Planetary Hours: the Method and the Magick for Quick Timing DecisionsSuccess often depends on being in the right place at the right time. How often have you heard that said? Is it luck, or something more? Obviously, having a tool to predict the right time would give one an advantage. That thought was, and is, most likely the major motivator for the continual development of astrology through the ages.
Many methods of astrological timing exist, and most of them are quite technicalastrology is a complex field. One method stands out as easy enough to be used by non-technical types whove studied astrology only very little. Planetary hours can be used by anyone with the patience to learn to recognize seven planet symbols and to understand basic interpretive meanings of each of those seven planets. This article will introduce you the method, and also to the magick that I consider to be a highly important ingredient for the most effective use of any astrological technique for electing (choosing) the appropriate timing for planned actions.
The Method:
One of the oldest methods of choosing the most propitious time with astrology is the symbolic system of planetary hours. Because this system was developed many centuries before the invention of the telescope, it uses only Sun, Moon and the five planets that are visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These seven planets, according to a Chaldean order that arranges them from slowest to fastest in motion, are said to rule the hours of the day in a repeated sequence that is quite elegant in its structure. Each day of the week is named for a planet. The planet ruling the day also rules the sunrise hour and then each hour the next planet in the Chaldean order rules following in a repetitive sequence. The next day will be the one that is named for the planet that, in this repetitive sequence, has become that days sunrise planetary hour. The simple elegance of this system can best be seen in a spiral design.
Until the recent revival of ancient methodology through translations of historical texts, modern astrologers had neglected the planetary hour system, possibly because it is symbolic and thus deemed not as scientific as the actual daily positions of the planets according to precise astronomical calculation. Practitioners of magick, however, continued to use planetary hours as they had through the ages, both because using them is easy, and because they work! Within the past few years, many astrologers have rediscovered planetary hours and in observing how they work, have found the method to be well-worth reviving.
In using planetary hours, it is important to realize that a planetary day is not the same as our calendar days, nor does an hour necessarily contain 60 minutes. Planetary days begin at sunrise, so the hours between midnight and sunrise belong to the previous day. In order to account for the seasonal difference in length of daylight, the amount of time in each hour is different in the day from the night. Only at the equinoxes are hours about 60 minutes each day and night. At Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year) the daytime (diurnal) hours are much longer than the nighttime (nocturnal) hours. At Winter Solstice (the longest night of the year), the nocturnal hours are much longer than the diurnal hours.
You can figure the planetary hours out for yourself if you know the sunrise and sunset times for your area. For diurnal hours you figure the total amount of time between sunrise and sunset and then divide by 12, to find out how many minutes to assign to each planetary hour. For nocturnal hours you figure total time from sunset to the next sunrise and divide by 12. This method is slow, though. Quick methods are easily available.
With perpetual planetary hour tables such as are included in my book A Time for Magick you can do a quick look-up of the planetary hour for any day of any year in any location. To interpolate the time in the tables to be correct for the time zone in which you live, you need only one simple or time correction for your location. An extensive city list with time corrections is also included in the book. The most useful and least expensive computer option currently available for planetary hours is Sundial Software by Arlene Kramer, www.arlenekramer.com. From Sundial you can print out pages of daily listings in the clock time for your time zone and location.
The choice of which planetary hour will be best for your planned action is a matter of knowing which planet most favorably corresponds with your intent for that action. Most of the text of A Time for Magick is devoted to helping the reader understand the energies of each of the planets through knowledge of their traditional correspondences and also intuitively, through meditation and ritual. Because intents can be complex and each planet has many correspondences, additional study beyond this article is highly recommended. Still, many activities can be matched with this simple summary:
Hour of the Sun: for career success, employment, promotion, making presentations, public speaking, improving social status, approaching authority figures, improving health
Hour of the Moon: for doing things that are likely to change or are not intended to be permanent or binding, for increased intuition or imagination, for all domestic activities
Hour of Mercury: for abstract thinking, mental alertness, speaking, signing papers, sending significant mail, fixing computer problems, or in general, for any activity related to communication, provided you are in the frame of mind to be logical and rational. (Mercury can be a trickster when you are mentally fogged or emotionally upset.
Hour of Venus: for social occasions, love, courtship, marriage, improving appearance, for financial investments, to reconcile after a disagreement, to mediate a dispute, to achieve calm after stress, to work for peace
Hour of Mars: good for activities that require muscular exertion, boldness, courage and active enterprise, when your feelings are in check. Caution is needed if you are angry or stressed, and especially if a relationship is involved, for Mars can be confrontational.
