8
Astrology and Old Souls, Lightweights, Blank Slates and Various Other Sundries
Conversations with Ben…
I was talking to Ben last night, my very close friend of 20 years +. Ben is a Scorpio with an Aquarius rising. He a gay cello player / teacher of mixed race… and an iconoclast. 
“Someone in Wichita told me I had an old soul” he said. “And I suppose I do. I imagine I’ve wandering around these halls for awhile.”
“I have no idea,” I said. “I don’t think in that kind of paradigm.”
“You don’t?”
“No. I have no idea how to judge something like that. I have no idea how old someone’s soul is. I haven’t got the slightest idea. I have a friend that does, though. She tells me this person is older than that person and stuff like that but I have no idea where she gets her information.”
“You don’t believe in that?”
“No, it’s not that. I have no idea about it. It sounds good. I tend to believe what she says, actually. She makes sense. I am just saying ideas like that don’t originate in me. I would never say, hey! He’s an old soul. Or she’s an old soul. Because I don’t know. But I figure she does. This is something she knows. I mean, it’s not like she’s not a flake. She’s not running around saying soul mate left and right and being all flippy. I respect her, is what I’m saying. So when she tells me something like this, I figure she knows what she’s talking about. Like the woman who said that to you in Wichita. Maybe she knows. She probably does. But I don’t have any idea how to know how old someone’s soul is. It’s not my paradigm.”
“I see.”
“But I do like the idea. It makes sense. Because some people are incredibly lightweight so it’s an explanation for that, anyway. It’s an idea that works.”
“Lightweight? You can say that again. Some people are a blank slate. They don’t seem to get it at all. It’s like they don’t understand a thing and they can’t learn.”
“I know. But I just don’t think in those terms of how old someone’s soul is. I would not attribute that to old or new soul because I just have no idea about that kind of thing. It’s remote from me so I can’t use that kind of language. But I’ll tell you what does originate inside of me, though.”
“What?”
“When I meet someone who acts their whole chart. When they have all their pieces integrated. Or most of them. It’s like a person who is firing on all their cylinders, rather than denying who they are. Or projecting huge pieces of themselves onto other people and just completely unaware of what they’re doing. A person who acts like themselves, exactly as they are… I call that an actualized person.”
“Oh. Yes. That resonates with me as well.”
“Well, I’m not surprised. You were like this from the day I met you. Do you remember back then? Think of the pictures. Think of how we looked back then. We were very cute. We were babies!”
“Yes we were babies! But we didn’t know it.”
“I know. But even back then you were completely who you are. You were already completely integrated whether you knew it or not and this is what I’m talking about. You were something else. You were very compelling to everyone, and being young and stupid was irrelevant to that. You still had all your sides firing. And I could give you examples of this. Of stuff and stories from back then that proves this. So you have always been fully actualized but as to how you got that way, I have no idea.”
So what about you? Do you have a way to classify people you meet? And how do you think people might classify you?
27 Responses to “Astrology and Old Souls, Lightweights, Blank Slates and Various Other Sundries”
I’ve always been able to feel old souls, pretty much for your astro reasons (though I’d never thought of it in those terms). My son’s an old soul, which humbles me because I feel like I’m still working through my chart.
I’ll have to come back and see what other people say!
Funny how most assume being an old soul is better .. what if you’re meant to graduate and move on to another world, a higher turn on the spiral and they just aren’t, mopeying around taking advantage of young souls?? Kidding, sort of.
I’ve heard this theory in a form that applies to astrology - new moon people with the moon after the sun are ‘new souls’. The closer it is to the sun the newer they are. Balsamic moon people with the moon closing in on their sun are ‘old souls’.
I remember being told one time I’d been a Gemini many times in past lives (there was, I think, an implied tone of failure in the way it was said :)) because of the # of planets in Gemini…
I guess people come up with their own quirks to fathom these depths they don’t know and where there’s no confirmation if they DO get to know it.
I get annoyed by the whole “old soul” type of dealie, but that’s just because I have a Saturn-Neptune square and tend to dislike New Agers and the frequently-implied judgement in that statement. Like being an old soul is somehow more advanced or better than being a new soul, in the same way that some people assume Pisces to be more spiritual than Aries.
But maybe that’s because I don’t sense the age of people’s souls. I just sense whether they irritate me, or whether I connect to them.
