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The Boy Who Was His Dead Uncle

New Series "The Life Before Life" or "Astrology and Reincarnation"

Some people's hair already stands on end if they even just hear the catchword "reincarnation" while others simply live it. When Samuel Helander (Aries-Sun with Scorpio-Moon) was just one-and-a-half years old and could hardly pronounce the "R" properly, he said the following with utter conviction in response to the question as to his name: "Peltti!" He called his grandma "Mommy!" At some point during the next year, he saw a photo of his Uncle Pertti with plaster cast and said: "That was when my legs were so sick!"

The little boy, who was conceived in Helsinki in 1975 – only weeks after his mother's youngest brother had died at just 18 years of age – simply did not let anything dissuade him from believing that he was not at all who he is now. He thought that he was someone else: Pertti Häikiö, his uncle. The family suddenly fell into a hole in time, from which the past waves to the present.

If we compare the horoscopes of the dead uncle and the vitally alive nephew, there is at least the temptation to spend an extra minute on the idea that reincarnation could be something more than just hogwash. Even if it is shrugged off in modern times as either a fantastic, Eastern-religious principle of thought or selectively played up to rescue the image of a previously meaningless, reincarnated Western Cleopatra, Einstein and other important minds. The search for the special past life always fills the coffers of esological "reincarnation therapists."

Pertti Häikiö and Samuel Helander are different. If their natal chart pictures are placed on top of each other, it immediately becomes apparent that this either involves a huge coincidence or that what happened to them may not be as wrong as scientists believe. The Finnish family is among the many hundreds of cases involving children with a spontaneous memory of a past life that have been tracked down by the Canadian psychiatrist and reincarnation researcher Ian Stevenson (who is obviously Scorpio with Sagittarius-Mars at the Galactic Center). The consciousness for this other identity usually already announces itself in the first two years of life. Completely without any type of hypnosis. The astrological characteristics and congruities of the carefully catalogued stories are anything but arbitrary. With each additional comparison, something becomes apparent that is barely tangible and even more fascinating as a result. An existence that continues within the same perception continuum but in a different body.

Pertti Häikiö and Samuel Helander may be two people, yet they are one single "being" from the perspective of the younger one. The synastry offers a double classic astrological point of reference for merging, dissolution of the self's boundaries and mutual penetration: A twofold Sun-Neptune connection that forms the respective oppositions. This is a symbol for a self that dissolves in the numinous, eternal and primordial state. The horoscopes – without the birth time – can be seen on the right with the uncle on the inside and the little nephew on the outside. Even just this double whammy of Sun-Neptune gives us food for thought in the astrological sense since this is not a standard and always clearly indicates an energetically strong connection.

A totally extraordinary Mercury similarity is conspicuous here. Despite a coincidental gap of 19 years between their births, both of them have a conjunction of this mental planet in the natal chart; among other things, this symbolizes the strength of the consciousness with the descending Moon's Node that astrologically represents karmic peculiarities. In both cases, we see Mercury (adjacent) in Taurus with both respectively still connected to Jupiter: one in the same sign and the other in the trine. This constellation is so special in the delicate attunement that it really does not occur very often.

In both birth pictures, Mars also influences Cancer (in a mutual 5° conjunction), the sign of more than just the emotional mutual origin and family. The uncle and the nephew each have a strong, difficult Sun-Saturn connection in their respective horoscopes: The older man in the opposition and the younger one in the square, which have a synastric connection with the Neptune positions. This means touching beyond the here and now through the dissolution (Neptune) of the purely physical-structural duration (Saturn) of the self (Sun). Or in other words: annihilation of time and timeless transition. In addition, both may have a Uranus-Moon, but this depends on the birth time. 

The Davison Relationship Chart of Pertti and Samuel also shows a really extreme closeness, a special (love) conjunction of the Sun-Venus with dragon tail (together with a somewhat distant, attached Neptune (in 5° orb) in Scorpio. If the midday axes are considered, this cluster also stands almost exactly on the Scorpio-IC of the Davison Relationship Chart. The customary perpetrators of emotional and psychological superimposition, connection and commitment are all in the same boat: a very fine, dominant stream of genetic and yet completely immaterial contact at the same time.

This is joined by a second cluster of the Moon, Mars, Uranus and Pluto in the functional perception area of Virgo in opposition to Saturn with Chiron and Lilith in Pisces. Leo-Jupiter as the second factor of the "dreaming up" is found – with the underlying midday axes – precisely on the cusp of the 12th field as an expansion of the unconscious. It forms a trine with (of all things) the retrograde Sagittarius-Mercury that additionally kick-starts the backwards dexterity of the mutual perception. 

So how did the unusually close connection between the little nephew or the Neptunian attunement to the worlds of the dead uncle show in the everyday life of the little nephew? For example, Samuel had a mortal fear of bathing and showering. When he was a child, Pertti had once almost drowned in the bathtub and later broke through the thin ice at a shipyard. Both situations were life threatening. At some point, Samuel found Pertti's beloved corduroy jacket, his old broken watch and his guitar at the home of his Grandma Anneli, who he still continued to call his mother, and immediately said that it was all "his."