Hour of Jupiter: for success in just about any activity you can imagine and for beginning anything important. The only downside would be where a tendency to over-indulgence or excess is a factor.
Hour of Saturn: for getting organized, plowing through tedious work, breaking unwanted habits, accepting and dealing with responsibilities, and for contemplation or meditation especially if you find yourself feeling tired and needing a respite from activity
Ive found it interesting to have a planetary hour listing at hand while silently observing a group activity, and you might try that, too, in order to get a feeling of how moods can change with the hours. For example, I remember observing a meeting where during the Moon hour the debate over issues went round and round with many feelings expressed but no resolution. Just when the hour changed to Saturn, the mood became quite serious. The group got down to business and decisions on several issues were resolved. Then, the lunch break was announced and everyone got up and began chatting happily. I looked at my planetary hour list and sure enough, the hour had just changed to Jupiter.
Here are a few examples of how planetary hours might be used in daily planning:
Schedule an appointment with your doctor for the hour of Sun.
Plan a dinner party in the hour of Moon. Try out a new recipe.
Install and learn a new computer program in the hour of Mercury.
Schedule an appointment for a new hairstyle for the hour of Venus.
Do your daily exercise workout in the hour of Mars.
Call a friend or business associate to ask for a favor during the hour of Jupiter.
Clear your desk of that piled up paperwork during the hour of Saturn. Get it done!
Ask your boss for a raise in the hour of the Sun.
Shop for ideas for redecorating your home during the hour of the Moon.
Send an important piece of mail in the hour of Mercury.
Meet with a friend in the hour of Venus to reconcile a disagreement between you.
Tackle that heavy clean-up job in the hour of Mars.
Open a new business or launch a new enterprise within your business in the hour of Jupiter.
Consult with an elder about how best to resolve a problem in the hour of Saturn.
A Personal Anecdote of Planning Actions with Planetary Hours
In order to demonstrate how one can work with the planetary hours and other transits, Ill tell you about a workshop I conducted a year ago at an astrological conference. It was at a time when Ill bet that some people, having looked at their own transits, as I did, might have wondered if staying home might be a wise move. It was less than two months past Sept. 11, and I was to fly to Toronto on a Full Moon Thursday evening, and then on Friday afternoon I was to do my three-hour workshop on astrological timing and ritual. The much talked about Saturn-Pluto opposition was exact on the day of my workshop, and the degrees in which it was exact put Pluto precisely on my Ascendant and Saturn on the Descendant. Jupiter was stationary retrograde and the Moon was void of course when my workshop was to begin. In the string of Moon aspects following her entrance into Gemini a little over an hour into my workshop time, she would conjunct Saturn and oppose Pluto. If all that astro-jargon evades any readers, lets just say that if Id been allowed to freely choose my time to do this workshop, this time would not have been it! Butif Id attempted to duck that time, Id be denying important points Id fully intended to make in that workshopand intend to make again within this article in The Magick section to follow. Obviously walking my talk meant accepting the challenge to work well within whatever time I was assigned. I planned my workshop to use the planetary themes of the three-hour period in which it was scheduled, including a ritual design based on the Moon as mediator between the clashing Saturn and Pluto,
The workshop began in the hour of the Moon and would change to the hour of Saturn less than a half hour later. The Jupiter hour would take the greater portion of the middle hour, and the final hour of the workshop would be Mars. I began with a general introduction to easy timing techniques, with a major focus on the lunar phases. I announced to the group when the Saturn hour was beginning, saying that wed use its theme at its best to cover the technicalities of the planetary hour system in a disciplined manner. I used an overhead and transparencies to demonstrate the use of the tables and the time corrections for Toronto. With the Jupiter hour I introduced the value of ritual and magick for the intuitive understanding of the planets and for helping to focus the mind toward desired goals. I asked for volunteers to take various parts within the ritual, gave the two key players, Saturn and Pluto, a little skit for their part, and called a 10-minute break to set up. Only a few of the class had any previous experience with ritual and because of this, I knew some would be uncomfortable with it, so I let everyone know that their choice to participate or watch was entirely voluntary and fine with me either way. As it turned out, I was extremely fortunate in my two main volunteers, for both had a wonderful flair for improvised dramatic effect and they made terrific use of the break time to talk over how theyd do the skit.
