Spiritual Insight: Spirituality, Religion and Astrology

Spirituality implies having an investigative mindset in order to arrive at your own conclusions about the workings of the universe and your own in-depth self-discovery. In this spiritual insight by Astro Salt, let’s analyze a few common statements related to spirituality and religion and see how astrology fits into it.

Religion threatens and terrifies as it focuses on sin and fault, while spirituality promotes inner peace and consciousness of all that is. 

Spiritual Insight #1:

Surely one of the most commonly criticized problems with religion is the existence of certain rules that are expected to be followed most often without questions, while disobedience of those is believed to be leading to an unfulfilled life, or even after-life… But you see, spirituality is not as peaceful as the gurus make it seem, either.

The whole process of self-discovery and self-reconstruction is most often a highly painful one. As you strip yourself from your past traumas, discover your weaknesses that now need to be turned into strengths, it’s not an easy ride! Yes, you get rewarded with an empowered reborn and happier you, but it’s most often hard work. It’s not the meditation sessions that will make you reach that inner peace, trust me. It won’t even be the trippy visions that you experience when your third eye opens – those will be either fun (as currently in my case) or scary. 

If you want spiritual insight, then accept the fact that your awakening may not be easy, and don’t give up halfway.

Religion is for people who need guidance from others and who are still asleep while spirituality vs religion is for people who rely on their inner voice and logic and who are “awake”.

Spiritual Insight #2:

Well, you see, when you were a child, didn’t you need guidance from your parents and teachers or did you, and as you were growing up, didn’t you acquire knowledge by reading or soaking in information from others? Learning from others and being inspired by others will help you grow and figure out what and who you resonate with. As long as you use your free will and reason to investigate whether the information is beneficial for you as to help you decide on your actions and don’t blindly follow the herd, having some guidance in your life is important, and rejecting it doesn’t make you more spiritual or more awakened. After all, spirituality vs religion seeks the sacredness in all the books, and not just one book (such as the Bible). 

Spirituality vs religion encourages “living in the present” and not feeling remorse or guilt for what has already passed but rather learning from past mistakes and uplifting the spirit and in order to find inner peace.

Spiritual Insight #3:

In a religion, you go to a church for a worshipping service, you are told what to pray and when, and you confess your sins to a member of a clergy, in order to live a better eternal life. A lot of the time the focus is on your negative past that needs to be cleared up. But you see, people mistakenly think that spirituality is a happier alternative because you are somehow magically expected to heal your wounds and find peace without guilt or shame while focusing on the here and now. But you’d be fooling yourself if you think that in either scenario you can bypass dealing with your own consciousness.

At the core of spirituality is self-development and your soul’s growth, and how can you attain it if you don’t see yourself clearly because some Youtube spiritual “guru” told you to simply forgive yourself and not think about the past? Sorry, not sorry, but your choice of spirituality vs religion won’t matter if you merely seek an easy way out. You can’t run away from your inner self.

Religion feeds the ego. Spirituality transcends.

Spiritual Insight #4:

This is a complex one because, for the longest time, we’ve been led to believe that an ego is a negative part of ourselves, so any association with something having to do with “feeding it”, that has or does not have to do with religion, is a bad thing. But as an astrologer, I can tell you that it is simply due to the fact that most people misunderstand the entire concept of an ego, both on the religion and spirituality side.

Astrology helps to explain that there are numerous types of ego and that some egos can actually be good for a person and the society at large. The key is to recognize the positive and negative manifestations of a particular ego and learn to use the good ones for the greater good and not only selfish reasons. For example, a friendly Sun in Libra will have a “gentler” ego than, let’s say, a more aggressive Sun in Aries, and will strive for a more collective “we” approach than the more selfish “I” that Aries are known for.