with Emily Baumbach

Email or mail your universal or personal question to Emily Baumbach, Causalworks, 1280 Linden Avenue, Boulder, CO 80304 USA. If you have a personal astrology question and you’re OK with it appearing publicly in this column, send it with your complete birth data (date, time and place of birth).

Q: I have a question about a supposedly positive date, July 17, 2010. In 'Ra'An Questions and Answers' posted June 18, there was an answer about special days: 'There are various star formations in the positioning of Earth in relation to the other planets, and star systems which then create special effects in certain time periods....' July 17th would be such a day. Energy grid lines on that day 'will strengthen and work harmoniously with the energy lines within the individual's own chakra system and acupuncture system.' With all the dismal economic and other news, this summer could be a real downer. While the above stuff might be old hat to you, do you see anything special about July 17th? (W, via email)

Answer: Usually when someone makes grand predictions about a Big Universal Event happening on a certain day, they're seeing their own personal future but mistakenly thinking it's going to happen to everyone else, too. So, unless I'm wrong, July 17 for most of us will be a day like any other. There will be blessings and tragedies, good things and bad depending on our personal karmas. Now, by July 17 this summer's dramatic Grand Square will have passed, leaving the relief of only a somewhat stressful T-square; however, in the midst of even the most stressful periods there are times of absolute delight and joy. So unless I'm completely wrong, most of us will just go about our business.

If you like, set aside July 17, 2010 as a day spent in gratitude and humor, freeing yourself from the illusion of time and the illusion of control. That would be a good way to spend the day.

Q: In Advaita [nonduality], it is stated there is an endless wheel of birth and death. This seems different from the Michael Teachings, [where] a fragment completes the grand cycle and reunites with the Tao. How is it possible to be identified as an individual soul again? How then to be sure that I had two previous grand cycles on this planet and one on another? (W, via email) (edited for length)

Think of yourself as Harry Potter, and your various lifetimes as Harry Potter movies. Think of your grand cycle as the complete edition of all Harry Potter movies. That is False Personality going through a cycle of lifetimes. Now think of yourself as J. K. Rowling, and the books "you" write as reflections of your own tendencies, wishes and dreams. That is your Essence. When Essence has things to do, it creates illusory characters that resemble itself. When Essence is done, it stops creating characters that resemble itself. Because Essence is the author of you, it retains full authorship rights. It can stop creating you or recreate you at its pleasure. "It" is what you came from, and "it" is your guardian, your guide, your Home, your True Being and your Self. It is so profoundly simple that it is the same Source of everything - No difference, no "thing." When all the Harry Potter movies have been made, and all the Harry Potter books have been written, where does Harry Potter go? Nowhere. He is merely a collection of Harry Potter-like thoughts that exist in availability. Anytime J. K. Rowling wants to resurrect Harry Potter, she can put him back on the wheel - on another planet, as a girl, as an old man, a sentient lion or a Transcendental Soul. She can have him dissolve into infinity then appear again in a 1st level Infant prequel. She can play around with time and reality all she wants. That's her delight.

Rather than ask others if you've lived on another planet, do your own research, and be honest. If it is true, something inside you will know it. If it isn't true, then you can always "write" yourself there. Thanks for your question.

Q: Why are the Michael Teachings and the system of cycles not described in the Vedas, nor referred to by His Holiness Shri Shantananda Saraswati? In my monthly gatherings with fellow [nonduality] students, when I occasionally briefly refer to a "system of cycles," I encounter some disbelief since my fellow students have never read or heard of this phenomenon in the Vedas nor in the Q&A with His Holiness. So they are very reserved. However, Gurdjieff is familiar among us all, but there is hardly any understanding how to interpret Man 1 to 7, like Michael has presented to us. (W, via email) (edited for length)

Everyone contributes their piece of the jigsaw puzzle according to their agreements and life tasks. When we're busy with our piece of the puzzle, we tend to block out other pieces. (An analogy would be one group that lives at and studies the desert, another group living/studying at the mountains.)

Nonduality is a Buddhaic Plane teaching that shows us what to expect in the world of oneness. The Michael system is a Causal Plane teaching that shows us what to expect in the world of duality. Both are useful.

Nonduality relaxes into unity. The Michael Teachings dissect the illusion. Both are right, although nonduality is closer to Home.

The Michael Teachings describe our personality and suprapersonality patterns before awakening. Nonduality describes what happens after awakening.

Nonduality gives us a way to step beyond the doorway of This Dream. The Michael Teachings give us a way to understand This Dream. Both are right, although the Michael Teachings are closer to physicality.