I used to be nicer to people before I worked with people, so I guess I compensate by developing powerful and instant dislikes of people I meet outside of work. I don’t have to have a compelling reason for this, other than I just don’t like the look of someone and consider them a characteristic I find annoying (ugly, silly, irresponsible, poncy, boring, conservative etc.) although I’m happy enough to change my mind if a connection seems like it can be established.
I’ve spent most of my life having people tell me I’m an old soul. I don’t get it. I occasionally feel older than Methuselah, but I don’t think I’m an old soul.
Does that mean that there’s a factory somewhere churning out new souls?
Yeah, I’m not sure if I’m intrigued or annoyed by the ‘Old Soul’ thing. I think everyone has a different experience and something to show for it. Sometimes a lot of the lives and lessons are tough, but it’s meaningful…though at the same time strangely meaningless, but loving one another somehow makes it all bearable?
It is interesting how certain connections or even people feel ‘old’…it’s true that age doesn’t necessarily mean good. It can be old and crappy…hehe.
In conclusion (to this otherwise confusing comment), I’d like to add that almost everyone wants to feel singular in some way. We all want to be the misanthropic iconoclasts that Elsa speaks of (some of us want that more than others). At the same time, we all want to feel close with others and feel like we belong. So, old soul, new soul, or no soul…we all generally need the same basic things. To me the rest is all fodder and semantics.
Your Uncle,
Hannah
My Moon is 10 degrees behind my Sun so this gives me a Balasamic Moon Phase. (who cares) Funny thing is that I have done just about every stupid thing a person can do to oneself which makes me look like a total amateur at this thing called “Life”.
Anyway, I agree with N and Ck. No one has cornered the market on “superiority”. If so then what are you doing here? That is why I do not like giving any mortal an elevated status by either definition or symbolism. Actually I worry about people who hold positions of power or prestige and revel in the adulation and fawning that comes with such a status.
I do not believe that that man they call “Pope” is an elevated being, nor the man they call “Dali Lama”, or “President”, or “King”, or…..you get the picture. We are ALL on this planet for the same reason….we need to learn something.
There are many, many people I have met in my life that have inspired me just by knowing them. I would not care if their souls were “new”, “old” or just plain ol’ in-between….. it was an honor to be a part of their lives.
So, if you are an old soul then what is your responsibility to society? And are you living up to your spiritually elevated “status”? Or do you just use the label to make yourself feel above others?
Or, maybe it is not an elevated status at all but rather a telling of many prior screwed -up lifetimes. Who knows? I don’t really care because everyone is a potential “old soul”.
Oh, and on the subject of how people might classify me? Hmmmmm….probably “strange” or “weird”.
“So what about you? Do you have a way to classify people you meet? And how do you think people might classify you?”
I don’t know if this counts as classifying but I tend to notice at first meeting whether I find someone pleasant to be around. I tend to cut some slack, though, as I’ve found I’ve gotten a completely different feel from someone when I meet them again and they’re in a different “place.”
I think I register as “pleasant” or “engaging” as they generally meet my leo rising, not the inner me.
as far as some of the comments above… wow, way to trash a belief system. I see a lot of assumptions and judgements up there. good thing I couldn’t give two shits about what most people think.
Uncle Hannah,
I don’t know that I could agree with your statement “We all want to be the misanthropic iconoclasts that Elsa speaks of (some of us want that more than others)”
As someone who has been odd and an outsider my whole life - you’ll see a life path that has had me desperately, in multiple methods, ways and stupid actions attempted to fit in, blend in, hide, be a part of the masses.
To no luck. So me, for one can’t say that I want it at all much less more than others. Different background = different view.
Just thought I’d mention it.
I have a friend with a pretty verifiably old soul. I don’t know what to say about her. She seems to go through a lot of unpleasant crap that pushes her out of paradigms I’m in. Like pleasure or Bildungsroman-type self realization through education, it seems. I’ve dabbled/putzed around with some New Agey things so although reincarnation makes complete sense, I don’t know… I’m curious to hear what Nia thinks about this stuff. The old soul idea probably has some currency. I’ll get back to you on that.
You know, some people actually think I am some kind of old soul or more perceptive than others, like the aformentioned friend who I have really keyed into in the past. Or some people think i am really smart partially owing to all the weird, non sequitur-type ways I express myself. I worry about this because I know what my parents and I think of me, and just how immature/uncaring I really am despite all the intuitive stuff. Who knows. When I was into all that New Agey stuff, I thought it is good to be an old soul and all that.
