Your horoscope
Career and Vocation
for Bob Dylan, born on 24 May 1941
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
• Finding a true vocation
II. How You See the World
• Find a vehicle to communicate your ideals
III. Your Aptitudes and Strengths
• A life in the service of high ideals
• Bringing the vision down to earth
• Contact with the ineffable
• The gift of faith in life's goodness
• Making the inner vision work in the world
• Additional aptitudes and strengths
• Contributing to the human family
• Taking the Promethean spirit to the marketplace
IV. Know Your Limits
• Learn to enjoy the moment
• Valuing creative self-expression
• Sacrifice of self is not always a good idea
V. Working with Others
• Accepting those who have a different vision
VI. What Success Really Means to You
Chapter I - INTRODUCTION
When we are children, people say to us, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" At that age, we usually have dreams. We know that we want to reach the Moon, or learn to fly the fastest aircraft in the world, or save endangered animal species, or make some brilliant scientific discovery that will transform human lives. We are not yet old enough to worry about job markets and balancing budgets and supporting ourselves and our families. We have only our dreams and the secret certainty that we are unique and have a very special thing to do in life. Even if our parents have different dreams for us, we know the difference between their dreams and our own. When we are children, we are still capable of hearing the voice of the soul. As we grow older, the questions change. People say to us, "You had better start thinking about what you want to do with your life. How will you make a living?" There is no longer time for dreaming; we must now "face reality" and think about how to survive in the big, bad old world. The inner sense of specialness fades before the numbing evidence of high unemployment figures, stiff competition for every job application, and economic swings and downturns which make us feel we are fortunate to get any kind of work at all. And if we find ourselves discontented in that work, or we lose our jobs, we feel demeaned, devalued, and unable to trust our deepest dreams and aspirations, because there might not be any other work. And even if there were, we have probably long since lost that inner connection which could tell us what makes our heart sing and restores the sense of having a very special thing to do in life. This astrological report is about your vocation. It is meant to help you get a sense of what you might be good at and what might be good for you, so that your working life has a meaning as well as a pay cheque. If you are looking for a direction, astrology could help you to find it; if you already have one, astrology could help you confirm and perhaps enhance it. The English word "vocation" comes from a Latin root which means "to call". Having a calling implies something higher or deeper - an inner Self or soul which knows what we are really here for. Today we use the word "vocation" mainly in relation to those who feel a religious calling. The challenges and problems of the changing world, with its rapid and unsettling advances in technology and its shifting political and economic currents, have frightened us and turned our minds away from the inner importance of what we do in life. Yet so many people feel directionless or are unhappy in their work, even if they are well paid for it. Few of us possess the luxury of inherited wealth; most of us must make our own way in the world. Work, no less than relationship, lies at the core of our lives and occupies most of our waking hours. Yet we may be unable to think from the centre outward - to focus first on who we are and what inspires us, and then seek vehicles for this in the outer world. Instead, we think from the outside in, focusing on what others, or our own hidden insecurities, tell us is possible. We are not brought up to know and trust ourselves and our abilities, but rather, to know only the limits of external reality. And then we hammer ourselves into shape to fit them. Because every birth horoscope is unique, astrology teaches us that each individual has a unique nature and a unique set of abilities. While a horoscope cannot tell us which company will offer us a job, or how much we can expect to be paid, it can help us to understand that, if we wish to feel our lives matter, we need to express in the outer world at least some of who we are in the inner one. No job is perfect; we must all compromise. What matters is that what we do connects us to something special inside, something that makes us feel worthwhile and impels us to offer our best to life. The insights of astrology are not literal and specific. They are symbolic and psychological, and tell us about spheres of life which inspire us, needs which nourish our souls, and personal limits which mark the boundaries of what we are capable of achieving in one lifetime. We cannot become other than what we are, and no human being contains all possibilities. We are all good at different things. The right mix of realism and faith in ourselves can ensure that we feel our passage through life has been worth the effort. To make the best use of the astrological insights offered by this report, it is important to remember three things. First, a sound understanding of one's needs, potentials, and limits is far