A lot of us are raised thinking our emotions and sexual urges are bad. When we have an emotional reaciton to something our parents usually get upset and tell us it's not right. In the United States we live in a society that has frozen emotions for a long time. People would prefer to be a robot to being an emotional or sexual human being. All of those emotions have to go somewhere and so they go into the Shadow. This is a mental construct that we start building of our disowned aspects as a child and add to throughout adulthood unless we become cionsciously aware of it. The shadow is a concept that Carl Jung coined. He said that each person creaetes a dark palce within themselves. That dark place is where the send all of their undesired pieces. All of the undesired urges or feelings or thoughts or behaviors. Here is a direct quote from Carl Jung: "The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. ... One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." What Happens When You Disown The Shadow? By casting out all of these ideas, concepts, urges and thoughts into this shadow we disown them. Then they take on a life of their own. We denial our emotional heirtage as human beings. We become less human and more robotic or Zombie like. This is why I call people who are not awake Zombies. They go about controlled by urges they do not comprehend. The reason they don't comprehend where the emotions come from is because they have shoved that part of themselves into their shadow so deeply they no longer reconize it as being a part of themselves. Anyone who has problems with rage and depression knows how the Shadow can hold onto them. How it seems to control them. They may resort to the idea that 'demons' are plaguing them or someone has 'cursed' them. This is not true at all...in fact, it allows the person to distance themselves even further from the aspect of themselves that they wish to disown. The people in such states are not dealing with the Repressed feelings within the Shadow...and so become controlled by them. Their fear of dealing withi that repressed item causes them to go to great lengths to deny that it occurs. Starts In Childhood Now, this process starts when your a child. Your parents say don't do this and don't do that. That's not nice, etc. All of the experiences that brought you pain or sadness are usually sent to the shadow. If you have a horrible experience you don't understand in child hood...it goes into the shadow. That aspect needs to be healed but few people are courageous enough to return to that memory and heal it. They try to ignore it, they bury it and they may forget about it...but there it is in the shadow waiting for the individual to reach out and look at it with a new filter...a new perspctive (which is the greatest form of healing). Emotions in particular are usualy sent to the shadow because most parents tell their kids not to cry or be angry which are natural important reactions to stimulus. They are very approrpiate at times. They are very powerful tools in transformation. All of the things your parents say you shouldn't think or do goes straight to the shadow where it is forgotten because you think that having those feelings, urges, questions or ideas will harm you. As An Adult As an adult you continue to operate under the belief that these concepts are not acceptable and you may add to them with experience. I've encountered many people who were at odds with themselves. They knew they had a part of themselves that they did not understand...that they denied...but they didn't have the right filter to comprhend it and their suffering was immeasurable. All of this goes into the subconscious and you are not aware of where the urges come from to do certain things. In fact, it controls your entire state of mind resulting in either anger issues or depression. This can lead to extreme schizophrenia as the human being literally rejects their humanity and reality. For me, at one point even trying to do something was hard because I always felt defeated. As though no matter how I tried things never worked out so why bother? I felt this huge weight. I was frozen in life because I felt that no matter what I would do it would be a huge uphill battle. A lot of people who've created a big shadow don't even understand the urges that they have or why the behave a certain way. Any form of release from the presence of the shadow...whether its drugs or alcohol. Embracing The Shadow Don't hide from your emotions. Dig deeply into them and meditate on them. If you like to write have a journal. When you experience an uncomfortable emotion write about it. Usually, it will come out when you disowned a reaction to a situation. Just this week on Peter Woodbury's personal Facebook there was a huge discussion. He posted this Meme: If you prefer to talk it out and you have a good friend that will listen without offering advice or trying to 'fix' the situation then call them up. If you don't have a friend capable of that support try finding a therapist.
Once you can identify the emotion you can feel it. Describe how it feels in your body. Don't fight it. Describe what it makes you think. Does it remind you of a memory? Does it remind you of a person? This is where you develop the Heart of Compassion. Yes, sometimes, it feels like this process can be endless. You're constantly discovering a new aspect of yourself that you had hidden or buried and integrating it. However, this process is so crucial to your development because it brings everything into your consciousness. Depression, manic behavior and anger issues disappear. You've identified where they come from and released them. This awareness brings an amazing amount of freedom and a depth to life that one cannot experience until they allow themselves to Feel the full range of their emotions. Conclusion While this process can be really long sometimes it is immensely rewarding. If we do not Embrace our Shadow and integrate it back into ourselves, forgiving ourselves for those feelings, emotions and urges that we froze out because they did not feel safe...we are forever trapped in the past. The energy of the Past is with us and we have urges that we don't feel we can control. We are not completely conscious of ourselves and that lids to a lot of disease. This is the first step of accepting and loving ourselves. When we find the ability to forgive ourselves and realize all of those emotions or urges were natural we can forgive them in others. This results in one of the deeper healings a person can achieve on their path to Wholeness.
0 Comments
This is the story of our souls.
