Transformation within Personality The D.K. Foundation is committed to transformation. It was established in Brighton, UK in 1998 in order to make available, through the medium of astrology, certain concepts which, as the twenty-first century comes in, are capable of having a transformative effect on Western consciousness. These concepts take their place at, what was described in Article 2 as, the 'near point on the spectrum of transformation': transformation within personality. Detailed information about The D.K. Foundation's approach to horoscopy is available on request from the Foundation (see the Services section). This article confines itself to the principle of using the pattern of personality to create transformative opportunities. We come into incarnation to transform energy. Developing and refining consciousness- which is what spirituality is - essentially a process of transforming energy. We exist in our own right and are transformative centres in our own right, but we are also constituents of groups which rely upon our transformative capacity. We develop and refine consciousness as, with each lifetime, a quality of consciousness impresses upon our being and forms our response nature. That quality of experience is conferred by the personality. The personality is an energy pattern and a package of opportunity. It is what Gurdjieff termed 'essence'. By expressing the qualities which we are designed to express we make our contribution to our groups and enable ourselves, in terms of consciousness, to both break new ground and to achieve balance. A natal chart, if read using certain criteria, reveals the identity and the design of the life. It also reveals the quality of astral and mental consciousness developed by past lives which, if unchallenged, will create a veil which obscures, to a greater or lesser degree, the true identity in the present lifetime. One of the fallacies encouraged by the reductionism inherent in popular astrology is that we truly and fully express our Sun signs. For the majority of us, expression of the Sun sign, the core of the true identity, is partial or muted and may even remain in a state of latency for the duration of the lifetime. The fact is that we express as much of the Sun sign as the Moon and Saturn permit, for these two create the veil. In order to maximise the transformative potential of the personality, there needs to be awareness of the inherent tension between present and past. This tension manifests in the conflicts between opportunity and inheritance; potential and predisposition; fulfilment and familiarity; head and heart, as that expression is commonly used. Whilst a synthesis between past and present is desirable, that synthesis must be on the terms of the Sun and not those of the Moon. It is precisely these conflicts, all of them reflections of the inherent tension between present and past, which provide the personality's transformative opportunities. If the developmental intention of our lifetimes is to manifest certain qualities and a certain orientation ( indicated by the Sun sign and house position of the Sun), then to steer our lives consciously in that direction is to co-operate with the intention. This is the Foundation's definition of the term progressive. To live progressively is not easy. All that personal reality registers as familiar is determined by the past, the threads of which are bound into the present incarnation through the quality of consciousness of the parents, and through the conditioning received in the early years. Progressive decisions challenge what childhood circumstances and conditioning have made familiar. They create conflict within a person and within his life. Yet there is no transformation where there is no conflict. There is no progress where there is not willingness to challenge the familiar; and there will be no fulfilment for a personality who does not recognise and live out his true identity. ©1999 - The D.K. Foundation. This article, including this copyright statement, may be freely distributed but not altered, expanded or abridged in any way. We thank you for respecting this request.