A: Good question. In the "Philosophy of Astrology" I have put great emphasis on the Divine aspect of life. Life is sacred because it is the way spirit manifests in the physical world. And I mean all forms of life: animals, fish, bugs, grass. It’s not a good thing to kill any form of life, but one should have no qualms in pulling weeds out of the flowerbed. I don’t hunt for pleasure or sport, but since we’ve reduced the mountain lion population, the deer population has gotten out of control; we’ve upset the balance of nature. So instead of letting deer starve to death, we hunt to maintain a balanced population, and hopefully we can use the meat, hides, antlers, etc. I have nothing against black widow spiders; as long as they don’t spin their webs in my house, when they do they’ve made a bad choice for themselves. So, I expect you think I’m pro life. Well, yes, but there are exceptions, as I‘ve mentioned above.
One of the big issues facing our society today is the status of a human fetus in the womb before birth. My personal belief is that a woman is the only one that can determine what happens with her body--period. But astrology has a set of beliefs that are fundamental, and considers the arguments for pro life in a completely different context. First, let me say that abortion shouldn’t ever have to be an option. In an enlightened culture this issue wouldn’t even come up, much less become necessary to make a choice. In this same society, births are planned; through better birth control it becomes much easier to make decisions that avoid accidents. Now let’s get back to the astrological implications.
Almost every astrologer I know cast the natal horoscope for the time of birth. Why is this? Because this is when the incoming soul normally takes residence in the physical vehicle. It is time for re-birth. Most astrologers accept the idea that we have lived many lives; it is called reincarnation, and it is accompanied by its sister doctrine, the law of Karma. The soul takes on its worldly Karma at the time of birth. According to the Edgar Cayce readings a soul may hover about the fetus as early as six months before the expected birth, and as long as a month after birth before taking possession of the physical entity. Once that happens the veil drops between the soul’s past awareness of its spiritual life, and the new mind and memory of the newly formed organism, which begins with a clean slate. I’m not going to go into all the details of this process here, because we’re interested in the ramifications of abortion. So, is it murder or not? Once a soul takes occupancy of the physical organism, it is. Before the soul takes occupancy, it isn’t. Yes, the fetus is becoming a life form, and it is from a spiritual source, but so is grass. When a sperm enters the egg, and the process aborts, we don’t think of it as murder anymore than pulling up grass for a new driveway. At what point do we provide a funeral for a fetus? As an ex-paramedic, I’ve pulled fetuses out of gas station toilets, but never thought about resuscitating, or attempting any life saving procedure. I’m in line with Cayce on this; I don’t think abortion should be performed after the first three months, because a soul is not very likely to have taken occupancy before then.
While not always the case, it is an indication that a woman forced to carry a pregnancy that she doesn’t want has already given the baby a strike against it. Besides all this, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business to interfere in other people‘s lives.
It’s a horrible tragedy when abortion clinic personnel are threatened, maimed, or killed over this issue; their Karma is not affected for what they do, but those that use violence against them are in trouble, and ought to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Again, abortion is not a good thing as the only solution, and at some time in the future will hopefully disappear altogether, but until then, let's not make things worse.
As I've said before: We’ve reached a point in human history when it’s possible to control our growing population. New methods of birth control are making it ever easier to prevent unwanted children from being born into the world. With marriage laws geared to protect the offspring first, we could enter a new era in which children are raised with love and care. And that means fewer correctional centers, fewer treatment homes, and fewer ruined lives resulting from the birth of unwanted, and uncared for children. Such a society would grow and prosper, and become a model for the future.