Who am I? Why am I alive? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What is my purpose? These are some of the most fundamental questions that people have. Each person might have a different answer to these fundamental questions at certain times in their Spiritual Development. A lot of people don't walk down the Spiritual Path. They don't know why they have a Spiritual Practice or desire belief...they just know that it brings enrichment to their life. They don't seek to know God/Source in any way shape or form on the conscious level but they are driven by a desire for Source by their Soul. Many atheists and people who do not believe there is anything beyond this life and our experience in the Cosmos think that belief is the result of indoctrination and a desire for certainty in an uncertain world. Based on my research into the major religions and down different alternative spiritual avenues I just don't see this as the case. Overwhelmingly, there is a sense of loss and a desire to recover what has been lost. I used to view being a Seeker as a hobby. I'm not out for personal gain or any desire to have power over another. I would love to show people new paradigms, to challenge their thinking and help them find Wholeness on a deep level of their being. For some reason, I wasn't born with the separation most people have because I can tune into the Oneness at will. I lost that ability for a time but I've discovered that is all some people hope to attain in this lifetime. I'm also rare in that I don't just study one Religion...I'm not someone who chooses teams religiously or politically. Nor do I dismiss any religion because of personal bias. Every point of view is just as sacred and as justifiable as those that predated them. Sometimes the teachings have been misunderstood, yet, that is part of the system. Yeshua taught parables to the people because he knew they weren't ready or prepared to handle the full truth. The reason you don't cast pearls before swine is because they trample it...they misunderstand it and they distort it. The right people will come to the information when they need it and the right people will understand that information. I'm on the Human Soul Team. That means I came here to serve every one of you. From the lowliest beggar to the most filthy rich man on this planet (who is probably the most spiritual destitute). I don't care the color of your skin, your supposed disabilities, your diseases, your hangups, the way you identify yourself...none of that has ever mattered to me. I have had my own obstacles and stumbling blocks. People have labeled me and treated me as they thought my label warranted. Yet, I am undefinable by the human language. Just as the essence of each of you who are reading this is undefinable. I have sought answers with a dedicated heart through studying every major religion and many alternative sources I feel are just as valid because they carry the same message. The system I have discovered is fluid and dynamic...much like the trickster character in many spiritual faiths. Every time you try to grasp on to some fundamental truth it seems to slip out of your hands or morph just enough. Overwhelmingly, the information you are about to read are from all sources. A good deal of it does come from John Van Auken's work from the Edgar Cacye A.R.E. but a great deal of it came from 'visions' that I have had. Most of these visions happened in dreams as that is my preferred method of communicating with my Higher Self. I will examine those dreams in future blogs but this is the story that has emerged and that has been validated by my research. So not only do I have my individual experience but I hear it echoed or stated plainly throughout many religions or psychic/mediums. Experience A lot of the material that used to come out about Who we are (on a soul level) and Why we are here (as souls) seemed cryptic to me. There were hints and little asides here and there. There was almost a conflict of information. At first, I couldn't make sens of it but with time, practice and intention my mind expanded to understand it. That's the best way to explain it...something clicked and it went from being mumbo jumbo to the same story reiterated time and time again. Sure, this could be some form of projection based on my own bias but often times I'm puzzled and down right delighted when I find other people validating the information I've received/perceived in their own unique way. In a previous blog I stated the purpose that we had come to this world as souls was for the Experience. I didn't know what that experience was or why specifically but I knew that we were here to learn about ourselves. That the soul doesn't care if we have good experiences or bad experiences as long as we are not stagnant. That is what much of life is about...we try something, we fail, we try again...and through the experience of measuring ourselves against obstacles we learn more about ourselves. If the obstacles were to be removed we would never really learn our true depths or the depth of the human experience. The story that has emerged more recently, and from older sources that have been out for a while, is that experience is just a small sliver of the story. The answer, that we came here to have experiences, was from a multi-religious and multi-source perspective. The following is the same...from Ancient Egypt, to the Celts, to the Hopi, from Hindu, to Buddhist, Christian, Muslims, and Sikhisim. You find the same story of the soul. Here is what I can perceive from my limited point of view in this point in time: The Story Of The Soul I've been following threads through different spiritual practices for a long time now. I can say that they run through all of the major religions and spiritual practices. There different emphasis on different parts. Some religions focus on certain a parts of the story but it's universal. I'm not going to give examples where I discovered different portions of it or quote all of the different religions/spiritual practices/teachings in this post. The basic story is the most important and if it resonates with you all the better. That would be exhausting and probably wouldn't convince anyone of anything. Some are from John Van Auken and some from Laird Scranton. I see a tapestry where other people have pointed to threads. You can see all of this as a fantasy tale as well because I can't prove anything. Creation Story The universal story when it comes to the Creation Story is that there was at first a dark ocean. In that dark ocean (often given a feminine quality and described as 'pregnant'). This ocean was the potentiality of creation yet it was unrealized creation. There came the light of self-awareness and self-perception (depicted as a reed in Egyptian hieroglyphics and described as male). Here Source realized that it existed, it was aware of it's dark ocean counterpart and it began to create. In this story we can see the concept of Yin and Yang. This Light of Self-Perception is the active force of Source. (Atman in the Hindu tradition). This is the part that is always active, changing and learning during the process. The Dark Ocean is the non-active part of the Source (Brahman in the Hindu Tradition). This will be the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. This latent part of Source is what composes the entire Cosmos...it consists of the smallest particles that make creation but does not appear to have 'self perception' or 'consciousness' as we know it. Until a consciousness interacts with this part of creation it remains in a neutral state. Creating Companions This is the part where the Active aspect of Creation (Atman) begins to create. Any of the Creative Forces we call Angels were created at this time. Yet, what the Active Aspect of Creation found was that there was a hive mind. All of the Angles were aware of it's thoughts...and acted as he willed...as one mind. These were not truly companions...they were merely extension of the Active part of God's thoughts. As such, Source remained alone. The active part of Source then created souls that had Free Will. These little sparks of life, made in the same form as the Source...that which we call our souls. These had a consciousness and will of their own that did not have to be in accordance with Source. The intention was that with their own will they would choose to develop and be companions of the creator. They would have awareness of themselves...instead of sharing an awareness with Source. This change caused what was perceived by those souls as a Fall from an idyllic condition. Each soul needed to create their own individual personality, much as the active force of Source had done, and their own self-perception. What happened is that when those souls were given free will and individuality they felt that they were unworthy (naked) and they traveled far from Source because they were unable to bear what they had become. Source then created Time and Space which exist at the very outer limits of creation in the outer limits of it's light. Individualization I didn't realize that one of the most important things that Edgar Cacye said was that, "We are to recognize that we are an individual, yet one