Reincarnation

Reincarnational Synastry of the Enlightened Heart Essence

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Today marks the anniversary of the Buddhist master Longchenpa, whose death – and enlightenment (in what Buddhists call a Parinirvana) – falls on the 18th day of the twelfth month of the Tibetan lunar calendar. Tibetan tradition celebrates the parinirvana dates of beloved masters, as these are considered to be ideal windows for communing with the ever-present spiritual essence of enlightened teachers. As bodhisattvas, these teachers are said to continue after death in both their “rainbow bodies” of blessings, and in physical “reincarnations” too. Every astrologer studies birth charts, but “rebirth charts” are less established! Let’s see how Centaurs can help us bridge this mystery.

Longchenpa was born in 1308 and died in 1364, and believed to be the incarnation of a Princess who lived and died in the time of the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, Guru Padmasambhava. From his predecessors, Longchenpa inherited a special lineage called the Heart Essence of the Dakinis, those mysterious feminine beings who conceal secret wisdom. In turn he granted extraordinary visions to Jigme Lingpa (b. 1729), who lived four centuries later and continued that lineage. The content of these visions formed the basis of a Buddhist path that is still influential in our time, the Longchen Nyingthig (“Heart Essence of Vast Expanse”). It is believed that Jigme Lingpa then reincarnated as Do Khyentse, the first of many lamas to bear the Khyentse title meaning (holder of) “Wisdom and Compassion”.

Throughout my study of the astrology of spiritual visions and peak experiences, while focusing on the Centaur planets Chiron, Pholus, Chariklo and Okyrhoe, one trans-Neptunian object always shows up on the distant sidelines and holding an astrological message. That is TNO Altjira, a minor planet far far away that was named in honor of an Australian Aboriginal deity, or more accurately, a spiritual concept. I’ve written about this TNO and how its namesake is more of an adverb (for “being timeless”) than “sky god”, in an upcoming article for the Federation of Australian Astrologers. (My next blog here at the Centaur Space will delve into some of the complex anthropological and philosophical issues brought up by our convention of naming TNOs after Indigenous and Aboriginal spiritual ideas.) Indeed, both astrologers (such as Sally Hildreth in her TMA piece on TNOs), and anthropologists have commented on how “the timeless” can be a fine way to avoid saying anything meaningful at all – but I will use it as a placeholder word for the idea of something that spans “all time” (even if that contradicts timeless).

Buddhists refer to past, present, and future as “the three times”. If a master, through their meditational acumen, attains sightlines across these three times, they are designated as kunkhyen or “all-knowing” – and one such master is Kunkhyen Longchenpa.

Here I will briefly trace how TNO Altjira works alongside the Centaurs and Outer Planets in the fascinating application of astrology to “reincarnational synastry,” or the astrological connections between rebirths of individuals who are considered to be beads on a chain of embodiments of the same enlightened mind.

Considering the life-streams between Longchenpa, Jigme Lingpa, and the first Khyentse (from Do), all three of these figures are related through synastry with the earliest lama’s natal Altjira. At the birth of Longchenpa (March 2, 1308*) our TNO was at 25°16 Sagittarius, in future visionary synastry with Jigme Lingpa’s Okyrhoe (23°51 Sagittarius). Here Okyrhoe forms a bridge between generations just as she is an astronomical link between the inner planets and the slower Centaurs (Jupiter’s 12-year, Okyrhoe’s 24.5-year, and Chiron’s 49-year cycles in a ratio of 4:2:1). Jigme Lingpa’s own Altjira (13° 33 Gemini) is exactly conjunct the Chariklo (13° 36) of his future reincarnation, Do Khyentse. The latter’s Mercury at 26° 38 Sagittarius falls within a degree of founder Longchenpa’s Altjira, whose teachings the Khyentses uphold into the present in Bhutan and elsewhere. It seems that the dakini wisdom beings tell this astrological story through their corresponding Centaur nymph planets (Okyrhoe and Chariklo), in concert with the distant knower of vast Time, TNO Altjira.

The first Khyentse, from Do, was an outlier both within society (known as “the mad yogi from Do”) and on the rebirth tree; while Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo became the famous trunk of the mighty tree of tulku rebirths. Not only did Wangpo’s Uranus connect to the stream in Sagittarius leading all the way back to Longchenpa’s root Altjira, but his Jupiter in Pisces (conjunct Okyrhoe’s discovery degree) opposed Altjira, in alignment with the lunar Nodes.

The series of reincarnations that stem from Longchenpa through the present Khyentses include one linking lama who is held to be the direct rebirth of Longchenpa: Pema Lingpa, named for the Princess (Pema Sal) whom they each reincarnate. Jigme Lingpa, meanwhile, is known as the rebirth of the King (the Princess’ father). In a prayer he wrote about his own lives, Jigme Lingpa implies he is a reincarnation of Longchenpa (and thus the Princess), too. These stories exceed our rational mind: as religious stories meant to instill devotion don’t really have to “make sense” to us. Further proliferating into the unknowable, such rebirths from one tree are categorized into many branches: the body, speech, mind, (plus “quality” and “activity”) incarnations can all stem from the same master’s single intention to propagate a lineage through time and space.

