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Dharma in the Stars: 12th House Astrology
March 21, 2025 - March 23, 2025
Dharma in the Stars:12th House Astrology
Online or In-Person | March 21-23, 2025Are you ready to explore the deep and powerful waters of human liberation through the lens of Dharmic Astrology? The theme for this year’s Dharma in the Stars is the 12th House. In other words: How do you make the unconscious conscious? Gain insights into your shadow projections and hidden talents, and become more aware of the shapings of your womb experience. Join Catherine Sensei, a wisdom teacher who has developed AstroDharma as a tool for transformation, in a weekend ripe for life-altering insights.
Dharma in the Stars: 12th House Astrology
- You’d like to study an astrological Dharmic framework for spiritual understanding with a wisdom teacher in the Namgyal lineage.
- You’d like to explore where you fall subject to projections—those aspects of yourself which have been forced into the unconscious, thus cast onto others—and learn to own them as a more integrated human being.
- You’d like to transform challenges in your life by leveraging unseen strengths and talents.
- You’d like greater clues into the particular shapings of gestating in your mother’s womb, and how your womb experience is impacting your life.
- You’d like insights into how you can best connect with awakening states of unity.
- You want to understand the patterns of others, as well as your own, to be a more skilled and compassionate being in the world.
The 12th House is characteristically defined as a difficult astrological house. What happens there is out of view, hidden, unconscious. It’s defined in the liminal space just before the ascendant—the sign on the horizon at our birth—makes its appearance. This is the dark before the light, the house of shadows. Associated with Pisces and Neptune, it is often considered a place of delusion or illusion, where things may not be what they appear. We might wander there, seeking escape from a mundane world, or attempt to bypass difficult emotions.
And, this house has a special draw for the spiritual seeker. It is also in the 12th House that we merge with the collective. It is the realm of mysticism, selfless compassion, intuitive imagination, and spiritual gifts. Here we might taste a peak experience of oneness or expand into emptiness and transcendental wisdom.
Over the course, we will show you how to examine your natal chart and we will look at participant charts together, with a focus on the 12th House. You are also encouraged to bring burning questions arising from your life, so we can study how they are reflected astrologically. Think about specific questions which will be of particular benefit to you, and which will help you towards being of benefit to others.
For those attending in-person, Catherine Sensei will lead us in somatic AstroDharma mandalas to embody our 12th House aspects together. These mandalas can be a very powerful and visceral experience.
What You’ll Learn:
- A review of Astro Dharma and how it is unique.
- How to examine and map your own astrological natal chart’s 12th House.
- What happens in the 12th House? Why is it considered difficult, both challenge and potential wisdom?
- Tools for recognizing and working with unconscious material, mapping hidden territory and potential.
About AstroDharma
“AstroDharma” is what Catherine Pawasarat Sensei calls her unique synthesis of Buddhist teachings on spiritual awakening (Dharma) and transpersonal Western astrology, based on the teachings of Carl Jung.
These two powerful tools help us better understand ourselves and the patterns we manifest in our lives. The more we know about ourselves, the more choices we have. Then, we can make better choices so that we may lead healthier lives. Furthermore, we can also more deeply understand the patterns of those around us, and support the potential in others.
Meet the Teacher
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei is a contemporary Dharma teacher, attendant, consort, co-teacher via Planet Dharma and co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and universal spiritual tools including transpersonal astrology and Japanese arts.
She has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003.
Why AstroDharma?
Buddhist Dharma and Western Astrology are powerful systems that can be applied to help us better understand ourselves and recognize the archetypal patterns in our lives. The invitation to “Know Thyself” remains at the core of Western philosophy and the Buddhist meditation system offers us a map of consciousness that liberates us from identifying with a literal, fixed self.
Many of us in the West are raised to celebrate the individual self – to be creative, get in touch with ourselves, find our unique path, and explore why we are here on this planet. Buddhist Dharma leaps over personalizations by instructing us that there is no inherent self, and that we must realize this to find spiritual awakening and liberation from suffering.