with God." The best metaphor or story to really understand this concept comes from Star Trek Voyager of all things. In it, the charterer 7 of 9 is taken from the Borg Collective. Yes, I'm saying that when we are in Spirit it's ab it like being in the Borg. We can't really shield our consciousness from others and we share a 'hive mind.' When 7 leaves the Borg she is left disoriented. After she is disconnected from the Hive mind and millions of voices she was used to hearing...she felt alone and abandoned. To discover her own individuality she had to try new things. She had to discover what she did and did not like. She had to develop relationships with other individuals so that she might learn more about herself. She had to develop hobbies and interests so she could discover her talents. At a certain point in our development, during our teenage years, we learn how to disengage and no identify ourselves with our parents. A natural part of this is to rebel and to choose music or interests that are not in alignment with our parents. When the individualization process started with souls this same thing occurred. Separation Being separated from the Active Force of Source is not easy. Over and over you find this theme throughout the different religions and stated by people throughout the world. I feel incomplete. I feel empty. I feel alone. I feel isolated. In fact, in our modern world this feeling of isolation and loss of community is felt more sharply then ever before. We attribute this to technology but it is an ancient feeling. All of us chose to leave the Collective Mind of the Active Force of Source...to experience individualization. We knew the risk was great. We knew that it is a very tough school and that without the loving reassuring presence of Source within our mind that it would be rough. We knew that we could become Entrapped. Many souls, upon being disconnected feel unworthy of seeking God again and wish for self-destruction. Being separated in mind from the presence of Source feels unnatural. This lead to all sorts of dis-ease. People might seek connection through relationships, sexual acts, alcohol, group activities...any way to not feel the pain of that isolation from Source. Yet, we chose the separation. We knew the risks but we knew the rewards as well...to know ourselves as an individual...yet, still One with Source. This is the only way we could be proper companions to Source and form our own individual personalities. Earth is a very fast way of accomplishing individualization because of the Veil of Seperation. This is a risky experiment but our souls. We knew, as souls, we could never leave that Latent part of Source (Brahman). Though we might be disconnected from the Active part of Source (Atman)...we would always be in contact with the Latent Ocean of Potentiality...the waves of particles that form the entire cosmos. We are never ever truly separate from Source. Entrapment A lot of religious belief and Fear has surrounded this part of our experience. With Separation came Fear. When we came to this world we we tried to make our souls solid. We became in love with the physical sensation. We tried to become perfect little human beings in what we thought would be the perfection of ourselves. We forgot that the goal was to know and develop ourselves as individuals to be Companions to God. We became absorbed in trying to create the perfect human life. Again and again, we came back trying to create the most perfect performance of human life ever seen. Drawn again and again to the desire to eat, to go surfing, to be in relationships and scores of human activities through which people find meaning. Sometimes as an Artist, sometimes as the cook.. The pursuit of buying a home, having a children and raising them. All of these are worldly concerns. There is a phrase that resonates throughout Buddhsim, Christianity, and Islam. To be in this world but not of it...I covered this in the last blog. Yet, the meaning is the same. Don't become too in love with the material world. If you do you will be trapped. Destined to return again and again until you realize that the purpose isn't to achieve the perfect human life. In Journey of Souls by Michael Newton a case study covers a soul that would be considered a Ghost. That person was so attached to their physical life they recreated it...until they finally became bored. Then a soul that was trained specifically in retrieving these lost souls asked if he was done and ready continue. This is much how it is for most of us on Earth...we are allowed to return over and over again until we realize the true purpose isn't found on Earth but can only be learned on Earth where we perceive we are separate from Source. Now, in our days, many people are aware of some sort of entrapment. They blame evil alien entities and external forces of Darkness. The Truth is that it is all us...we are entrapping ourselves. Until we get bored of the experience of trying to create the most perfect human existence we will continue to return. Source exists on a level that is beyond good and evil...we just experience duality on this level existence but Source does not. Masters of all sorts and even Angels have come to try and break us of our self-created bonds to the material world where we think that this is all that exists...but only we can set ourselves free. There are several 'how-to' guides written over millennia but each road is as individual as the soul that the Active part of Source created in its image. Some will take hundreds of lives and some a handful. All of it depends on the individual. The part of us that is of the Material Realm- The Ego, the four lower chakras (the four beasts of Revelation) and often represented as a snake...is the part of us that 'knows good and evil' but it not something to be disowned or destroyed. That is the part of our Soul that is individual. Misuse of Willpower Also, a part of becoming a individual is that we have the opportunity to misuse our will power. This was what the Blog Stop Arguing With God was all about...we try to force our will on to others, on to creation, on to our animals...we reshape nature in our own image. Instead of letting the Source flow through us we often work against the Natural Order. We have the option of wanting to create on our own and that which we want to create may not be in alignment with Source. We see this in our world all of the time. People trying to change the Natural Order of this world as though it's not good enough. We call people who have respect for this Natural Order Savages. The result of us reshaping the world in our own image has been the death of countless species. The truth is no Order created by Humanity has ever reached the balanced perfection of Nature. Look at our cities...how it strangles life in so many ways instead of letting it flow. One of the lessons we are learning on Earth along with Individualization is the necessity to submit to the Will of that Latent part of Source. That portion is what organizes all of the cosmos...in a reflexive way that is orderly and balanced. We tend to argue, "I can do it better!" Yet, has that ever proven to be true? How did nuclear power work out? Even fossil fuels didn't quite work out. I've learned by submitting to the Natural Order I see the rhyme and reason behind it all which is completely perfect. The timing is perfect. When I feel a resistance, when things don't seem to arrive when I want them...I realize it is not my time schedule. Then when things do work out...it is absolutely stunning. Until we can go with the flow on Earth, accepting that it is a place of cycles of rebirth and work with Source allowing it to flow through us...our will won't be tamed and we won't be prove that we can work as a team with Source. The Embrace We can operate on the Worldly level all we want. That is the most common path. We are born and forget our Soul-self. That Soul-Self...that spark of the divine that is our Essence is there waiting to be acknowledged. The Worldly self must embrace and learn to work with the Soul self in this life...on Earth. Let's call the Soul-Self the Higher Self. In a Spiritual practice we can become aware of that Higher Self. We can start to work with the language of dreams. We learn lessons and we are given perspective on the current lessons we are going through in our worldly life. Yet, at the point I have reached there has been a blending of the Higher Self with the Earthly-Self. The separation I experienced between the two is now gone. I know the Higher Self to be me and I am bringing more and more of that energy into my own life. The overwhelming sense of peace even in traumatic situations and being a nexus of energy is nothing short of stunning continuing to amaze me at every turn of the path. This was is the result of seeking the Higher Self. The first thing I had to do was learn to trust my Higher Self. When the blending occurs it is like reclaiming a part of yourself and it creates a sense of Wholeness. We might say we are Self-Actualized beings (that we have achieved all of the levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs) but until we reach this state of Wholeness and oneness with our Higher Self...it's