AstroGroups Articles

Past Life Astrology Reveals Hidden Pain - Karon Meakin

The story began in 1997, "Megan" came to see me with a conviction she had come into life to atone for sins committed in a previous incarnation. At 69 she was still hard at work in healthcare, after initial training as a nurse and midwife her career had evolved into alternative therapies, until she had become a respected teacher in her own right. She did a proportion of her treatments freely, whilst writing, researching, extending the boundaries of her discipline with new methods and attempting to develop shamanism. Megan worked equally hard to maintain a successful marriage and family life, achieving all this through 30 years of constant pain from arthritis. Still she felt it was insufficient recompense and wondered if her chart might show the nature of her previous transgressions and the future extent of her punishment. She had reason for believing she had been imprisoned and weeping and her crime was connected with a child.

This symbolic image proved highly appropriate. Using Koch houses her Sun, Moon, Venus Pluto and Part of Fortune are all in Cancer in the twelfth. She is trapped in an emotional and psychological cauldron. The power of her buried emotion is increased since the Moon in her own sign rules the stellium, including the Sun, which, in turn rules the ascendant. Pluto binds the Sun and Moon together by falling within one minute of arc of the Sun, Moon midpoint. COSI 1 gives Sun/Moon = Pluto as "a soul torn by inner conflict" and that is before you put the package in water and hide it in the unconscious. We need to suspect a childhood of apple pies and guilt. Click here to see a larger image of Megan's chart...

The 12th, traditionally house of "secret enemies", has evolved into the house of the repressed self. As children we believe that Mother is all wise; she teaches which parts of our behaviour are bad and unacceptable. If, like Megan, we have had so much of us repressed, it must follow that it is because we are wicked. Here is the guilt associated with the 12th house. Guilt requires atonement. Given the particular 5 planets in Cancer her Mother was seen as omnipotent, omniscient and probably omnivorous. Megan's Mercury, also in Cancer, is likely to have given the tendency to retain much somewhere in her memory, without the ability to articulate it. Whatever churned deep inside was never likely to coalesce into rational understanding.

Further testimony of Megan's difficult childhood is given by Saturn's placement in the fifth, in Sagittarius, inhibiting self- expression and any form of joyful growth. The natural desire to meet the world with confident, personal, creative energy, shown by the Leo ascendant, is thwarted by the placement of both the Sun and Saturn; each prohibiting any nasty tendencies to "show off". Saturn is 4°28' from the South Node, both moving towards each other. Normally this might be considered too wide for a conjunction, however, since it carries similar connotations to the stellium in the 12th house, I believe it is safe to include it as additional evidence of the colour of Megan's childhood.

Ignoring, for the present, any implications for former lives, I have found the South Node helps to describe a person's early present life. It is commonly considered to show those things with which a person is naturally comfortable; whether due to past life experience of them or psychological bias. The soul may choose, or be led to, a family and environment in which safe old choices are repeated. Alternatively, inherited tendencies and the current life environment alone may shape those patterns that come to feel normal and easy. Either way it is logical that the South Node should assist in describing life's early conditions. It has also seemed to me that the 5th house says as much about the individuals experience and expression as a child as it does about their own children. The woman in prison weeping is shown by the stellium in the 12th; the child for whom she weeps is likely to be herself.

This woman was ripped in two by a massive desire for a mother's love and hate for the flesh and blood mother who crushed her spirit, guilt for her own supposed failings and guilt for the feelings she carried for her persecutor. The outlet of which she made good use was the Jupiter, Chiron, Mars in the 10th, which are all sextile to the Moon. In her case the stubborn streak given by the Mars in detriment in Taurus was the power steadily driving the Aries Midheaven, assisted by wilful Uranus. She used the sextiles, fusing her steadied fire with a deep empathy for others' suffering; she healed, she taught, she pioneered, she broke convention and she refused complete capitulation to Mother. For that she had to be punished and her punishment was, I suspected, disguised as 3 decades of arthritis. Saturn being in Sagittarius I assumed it would be her hips that suffered, in fact it was her knees, Capricorn rules the 6th.

Over the next 5 years Megan had additional readings, her relief and understanding grew. Knowledge began the healing process and she was in a position to enhance this by self- treatment and receiving healing from others. During those 5 years my husband, David who was already a dowser², began healing, with guidance from Megan and others; Megan herself becoming one of his first patients.

Having received healing myself I had on many occasions checked transits to the natal chart after successful sessions and found them very frequently to be not only highly appropriate symbolically but also very close to exact in aspect. Therefore the three of us began to collaborate in an effort to expose and release Megan's buried emotion. We began to time the healing attempts to suitable transits in the hope of maximising their effects.

