“From the Ancient Wisdoms to Quantum Physics,
It's All About the Energy!”
“Why Can't I Manifest?” - Part I©
Dennis L. Dossett
(All Rights Reserved)
Over the years a number of people have asked me the question, “Why Can’t I Manifest?” Every one of them has tried repeatedly—often for years—to do “everything in their power” to manifest some desire into their lives, but to no avail. I usually ask them to tell me what they have been doing to manifest and, after a sometimes lengthy explanation they ask, “What am I doing wrong?” My answer (like my answer to many questions) is “Yes!” In other words what they do is sometimes quite helpful, while other things they do are often counterproductive. It is a topic important enough to include as a section in the chapter on manifesting for the books I am currently writing (Dancing with the Energy) as well as for this month’s blog.
As some of you may know by now, I believe that, whatever “it” is, “It’s all about the Energy!” That energy has to be accounted for, nurtured, and implemented in the right way or else you will soon be asking, “Why Can’t I Manifest?” And the answer to that question always has to do with blocking or resisting the energies of your life rather than allowing them to flow naturally, unhindered. So let’s take a look at some of these factors and what you can do about them.
First, manifesting, like any other area of life, requires certain energy conditions (including timing) to be in place or you will likely experience tremendous difficulty if not complete failure. Many of these energy conditions and their timing can be found in your natal astrological chart. The location of planets in the houses they occupy in your chart are a major clue to blockages and resistance that you chose to try to deal with (unblock) in this incarnation. These blockages indicate major Life Lessons you chose to try to address, Karmic Imbalances you chose to deal with, and Past-Life Energy you need to clear from your individual energy field (often called the “soul memory”). The single most important thing to acknowledge and to remember is that your natal chart is simply an energetic representation of choices you made to try to further your soul evolution< in this lifetime. Whether you do so is up to the choices you make during your sojourn on the earth plane in your current life.
For example, the planet Saturn is known as the “disciplinarian” and indicates the energy of limitation, restriction, and your hardest life lesson. If Saturn appears in your first house, it indicates (not causes) lessons involving self-image. In the second house, Saturn indicates (not causes) lessons around money, property, self-worth, or personal growth. Relationship lessons may be indicated (not caused) by Saturn in the 4th house (parents), the 5th house (children), the 7th house (long-term relationships-marriage, business partnerships, etc.), or the 11th house (friendships and acquaintances). Of course, those houses also represent other things as well (for example: 4th house, security; 5th house, love and sex; 7th house, contracts & agreements, etc.). The same is true of Saturn’s placement in other houses. The point is, if you have not yet learned the life lessons of the house where Saturn appears, you are not likely to be able to readily manifest the things associated with that house until you do learn them. But once the lesson is truly learned (determined through repeated testing), then the flow of your life energies is no longer restricted and manifesting can occur more readily (see Dancing with the Energy: Book 2: Conscious Living – What's Holding You Back?).
But lessons are not the provenance of Saturn alone. For example, Jupiter—which represents growth and expansion or abundance in general—is also associated with lessons related to finding your own truth, higher consciousness, and allowing others to be who they are. Chiron represents your deepest wound. Its healing involves understanding and forgiving oneself and others, compassion, and detachment. Pluto signifies change, transformation, and rebirth. Its lessons involve the proper use of power, letting go of power, struggle, control, pride, manipulation, and destructive behaviors in general. Indeed, every planet carries the energy to trigger the learning of lessons related to that planet as its energy plays out in a specific house at various points over the course of your life. Every planet has its “positive qualities” (think of lessons learned) and its “negative qualities” (think of lessons yet to be learned).
The same holds true for the signs of the zodiac, each one having to do with particular life lessons. For example, the lessons of Aries involve patience, Taurus lessons involve detachment, etc. It is the combination of planet, house, and sign which gives such variety—and individual tailoring—of life lessons to each individual. Add to that the positive/neutral/negative aspects between planets (conjunct, trine, square, opposition, etc.) and whether a planet is moving directly (clockwise motion in your chart) or in retrograde (the appearance of “backward motion” caused by the relative position of a planet and the earth in their respective orbits around the sun). Retrograde planets, by the way, indicate lessons attempted but not fully learned in previous lives. In short, your life plan can get quite complicated very quickly, all the more reason to seek professional assistance in understanding and interpreting your natal chart.
The energy of Karma always includes life lessons in addition to balancing the energy between souls. Even if the lesson has already been learned (often in a previous life), the karmic energy must still be balanced. Once again, your natal chart holds the key to understanding your life plan in terms of your intentions before you incarnated this time on the earth plane. Astrological keys here are relationships: 3rd house (siblings), 4th house (family), 7th house (long-term relationships), and 11th house (friends & acquaintances). In any of these houses, look for these planets: Venus (love), Saturn (limitations and restrictions), and Chiron (deepest wound).
Past-life energy is almost always woven into the fabric of one’s lessons and karma, and is often revealed in strong feelings (positive or negative) toward other people, places, or activities. Habits, well developed talents and abilities, and your “comfort zone” (often involving detrimental habits) are all indications of energy imprints from previous incarnations and are reflected in the South Node of your astrological chart. Whether these things are holding you back or keeping you from manifesting depends on many other factors in your natal chart, more than we can really catalog here. Suffice it to say, the challenges and opportunities you planned to address before incarnating this time have a great deal of influence on your ability to manifest in the here and now.
“Fine!” I often hear people say. “But I’m stuck with my natal chart, so tell me something that I can do about it!” But remember, your natal chart is neither a prison sentence nor a curse! It is your life plan, and once the relevant lessons are learned, the karmic energy balanced, and/or the trapped past-life energy is cleared, your ability to manifest will be greatly enhanced. You are here on the earth plane to learn. That is why you chose your astrological configuration before you were born. You can do something about them while you are here on the earth plane, but it is up to you to do so.
“But, but …” (I can hear the sounds of resistance resonating from many directions here. Remember, resistance is just another form of blockage!) “I can think of many people who have abundance up the gazoo, and I know they have a lot of lessons to learn!” Well, you are probably correct on both counts, but their lessons are different than yours and none of your concern. Your life is all about you, and really no one else. Other people are in your life to help you to learn your own lessons—sometimes by “pushing your buttons”—just as you are in their lives to assist them in their soul evolution. There are many, many, many lessons to learn aside from “how to manifest”, and some of those lessons require abundance in order to provide the conditions necessary for learning. For example, it would be very difficult to learn not to hoard but to share abundance if you don’t have abundance already! Abundance provides a necessary resource for one to learn to use it properly. But that is a different lesson than learning that abundance is your birthright and will occur when you have learned the necessary lessons.
The important point here is that the conditions that allow and/or promote manifesting are necessary but not sufficient for manifesting to occur. Without learning (or having already learned) particular lessons and/or balancing karmic energy, all the effort you can muster will not likely manifest what you want in your life.
I understand the frustration people experience in trying to manifest. Even if they do consciously work toward learning their life lessons, balancing their karmic obligations, and clearing trapped energy from both their current and past lives, they feel that there is still something more, and they are correct. In fact, there are additional blocks to manifesting that are not necessarily obvious in your natal chart. These blocks have less to do with the conditions for manifesting and everything to do with the techniques of manifesting. But that is a topic we’ll take up next month.
Until then, I recommend reviewing your natal chart (or getting one made) and really focusing on what it suggests regarding your current potential to manifest what you want.
Have an enlightening month!
Dennis