The ritual began with somewhat over half the class gathered in a circle around a center table and the rest remaining in their chairs to watch. I led them through a simple casting of the circle, followed by four volunteers who called the four elements (air, fire, water, earth) to the cardinal points. After invoking the Goddess Moon and the two Dark Lords Saturn and Pluto, the fun began, with a skit that was both very meaningful and also entertaining as my two Dark Lords squared off to the point of pushing each other around as they argued their points about the necessity to tear down and transform old structures and rebuild newer and better ones. By the time I, as Moon, had interceded, and Pluto began to pass out small black stones in which participants could will those old habits and structures they wished to banish, everyone in the room was ready to participate and all did. I collected the stones to return to Earth Mother, and then Saturn passed out cords for knot magick. The intent and action of that was for each person to make one or more commitments to positive and responsible future action (building anew). The act of tying a knot firmly into the cord would be to bind oneself to carry out the commitment. Now into the Mars hour, we raised energy to charge the magick with a spirited chant, after which each person was invited to choose three little paper stars Id scattered on the center table face down. The stars were of three different colors, one of which carried a symbol for one of the planets, another the number of a house and the third color, a symbol for one of the zodiac signs. Since all participants were astrologers, they could easily interpret the three stars they drew for a personal message.
The workshop concluded with the sharing of experiences within the ritual, and questions and answers centering mostly on the use of magick and ritual. All in all, it was a good experience for me and appeared to be for the participants. I experience absolutely no downside Saturn-Pluto events during this time, despite the exact transits of the two to my own chart. I like to believe that this was one of a number of personal examples Ive given myself that if I deliberately choose to do my transits in a positive manner, more often than not, positive manifestation prevails.
The Magick
Nearly always, after an event has passed, a clear and appropriate correspondence of the event to astrological phenomena can be demonstrated. Looking ahead is far less exact. Why is that? Primarily because nothing in astrology can be interpreted in only one way, at least not in any detail. Each planet or planetary configuration has a general theme, but within that theme there are multiple potentials with wide range from good to bad, depending on ones point of view. Obviously, picking the right planetary time is not enough. Your intent and your will to carry out that intent are not just equally as important, but more so.
A common phrase youve probably often heard is thoughts are things, referring to the observation that if one thinks strongly enough about something, the thought often becomes reality. This can happen naturally, when one wishes or fears so strongly that, for good or ill, what is wished for or feared becomes a self-fulfilling prophecyand from that has emerged another phrase youve probably heard: Be careful what you wish for, because you may be so unfortunate as to receive it. Some might prefer to call the act of strongly and deliberately focusing the mind to achieve a desired purpose creative visualization or mind control. I prefer to call this magick. Whatever you choose to call it, the point is this: focused intent can effect desired change within ones consciousness, and when change occurs within, change in ones outer world occurs, as well.
Magick is a good one-word definition for an attitude and a belief that the primary power to direct ones future flows from within. The k differentiates the practice from the stage magic of sleight-of-hand or the experience of sparkly feelings without focused intent. The practitioner of magick knows that all is energy, and with a keenly focused mind and spirit energy can be moved such that will, intent and purpose becomes manifest in reality. Within astrological language specifically, effective use of magick depends on your attitude in believing that ones power comes not from the planets, but from within.
Electional Astrology (the specific branch of astrology for choosing the most propitious time in advance of an action) has been called the closest astrological methodology comes to magick. To make that true, it is essential to understand that a very big part of deciding what time will, in fact, be propitious (have a favorable correspondence with intended action), is dependent upon the astrological interpretation attached to the time chosen, and that can vary widely. Each planet has a unique general theme of expression, but within that are many possible interpretations, some of which could be bad for what you want, others good and others varying in shades in between. In electing a planetary hour, it is important to be very clear that you are also electing (choosing) your interpretation of the planet! Since you are doing the choosing, it seems only common sense to do so with the focused intent and belief that you can and will carry out the proposed action according to your chosen interpretation of the planetary hour in which you will begin that action. Magick can be done with the mind alone, but often ceremony in a meditative state of mind, including the use of tools of ritual that appeal to all the senses, will greatly aid focus, as well as enhance your ability to intuitively understand the planetary energies. A Time for Magick offers specific meditation exercises and ritual designs for each of the planets.
Try planetary hours! Among astrological techniques, this one lends itself best to the times when a quick timing decision must be made with no time to do more complex astrological computations, even if you know how. For those who do take the time to consult an astrological calendar for timing decisions, or to do complete election charts, it is well worthwhile to consider the planetary hour, too. Choose the planetary hour that best fits your intended action and take that action with the commitment, the will, the focus and the faith of magick. My view is this: if electional astrology is not being used with magical intent, it ought to be!