For many of us that’s a big leap. On the way, we may miss valuable lessons about how we may compassionately show up in the world as unique individuals. The practice of AstroDharma is a way to help us bridge two systems. Transpersonal Western astrology can reveal individual or personal patterns and influences. We get a window into the energies, the pushes and pulls, of the psyche. Dharma expands the view beyond self, into a path of service to community, for the benefit of all beings. Over time, with growing confidence and awareness, we can transcend our natal charts, and awaken.
Bonus Gift for Course Participants
Online AstroDharma Course INCLUDED
Catherine Sensei also offers an online Intro to AstroDharma course which you will be able to access at the end of this course. This will help you continue your studies.
AstroDharma Blog
Articles by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei on AstroDharma:
Course Details
Time and Location
Dharma in the Stars: 12th House Astrology will be led by Catherine Pawasarat Sensei at Clear Sky Meditation Center in Eastern BC. This course is offered in-person or online. Retreating at Clear Sky is encouraged in order to participate in the in-person only somatic AstroDharma mandala work. In-person at Clear Sky is always a more grounded, supportive, communal experience.
Schedule / Class Times: All listed in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), and will be 60-90 minutes in duration. Please clear your schedule for the entire weekend to focus on this work. The following class times are approximate:
- Friday 7pm (please arrive on-site by 3pm at the latest)
- Saturday 9am, 2pm, and in-person somatic work at 7pm
- Sunday 9am, 2pm, and in-person somatic work at 4pm
Online participants are expected to attend classes live. We have arranged class times to be comfortable for most time zones. However we understand that some class times might occur after midnight in some regions; if this is the case for you, please let us know when you register. We can provide a recording so you can catch up on that particular class if it occurs in the middle of the night for you.
What you will need: Your astrology chart (based on your time of birth or by dowsing). More details will be given upon registration.
What Does the Course Cost?
In-Person Participants:
1) dāna to the Teacher,
2) accommodation and meal costs for your stay Clear Sky Meditation Centre.
Online Participants:
1) dāna to the Teacher,
2) online administration fee of $170 CAD.
You may have come across this elsewhere in the form of “pay from the heart”. Dāna is a Sanskrit term meaning “generosity”. With dāna, we give as a mutual exchange of generosity. It’s our joy to offer this course, and we trust you’ll match our time, energy, and passion by giving an amount of money that feels good and healthy to both you and us.
The Dharma has been built on generosity. No-one is excluded for lack of funds but it is also extremely beneficial to give as much as you are able.
Typically people give in a range of $120-$500 USD for a course.
As we’re committed to ensuring everyone has access to the Dharma, please feel comfortable to give less if you are not financially secure. Another form of giving dāna is to offer service, and if you are interested in providing support in a non-financial way, we invite you to contact us.
Conversely, if you are financially secure, we invite you to generate merit by providing more financial support to the Triple Gem. Contributions like these make the difference in supporting our teachers, teachings, and center.
Learn more about the practice of dāna here.
In a traditional model of in-person teachings, a retreat center or urban meditation center invites teachers to visit. In these cases the centers have infrastructure and organization costs to cover, which might be covered by an admin fee. For the teaching itself, dāna to the teachers is offered in a bowl. This honors both the sustainability of the teachers, and of the supporting center.
We’ve tried to recreate this approach online. The teachers’ time and the teaching themselves are offered on the basis of dāna, separate to the admin fee. With our dāna offering we are making a direct gift of generosity to the teachers to support their teachings and livelihood.
The admin fee* goes to support the infrastructure and organization necessary to support them to teach. As anyone with an online business will know, it can be surprising the costs of setting up a good infrastructure to support effective teaching and connection online. The admin fee changes based on date of registration.
*We also do not wish to exclude anyone from the Teachings, so if you are not currently in a financial position to afford the admin fee, please contact the course Registrar via [email protected] so we can support you to attend.
