WIXLIB

Dharma Chart, Karma Chartand even they ignored its spiritual aspects, and to methe spiritual path is the essence of life lived.Back then astronomers were astrologers, andastrologers were astronomers. But when theastronomer/astrologer Copernicus pointed out to theworld that in fact everything does not revolve aroundus, around Earth (as we had liked to imagine), but intruth Earth revolves around the Sun, this was newsthat not everyone took in.In that moment of discovery hundreds of years ago,we suddenly had two astrological charts, thetraditional earth-centered chart that had been used forcenturies and a new sun-centered chart thatCopernicus had just pointed out. However, rather thanembracing that sun-centered (heliocentric) chart andusing two charts, most astrologers turned away from itand simply ignored it. However, the astrologers whowent on to become the astronomers of todayembraced both the new heliocentric (sun-centered)chart AND the traditional geocentric (earth-centered)chart, and continue to this day to use two charts. Theywere empowered by this new chart. And literally, asthey say, the rest is history. Astronomy and Botanyare the two oldest academic professions, so theastronomers must have done something right.Mathematically it is possible to derive the dharma(heliocentric) chart from the karma (geocentric) chart,because it is just another way of viewing the sameplanets and the same instant in time, only from adifferent angle or perspective. And of course that iswhat astrologers try to do. However, this is extremelydifficult, like bending over backward, when it is somuch easier just to read one’s dharma or life pathfrom the heliocentric natal chart, which is the naturalDharma Chart.15

Dharma Chart, Karma ChartWe are each entangled in the midst of our karma, ourlife, and the traditional astrological (geocentric) chartis a perfect map of that – personality and lifecircumstances. Yet the key to grasping andunraveling karma has always been the particulardharma path we are on. And your personal dharmapath (key to awakening) is probably very differentfrom my own. The heliocentric Dharma Chart is a mapof our path to waking up, how we can awaken. I haveshouted this from the rooftops for over forty years, butthis message has still to be heard. Let me try again:The traditional geocentric astrology chart is nothingmore (or less) than a snapshot of the solar systemfrom the point of view of Earth, embedded deep withinthat system. It is one view or perspective of that largersystem. Wouldn’t you like to see a chart or map of theentire solar system (heliocentric) that we astrologersare so busy taking snapshots (geocentric charts) of?That is what I am talking about here.When I first got into astrology, the idea of a “dharma”chart did not exist. Back then there were no homecomputers, and not even simple 4-functioncalculators. Every astrology chart was donelaboriously by hand, using pencil, paper, books, andlog tables, and few people could do it, but that isanother story.Studying my astrology chart in the early 1960s gaveme an alternate way of looking at myself, call it asecond opinion (and some relief) from the toxicpsychological descriptions of that time, labels thatwere then all the rage, words like paranoid,manic/depressive, schizophrenic, etc. That was howwe grew up thinking about ourselves, not at all helpfulfor a young person. Anyway I soon identified withmy astrology chart and inhaled its alternate16

Dharma Chart, Karma Chartdescription of who I was compared to the labelssociety had tried to pin on my generation.I just assumed the standard astrology chart of me thatwe all know was a map of my spirituality (or whateverwe can agree to call it), when instead it was a map ofmy karma, the circumstances and personality in whichI found myself living. Valuable? Of course, but it wasnowhere near an overview, much less a map of how Imight awaken and take advantage of my life. It did notclearly show a path, and I needed a path. Back then Istruggled to glean specs of spiritual truth from mynatal chart, when just by looking at my own birthmoment from another (more inclusive) perspective,the path would have been clearer to see. When Ifinally discovered the Dharma Chart, it flipped me.Keep in mind, as mentioned earlier, that back thenthere were no astrology programs. I was the firstperson in the world to program astrology on homecomputers and make those programs available to myfellow astrologers on a regular basis. This was in1977 and computers for home use were brand new.According to an article done for Red HerringMagazine, the company I founded, Matrix Software, isthe second oldest software company still on theInternet. The only older one is a little company calledMicrosoft. That should tell you something. This wasthen a wild frontier.Anyway, as a programmer, I naturally found myselfexploring and programming various astrologicaltechniques, and one of these was heliocentrics – Suncentered astrology. I knew nothing about it. For me itwas one more technique to program and figure outhow to interpret.17

