From the Classic Text “Astrology of the Seers” by Dr. David Frawley
Astrology should be a spiritual science. Our birth chart is a mirror of our soul and its particular incarnation. In our stars we see the growth and evolution of our inner being from life to life. This does not mean that we can find truth or liberation merely through reading astrological charts. It means that astrology gives us the keys to the unfoldment of the spirit and can be used as a key to inner unfoldment.
The stars and planets are not just outer entities; they exist within our own minds as our guiding lights. One could say that our own inner lights take shape outwardly as the stars and planets to guide the world’s evolution. The outer comes from the inner and not vice versa, though the outer can affect the inner. The same rays of creation function outwardly in the heavens and inwardly in the heaven of our own higher mind. The stars determine our field of activity in life. They reflect the energies that we, as souls, project into this life. As we are a reflection of them, so they are a reflection of us. The stars form the cosmic man just as we, as human beings, form a solar system within ourselves.
Our own soul is itself a star, a sun, a point of cosmic light. Our own soul – often called the “causal being” because it is the causative power behind our life and thought – contains the power to create the entire universe. The light of our soul connects directly to the cosmic light, to the one Divine light that is in the Sun and all the stars.
Reflecting the universe itself, astrology can be used to examine all domains of life. From it we can learn about our health, wealth, career and relationships; our material, mental and spiritual manifestations. It shows the entire structure of energies through which we must act in life. As such, it is the most comprehensive science we have. Yet on its highest level, astrology should be part of yoga, the science of the spirit. Its purpose is to guide us beyond the net of these outer forces to their source. This source in not in the heavens, whether of this physical world or of one more subtle. It is not some mysterious or alien force, but what we really are when our minds are free of the bias of the separate self.
The planets show the energies that we need to master in order to calm our minds. Anger, a typical lower energy of the planet Mars, for example, is the power of truth to manifest what is right and not deviate from it. It appears as anger when we identify truth with some egoistic opinion or emotion. All the lower indications of the planets are simply the higher powers struggling in a state of limitation. They are different facets of the jewel of the enlightened mind, and they require reintegration rather than suppression.
The essential principle of a spiritual science is self-knowledge. As great sages have said repeatedly, “Self-knowledge is the basis of all knowledge.” Yet self-knowledge is something far more than psychological analysis. It is not the knowledge of our outer personality or conditioned self but of our inner consciousness and unconditioned being. The analysis of memory confines us to a superficial aspect of our being. Self-knowledge is also something more than knowledge of past lives. This is only a more extensive memory, still caught in the veil of form and the limitation of time.
Self-knowledge is the knowledge of who we really are, of our true being, which is the light of awareness. This is the Self, of which all our incarnations are but masks. It is not found by knowing who we were or why we became this or that; it is found by negating all separative identity and reintegrating the world within our own hearts. This requires seeing all lives within us. Such seeing is a recognition of the Divine presence everywhere.
Astrology properly employed shows us the world within ourselves. It is a tool for moving our consciousness from its physical limitation in the human brain through the rays of creation to encompass the entire universe. It is a tool for meditation in which the planets represent the qualities that we must realize within ourselves. The planets are the limbs of the cosmic person that we must put back together to return to the original state of grace. Understanding astrology, our consciousness can soar through the planets and the stars to the central Sun of Truth in the inner heart of all.
All worlds, planets, stars, galaxies and whatever else lies beyond them are a manifestation of the seven rays of creation. These same rays of creation are the lights of our own soul. All nature is nothing but various combinations of these causal lights on different levels. Our solar system is designed to manifest these creative energies, in their dual power as the Sun and Moon and in their fivefold diversification as the five major planets of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.
Each planet is a teaching. It represents an integral aspect of the cosmic being in its self-manifestation. Each planet shows us a line of approach to the cosmic being. Through integrating within ourselves the energies represented by the planets, we regain our true wholeness as cosmic beings. Each planet therefore represents a door to liberation. If we do not understand the energy of a planet within us, it will bind and lead us into sorrow and conflict. If we take too much or too little of the energy of any planet, we will cause imbalance and disorder in and around us, both physically and psychologically. If we take the energy of a planet divisively or superficially, it will lead us into disintegration. If we take that energy as a part of our deeper self, it will lead us to a greater and higher unfoldment.
The planets are awesome forces. Yet we ourselves are part of this mysterious universe and have its tremendous power within us. A great power exists within our soul to deal with the incredible energies of life. Our ego must break or turn away. Through inner inquiry and surrender, this power to master the planets and the stars can come forth. Through it, the nebula of our own mind coalesces, concentrates, and finally becomes enkindled as a Sun of direct perception.
Each planet represents a particular kind of yoga, a certain way of the unfoldment of consciousness. Following a planet’s characteristic ray back to its origin, we will arrive at the light of truth through its higher and subtler potential. The planets are different gifts of light to guide us back to our spiritual home. Their angle of approach varies, but their goal is one. In this return route their energies gradually come together.
Different souls fall under different rays belonging to the different planets. They belong to different planetary families. They are working for the development of the creative ray belonging to that planet, moving it forward in its evolutionary development, some at lower, some at higher levels. The evolution of the soul and that of the universe are thus the same. Each soul is a guiding force in cosmic evolution and in its liberation it will liberate a certain facet of the world being and further the evolution of all.
Different countries, races and religions also fall under different planetary rays. We are all part of the play of the gods, which is the play of the planets. Yet we are not just the puppets in the play, although we often accept this cosmic servitude while we are in ignorance of our greater inner potential. Inwardly we are the masters of this play, its guiding intelligence. All the intelligence inherent in the stars, produced by eons of cosmic evolution, is present within us as our own natural intuition and spontaneous insight.
