Your entire chart can be read for insights into your past lives. How can it be any other way, when the life you live today emerges from the seed of the past?
However, there are certain areas of the birth chart that are especially karmic in nature. In this article, I will discuss two keys that can increase your understanding of the strengths and challenges you bring into this life from past lives.
The first key to understanding your karma is to make a study of the lessons you have come to learn. Incidentally, this is not only a key to your past but to your future as well. Just as the small seed of an oak tree inevitably becomes a towering giant, so we can glimpse something of our destiny in the seeds of this new cycle.
Each sign has a karmic lesson. By paying special attention to the signs that are emphasized in your chart, you can get some hints as to what sort of experiences (resulting in karmic lessons) you might have had in a past life.
What are the emphasized signs in your chart? For starters, a study of your ascendant sign, sun sign and moon sign will give you great insight into what your karmic heritage is all about. Also, if you have many planets in single sign, you are learning the karmic lesson of that sign as well.
For example, let's suppose you have the moon and the planets Venus and Pluto in Leo. The karmic lessons of Leo will be played out in your present life. Deep within you carry memories and attitudes from past lives where you were in positions of power and authority, where you were obeyed, admired, perhaps even fawned upon. In this life, you will automatically expect more of the same. You will have a certain tendency to focus on yourself and the expression of your own gifts. Many of your life experiences will revolve around the interaction between your environment and your relationships in this life and those attitudes from a past life. If circumstances support your Leo energy, you may achieve recognition again, but will face the challenges of pride and self-centeredness. If circumstances are difficult and deny you the place in the sun you crave, your Leo heart may struggle with the lessons of humility.
