PsychKicks© ~ Karma and Reincarnation: The Great Flow Charters in the Sky

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Psych yourself up with like-minded sidekicks by exploring the symbols all around us—together.

Source of Inspiration
Life experience, astrology,
metaphysical teachings, past
life regressions

© 2010 - 2017 by Joyce Mason

This offering and some of the soon-to-follow PsychKicks are updated articles from The Radical Virgo and Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights. They fit our PsychKicks themes, and that I thought you’d enjoy or re-enjoy them in their newest incarnations.

I first became involved in metaphysics in 1977. Little did I know then what a red-letter year ’77 would be. On November 1, the planetary body Chiron was discovered. Chiron would ultimately become my specialty as an astrologer, but not until we “met” eleven years later. Among other things, Chiron’s discovery ushered in a focus on ecology, alternative medicine, and an interest in “New Age” spirituality.

Another iconic event that year awakened the consciousness of many people—the release of the first Star Wars movie. There’s nothing like cinema to coincide with and even help create cultural turning points. Suddenly, we were saying, “May the Force be with you,” acknowledging that there was one joining power we could tap into. We were spouting Yoda-isms, words to live by from the tiny green wizened one.

“Luminous beings are we … not this crude matter.” ~ Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

My intro to these subjects came from psychic and meditation teacher Betty Bethards and Unity Church, but my upbringing influenced the way I saw a melting pot of ideas from different religions and traditions. Take karma for example.

While karma has many dimensions, the rough parallel is the biblical, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” However, karma adds the idea of reincarnation, that you may be reaping your crop through several lifetimes. This is much more than “God’ll get you for that,” as Maude used to tell her husband Walter on her hilarious spin-off from All in the Family. Karma is about balance, learning both what nourishes us and what doesn’t work—anything that hurts ourselves or others. If we hurt others, we’ll eventually walk a mile in painful shoes. If we don’t love ourselves enough, we’ll taste the bitterness of that path and be given a chance to try the sweet nectar of self-compassion instead.


What Are the Mechanics?

I was one of those overly curious kids who asked my father why so often, he wished he had a why swatter. When I received new information, sometimes before my physical and emotional maturity to handle it, I would always get hung-up on the mechanics. For instance, when I first heard about sex and how people “do it,” I had to get out two of my dolls, imagining the male to have an anatomically correct appendage, and experiment with how the male and female parts might fit together. I didn’t get it. Grown-ups must be acrobats! At least I got points for an inquiring mind.

The same thing happened to me with karma. Once I heard that you often go through many lifetimes with the same cast of characters, repeating similar scenes until you complete your “business,” I had to figure out a way to wrap my brain around something so complicated. Here’s what I came up with as a touchstone for organizing my thoughts around karma and reincarnation.


The Great Flow Charters in the Sky and Magic Marker Music

I first got this idea before social networking and many tools we take for granted nowadays. I envisioned that each person has a team of advisers, a karma committee, to help map out his or her next incarnation for maximum learning. This is esessentially what Betty taught us.

With my Catholic background and being raised by an Italian mama, I saw my committee as handsome young Italian-American men in blue pinstripe suits, sort of a white-collar version of Tony Soprano’s mob family. Only better looking. Only angels. They didn’t make their bones; they made their wings. Bad guys gone good, now rewarded with the important job of helping others settle  their own scores in their multiple lives.

They’re in a “peace room” of sorts, the heavenly version of a war room where strategies are plotted before the plotted arise and are planted on earth again, body and soul together, one more time. They have to figure out how this complex of people will meet up and have all the experiences they need with all the right people from their past karmic strings of events. What a job!

I envision several flip charts. On them, the well-dressed angels are drawing intricate flow charts. Each chart stands for an individual life. Imagine the number of charts in a room in order to dovetail all of a person’s primary encounters with the people who are their sources of “unfinished business.” I can barely conceive of the complexity of this. If I had come lately to these ideas, I’d probably imagine some sort of computer program or phone app. But I’d lose something important with a more modern image. The visual of the flow charts makes obvious what a complex puzzle karma can be. It’s easier to grasp the idea in the visible foreground rather than thinking about how some magic box or program makes it happen offstage.

When my karmic connections and karmic moments happen, my mind hears the squeak of the Magic Markers the Flow Charters use, dancing furiously on those flip charts. I imagine the entangled strategy it took for all the planets to align and the people nudged to get this moment to synch up.


The Mystique of Karma

Karma has a mystique like marriage. I had a great conversation with a friend once concerning what a minefield it is to offer opinions on someone else’s marriage, no matter how close the friendship. What Anne said is both commonsense and profound:

Ultimately, what's between us and our husbands is part of that mysterious alchemy that no other person can ever fully know (including us, some of the time!) 

I dare say, the same goes for karma—or maybe it goes for karma foremost, because what marriage would not be a karmic relationship?

The resonance of karma is what pulls people together. We recognize each other energetically. Astrologer Barbara Hand Clow believes that we retain our same Ascendant in our birth chart lifetime after lifetime. One thing the Ascendant or rising sign has to do with is how we look. In other words, she believes we retain looks similar enough from one incarnation to the next to be recognized by our karmic posse. Even though it’s a radical idea, it feels plausible to me, especially after noticing how often I have been attracted to men with a certain look.