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Below are a few of the work and benefits that your admin fee payment is supporting:
- high speed internet (to allow interviews and classes on-line)
- online class systems (Zoom)
- registration / admin systems (Eventbrite, Basecamp)
- communication systems to keep everyone informed, share connection details, teachings and other resources (Mailchimp)
- online storage (for example, Dropbox, to allow us to let students watch recordings, and to store and share selected teachings in other forms such as podcasts and video later, and Amazon cloud)
- quality sound, video and editing equipment (both for live teachings and to provide good enough quality for later sharing as podcasts and video). We are regularly updating our equipment to improve your user experience.
- online calendar booking system to allow students to book interviews
- website hosting and maintenance for sharing upcoming courses, teachings, blogs and other resources.
We welcome any questions. May all our efforts be sustainable, abundant and for the benefit of all beings!
Registration
IMPORTANT: Onsite retreatants: Register early as places on the retreat are limited.
(Register for in-person by March 7, 2025, assuming space is still available.)
Online retreatants, please register as early as possible so there is time to prepare your charts. (Register for online by March 14, 2025.)
Questions?
If you have questions about the retreat, please contact the Clear Sky Retreat Manager at 250-429-3929 (phone) or at [email protected] (email).
Why Retreat In-Person?
Retreating in person at a retreat center is the best way to retreat – why?
- You can’t beat live interaction with the course Teachers. Being in the same space with clear beings ‘tunes’ you to more wholesome states.
- We create a welcoming environment and follow a supportive retreat schedule, based on decades of hosting successful retreats worldwide.
- Wholesome and delicious food is provided so you don’t have to spend time cooking for yourself.
- Breath-taking and restful, natural environment puts your body and mind at ease and resets your nervous system.
- Retreating at our center gets you out of your usual home environment and routines – they can be distracting.
- Retreating with others (your co-retreatants) is incredibly supportive and energy building.
We work hard to support the online learning experience.
- We have been delivering online offerings since 2012 and are always looking for new ways to optimize your experience.
- Classes are live-streamed and some recordings are available for a certain time.
- HD cameras and professional audio equipment provide high quality video streaming.
What Do Previous Retreatants Say?
Free AstroDharma Resources
Free AstroDharma Resources
- AstroDharma Reference Chart (Handy printable guide)
- The 3 Most Important Parts of Your Chart (Video)
- AstroDharma and Relationships (Video)
How We Use AstroDharma
For spiritual seekers looking to grow, the unique combination of Buddhism and Transpersonal Astrology speed us up on our spiritual path.
At our meditation centre, we use Western astrology alongside Buddhist philosophy and meditation practice. This helps our students transform their challenges more effectively.
There are five key aspects of AstroDharma study:
1. Understand how to read your own astrological birth chart.
2. Harness and develop its positive elements wisely.
3. Recognize and overcome elements that may be out-of-balance.
4. Use this knowledge to redirect your energy into more effective patterns of living.
5. Use meditation, and ideally work with teachers and a spiritual community, to go deeper and fully investigate and liberate the subtle patterns and conditioning.
Teacher Bio
Since the early 2000s Catherine has provided dharma training and taught the path of awakening to hundreds of students, together with Doug Duncan Sensei and on her own. In addition to Astrology and Buddhist philosophy and their applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living (a.k.a. sustainability) and the arts.
Catherine is from a lineage of spiritual awakening that values the best of Eastern and Western philosophy. Her partner Doug Duncan Sensei and their teacher Namgyal Rinpoche excel in teaching both methods. This is an ideal training for Westerners, and an evolution of traditional teachings for the modern seeker.
In addition to Planet Dharma and Clear Sky, her website GionFestival.org shares her ground-breaking work on the spiritual traditions and sustainability of Kyoto’s 1100-year-old Gion Festival.
Free AstroDharma Resources – Join our Community