more important than the facts and figures presented to us by the outer world. It is not that facts and figures do not matter. But even if there is only one job available and four hundred applicants seeking it, we possess more power than we realise to create our own reality. If that job is truly right for us, and we are prepared to do the necessary preparation and training, we will achieve it - somewhere, some time, somehow. Second, we must not be afraid to try. Trying and failing and trying again are far better than not trying at all, for we can learn from our failures even more than we learn from our success. Understanding why we might unconsciously court failure or fail to seize opportunities may also be important. Many people are dogged not by lack of ability, but by a deep unconscious conviction that they do not deserve to be fulfilled. Understanding ourselves more deeply can help us to distinguish between real limits and unnecessary self-sabotage. Third, a birth chart cannot, of its own volition, create our opportunities for us, any more than a road map can make us take a journey. A birth horoscope can show us a direction and encourage us to make manifest our highest values and most cherished dreams. But each individual must make the decision to set off down the road. If we refuse through fear or cynicism, and remain sitting on the doorstep yearning for what might have been, we cannot blame either astrology or the world for our discontent. Finding a True Vocation
Chapter II
How You See the World
Each of us sees the world differently, and feels strong and competent in some areas and uncertain or ill-equipped in others. No person is perfectly adapted to every sphere of life. Finding the right direction may depend partly on your knowing how you evaluate and adapt to life, and finding an outer situation which matches your fundamental outlook. Of course it is not as simple as just looking for a place where you can exercise what you believe to be your strengths and avoid what you perceive as your weaknesses. Sometimes, working to develop sides of your personality where you feel unsure can generate the greatest feeling of accomplishment. But it does help if your perspective on life is in harmony with what you do, and you can therefore feel confident and able to meet the challenges which your work offers. It can also make a difference if you are able to remain loyal to your values and needs, rather than accepting a situation where you believe neither in what you are doing nor in the people you work with.
Find a vehicle to communicate your ideals
You are a restless soul with a great need for personal freedom. You also have a low boredom threshold, which can make it difficult for you to do repetitive work for any length of time. You need people to talk to and ideas which inspire you; and you also need an audience to listen to your own inspired thinking. You could sell anything to anyone, provided you believe in what you are selling; and you might also make an excellent teacher or educator. You could have a gift for languages. Work which requires travel or involves you in different world-views and different nationalities and modes of life might prove very rewarding. You are naturally idealistic, and potentials mean more to you than reality. Therefore you need to work in spheres where you can contribute new and innovative ideas, and deal with a wide variety of people. Try to avoid an institutional setting where you would be cramped and stifled by small minds and too many rules and regulations. You are not incapable of discipline. But you prefer it to come from your own perception of what is required, rather than from regulations imposed by those whom you do not respect. You have little tolerance for stupidity and ignorance, and even less for prejudice and wilful narrow-mindedness. Because you think globally, you need to work in an environment where others look beyond the confines of their own back garden.
Although you are likely to be deeply concerned with social issues, you may be repelled by the world of politics, because you find it hard to be silent if you feel strongly about an issue. Hypocrisy is not your style. Therefore you need to work with people who are not afraid to hear the truth from you. All spheres of knowledge might be suitable for you to work in, from television and publishing to the internet to university education. You may also have strong spiritual commitments, since the pursuit of meaning matters as much to you as knowledge. This may attract you to work which involves some spiritual or idealistic commitment to the betterment of human life. Teaching such subjects - astrology, yoga, psychology, health and alternative healing - could appeal. So could film and television projects which allow you to utilise your fine imagination as well as your communication skills. Most importantly, make sure you are not hemmed in by your work. You must have air to breathe, thoughts to share, ideas to inspire, new projects which challenge you, and a large world to traverse, physically or intellectually. Think big - not in the sense of "making it" on a grand scale, but in terms of the real values and ideals which inspire you. You will never be happy mired in the mundane. You may need to curb your restlessness, and learn to discipline yourself more than you might like. But you can do this if you feel there is a deeper or higher meaning in what you are doing.