not really possible. Still, I think there are even more expansion available as I put my beliefs into work. As I acknowledge each person, as I seem them as part of the Whole, a reflection of myself, a shard of myself...but that is a much deeper blog. I won't say how to do it...but merely to seek for that and you will achieve it in your own way. For me it just developed naturally as a result of Seeking Truth and Source for over twenty years. When working in tune with the Higher Self you are naturally working with Source and doing the will of Source. There are little indications (mostly in dreams and intuitions) when you are walking down an unintended path. Yet, it is a small intuitive feeling or voice that you perceive...not some all encompassing demand. Self-Perception This at the point where a circle seems to be formed. We were pulled from the latent ocean of possibility of Source by the Active self-perceiving part of Source. We were like a reed removed from that ocean (part of a Creation Myth of a few Native American and African tribes). We experienced separation and developed ourselves as individuals. Now, after being caught up in the cycle of rebirth...we realize that we never left the ocean. We were just moved to a different part of the ocean. That by going within we can get in touch with that constant form of Source...with that latent ocean of energy of which we are composed. That we can develop a relationship, learn to understand the language and much like that first act of perception flow with the Natural Order of Source. Our bodies become a vehicle to bring that energy into the life of others on Earth, uplifting them and nourishing them in ways they can't do for themselves in the hope...maybe, just maybe, they will week up and seek the Source of our Strength for themselves. Then we learn that we can perceive that latent part of Source and we can work with it...a sort of dance of perception. The process is similar to what the Active Principal must have perceived as it first came into self-awareness. Now, we have the chance to tap into and have a relationship with a part of Source that...as mere copies of the Active Principal of Source...we were not fully aware. In a way, coming out this far into the 'darkness' we were able to re-create that first act of self-perception. Making us worthy companions to the Active principal of Source. The ultimate destination is to return to Source, retain our individuality, and help Source create in ways that our unique to us...adding to Creation in ways that Source would not if we were not Source's companion. Knowing that through the latent aspect of Source we are all One. Conclusion That's as far as I've gotten. This is imperfect and incomplete. There are little side notes that I could include. There are ideas I could fully explore and detail. I'll do that in further blogs. I just wanted to share the basic story. Whether you think this is the start of a wonderful Fantasy Series or you place the world 'plausible' on it...I hope it motivates you to Seek Source. Of course, this is a linear frame for all of this and it is a bit more fluid and not as direct as I have described for all of us. Yet, this is the basic gist of the situation. Whether you feel your Soul came from an incarnation on Sirius or another dimension...the goal and what can be accomplished very quickly on Earth is the same. From what I have studied all Souls will reach this point of union with Source eventually but not as fast. This is also why I flat out reject the idea of Unity Mind but I've written about that in a past blog. There is no place for "unity mind" to develop in humanity. We have it in Spirit so I really doubt that's the next stage of our development and I'm not sure where that idea came from. I've heard numerous people speak about it but I have yet to find the origin of that idea. I believe that we will start to sense our connection. Perhaps the Fifth Root Race (I've written about that before) which is supposed to appear brighter will happen. I'm not sure, I doubt that if it does happen that it will be dramatic. The process will probably be gradual (as Bashar describes) and in the end doesn't change the experience that much. Probably, it will mean that we will end the cycle of killing each other in the name of anything. I hope that it will lead to peaceful co-habitation where everyone will be free to express themselves in the way they choose as long as it harms no one else physically. (Most mental harm comes from perception and can be healed by a readjustment of perception). To me it's a beautiful story of experience, trial, and victory. All of it takes place within the consciousness of the soul. This is the story I see underlying every major religion and spiritual message ever conveyed to us. From the most cryptic to the most allegorical story...it is written there just below the surface. Whether we are looking at fariy tales like Beauty and the Beast (over coming our beastly natures to reconnect with our Beautiful Soul)...or stories of creation this is the story humanity tells itself over and over again. This is the original Hero Story and each one of us are our own Hero's and Heroines writing and discovering our own plot. Yet it all lay written and waiting for existence within that latent part of Source...so yes, it was foretold, known from the start and will be known at the end. The various threads I have followed and tugged are what compose this tapestry. I will go through and explain those threads over future blogs. You already saw one in my last blog about detachment. Next, I will cover how that idea has been distorted over the years as those who did not quite understand it tried to achieve detachment. If this doesn't resonate with you, that is fine, you are on your own path with your own timing. This is just my truth as it stands right now in this moment. I hope you enjoyed peering through creation from a different set of paradigm goggles!
So often we feel as though we are missing something vital to our lives.
We feel empty on the inside. Shouldn't there be more to this life? Maybe if I achieve the right equation of success, the right people, the right stuff...maybe then I will be complete? Nope. Wholeness is not outside of you...it is within. You contain all of the answers you need. This has probably been one of the hardest posts for me to write. Simply because the world is so subjective and the idea of Wholeness can be subjective. The path to wholeness is going to be The Religious Cope Out This is going to make some people uncomfortable. Yet, I have to address this part of current religious belief because I see it as unhealthy. I see it as an easy cope out. This an excuse for laziness and it's why a lot people who are religious aren't living a life that includes spirit. On Facebook there are posts, "Like and Share if You Love Jesus and want to go to heaven! If you don't share you'll go to Hell!" All of us know this is not true. We all know that to be a person worthy of 'heaven' requires a bit more than simply liking a Facebook page. The same goes for saying that you have found Christ. Simply "Finding Christ" and becoming baptized and being a born again Christian does not make you "Christ-like" nor does it promise you a place in heaven. All Spiritual Paths to true understanding takes dedication, self-reflection and walking the talk. Sure, you may know the golden rule but do you practice it every day in every way at every moment? How about when a driver cuts you off in traffic? Do you turn the other cheek and give them the opportunity to do it again? Probably not. So, let's dispense with the idea that merely accepting Christ as your savior has made you feel "whole" because I know for a lot of people it has not. Being baptized and saying you believe in Christ doesn't give you a ticket straight to wholeness. Living in spirit daily is a practice that eventually permeates you on such a level that you can't imagine life any other way. Relationships There is an unhealthy obsession with soul mates. Another person cannot make you whole. I have found that people fixated on finding a 'soul mate' are not really looking for a person. People looking for their soul mates think that a soul mate will complete them. That once they find them life will be so much easier. Yet, they will be sorely disappointed when they realize that's not how relationships work or what they are about. Life is not a Disney movie. The story doesn't end with a marriage where someone who has been alone all their life has found a companion. There is no "happily ever after" but a complex interaction of emotions and energy that's a real relationship. I remember a sociology class I took. The teacher described that when two injured people come together they are often attracted by the fact that the other seems to have a matching wound. Then they put those two wounds together and they form a communal scab. Such relationships are hard to end because it means ripping open those old wounds. Yet, the relationship is always unhealthy because scabs can lock in infection. This is why people need to do inner work before they get married. They need to clean out the infected part of their lives and personality