About the author:
Maria Kay Simms is a well-known astrologer, currently the elected Chair of National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR). She is also a Wiccan High Priestess. In addition to A Time for Magick, she is author of The Witchs Circle and various astrology books including Future Signs and Dial Detective. Maria writes a monthly column called Moon Magick on the web site http://www.starcraftsob.com that she shares with her daughters Starcrafts store in Ocean Beach, CA. Here youll find interpretations of the current lunar phases and other astrological transits, including a variety of ideas for magick and ritual ideas based on astrological themes.
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Posted Nov 18, 2006
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Heroes:
Karma is the physical manifestation of the law of balance and harmony, as it applies to the results of decisions reached and attitudes held by beings capable of free will and choice. A karmic experience is a challenge to a individual to reconsider a choice that has been made, or an attitude that has been held, to see if these decisions were founded upon a misunderstanding of The Laws of the System. You are bound karmically to anything that you accept, or misunderstand, until you understand it. Karma is merely a gap in your understanding. And, karma applies only to beings who have advanced to the level of experiencing in the forms of the human kingdom.
Each individual creates their own karma by experiencing results, their ability to learn, and their disregard for experiencing. We creates our own capacities and limitations. Karma is the need to know more about a feeling, or an action, to make one's knowledge more complete and whole. It is the necessity to experience an action or thought more fully, or from a different perspective, so that you understand it as completely as possible in order to maintain balance in your mental creations. You cannot project perfect creations unless you understand the materials, tools, and processes of creation completely, and have experienced the repercussions of your actions.
A person exists to experience all forms of materiality, to understand each thoroughly, and to learn how to manipulate and maintain these forms in balance and harmony. As the individual evolves, studies his progress and finds there is a gap in his understanding, at some point in time the gap must be filled with the appropriate experience to balance it out. Karma is, therefore, the need to experience, and to fill gaps in the understanding of the experiences gained. It is a lack of understanding of all the points of view that apply, that must be changed, and an awareness that is necessary to be gained.
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Karma
The law of Karma (Sanskrit), or Kamma (Pali) originated in the Vedic system of religion, otherwise known as Hinduism. As a term, it can at the latest be traced back to the early Upanishads, around 1500 BCE.
In its major conception, karma is the physical, mental and supramental system of neutral rebound, "cause and effect," that is inherent in existence within the bounds of time, space, and causation. Essentially what this means is that the very being which one experiences (say, as a human being) is governed by an immutable preservation of energy, vibration, and action. It is comparable to the Golden Rule but denies the ostenisble arbitrariness of Fate, Destiny, Kismet, or other such Western conceptions by attributing absolute reason and determinism to the workings of the cosmos.
Karma, for these reasons, naturally implies reincarnation since thoughts and deeds in past lives will affect one's current situation. Thus, humanity (through a sort of collective karma) and individuals alike are responsible for the tragedies and good 'fortunes' which they experience. The concept of an inscrutable "God" figure is not necessary with the idea of karma. It is vital to note that karma is not an instrument of a god, or a single God, but is rather the physical and spiritual 'physics' of being. As gravity governs the motions of heavenly bodies and objects on the surface of the earth, karma governs the motions and happenings of life, both inanimate and animate, unconscious and conscious, in the cosmic realm.
Thus, what certain philosophical viewpoints may term "destiny" or "fate" is in actuality, according to the laws of karma, the simple and neutral working out of karma. Many have likened karma to a moral banking system, a credit and debit of good and bad. However, this view falls short of the idea that any sort of action (action being a root meaning of 'karma'), whether we term it 'good' or 'bad', binds us in recurring cause and effect. In order to attain supreme consciousness, to escape the cycle of life, death, and rebirth and the knot of karma one must altogether transcend karma. This method of transcendence is variously dealt with in many streams of not only Hinduism and Buddhism, but other faiths and philosophical systems as well.
From Hinduism the concept of karma was absorbed and developed in different manners in other movements within the other Indian subcontinental (South Asian) religions of Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Although these religions express significant disagreement regarding the particularities of "karma", all four groups have relatively similar notions of what karma is.
More recently the concept has been adopted (with various degrees of accuracy and understanding) by many New Age movements, Theosophy and Kardecist Spiritualism.
Karma in the Dharma-based Religions
Hinduism
Karma first came into being as a concept in Hinduism, largely based on the Vedas and Upanishads. One of the first and most dramatic illustrations of Karma can be found in the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. The original Hindu concept of karma was later enhanced by several other movements within the religion, most notably Vedanta, Yoga, and Tantra.