Chapter III
Your aptitudes and strengths
An honest and realistic understanding of your fundamental strengths can help you to orientate yourself in the world and put your energy into areas where you can hope to shine and achieve at least many of your most cherished goals. Recognising basic issues such as the capacity and desire to handle responsibility, or the need for stability and security, or the craving for constant new challenges, can affect your decisions and help you to avoid wasting your abilities in spheres where you are not likely to be happy or at home. This does NOT mean that, if this report seems contradictory to what you are presently doing, you should abruptly throw aside everything you have built so far. If, for example, new challenges and a degree of independence are important for you in your work according to your astrological profile, you should not immediately abandon a steady job and charge off into the blue pursuing an unrealistic dream. Further training may be necessary, and your domestic responsibilities must also be considered in relation to what is possible at any given time in your life. But a personality which fundamentally requires an independent creative platform from which to work means that you might need to consider new possibilities within the framework of your present circumstances, or work on a long-term plan through which you can gradually achieve the autonomy you need. The secret of real success - the kind which is rooted in an inner feeling of a worthwhile life - is to first accept who you are, believe in it, and stop trying to model yourself on somebody else. Then aim to shape your outer life in as many ways as are realistically possible in order to provide the right working vehicle for your true nature and values.
A life in the service of high ideals
You are a practical and well-grounded person, but you would not be satisfied for long in work which is purely mundane. You have a strong sense of some higher reality, and this makes it impossible for you to feel contented merely satisfying your own material and emotional needs. Instead, you want to dedicate your energy and efforts to something in which you believe wholeheartedly, so that you can offer service of some kind to that higher source. But because you are well anchored in the world, this service has to be practical; you would not be content to work at a meaningless job and then go home and quietly meditate. Your ideals have to be translated into everyday actions and everyday work. You need a vocation which allows you to know and see, on a tangible level, that you are making the world a better place. You would not have a lot of patience with groups which pursue the ineffable while floundering on the practical level; you want to see action and results. It is possible that, in an earlier phase of life, you might have pursued material rewards for their own sake, and demonstrated your organising skills and qualities of leadership in a more mundane sphere. In discovering your need to serve something greater, you still need to feel you are effectual in your efforts to anchor your ideals.
In some ways you would be well suited to a "fifth column" kind of work, embedded within a conventional structure or company but quietly dedicated to raising the level of consciousness of the individuals with whom you work. But this requires a level of deception which in the end might not suit you. You might be happier in one of the helping professions, particularly those such as medicine and psychiatry, which deal with real-life problems but need the kind of vision and idealism which you could inspire. You might also be attracted to other forms of service to the community, social or political, where you could use your understanding of the ways of the world to bring about a broader and more inclusive vision. Most importantly, you need to know you are being of genuine service, and that you are translating your beliefs into tangible form. Don't try to split your life between a conventional work environment and a hidden spiritual path. You are likely to feel most fulfilled if you can combine these two distinct but interrelated dimensions of your nature in a field of work where you can be, and practise, both.
Bringing the vision down to earth
There is a constant tension in you between your intuitive perception of the meaning in things, and your pragmatic need to live in the so-called "real" world. If you do purely practical work, your craving for contact with subtler levels of existence can make you restless, frustrated, and discontented. If you abandon material responsibilities in favour of a spiritual path, your desire to be productive and useful in a practical way can make you feel undermined and unsure of your worth. You need to bridge these opposites within you by creating material forms which can express your inner vision. You could do this through one of the creative media - writing, painting, working in theatre or film - provided what you create is able to convey a message rather than being merely pretty or pleasing. Or you could create structures such as a school or business which is solidly anchored in the mundane world but which serves as a purveyor of the ideals to which you aspire. You may be happy marketing knowledge, selling inspiration, advertising consciousness - making your inner vision available to ordinary people in ordinary, everyday ways.
You may need a group with which to work. This could give you a sense of security and a feeling that you have at least some collective support - even if your little collective is considered "fringe" in the eyes of the larger collective. Whether you find your group in a company or institution, or in an educational setting, or in organisations which are dedicated to ideals similar to your own, you are likely to feel happiest when you know you have a backup from colleagues. This is because the polarity of your inner world tends to make you a little anxious and insecure, and you may feel better when you know you are getting validation from your peers. Qualifications may also be important to you. Although your vision may be unconventional, you have a need to be accepted by the world in general as a competent and "normal" person. If you wish to work in a more unconventional field, make sure you have the right bits of paper so that you feel you can demonstrate your competence to those who might question the nature of the beliefs you espouse. At heart you are a practical idealist who understands the necessity of working to improve life from within existing structures, rather than attempting to change the world as a renegade from without.