Karmic connections involve strong magnetism and a sense of rediscovery. It’s like when you haven’t seen an old friend for years, and you pick right up where you left off. Only you don’t consciously “know” this person yet in this lifetime, so you can’t understand why it feels that way using “normal” logic.


Details Please! Past Life Regression

I’ve had several past live regressions, a form of self-exploration that I would recommend that you try only with a trusted practitioner by way of a personal referral. I learned amazing things, including my role as an astrologer in Atlantis and how much trouble it got me into. It explains why I’ve had an approach-avoidance conflict with reclaiming that vocation in my current lifetime.

I know that my husband, Tim, was also my husband in Atlantis. He took care of me when I was disabled, and now I am returning the favor in helping him navigate his health issues and disability in our current life.

“Much to learn you still have…my old padawan. This is just the beginning!” – Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

But What If You Don’t Believe in Reincarnation?

You don’t have to believe in reincarnation for this concept to work. In today’s world, life is so fast and jam-packed with experiences, we live what’s tantamount to numerous lifetimes in a single incarnation. Non-believers might even be more proficient in resolving karma, thinking this lifetime is “it” and all the time they have to work out their relationships.

Completing circles—that’s what it’s all about. Balancing the favors, grievances, love, good and bad feelings and coming to a higher understanding of the essence of each individual on your Great Flow Chart in the Sky, especially yourself.

And, of course, you can see a lot of your karmic story in the ultimate cosmic flow chart of your horoscope, especially when you start comparing yours with others' in your karmic cluster. Some types of astrology such as evolutionary astrology focus on this aspect of birth charts and the Moon's nodes role in the past-life and karmic picture.

