Astrology and the Seven Roles
For the benefit of the Michael community at this forum, I would like to present some excerpts from the book, Symbols of the Soul: Discovering Your Karma Through Astrology (2000), to highlight some of findings by its author, Gina Lake, who is a counseling psychologist and author of ten books. Gina has very generously given permission to use excerpts from her book for our group discussion. You can find her book at this link: Amazon.com: Symbols of the Soul: Discovering Your Karma Through Astrology (9781567184075): Gina Lake: Books
NOTE: The premise of this book is NOT that astrology charts would be "interchangeable" with MT. Gina's book is trying to show that each ROLE favors certain SIGNS at different SOUL AGES. For years now, I've been interested in studying different personality typing systems (including the enneagram/natal charts/numerology/human design profiles/archetypes and other systems). This book is the first to describe how the Michael roles (based on MFM and The Michael Handbook material) and soul ages fit into modern astrology, which is yet another tool for understanding the soul’s path and the personality.
As Michael says: "The Grand Cycle is to your Essence/Spark, what each Personality is to your Role. Essence does not evolve without the Role and the Role does not evolve without the Personality." (channelled by Troy Tolley)
"CHOOSING THE CHART
by Gina Lake
When we choose a chart (by choosing a moment and place of birth), we choose it to balance karma, learn lessons, develop talents, and fulfill a life task, but also because we have a desire to experience life through certain signs. We do not experience the signs in any set order and we are free to choose some signs more than others. Where does this desire come from? Why do we have certain preferences?
THE SEVEN ROLES
Why we each have our own preferences of signs is not such a mystery if we understand that we are sent from the godhead with general inclinations and goals. I am referring to what some call “Roles.” Before its set of physical incarnations, each soul takes on a Role that pertains to a goal for all its physical incarnations. The incarnations and the life tasks, in particular, relate to this Role.
Each Role favors certain signs because some signs suit the Role’s task and its way of being. There are seven Roles, thus, seven goals, each exhibiting its own style and each favoring certain signs. This helps explain why some signs in a chart may be more advanced than others: they have been chosen more often because the person’s Role favors them. Those who are advanced enough to have the freedom to choose their charts usually express their Roles in the charts they pick. Thus, the Role can often be surmised from the chart. However, sometimes a chart is chosen to balance the characteristics of a Role.
If our chart is very different from our Role, it won’t feel natural. A Warrior, for instance, would feel frustrated in a watery chart, but the chart would deliver some important lessons. The usual reason for this is to balance the negative tendencies of a certain sign, which may have become ingrained by choosing that sign over many lifetimes.
These energies are like a costume donned for one lifetime to experience the lessons and develop the talents of those energies. Still we are more than these energies; we are more than our charts. We are the sum total of all our previous lifetimes of experiences and their energy patterns (charts). In many ways, we are like actors on a stage: we know that we are more than the character we are playing, but for the time being we dress up in our costume and play our part. The difference is that the actor has no freedom to choose his lines and actions, and we do. We create the play as we go along. Our future, our story, is created by our choices and by the choices of those close to us.
The lessons of each of the twelve signs must be experienced and mastered before our evolution is complete. When a sign is first experienced, it will be awkwardly and more negatively expressed. Later, with more experience, its positive attributes are more easily expressed and its talents develop. Gradually, over many lifetimes, the expression of the signs evolves. We do not experience the signs in any set order and we are free to choose some signs more than others. This allows us to focus on certain talents, lessons, or tasks. Each of us is unique, and we evolve uniquely as well. The descriptions of the signs apply not only to people with that Sun sign, but also to those who have that sign prominent in their chart" [as Ascendant, angles, aspects, etc.].