My friend Robert Wilkinson has an interesting article today in answer to a reader’s question whether prophets and wise people can be revealed from their birthcharts.  Before I go into Robert’s response I’d like to weigh in myself and say no – there isn’t any way we can look at a horoscope cast for a particular time and date and determine whether or not that person will be a holy being, wise person, prophet or sage.  In the same way, we cannot tell whether or not that individual will end up a serial murderer or world leader.

The birthchart is a map of potentialities, and what we do with it is dependent upon a number of factors: where the individual is in terms of his or her soul’s evolutionary process; the kind of environment into which he or she is born; the decisions and choices during the life experience that lead him or her down one particular path or another.

A powerful birthchart contains powerful components, whether it is the chart of a criminal or a holy being.  Generally there are strong outer planet configurations (involving Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) and while these transformative energies urge us towards the highest expression of human life, some individuals choose an easier path of blame and addiction instead.

As Robert writes:

Everything depends on spiritual Karma and personal development. In the former, if your Soul comes into life highly evolved, then it’s easy to tap into Higher Self expressions. However, as is the case for most of us, if your Soul comes in somewhat evolved with many unhelpful habits of personality to transmute, then you have to work on overcoming the negatives and turn them to positives before the elements of the Higher Nature come forth with any consistency.

As for personal development, there are countless possibilities for our Higher Self expression to come forth. That’s why the choices we make while growing up, what to read or not read, what to learn or not learn, entire determine which possibilities express themselves.