I don’t know what is the sound of one hand clapping, but I do love the sound of one marker squeaking.

~~~

Photo Credit: Kids side kicking - keigo1027yasuda @ fotolia.com; Whiteboard – Tuulijumala @ Dreamstime.com

Related post: Astrology and Past Lives by Lana Wooster

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The Great Flow Charters in the Sky

A Bigger-Than-the-Sky Post 
on Karma and Reincarnation

© 2010 - 2011 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

Like everything in life, astrology has a bigger context—a perspective that’s even bigger than the sky. This is the second in a series of periodic posts, not specific to astrology, but to the larger issues of why we’re here: the laws of dynamic attraction, soul evolution, the workings of karma and reincarnation, just to name a few. Some of these articles were originally written for my spirited living blog, Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights. I suspect many Radical readers will resonate to these posts and wanted to share them with you. I think they fit right into the Radical Virgo blog’s habit of making round-trips from Earth to Sky and back—and to the idea that there are even bigger universes to explore—and to which we also belong.

~Joyce

I first became involved in metaphysics in 1977. Little did I know, then, what a red-letter year it was! On November 1 of that year, the planetary body Chiron was discovered. Chiron would ultimately become my specialty as an astrologer, but not until we “met” eleven years later.

Another turning-point iconic event happened that changed the thinking of many people that year—the release of the first Star Wars movie. There’s nothing like cinema to convey cultural values and change them. Suddenly, we were saying, “May the Force be with you,” acknowledging that there was one joining power we could tap into. We were spouting Yoda-isms, words to live by from the tiny green wizened one.

“No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” ~Yoda, Star Wars

My intro to these subjects, as I’ve mentioned many times before, came from psychic and meditation teacher Betty Bethards and Unity Church. However, my own cultural context influenced the way I saw what would soon become a melting pot of ideas from different religions and traditions. Take karma for example.


While karma has many meanings and spins, they roughly parallel the idea from the Judeo-Christian West, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” However, it adds the idea that you may be reaping your crop through continuous lifetimes.



What Are the Mechanics?

I was one of those overly curious kids who asked my father why so often, he wanted to invent a why swatter. When I received new information, sometimes before my physical and emotional maturity to handle it, I would always get hung-up on the mechanics. For instance, when I first heard about sex and how people “do it,” I had to get out two of my dolls, imagining the male to have an anatomically correct appendage, and experiment with how that might work logistically. I didn’t get it. Grown-ups must be acrobats! At least I get points for an inquiring mind.

The same thing happened to me with karma. Once I heard that you often go through many lifetimes with the same cast of characters, repeating similar scenes until you complete your “business,” I had to figure out a way to wrap my brain around something so complex. Here’s what I came up with. Maybe it’s a metaphor; maybe I’m channeling something. At any rate, it works for me as a touchstone for organizing my thoughts around karma and reincarnation.


The Great Flow Charters in the Sky

Remembering that I first imagined this idea in the days before social networking and many tools we take for granted nowadays, I envision that each person has a “team” of advisors, a karma committee if you will, helping him or her to map out his/her next incarnation for maximum learning. This is, essentially, what Betty taught us.

Considering my Catholic background and being raised by an Italian mama, I saw my committee as consisting of handsome young Italian-American men in blue pinstripe suits, sort of a white-collar version of the entourage of Tony Soprano. Only better looking. Only angels. They didn’t make their bones; they made their wings. Bad guys gone good, now rewarded with the important job of helping others even their own scores in their multiple lives.

They’re in a “peace room” of sorts, the heavenly version of a war room where strategies are plotted before the plotted arise and are planted on earth again, body and soul together, one more time. They have to figure out how this complex of people will meet up and have all the experiences they need with all the right people from their past karmic strings of events. What a job!

I envision several flip charts. On them, they are drawing complex flow charts. Each chart stands for an individual life. Imagine the number of charts in a room in order to dovetail all of a person’s primary encounters with the people who are their sources of “unfinished business.” I can barely conceive of the complexity of this. If I had been a come-lately to these ideas, I’d probably imagine some sort of computer program. But I’d lose something important with a more modern image.


Magic Marker Music

 I’m no stranger to karmic connections and karmic moments. When they happen, I can hear in my mind the squeak of the Magic Markers the Flow Charters use, their writing tools dancing furiously on those flip charts. I imagine the complex strategy it took for all the planets to align and the people nudged to get this moment to line up.

Example: Recently, a good friend of my ex-husband, “Pearlie,” was surfing the Net looking for information on the potent summer eclipses and current rock ‘n’ rollin’ in the sky. She came across my name in her Google search and wondered if I was the same Joyce Mason who was “Laramie’s” ex. She e-mailed me, and one thing led to another. We are both into astrology and poetry and had lots to talk about. I hadn’t spoken to Laramie since ’07 and gave her his contact info. Soon we were all e-mailing in a big chain of healing and helpfulness. In my conversations with Pearlie, she helped me revision my relationship with my ex, so wrought with past pain, I dismissed the good I got from him. “Talking” with Larry by e-mail, I could see he was the most healed ever, in a good relationship, and this helped me to let go of the last of any beating up on myself up for marrying him. I saw it was all good, even if it took decades to “get it.” What a gift!


The Mystique of Karma

Speaking of husbands, I recently had cause to discuss with another friend from faraway what a minefield it is to offer opinions on someone else’s marriage, no matter how close the friendship. What Anne said is both commonsense and so profound:

Ultimately, what's between us and our husbands is part of that mysterious alchemy that no other person can ever fully know (including us, some of the time!)


Wow! Dare I say, the same goes for karma—or maybe it goes for karma foremost, because what marriage would not be a karmic relationship? I suspect that people have been incarnating far too long on the earth plane for first-time encounters. That’s my humble opinion, anyway, while clearly understanding that time is a human-made concept.

The resonance of karma is what pulls people together, I believe. We recognize each other energetically. Astrologer Barbara Hand Clow believes that we retain our same Ascendant in our birth chart lifetime after lifetime. One thing the Ascendant or rising sign has to do with is how we look. In other words, she believes we retain looks similar enough from one incarnation to the next to be recognized by our karma mates. Even though that’s a radical idea, if feels right to me.


How Karmic?

Karma is a matter of degree, but I think that it’s simple to tell how hot it is by the intensity of the magnetism when you first meet someone. It could be a “romantic” relationship, a friendship, or any form of bonding. There’s a strong pull-in and a sense of rediscovery. It’s like when you haven’t seen an old friend for years, and you pick right up where you left off. Only you don’t consciously “know” this person yet in this lifetime, so you can’t figure it out by “normal” logic.


Details Please! Past Life Regression

I’ve had several past live regressions (PLR) in my day, a form of self-exploration that I would recommend that you try only with a trusted practitioner by way of a personal referral. I learned amazing things, including my role as an astrologer in Atlantis and how much trouble it got me into, which explains why I’ve been somewhat resistive to reclaiming that vocation in my current lifetime.

I know that my husband, Tim, was also my husband in an Atlantean lifetime. (It was a long civilization, and I think I had more than one time ‘round in that lost world). He took care of me when I was disabled, and now I am returning the favor in helping him navigate his health issues in our current life.

The karma between my birth and adoptive families was explained so well by one of my PLRs, I no longer wonder why it had to happen that my birth mom gave me up. It was inevitable, a role reversal with my adoptive mom in a prior incarnation.

Through love, through friendship, a heart lives more than one life. ~Anais Nin

What If You Don’t Believe in Reincarnation?

You don’t have to believe in reincarnation for this concept to work. In today’s world, life is so fast and jam-packed with experiences, we live numerous lifetimes in any given incarnation. I guess I’m the poster girl for meeting up with people from my past lives and passions within this life … and bringing the relationships to some sort of positive balance or conclusion. I find myself talking about that a lot lately, so it’s obviously something I feel compelled to share as a major cool insight pattern at this time.

Completing circles—that’s what it’s all about. Balancing the favors, love, good and bad feelings and coming to a higher understanding of the essence of each individual on your Great Flow Chart in the Sky.

And, of course, we can see a lot of it coming in the ultimate cosmic flow chart of our astrology charts, especially when we start comparing them.

I don’t know about the sound of one hand clapping, but I do love the sound of one marker squeaking.

~~~

Photo Credit: WHITEBOARD by Tuulijumala | Dreamstime.com

Related post: Astrology and Past Lives by Lana Wooster