to become healthy individuals on their own before seeking out a companion in life. They have to find a sense of who they are and their place in the universe. They also need to learn to love themselves as few people do. The moral of the story is that Relationships do not bring Wholeness. If we are seeking Wholeness through marriage it's going to end in bitterness and divorce. The need to "find themselves" and seek true wholeness will eventually end the enmeshed relationship with divorce. So what does? The Success Formula Society has sold us on a Success Formula. I blame this mostly on schools. In order to be happy, we are tuaght, we need to be educated, get the right job and live the American Dream. People think that there is some formula for success in life. Find a partner, buy a house, and have some kids...then poof you're happy and whole. Well, there are a few problems with this Shangrala of modern life. No formula will make you happy. If finding your soul-mate doesn't make you Whole then having kids certainly won't and neither will any personal object. Work and money won't make you feel whole either because they are merely tools. There is no magical secret Formula you can put together in the outer world to make you Whole. Self Help, Quizzes, and Psychic Readings This is another trap I've seen people fall into and never get out of when trying to find Wholeness. Constantly going to others to feed you with directions to the decisions you need to make, advice or even tell you about yourself is unhealthy and can be expensive. There are a wealth of resources there just waiting to tell you how to live your life. To me, when I hear this, what the person is really saying is they do not trust themselves, their Higher Selves or the Source (God). I remember reading reviews of the book called The Secret. The Secret was a self-help book that claimed that all wealthy happy individuals used these secrets that it contained. This was supposed to be a recipe book for becoming rich, being more successful and achieving more in life. Well, sadly, the information is wise. However, this little pocket sized book didn't go into the depth necessary to really understand these "Secrets." Besides, the focus, which I see so often, is on money and career success. Yet, as I said previously, this will not bring that sense of Wholeness people are seeking. Attracting certain objects or a parking space closest to the entrance of a busy store is all well and good but...this is just outer reflections of an inner state of being. The truth is no one knows you like you. This is something that I've said many times when offering dream interpretations for people. Each of us contains all the knowledge we need about ourselves, but it's just a matter of turning inward to see those truths and "secrets." Self-reflection is hard because it requires us to see ourselves in our entirety. Not just what we want to see, not just focusing on our flaws, but the bigger picture. We are not trained to do this, we are so trained to look at the small details that the bigger picture can often escape us. We are so focused on trees (pimples, personal failings) that we don't look at the wealth that the forest has to offer. That's why it's so much easier to go to someone with an outside perspective and have them tell us what they see and yes it can bring insight. That person can see the forest instead of focusing on the trees. But, they are also limited in their observation because we are presenting such a narrow band of information to them. These outer sources might see the forest but they don't have the higher perspective that our soul has...and they might not see that it is us that is lighting the trees on fire in the dark of night and blaming a friend, a spouse or a co-worker. Self-Actualization Abraham Maslow was the first person to really describe why and where we get hung up on on our journey to Wholeness. He described the person that has reached Wholeness as a Self-Actualized person. He believed that only one in a hundred people become self-actualized. I've written on this topic previously and I encourage everyone to research the topic. Maslow envisioned a pyramid with Self-Actualization at the top. He called this pyramid the Hierarchy of Needs. He said, to reach the top a person had to fulfill all of the other needs below it first. I will include a Youtube video at the end of this on the subject. The key thing is that it does take some work if we are hung up on one of the lower levels of the pyramid. For example, it's easy to become hung up on the level of security if we grew up abused and never felt safe. Further, we might not have that issue as a child but something in adulthood can happen and throw us back to that state. My Path To Wholeness I have re-written this part of this blog several times. I couldn't decide how to go about writing the transformations that I've under gone in my thinking as the years have progressed. Should I break it down into steps? That didn't seem right as each person has a different path to tread. So, I'm going to give a general overview. The Calling The first time I started down the path I realized that there was a bit of a mystery in the bible. This was when I completely read it from cover to cover when I was fifteen. I was shocked to see that the Old Testament discussed animal sacrifices which was something I always associated with witchcraft. I was also surprised that Yeshua eluded to deeper teachings, that there was a set of teachings given to the disciples and a set given to the people as parables. Later, I would learn that in many cultures this was the norm....the uninitiated who do not seek the knowledge are never given the knowledge. At this time I read the Celestine Prophecy series and found it interesting. I also began interpreting my dreams and was introduced to Edgar Cacye's story with my Grandfather Douglas McMasters (the Dreamer of Muscoy) America in Prophecy. I also read the book Journey of Souls. Finally, I discovered that while it was easy for me to tap into the Oneness at that age (which became harder later on and I lost the ability and desire for a long time) not everyone could. This was strange to me and I really couldn't imagine not being able to feel that way. Major Wake Up Call One For a few years I fell off the spiritual path. Although, I do feel those were wasted years of my youth something wonderful happened. In working loading trailers I managed to find that sweet spot that Athletes call "The Zone" where the mind no longer has to govern the actions of the body and everything becomes synchronized. A Wake Up call that completely destroyed how I viewed myself and ripped me out of the life I had created (friends and all) provoked me to return to my spiritual search for knowledge and wisdom. I had to start my entire life all over from scratch. When I did go back to the spiritual path I discovered more than I ever imagined. There was a lot more information out there on spirituality and a lot more on the web. Befriending the Mind I began working with meditation. I read Sakyong Mipham's book Turning The Mind Into An Ally. I began to understand that the mind is not necessarily consciousnesses. I learned how to find my center and to quiet the ceaseless chatter of my mind. A lot of it was tuning into the "zone" that I knew how to access because of the work I did loading trailers. Now, if I want to think of a subject I summon up the thoughts. My mind is no longer the director (I think most people call that self-narration portion of our mind the Ego but my thoughts on it are a little bit different and complex). I also sough to meet my "higher self" although the idea remained abstract to me. I also read Dan Millmans books at this time which further encouraged me along my road towards balancing mind and body. I realized that being able to tune into the zone, as I did at work loading trailers and when meditating was a rare gift (later I would become aware that I had practiced meditation in a previous life). I discovered at this point that I could alter and control my dreams. I also became familiar with the idea of Projection. This is where a person projects the disowned aspects of their own personality onto other people. Often when a stranger doesn't like us for any reason or a co-worker decides they don't like us...it's because of them and not us. A lot of people to do this, I'd even say the majority of people are like this because it takes a lot to look at one's own reflection and own aspects of ourselves that we don't like. So, when we start seeing a pattern in someones behavior we see that its not the other person the individual hates...but the part of themselves that they have rejected that they see reflected in the other person. ( Although I did not discover this at the time it's appropriate information to place here. The only way to stop projecting onto others is to work with our own shadow, embrace those shadow elements we have taken on and transform them. One of the methods to do this is in the video I'm attaching at the end with Christie Marie Sheldon. Her method, of finding a pattern and then "zapping it out of existence" is the best that I have ever discovered. Since using it myself