'Freedom, oh freedom, thats just some people talking
Your prison is walking through this world all alone’
(Eagles' song)

'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose,
Nothing ain’t worth nothing but its free’
(Me and Bobby McGee)

Never, no never,/No matter what,
Believe or collabor-/Ate in the plot’
(Alan Jackson)

'And men are often prevented by circumstances from doing things, a prisoner in... [a] most horrible cage... Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is every deep, serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, that is what opens the prison by supreme power, by some magic force. But without this one remains in prison. There where sympathy is renewed, life is restored.’

'What all of us want is to be set free’
(Vincent van Gogh)

Tonight I want to talk about freedom which I believe is the most important concept in the history of humanity and possibly too, the least understood. Freedom has meant different things for different people, it has been defined by some in many different ways.

Freedom is often described as getting free from something - something that oppresses or limits us in some way. It is also of course, the desire that makes us want to break away from tyranny and control and limitation, to enlarge, expand our world, our lives, in some way or another, to explore and extend our consciousness. The ultimate freedom is the reunion with the divine in ourselves which is our true home. This is the freedom the Buddha talked about, the release from suffering and attachment to things that cause us pain, whether this is people, places, ideas or beliefs.

I believe this is possible while still on the earth plane. Not only is it possible, I would say, at this point in the evolution of earth and humanity, it is imperative that people experience and live this freedom and make it their supreme goal in life, through whatever field of work or play they are involved in. For freedom is not something separate from other activities; it can work through any field. It is not just an experience, it is an active principle of intent.

The first religion that really interested me was Buddhism. I was fascinated by the idea of freedom from suffering through freedom from attachment; this rang true for me, and still does. But I discovered that there was something that was not sufficiently emphasised and that was that freedom sometimes called desirelessness, was reached through attachment and through desire, sometimes a very powerful one. In my experience anyway, the desire had to be very powerful and with a strong intent, before you could break through into desirelessness, which is another word for freedom or union with the divine, though a word that's not so appealing perhaps to westerners, because it sounds rather passive or negative. It is actually far from that, but words can be very misleading. When we attach passion to some desire, we give it enormous energy. In a sense, it does not matter in what field that passion is directed - the energy is the fuel and that is what will keep us going.

You might have a passion for physics, for art, for dancing, for travel, or astrology - it doesn't matter, it is the energy that's involved that's important; follow where your strong desires, your passions, take you and you will find freedom. It seems to me that that's the part that Buddhism didn't emphasize enough although its possible I did not read it deeply or thoroughly enough. The other interesting thing is that as you as you do this, you will find resistance.

Depth psychology hands this resistance back to ourselves - it is not our parents, teachers, bosses etc, who are trying to prevent us being free, rather it is something in ourselves. While I agree with this, it is nevertheless sometimes true that to find our freedom we have to move away from anyone who, wittingly or not, tries to prevent that freedom - move away, or try to resolve the limiting situation. For the real nature of human beings is not to prevent the freedom either of ourselves or others - on the contrary, it is to allow, rather than limit. I feel anything controlling or limiting comes from somewhere else and we've incorporated it, swallowed it but it isn't who we really are.

There may be some people who will not agree with me on this, but I'm putting forward the idea that any energy to do with control of others behaviour or beliefs, any attempts to limit their acquaintance with knowledge and truth, attempts to manipulate people for their own ends, whether these have to do with power, wealth or the fear of losing them, is not an innate part of human nature, it is not who we really are. These kinds of control attempts breed resentment and worse - fear, hatred, the kind of feelings that lead to wars between people, whether between two individuals or between nations. We've all experienced these feelings, and we're all subject to the limitations of matter and the earth plane but I do not think we need to identify with them because, as spiritual beings, which we are, they are not part of our real nature.

