A common goal that most everyone
wants to achieve is to act as their authentic self. We all want to be real. We
want to behave in the manner of our true self—rather than be confused or inordinately
influenced by outside forces; both of which may cause us to commit acts that are
foreign to our identity.
Unfortunately, delusion can cause us
to have a distorted view of ourselves and thus behave contrary to our
nature—which can cause much pain and unhappiness. A deluded person cannot even
know what authenticity means.
Thus we all tend to have a
strong drive to discover our true self. As the oracle in ancient Greece
advised, “Know thyself.” But maybe there's another message here for today's
society: “Not only know thyself, but be thyself.” This is sometimes also
called authenticity. It can be described as the degree to which one's actions
are in harmony with their beliefs and desires—when their true identity comes
out. So how do we legitimately exist in a world that applies forces to us that
may be alien to our real sense of self or delude us? How do we find that
identity?
These questions fit quite well with
what many of us have also come to view as the search for certainty. In a
culture that batters us about with conflicting messages of how we might come to
know ourself, we wonder, what is authenticity? How do we come to arrive
at those answers that make us comfortable that we’ve found ourself? We
naturally seek answers to these questions—to be able to arrive at some comforting
place where we can relax. It’s preferable for many of us… rather than stay on
the path of continually searching and facing doubt.
Thus we seek some kind of authenticity,
in order to be true to ourself. We ask: How can I know myself? Who am I? Is my identity the same as my self? And what is
identity? The dictionary tells me that identity is “a sense of sameness that
persists across time and space.” It literally brings the “I” into existence. It
can be also seen as the formation of some kind of story about myself, that describes
who I am. But is that story fiction or truth?
One way that many people today are responding
to this conundrum is to turn to astrology, which is currently enjoying a broad
cultural popularity, not seen for a generation or more. A recent article in New
Yorker magazine (“Starstruck”) claims that nearly one-third of Americans
today believe in astrology. This trend seems to be fueled by a decline in
religion, accompanied with a rise in economic precariousness. We in the US live
in a time of political uncertainty—if not panic—that causes many people to
search for something to believe in… either in themselves or in society.
The core concept of astrology is
that a person's authentic nature corresponds to the planetary pattern at their
moment of birth, as well as the subsequent changes and alignments of the
planets and stars. Astrology has ancient roots, when the actual causes of the
movements of heavenly bodies were not understood. It has its origins in ancient
Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, Rome, and Islam. Its earliest intent had important
messages about when to plant crops, for example, or whether to go to war. It
was intermixed with primitive astronomy—for which the ancients became very
adept at monitoring and predicting the cycles of the heavens.
More authenticity next time…
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