and releasing a lot of old negative baggage I've carried around I feel happier and lighter. I can feel my aura, my energy, has doubled and expanded.) Then there is a concept of boundaries. Establishing firm boundaries, which you will not allow others to cross and will speak up if they do is important. Part of this requires that you decide what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior on the part of the other people. I made great strides towards self-confidence during this time period. I did a lot of work on rebuilding my self-image. I had wonderful successes, achieved three degrees and was promoted to management roles at two different companies. Major Wake Up Call Two Again, a decade later, I had another Wake Up Call. This time was different, however, and more soul shattering. Whereas I had been able to find meaning and purpose in all of my other adventures in life I could not find a purpose for this one. I felt completely abandoned by the Creator/God. I was mad at my Higher Self that had the full picture of what was going on for letting something so tragic happen to me and for me to be ripped so completely out of the life I had been creating for a second time. I struggled with this over a span of two years. Sometimes I felt completely broken and alone...completely abandoned by Spirit and unable to tap into the Oneness and harmony I once could feel so effortlessly. I felt utterly abandoned. Setting Aside Personality This time I learned that I don't have to create a persona for myself. I've never built myself up again. I don't have a self-image. I have no expectations for myself, no goals, no desire to "prove" myself to anyone. I have no need or desire to belong to groups or apply labels to myself. I know that all labels and social constructs are all..well, imaginary bull crap that divides people and I just don't want to buy into anymore to feel as though I belong. I exist, I am a part of the Source, created by Source because the Source of All-That-Is desired my existence and for me that is the only validation I need. When we are children we begin to build a personality for ourselves in this world. School starts training us in thinking that we are a vocation. I have a yearbook from elementary school where they asked us to draw our future selves and what our vocation will be...the drawing is surprisingly accurate but I learned early on that I didn't want to be a vet because I don't like to see animals in pain. This type of training is what leads so many people to base their self worth on their jobs. Not only that but we are challenged to build a personality, what we do not like, how we define ourselves in comparison to others throughout our school years and even our teachers or parents give us certain definitions- he's the underachiever, she's the teachers pet and so on. Yet, we are not, in our basic essence, those personalities. In a talk given by Edgar Cacye in Washington D.C. Februry 3rd 1935 he said this: "We have been admonished by this one, that one, and the other to develop our personality in order to be a power in the world; but if we turn rather within ourselves, where the Kingdom of Heaven is, what has been the promise? 'All of these things shall be added unto you, in their place.' We are all on our way for a development." At another talk given to a Norfolk Study Group Open Meeting Edgar Cacye said this: "Apparently, I am one of the few who can lay aside their own personality sufficiently to allow their souls to make this attunement to this universal source of knowledge- but I say this without any desire to brag about it. In fact, I do not to claim to possess anything that other individuals do not inheriently possess. Really and truly, I do not believe there is a single individual that doesn't possess this same ability I have. I am certain that all human beings have much greater powers than they are ever conscious of- if they would only be willing to pay the price of detachment from self-interest that it takes to develop those abilities. Would you be willing, even once a year, to put aside, pass out entirely from, your own personality?" I have absolutely no reason to view myself as superior to anyone and I do not view anyone else as superior to me. As I have progressed along the path of spiritual knowledge I've learned no one is a superior to anyone else but I do have a deep seated respect for each person as a reflection of the Source (God). Each of us has a gift or a talent that we can use for humanity. The Creator didn't create us without a purpose or strength. Not everyone's purpose or strengths are the same. Each of us has to turn inward to find what our purpose and strengths are...then we have to learn how to apply them to the outer world. Owning Our Flaws I worked on owning all of the aspects of myself that I had tried to reject and repress. By embracing those darker aspects of myself and owning them I realized I saw people differently. I could see them for who they were not what I wanted them to be or needed them to be to justify my own actions. I just saw the movie Suicide Squad and there was one point, when Diablo discusses how he killed his family by losing himself to rage (the monster within) and Harlequin tells him to, "Own that shit!" That's what we have to do in our life. We have the choice to be the victims of our own actions by disowning what we have done or parts of our past we don't like. We have the free will to spend our entire lives feeling sorry for ourselves if we want and there is no Judgment from Spirit. The greatest judge we face in the afterlife is ourselves. We can also choose Responsibility. We can choose to own those mistakes, embrace them, realize we are imperfect humans that are going to make mistakes. The Great Spirit already forgave us, he knew all what we would do when he conceived the idea of us in his mind before he unleashed us into the universe...and he did it anyways because he knew that our Spiritual potential is great. All of us are a little twisted, we are all a little flawed and if we don't embrace that aspect of ourselves and transmute it then we are going to create a shadow self. That shadow self of all of our disowned junk that we don't want to face and didn't even know we are creating can pull us down into a mire of unhappiness. I see this as naming our own demons so that we can cast them out in the way that Christine Sheldon describes. A Higher Perspective Perhaps, what transformed my view of life the most was my experiences of Past Life Regression and meeting my Higher Self in a dream that explained a few things to me. This sounds strange, I'm sure, and I'm sure you're wondering what the Higher Self means so I'll go a bit deeper into my personal interpretation and experience of that in another blog. What I discovered was a perspective of life here on Earth far removed from what my parents, society, teachers and religious dogma taught me. That our souls don't view it as a punishment or a prison sentence because of a Fall. That we voluntarily come to Earth (my soul sees Earth as a sort of Disneyland that is incredibly fun and exciting ) and that we learn the most on a spiritual level when we face adversity and experience what some might call 'suffering.' Because strangely from 'suffering' we learn Compassion, Patience and Unconditional Love. In Spirit there are no "Good Guys" and there are no "Bad Guys." We are just Spiritual Beings on a Human Journey of Self Knowledge. Our souls can be damaged if we do evil deeds, but that is a different subject and that still does not provoke judgement on the part of Spirit. I realized also that life is subjective. That two people can have the same exact experience and create lives that are totally different. Another Insight is that the Soul really doesn't care what the nature of the experience is as long as we are experiencing something. Our soul chose these lives because they knew the risks and they knew how much wisdom they would gain. In fact, the entire purpose of incarnating is to gain the hard won knowledge from experiences. (Remember Eve ate the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and that knowledge came from the existence of death). The Great Spirit Then I realized that we are souls, not our bodies, we are created in the spiritual image of the Great Spirit and it clicked. The Great Spirit is the great spiritual fire and our consciousnesses are little sparks of the divine. That means that all of the people we meet are also an undeniably perfect aspect of the Great Spirit and even if they don't realize it, even if they abuse their creative abilities, to insult them or treat them poorly is like mistreating ourselves and the Great Spirit. From John 10:34 we learn, "Jesus answered them, 'Is it not written in your law, "I have said you are Gods?" This is a quote from Psalm 82:6, "I said, "You're Gods." You are all sons of the Most High." Then I learned that God/The Great Spirit is never separate from us, that we are part of the Great Spirit (the word God doesn't seem to capture the depth of the Great Spirit) and he is a part of us and there is never separation. Just a sense of it in this realm. I will go into these concepts a bit more in a future post that I