“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it” is a famous and often misquoted line from George Santayana, an early 20th century writer and philosopher who noticed how history often repeats itself. But the actual quotation is an even better fit with past lives work:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

By implication, bringing our past life mistakes into conscious, present day awareness and seeing how (and with whom) those mistakes occurred grants us the opportunity to avoid repeating those past mistakes. This is most noticeable when conducting multiple sessions with clients where they notice that Santayana was correct: History does repeat itself, even on a personal level.

I’ve avoided any political posts in this volatile year but this story came across my desktop and it demanded my attention. This is NOT an anti- or pro- anyone article; consider it as a doorway into how we humans recreate our past circumstances and then repeat our mistakes when we don’t look inward to question our motives and even our aspirations. (Trigger warning if you’re sensitive to any mention of the 45th president of the USA; I will get through this blog without typing his name, but it appears in the link to the original story.) So I’ll propose this as a thought exercise. The politico.com article* points out the similarities between 2020 USA and the events that led to the Fall of Rome, and I call your attention to the story’s subtitle:

Two thousand years ago, the famous Republic had a chance to reject a dangerous populist. It failed, and the rest is history

With that in mind, here are the details that an historian of ancient history, Tim Elliott, pointed out about Julius Caesar. When a client interacts with a significant personality in a past lives session, I always ask, “Feel into the energy of this person and see if it resonates with anyone you know or have know in your present life, even if they are presently a different sex, age or role.” Or in this historical case, and without mentioning any names:

WHO DOES THIS REMIND YOU OF? 

-       “Julius Caesar promised to return Rome to an imagined ancient glory—but instead constructed himself a throne, bulldozing democratic norms, ignoring checks on his power and eroding political debate. Rome chose to follow Caesar, putting the famed Republic on a glide path to destruction.”
- Julius Caesar was already both a celebrity and deeply in debt when he took office, 

 -       Questions were raised about his fitness for office

-       “Opponents even ridiculed the way he attempted to hide that he was balding, wearing an oak-wreath to disguise his thinning hair,”

-       Instead of using “the official means by which legislation and public information were put to the people and debated,” he instead “broadcast his message directly to the people” treating it as a “rally, addressing crowds of the faithful with calls for resistance against the corruption of the elites,”

-       “As real debate and discussion disappeared, the citizen body became ever more radicalized into opposed ideological camps. As Plutarch tells us, prominent opponents of Caesar began to be afraid to go out in public without protection,”

-       “Caesar declared that there was nothing to gain by engaging politically with his opponents, and instead addressed his loyal followers directly; he embarked on a political arms race that drew the battle lines of an internal conflict that consumed Rome for a generation. 

-       “Caesar had embedded supporters—through favors and the promise of material gain—into the state apparatus, apologists who could block, maneuver and misinform on Caesar’s behalf and who cared more about power than about protecting the rule of law.”

-       “ (t)he more outrageously he behaved, the more devoted his followers became.”

Does this seem like it was written in November 2020? Here’s the warning about not paying attention to how history repeats itself: 

 Caesar left office only with assurances and massive personal gain: the governorship of an unprecedented three provinces, an army, and immunity from prosecution…  (W)hen Caesar returned to Rome, it was at the head of an army. The environment of strongman politics he helped to create left civil war and violence as the only effective means of political change—and ultimately sealed his own fate.

Note that Caesar finally left office with his fortunes intact and immunity from prosecution, but when he returned to power it was with an army of followers willing to use violent means to restore him to the throne. And as an example of how ignoring the past cuts both ways, the only way the “Dictator for Life” was removed was when he was assassinated, “a bloody tyrannicide in the Senate house itself.” But the damage was done.

But even with his death, transformation of Rome’s political culture into the rule of the strong could not be reversed, as new contenders emerged for yet another round of brutal civil wars that finally extinguished the Republic once and for all.

As Cicero described it, Rome was a society “divided in two” and the republic collapsed. 

There are obviously larger forces at work, but here is a lesson for becoming aware of the repeating patterns that we CAN access and release through Past Lives explorations. As the late Dick Sutphen reminds us, “Wisdom erases Karma.” 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/03/donald-trump-julius-caesar-433956

Updated: I found this Medium post that humorously challenges this idea. Writing as “Gutbloom,’ the author, tongue firmly in cheek, points out that Caesar was a soldier/warrior, a seasoned diplomat, was kind to the poor, wrote his own book, and was not a picky eater. But I cannot ignore the parallels to 2020, and choose to heed the lesson of not repeating past mistakes.

https://medium.com/the-athenaeum/not-fixed-like-the-northern-star-1e7f98331a34