I make no claims whatever to be a medical astrologer, however it is basic knowledge, for example, that Saturn links to the bones and problems connected with rigidity and fear and so forth. I trawled the ephemeris and noted significant transits, occasionally adding the biggest progressions and directions. I concentrated on transits of and to Chiron, which I have witnessed as frequently naturally linked to all types of treatment and healing; Jupiter the greater benefic and old ruler of healing and Pluto. The latter in hopes of achieving the psychological garbage clear out and regeneration we sought.

I made suggestions as to the types of problems that might need eventual treatment; plus those that could best be treated at each time and passed them to the healers for verification. It became the case that the astrology always assisted the healer in some way and this type of collaboration has been extended to benefit certain other patients.

Separately, meanwhile my husband and I had begun to explore past life birth charts. What we hoped was genuine data was obtained by dowsing. We began the experiment with open minds but were prepared to reject the results as fantasy if the charts so produced showed no relationship to my present chart. I was in fact surprised at the similarities between my supposed past life chart and the present one. Both have the same sign Moon, North Node and Jupiter; the latter being positioned only 2 degrees apart between the 2 charts. Mars is conjunct the Midheaven in both, one has Virgo rising the other Mercury conjunct the ascendant. The fact that the similarities included the Moon and Nodal positions was to me especially encouraging. I reasoned that if the past life chart was authentic then the factors which indicated my past history and instinctive tendencies had to have strong similarities. If we believe in an evolving soul with lessons to learn from life to life it is unlikely that we have widely differing characters from life to life, it should be possible to find linking threads from chart to chart.

We felt sufficiently encouraged to dowse and obtain more of my past life charts. 4 out of the first 6 I compared had the same Moon sign. Since Geoffrey Dean was not in the room I thought that not bad statistically. Studying these 6 I found a strong linking theme and ultimately gained considerable personal benefit from the use I made of the knowledge. We did consider the possibility that these charts may not be real past lives but charts drawn for a time and place that would show appropriate psychological characteristics to enable greater understanding of the person and therefore be helpful. Dowsing obtained the answer that the charts were not merely those that gave suitable information but were of real past lives of the person.

By this time although Megan had accepted that much of her self- blame had been the result of a harsh upbringing she remained suspicious of a sinful past. Her own work had grown to include healing of past life issues; she had the need and the courage to attempt further investigation of her history. Two past life dates were dowsed for her, for 1743 and 1534. During the work for me we had evolved the idea of the chart of "the key life", the one that, if studied, will give the greatest insight into difficulties in the present life. My own "key life" dated back to 1079 with 6 lives in between. Dowsing indicated that Megan's key life had been the previous one, so we did not feel it necessary to obtain more charts. However I wished to study at least the 1534 chart for comparison and to see what the Moons Nodes would indicate. It is my habit to label the past life charts by minus numbers, the most recent past life as -1, the one before that as -2 and so forth.

In Megan-2 (1534) Saturn is in Leo on the edge of the 9th, conjunct the North Node. Saturn, in detriment, rules the Moon. The chart has a Sagittarian Ascendant. Jupiter is retrograde, in fall, in Capricorn. Pluto is at the south Node. Click here to see a larger image of the 1534 chart...

In Megan -1 (1743) Saturn is in Leo on the edge of the 9th, conjunct Jupiter. Saturn, retrograde, in detriment rules the Moon. The chart has a Sagittarian Ascendant. Jupiter is retrograde, in detriment in Virgo. The North Node is in Taurus conjunct Venus in the 5th. Pluto is at the South Node.
In Megan's current life Saturn is at the South Node in Sagittarius in the 5th. The chart has a Leo Ascendant. Click here to see a larger image of the 1743 chart...

In -2 there is a strong emphasis on work, duty and material concerns. Despite the usually buoyant Sagittarian ascendant this is not the chart of an exuberant life of pleasure. In this work unless there is a suspicion that one parent has died, I assume historically traditional male, female roles to have been the case, reading the factors indicating the parents accordingly. I also assume that each chart must be read as relative to the norm of the times. In this case, whatever was usual, the father appears to have concentrated particularly on the breadwinning role. Given the Virgo emphasis and the Capricorn Moon applying to trine the Sun, we might assume a harmony of purpose between the parents in their efforts due to need, character, or their own upbringing, rather than particular status or wealth which might otherwise have been shown by the Sun conjunct Midheaven. The condition of the Moon's ruler, the second house and the ruler of the Part of Fortune tending to support this idea.

