Absolutely, yes - and no.
One of the first things you may ask when you see your life mapped out in an ‘astrology timeline’ is: “Do I have free will to choose?” Well, you cannot choose the weather, can you? Or how the tides turn? You may not even have a choice in how you react to what is unfolding. But you can view it from a different perspective. With a cosmic view, you can change how you see your life. And this may be all that’s needed to change its trajectory.
The choices you make based on what is unfolding dictate where you end up. Even if you don’t believe you have the freedom to choose absolutely anything, you still make choices. And even if everything that ever was, is, or will ever be, already exists in a cosmic sense, making decisions about your life is part of that, too.
Tantrik scholar Christopher ‘Hareesh’ Wallis writes in his article, Near Enemy #11: You can choose how to respond, “If you’re in a sailboat in the middle of the ocean, there’s only one little thing you can choose, which is the angle of your rudder… which makes no difference at all to your experience one minute from now, and very little difference one day from now or one week from now. But eventually, it makes all the difference in the world: it determines whether you make landfall in Australia or Siberia.”
When aware of the astrological weather, you know where you are on the vast ocean of your life. You realise there is a bigger picture and part of you that is on board with all that is. This ‘part’ is actually making it all happen, anyway.
As philosopher Bernardo Kastrup explains in his YouTube video, Analytic Idealism on Free Will (Ep 10), “If you identify with the ego, you have very little free will. However, if you identify with core subjectivity … then by definition you have absolute free will. Because core subjectivity is the lake where existence ripples.”
Kastrup goes on to explain, “There is no difference between free will and determinism at the cosmic level, because at the level of core subjectivity … the desire is the need. The need to do something is the same thing as the desire to do it. Free will is a philosophical red herring. My free choices are still determined, they’re just determined by me.”
The sense that all is as it should be, including your choices, brings a sense of calm, whatever happens in our lives, whatever choices we have made or will ever make. Practically, if we know a period in our life is going to be ‘stormy’, we know to batten down the hatches and ride it out. At the very least, knowing when a certain period is ending brings an enormous sense of peace, no matter what we must face. We can take full advantage of the winds that are taking us out of choppy waters and to calmer seas.
'Free' Will
As the writer Yuval Noah Harari has stated in interviews, “We have a will, it’s just not free.” At least, it’s not free from the ego’s perspective. That may sound depressing, but when letting go of the idea of being free to choose absolutely anything, it can actually make you happier. At least, that has been my experience. You don’t need to struggle with something that wasn't meant to be; instead, you focus on what you can achieve.
This does not mean giving up choosing what you would consciously prefer. It actually gives you the freedom to make better choices. As with any spiritual truth, this might initially sound like a contradiction at first glance, but it is an absolute truth that there is a small part of you that is not at all in control of what is happening, and a bigger part that is running the show.
One word to describe it is ‘soul’. In the Vedic tradition, it is represented by Surya, the solar deity, the bigger part running the show (pictured). When you tap into this, you are tapping into what is, what has always been and always will be.
Surya, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Only when you are at one with all that is can we speak of free will. Even when you seem to will something into being from an egoic perspective, what is more accurate is that you may have temporarily taken your attention from your egoic needs and identified with your soul. Your ego may then hijack it and claims if for itself. You may proclaim, “I did that!” But all you did was get out of the way. You aligned with all that is.
One of the biggest advantages of giving up the notion of free will from an egoic perspective is that it frees you of feelings of guilt and shame. The decisions you make cannot be free of an endless array of conscious and unconscious impressions. Realising this frees up all that energy that is otherwise wasted trying to figure out why certain things happen; why you did things you may otherwise regret, or regret things you did not.
If you give up the notion of free will, it does not mean your life is plain sailing. It does mean you can become who you were always meant to be. And you don’t waste time wishing you were someone, or somewhere, else.
You may, at times, feel sad, angry, anxious, and stressed, but you don’t have to add further feelings of guilt, shame, and regret onto what you may perceive as especially negative. Chögyam Trungpa refers to this as “negative negativity” in his book, The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation:
“Negative negativity refers to the philosophies and rationales we use to justify avoiding our own pain…This secondary, commenting kind of intelligence of double negativity is very cautious and cowardly, as well as frivolous and emotional. It inhibits identification with the energy and intelligence of basic negativity.”
Without placing another layer of negativity, you can accept how your life is unfolding. Acceptance does not mean you cannot change. Having an astrology timeline means you are constantly changing, accepting, and then changing, over and over again.
Resigning to your fate and thinking you have no say in how your life unfolds may be another initial reaction to viewing your timeline, but you can shift your identity from ego to 'core subjectivity'. You can engage with your timeless being while working with a timeline. In doing so, you don’t allow the current of life to beat you up.
Do you choose your thoughts? Your emotions? No. You witness your thoughts and emotions. They happen to you. And they are laid out in our astrology timeline, too.