Maybe this is strictly a European thing, or a Latin thing…but where I come from (which happens to be from both these places), the very first thing all people automatically do, is classify each other by …….(social) CLASS - as the word itself already hints at. I am not saying that this is right or wrong- it just IS.
Why is it that I live under the impression that this happens equally so in the USA, while at the same time this is being completely and strongly denied?
Yes. Someone has to be real. Maybe that’s the same as what you call actualised. I don’t get along well with ‘embryonic’ people.
I get a very good gist of who’s an old soul and who’s a younger soul - with the rare, but real, blank slate thrown in. It’s so good to know other people see that too!
I avoid the younger ones. Too much human-drama and not enough meat. Course, I can’t really handle the *very* old souls, because I’m just not on par. I do like to be around them though.
Ben’s line is just perfect, “some people don’t understand a thing and can’t learn.”
No way can I tell if someone’s actualizing their astro chart though. Not a smidge. Nada.
I don’t have a way of classifying people I meet, but I notice manners first and foremost. Not of the “after you ma’am” and which “fork to eat with crap variety” that implies upwardly grooming, because I think that’s irrelevant.
Just being sound and fair with strangers and friends alike. I like that in a human. I work with the public and it’s a cool way to watch people in tight, quick interactions. If you can be courteous to a person in a quick interaction, I am convinced you can be that way with anyone in any situation.
I used to think it mattered…a little…but honestly what’s the deal? Ex., there are some older people who I don’t think are ‘wise’ and there are some older folk that I think are. I would tend to believe the same with ‘old souls’ whom I suppose we tend to equate the ‘old’ part with ‘wise’…some are and some are not. So to me it evens out as far as usefulness and applicability to my life. Old and young alike..if they enter my cosmos, they affect me irregardless of how I label them. Life eh?
“Why is it that I live under the impression that this happens equally so in the USA, while at the same time this is being completely and strongly denied?”
Class, have you lived in the US too? I come from Latin America. I have never lived in Europe, though. And I live in the US. So what I would say is that the class thing is a little more slippery in the US. As a way of classifying people, that is. I do think that people in the US classify each other by how much money they make BUT this is somewhat different from class bc you can come from a working-class background, say, and yet make a lot of money in banking or in law. I’ve met people like this, who come from working class parents and then went on to become white collar themselves. AND, of course, there’s always the opposite story, people who were born rich and lost money. I’ve met people like that too. I think that what matters more in the US is the PRESENT: how much money/who are you NOW? Where you come from and where you’re going doesn’t matter as much. Witness, for instance, the disdain that accompanies the word “has been.” There’s no such word or concept in Spanish, that I know of. Bc in the US, you have to be constantly striving and be successful NOW. [The present, the present, the present. There's no memory here in the US. I remember being 10 years old and hearing an American classmate talk about a really old song that had come out five years before and I was confused bc in my mind, a really old song was one from the 40s or the 50s! (this was in the 80s.)] If you wrote a great novel 30 years ago, here in the US you’re still a bit of a has-been. Where I come from in South America, no one would disrespect a novelist whose last great book was 30 years old.
Now, these are all generalities and they’re some of my observations so others probably experience life differently here. But, again, I think all of this is a wee bit different than the way that we classify class in South America. It’s more liberating but also more pressure bc you always gotta be achieving. I do think that people in the US classify each other by race/ethnicity. But then again, I have only lived in New YOrk City which is an entirely different planet from the rest of the US, so bear that in mind.
Here is an interesting take on old souls. Dr. Stanley, astrologer says: the souls age can be measured in comparison by giving each sign a grade level based on how old the sign is. Each grade gets a value or ’soul credit’ based on what they are here to learn. So you get 12 lives per sign to live through. Each life progresses to the next grade level by going through each of the groups of rising signs. So each soul goes through 144 lives.
Aries=1st grade Gemini=2nd grade Taurus=3rd grade
Libra=4th Sag=5th Scorp=6th
Cap=7th Pisces=8th Aquarius=9th
Cancer=10th Virgo=11th Leo=12th
The lower grade you are in the more ‘credits’ you get. Like a learning curve. It’s ok for 1st graders mess up more than once but by the time you are an 8th grader you get less chances to figure stuff out, so the lessons are harder and require more from you. When you are in 11th grade, you should already know this stuff, so you get fewer ‘credits’ to work with. At this point if you don’t learn it, it will learn you!