will share on Friday called The Mind of God. Further, it dawned on me how the Mind is the Builder and how we create our own reality. I realized I was putting out a lot of frustration and anger towards others in this world. This misdirected energy was coming back to me and short circuiting my attempts at a more peaceful life filled with what I truly desire. With all of this combined, and continuing to find information that validates my own intuitions I have found an inner peace that cannot be taken from me. There is more, and I will go into all of this in more depth (to go into all of it here would turn this post into a novel) but I wake up most mornings refreshed. I have occasional low energy days just like everyone else but compared to last year, when I was in the depths of despair mourning my daughter and wishing I had joined her in death, it's been a miraculous turn around. I haven't gotten it all correct, yet, but I have become more balanced, more grounded and more aware. My current mantra when I start to give into negative thoughts about others or the world when reading a political article is to say, "Peace, Healing and Love," within my mind and imagine a tremendous ray of light from Source, from God, from All-That-Is being emitted from me to the person harboring such negativity in the hopes that their burdens become lighter. This is helping me to consciously rewire how I think and to place my focus on what I want to think about instead of falling into typical knee-jerk reactions. Achieving Wholeness I can't explain when this deep seated peacefulness took up residence in my heart. There was no magical moment where I reached Wholeness, no sense of nirvana, it was just a progression and one day I realized that I felt entirely complete. The amount of joy and peace that I feel on a day to day basis cannot even be expressed in words. The person I am today is totally different than the person I was one, ten, fifteen, and even twenty years ago. I feel whole and complete. I do not desire anything. I realize that everything is impermanent and bound to change. If things are wonderful and blissful at the moment...that will change. If things are challenging, chaotic and barely tolerable...that too will change. I just ride out the different eddies in the current of the river of life peacefully knowing that it leads to the The Great Spirit or Source (God) (as you can tell, I see all of these terms as interchangeable). My life is comfortable and while it continues to morph as time progresses, as all lives do, I find it is incredibly fulfilling. Yes, I'm still in a processes of self-discovery and experience but I'm a willing participant able to to see how I direct the flow of energy in my life in different directions depending on how I'm thinking. Conclusion Reaching Wholeness is a process that starts off with self-reflection...then we realize the entire world reflects back to us our own inner state. Meeting others can be a study in self-reflection once we know boundaries. When we identify certain patterns in our lives we can learn that by identifying them (naming them) and dismissing them (zapping them out of existence as Christie Sheldon describes it) we can transform our lives. I strongly believe we come to Earth to learn Patience, Compassion and Love. I believe that it is rare for souls to take on this quest. With some key realizations life becomes really obvious and simple. Yet, it is a complex progression of realization that diverges greatly from what we are initially taught. The way I perceive the world has become more flexible. There is no hard and true reality that exists the same way for everyone. I will delve more deeply into this change in perspective and how it differs so wildly from how I initially perceived the universe in a future post. I apologize that this is such a small snippet of this huge subject but to summarize what I have said....there is no outer path to Wholeness. The Great Spirit by whatever name you wish to call it does not exist outside of us. We have deep inner resources...a plethora of spiritual help....that we can tap into for guidance but ultimately our Higher Self and Source is what we should seek. There is no right way to reaching Wholeness. There are many paths. Yet, I am proof that it can be achieved on this level of existence (some claim that it cannot be achieved) no matter how terrible our experiences have been and without guidance from a specific guru or "master." On each step of the road after each Wake Up Call, where I found I wasn't living in attunement with my Higher Purpose....I learned a lot. So, even though painful Wake Up Calls from Spirit are undesirable they are always beneficial. The key I've learned, is not to ignore Spirit...because at first the Wake Up calls are subtle...but when I've ignored they become even louder and louder until they can be a life shattering experience. Yet, at the end of the transformations I find myself right back where I started just a little bit more wiser. You might ask, what is the point? Well, that is a completely different post but, suffice to say, inner peace in light of all of the struggle and suffering I see is more than enough of a reward for me...and that sense of Wholeness and At-One-Ment with all of Creation. I find it similar to training a new employee, if you do everything for them they will not learn. Sure, they may fail. Yet, failure is often the greatest learning experience.
The Higher Self is a concept that I never could quite wrap my mind around. To me it seems to be a concept that few people really dig deeply into understanding. Instead, people seem to expect it to be some sort of cheat code to the game of life. People ask how they can speak directly to their higher self so that they can know what to do, treating it more like a coach then a partner in this life and something that can control them like a puppet.
Not only do I think our human minds would resent such control but I think that it wouldn't be half as beautiful as the intricate relationship we have to our Higher Self. There have been many who have tried to approach this subject from very divergent paths. I can, by some ability I cannot quite understand, unite those paths into one voice and show people how all of these many paths lead to the same goal. The Higher Self In the Egyptian Book of the Dead In Egyptian sources the soul is called Ba and it's not to be entirely confused with our Earthly Existence (John Van Auken, 1999). The Ba is depicted as a human with a birds head, the birds body symbolizes the spirit or soul of a person. The Earthly body was called Ka and the goal was to unite the Ba and Ka so that the person could return to the celestial being it was before incarnating in this world (a Godling created in the image of the Creator). The two concepts are very separate and it's easy to identify the Ba as the Higher Self. (As for why this would happen at all, the idea is that we were immature psyche's in the beginning and we decided coming down to Earth and playing this game would be a good way to become wise quickly.) The Higher Self Depicted In The New Testament We can find a version of the Higher Self in the book of Luke using the same imagery as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, "When all of the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Of course, it's not until we read Revelation (which was a vision and such things are on the same level as a Shamanic Journey or Dream. Revelation has many levels because the vision of the Higher Self is far more complex than our limited minds can comprehend) that we realize exactly what Yeshua did that was so different from other people but that analysis is for another post. I still do not understand what Yeshua did completely or what it means for humanity and I find the Church explanation lacking significantly in Truth (as one would expect of a regime that used religion to control people not enlighten them). The Higher Self in Journey of Souls In Journey of Souls by Michael Newton (1994) it is explained that there is a portion of the soul that never leaves heaven. That portion, to the others who remain in heaven appears to be 'sleeping' because it's entire energy is turned towards the human experience that it is undergoing. However, it can still be interacted with and can even go to meet those returning from the Earth plane experience. In fact, it's explained that the full energy of a soul cannot go entirely to Earth. This portion of the Energy of the Soul that remains in "heaven' or the spiritual plane would be the Higher Self. Further, it is explained that before a person Incarnates not only do they go over the life they are to have in detail- they learn the different cues in life and they know every potentiality of that life. As there are many different ways that a life can go the Soul, before it incarnates, tries to remember particular cues or reminders to keep it on the path where the Soul will experience the most growth. Therefore, the portion of the Soul (or Ba, if you prefer) does know the "lay of the land" and can help guide the portion of it's energy that's invested (or entombed) in the physical body. The Higher Self According to Bashar (Channeled by