Jigme Lingpa and reincarnations with reference to Longchenpa:

  • Jigme Lingpa: Okyrhoe to Longchenpa’s Altjira
  • Pema Lingpa: Jupiter to Longchenpa’s Altjira
  • Do Khyentse (body): Mercury to Longchenpa’s Altjira
  • Khyentse Wangpo (mind): Uranus, (‘higher octave’ of Mercury), to Longchenpa’s Altjira
  • (The speech incarnation known as Paltrul Rinpoche has no known birthday)

“Reincarnational synastry” is a fascinating study, one that probably won’t impress skeptics but can inspire the “believers”, of both astrology and of the saints and sages who lead various spiritual traditions. Astrology provides the symbolic apparatus upon which we may place such unknowables as the existence of lives beyond death, and the newer planets in our Solar system may hold some crucial new keys to this mystery.

Birth info:

*For Longchenpa, there is discrepancy among traditional sources over day of week so here it is enough to say “early March 1308.”

Jigme Lingpa: 6 February 1730, Tibet
Source Biography, “born in early morning of 18th day of the 12th month of the Earth Bird year 1730, Thondup p. 118

Do Khyentse 1 December 1800, Tibet (on Full Moon, Moon applied to Chariklo)
Thondup p. 180 “born on the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the Iron Monkey year of the thirteenth rabjung cycle.”

Pema (Padma) Lingpa: His birth was on the fifteenth day of the second month of the male iron-horse year of the eighth cycle, corresponding to March 7 1450.

Sources:

Treasury of Lives: https://treasuryoflives.org/zh/biographies/view/Pema-Lingpa/3000

Tulku Thondup, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, Shambhala: 1996

Further Reading about Longhenpa: https://www.shambhala.com/longchenpa-a-guide-for-readers/

Centaur Asbolus: Burning Clarity

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Asbolus is a centaur we encounter at pivotal moments in the Centaur Cycle of Greek mythology. Presently, the shadowy seer of omens is near the spotlight, astrologically: conjunct our Moon’s North Node, or Dragon’s Head. This places him in mid-Gemini, where a crew of planetary bodies transmit solar light to several layers of the solar system at once – all along the nodal axis of Uranus. The groove carved into cosmic space by the Nodes of Uranus run deep: his long orbit traces cycles of our transformation from trauma into enlightenment. At Uranus’ heliocentric North Node, we now have an unusual connection between that crossing and our Moon’s own Node.

Something in the collective is tuning in to a larger process of introspection, purification, and understanding. Asbolus is joined by asteroid Psyche (a large metallic body) and Trans-Neptunian Object Altjira, all in mid-Gemini for many months: from September 2020 through this month of March 2021, when they are joined and activated by Mars. Altjira (Austro-aboriginal god of timelessness) and Psyche each have their own band of consciousness-raising to do, which I hope to explore elsewhere.

Despite being known as one of the “wise centaurs”, Asbolus has only recently entered my vision as a centaur healer. I noticed that this year’s New Moon of Lunar New Year (Tibetan and Chinese) fell in exact trine to the mysterious planet. As I tuned in and welcomed this centaur into awareness, I began to feel a distinct vibration. Then a large mass of snow slipped from my roof in a minor avalanche. Since the Greek word asbolos refers to soot or ash, I felt this to be a welcome sign of his arrival, in purified form as snow. Asbolus the centaur planet was discovered on April 5, 1995 at 7° Libra 46 (8° Libra): “Secretly a torch burns for thousands of years in the ruins of an ancient city.” This Pleiadian Degree symbol, as usual, cuts right to the heart of a centaur’s discovery degree: the mythos of a name blends into its first entrance into our sight. Asbolus then holds the Centaurs’ torch, keeping their light safe through the millennia ’til now.

Benjamin Adamah, one of the few astrologers who has addressed this centaur, writes that asteroid #8405 was named for Asbolos after “its dark surface,” which itself is due to a “large impact crater”. He notes “Asbolos was seer, whose correct warnings not to fight the Lapiths were ignored.” This resulted in a violent battle, recounted by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, in which many centaurs were killed by Theseus. This moment in mythic time (Centauromachy) is crucial as it followed the death of King Ixion, who had fathered those brutish centaurs including Nessus, and was also King of the Lapiths, who fought off their king’s interloping offspring to retain sovereignty over their land.

