FORTHCOMING ON THE DKF WEBSITE ASTROLOGY & HEALING SERIES signs of the zodiac in healing and personal growth ‘Illness is always a crisis, and the purpose of every crisis is development.’ AS ABOVE, SO BELOW is the oft-quoted principle of occultism. Despite so many of us readily accepting this principle in theory as we think about cosmic arrangements and mundane events, we are less eager to apply it to the experiences offered by our own bodily health and well-being. Our physical beings are the most dense points of expression for our energy systems; through the physical vehicle manifests the energetic pattern in which our subtle vehicles participate. This is to say, the body is the mirror or the storehouse of consciousness. Its particularities and peculiarities, whether deemed sick or healthy, testify to the quality and characteristics of our consciousness. Therefore, a challenge arising in the body expresses something that is happening correspondingly at a higher level - in consciousness - and that needs to be addressed. Symptoms of illness, if we choose to observe them and listen to them, are uncannily informative about the issues that need to be looked at. However, it is our way in the West to regard symptoms of illness with fear and intolerance: we suppress them rather than take an interest in them. When sick, we busily apply ourselves to eliminating symptoms and getting ourselves back to normal and getting our habitual show back on its weary road, rather than recognising that our symptoms are expressing a need for change, growth and development. Illness offers us the possibility of needed change. Nobody would suggest that change through crisis is an easy way to learn, but ultimately the need to learn is far more important than whether or not we, as individuals, find it packaged in an acceptable form! We readily theorise that life on Earth is a great school for learning and development. We less readily accept that the only things that prompt most of us to consider change in our lives are sickness and misfortune - the ‘blows of fate’. We need to be able to learn from our symptoms rather than silence them. Allopathic medication is often aimed at eradication of symptoms, which serves to drive them deeper into our organisms, where they become more pernicious (like any chronic needs left unmet). The authors of The Healing Power of Illness, Thorwald Dethlefsen and Rüdiger Dahlke, describe symptoms by using the analogy of a warning-light flashing on the instrument panel of a car. When this happens you don’t take out the bulb to stop it flashing; you pull over and check the oil! It is the precept of the work we are developing at the D.K. Foundation that illness is the physical manifestation of a problem in consciousness. Therefore, the first step towards healing can be made by understanding, at the level of consciousness, what life is trying to teach us. Around the New Moon in Aries the DK Foundation begins publishing the Astrology and Healing Series on this web site. The intention of this series is to collate research materials and ideas about using astrology as a diagnostic tool and to present information that will help people to use the principles of astrology to interrogate and understand the role of health challenges in their lives. The series will address each of the signs of the zodiac and its relationship to health and healing issues from the standpoint of illness being an attempt to come to consciousness and bring change into the life. From this standpoint symptoms of ill health are not obstructions to an otherwise good life; they are the first steps along the healing path. They express the urge towards a potentially more inclusive and authentic consciousness. The horoscope, as a map of the psyche, can be used to diagnose physical, emotional or mental difficulties and present them within the context of an individual’s developmental journey. The astrologer that understands how to use the birth chart to interpret challenges that manifest in the body is extremely well placed to help a person understand their problem and find ways of responding to it creatively. Healing is the process of becoming more whole: more truly ourselves, responsive to our opportunities and more aware of our purpose in life. Healing is not just for the sick in body; the healing path is that which leads us towards a fuller expression of self, vitality and consciousness. Healing is about understanding our unique challenges and learning from them. Essentially, the development of consciousness (spiritual growth) is the path of healing. ‘Healing occurs through the incorporation of that which is missing, and thus is not possible without an expansion of consciousness. Illness and healing are twin concepts which have relevance only to consciousness and are not applicable to the body, since a body itself can be neither ill nor healthy. All that it can do is reflect the corresponding states and conditions of consciousness itself.’ Dethlefsen & Dahlke The Astrology and Healing articles are abridged versions of articles that will be available in unabridged form in a booklet to be published early next year. ©2001- 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.