The Mother, as shown by the Moon, and the child's emotional structure is ruled by the Saturn in detriment at the North Node. The North Node is reputed to indicate the path that the soul needs to take in order to progress. If we believe in a rational and benign Universe, it is unlikely that the soul is intended to move towards behaviour described by a planet in bad shape. Presumably then it is precisely this badly behaved Saturn that is the issue to be addressed. Rather than provide structure to the life this Saturn inhibits the self- expression. There is a philosophy of work over play, a hard God. Pluto at the South Node, on the edge of the third, in opposition to the Saturn and ruled by it, suggests a life, death battle to overcome deep teaching and early experience of what is normal. Those things attributed to the third house can be as difficult to change as those hidden in "unconscious" houses, since they become so routine as to be unconscious. Given the thrust of the chart a move towards a less "God fearing" life, towards some enjoyment seems a reasonable ambition.

This gave the background to the key chart of 1743, Megan -1.

Here, again assuming traditional gender roles, the father's presence was definitely felt at home. I was struck by the fact that although the chart indicated paternal support, finances appeared to be at least unstable and probably low. The mother and child need money. Are they grasping, needing to show off, or deprived?

Father is exalted and affects the child's outlook. His Arian fire should be stabilised by the trine to Saturn. However the Saturn is uncomfortable in Leo, warring with an equally uncomfortable Jupiter, both are retrograde; Uranus in Capricorn in the second squares the Sun, and frustrates Saturn, its Lord. Something is chafing badly in him; the manner in which he earns is living may frustrate him. He feels his spirit is trapped, his duties are too much, or too boring. Mars gives some additional indication of the men in the child's life including the father and is here in addition the Sun ruler. Placed in Leo it increases his self-centred fire, igniting a strong, sensuous Venus, which it squares exactly in the 5th. Further, Mars is negatively affected by its unfortunate placement at the bendings. The suggested instability of income, is directly and negatively attached to the father via the Sun, Uranus. Weighing other factors there may well have been mighty rows over joint income, the mother having considerable interest in comfort, need for at least a little social status and not appearing a particularly weak type. Was her man a gambler, his rebellion against conventional small-scale duties being to risk money when he could not have adventure elsewhere?

I speculated that the father might have been either a clergyman, or a medic. If the former were true, it implied that my suspicions of gambling should be incorrect. Which, if either, of my theories, was right? I asked the dowser for help. The answers received by him were that the father was both a clergyman and a gambler! Assuming this to be true, the three charts began to make sense as a whole. I would expect a fire and brimstone, rot in hell, kind of preacher here, not the Neptunian mystic.

The descriptions of the parents are also the inner needs of the child. In Megan -1 we saw work and duty in the family with an overriding need to begin including personal expression in the philosophy. If the Nodes do show the appropriate path of the soul for its growth, she was asked to look towards a situation described by a Saturn, in detriment, in Leo, at the 9th cusp. In her next life, 1743, she appears to have made an entrance in just such an environment, the home of a hard and frustrated clergyman, himself trapped and seeking forbidden freedom. He both models her previous life North Node, and her own still trapped self. The quality of the mother and her own emotional structure remains similarly ruled by the restricted spirit. Whether it was appropriate for her to arrive in an environment that expressed her previous North Node in such a negative manner is a question for philosophy.

In this 1743 chart, Megan -1, the Saturn is now retrograde. The work of Donald H. Yott "Retrograde planets and reincarnation"³ suggests a retrograde planet indicates negative traits developed in previous lifetimes, the duration of the negativity and therefore depth of the problem being shown by positive or negative aspects to the retrograde planet. He gives interesting delineations for each planet retrograde in each house.

The North Node in 1734 suggests Megan should move to Venus in Taurus in the fifth. This is similar to the need to develop self-expression shown in the 1534 chart and now plain sensual bodily pleasure is included. The Sun ruler squares the Venus exactly, it also squares the North Node, and rules the South; externally, what father wants forbids her pleasure and holds her to the past. It appears that though her desire to escape has here increased, her outlook remained governed by religious duty, as it was presented to her. She seems to have come into her present life carrying the burden of a previous lifetime of sermons, she is sinful, she must atone, and it is her knees that suffer. She was ready prepared for a parent who exacerbated her guilt.

In her current life why has the previous fire Sun become submerged in water? Did the powerful father, who was the vehicle for the energy, and operated most obviously in the domestic 4th house, so crush the spirit of the daughter that her Sun energy subsequently sank into the unconscious, and now operates in the domestic sign of Cancer? The damaged fire principle, left as the resilient slow burning Mars in detriment in Taurus? We can argue its conjunction with Chiron also suggests damaged fire, however Mars remains in the 10th ruling the Midheaven becoming the visible desire to function in the outer world.

