Bernie Ashman - Sun Signs & Past Lives: Your Souls Evolutionary Path

About the Author

Bernie Ashman has written for Dell Horoscope, Astro Signs, Mountain Astrologer, and Welcome to Planet Earth magazines. He has appeared on a number of television and radio shows, and lectures throughout the United States. He has also written the text for many astrological software programs. His other book include Astrological Games People Play , RoadMap to Your Future , and SignMates .

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Sun Signs & Past Lives: Your Souls Evolutionary Path 2010 by Bernie Ashman.

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First e-book edition 2010

E-book ISBN: 9780738728735

Book design by Steffani Sawyer

Book edited by Nicole Edman

Cover art 2010 iStockphoto.com/Nic Taylor and Wrangel

Cover design by Ellen Lawson

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Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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Woodbury, MN 55125

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Welcome to a book that encourages you to be your own past-life detective. The wealth of information on the following pages will guide you into your inner landscape. This book is meant to awaken your creative passion to take advantage of opportunities in your outer world in this lifetime. The greater our inner understanding, the more we can experience and express our potential.

Past Lives

We live in a spiritual universe. Earth represents a stage upon which we can act out our potential. There is a key theory or philosophy at work in this book, which is that we have lived previous incarnations on planet Earth. Within us are memories from previous lives.

Our conscious mind does not recall our previous lives, but these memories are stored within us. If our mind isnt doing the remembering, then what is? Call it the soul, higher consciousness, tapping into the Collective Unconscious, or whatever concept suits you. The theory behind reincarnation is that the soul returns to Earth by taking on a new physical body. We get another chance to fulfill our potential. When we die, its the soul that leaves the body behind and journeys forward, waiting for a chance to incarnate once again.

Karma and Freedom of Choice

There is a saying that you reap what you sow. This is often referred to as the law of karma, or the great principle of cause and effect. There are actions and thoughts that defined us in other lives. They have guided us to where we are in the present. Some of these actions and thoughts (or tendencies) were positive influences, while others caused us to veer off-course in terms of growth. These past impressions dont really exert any control over us, though at times their pull can feel immense. The fundamental message of this book is that we have freedom of choice to create new options in our current life.

Evolutionary Path and Past-Life Patterns

Why do we reincarnate? The theory is that we are evolving. If we choose to learn from the past, each lifetime leads us farther along the evolutionary trail. Past-life patterns, or certain repetitive behaviors from previous incarnations, may have taken us down the wrong path. Our creative power is unleashed by confronting worn-out behaviors that no longer serve any useful purpose and by rising above their influences. There is a purpose each of us is trying to fulfill in life. It isnt so much that we are trying to erase our karma or past-life lessons, but the idea is to gain the wisdom and consciousness to make choices that advance our growth.

In a sense, each of us is trying to get attuned to our soul! We are attempting to rise to the level at which the soul operates. This takes self-understanding and reflection, which always comes back to finding emotional and mental balance. The information you will encounter in this book is intended to clarify a key reason for your incarnation. No one person or book has all of the answers, but every once in a while we come across more clues. Think of this book as helping to point you toward deeper reasons for your current incarnation.

It does not matter how many lifetimes we may have repeated a self-destructive or nonproductive pattern of behavior. We can alter the influence of a patterneven if it has been repeated over several lifetimesand heal ourselves in this incarnation if we develop the necessary insight to find our way to brighter life paths.

There are no perfect people, so do not feel bad if you read something in the section for your birthday that seems negative. If we were all completely perfect with no lessons to learn, there would be no reason to incarnate. Dont you agree? Think of overcoming past-life patterns as homework. When you identify a thought pattern that has been holding you back, you are on the way to growth that can transform you. It feels liberating to let go of that negative energy!

What Is a Sun Sign?

Each of the twelve signs of the zodiac is created by the Suns apparent path around Earth along what is known as the ecliptic. In the course of the Suns apparent motion along the ecliptic, the Sun passes through the twelve zodiacal constellations, spending approximately thirty days in each constellations space in the sky. One such revolution through the signs equals a year.

In astrology, the Sun symbolizes our ego. It denotes our willpower and the drive to express ourselves. Its the heart and center of our souls way of being creative while we are here on Earth. Think of the signs as the psychological and spiritual clothing we adopt in order to pursue our goals and dreams. Our astrological sign is the vehicle through which our consciousness travels to realize our highest potential. Its important to realize that your Sun sign symbolism is your response to some of your past-life patterns. Your sign may not encompass all of the past patterns, but it does represent many vital ones to understand. Your Sun sign is more than symbolic of your current life creative self-expression; it contains much of the DNA holding your past-life pattern memory!

The Four Elements

Each of the twelve astrological signs belongs to an element: Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. The great psychologist Carl Jung wrote about four functions that correspond to the elements: Emotion, Intellect, Sensation (in terms of the physical senses), and Intuition. There are three signs belonging to each element.