THE QUEST FOR LIFE’S PURPOSE

Finding your life purpose is one idea that has “arrived”, as we say in the vernacular—and all signs point to its staying power, gaining a foothold and building momentum. To whit, Amazon.com has over 800 titles in the ‘life purpose’ category. The majority of these books were published in the last two years, most were post millennium and the earliest were from the mid 1990’s. So, the trend is about ten years old. The current top seller, “The Purpose Driven Life” is a theological treatise whose author, Rick Warren, has lately been making rounds on the talk show circuit. According to a Pew research poll (taken prior to the last presidential election), forty-six percent of the American electorate are avowed Evangelicals, so its no surprise this book has made a big splash. By my estimation, Christian texts made up about 25% of the offerings, with the remaining 75% divided among personal growth, psychology, career and New Age spirituality. Many of the popular self-help gurus had a volume or two out there and I even found a couple of astrologers in the mix.

Google It!

The really big numbers emerged in my on-line search. Googling ‘life purpose’ turned up 48 million hits! (I kid you not.) Search for the exact phrase in quotation marks and a more manageable 222,000 items show up. Astrologers may feel validated to know that ‘life purpose astrology’ even tallied 625,000. The search yielded an overwhelming assortment of items-- books, CD’s, self help workbooks, on-line courses, articles, interviews, tests, questionnaires, meditations, inspirational quotations, sheet music and song lyrics, etc. etc. etc. Websites of life and career coaches led the pack. Services also included numerology, astrology, bible studies, angels and channeling. Such obvious dedication to a cause begs the question “Is this quest for a purposeful life a trend--or an obsession?”

A Brief History of Cosmology

Ever since man came out of the caves and developed self-consciousness, he has struggled to find his proper place in the cosmos. Over time, a plethora of cosmologies emerged, with each new world-view supplanting the previous one as human consciousness leapt forward, expanding our understanding of reality. Theology, philosophy, and later science, became the dominant structures for interpreting the meaning of existence, our relationship to source and the world around us. Literature, poetry and art often followed suit. Religious thought evolved through phases of magic, superstition, revelation and doctrinal codification. Philosophy moved through various “isms” such as naturalism, humanism, and existentialism. The scientific revolution of the Seventeenth Century introduced a mechanistic paradigm based on Newtonian physics. In the early Twentieth Century, Einstein and Company (the quantum physicists) blew the whole thing apart by revealing that the fabric of the Universe is non-material and time and space are relative. While, for eons of time, great minds have pondered the mysteries of the universe, in a contemporary context, it is significant to note that questing has moved out of the temples of science, religion, philosophy and art and into the popular culture. As part of this trend, life purpose consciousness emerged as a significant force in the second half of the 1990’s and has ratcheted up several notches in the last few years.

The Planetary Pulse

Synchronistically, in 1995, humanity got a wake-up call when the planet Uranus, often dubbed the “Great Awakener” moved into its home energy in the sign of Aquarius. Many astrologers consider that the New Age of Aquarius (which is ruled by Uranus) began at this juncture. Certainly, a strong energetic imprint was anchored in the physical plane. Just thirty days prior, Pluto, the transformer and ruler of our collective destiny, moved into Sagittarius, the sign which holds court over the quest for the meaning of life! Indeed, a vital process of personal and planetary transformation, one that is still in force, began to unfold at this time. Outer planets create lasting changes and affect the collective consciousness because they have lengthy transits. Pluto will remain in Sagittarius until 2008 and Uranus only recently changed sign on New Year’s Day of 2004.

