She does have a point. There is indeed a danger of becoming so obsessed with an astrological forecast or prediction that one's life would revolve around the forecast, or be unable to do anything unless a forecast is made. Astrological forecasts have their uses, but are supposed to be guides, not mandates. The same way a stock broker keeps abreast of the latest trends and market news, it is us who makes the final decisions on how to act on the information at hand.
I suppose one point of discomfort regarding astrological forecasts is the pre-determined aspect that is implied. We do cherish our free will, but the question is, are we really that much in control of our destiny? Another way to put it is, have we been using our free will in the correct manner?
In the occult novel Frabato The Magician, one of Franz Bardon's conversation partners (let's call him Mr. A for convenience) believed that he was in control of his own destiny. So Franz Bardon told him that if he could avoid being at a certain plaza at a certain time the next day, then Mr. A indeed had control of his destiny.
Mr. A then resolved to simply stay at home the whole day in order to avoid ending up at the aforementioned plaza. But come evening, a couple of Mr. A's friends invited him out to watch a play. Since the theatre was at the other end of town from where the plaza was, Mr. A figured that it would be no problem. Then after the play, Mr. A and his friends went out for dinner along with some drinks.
As is sometimes the case among inebriated friends, Mr. A's group started going around town, from bar to bar, getting drinks and generally having a good time. Mr. A totally forgot about his conversation with Franz Bardon.
Unfortunately, in one bar, Mr. A got into an argument with another patron and knives were pulled, resulting in Mr. A having to run for his life, with his opponents in hot pursuit. As Mr. A was in the middle of his run, he realized that he had ended up approaching the plaza that Franz Bardon told him about. Realizing how foolish his previous statements to Franz Bardon were, Mr. A was just about to give up in desperation when Franz Bardon stepped out from one corner and told Mr. A not to worry. Bardon had anticipated that Mr. A would end up there so Bardon was just waiting for him to show up.
Bardon then approached Mr. A's pursuers and uttered a kabbalistic formula that resulted in the attack being stopped. Mr. A eventually became one of Franz Bardon's students.
Reading the above, we see another case of apparent esoteric contradictions at work. I've mentioned before that in Master Choa Kok Sui's teachings, service and tithing (basically planting good karmic seeds) are some of the best ways to create your future now. On the other hand, there are still stories about people who do a lot of service and tithing who still encounter misfortunes or see little improvement in their lives. What gives?
The workings of karma as well as the interplay of cosmic energies that constitute one's astrological forecast are very complicated subjects, and I believe only a true Adept (such as Franz Bardon) can trace the influence one thread of energy may have on the other. However, we do not need to get into that deep a level of knowledge in order to esoterically manage ourselves.
If we take a closer look at the purpose of karma and its relationship to astrology, we will see that it's about learning certain lessons. Before incarnation, a soul is briefed about the different situations that will come up in the soul's physical life in order to bring about the environment the soul needs in order to learn a particular lesson. For instance, if the soul needs to learn patience and self control, perhaps obnoxious officemates would be part of the situation that the person will find oneself in. We would tend to term those negative situations as "negative karma" while positive situations, like getting a raise, as "good karma." The situations have to become part of one's life because of one's past actions (perhaps in a previous life, the soul had hurt a lot of people because of impatience, so patience needs to be learned in the future life).
The different cosmic bodies give off certain energies (Venus pertains to love, Jupiter to luck, etc.). Certain combinations of these energies will lead to the different situations mentioned earlier. It is this play of energetic influences that the science of astrology tries to ascertain. Once the correct mix of energies are "dialed in" then the soul incarnates and then is born on the date and time that allows this play of energies to come into effect. This then becomes your birth chart and a really skillful astrologer can give you an idea of the different situations you may encounter, even your date of death.
Alternatively, as per Master Choa's book Achieving Oneness with the Higher Soul, a really skilled and powerful clairvoyant can look at one's physical permanent seed (located in the heart) and get a movie view of one's life and destiny. According to Master Choa, it will play out like a movie but certain scenes may be different from what actually happened because of free will.
By learning one's lessons (the proper use of free will), one can prevent some negative situations from coming up. In the example earlier, if one learns the virtue of true patience (meaning, not merely holding one's anger in only to explode much later), then the situation of having obnoxious officemates could disappear.
Of course, there is another way to learn. A Latin saying goes: a fool learns by his own mistakes; a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. This type of learning can also prevent future negative situations from coming up, or if they do, they are much mitigated and easier to deal with. This is because the Law of Mercy supersedes the Law of Karma.
Where do service and tithing come in? In Master Choa's words, they mitigate one's negative karma. Meaning negative situation(s) are easier to bear, but that does not excuse one from the need to learn one's lessons. Service and tithing are supposed to develop one's capacity for love and compassion, especially among those less fortunate. As one is filled with love, one starts to learn all the other lessons anyway, such as patience, tolerance, forgiveness, etc.
So you can see that service and tithing are not free passes. This is why you cannot do something negative and then use service and tithing to "pay off" what you did.
Another way to look at all of this is that if a negative situation happens, you simply did not learn enough of the lesson inherent in that situation, so it had to happen again. But it takes a lot of self honesty and introspection in order to trace out one's negative behavior. It's really hard, because it's so easy to make excuses for oneself ("It wasn't that bad" or "He/she deserved it" or "I don't deserve this") and we don't want to think of ourselves as being that bad. I also fall into that trap of self-delusion, so I've experienced how hard it is.
The thing is, certain situations will keep repeating themselves, in increasing severity, until one "gets the hint." This is why simply removing oneself from a certain situation is not the answer. Sometimes it's needed, but again, without learning the lesson associated with a negative situation, it'll just come back in a different form. This is why you will hear stories of people who resigned from their jobs because their officemates gossiped about them (or were bullied by other officemates) only to end up in a new job in a different company but faced again with being gossiped about or being bullied.
There is a very nice quotation from Kabbalist Yehuda Berg that relates to what I've been writing about and I would like to share it here:
Reality is a fruit grown from the seed of our consciousness. When we want to work on changing our physical reality, we have to work on our inner reality, instead of just focusing on gaining money and physical possessions.
We can take control of the growth of our physical life by having the right consciousness.
I believe right consciousness can be summed up in the simple statement: Know thyself. So simple, and yet so difficult at the same time.
There are so many unknowns. This is why it's always important to invoke for Divine Blessings for every aspect of one's life. By doing this, one thus acknowledges that at the end of everything, it's God who is ultimately behind the wheel.
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