Shocks and The Value of Adversity
As mystics have said for thousands of years, we need to bless our enemies and the adversities that life
sends us, as they are our greatest teachers. We are often awakened, chastened, and made both humble and
compassionate by the difficult episodes we undergo.
We also can clear the incomplete events of the past by
recognizing that amplifying our reactions to the trials of the moment are the re-activations of past unfinished
traumas that need to be felt through, forgiven, and released.
Astrologically, the houses that have gotten a "bad name" are the keys to transforming our lives and our
consciousness. The events represented by these houses shock us into awareness. They represent, in Gurjieffian terms, the shock points in our lives. These are opportunities not only to "wake up", but to jump more permanently to new levels of consciousness.
Vedic astrology recognizes the Dusthana houses -- 6, 8, and 12 -- not only as representing suffering, but as helping us -- through our journey in their realms -- to cultivate spiritual detachment, achieve release from the Earth plane, and reach enlightenment.
| Sixth House |
Eighth House |
Twelfth House |
|
|
|
| enemies |
in-laws |
secret enemies |
| acute illness |
chronic illness |
hospitalization |
| minor debts |
major debts/bankruptcy |
expenses |
| worries |
crises |
insanity |
| punishment |
obstructions |
imprisonment |
| injury |
killing |
troubles to partner |
| minor accidents |
major accidents |
death |
| scandals |
disgrace |
exile |
| grief and misery |
dejection |
fear |
| miserliness |
money from others |
extravagance |
Yet these same areas of life afford us, indeed confront us, with the necessity to:
1. Face ourselves, our complacencies, blind spots, indolence, narrowness.
2. To recognize where we are over-attached to and over-valuing the impermanent and the material.
3. To embrace change, and see & learn from the teachings that come to us through loss and suffering.
4. To align to the Spirit, the Eternal, and the essential aspects of our own beingness.
5. To recognize the Unity of all life, and develop abiding compassion for all suffering in the Universe.
6. And to learn how to take pain and all adversity in stride, and as -- ironically -- a path to healing.
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