He constantly pointed at pictures of the uncle and said: "That is me!" He recognized relatives from Pertti's time that he had never seen before and insisted that he was once seriously bitten by an angry dog -- but this had not happened to him during this lifetime; instead, it was experienced by the uncle as a five-year-old. As they pass a house, the little boy tells his father about how he had once been there at a party when a fire broke out. Which is correct, except for that his name was still Pertti at that time. There are many of these disturbing incidents, experiences and memories that apparently do not unnerve the little boy in the slightest.

Thanks to Dr. Ian Stevenson's meticulous investigations (and the continuation of his work on reincarnation by Professor Jim Tucker), some dates of birth (but often without the time) are available for the "continued" identities. He has done research on children who – completely on their own and often to the horror of their totally unesoteric parents – remembered detailed accounts of their past life and insisted that they were someone else at a very early point in their lives. Their horoscopes have many similar essential astrological features. But surprisingly, these do not necessarily occur in the expected way.

Some Markers of the Special Memory

In the cases of Stevenson and Tucker, certain positions are immediately conspicuous when they are given an astrological "follow-up examination." Here is an initial overview:

  • Children with very early memories have an unusually frequent occurrence of a Gemini (less frequently Sagittarius) emphasis on the Moon (sometimes also the Sun or Mercury); this also occurs more often in relation to House 6 (if the birth times are available): the emotional, the sensations and the memory of the origin is dominant and closely connected with the perception/consciousness (also sensual).  

  • Mercury-Moon connections are also significant via the aspect: The origin/past meets consciousness;

  • Mercury as a spiritual principle is also manifested in a very pronounced way in many cases, through a location in one of its "own" houses or signs or in a strong connection with Jupiter, Saturn or Neptune. The consciousness or the perception itself then asserts itself either in opposition to other levels of the natal chart or becomes fine and permeable, even seeming to overcome earthly time.

  • The fourth zodiac principle (origin and sensation) is also frequently emphasized via the house or sign.

  • Neptune and/or the node axis in the significant connection to the personal planets, often water or earth factors: the numinous that pushes itself into reality or over the emotional feeling of self.

  • In the synastry between the predecessor and the successor, an unusual frequency of similar sign positions and specific, special repetitive constellations is prominent. On the whole, this leads to a clearly recognizable and similar astrological pattern that is otherwise not seen in relationship astrology. In intensive bonding, the polar principle of comparability tends to dominate in other cases. Even without house systems, all of this is apparent in the "revenants." In addition, intermediate Neptune aspects to the personal planets repeatedly occur. Less frequently than expected, close synastric Moon Nodes connections become conspicuous that are otherwise more likely to be seen as "karmic" contacts in astrology. They exist here, but the small orbs are apparently not a special property.

When Samuel Helander was still shy of three years, he suddenly began walking through the room at Christmas to very seriously embrace everyone in the family and give them kisses on their cheeks. What a shock this was for the family: This had been precisely Pertti's Father Christmas ritual, which his nephew could not have known about. When people went on a stroll with him, he often walked - just like his uncle - with his hands on his back; this was a special habit that no one else in the family had - except for the prematurely deceased son and brother.

Ian Stevenson has examined more than one thousand cases in which – as for Pertti and Samuel – the past appears to be linked with future. As a Scorpio-Sun with Scorpio-Mercury and a Sun-Pluto trine (31 October 1918, Montreal), the researcher had a strong starting concept; but as a scientist, he was also meticulous in order to not run the risk of ignoring other possible explanations for the "memories" of his analysands. Stevenson also placed a special significance on the possible "inheritance" of outer features (such as the successor's birthmarks in the injured areas of the "predecessor"). This is very similar to how Indian astrology still propagates this approach. But it offered no explanations for the causes of the presumed reincarnation, which it viewed as a natural phenomenon. In the eyes of the reincarnation researcher, clarification was a task for other scientists, who only took him seriously to a limited extent – despite his hyper-exact work.

He saw the process that occurred time and again in the same way as a clear sign for "genuine" reincarnation (which Stevenson did not see within a religious context): The memories flood at a very early time and are spontaneous without being asked about them. When requested, details are given. But with puberty at the latest – and often already at 8 or 9 years – these children's inner images seem to increasingly vanish. This also corresponds with the perspective of astrology, which has the approach that the first seven years move backwards in a person's own natal chart through the 12th House with its personal links to the previous time. Only the migration through the 11th phase shows a child slowly leaping in a Uranian way from the cocoon of the emotional past into the earthly processes. Literally from heaven to Earth.

By entering the 10th House around the 14th year (in the midst of the hormonal transformation), human beings finally reach their current reality (and with it the further Saturnian/real destiny) for the first time. Like Samuel Helander, who has presumably now forgotten his experiences as Uncle Pertti. Which is also apparent in that he does not appear either in the media or the current research. The universe is and remains full of mysteries, which appear in the mental-psychological area of such identity overlapping that is ultimately very difficult to prove. In the coming weeks, Loop! will present a casual series of reports on similar exciting cases of "reincarnation" (that are based on more than just the subjective feeling of memory) and their astrological background.

LOOP! at Astrodienst
Orignal article by www.astrologie-zeitung.de
Author: Susanne Riedel Plenio

Translated into English by Christine Grimm

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