Contact with the ineffable
Despite your firm grasp of reality and its limits, you have a deep instinctive sense of connection with a larger unity. This might be called a mystical inclination, although you might not think of yourself in such esoteric terms. Nevertheless, whatever terms you use, you have one foot firmly on the ground and the other foot halfway through a doorway into the invisible realms. This opens you to inspiration from the collective psyche, which could be effectively channelled through a creative medium such as music. You can be highly imaginative and your inner world is rich and vivid - even if, a good deal of the time, you feel vaguely uncomfortable dwelling for too long in such ineffable climes. Equally, your receptivity to higher planes of existence could open you to inspirations in the sciences, or in technology, where intuition rather than logic can reveal exciting new concepts. You could also utilise your gift in fields which cater to collective needs, such as the world of film, because you can sense the dreams and longings of the collective long before people know what it is they are really seeking.
Your sensitivity to these higher levels of reality, and your awareness of the suffering inherent in life, deepen your need to feel you are being useful to others in some way. Your strongest need is to work at something which serves that deeper unity of life you sense so strongly. You have a devotional nature and would not be happy if you could not use your field of work as a vehicle for your devotion. Whether you focus your efforts on other human beings, on nature or the animal kingdom or the Earth itself, on scientific research or social issues, just beyond your field of vision is that invisible domain in which you sense the meaning and purpose of earthly existence. It is likely that you have spent a good deal of time not understanding the "divine discontent" which has made it so difficult for you to feel contented by ordinary material satisfactions. You may even have drifted for a time, confused about your direction and lacking confidence in your ability to stick to anything for very long. But you have great persistence and tenacity if you believe in what you are doing. Your vision of unity, and your compassion for all living things, needs to be embedded at the core of your work.
The gift of faith in life's goodness
You have a deeply optimistic spirit, and tend to see even painful experiences as a means of learning and growth. This innate faith in the essential goodness of life is a valuable quality, both for your personal life and in your work. You want to be able to share it with others, and you could make an inspired teacher or educator because you want to open others' eyes and hearts to the larger reality which you yourself perceive. You also love learning and take pleasure in encouraging others to learn. If your work does not provide you with the opportunity to broaden your world-view and communicate your discoveries to others, you can easily feel bored and restless. Travel is probably nourishing for you, because you expand your mind and discover new truths about people and about life; and ideally your work should allow you the opportunity to taste different cultures, values, and environments. You need a certain amount of freedom to move about, and you should try to avoid jobs where you are confined to one place seeing the same people day after day. Even if your travel is sporadic, you need it as an important feature of your working life.
You are generous by nature and love to share your knowledge of higher things. You might also enjoy a certain amount of risk-taking in your work, for there is an adventurous spirit in you which loves to discover new things in unknown places, mental or physical. Most importantly, you need work which stimulates your mind and your imagination, and keeps you moving from project to project. You need to communicate and to educate, in literal or metaphorical ways. Fields such as publishing and media might suit you, provided you can promulgate ideas which you feel will help make the world a better place. Your need to be of service should be expressed through work which allows you to enlarge others' vision. Don't allow yourself to be trapped into playing the workhorse in a large company, group, or institution. Although you are perfectly capable of handling responsibility and carrying more than your share of the load, this would stifle your restless spirit and deny you the right to pursue knowledge and communicate it with the freedom you need and deserve.
Making the inner vision work in the world
You may have already gone through a crisis in terms of your work direction. Or you may be going through one now. Your life has a tendency to fall into distinct chapters because of the tension between the earthy and spiritual sides of your nature; and a crisis in your work is likely to be the result of the profound need to bridge the gap and unite the opposites in your personality. Your work needs to include both sides of you, providing a sound practical vehicle through which you can make an impact on the world around you, but also serving the inner ideals to which you are so deeply devoted. There are several different spheres of work which might suit you, but they all share one thing in common: they enhance the human condition in practical ways, and reflect both worldly craft and intuitive vision. Any work which does not, like you yourself, include these opposites, will not ultimately satisfy you. Neither extreme is likely to make you feel fulfilled. Take your ideals seriously, and don't ever betray them. But try to live them by offering a tangible service to others, and to life itself.
Additional aptitudes and strengths
Although these are your main strength, there are other qualities which you can build on as you consider the best ways to utilise your energy and talents. These may not be as dominant in your nature, but they are important nevertheless and need to be considered in any assessment of your work situation. An astrological chart, from the perspective of vocation, presents us with an essential character pattern; and the "ideal" sphere of work is one in which as many of one's essential character qualities as possible can be given an avenue of expression. There is no perfect job for anyone, just as there is no perfect world. But these important characteristics need room in your life, somewhere, somehow, to be honoured and offered some vehicle through which it can live.