Michael information is useful, like knowing a salad recipe. It helps us understand the scene around us and our personal patterns and evolutionary process. Ultimately, however, we must transcend any kind of Michael information (like our Role and Soul Age) in order to experience our original being. When we're ready, we open to the fact that all levels and distinctions are very real-seeming illusions.

Think of the Michael Teachings and other cosmologies (like the
Enneagram, the Human Design System, astrology and the I Ching) as scripts in this grand universal drama. We can love the script, hate the script, feel neutral about it, or not even know it exists. The show goes on nevertheless.

Nonduality teaches us what's happening backstage: before, during and after the big drama. We can love what's happening backstage, hate it, or not even know there is a backstage. Backstage is there nevertheless.

Until our place in the script is complete, we can try to return backstage permanently, but it won't work until we're really, really done. In the mean-time, while we're still hacking it out through our scripted karmas, knowledge of systems of duality can be useful. Otherwise, without a script, we'd just stand on stage wondering what to do with ourselves, and there would be no play.

Group agreements require that whoever is a member of the group im-merse himself or herself in that group's philosophy. So, what happens in your group and in the Michael Teachings group and most groups is a tribal identity with no room for scary newness. It's okay for this to happen, as each group is a step on the ladder to realization.

Don't worry about trying to pick one or the other spiritual path. Go for what fascinates you until you're done exploring it. Then it will drop off naturally and you'll move onto something else. Eventually you'll see that Michael, the guru, the Vedas, all teachers and students and all things in this world are projections coming out from our minds. Be what the Vedas teach, and then feel free to use the Michael Teachings. All teachings are pieces of the Everness trying to explain Itself.

The issue isn't whether the Michael Teachings and nonduality are true. The issue is, are we being true?

Q: I keep wanting enlightenment but never really get there permanently. My visions of awakening keep disappearing. They're replaced with dullness and normal life problems that I can't seem to solve. What's the best way for me to evolve? (L, from personal conversation)

You must know by now that you have knowing already inside of you. Your visions of awakening are the inner earthquakes that follow on the heels of moments of pure knowing, but the visions aren't pure knowing itself. Visions come and go. They help give the mind images it can hang onto, so that it can translate the untranslatable into forms that are comfortable.

Your oscillations on the spiritual path are temporary. They're teaching you compassion, and will keep you (as they do to all of us) from being arrogant or controlling. Eventually all your desires will die down naturally, and permanent awakening will be there instantly like a deep, profound, baby simple freshness. All you have to do between now and then is absolutely love truth again, and again, and again.

Shortly you'll discover that most of your patterns are unnecessary drudgery, a panoply of multiplier functions in the preset lifestyle formulas that have become grossly automatic. When you set aside Automatic, you become less dense. When you become less dense, you become more free. When you become more free, you can travel through the up-and-down oscillations of your life with a steady, subtle, lovely hum of sameness and stillness that is pleasing and soothing to the soul. Remember the Hum as much as you can and you'll be in good shape.

You're learning how to catch yourself from getting caught in your own Super Ego trap, and this is great work that takes time when done well. Step back from this trap and enjoy the wholeness of yourself exactly the way you are this moment, right now. Relax and let the enlightenment timeline unfold at its own pace. Don't rush, don't hurry. Remember to hum.

Q: Since I am unemployed, what is the most expedient thing I can do to make sure the bills are paid? Job hunting so far has been fruitless. I'm in legal trouble and am spending my 401K to live. Thanks in advance.

Look at getting temporary sources of money coming in for the near future: unemployment benefits or temporary jobs that can help bring in money to live on. After that you can concentrate on getting a job that suits you.

The most important thing is to stay afloat, and that will require stepping outside the bounds of prior identifications. (That is, by the way, happening to most people now.)

A quick peek at your astrology chart and forecast for the near future explains the current challenges (Pluto going through your 2nd House of money, Saturn in your 10th House of career). Your chart also shows some really great things coming up for you. You're about to go through a major life change in the next two years, which might involve relocating to another area or moving out of your current home. You have a lot of short-term travel coming up perhaps due to a commute. Siblings or symbolic siblings (good friends) may take up a lot of your focus from Summer 2009 through 2012-2013. Right around that time (2012-2013) you'll be due for yet another major life change involving career and home.

Your Progressed Moon is about to enter your 3rd House of education and teaching. Now is an excellent time for you to learn new skills you can use on a new job. Seek out inexpensive classes through community adult education (at a local high school or college), and self-train cheaply with resources from the library and the internet. Employment agencies sometimes have training programs as well.

Eight or nine years from now (around 2016) you're up for some world travel and higher education, which may involve spiritual power spots and/or taking seminars from spiritual teachers.

