Quote:I have been a student of Indian astrology for the past 15 years and I am amazed at the uncanny accuracy of life event predictions. Your natal chart pretty much tells the story of your life before you even lived it which brings me to the big question: if any go around (as in a lifetime in the physical plane) for a soul has a predetermined set of challenges and life-events conspire to that end
The (correct) purpose of astrology is a tool, a symbolic language, that allows one to learn more about the details of one's existential program, as was planned prior to your incarnation.
That is to say, the plans are made by yourself (with assistance from guides, helpers and evolutionary orientors), astrology only deciphers and reveals more of this plan (which can be helpful, if the individual is ready).
The way which astrology works, is beyond the scope of this post, but briefly, it works because the incarnating souls (and its guides & helpers), with the assistance of helpers specializing in the subject of astrology, plan the astrological conditions for the impending birth, including the exact date and time of birth.
Hence, it's *not* the date & time of birth that determine the soul's destiny / existential program, but the existential program that determines the date & time of birth.
Quote:makes you wonder if OJ had to kill Nicole then thats what it was meant to be, as one example...
There are purposefully designed plans. There is also free will. There are many possible outcomes to any karma. And all of these, can be predicted, forseen and taken into consideration by the guides & helpers assisting the soul in this area.
But the exact outcome, or pathway taken, of any karmic issue, is always largely determined by free will, as much as the soul, guides & helpers try to plan its details.
As for 'moral absolving', in the first place, the concept of an 'objective' or 'absolute' moral is in error; there are only ethics and cosmoethics, as far as understood by the consciousness and guides & helpers.
If you plan to murder/harm/help a specific person (eg. prior to incarnation), and you carry out this plan (eg. during incarnation, as planned and forseen by astrology), does this 'absolve' you of your responsibility and karma of *your decision*?
Of course not. The soul, its intentions and its karma, transcends and continues across time and intraphysical/extraphysical incarnations.
Quote:why spirits even bother to incarnate: I don't understand what can be gained from this limiting existence.
Souls bother to incarnate, precisely because all of this is only in planning in the extraphysical, the learning / evolutionary gain cannot be actualized, or fully explored, until the soul experiences it under the condusive conditions as afforded by physical incarnation.
As an example, a particular soul might say to itself* in the comfort and safety of the extrapphysical / spirit world, "In a wartime combat situation, I'm gonna be brave and put my life on the line to save others, without hesistation."
But when the war comes, will the incarnated personality be overcome by fear and perform counter to its own intentions? The only way the soul can determine its own inner courage and conviction to its intentions, is under the densified, enforced, actual conditions and scenarios as afforded by the physical, specifically the intraphysical experience of being in an appropriate wartime combat situation itself.
*Notice that, for the majority of purposes and intents, the soul recognizes and chooses its own lessons, and is self-responsible (in more ways than one) for the karmic situations that it sets itself up for, in the upcoming lifetime. So, *NO* external spiritual authority will ever say to the soul, with sadistic glee, "In your upcoming life, we're gonna put you in a horrible wartime scenario, whether you like it or not, in which you will either have to endure tremendous suffering and eventually sacrifice your life, or become a traitorous moral coward and burn in hell! Muhahaha!!!"
Nonsense, of course. Issues and opportunities for learning are always chosen by the soul for itself (for it's own benefit and personal profit in evolutionary terms), but the detailed planning for this may be beyond the soul's capacity (depending on its experience, and on the specific learning/karmic issue), and will require assistance from specialized guides & helpers and evolutionary orientors.
Afterall, most karmic situations are highly complex and involve many other souls, their free will, and many other variables and dynamic factors; hence, a collaborate effort by the soul, its guides, specialized helpers and evolutionary orientors, will be rather necessary. Even then, the ultimate success of a lifetime, is always up to the soul itself.
So, to more directly address the concern of "
why spirits even bother to incarnate into a pre-determined and limiting existence", the answer is, of course, no, it is *NOT* completely pre-determined, only the learning scenarios are, while the choices to be made in these, are always up to the free will of the soul; and whether the lifetime turns out to be limiting for the (evolution of the) soul or not, well this will be *totally* up to the soul, this is the aspect of self-responsibility (to either make the most of one's precious time, life and existence, or to waste it away), and it's precisely what we (each and every person now in physical incarnation) are going to discover, and choose, the answer for ourselves.
---------------------------------------------------
References :
Wagner Alegretti's "Retrocognitions -
An investigation into the memory of past lives and the period between lives"
http://infinity.hispeed.com/Heart.Of.God/IAC/index.htm A study of the purpose of physical incarnation, reincarnation, and the (existential) planning which takes place between lives.