MID-FALL 2016: KARMIC DÉJÀ VU: “Remembrance of Things Past”

“I’ve seen 50, I’ve seen 60 and, baby, 40 is better.” I've been rich, I’ve been poor, and rich is better. I've been young, I've been old, and young is better. If I could turn back time, If I could find a way.”

CHER

Joan Pancoe: “NOT!”

Dear ONE,

This Fall, the ongoing transit of soulful Neptune, currently retrograde until November 19, is journeying with the South Node of our karmic past in the culminating sign of Pisces.

These planetary energies are affecting many of us by bringing up various forms of regret, nostalgia and sadness for what is past and is no more. These emotions may feel even less rational than usual, as they are coming from a karmic longing for emotional high points in past lives, whether we’re consciously aware of these lives or not.

This karmic déjà vu is arising now, strongly activated by the Neptune-South Node conjunction, so that we can unhook any attachments to our personal ancient history that no longer serve our moving forward. In some cases, “fated past-life encounters” in this time and space, as mentioned in my last newsletter, have been the trigger. However, these remembrances reside in the cellular memory of our psychic body, outside of linear space and time, regardless of any external initiating event.

In addition, we may be feeling a certain wistfulness and longing rising up from cellular memories from this life in our emotional bodies, especially in the romantic area. And while looking backwards from time to time with fondness and gratitude does no harm, it’s important to do so with a “return ticket” to the present moment. The karmic danger lies in clinging to what is no more—with our bodies, love life, home or finances—and missing the opportunities abounding for joy in Being in the present moment.

From a soul-level perspective, there are two types of regret. The first is sincere regret for harms done to our self or others, which ameliorates unresolved karma moving forward, all the way up to our last breath in an incarnation.

That is why, when guiding a past life regression session, I finish each past-life review with a look at the last thoughts before passing, to see whether there is any sincere regret before dropping the body. This karmic truth is confirmed in the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The second type of regret actually incurs a subtle level of karma, if carried beyond this life, as it’s a form of attachment and nostalgia for anything we didn’t allow ourselves to experience or develop when we had the opportunity.

Since hindsight is 20-20, if we could take a moment now to imagine looking backwards from our deathbeds and reviewing our lives, what we regret not having done to enhance our enjoyment of life and develop and grow our souls might look something like this list:

1. I regret not enjoying myself enough on the sense-pleasure level of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Needless to say, the physical plane is the only plane of consciousness in which there are physical senses.

2. I regret not stepping into my power on all levels, from the personal to the transpersonal (i.e. being a co-creator with the Divine) because of limiting beliefs, usually unconscious and karmic, about the true nature of power and fear of either misusing it or getting whacked for having it.

3. I regret not making it a priority to open my heart out of fear of rejection, pain and heart break. As giving and receiving love with others, from personal relationships to cultivating compassion and lovingkindness for all Beings, is the gold standard of all forms of energy, and that which makes life most worthwhile.

4. I regret not focusing on the evolution of myconsciousness through spiritual practices, to reach a point of peace and equanimity with what IS. If we don’t fully develop the above soul gifts inherent within us then, after we leave this life, nostalgia for these lost opportunities will be one of the things that keeps us on the wheel for a karma do-over. The truth of the karmic ramifications of regret in the form of longing for “more, different or better” has been confirmed to me, time and again, through communication with loved ones who have passed over and are carrying these regrets.

For more on how to eliminate the above regrets, please see on my website:

Taoist and Tantric Practices

Spiritual Reading List

If This Were Your Last Incarnation, What Would You Do?

On Pleasure, Joy and Bliss

So, yes, the old clichés are true: It’s important to stop and smell the flowers, enjoy the journey and not be so goal-oriented on the ego levels that we miss being in the Now. In other words, if we don’t want to carry regret as karmic baggage into future incarnations for what we neglected to do, we need to embrace our lives and our bodies just as they are right now, without nostalgia for what is no more in linear space and time.

For the point of power is always and only in the present moment. And being fully, mindfully present in the Now, without distraction, without “if onlys,” is the optimal way to dissolve the space/time continuum and be in the Eternal Now.

In closing, here are some of my personal reminders for making this the best of all possible worlds and for being in heaven all the time:

1. Loving our body just as it is—aches, pains, health challenges and all.

2. Loving our life just as it is—rocky or smooth, with or without the loving support from others we think we need.

3. Loving our work life just as it is—viewing all our challenges as FGOs, (i.e., f**king growth opportunities), in order to develop soul qualities—such as faith in the Flow, patience, delayed gratification and gratitude for what is—that we couldn’t have gotten in any lesser way.

4. Loving our spiritual life of communion with the Divine, Tao or Source just as it is, even when we’re in a dark night of the soul which is, in hindsight, an especially significant part of the journey.

Oy! Nobody said the above list is easy, but it is what it is:). In fact, I was originally planning to write on the theme of “body karma is a bitch” for this newsletter. Now that I’m in my 64th year, maintaining quality of life while dealing with all my body karma issues is almost a full-time job involving daily maintenance through yoga, stretching, chi gung, as well as bi-weekly tui na massages, network chiropractic, seasonal acupuncture, bi-yearly gallbladder/liver flushes, not to mention weight training and walking almost every day.

Most of my body karma comes from lives with structural challenges, such as being a hunchback crippled dwarf (among others), that has arisen over the last decade to get my attention and remind me to consistently keep my heart open to human suffering with compassion and lovingkindness for all beings, including myself.

I believe that any genetic health factors are just the tip of the karmic iceberg. As for aging gracefully, we’re all dealing with an entirely new paradigm, as our karmic memory does not contain experiences of how to maintain quality longevity beyond our second karmic Saturn cycle, as the human race until this generation has, on average, hardly ever lived much beyond the ripe old age of 60. So now, most of us are getting the opportunity to be trailblazers living to 90 and beyond and learning how to do this as we go.

For much more on this:

Why Is This Happening to Me? Body Karma Explained

So, viva la journey! And a special thank you to all my faithful readers and clients, friends and colleagues for sharing this journey with me for over the past 40-plus years in my spiritual and psychic vocation.

In Joy,

J O A N

“The non-action of the Sage is rather un-ceasing activity.

His characteristic is eternal and intense activity.

His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a very fast-rotating top.

Its extreme speed cannot be followed by the eye and so appears to be still.

This must be explained, as people generally mistake the stillness of the Sage for inertness.”

Sri Ramana Maharshi

"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough."

Mario Andretti