a bit of user and can step on others to get where your going, but it will lead to nowhere as your purpose is to be honest, humble and caring.
Leo North Node/Aquarius South Node: Moving away from the group effort towards leading with your own effort. Moving away from wanting to be everyone’s friend and for their approval towards taking centre stage and expressing your individuality.
Virgo North Node/Pisces South Node: Moving away from a nebulous spiritual life to one of concrete details and practical duties. You can trust the universe too much maybe saying God will provide and must move towards logic and reason and a life where God will help those who help themselves.
Libra North Node/Aries South Node: Moving away from self absorption and selfishness towards cooperation, tact and diplomacy. You are learning the art of compromise and giving without an agenda. You can become a great mediator or judge.
Scorpio North Node/Taurus South Node: Letting go of stability and opening yourself up to change and the ability to ‘let go’, allow others to support you. Moving towards letting go of the material and your tightly held values.
Sagittarius North Node/Gemini South Node: Moving away from “sitting on the fence” towards taking decisive stands and committing to your own belief system. Moving away from talking towards listening and developing your intuition.
Capricorn North Node/Cancer South Node: Moving away from being afraid of authority and responsibility towards being goal and success oriented. Staying away from others emotional dramas’ towards refining yourself and becoming a go-getter.
Aquarius North Node/Leo South Node: Moving away from the spotlight towards humanitarian aims. Moving away from being bossy and self important towards doing things for the best interest of all.
Pisces North Node/Virgo South Node: Moving away from being detailed, regimented, critical and a-know-it-all towards being non-judgmental, compassionate, trusting and surrendering to God.
The house placement can add a little more complexity, but you can start with the sign placement. Some great books on the topic are: Lunar Nodes, Celeste Teal, and Astrology for the Soul, Jan Spiller
You can also try a Regression to Times and Places meditation on CD with Brian Weiss and see what comes up. After doing it, ask yourself “What does your past life meditation tell me about who I was and what I am meant to become”?