Reincarnation and the church

Why does the Christian church reject re-incarnation?

It has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus.

In fact, if you read the New Testament, (which few of the most strident Christians have bothered to do, BTW), it is completely silent about reincarnation. If the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are accurate, and the born-again Bible-thumpers take great pains to assure us this is the case, Jesus never spoke of reincarnation and past lives.

In short, past lives are mentioned nowhere. This is most unusual considering how well-known the concept of reincarnation was in the Middle East two thousand years ago. It leaves begging the question of why so popular a spiritual concept be not mentioned or even referred to.

In any event, while the Bible is silent on the subject, the early Christian leaders up to the fall of Rome were lively in their debate on reincarnation, both for and against. In fact, that point of theology was quite rancorous as it led to many divisions within the early Christian church which were not easy to mend.

Many of these early arguments have not stood the test of time. For instance, St. Jerome, personal secretary to the pope 1600 years ago, argued against reincarnation because it would mean that men would have to come back into life as women and that was unacceptable. Yes, in the ancient world, such silly arguments were taken seriously.

While Rome ruled the ancient world, the Christian debate on reincarnation ebbed and flowed with no resolution, and it was not until a hundred years after the fall of Rome that the matter was put to rest by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, who in 553 CE ordered the Fifth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople to outlaw reincarnation.

His reasons had little to do with theology. He had decided to try to revive the Mediterranean Empire but had discovered that quarrelling religious factions stood in his way. So his move against reincarnation (to bring the dissident factions to conform to his personal beliefs) was part of a larger attempt to bring order to the crumbling political and military situation of the Mediterranean in the years following Rome's collapse.

In the end, reviving the empire didn't work. But his religious edict, based on political and military expediency some 1400 or so years ago, rules Christian thinking to this day, and few Christians have been told why it is they are not allowed to look at reincarnation. It has nothing to do with Jesus, and everything to do with a dead Byzantine emperor's quest for military power following the fall of Rome.

http://astrology.richardbrown.com/

 http://www.north-node.com/astrology-tutorials/retrograde-planets-and-karma

The natal chart is a circular map of the Sun, Moon, and planets relative to the earth and the stars at the moment of birth.

Each planet in your natal chart represents the way in which you use a certain energy. For example, Mercury is the mind, your ideas, mental energy. Venus in your chart describes what you value and how you reach out to others in love.

When a planet in your chart is retrograde, you experience the energy of the planet in a more subjective, internal way. Thus your experience and expression of the planet’s energy is very unique to you. There is also a link to the past, or a concern with the past. Some karmic astrologers believe that retrograde planets indicate a link to a past life.

With Venus retrograde in your natal chart, your concept of beauty is different, comes from a different place, than those around you. With Mercury retrograde, your thinking is different. With Jupiter, planet of philosophy, your ethics, morality and religion may differ from your family’s.

Is this because of a past life? Maybe. Some astrologers think so.

If so, is it a punishment? No. But, an astrologer who does not understand karma might choose to interpret difficult things in your chart as some form of punishment. We humans often make God in our image, forgetting that it’s supposed to be the other way around. Karma does not judge or punish. Those actions are from human emotions!

You chart shows your life’s lessons: those you have already learned and integrated, and those you’re still working on. It could be that you brought over the past life energy shown by the retrograde, to assist you in your soul growth in this lifetime.

The most important thing in karmic astrology is to use your chart as a map showing the way to inner peace and happiness, rather than to validate a negative view of yourself.