Critics may say reasonably that it is possible to take 3 charts at random and invent fairy tales to join them. There remains the similarity between the first two charts, the path indicated by the Nodes tending to repeat. In 1534 the North Node suggests "move to Saturn in Leo in 9" the life following in 1743 would appear to have been of such a quality. The present life South Node suggests "move away from a past indicated by Saturn in Sagittarius in 5", not a dissimilar picture.

The 1743 life has the North Node conjunct Venus in the fifth, which suggests the need to move towards such an environment in the present life. Megan's present life mother had her own North Node conjunct Venus in the fifth in Leo. Megan may have been drawn towards a mother with a very similar path, which implies a history lacking in similar qualities. Both women were struggling to achieve a positive expression of Venus in the fifth. In addition in the case of the mother the Venus, North Node is part of a stellium in Leo, which includes Saturn, so the mother had a North Node that echoes the Nodal picture of the two previous lives of the daughter. Was the daughter attracted to the mother by a sense of empathy in struggle? However, rather than be able to offer her child a positive example of confident self-expression and joy in earthly pleasures the mother became another repressive force in her daughter's life. The mother had an Aries ascendant and Sagittarian Moon in the 9th, which is similar in quality to the indicators of Megan's 1743 father. The present life mother had a late degree Cancer, Sun as part of the stellium extending into Leo. This stellium, including the inappropriately expressed Saturn, fell across Megan's Ascendant and therefore reshaped her outlook.

Returning again now to the matter of Megan's physical pain, in August 2001 she underwent surgery to repair one of her arthritic knees. The operation was now considered possible due to the great advances in technique since she first began to suffer 37 years earlier. The surgeon chose to work on the less damaged of the two knees first as the outcome was still uncertain. I remembered that Megan's solar return chart for 2000 had shown a total lunar eclipse conjunct the Ascendant. On re-examining it I found the eclipse was in Capricorn, which fell in the natal 6th house, within a degree of opposition to her natal Sun. The Ascendant new Moon eclipse symbolism had been so appropriate for a significant new start on the horizon for anyone, particularly as it was at the age of 72⁴. In addition the placement of it viewed as a transit spoke loudly of medical attention, knees, bones and links to the Wicked Stepmother, who's unconscious power I was hopeful, was about to be eclipsed.

Some of the transits leading up to the surgery might normally have been viewed with fear, however given the full picture and knowledge of the history I was very hopeful of a positive result. On the day of the surgery Saturn and Pluto were close to their opposition. They fell for Megan such that transiting Saturn separated from opposition to its natal place, while transiting Pluto, having just passed her South Node, stood one minute past its stationary direct position applying within one degree of a conjunction with natal Saturn. Given Saturn's links to arthritic knees and harsh parenting and the fact that there appeared to be no other potentially doom laden possibilities building up in her life, and having observed her growing understanding of the past and changing feelings towards it, I viewed the transits to offer a once in a lifetime opportunity to destroy the early and possibly past life damage. This hope appeared well supported by transiting Jupiter applying to the natal Moon on the edge of the Cancer 12th house, which contained the Sun, Venus, Pluto and Part of Fortune, something deeply healing and positive could occur. In around a year Jupiter would conjunct her Ascendant, which spoke well for both physical well-being and the beginnings of a new philosophy. At the surgery Neptune transited around the Descendant, the guilt had risen out of the unconscious into the light for the first time. It therefore stood to oppose the Ascendant and physical well-being.

Megan requested that my husband would do what he could to prepare her for the surgery by methods he had evolved himself, intended to balance the aura and chakras in readiness and to attempt to place appropriate beneficial energy at the disposal of the patient for use in recovery. By this stage I had become convinced that if work were not also done to reduce guilt the pain would not be eliminated. Dowsing suggested this was correct; Megan gave permission for the healer to attempt to assist in eradicating her guilt. Surgery and recovery went well, so favourably in fact that it was decided to operate on the other knee in much shorter time than normal. This took place in March 2002 when the first knee was strong and pain free. The preparation work was repeated by the healer, the surgery took place, there were complications but these were eventually overcome and 5 months later the second knee was strong and almost pain free. For the first time in 38 years Megan looked forward to a life without pain.

