Witchvox Article

Author: Colleen Deatsman [a WitchVox Sponsor]
Posted: November 8th. 2009
Times Viewed: 1,602

There is quite a bit of talk these days about “self”, and what that means, in metaphysics and the popular media. In all of these forums and disciplines, a person is divided within themselves in one of a number of different ways. Most disciplines have these divisions designated with terms coined by their founders or adherents. Id-ego-superego and mind-feelings-emotions-spirit are examples of such divisions. But it really boils down to what can be called the “small-s-self”, the workaday self through which we interact with the world, and the “big-S-self”, our authentic or transcendent self. All these words and divisions are substitutes for the traditional terms ego and soul, respectively.

It has further been observed that humans appear to manifest on this plane as beings consisting of body, mind, and spirit. In all the philosophies and disciplines that we know of, the mind purportedly controls the body, strategizing and acting in the world, while the spirit or soul observes the journey, accumulating the “good” and “bad” from life, seemingly acting as the immortal scorecard of our deeds.

Oddly enough, it is the soul in these disciplines that is held to be the human element, which passes on from life to life or, in some belief systems, to an after life. We refer to ourselves by saying; “I have” a mind and body and that “I have” a soul. The relevant question here is: Who is it that has these three things? Who is the “I” that stands outside of body, mind, and soul when we make these proprietary statements?

We are missing the relevant truth by glossing over it. If the soul is eternal, and the body is ephemeral, it follows that the soul has a purpose in occupying this body and utilizing this mind at this time. The truth here shines clear. We don’t “have” a soul; we are a soul having a human experience for a particular reason. There is a lot involved in getting born and occupying a body in this world, after all, so the soul must have an agenda if it is to go to all that trouble to be here. The new question then becomes: What is my soul’s agenda? What is my purpose in life?

The key to finding the answer to this question is to get in direct contact with the subtle energies of the soul in order to then understand our life purpose. This is a three-step process. The first step is to shift our perspective from the self-involved egoic personality with all its frantic needs and machinations, to the slow, smooth perspective of soul.

The second step is to harmonize ourselves with the soul’s subtle energy, allowing it to flow through us unfettered by pettiness, strife or our own personal history. The third step is then to act in the world from the powerful place of soul. At that point we will have begun to actualize the performance of the soul’s agenda, our life purpose.

The First Step: Getting Out of the Way

When we are born, we are a blank slate. We stare out at the world from the perspective of pure soul. Because the soul uses the body and mind to interface with the physical world, we have to learn how all that works. Over the course of the next twenty-one years or so, we are filled, like a computer, with the programs that provide the needs for our survival along with the opinions, perceptions, preferences, behaviors, rules, protocols, and expectations of our various family, friends, schools, churches, and society. By the end of this process, the gross stimuli of the dense physical world are the only things that capture our attention. The still small voice of the soul is drowned out by the clamor of the world and our own programming. Our job then becomes to clear a pathway from consciousness, through the resident programming, back to the soul. The two elements of this step are re-programming the behaviors that do not serve us, and the combined discipline of reclamation and recapitulation.

Reprogramming occurs when we recognize and change one of the behaviors or issues in our life we find distracting, confusing, self-defeating, or in the way. Then, we seek out their origins, where they came from, and mentally and emotionally “change” them using the technique of reclamation and recapitulation. This last step requires that we remember the original events in their entirety, seeking out the feelings, emotions and ultimately the beliefs that hold these issues or behaviors in place. Once that is finished, we can dissolve those beliefs and substitute new ones, or we can fully free up the machinery of our being by just letting them go.

This combined technique alters the programming, but also repairs the energy body, reserving our personal energy for our use, rather than for maintaining a disadvantageous behavior. The following is a sample of the Psyche Inventory, a technique designed to dig out a particular behavior and it’s origins during the technique of reclamation and recapitulation.

Typically, you would start by creating a timeline of your life, filling in all of your memorable life events and occurrences. For our purposes here, pick a single memory that has had lasting repercussions in your life, preferably one that is emotionally charged or one where you still feel caught. The Psyche Inventory process requires you to write down everything you can remember about the event.

What happened? Who else was involved and what were your and the other’s actions, intentions, emotions, feelings, and thoughts during the event? Looking deeper, what were the causal factors of the event and what were the changes in you that issued from the event? Did you lose a part of yourself in this instance? Was anything taken from you or did you take something from someone else that needs to be returned?

After this detailed analysis, sit quietly, with eyes closed, and put yourself back in the situation in your mind’s eye, imagining it in precise detail. Give back and receive what was lost or stolen. Forgive and be forgiven. Re-imagine the event in a way that produces a more desirable outcome for you and everyone involved.

Feel with certainty the resolution of this event and the freedom you feel with its closure. Open your eyes and return to the present. From now on, set this event aside. You are finished with it, free to live your life unaffected by the memory or the issues and energetic drain these created.

Obviously, a more detailed and thorough approach, along with ongoing maintenance and monitoring of this process is recommended, but this brief example provides an illustration of the concept. When enough of the resident programming is moved out of the way using this method, the reconnection to soul is automatic and produces a profound shift in awareness and perspective.