In terms of finding a job, your progressed Sun has just entered Leo and will be there for 30 years. Sun/Leo loves fun and glamour, bringing perhaps an interesting job in a beautiful restaurant, high-end hotel, special events location or catering company. Leo also loves celebrities, so there could be a job working with or for famous people or companies.

One of your career planets is Saturn, which resonates with big business and old money. Saturn is the ruler of architecture and historical locations. Another career planet in your chart is Mercury in Gemini, which points to communications. Put those together, and there might be something for you as a local tour guide. Mercury in the 7th House also points to a talent for being a consultant: sharing your wisdom and experience with people who can use your advice.

Saturn is also the planet of the King subpersonality in the Michael system. King careers involve leadership, corporations and government, as well as working with/for/in support of senior citizen affairs. You have participated in local government for a long time, so perhaps there is a position in the city, county, state or federal government that awaits you. Again, think of relocating - Your Essence wants a change of venue starting around 14 months from now (Summer 2010).

Q: I have Pluto [transiting through my] 6th House. Is there any good to come of this? I have been job hopping: I get a job, then it does not work out. My last job was [working for] a complete control freak micro-manager. (G, via email) (edited for length)

No wonder you had to work for a control freak. As you pointed out, Pluto going through the 6th House of your chart opens the probability of big power struggles in the workplace, at least in the initial phase. Once you get through this phase, then through the limbo phase of not knowing where to put yourself, eventually you'll end up in a new job or profession that fits you perfectly. Take heart: Your life will soon improve, although it's painful now.

Pluto in the 6th House can, in the early stages, bring so much job stress that it affects your health. This is a classic Worker/Healer axis situation in the Seven Spiritual Pathways, where your body suffers from the effects of the events in your life (due, of course, to the activity of the mind perceiving those events). It's important in this first phase for you to get lots of rest, and to learn to not take life seriously.

You're about to enter the second phase of Pluto/6th House: limbo. As you said, you keep going to jobs that don't work out. Limbo is known as the "meathook" phase, where you feel powerless, stuck in a karmic freezer with no sense of choice. This important phase teaches patience.

The limbo phase lasts for a year or two for most people, but for you it will feel like it's passing quickly. After that you'll enter the third and final phase of your Pluto/6th House transit: the resolution phase. You'll find a new profession or job that will be far more conducive to your overall health and wellbeing than the job you just had. You'll know what works and doesn't work for you, and you'll have a sense of empowerment.

The great news is, your progressed Moon will go over your Midheaven (career point) starting early 2010. That is likely to bring a strong focus on your career for two years, plus it signifies lots of change for you next year. A couple of factors in your natal chart indicate you'd be good at running your own business, perhaps related to a resort, spa or working near the ocean. Don't worry: You're on the right track.

The general advice for anyone looking to survive the global depression is to Stop (reevaluate your life), Look (in places like Monster.com and craigslist for new jobs), and Listen (to friends who may have connections). Reinvent yourself, and be flexible even if it means relocating temporarily until the recession is over.

Q: If Ignorance is Bliss, does that mean that Complete Ignorance is Completely Blissful? Do people really want to be Completely Ignorant? Some people do, some people don't. That's their decision.

Not knowing that you don't know, and thinking you do know, is knowing nothing. That's ignorance. Not knowing anything, and not thinking anything, that's complete ignorance. Knowing that you know nothing, and that you have nothing figured out, is knowing something. That's innocence.. Knowing that you have everything, that's bliss. Knowing that everything is nothing, that's complete bliss.

Ignorance is contorted bliss. Ignorance lacks discernment. Ignorance hides, shuts down and tries to be inert. Eventually, ignorance has to open and evolve --- and no one has any control over this process. What looks like personal choice is actually a conscious shift of direction in tandem with the creative life force behind and underneath all form. The rate of evolutino in this process means nothing.

Innocence is fully present, open and alive and simple. It can look like staring, but it's actually delicately responding to everything simultaneously. That's what's called knowing.

Bliss is a temporary state when desire ceases. Desires usually come back, then you seek the satisfaction of those desires. Once satisfied, again there's temporary bliss.

Complete bliss is the cessation of all desire. It comes when you realize the world "out there" is a cartoon, a continuously swirling projection of the contents of your own mind. Who can prove for sure that it exists?

Here's an example: If you go to the Mt. St. Helens volcano cam, you can usually see the mountain. Once in awhile, a snowstorm will cover the camera with icicles, and all you can see are icicles. Ignorance would say, "The world is an icicle." Innocence would say, "I believe there is a world beyond the icicles, although I cannot prove it." Bliss would say, "Time for tea and toast." Complete bliss would remain silent. It simply sees the icicles, camera lens, mountain and personal reactions as an eternally-changing "outer" panorama of something that is also, literally, nothing.

Great Zen koan question, and thanks for sending it in.

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