Around 2 weeks later she was suffering the worst pain of her life and was diagnosed with degeneration of the spine. Degeneration of the spine shouts Saturn, Neptune, so does entrenched guilt. Once a week my husband attempted to work on the spine with energy healing, each week the pain went away and each week it would return within a few days. For the first time since I had known her Megan was visibly suffering and aging.

I felt that the only solution would be to somehow reach back to the past life and heal the damage there. The healer dowsed for permission to attempt this and was told no. Knowing it might well have been a question of waiting for an appropriate time we did not give up. On October 20th 2002 dowsed permission to try and eradicate damage caused by guilt induced in the past life was obtained. The past life chart itself was used as a witness⁵ and the time of the commencement of the healing attempt carefully noted.

If the astronomical figures were accurate Neptune proved to be one hour and 3 minutes past stationary direct as the healing began. By transit for Megan Neptune stood as an applying sextile to her South Node 37 minutes from exact which, to me, is a reasonable signature for spiritual/psychic connections to, and healing of, the past. There was also an interesting applying opposition of Chiron to Mercury, four minutes from exact, Mercury rules the natal 3rd. The secondary progressions and solar arc directions had aspects worth possible consideration but were not exciting. My rule is if you cannot find something before you have checked the antiscions to Algol in the seventh harmonic your theory is flawed - go eat chocolate. I noted that the Sun and Jupiter were quintile exact to the minute at the time of the healing, work on more cases of a similar type may indicate if this was significant.

The transits in the healers chart actually appeared stronger than those for the patient. It may be that we were also waiting for a time such that he had developed sufficient skill or indeed confidence to attempt something for which he had no known precedent. The patient may be a sceptic but the healer should not be. The positive intent of the healer and his or her willingness to trust in the method is crucial to success. It may be that the Neptune station was most important, whether indicating work with subtle and spiritual energies, the issue of guilt, or a man in a sufficiently deluded state to attempt something.

Whatever the truth, this time the treatment was effective. The pain whilst not totally eradicated was very significantly reduced and most importantly has never returned to its former strength. The method of dowsing and reading past life charts in order to use them and the information gained for healing purposes has been repeated in only a handful of cases so far. Although the work is in its infancy there have been encouraging results. We have one more case of pain relief, that from lifelong headaches, which had previously resisted all manner of other treatments. In this case the first treatment, using a past life natal chart, resulted in some benefit. It was then necessary to obtain the date, by dowsing, of a specific event within that past life, draw the chart, discover the nature of the event and use the information obtained along with the event chart itself as the witness in place of the natal chart. This double natal and event treatment was used in a second case and the results were more subjective but in the words of the native seemed to achieve a 'much improved relationship'. In a few cases obtaining and reading two or more past life charts has been helpful to the native without any healing being used.

We have used present life composite charts for information and as witness in healing in a similar manner in 5 or 6 cases. Most of the results fall into the positive but subjective psychological improvement category. The patient is happier but proof is less easy. However in one case a composite was drawn between two people one dead, one alive and in pain, who had a very negative relationship when both were alive. The patient was sceptical but the pain was sufficiently bad that he was willing to give permission for anyone to try anything. The aim of the healing was to undo the damage done many years before by the other person. The physical pain was eradicated and no further treatment was necessary.

We do not claim to have discovered the key to wrinkle free immortality! It needs to be stated that there are other cases when it has been dowsed that no benefit whatever could be obtained by following these methods. It is hoped however to increase our knowledge and skills and see where this apparently exciting path leads.

Chart data and sources

Megan data confidential for privacy but rated A. Originally from Megan herself from mothers' memory.Then rectified a few minutes by dowsing.
The Megan-1 and Megan-2charts of 1534 and 1743 were obtained soley by dowsing

References and Notes

¹ Reinhold Ebertine, 'The Combination of Stellar Influences', AFA 1994, p. 71.
2 Further information on dowsing may be obtained from The British Society of Dowsers Email British dowsers Or visit the American Society of Dowsers Both societies have local group meetings where experienced dowsers can advice on the practical skills, range of applications and ethical considerations inolved in dowsing. However well intentioned, the dowser permission should always be sought from any other person before healing is attempted for them or information is sought about them.
3 Donald H. Yott 'Astrology and Reincarnation' Three volumes in one book, Samuel Weiser, 1989, Introduction pp. 1-2.
4 For more on the significance of the age of 72 see Bruno and Louise Huber, 'Lifeclock', Wieser, two volumes in one 1994, p.31 vol 1 and pp. 169-170 cont. p. 232 vol 2.
5 A witness is a term used by dowsers and healers to denote an item from the recipient of healing, such as a lock of hair, fingernail clippings or blood droplets on paper. This may be used to give healing in absentia.