If I’m quick, I can sometimes catch myself doing or saying something in a manner that reminds me precisely of my father’s doing or saying of the same sort of thing. In lesser degree this also applies with mother and grandparents. And this is increasingly apparent the older I get.

I was reminded of this by this post from Aperture of Brahma:

“Conscious mind receives its governing tendencies from heredity, which means it is the result of all past generations…
conscious mind learns through observation and experience. Thus, we develop patterns of behavior from our parents, who learned them from their parents.”

Of course, we are not the same as our forebears. We each have our own individual character, suffused with this hereditary/environmental background.

Apart from meditation and self observation, one of the most effective tools I have found to help understand and explore these influences in myself and others is astrological psychology, which in effect provides a guided tour of the in-born, hereditary and environmental influences in our lives, including how these are emphasised at different ages.

I hasten to add that astrological psychology is not something to be casually explored for 5 minutes then discarded, as we have become accustomed to in the internet age. To explore it effectively required a serious period of study, or you can cheat and speak to a consultant who has done that work.

Featured image shows random pictures of grandfather, father and son from the web.