There are and have been, many people who recognize that in our essence we are powerful spiritual beings, who are born into a dense atmosphere and work through a physical body that is at times a bit of a handicap. The poet Robert Browning talked about the 'imprisoned splendour' - the magnificence of the spirit within~ trapped inside a physical vehicle. And many people have committed themselves, in different fields of endeavour, to opening the doors to allow that energy that is trapped inside, the energy of our real nature, the freedom that it wants. These people are the freedom fighters, the 'midnight warriors', serving as examples and inspiration, to others. Some of them have become public figures, many of them have worked quietly behind the scenes and never became known. All encountered resistance of one kind or another, all had difficult lives, endured suffering, sometimes scorn, always lack of understanding though some of them were fortunate enough to have friends who understood them and believed in them. Some of them who were ridiculed or shunned during their lifetimes were given praise and adulation only after their deaths. They all had a passion for life, and often expressed it in a particular field - for some it was through resistance to occupying forces, as in the resistance to the German occupation in France, during the second world war.

In astrology, we identify a need for freedom with Aquarius, Uranus and the 11th house, and Sagittarius, Jupiter and the 9th house. But we know that a birth chart cannot define the level of consciousness of the person or event that the chart belongs to, so we also need to bear that in mind. A passion for freedom, the experience of being consumed by an inner fire is not necessarily totally indicated in the birth chart because we do not know and the chart does not tell us, what level the 'owner' of the chart is operating on. Strong Uranus, Aquarius or 11th house has been described as 'selfish' and self-seeking' and there's no doubt that it can manifest in this way. We are all familiar with the idea of the dedicated artist or scientist, locking themselves away in their study, neglecting family, friends etc. But I think we need to take a larger perspective and make fewer value judgements and probably have fewer expectations too, of others.

Expectations after all, can be very limiting. It can be another form of social control, where we feel we should do such and such because it is expected of us either by society in general or by some people in particular. This kind of control has been seen operating in a very obvious way, through the family. Parents have considered and some still do, to this day, that it is not just their right but their duty, to put pressure on their children to turn out to be the way they want them to be. This is living by societal pressure which can severely limit and hold back the soul’s purpose of the individual which may be very different from the life path the parents pressurize their children to follow, very often to fulfil some unmet need or desire of their own.

We are fortunate in that Western society's pressures are far less effective today. But we don't need to go very far back in history to see that some people pursued the path of freedom, fighting against enormous resistance, that very often broke them. They were trailblazers. The story or the creations of some of them, live on, to inspire others although the stories of many of them are not widely known. This is the kind of history we need to know much more about - not the battles or the decisions of politicians, but the stories of 'ordinary' people, many of whom led extraordinary lives, which were known only to a few. We have stories of endeavour and heroism, of enduring kindness and dedication to others, particularly the young or old, or suffering - but many of these have become myths or legends, still inspiring, but too far distant from us in time to feel that they are relevant to us, now. If we knew more stories of ‘ordinary' heroism, more people, more often, I believe, would be given more hope, more determination, more courage and more inspiration. These are some of the qualities that I feel are needed, to be a freedom fighter.

The fixed signs, in particular, are sometimes described as being 'stubborn'. I think this is true, but there can be an element of value-judgement in this, that we don't find in the word 'determination'. So I was pleased to find the word 'stubborn' used by Anais Nin, as a necessary quality for creative endeavour and freedom from social restrictions.
"Now women have a problem today... which is that when a woman breaks through ...taboos and transcends them, then she is said to be a special kind of woman. Now I have been studying women's lives the last few years... the women who… managed to overcome these taboos were not really exceptional women at all. They were stubborn."
"So I find these lives inspiring and they've always led me on and on to what I call a stubborn sense of adventure against difficulties, to consider difficulties only as a challenge to your wits and to your strength."

So I would like to look at charts of people who show this particular kind of spirit - the inner fire of freedom, the unwillingness to accept the status quo and traditional thinking, the ones who are seekers after truth. The ones who are willing to break with convention and follow their own particular path, even if this means incurring censure, opposition and ridicule from others. The ones that don't accept the limitations of traditional thinking and behaviour - the ones that dare to be different, explore, reach further. The ones that follow their own inner vision.

Part 1: Johannes Kepler - A Spiritual Adventurer