While he tried to prevent that first massacre, it was Asbolos, conversely, who then “provoked a bloodbath in which the centaurs Chiron and Pholus met their deaths at Heracles’ hands. Asbolos was crucified by the demigod who shot arrows through his limbs.” The Centaur Cycle met its climax at Pholus’ cave, when the immortal centaur Chiron is wounded and begins his healing crisis by way of Prometheus’ liver and Zeus’ begrudging grace.

Adamah analyzed six levels of this centaur in a chart. In sum, he writes that “Asbolus is a heavyweight in the horoscope; sombre, pessimistic, with a lot of depth – but tangled in a vortex-like manner of information processing.” Asbolos (spelled with an o to denote the mythic character, modernized as Asbolus for the planet) was known by Hesiod as “an augurist from bird flight” – that is, one who read signs from the birds. Pholos divined from entrails, Okyrhoe received prophetic visions. Asbolus then completes a Centauric Triad of visionaries.

Nick Anthony Fiorenza’s diagram of Centaur Orbits. Note how Asbolus links us from Jupiter to Neptune

Synchronistic with Asbolus’ entry into my sights, a book I had been perusing since last year (Bottoming Out The Universe by Richard Grossinger) turned up a fascinating case study, one that becomes clear when seen in the light of Asbolus. As usual with these planets of grace, when we plug the right centaur into the equation, all kinds of mysteries are solved. Grossinger recounts the well-known story (new to me) of one James Leininger, a young American man who is (convincingly) believed to be the reincarnation of another James, one killed in action in World War II at Iwo Jima. This story is proper to Asbolus as it deals with ancestral healing and reincarnation (themes of all the male-archetype Centaurs) but moreover, because of this planet’s specific motif of ashes and fire.

Born on April 10, 1998 to Christian parents in San Francisco, James Leininger was an ordinary boy until he started to have increasingly vicious nightmares as a toddler. In May 2000 his mother woke to screams of “Airplane crash! Plane on fire! Little man can’t get out!” Mr. Leininger eventually tracked down the identity of the “little man”, and the young James would shake hands with his surviving squadron, and befriend his remaining family.

James Huston, Jr. was killed on March 3, 1945 when his plane was shot down, the only member of his squadron to die in that battle – tragically it would have been his final mission anyway, as they were scheduled to go home. The 21-year old fighter pilot would apparently reincarnate 53 years after falling to the sea. We thus have the astrological data needed to compare death with rebirth, rare in a modern context.

It is most notable that at this time of research, Asbolus, with its 76.5 year cycle (near to an average human life expectancy) is in exact return to its place at Huston’s death (Gemini 21° 52 in 1945, and Gemini 21° 36 at present).

Activations to young James’ natal chart

  • Asbolus in James L’s Nightmares, May 1 2000:
  • transiting Asbolus to natal Pluto: a fiery vision of death is seen
  • transiting Pholus to Asbolus (applying 1.25°): a visionary explosion leading to deep ancestral healing & knowledge
  • transiting Mercury and Venus opposite natal Asbolus: (fine-tuning the timing of a slower centaur transit)
  • transiting Okyrhoe to natal Mercury, applying 2°: visionary ability to communicate
  • transiting Jupiter-Saturn opposite natal Chiron: healing events began which led to his father’s quest for truth leading to grappling with own religious tolerance of reincarnation, etc.
James L and his first nightmares as transit to natal, no time

Transit: death of JH to “re-birth” as JL

Transit chart as Iwo Jima inside, James L natal outside. No time given, no houses, Moon approx.

Inner: Outer (death chart receiving transits of rebirth)

  • Mars: Uranus: catalyzing an inspiring life from a battle’s death
  • Mars: opposite Chariklo: from war, a spiritual rebirth – Chariklo holds space for reincarnation
  • Pluto: Chariklo: the soul’s literal rebirth into a new body
  • Uranus: opposite Pluto: the traumatic sudden death finds its trajectory of ensoulment
  • Thus a Mars-Pluto opposition receiving a Chariklo-Pluto (edit 2024: -Uranus) opposition by transit.
  • Pluto opposite Uranus: with a 4° orb, there is a reciprocal transit of Uranus and Pluto (Pluto-Uranus opposition, Uranus-Pluto opposition, linking signifiers of generational trauma and spiritual embodiment.
  • Chariklo: Asbolus: from this fiery melee, the astral body travels through the purifying flames of Asbolus – a phoenix into rebirth
  • Asbolus: opposite Nessus: the centaurs of ancestral healing aligning – a fiery emissary of future love, as Nessus connects with the funeral pyre of Heracles the wounded hero, Asbolus is the purified ashes that remain.

Here is just an overview of basic Centaur alignments at play in the dramatic story of one James taking rebirth as another. Asbolus has much to teach us about the mysteries of life and death it seems. There is also a new film out this year called Surviving Death that includes James’ story, which I haven’t yet watched! Shall I tell Netflix they released it on the Asbolus return of the original protagonist?