Readers do not have to believe in reincarnation to benefit from this post or weblog. We only have to agree that present actions have effects in the future. What we call our past history was once the future that was caused by previous “present” actions.

Prologue: We are told that karma is carried from one lifetime to another and from one situation to another in this present lifetime. It’s much like passing the torch in a relay race. But what does karma actually look like “on the ground” in our daily lives? Put another way, what are the consequences of our past volitional actions when certain causes and conditions meet and certain seeds ripen in the present?

Based on my weblog page called Actual face of karma, what would the life of someone who is the present (fictional) Cleopatra actually look like? In other words, what is the fruition of the karma of this historical figure in terms of money, career, sex, family, friendships etc. To try to answer this question, I use personal and private diary entries like the one below.

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I, Rainbow Desert Flower, enter this into my private diary on the 25th day of the month of November in the year 2004 CE. May it benefit all those who are trying to understand their karmic footprint.

June 21’01 – I notice a sore on present-day incarnation of Marc Antony’s lower left leg. Ask him how long he’s had it. Two years, he says. I try to hide my shock. That’s a long time for a sore not to heal. I ask him to go to the doctor, something he doesn’t like to do. Doctor sends him to oncologist who digs out the cancer from “Marc Antony’s”  leg.

February, 2002 – “Marc Antony” misses follow-up appointment with the doctor. Doesn’t book new one.

November 27, 2001 – I  am very fussy re locking door tonight. Keep checking it before I go to bed.

November 28, 2001 – Have premonition of “Marc Antony’s” death in what I call the “Shroud Dream.”

Dream: I hear someone in the hall outside my bedroom. A long piece of wood materializes beside my bed that I can use to protect myself. A figure shrouded in white from head to foot enters my room and walks over to “Marc Antony’s” side of the bed near the window. I try to scream or shout in fear – feel constricted.

May 06, 2002:  “Marc Antony” leaves his jewellery — the gold ring I gave him on September 5, 2001 and the Cleopatra medallion on a silver chain that I gave him in July, 2001 — when he leaves my house to go to his office. I speak to him later in the day — he does not realize that he is not wearing his jewellery. A reflection of his feelings.

July 15, 2002: “Marc Antony” writes me a letter to say that he is in crisis and has gone into isolation. I leave him a voice-mail message to say that this is the kind of situation where you call on your friends to help.  I am taken back to September 02, 31 BC — Marc Antony is so severely depressed after losing the battle of Actium that he leaves Cleopatra’s palace to live in isolation on the beach of Alexandria.

July 28, 2002: “Marc Antony” telephones to tell me that his cancer has reoccurred. Has three months to live. Says that on July 7th he could not swallow food at supper.  Went to the hospital emergency department. Waits for nine hours. Diagnosis: cancer of the oesophagus from smoking. I realize that his not taking me with him to the hospital or communicating with me until July 28th reflects his lack of interest and love in our relationship in this lifetime.

November 24’04 – Walk into store that sells old records. Felt the presence of  “Marc Antony” on my left shoulder while looking at old George Carlin albums.  “Antony” likes Carlin. Haven’t spoken to “Antony” since July, 2002 when he told me that the cancer had travelled up from his leg to his throat.

November 25’04 – 06h30 – don’t usually check my e-mail before going to work, but I did today. E-mail from “Marc Antony’s” son re death of “Antony.”

This death is a kind of suicide. In other words, instead of falling on his sword as Marc Antony did, in this lifetime he traded one killer (sword) for another (smoking), and died at age 61 of cancer of the oesophagus on November 22, 2004. I mourned not only his death, but our lifetime together. From having once been his “queen,” I was firmly relegated to second place in this lifetime. From the greatest lovers in history to….a “recreational relationship.”

Update – August 23, 2009:

1. clusters of thoughts, including emotions; and
2. action – actions of body, speech and mind

So habits are comprised of an emotional aspect (Sanskrit: kleshas) that meets up with our habitual way of reacting (Sanskrit: karma).

Marc Antony’s aggressive self-absorption and substance abuse (alcoholism) meet once again in this lifetime resulting in early death via substance abuse (smoking).