by Sheridan Semple
I’ll admit it, I’ve been a judger. I’m not proud of it, but thankfully Shamanic Astrology is challenging me to do better… much better. Even as I began to write, I was embroiled in judgment and felt so hypocritical writing this article. Then, I realized this is exactly what I need to write about because it reminds me that Shamanic Astrology is teaching me to stop judging other people. What a gift!
Through Shamanic Astrology, I’m learning that everyone has a unique path for their lives. Each path is equal and valid. One isn’t better or less than another. None are wrong. All of these individual tracks are literally laid out, like a map, in our birth charts. At the moment we take our first breaths, the placements of the planets in our solar system show us exactly what our intended paths are for our current lives. The cosmos reflect the intention of our Souls for being here in this time around. Who the heck am I to judge another’s Soul path? What a cosmic joke!
Shamanic Astrology teaches me that everyone has a place on the wheel of life.
Some signs or archetypes are exalted by our current society and some are literally shamed and misjudged. It’s easier to not judge the signs that are currently “in fashion”. For example, we really like Pisces or Cancer women. We love the giver who constantly supports everyone else, even to their own detriment. We say things like, “She’s such a saint”. Alternatively, we love a man who is strong and a protector, like Aries, but often judge a man who is sensitive as weak.
What if you’re a man and your life path, seen within your Mars archetype or your rising sign is Pisces? Empathy, being sensitive, holding space for people’s sorrow is part of what you’ve come here to do. You might get judged as feeble, when in reality it’s probably taking all of your courage to authentically walk your sensitive path. Or the reverse, what if you’re female and you have Venus in Aries or on your ascendant? You’ll probably get labeled as too aggressive, too fiery or even get the “B” word used to describe you. In truth you’re here to learn about your strength, to be the warrior-amazon female who protects us with your fire. One can easily begin to see how quickly we start to judge the paths we don’t currently favor in our society.
Now, add in this particular man or woman walking this “different” path is someone in your family or a coworker. You have to deal with her or him every day. These differences can really start to feel personal. Plus, you have your own unique journey, shown on your birth chart. What if it is completely dissimilar, even opposite theirs? It certainly becomes easy to feel superior, as if that person is doing life incorrectly. It’s awful isn’t it? We judge and label others we don’t understand so cavalierly. It’s like our default setting is separation and polarity. At the end of the day though, what we are doing is judging another Soul’s path. I am not God or Goddess, so who do I think I am?
This might be one of Shamanic Astrology’s greatest gifts to us.
We live in a time of so much polarity and separation due to our beliefs, race, gender, politics, etc. Shamanic Astrology teaches us to stop in our tracks and question this “us and them” or “I’m better than (fill in the blank)” mindset. Educating us to honor all life, all paths, Shamanic Astrology is teaching us tolerance and compassion in the midst of not understanding someone else’s life path and lessons. All lives and all journeys are equally valid, whether we understand them from our limited human perspective or not.
As we move into two huge, new cycles of Venus and Mars, now is the perfect timing to work on our judgments of each other. Venus has begun a new 19-month cycle, with the Gemini overtone, demonstrating a possible intent, with the divine feminine, to move beyond polarity and duality. Mars moved into Aries in June and begins a new synodic cycle in October, with the Aries overtone.
This indicates a collective objective from the divine masculine to protect and be warriors for what is right. What a beautiful cosmic sacred marriage, where the masculine energy can act a warriors and protectors of the feminine energy moving us beyond separation. May this lead to a time where we all share a place at the wheel, like Arthur’s round table, women and men, Black and white, red and blue, as we move into this unknown, unpredictable future we’re all facing equally, united and armed with trusting each Soul is doing the best it can to evolve with the choices it made in coming here this time.
Daniel Giamario’s quote from The Origins of the Shamanic Astrology Paradigm paves the way forward, implores us to walk our own path and stay out of everyone else’s. It reads, “In the Bhagavad Gita, it is written, ‘It is better to do one’s own dharma (duty), however defective it may be, than to follow the dharma of another, however well one may perform it. It is better to die doing one’s own dharma, for to do the dharma of another is fraught with danger. Those who do their own dharma as their nature reveals it, never sin.'” I’ve got plenty to do just focusing on my own dharma.