Dharma Chart, Karma ChartSo there I was, peering through the lens of mytraditional natal chart (and training) at this novelheliocentric perspective of myself, trying to makesense of what I saw there. And the helio chart gave avery different take on me, on who I was, what I wascapable of, and so forth. Hmmmm, I thought to myself, this is really me. Without realizing it, I had fallendown the rabbit hole and was about to go through anearth-change in consciousness. Before I knew it, Iwas identifying more with my heliocentric chart thanwith the traditional geocentric natal chart I was usedto. Wow!Please think about this for a moment.The traditional astrology chart had been my wholeworld, astrologically speaking, and I had justtransferred my identification from that chart to another(in my opinion) more complete view of myself. In thehelio chart I found the spirituality that I had alwaystried to intuit from my geocentric birth chart. Hereindeed was a Dharma Chart.And this “Dharma Chart” was the "me" I had alwaysfelt I was inside, but never had any confirmation of inmy regular geo-chart. Before I knew it, I was insidethe helio-chart full-time and looking out at (andthrough) my personality (traditional natal chart), ratherthan the reverse, where I had previously been – anoutsider looking in, looking inward. There I was,suddenly on the inside looking out for the first time! Itwas empowering, to say the least, and it felt sonatural. That’s what I meant earlier when I said I“flipped” it. “I” flipped.I somehow transferred the seat of my consciousnessto a deeper center and finally identified myself as aspiritual being, a traveler on a path to awakening. So18

Dharma Chart, Karma Chartif anyone asks if consciousness transference ispossible, I am here to tell you it is, because ithappened to me. Looking through the prism of myheliocentric chart, everything fell into line. It was asuperior view, an overview, which is what I mostneeded at the time.And although (of course) I still use my Karma Chart, Ihave never gone back to that old natal-chart view ofmy spirituality, because it was “through a glass,darkly,” to borrow a phrase. The heliocentric dharmachart is the natural way to view our spirituality, aninner self (Dharma Chart) looking from inside throughthe lens of our personality (Karma Chart) out at theworld. All my life I had been an outsider trying to getin. I didn’t know myself. The helio Dharma Chartintroduced me to myself, and I am forever grateful.And I found that my consciousness is seated, not onlyhere on Earth, but also at the center of the Sun.Behind our personality and circumstances (geo chart)is a spiritual being and path (helio chart). Makesense?These two charts, the Dharma Chart and the KarmaChart, are just different views of the exact samemoment in time, the same planets, etc. Of courseeach view is intricately embedded in the other, if onlywe could unravel it, but there is no need. We haveboth charts to look at. I have to laugh (and I meanlaugh) when I think of how many years I struggled toread my dharma path from the standard traditionalgeocentric natal chart. It was not designed for that.I believe the psychologist Carl Jung would have calledthe Dharma Chart our Archetype, the tribe we belongto. It takes two views or perspectives to triangulate,and in astrology it is possible to look at the planetsand your birth moment from different perspectives or19

Dharma Chart, Karma Chartangles, from views other than the standard natal chartthat has been used for the last millennium. In fact,without some differential for comparison, how isanything known? One of my favorite jazz tunes, asong by Les McCann, is called (humorously enough),“Compared to What?”With two (or more) perspectives, we can triangulateand get a three-dimensional view of something, in thiscase of our own essential nature. The Dharma Chartand the Karma Chart naturally complement oneanother because they are simply two different viewsof the same planets at the same moment. TheDharma Chart is a view of who we are on the inside,and the Karma Chart is a view of what we are upagainst on the outside and have to deal with and gothrough. In hierarchy, the Dharma Chart is the key toour karma, just as in Buddhism, dharma is the key toall karma. The helio is the mother chart, the geo thechild.It took me some forty years to reduce the complexityof the helio chart patterns to somethingcommunicable. In the chapters that follow, you canfind out about your Dharma Chart and your KarmaChart, your Dharma StarType and Karma StarType,and see your both Dharma and Karma cards. Enjoy.You will be introduced to the many whole-chartpatterns (StarTypes) that make the Dharma Chartunique in interpretation.20

Dharma Chart, Karma ChartChapter 1: IntroductionStarTypes: Life-Path PartnersStarTypes is life-path astrology, interpreting largescale planetary patterns in the sky above, andcharting the dharma or life path of an individual andtheir primary relationship role down here on earth.And you don’t have to be an astrologer to understandthis. The astrology used here is graphic, an openwindow into who we are, why we are here, and whaton earth we might be good for – our life purpose.StarTypes image cards make it easy to get a pictureof our personal life-path archetype, a graphic image ofour inner self and the particular journey we are on.That is why it is often called our Dharma Chart. We allhave some sense of who we are, but much of whatwe now know about our self may be as much the21

Dharma Chart, Karma Chartresult of our upbringing and our surroundings as ourown personal self-discovery.Regardless of how much self-discovery you may haveexperienced, astrology offers an additional view onwhatever idea you now may have of yourself, call it asecond opinion. Getting a second

Dharma Chart, Karma Chart 13 DHARMA CHART, KARMA CHART It has been a long journey since I first became interested in things like astrology back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I don’t know if history has always had such an exponential curve, but I