Contributing to the human family
Your work needs to contribute some benefit to the human family of which you so strongly feel a part. You are idealistic and tolerant, democratic in spirit, and deeply concerned with human potential and the possibility of improving society. This does not mean that you are merely a "do-gooder" with vague ideas about how to save the world. You are more sensible than that, for you have a good, clear, rational mind and the ability to plan and organise. Whatever field you engage in, you need to know that you are doing something for others as well as yourself. In fact, sometimes "I" is not as much as reality as "we", for you tend to think in collective rather than individual terms. Sociology and psychology could interest you, for you are fascinated by what makes people "tick" and might enjoy working with theories and structures of ideas which help to explain the mysteries of human behaviour. You have a strong sense of how mass collective movements operate, and you could make an excellent group leader or organiser. You also have what is known as "the common touch", for you are interested in all kinds of people and can find a way to communicate your ideas in language which is clear and understandable, rather than obscure and technical. You could work in business, economics, or politics, provided you felt you were offering something positive to others, rather than merely amassing lots of money. If you do amass lots of money, you are likely to give a lot of it to charities or organisations which offer some kind of support to others. You have a strong sense that things should be shared rather than hoarded. You could make an excellent educator, for you enjoy stimulating others' minds and helping people to understand themselves better. Make your humanitarian interests the basis for your direction in life.
Taking the Promethean spirit to the marketplace
Prometheus was the mythic figure who stole fire from the gods and gave it to human beings so they could progress. You have a good deal of this Promethean spirit in you. You too feel human beings have vast potentials which they have not yet fulfilled; and you too are prepared to work on the fringe and be unconventional in your thinking and even your behaviour if it will help realise those potentials. You need to work for others - not necessarily in the literal sense, for you are a little too independent in your thinking to enjoy a hierarchical institution or organisation, but in the sense of serving the evolution of the human family on material, emotional, intellectual or spiritual levels. Your work fulfilment comes from knowing that you are part of a larger unity, and offering your particular talents to help the human family move toward a better future. Whether you do this within your own community through projects which help those in need, or through a large organisation or movement which seeks to make changes on a national or economic level, you could never be content working at a job which gives material security but carries no deeper significance in the grand scheme of things. Back up your idealism with properly trained skills and a good education, and find the right group or organisation which mirrors the ideals in which you believe so strongly.
Chapter IV
Know Your Limits
Recognising your innate limitations can help you to focus your energy in the right direction and get the maximum fulfilment from your work. All human beings have limitations, and these need to be seen, not as "faults" or "failings", but as the inevitable result of having strengths in other areas. No individual has everything. Being able to understand those areas where essential character qualities might restrict your capacity to engage in or enjoy a particular kind of work, is part of the building of self-understanding and self-confidence. Sometimes we have to try and then fail before we are able to recognise that we are undeveloped, unsuited, or simply uninterested in a particular sphere of life. Pressure from family and peer group may push us into attempting to become what we are not, and much time and energy may be wasted in attempting to fulfil someone else's expectations when we know we are not comfortable in that particular kind of work. It is important to recognise that limits do not signify any irrevocable flaw in character. Working hard on an area of limitation may, in fact, produce great confidence born out of hard effort, and sometimes real talent may be discovered beneath the surface of what appears to be a block or difficulty. It is up to you to discern whether a character limitation needs to be worked on, or compassionately accepted, or both.
Learn to enjoy the moment
Your chief limitation, in terms of work, arises from your greatest asset: your deep commitment to serving a higher or deeper reality. This commitment gives meaning to your working life and allows you to feel you are making a useful contribution to human evolution. But you may sometimes forget that pleasure, joy, and the ability to live in the moment are equally part of life. You can be very intense, sometimes to the point where you deny yourself the kind of ordinary everyday pleasures that, for many people, constitute their reason for living; and if you take this too far, you may find yourself becoming censorious or judgemental toward colleagues who do not exhibit the same degree of dedication you do. Try to lighten up a bit more. Whatever your personal world-view or philosophy, you need to avoid dogmatism or the belief that there is only one path. If you work in the helping fields, there is a danger, if you are too dogmatic, that you will impose your beliefs on those who are seeking your help; and if you work within a group or organisation, you may feel impelled to "convert" those who have not yet seen the light, which can prove a great irritant to working colleagues. Your heart is sincere and your motives and commitment unquestionably fine. But it is doubtful that the higher reality toward which you aspire requires you to curtail pleasure in the incarnate world in which you are living and working. You may need to find a creative balance between your ideals and your capacity to enjoy the pleasures of everyday material existence. You may also strive too hard to be responsible, and take on too much. You cannot save everyone, nor transform the entire world in the span of a lifetime. Try to be respectful of the limits of your time and energy, and do what you can to avoid the trap of rigid thinking. You do not have to prove that you are a good person in ways which could be hurtful to your physical or psychological well-being.