Hinduism sees karma as immutable law with involuntary and voluntary acts being part of a more intricate system of cause and effect that is often not comprehensible to one bound by karma. It is the goal of the Hindu, as expressed succinctly in the Bhagavad Gita, to embrace a 'sattvic' lifestyle and thus avoid creating more karma (karma is not qualified as good or bad). By ceasing to create more karma, the jiva-atma or individual soul is able to move closer to moksha, or liberation.
To the Hindu, karma is the law of the phenomenal cosmos that is part and parcel of living within the dimensions of time and space. All actions, thoughts, vibrations of any sort, are governed by a law that demands perfect rebound. So all jiva-atmas (individual souls) must experience karma if they live and experience the phenomenal universe. To escape the cycle of life, death and rebirth, one must exhaust one's karma and realize one's true Self as the highest truth of Oneness that is Brahman (or for dvaitists (dualists) bliss with the Supreme Godhead).
In Hinduism, karma is of three kinds:
Prarabadha Karma
This karma is unchangeable within the scope of one life, since it is the 'setup' for the life in question. It is the karma of one's past lives. After death, the atma leaves the body, as the casting off of old vestments, and carries with it the samskaras (impressions) of the past life of thoughts and actions and events. These samskaras manifest themselves in the unchangeable situation into which one is born and certain key events in one's life. These include one's time of death (seen as governed by an allotment from birth of the total number of one's breaths for that life), one's economic status, one's family (or lack of family), one's body type and look: essentially, the setting of one's birth, the initial base.
Samchita Karma
The samskaras that one inherits from the last lives create one's personality, inclinations, talents, the things that make up one's persona. One's likings, abilities, attitudes and inclinations are based on the thoughts and actions of past lives. One's samchita karma is somewhat alterable through practice and effort towards change. This might be seen through the Hindu system of yoga and the dynamic of the gunas. An example would be someone who, through meditation, slowly evolved into a more stable personality.
Agami Karma
Agami karma is the karma of the present life over which the soul has complete control. Through it one creates one's karma in the present for the future of the current life and in life-times to come.
The Hindu cannot say, sometimes, if a major event in life is the doing of Prarabadha or Agami Karma. The idea of "bad things happening to good people" is seen by the Hindu as a result of Prarabadha Karma, more simply understood as karma from a past life.
In Hinduism, karma works within a cyclical framework that sees the phenomenal universe being created and eventually dissolving back into itself, back into realization that it was nothing other than Maya imposed on the truth of Brahman. So Karma will eventually be worked out.
Karma does allow for anirudh (Divine Grace). Through exceeding devotion and love of God, the Hindu believes one can be helped to speed through Karma phal (Karmic fruit). By developing 'vairagya' or 'detachment' from the fruits of one's karma, as Lord Krishna most famously summarized, one can transcend karma and be liberated. One is aided by love of God. All the Yogas of Hinduism seek to transcend karma through different means of realization.
Buddhism
In Buddhism, only intentional actions are karmic "acts of will". Often misunderstood in the West as "cause and effect", in actuality, Karma literally means "action" - often indicating intent or cause. Accompanying this usually is a separate tenet called Vipaka, meaning result or effect. The re-action or effect can itself also influence an action, and in this way, the chain of causation continues ad infinitum. When Buddhists talk about karma, they are normally referring to karma that is 'tainted' with ignorance - karma that continues to ensure that the being remains in the everlasting cycle of samsara.
This samsaric karma comes in two 'flavours' - good karma, which leads to high rebirth (as a deva, asura, or human), and bad karma which leads to low rebirth (as a hell-sufferer, as a preta, or as an animal).
There is also a completely different type of karma that is neither good nor bad, but liberating. This karma allows for the individual to break the endless cycle of rebirth, and thereby leave samsara permanently.
This seems to imply that one does not need to act in a good manner. But the Buddhist sutras explain that in order to generate liberating karma, we must first develop incredibly powerful concentration. This concentration is akin to the states of mind required to be reborn in the Deva realm, and in itself depends upon a very deep training in ethical self-discipline.
This differentiation between good karma and liberating karma has been used by some scholars to argue that the development of Tantra depended upon Buddhist ideas and philosophies.
Understanding the universal law of Karma provides order to a beginningless and endless universe. Alongside this view is the related notion of Buddhist rebirth - sometimes understood to be the same thing as reincarnation - which has its roots in the principle of Karma.
