Page 74 - Talented Astrologer • Volume 1 Number 2 • October 2016

raise the vibration of your consciousness. is is how you get from where you are now to happy.
It’s simple, but not always easy. And to become truly happy, you have to avoid spiritual bypass.
What is Spiritual Bypass?
Spiritual bypass is a way to avoid facing uncomfortable feelings by identifying with a spiritual concept or platitude. It’s often a subtle trap. You know about spiritual principles, and you convince yourself that
you have transcended the limitations of the ego and miraculously healed all of your old patterns. When you perform a spiritual bypass, you go into denial, and pretend that your pain doesn’t exist—and for a little while, you feel good. But it requires tremendous e ort to maintain this illusion.
A big part of spiritual bypass is misunderstanding what it means to surrender to an experience. You don’t surrender the experience itself. What you surrender are
your judgments, expectations, stories, and resistance. You embrace the experience, no matter how painful it
may be, and stay present with it.
More often than not, you’ll discover the experience
is not nearly as bad — or as painful — as you expected it to be.
Suffering is a story.
e worst part about a trip to the dentist isn’t the short time spent in the chair. e worst part is the anticipation of the pain. e resistance and su ering begins the moment you set the appointment. It continues through the actual appointment. And yet, the time spent in the chair is never as bad as you feared. And the actual experience never quite aligns with the story you tell yourself about it.
Telling the story is a choice. You can choose to tell the story, or you can choose not to tell the story. at’s what free will means.
You can learn to question the story and experience happiness.
Spiritual truth is always simple. All you need to do to become completely happy is to change the story of your “little r” reality so that it aligns with the truth. However, simple isn’t the same thing as easy.
Questioning your story, and exercising your free will to become happy requires skill, and Archetypal Astrology: e Hero’s Journey Online Experience will
help you to develop it. During this 14-week program, you will strengthen your core spiritual muscles and raise your level of consciousness with a daily routine
of targeted spiritual practices. You will learn how to consider every part of your story from the perspective of the seven Astrological Archetypes. And you will learn how to eliminate optional su ering from your life and experience greater levels of happiness.
Learn more about this unique and powerful experience and watch an introductory presentation here!
74 Talented Astrologer
CONSCIOUSNESS