Valuing creative self-expression
You are prepared to put a great deal of energy and effort into serving those ideals in which you so strongly believe. You want your life to be useful and productive, and you want to know that you are doing your share to help human evolution on some level. This is a wonderful quality, but sometimes you may forget that you also have creative abilities which need to be expressed for no reason other than the sheer joy of it. You are not just a worker and server; there is a part of you which is imaginative, childlike, and in love with an inner landscape peopled with romantic figures from myth. If you have artistic ability of any kind, it is important that you honour it, try to develop it, and include it in your working life if possible. If impossible, then ensure that you have time each day, or each week, for indulgence in this playful, creative world. Even if you are not skilled in painting, writing, or music, you may get enormous pleasure from these things, and need constant contact with them to refresh your spirit and remind you that life includes joy as well as hard work. Try to balance the committed and the childlike in yourself; together they make an enormously creative combination. But if you try to suppress your playful, imaginative side in favour of an ideal of self-sacrifice, you may store up a lot of resentment and a deep envy toward those who are able to give themselves permission to be irresponsible sometimes. You have a powerful intuition, but you may fear its ability to overturn your material stability, and you tend to need highly structured containers in which to experience revelations from the inner world. Sometimes these structures may be too rigid. Intuition can work not only in the spiritual realm, but also in the artistic one, and it may be important for you to have more flexible creative vehicles as well as the structures in which your belief system is encapsulated. Try to loosen up, and learn to value creative self-expression for its own sake.
Sacrifice of self is not always a good idea
You have a strongly devotional nature and a great sensitivity to the suffering in the world; and you want to be able to be of service in some way because you sense the higher reality behind life's apparent unfairness and harshness. This is likely to attract you to a profession which involves helping or healing others. If you are involved in such work, it is very important for you to recognise not only your physical and psychological limits, but also your right to enjoy life as an individual. If you are too self-sacrificing, you can exhaust yourself physically and emotionally, and wind up disillusioned because there always seems to be more pain which you cannot heal. Try to remember that you cannot cure the world's ills by yourself, nor can you help those who do not wish to help themselves. Discrimination is an important faculty which you may need to work hard to develop, however hard or selfish it may sound; there is only one of you, and you would be wiser to give your energy where it is most productive and needed, rather than where it can be exploited or simply wasted. Whatever ideals you espouse, and whatever your spiritual philosophy, it is unlikely that any tablets written in stone are demanding that you give up personal contentment and pleasure; and if you believe you should, perhaps you might look more deeply at the unconscious motives which could lie beneath such a world-view. You are vulnerable to others in your work because you care so much. You need strong boundaries and a good, healthy dose of self-protectiveness. You are also vulnerable because you will not always be able to match your vision with the reality of the people with whom you work. A clear, unjaundiced view of others' real characters can help you to guard yourself against exploitation and ensure that you will feel enthusiastic in your work rather than drained or victimised.
Chapter V
Working with Others
One of the most important factors to consider in terms of your direction in life is how you work with others. Everyone has his or her own style of relating in the working environment; everyone has different needs and requirements; everyone needs a different degree of privacy or teamwork; and everyone interacts differently with peers and with authority figures. There is no "normal" way of being with others, but it is important that you understand just what you do need, so that you can maximise your abilities in the best possible way. Many specific issues concerned with your interaction with others at work have been covered in earlier sections; the following paragraph is more a summary of fundamental needs which might be helpful to keep in mind.