One of the main predictive techniques used in Indian astrology, called daśā, is a timing technique that utilises the Moon’s position from birth. The Sun shows your resources, the Sun signs reflecting your environment, while the Moon shows your emotional environment, your likes and dislikes, what you would like to happen, and whether or not it does. Regardless of what is happening in your life, how you feel about it is more important than what is unfolding. This is one reason the most prominent daśā (viṁśottarī) is calculated from the Moon. It can sometimes show what you will become when aligning with your soul, but most often it shows how one feels about what is happening.
Did Paramahansa Yogananda Outwit the Stars?
Paramahansa Yogananda wrote in a chapter of his Autobiography of a Yogi titled “Outwitting the Stars”, “Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets—which is to say, his past—by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter. The soul is ever-free; it is deathless because birthless. It cannot be regimented by stars.”
The words of Yogananda are a reminder of our true nature, beyond the stars. Yet Yogananda had his own life experiences here on earth, clearly reflected in his birth chart and timeline of events. In that way, you and I, are no different to Yogananda. And he is no different to you or I. Here is Paramahansa Yogananda’s birth chart with sidereal Leo rising.
Paramahansa Yogananda South (left) Indian-Style Birth Chart. Sidereal Calculations.
Having Leo rising alone would have made him act (Leo rising sign) and feel (Moon was also rising in Leo) as if he were in control of his destiny. The fire-dominant signs, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, tend to approach life that way. That itself is mapped out in his birth chart. Did Yogananda outwit the stars? It’s probably more helpful to state Yogananda aligned with his ‘core subjectivity’ (Leo) and became one with the Creator; his Moon lined up with his soul’s expression in the Sun’s sign, Leo. We, too, can rise above our kārmik patterns, our life stories, mapped out in our birth charts.
I’ve read enough charts of those who felt they were somehow beyond karma, yet were consulting me, wondering why something was or was not happening in their life. Indeed, when someone has a hard time accepting their life being mapped out, it seems tragic to me because I know they are missing out on aligning with their full potential.
Sometimes, it may seem like a herculean task to reach for such a perspective if our mind is struggling to cope with certain life events. In that case, you can simply view the astrology map as a way to accept where you are until you can change your perspective. That doesn’t mean resigning yourself to what is happening. It’s about trusting the process so you can shift your perspective. And that is all that’s needed to change your life’s trajectory. That shift, too, is mapped out in your timeline.
While there is a part of you that is beyond karma, if you don’t acknowledge and accept your life experience as it is, you may compare yourself to enlightened beings who seem to be in on something you are not. No one, at any point, is beyond karma from an egoic perspective. Yet everyone, at all times, can reach beyond their patterning, just as Yogananda took his identity “from the creation to the Creator.” You can do the same with the aid of an astrology timeline.
Making Sense
Neuroscientist Sam Harris is probably one of the more prominent 'free will' antagonists in our modern era. Unlike Yogananda, he has the pragmatic Capricorn rising in his birth chart, a sign ruled by ‘doubting Thomas’, Saturn. Harris speaks a lot about free will, in that he doesn’t believe in it, on his Making Sense Podcast.
Sam Harris South Indian-Style Birth Chart. Sidereal Calculations.
Sam Harris's not believing in free will is part of the Creator’s will, too. Both Harris's and Yogananda's perspectives are true on some level, and holding both views is possible. Actually, it’s probably more helpful to hold both perspectives when studying astrology, as it allows us to use astrology scientifically, timing events, etc., while also transcending this space and time altogether.
Dancing between a mechanist view of the universe (Harris) and of Being (Yogananda), you too can find a way to settle into that which imbues both perspectives.
You can use astrology timelines to help you navigate your life, while, at the same time, experiencing your ‘timeless being’. That way, you don’t get tripped up on life events when looking at the stars.
Aum Tat Sat
References
Wallis, C. “Near Enemy #11: You can choose how to respond”, Hareesh [web blog], 30 August 2019, https://hareesh.org/blog/2019/8/30/near-enemy-11-you-can-choose-how-to-respond (accessed 14 June 2022).
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Analytic Idealism on Free Will (Ep 10) - Analytic Idealism Course - Bernardo Kastrup. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EADTGaBSlos [Accessed 16 May 2023].
Chögyam Trungpa, Baker, J. and Casper, M. (2005). The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation. Boston: Shambhala.
Chart Data
Paramahansa Yogananda, January 5, 1893; 20:38 IST; Gorakhpur, India, (83° E 22’, 26° N 45’); Rodden Rating C; accuracy in question.
Sam Harris, April 9, 1967; 01:34 PST; Los Angeles, CA, USA, (118° W 14’, 34° N 3’); Rodden Rating AA; BC/BR in hand; Collector: Starkman.