Climb Every Mountain

Focusing in on the energy of Sagittarius will lead us up the metaphorical mountain we presently wish to climb. Sagittarius rules religion, philosophy, education, expanding horizons, serendipity (those unexplainable coincidences) and futuristic vision. Sagittarius also rules the world of publishing. Around the time of Pluto’s ingress (entrance) a timely coincidence occurred that I will label the ‘Celestine Phenomenon’. James Redfield, an unassuming prophet, emerged from out of the hills of the rural south, and brought forth a new book. “The Celestine Prophecy” is a New Age adventure novel with an embedded mission to educate readers about nine life transforming insights. One of its central tenets deals with the importance of synchronicity and coincidences in guiding life choices. Redfield originally self-published, running sales up over 100,000 copies within the first couple of months. Time-Warner Books stepped in and within a year of its re-release, “The Celestine Prophecy” had sold five million copies in forty countries and come up number one on the New York Times best-seller list. By 1995, Celestine Prophecy study groups began forming all over the world, facilitated by the newly released sequel, “The Celestine Prophecy Experiential Guide” (co-authored with Carol Adrienne). The elusive tenth insight, a treatise on world transformation, was revealed in a book by the same name in 1996. “The Tenth Insight Experiential Guide” followed and also “The Celestine Vision” and “Holding the Vision Experiential Guide”.

Visionary Ventures

These books were the first to cultivate a wide audience for the revolutionary concepts of the New Age, not the least of which is the idea that life is purposeful. Redfield introduced what he termed the “birth vision” in book one and by the time “The Tenth Insight” surfaced he had expanded this concept to include a world vision. The underlying principal of the birth vision is that each person’s soul plans their life here on earth, from the ‘after-life dimension’, before incarnating. As the life is lived, the individual has the opportunity, guided by intuition and synchronicity, to remember and fulfill (or not) that vision. Reincarnation is an integral part of the picture, laying the groundwork of past actions (karma) upon which the responsibilities for present and future actions rest. The world vision addresses the evolution of the collective consciousness and the responsibility of mankind to transform the earthly world of the future. What is especially significant about these books is that they address both individual and collective purpose—and by extension each individual’s role in contributing to the realization of the collective purpose.

Spin-Offs

Redfield’s co-author, Carol Adrienne, spun off a whole series of subsequent volumes dealing with personal life purpose. Among these are “The Purpose of your Life: Finding Your Place in the World Using Synchronicity, Intuition and Uncommon Sense”, “Find Your Purpose, Change Your Life” and, of course, “The Purpose of Your Life Experiential Guide”. The concept of an individual purpose distinguishes this contemporary quest for the meaning of existence from all others in history. In fact, in my entire search of both Amazon and the Internet, the life purpose theme was consistently personalized. The public’s obsession is with my purpose, not the purpose—and obsession it truly is. Here’s why…

Enter the ‘Me’ Generation

The quest is being driven by the ‘boomer’ or ‘me’ generation and it is only the latest evolutionary step in this group’s lifelong preoccupation with the search for itself. These are the folks who earned the moniker the ‘therapy generation’ and next ushered in the whole human potential movement. ‘Life purpose’ is the buzz word for the latest iteration of this group’s modus operandi. Actually, the ‘me’ generation is larger than generally documented, stretching from 1939 through 1956, because it encompasses all individuals born with a natal placement of the planet Pluto in the sign of Leo. Pluto is considered to be the generational marker because it remains in a sign anywhere from twelve to twenty years. On an even deeper level Pluto placements define soul groups who reincarnate together during particular historical eras where the circumstances lend themselves to working through specific karmic issues. Each repetition, or cycle, creates an opportunity to heal and transform the mistakes of the past. The natal Pluto sign reflects the nature of these issues, which are always significantly weighty, having to do with life and death choices, abuse of power and the resultant karmic guilt.

A Place in the Sun

Leo is ruled by the sun, and characteristically, the Pluto in Leo generation is obsessed with being the center of their universe. The result is an almost pathological narcissism that translates into the need to be special. The idea that each and every person is here on earth with a unique purpose is extremely attractive to the leonine ego. Having been kings, queens and aristocrats in former lives, Pluto in Leos have an inborn (albeit subconscious) sense of entitlement that is often frustrated when the world refuses to acknowledge them at a level commensurate to their sense of their own importance. Many are therefore unhappy, unfulfilled and frustrated. Finding one’s life purpose seems a fitting antidote to this perceived threat of insignificance. However, the fine print at the bottom of the life purpose contract reads “this is a spiritual quest, an avenue for fulfillment of the soul’s purpose, not to be hijacked by the ego”. Therein lies a central conflict. Indeed, integral to this whole generation’s path to true significance is transforming into unselfconscious leaders serving the common good