My Astro Download Part 1

Back in April I started my astro journey. I got a clear message that I should learn all I could about astrology. Yes, astrology. The journey led to a bunch of dead ends. I found some cool articles by John Pratt about how the Zodiac testifies of Christ, but as far as crossing that knowledge over to astrology or natal charts and why I should know about them, I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere.

Then God drove my car to Bart's Books (the coolest used book store in the world) and I wandered into the Astrology section.There were lots of books, but one on Jewish Astrology and Kabbalah called The Star Connection seemed to have a spot light on it. It needed me to buy it immediately.

I started the book that night and felt like my mind was being blown into two universes. I understood it on some level, but I felt sure that I could never explain it to anyone. Then a few weeks later I picked it up again and maybe the meditation to increase my IQ worked, because that time, it made perfect sense. (More on that meditation soon. I promise. It's super important.)

I devoured it with the overall feeling of "this is the missing link." And then I signed up for Kabbalah University online and watched hours of videos of Yael Yardeni. She is a teacher at Kabbalah University and a world renowned Kabbalistic Astrologer. I have a super huge crush on her.

For a few weeks my brain has been sorting and mixing and matching it with all my experience and knowledge of Kundlini Yoga and  also the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I will attempt to put it in simple terms in a few blog posts.

First off, if you don't know, Kabbalah is a body of teachings considered Jewish mysticism. The root of the word mysticism is mystery. A mystic is anyone who is attempting to understand the mysteries of God. That would be me. And probably you too.

People who study Kabbalah are going to be concerned with several books: One is the Book of Formations, which was reportedly written by the Patriarch Abraham. It is a very old book. And it is all about the stars and the planets and how God created everything with the word, and contains a lot of the foundations of Jewish Astrology.

The other main Kabbalistic text is the Zohar. The Zohar is 23 volumes. It's massive. It was revealed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai and his son Rabbi Elazar when they were in hiding from the Romans (in the second century CE) in a cave (what is it with caves?). They were taught through visits several times per day from the prophet Elijah and also from Moses (both translated beings). I don't know how long these personal tutoring sessions went on, but it was long enough to fill 23 volumes.

I am not saying if it is true or not, but I am saying it doesn't sound unlike those two (Moses and Elijah) to appear together at critical places (to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and to Joseph Smith, just to name a couple).

The Kabbalah is one of those things that has a past similar to Kundalini Yoga. It was hidden, passed on only from master to student rather secretly for generations and is only recently become available to all. That is the cliff notes background on Kabbalah. If you want more, google or go to the Kabbalah Center website.

For now, here is a beginning of what I learned about astrology and have put together with my own inspired LDS interpretation that I feel is relevant for everyone to know.

First of all, birth dates matter. We celebrate birth dates not just to track our age, but to keep the date in our memory. Time and location of birth also matter, because these things determine a person's natal chart. The natal chart, I have come to realize, is as important as many people view their Patriarchal Blessing, because these charts can give us insight into our destiny, our gifts, they can warn us of pitfalls, and give us a spiritual road map.

The biggest differences between Jewish and conventional astrology are:

1) The stars impel but don't compel. A person is not the way they are because they were born under a certain sign. They are actually born under a certain sign because of the way they already were and the decisions they made before they came. (Kabbalists believe in reincarnation. I believe in a pre-earth life where we made choices that effect our destiny.)

People are born under certain planetary influences because those are the circumstances that are best going to teach them what they need to learn. The Kabbalists call this the "tikune." Tikune means correction. We all come to achieve a correction, to complete some karma or contract, and learn certain things.

Thus, from a person's natal chart, we can learn a lot about a person's personality, why they are here, some possible challenges they may face as well some gifts they are given and need to use. A person's chart can also help give them spiritual goals. By doing their spiritual work and expanding consciousness through meditation, a person is able to achieve their correction. They can avoid the negative influence and fates written in the stars and can become all the good things and none of the negatives that their sign contains. Then you would say they became a "corrected" Taurus (or whatever sign). And in some cases, a person can completely rewrite their destiny and get a whole new natal chart. More on this in a future post.

I love this picture because the man is going outside of "reality" to see what is really there.

2) The second major difference between Kabbalistic and conventional astrology that people should know about is that the calendar is different. Instead of the Gregorian solar calendar, the Hebrew lunar-solar calendar is used. It is too long to explain in this post, but once you understand it, it makes way more sense than using the Gregorian calendar because the signs correspond to months that begin at each new moon rather than seemingly arbitrary dates as in conventional western astrology. Also, this Hebrew calendar is the one that Jews have been using since forever, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

Why this calendar thing is important is because once you do a date calculation, you may find that you are not the sign that you thought you were. And it will probably make a lot more sense. (Your rising and moon signs and everything else about your natal chart would still remain the same. I will write more on rising and moon signs in my next post.)  So if you want to know what sign you really are, I suggest getting an app like the Kabbalistic Calendar with a date converter.