Accepting those who have a different vision
Your dedication to your ideals gives you courage, determination, and a willingness to commit yourself wholeheartedly to the welfare of others. You are at your best when you are able to share your ideals and join in work efforts which allow you to feel you are part of something larger, and contributing alongside others to the evolution of the collective. In such a setting, you can be generous and selfless in offering your support to colleagues, and you are willing to accept many foibles and weaknesses on the part of co-workers as long as you can see that they are motivated by the same vision you are. However, you may not find it so easy to sympathise with those who do not see what you see, and do not share your particular world-view. You may find it hard to understand those who are focused on their own personal satisfaction and success, or who are more materialistic in their motivation. The difficulty is that you are not always able to be flexible in your thinking, and this can make you intolerant of those with differing attitudes and viewpoints. Your intensity can make you a little fixed in your thinking, and you may not find it easy to accept the fact that truth can come in many forms.
Although you are happiest when you know your vision is shared, it is unlikely that you will find the perfect work situation where every single individual with whom you work has precisely the same world-view you do. People will always differ, not only in their opinions but in the intensity of their feelings about their opinions. You need to be more open and willing to accept people as they are, rather than judging them according to their particular spiritual outlook. Many people may be fundamentally decent, good people, but they might not formulate their feelings and ideas in the same language you do. Try to refrain from attempting to convert others to your way of thinking. This can create animosity and difficulty in your working relationships, and the ethical basis of such attempts is questionable. The certainty of your convictions is appropriate for you in your own individual life, but it may not apply to others; and while there may be a single truth for you, that truth may not be the truth which speaks to others' hearts and souls. Sometimes you may assess people too literally, and become critical if they do not behave as you would wish, or phrase their perceptions in the same language as yours. Greater tolerance and flexibility, and a willingness to be wrong sometimes, can help you to create much warmer and more genuine relationships with work colleagues, even if their aspirations and ideals are expressed in a different language from yours.
Chapter VI
What Success Really Means to You
When people speak of "success", they generally mean a position of importance in the world's eyes, or a job that yields lots of money and all the material pleasures and comforts that implies. But success, in terms of the deeper issue of vocation, is a highly individual thing that means different things to different people. Success in this more profound sense is linked with an individual's capacity to express in the outer world the values and ideals which matter most in the inner world. Seen in this way, success may not involve money or position at all; for it depends on a quality of inner loyalty and integrity, and reflects the real essence of individuality rather than a common consensus based on superficial social or material concerns.
Success, for you, must reflect the efforts you make to bring order to your inner and outer world. Although material reality is important to you, you are not motivated by monetary gain or status or a "top" position in the world. Deep down, you are a craftsman, whether you work with material substance or the stuff of the human psyche or body. To integrate, polish, refine, craft, and make whole and healed are the tasks toward which your spirit impels you, and your work needs to allow you to do these things in order to feel you are living a meaningful life. Being useful is fundamental to any real sense of success, and you need to know that your life is fulfilling a useful purpose or serving the higher realities in which you believe. More than many people, you are capable of loving work for work's sake, for it helps you to feel connected to the deeper rhythms of daily life and the larger pattern in which you instinctively know your own life is embedded. Integrity is also extremely important to you, on the most profound level: you need to serve your inner ideal rather than accommodate the external world simply for security or material gain.
A certain diffidence and lack of self-confidence could make you underrate your abilities, and worries about being too "selfish" or self-assertive could cause you to set your goals too low. However, these anxieties could also serve a very positive purpose, provided you do not stifle your need for individual self-expression because of too much self-doubt. Your inclination to restrain your self-assertive instincts could help you to be more sensitive to the needs and rights of those with whom you work, and your uncertainty about your right to be "special" could ensure that you always try to be authentic and honest in what you are offering. And your powerful need for self-expression, hedged about by uncertainty and unease, could contribute to the development of a highly individual set of skills which truly earn you the right to feel special even while you are offering service to the larger unity of which you feel a part.
You need to work to make bridges, heal what has been spoiled, integrate what has fallen into disunity, and bring to its most efficient and healthy functioning whatever has been contaminated, ignored, or allowed to fall into disrepair. You might do this with objects, with buildings, with the physical body, with the psyche, or with nature or the plant and animal kingdoms. A true vocation, for you, must allow you to bring to your immediate world a little of the order and harmony which you know to be the underpinning of all existence.
Astrological Data used for Career and Vocation
Planetary Positions
House Positions (Placidus)
Major Aspects
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