Daryl Anka) Perhaps some of the most entertaining perspectives I've ever heard regarding the Higher Self were given by Bashar. He described the Higher-self as a bird and the self as walking through a valley (reminiscent of Psalm 23). The Bird (Higher Self/Ba) can see that there is a hole and it tries to communicate it to the physical self through dreams and intuition. The Self (or human incarnation) keeps going ignoring their Ba (higher-self) and falls into a ditch. The Higher Self throws it's arms up in frustration. The higher-self doesn't want to be in the ditch anymore than the human self. It is only when the two (Ba and Ka, Human mind and Higher self) are working in conjunction that the human self can heed the warnings, turn back and go to the bridge spanning the crevice that it had missed, that was just a few miles back and did involve a little back tracking to find. The Higher Self According to Carl Jung This concept I did not come across until a chance discussion. However, it did provide an, "Ah ha!" moment. I was speaking to a man that believed that his Anima had more or less rejected him preventing him from continuing his soul's inner seeking journey. I realized my Animus takes up the form of my husband and that we go on many journeys together entering many portals in my dreams. When attempting to study this concept in depth further I have discovered a hideous amount of disinformation and confusing interpretations. So to cut into the pie, as it were metaphorically, I'm just going to state my interpretation. The portion of the person that remains in heaven is actually the opposite of the gender that we experience here on Earth. For example, my aspect that remains on the spiritual side is male. Jung explains that this part of the person's identity is plugged into the Collective Unconscious. As I have discussed before, this Collective Unconscious is more of The Consciousness (what some refer to as an Oversoul) but that is another post. More or less, I have found that I can improve my relationship with my Higher Self by improving the relationships we have with the opposite sex here on Earth. Once the two sides are working in union life becomes far more clear. There are many ways that this can be done, I am sure, but it's imperative to embrace the aspects that are the opposite gender of our own. The Higher Self Information from Collete Baron-Reid While reading the the book The Map by Collete Baron-Reid I found the last bit of the puzzle when it comes to the Higher Self. This goes into the conversation I was having with the person regarding his Anima that he felt had rejected him. The key with being in tune with the Higher Self is to fully embrace and integrate all your aspects. If we do not integrate (and choose to repress) parts of ourselves we won't have a relationship with our Higher Self. Instead, we create a Shadow Side to ourselves. Nature will run it's course (as the Catholic Priests discovered) whether we embrace it or not so the way of the monk is not the true answer nor is the idea of severing ourselves from the human experience everyone else has on Earth. "Another important part of this book grew out of the personal work I did toward healing my wounded ego. Pioneering psychologist Carl Jung called this unhealed ego the Shadow- it contains the parts of the self that we refuse, deny or repress. Until I was able to name and accept the parts of me that identified with my wounds, I was unable to become the person I wanted to be." (Colette Baron Reid, 2011). I can tie this in with the Egyptian Book of the Dead where the initiate Ani is asked who is Ra the reply is, "The creator of the names of his limbs, which came in to being in the forms of god's who are in the train of Ra, 'I am he who cannot be repulsed by the Gods." This is, in and of itself, an entirely different blog but suffice to say that it is part of the initiates journey to familiarize ourselves with all of our parts- especially by embracing that which we hate or we are the most ashamed. That which is resisted persist's as a good friend of mine, Michael Robert Schaumann, recently told me. What we repress becomes our Shadow. Given that people are currently seeing this Shadow aspect of themselves (and seeing it as menacing such as The Hat Man by Heidi Hollis) it's really important we deal with our Wounded Ego's and get in touch with our Higher Selves. However, there are many paths to this form of healing. The best description of this process of integration is profoundly presented by Denise Lin in the forward of Colette Baron-Reid's book as, "...the hero's journey into the authentic self." The authentic self lies within the union of the Higher Self with this Earthly incarnation. Those who have this connection are called "self-actualized" and, as Maslow suggested, represent a very small percentage of the human population. Self-actualization, however, cannot entirely be realized until an individual commits themselves to the service of others. The classic words of Yeshua in Matthew 5:15 come to mind here: "Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." The Language of the Higher Self Dreams have always been something that people pay attention to and that I have always seen as a sort of guide. The late psychic Edgar Cacye encouraged people to inspect their dreams. He explained that when we go to sleep it is like death and we cross over to the other side. Bashar says the same thing in that when we are sleeping we are our true selves. Therefore, when we come back in the morning our mind interprets that experience of the 'spirit.' The dream symbolism, in my opinion, is how we can communicate with our Higher Self. As Jung and Joseph Campbell points out it is with universal archetypes- the Collective Unconscious has access to all of the human information so we are 'plugged in' to the same group that's why they are universal- and it can take some time to learn or understand this symbolism. I highly recommend dream interpretation books written by Edgar Cacye's A.R.E. We are always given little tid-bits of what to expect or something that will help us with the current portion of the Hero's Journey upon which we are traveling. Conclusion The Higher-self is neither ambiguous neither is it a concept that is completely metaphor. This is a very real part of our souls that dwells on the other side of the 'veil.' That portion of us is always in contact with us as we journey throughout life. The Higher Self is always in contact with God as well because it is in the place of spirit with God. That aspect also contains much of our energy from past lives in the other gender and presents itself in our dreams as the opposite gender. The process to work with the Higher Self is that of integration. Learning not to repress aspects of ourselves. That can be very challenging work. I like to describe it as a process where I am continually finding baubles to inspect or something else to integrate. I am not sure if that process ever ends in life because as I grow I always seem to find more psychological wounds to explore and heal. A good indication that we are not working with our higher self is when we dream of disputes with or encounter a non-compliant opposite gender in our dreams. We can resolve our issues with the opposite gender in the real world by working on our relationship with the opposite gender or balancing the male/female drives that we all possess within ourselves. However, if we are working in the opposite way (dis-integration) we create a shadow. Those un-owned aspects of ourselves that we loathe can take on a life of their own and can really plague the human mind. I have not delved deeply into this topic, but it almost seems as though some people create an actual entity that can be seen in the Twilight before sleep. That might be a future blog post. Finally, let me explain why I chose "Little Piece of Heaven" as a video to best portray the union of the "Higher" and "Lower" self. It's a bit graphic and people might see it as evil. However, so often on our way to becoming self-actualized we try to kill our inner male or female component. We then exist as nothing more then pure animals. This song best captures the idea of someone who gives into their base urges, then realizes what they have done to themselves, and then 'marries' their Higher Self. Whether this is the point of the artists, I have no idea, but I think it is a very poignant way of seeing how we usually deny/repress or even "slay" our Higher Selves. Joseph Campbell said it best in an interview I recently watched when he said, "Be careful that when slaying the Dragon you do not slay the best part of yourself." |
Author:
Thank You For Visiting
Brave Soul! May Your Journey On The Path Of The Seeker Bring You Joy and Peace! I'm currently posting every Saturday. With a new addition the family I have pre-scheduled most posts through December 2022. Full Moon Posts will contain up-to-date content when I can get to them. Thank you so much for your support and understanding! This is a place where you can encounter new spiritual ideas that have helped me develop as an Individual On The Path of the Seeker. Take or Leave this information as you see fit. Archives
April 2024
|