This is a preview for my talk at the Faculty of Astrological Studies Open Day on 22nd March 2025.
As a child, going to church was a part-uplifting, part-utterly baffling and stifling experience for me. One such experience was the robotic chanting of the Lord’s Prayer, the words etched into deep memory. It begins:
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done,
On Earth as it is in Heaven.
(Matthew 6: 9-10)
I don’t think it was ever explained what any of this meant. I’m quite sure none of the congregation (or indeed the vicar) knew either. I remember getting particularly stuck at thy will be done. I didn’t understand yet the meaning of “will” in this context, so I thought, “he’ll be…done? What will he do?”
Fast forward a couple of decades, I resonate with the profound spiritual meaning of
this prayer. With the help of some spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Mooji, who have
often “translated” the true meaning of biblical passages, Christ’s teachings can touch my heart and reveal deep inner stillness.
"Thy Will" is referring to the intention and awesome creative power of timeless spirit, God, the root of all Being. This in contrast to “my will”, which is the little me somehow against the universe, the normal assumption of being only a separate entity with past, future, job title and pronouns. This is like a ripple on the surface of the ocean dissociating from the vast body of water and trying to go its own way. Of course, we know its movement is inseparable from the underlying power of the ocean. The ripple came into manifestation briefly and beautifully, and it will return to its source. And so it is with us, but rare is the human being that consciously knows this and keeps it in their knowing. Those who do this, or more accurately be this understanding, are humanity’s saints and sages, some of them known, many of them not. By resting in Being and returning to this source, we are allowing thy will to be done through us, on earth as it is in heaven, and this deeply empowers and inspires the actions of the person.
The Merging of Inner and Outer, or Heaven and Earth
To segue neatly into astrology, perhaps we could see the birth chart as a visual map of Thy Will as manifested here, “On Earth as it is in Heaven”, the energetic blueprint of this ripple on the ocean’s surface. A key to abundant living, if I may be bold to suggest, is to first and foremost hold the awareness of Being as primary and observe the birth chart from this vantage point. When we have the revelation of astrological truth, it’s common to feel WOW, THAT’S WHO I AM! In fact, we have just discovered that the ripple (the manifestation of our personality dynamic) has an energetic correlation to the cosmos, maybe with the accompanying awesome feeling of divine order and meaning. But who or what observes this process, what is the vantage point? That awareness is who you are.
The process of understanding astrology feels to me like decoding the mind of the creator, and I believe that the revelation of astrology is a kind of step closer to God. But it's not the end of discovering who you are in essence.
Astrology can present a booby-trap for the spiritual-seeker, in which we project the possibility for ultimate satisfaction on a set of symbols, or perhaps on some future transit. “Once this nasty Pluto transit passes, I’ll have evolved, and then I’ll be happy!” So, we need
to be clear about the two dimensions. There is growth, development, and healing in the manifest world, a growth and maturation of the human which happens in time and space. Then, there is the no-time, no-space dimension, the presence of being, the oceanic God dimension, pure awareness, our true nature. This is found in no object, no symbol; anything that can be perceived is not it. We must go back to that field of consciousness which perceives. First, I am. Rest the attention there. Then, I am a…Taurus, in which spirit's manifestation is to enjoy luxuriating in the senses.
Glyph, upon sign, upon aspect, upon house position, etc., describes the complex incarnation of the eternal spirit, the manifestation of the One, from which everything comes, and to which everything returns. True recognition of this source, called self-realisation, has a perfume of peace, silence, boundless love and joy. This is home.
Often, we must go through a process of grasping at the manifest world of things to offer us this satisfaction, before realising that it really can’t. This is the initiation of spiritual growth, in which we turn inwardly to our very source, and we may have a glimpse of this eternally loving, peaceful field of presence.
My experience is that Thy Will can often appear through Heart Vibration or Heart Knowing. The heart energy centre was called the Emperor in Taoism and is the seat of true intelligence, beneath the fragmented buzzing of the upper brain’s commentary.
It’s from this place we create in a deeply satisfying way, and from this place we begin to see our birth chart bloom in ways we could hardly imagine or plan for. The symbols in the chart become so vibrant in manifestation when we connect with the intelligent source of all things. This is the reconciliation of inner and outer, the bringing of heaven down to earth.
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