Jainism
Jains believe that karma is a form of matter. Mahavira described karma as "clay particles". Jains do not believe in "good karma" or "bad karma"; they try to avoid all karma.
Parallels with Christianity
Christian teachings do not usually include the idea of Karma, although some parallels can be made, as exemplified by biblical verses of 'God is not mocked, what a man sows he must reap' and 'Vengence is mine says the Lord'.
For the most part, however, the idea of the Abrahamic God makes the concept of Karma redundant for Christians.
It is also worth noting that most interpretations of Christianity do not emphasize the religious importance of thoughts and intentions (volition), that are usually understood to be a major form of Karma by the doctrines that use that concept.
Western Interpretation
According to Karma, performance of positive action results with the reaction of a good conditioning in one's experience, whereas a negative action results in a reaction of a bad response. This may be an immediate result following the act, or a delayed result occurring either in the present life or the next. Thus, meritorious acts may create rebirth into a higher station, such as a superior human being or a godlike being, while evil acts result in rebirth as a human living in less desirable circumstances, or as a lower animal. While the action of karma may be compared with the Western notions of sin and judgment by God or gods, Karma is held to operate as an inherent principle of the Universe without the intervention of any supernatural being.
Most teachings say that for common mortals, having an involvement with Karma is an unavoidable part of day-to-day living. However, in light of the Hindu philosophical school of Vedanta, as well as Gautama Buddha's teachings, one is advised to either avoid, control or become mindful of the effects of desires and aversions as a way to moderate or change one's karma (or, more accurately, one's karmic results).
New Age and Theosophy
The idea of karma was popularized in the west through the work of the Theosophical Society. Kardecist and Western New Age reinterpretations of karma frequently cast it as a sort of luck which is associated with virtue: if one does good or spiritually valuable acts, one deserves and can expect good luck; contrariwise, if one does harmful things, one can expect bad luck or unfortunate happenings. In this conception, karma is affiliated with the Neopagan law of return or Threefold Law, the idea that the beneficial or harmful effects one has on the world will return to oneself.
Health, Relationships, Abilities, Genius, Free Will, Opportunities
Sickness or afflictions have been attributed to misdeeds in the past, as well as merits, fortunes, etc. to meritorious works, etc.. Karma is said to affect the quality of relationships. For example, people who either love or hate each other tend to attract each other (See also Parabadha Karma). Karma dictates that an individual is responsible for his current situation and future situation. Current abilities, talents and inclinations can attributed to past development of these talents or involvement with the same(See also Sanchita Karma and Samskara). In this context, DNA and genes only accomodate and do not determine talents and abilities. In other words you can develop more talents and abilities. Karma however is not a rigid iron-cast system. e.g. Accidents happen outside the workings of karma and free will is a powerful factor in determining the course of life. Getting hit by a car may really be accidental and not karmic at all. A person must also exercise his free will in determining his destiny despite karmic factors. Karma also dictates that opportunities are also increased depending on how one deals with what one has. i.e. Take advantage of what is already available at hand and more will be given.
To be sure, this subconscious memory has an effect and influence on how we think, how we react, what we choose, and even how we look! But the component of free will is ever within our grasp.
Attitudes and Consciousness
Karma pertains mostly to attitudes and consciousness. The Cayce readings did not indicate adverse karmic effects for policemen or soldiers who are compelled to maintain safety or under orders , and had to execute people or employ violent methods. The readings however indicated severe karmic penalties for jeering mobs during the Roman persecution of Christians and in a particular, a spectator who laughed when a lion ripped out the side of a Christian girl. Neither the spectator nor the mob did any actual physical harm.
"It's My Karma"
One of the most distorted views of karma is the idea that nothing can be done about it (destiny).
No matter how terrible the predicament, there is always something that can be done, even if it's a patient smile or maintining a good attitude.
Within adverse conditions often lie the opportunity. The Chinese character for crisis '??', as pointed out by the late J.F. Kennedy, is a combination of the characters of danger and opportunity. The readings recommend taking advantage of what is available, meager as it may be, and better opportunities will be made available, as karmic forces may simply be redirecting. Karma is an educative process. Learn whatever needs to be learned or harsher conditions to drive in the lesson will arise.
Abilities according to Cayce Reading
One of the interesting aspects about karma in reincarnation is that talents and skills are never lost according to the Cayce files. Someone who has developed an ability in one life will still have it to draw upon later through karma. One may be born for example as a genius or prodigy, in math for example, if he develops this skill or have been of service now or having done so to a prodigous degree in the past or present.
