For the first time, singer and keyboardist Laura Mariposa of Lore City unearths her transcendent viewpoint on a brief sojourn through reincarnation, astrology, and eastern philosophy. Visit the etheric sounds of Lore City on their recently released psychedelic-gothic album, Participation Mystique.
The Doorway
Sometimes you get a glimpse. As if for a moment you can see through the crack of a door that is slightly ajar, with a fleeting glimpse of what’s behind it. And it’s startling, because this door is always closed every time you pass by it. The door is hardly even noticeable anymore because it’s seemingly of no consequence, always shut. But today, it’s slightly ajar.
Maybe at first you pretend not to notice because it’s easier to go past it. You think it must be a mistake, and certainly someone will come by shortly and close it. After all, the door has always been shut, surely, it’s not for you. Yet there it is slightly ajar, and as your mind grows quiet, moving away from disbelief, you move towards it.
Then you realize the door is ajar because you are the one who opened it. Suddenly everything around you seems to expand and soften at the same time. You feel totally calm as you step into the doorway. Then you get your glimpse.
You can see it — everything. All of the tethers that hold you back, snap, releasing their hold. You can feel the love that surrounds you, like a mist illuminated by golden light. On a wordless level, you understand that this life is a kind of passing show. And there is something else behind all of it, if only you could once and for all truly know it.
Somewhere Over There
Oftentimes I experience an intense feeling of missing home, but not associating home with anywhere on earth. When I was only a couple of years old I began talking about it. As soon as I could string words together into sentences, I said that before this life, I had another life in another world. This world existed somewhere that I could only describe as being “beyond the sky”.
I remember seeing deep purple silhouettes gathered in a row, as if they are watching me go, saying goodbye. A fleeting memory to take with me onto the earth plane. I’m equipped to believe that we’re spiritual beings having a forgetful, human experience. We live a very physical kind of life; it’s easy to overlook the ethers as we operate our heavy machinery.
Still feeling so very much like a part of “somewhere over there”, I have an innate sense that we’re all like this. Slices from the same pie. Little pieces broken off from the source. With an overwhelming sense that our task is to realize we are actually all one, I sorted through the complexity by doing what so many of our ancestors have done before; I looked up at the cosmos.
Ways of Being
There’s a big wheel spinning in the sky. It’s a celestial sort of wheel, generating an infinite number of combinations to house our infinite spirits. The forces are well known. Every planet is orbiting, creating angles, deeper dimensions for the duality of being: dreams/reality, feeling/doing, expansion/constriction. Every archetype is rotating through every area of life as a spark of free will rounds the corner; a nod toward our ability to construct or destroy. Now the complex characters come into formation, but there’s still a rolling of the dice, still an element of taking this way or that.
The zodiac chart is a circle, a complete whole. Every planet, sign, and house have an opposite, which symbolizes the duality of matter, as well as a balancing opportunity. Divided up, the zodiac chart looks like a cosmic pie, showing us how we are pieces of each other; the oneness of our origin divvied out into individual personas. Though we are not separate if we choose to believe that we are variations on a theme, all participating in the same arena of human life, all housing a little piece of that infinite spirit.
Astrology at its essence is the ancient art of cosmic symbolism. By attributing facets of ourselves to different elements, we can gain the benefit of objectivity. Realizing that we all share in these ways of being, we can better sense our part of the whole, inviting more understanding for ourselves and others.
Astrology brings together beliefs in the cyclical nature of reincarnation and oneness. It gives us terms and parameters for appreciating spiritual experience via the material. The unifying theory of astrology is that we’re a bit of everything. Everyone embodies all of the archetypal patterns and elemental life forces, just in different combinations.
Distilling
It’s good to get down to the root of things, after leaning on the branches and admiring the leaves. Astrology is so vast in its scope that it can distract from the core concept. Whenever you need to clear the brush from the path, know that astrology is an ancient art form related to some of the most ancient of eastern texts: The Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada, and The Upanishads. These texts bring it all back home. They remind us of our original oneness by distilling our differences into a simple message of kindness, calmness, and courage, which can ultimately help us overcome the illusion of separateness.
Eastern philosophy tells us that our souls are here to realize themselves, and through that process, also recognize the sameness of every soul in everyone and every living creature. Often this idea is explained via the lantern metaphor — that we shine with the same light inside each of us, while our bodies celebrate the diversity of life on the outside. So many different kinds of lanterns; if only we could see that it is the same flame within them. And since these themes tend to repeat throughout our world, the waterways of the earth also show us how it’s done.
“‘As the rivers flowing east and west
Merge in the sea and become one with it,
Forgetting they were ever separate rivers,
So do all creatures lose their separateness
When they merge at last into pure Being.’”
— Chandogya Upanishad VI.10.1.2
Suggested Reading
A trinity of favorite books on reincarnation, astrology, and eastern philosophy, respectively:
Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Michael Newton
Jungian Symbolism in Astrology by Alice O. Howell
The Upanishads introduced & translated by Eknath Easwaran
Photos by Eric Angelo Bessel
Laura Mariposa Williams
Laura Mariposa Williams