3) The third thing to know about the difference between conventional and Kabbalistic astrology is that it is not just about the external planetary forces. It is about the internal energy of the planets and signs. And this internal energy is the seed level that influences and is influenced by human behavior. More on this later.

An Example - Taurus

To give an example of what the kind of insights and spiritual goals we can learn from our astrological sign, I will talk about Taurus as an example. (The rising sign and moon sign are also very important, but for now I will only cover the sun sign). I picked Taurus randomly. Sort of. Ok not randomly at all. I have a secret motive but I'll keep that my secret.

Taurus is the sign of the Bull. In John Pratt's article he shows us that the Bull is symbolic of Christ's role as the Lord of Hosts. The white Bull is an extinct type of wild ox. They had long horns and sometimes, in the scriptures, when it refers to unicorns, it was actually referring to the white Bull. Here is what John Pratt says about it.

"The Book of Enoch makes it clear that the white Bull represents the Kingdom of God in the last days, and Moses refers to its two horns as pushing together the thousands of Manasseh and the ten thousands of Ephraim."

Taurus is associated with the Hebrew month of Iyar.  This is known to be a difficult month because the light is hidden and you have to go look for it. But it is the month of the year associated with all healings and many Tauruses are in the medical profession or make great healers in other ways.

Taurus is an earth sign, but it's internal energy is fire. It is the fire of the earth. Like a volcano. Taurus is like that. They can be dormant for a long time and usually are a very emotionally balanced sign, but they can also explode. The anger of a Taurus is legendary. It is not like the anger of Aires, which usually only lasts a few minutes. The reason the Taurus will sometimes blow is because they can live in denial for too long, which I will explain.

Taurus is  motivated by comfort and security. They like the finer things in life. They are in love with love but often very confused about what love is. They are ruled by the planet Venus and so really appreciate love and beauty. They always look for peace and are non-confrontational. But at what price? Often the price is that they are living in denial. They often don't speak their mind. Over time this is not good.

They are good with money-- attracting it, managing it and manifesting it. Which is good since they have expensive tastes and are motivated by comfort.

Their biggest fear is change. They do not like change. If it works, keep it the same. They don't like to take risks. Change risks that things could be worse and they don't like to be out of their comfort zone. Because of this, Tauruses often settle for a lot less, and laziness can be an issue.

They have a reputation for being stubborn, but it is really because they fear change, and so they can get fixed in their ideas. Forty percent of the worlds dictators were Taurus. So you can see that when they get fixed in their ideas, they can be very judgmental indeed. (Incidentally another 40% are Leo, but for different reasons.)

Tauruses are known for their great voices, so if you are Taurus make sure you sing or chant mantras and bless those around you with your voice.

Tauruses can seem cold on the outside but are deeply romantic in their hearts. They care and care, but sometimes only to the limit of their comfort zone. Being an earth sign they also tend to move very slowly. If you are in a relationship with a Taurus, be patient and encourage them to take more risks, but when talking about change, never use the word change. Talk to them about improvement and making things better. Speak about softness and love.

The organ associated with Taurus is the throat and thyroid. This can be a vulnerability for them, because they don't speak their mind. (I'll talk more about organs in another post.)

Some Spiritual Goals for a Taurus:

1) Be more open to unconditional love, without judgement and out of your comfort zone.
2) Push yourself to fulfill a larger desire. Don't settle for less for the sake of peace. We came here to receive as much light as we can. Think about the world and the global good. Confront reality. See how the world really is and how you can make it better.
3) Care out of your comfort zone. Contrary to belief, it is care that brings love and not the reverse. The more we care, the more light we get.
4) Learn to express yourself. Say what you think rather than suppressing for the sake of peace. It can often make things better.

For those with friends or loved ones who are Taurus, encourage them to confront reality, express themselves and to take more risks.

A good example of two very different Tauruses are Adolf Hitler (dictator) and Oscar Schindler (Schindler's List). Schindler enjoyed luxury and women and nice wine. He could have stayed in his comfort zone and ridden the war out and made a lot of money. But he answered the higher call and went out of his comfort zone and took many risks to save as many Jews as he could during World War 2. So Tauruses can handle the energy of getting out of their comfort zone and can be great humanitarians and healers, but they sometimes need help getting there.

So, Tauruses, work on yourselves.

Everyone else is also invited to work on yourselves, too. Till next time. Sat Nam.