The positive influences and interests
I never payed too much attention to occupational surnames like Shepherd, Potter, or Schumacher. It took me a while to understand that my last name, “Soifer” actually matches that category. Soifer is the Yiddish version version of the Hebrew word for scribe, a sofer (“סופר“). To be more precise, a scribe that works with holy scrolls. It is one of the oldest forms of “documentation” that exists.
Adding to my family heritage, I have the following astrological influences: both my Sun sign and my Mercury are in Gemini – a sign whose strength tends to be communication. My rising is in Virgo, denoting my opportunity to develop attentiveness to details and preciseness. It feels like I’ve been putting some effort into building the abilities needed to communicate. For those readers interested in Astrology, you can appreciate the influence of Mercury in my chart – an expression of my areas of focus.
Besides the astrological influence, the numerology of my full name adds up to 11. For those that know the correspondence between the numbers, the sephiroth, and the chakras, you will know that 11 heightens the energies of communication, expression, the voice, and… attentiveness to details. Energies that are also intensified by the city I live in: Berlin is described by Alice Bailey as “the throat chakra” of Germany.
Being a “scribe of holy scrolls” has not been a tradition or a craft that has been “passed down through generations until it reached me”, yet I always had some pleasure in writing things down, and sharing knowledge with other people. My bachelor degree in Social Communication doesn’t seem like a coincidence anymore.
The negative influences and challenges
The most immature trait I have carried in my life is a desire for perfection. As perfection is obviously unattainable, the overthinking connected to it led me to two common patterns:
- Whenever I had a choice and could not to something, I would avoid it
- Whenever I had no choice, I would postpone it, forcing me to deal with things in a hurry
I sincerely do not believe that I developed these characteristics on this particular incarnation. I seem to have been carrying them for God knows how long. I would consider this part of the reason behind the disproportional influences of Mercury in my chart (ruler of both Gemini and Virgo). Please note that I am not “justifying” being a certain way because of my astrological signs – it is precisely the other way around: I was born under their influence to manifest the qualities, positive and negative, that I developed or ignored in previous incarnations.
This is one of the reasons why having a business is so important to me. As a “solopreneur”, dealing with imperfections becomes a day to day matter. The website cannot be perfect before it is launched. Maybe the page doesn’t load as fast as I would want. Maybe the content could benefit from some editing and proofreading. Yet, here I am.
On a rational and intellectual level, I subscribe to the definition of a “Growth Mindset” outlined by Carol Dweck: I know that the path to excellence comes from study, practice, and perseverance. On an emotional level, I still try to protect my ego and find myself making excuses for not being publicly vulnerable. This is something that I am changing now.