The Second Step: Staying in Harmony

Any wise person with even a little experience will tell you that enlightenment is not durable, especially in the beginning stages of self-actualization. Once you are connected to your soul and are oriented to the world from it, the resident ego begins its fight of attrition as it slowly dissipates over time, energetically aligning itself with your new soul-centered orientation. During this period you will notice extensive swings from soul to mind to emotion and back again. It’s just as well, really, because it’s the observable difference between these varied states of awareness that help you sit up and take notice of where you are and where you want to be.

Once you have experienced the consuming clarity and slow brilliance of your soul, you need to find a way to remain in that state of heightened awareness. There are many ways to do this, each discipline has it’s methodology, but the best methods always utilize energy movement as well as some form of meditation. The energy movement will keep you clear and clean and allow you to monitor and fortify the boundaries of your energy body.

Meditation gives you perspective. It allows you to step to one side and get a good look at what you are doing and what is going on in your life. For millennia, shamans have utilized a technique called journeying that has proven to be particularly helpful with this necessary perspective shift.

Rhythmic drumming is employed as a sonic driver to push the individual out of everyday consciousness. That simple act is enough to deliver perspective, but the shamanic journey goes one better and utilizes the individual’s connection to soul to gain added and intense insight as well. The following is an example of a shamanic journey that incorporates healing energy movement.

Close your eyes and relax. Send your awareness around and through the inside of yourself and notice what is happening in your body and energy field. Allow yourself to feel what your body feels. Pay attention to each organ and each system, noticing its color, energy, and pulsating rhythm. Now allow yourself to feel what your energy field feels. Pay attention to each chakra layer. See, sense, and feel how your body and energy field work together. Send the inquiring part of your mind into your body and energy field and ask them to “talk” to you and listen to their response. Hear and feel what is being communicated.

Carry on a conversation with each layer of your energy field, each individual chakra, and each cell, organ, and system of your body, and ask them to communicate with you. See, sense and feel if you have any energy imbalances, blockages, or areas where the energy flow is sluggish. If you do, explore the issues surrounding your imbalanced, blocked, or weak energy flow. Listen.

Now send attention and energy to the areas that need it. Feel the gathering of power as your intent floods these areas with healing life-force energy. See, sense, and feel the healing nature of this energy as it clears and revitalizes your trouble spots. Feel the change in your body and energy field as you do this.

Your inner healer is healing your body and energy field. See and feel it happening. Now slowly open your eyes, holding the images and sensations in place, noticing how you feel.

By practicing a regular discipline of energy cleansing/movement and meditation/journeying, while staying on top of programs that are running your life, you can maintain your constant connection to soul and even enhance it over time.

Part Three: Acting From the Soul

After you have done the heavy lifting of rewriting the programs, and subsequently maintained and broadened your connection to your soul through energy work and journeying/meditation, you find things changing in your life. There is an extensive re-ordering of priorities that takes place as you begin to address the world from your soul connection.

Your thoughts grow quiet as you find less need to hold your old reality in place with the way you talk to yourself and your mind chatter. The conversations you have with others are increasingly substantive. You begin to make a profound difference with what you say and do as your words and actions resound with truth and authenticity. As this happens, you soon notice a pattern that is strangely familiar to you. You will resonate with it.

You realize then that your soul has been quietly trying to express itself through your resident programming for many years, but was not coming through clearly due to your own lack of clarity and soul connection.

It is then you will see the shape that your soul’s purpose has been trying to get your life to take. At that point you will no longer be a divided being, made up of body, mind and spirit, big-S-self and small-s-self, or any other separation. You will have become a unified being, a brilliant soul moving as a force in the world, fulfilling your intended purpose.

Copyright: Copyright © 2008, 2009

ABOUT...

Colleen Deatsman

Location: Mason, Michigan

Website: http://www.colleendeatsman.com

Author's Profile: To learn more about Colleen Deatsman - Click HERE

Bio: Colleen Deatsman www.colleendeatsman.com, cdeats3@gmail.com is the Co-Author of Seeing in the Dark: Claim Your Own Shamanic Power Now and in the Coming Age (Red Wheel Weiser 2009) , and the Author of Energy for Life: Connect with the Source (Llewellyn 2006) , Inner Power: Six Techniques for Increased Energy and Self-Healing (Llewellyn 2005) , and numerous on-line and magazine articles. She holds a Masters Degree and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Social Worker, Shamanic Practitioner, Energy Movement Healer, Reiki Master, Certified Hypnotherapist, and Certified Alternative Healing Consultant at Circle of Life Counseling and Healing Services in Mason, Michigan. Colleen is also an expert by personal experience. She has healed herself from chronic fatigue immune deficiency syndrome (CFIDS) , fibromyalgia, hypoglycemia, hypothyroidism and asthma.

Paul Bowersox (pbowersox@gmail.com) is the Co-Author of Seeing in the Dark: Claim Your Own Shamanic Power Now and in the Coming Age (Red Wheel Weiser 2009) .
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering, is a Shamanic Practitioner and Teacher, Reiki Practitioner, Writing Coach, Editor and Contributing Writer for a number of on-line sources, publications and authors including authors Colleen Deatsman (Red Wheel Weiser and Llewellyn) and Mark Stavish (Red Wheel Weiser and Llewellyn) .

Other Articles: Colleen Deatsman has posted 4 additional articles- View them?

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