Leos are the oldest souls, the 12th grade seniors. The sun is the first and oldest thing in our solar system, so it makes sense they are the oldest. They have been through all the signs and have chosen to be here and guide others. They should be aware of their responsibility because they won’t get away with much without it catching them.
The age also applies to wherever it is in your chart, so if you look at all the planets in your chart you will act like that grade level regarding that planet. So if you have venus in Scorpio, you will act like 6th grader when love shows up, passing notes, crushes, love songs perhaps. If your Venus is in Virgo you will act like an 11th grader in love and value commitment or status in love relationships.
This is very interesting stuff, I wish she would write more about it!
Oh wow, I’m a leo and I do feel like I guide others (my parents, my own kids, friends…) and my Venus is in Virgo and I DO value commitment. It does sound cliche, but I’ve been told many times I’m like an old soul. I learn lessons REALLY quickly, and sometimes wonder why other people don’t. It just comes so easily to me, like I’ve been here before and have learned many lessons and all I need is a swift kick in the ass reminder to get me back on track. My husband is always astonished by my insight and logic when it comes to life, something he’s always said he admires about me. I do suffer from worry, but the bigger picture is always in the back of my mind, and I just feel so lucky to be here. The absolute joy of my life is connecting to people on a deeper level.
Also, the first grade/Aries thing makes so much sense! My Aries friend can throw some major first-gradish tantrums, but as always…everyone caters to her needs and she gets away with everything unscathed!! And the funny thing is, we all just adore her regardless….like you would with a child.
I think this is very interesting, and makes some sense to me.
shell- You sound very much like an old soul to me. When you say you feel lucky to be here, that is the kicker. Your soul already knows the joy of life. You are here to guide, lead, inspire and enlighten!! All leos are a gift to their families. My 5 year old daughter is a Leo sun Cap rising and she is a little ray of joyous sunshine. An angel on earth. I am so blessed she chose me!! She has brought my husband and I unmeasurable happiness!!
My sister is a gemini and she gets away with everything!! Spoiled little 2nd grader.
I’m cap in 7th grade, no one is letting me slide on anything!!
If your rising sign is old, you can appear older as well, just as rising signs are sometimes how people see us, but your true soul age is the sun sign age.
Dr. Stanley’s site is http://www.drstanley.com
Peace to you!!
jamie, what you said last year in this thread @ #8 sounds well conceived and nicely written! I concur.
amber, @ #14? …a nicely incapsulated thought!
Dreams, you said “concuuuur”:D I like that word. Thanks for commenting….or even reading it for that matter.
OMG! I just read Amber’s comment and I laughed my ass off! “Embryonic” people. I love it!
Although I do not share the same problem I can see where she’s coming from. I think when one comes in to contact with an “embryonic” person they should offer them an “incubator”…you know, just until they can breathe on their own.
Wow, it’s funny how in a smidget of time my attitude can change. It’s always changing.
” I do feel like I guide others (my parents, my own kids, friends…)”
I must’ve been having a moment, because I’m pretty sure the next day I felt lost enough to not even guide myself. Sometimes I feel like I know what I’m doing here on this earth and want to share it with the world, other times I don’t understand shit.
On a more mature note…is Ben grabbing your boob in this picture Elsa??? lol, I had to do a double take 
Get A Consultation
I'm available for consultations! You can schedule a consultation by phone or a consultation by email. You can also read what clients have to say about my consultations. Thanks, I look forward to working with you. :) - Elsa P
More
Recent Blog Comments
- Mari: Sheer class and poise She was the only and best thing about ...
- Mari: Thank you for that! I also looking forward to the continued ...
- Mokihana: I've loved this song for as long as it has been around. Now...
- Elsa: On the reanimation theme, it makes me think of the soldier's...
- Lucy: Out a window?! The Pisces part of me is like EW THAT'S GROSS...
- Lupa: SaDiablo, I think either way you have to walk away but the o...
- Ro: Ehhh, I wasn't pissed off when I first read this last night....
Recent Board Posts
I used to think like that. But now street smarts and social skills matter more, in my estimation of people, and overall maturity level. Ok, so I work with students…
self-actualization is easier to analyze, than old sould/new soul. I used to have an idea what those meant.. but I feel like I’ve forgotten it.