Astrology with Osho

Osho was ahead of his time with so many of his views. Take for example this quote from a discourse in 1975:

‘Consciousness is a vast, oceanic phenomenon. It is in you and outside you. And consciousness is telepathic, it communicates.’ ⁱ

Today scientists and philosophers are seeing what’s known as the hard problem of consciousness as a subject worthy of investigation. The die-hard materialists among them hope to remove this fly in the ointment in their reductionist view of the world, by proving once and for all that the brain creates consciousness, while the mystics are sure it’s the other way round!

Another example is the view Osho often expresses about the essential oneness of the cosmos, for example in the following quote:

‘The universe is a living body, an organic unit. In it nothing is isolated, all is joined together. Whatever is far away is joined to that which is near. Nothing is separate.’ ⁱⁱ

Quantum physicists call this ‘entanglement,’ and they’ve discovered that sub-atomic particles are entangled and in communication with each other regardless of the distances between them. Osho also makes it clear that, in this universe of oneness and inter-connectedness, the belief that we each have a separate mind makes no sense:

‘Mind is not individual; it is a collective phenomenon. There is a family mind, a village, a community mind… Then things become so vast. The community exists in a nation and the nation exists on this earth. And consciousness exists as an ocean.’ ⁱⁱⁱ

He goes on to talk about the larger fields of consciousness in which what we believe to be our personal mind is embedded. Extending cosmology to include the inner world is being taken seriously today by a growing number of advanced thinkers – for example the biologist Rupert Sheldrake. His work on morphic fields is advancing the understanding of collective fields of consciousness, and helping to explain the coordinated behavior of groups and communities of living creatures, for example swarms of bees and flocks of birds.

And it’s also been found that patterns governing collective phenomena apply to events in the quantum flow. The physicist David Bohm found that here the emerging and dissolving of structures appear to be determined by the broader patterns being woven by the whole. This top-down view of things helps to explain the occurrence of synchronicities, and opens the door to an understanding of how astrology works. ^iv

On this subject Osho has said: ‘If you can perceive this wholeness, only then will you understand astrology – otherwise you will not understand.’ And he goes on to make an important distinction by clarifying that he’s not talking about predictive astrology: ‘The astrology about which I am talking is qualitatively different and of much more depth … The meaning and essence of astrology is that we are not separate, we are one with the universe. Not only are we one with the universe, we are also participants in every situation and event.’ ^v

The whole is symbolized in every birth chart by the zodiac, which means we all have all the energies of the twelve signs in us, though in different proportions. Each chart will have three or four signs emphasized, including the sun sign, and the other signs remain of lesser importance or latent, which explains the differences in our personalities and our different life paths.

Osho said: ‘The significance of astrology is this – that you are not but the universe is.’ But, because we tend to identify with our personal brew of cosmic energies, and see it as our self, he continues: ‘The heaviest blow of astrology is upon the ego. If astrology is right the ego is wrong. If astrology is right, then I am not there. There is a big flow of forces in which I am only a small ripple,’ and he concludes: ‘Astrology then becomes the door to bliss. If we look at astrology as a melting of our pride or as a disintegration of the ego, then astrology becomes religion. ^vi

Thus, when it’s seen within the context of a unitary, inter-connected cosmos, astrology not only makes sense but has the potential to become a spiritual science of great value to seekers.

Listening to many discourses over the years, I often heard Osho mentioning astrology and astrologers and each time it felt like a hit because I heard him warning us against them. And astrology was my work and passion! However he was hitting the kind of astrology that’s used to predict the future, which takes us away from the here-now where, as meditators, we should be anchored.

Later I read a reply to a fellow astrologer’s question that sounded encouraging. In it he advocated astrology, not to predict the future but to help us become more aware of our compulsive patterns. In other words here he was confirming the value of the sort of astrology I practiced:

‘Whenever we are doing anything – astrology, future suggestion, horoscope readings, palmistry, i-ching, tarot – anything that is concerned with the future, it is basically a reading of the unconscious of the person. It has nothing much to do with the future. It has more to do with the past, but because the future is created by the past it is relevant to the future too. Because people live like mechanical things, prediction is possible.’ ^vii

Then I remembered another occasion when he had spoken about taking responsibility for our unconscious behavior patterns, comparing them to the shapes of the webs that spiders produce. This was to teach us the lesson that ‘Whatsoever happens to you, it happens because of you. Outside causes are secondary; inside causes are primary.’ ^viii

I see a birth chart as showing the ways of feeling, thinking and acting that we’ve formed as habits in our past lives, and which we still carry in the unconscious. These are our spiderwebs that can cause us to repeat the same mistakes again and again – for example hooking up with the wrong type of partner, or sacrificing our growth opportunities for our security: ‘You can change the outside but nothing will change if the inside remains the same. The inside will create again and again the same pattern whatsoever the situation outside, because man lives from the inner to the outer.’ ^ix

Thus his advice to the sannyasin astrologer was:

‘Make it absolutely clear that nothing is absolutely certain, all are just possibilities, probabilities. If you don’t do anything they will happen, if you go on living in an unconscious way. So, if you can, use this [astrology] for making people more alert and meditative, more responsible for their lives, more clear that this is their past … now they have to escape from the clutches of the past, you can be of great help. You can be a blessing to people. ^x

These words reassured me by confirming the value of the way I was using astrology – to help us become more aware of our habitual patterns, and to give us more choice about whether to repeat them or not. Because, although we’re driven by these habits from the past, in each present moment we’re free to choose something different – however only if we have enough awareness. The more aware, the more free we are!

Now, with this new horoscope column, I hope to use astrology as an awareness aid; firstly to help us become more sensitive to the changing qualities of the cosmic energies in us and around us from month to month; then to draw attention to what astrology points out as the themes of the moment, with the main challenges and the benefits likely to manifest for each sign. And I’ll do this through offering what I hope are relevant insights, which I’ll leave to Osho to put into words.

I decided to include on the page the information I used to get an overall picture of the emerging issues of the month for each zodiac sign. The listed planetary placements and aspects will I hope encourage those who know some astrology to draw out extra layers of meaning of relevance to their personal situation. I also hope, by spreading some of the great things Osho has said about astrology in this accompanying article, to affirm its importance and value for the meditator and for the growth of consciousness in general, because, as Osho put it: ‘Astrology is an aspect of spirituality, a dimension of spirituality. It is the science of wholeness, unity, non-duality.’ ^xi

i Until You Die, Ch 6
ii Hidden Mysteries, Ch 5 (Mai Kahata Akhar Dekhi, Ch 1)
iii Until You Die, Ibid.
iv Phoebe Wyss, Inside the Cosmic Mind, 2014, Floris Books, Edinburgh
v Hidden Mysteries, Ch 5 and Ch 6 (Mai Kahata Akhar Dekhi, Ch 6)
vi Hidden Mysteries, Ch 6 (Mai Kahata Akhar Dekhi, Ibid.)
vii The Further Shore, Ch 5
viii Until You Die, Ibid
ix Until You Die, Ibid.
x The Further Shore, Ibid.
xi Hidden Mysteries, Ch 5 (Mai Kahata Akhar Dekhi, Ch 1)

Phoebe was gifted the name Phoebe in Pune One; it means ‘pure radiance’. It is still her guiding light. Long-time astrologer and writer, she wrote the Osho Times horoscope back in the nineties. She has published several astrology books, in which her experience as a meditator shines through (see Agnes Liebhardt’s review of Inside the Cosmic Mind), and an oracle board game. www.astrophoebe.com