WHAT IS YOUR SOUL?
Your soul-nature is your true nature.
Your soul is the truth of your Being - the ‘Youness’ of you.
It is the living essence of who and what you are.
You cannot not be your soul - though you can be more or less connected with it. Most of us have suffered from some degree of ‘soul-loss’ in our lives. We become disconnected or cut off from parts of our soul due to our wounding.
We develop an ‘adaptive’ or ‘egoic’ self which acts as a protective outer shell to keep our soul safe as best we can. And over time we increasingly identify with this adaptive or ‘survival’ self in order to fit in with our family and society, and our soul goes into hiding. At some point we have to heal these wounds and break out of the protective shell of our adaptive self so we can truly and freely live from our soul.
To more fully and deeply connect with, and live from, your soul is what you are here to do. This is the work of a lifetime. This is what soul work supports you to do.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
(Mary Oliver from “The Summer Day”)
Your soul is your own unique essence as a human being living in this world of form.
It is also the unique personal manifestation of your spiritual nature - of the Divine, manifesting as and through you. It is the unique creative spark that is your own particular expression of All That Is.
No two souls are the same, yet paradoxically all souls have the same essence. All souls are One.
For there is ultimately just One Soul, One Self, One Consciousness, One Life, mysteriously manifesting Itself in a wondrous multiplicity of forms. This Divine Consciousness manifests in, as and through the material world. So Consciousness and soul are embedded in, and emerge from, the evolving forms of matter.
“Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul.”
(William Blake)
In its spiritual aspect, your soul is a vast, eternal Being of Love, Consciousness and Light. An aspect of this soul incarnates for a short period of time here on Earth, whilst the vastness of your soul exists beyond space and time in Spirit.
So your soul is both IMMANENT, existing in and as you and your body in earthly space and time, and TRANSCENDENT, existing in eternity and the spirit realms beyond this earthly dimension.
The part of your soul that incarnates on Earth is the vehicle for the growth and evolution of your greater soul through your experiences in this physical, emotional and mental realm.
This is the work of SOUL-MAKING.
We come here to be the unique being we are, to learn lessons, to fully live our lives, to experience the multitude of feelings, thoughts and energies that we are, to experience and express ourselves in a wide variety of relationships, to plumb the depths and reach the heights, to explore and heal our shadow, to resolve our karma, and ultimately to know ourselves as Love.
We come again and again to this and other realms for the soul to collect different life experiences like a stamp collector collects stamps. And in this way we are an expression of Life living itself.
“What unspeakable wonders must await with the commencement of unfolding of the infinite number of petals that are the soul?”
(Hafiz)
The soul’s journey into the experience and expression of Life, of embodying Love, Will and Divine Awareness, is also the journey of the Divine Itself.
Through the soul’s awakening, unfolding and expression in the world of form the Divine awakens to Itself in the material world, in and as you, Humanity and the Earth.
Through the developing consciousness of Humanity, the Soul of the World (Anima Mundi) and the Soul of the Earth (Gaia-Sophia) awaken and evolve too. The Consciousness that is embedded within matter emerges from matter, and becomes free to express itself in and through form, through the Earth and through the unique being that is You.
In and as the multiplicity of souls the Divine - the Oneness - experiences it all too. For your soul is a unique personalised expression of the Divine. Soul is Spirit individualised, personalised, particularised.
In this way the Divine gets to experience all the experiences of each and every unique individual soul, as well as the experiences of all other forms of life. Each with a unique set of characteristics, a particular path of evolution, a distinctive reason for being, purpose and destiny.
The Ground, the Essence and the Being of your soul is the Original Creative Source of All. Thou art That. The deep realisation, knowing and living of this truth changes everything.
You are a living aspect of the Divine. The Divine lives in and as You.
By way of the soul, the Divine remembers and experiences Itself.
And in this process your soul remembers and experiences its own true nature as a creative spark of the Original Divine Source of All. Your soul remembers Home. And with this divine re-membering a whole new stage of the soul’s journey begins.
THE QUALITIES & POTENTIALS OF YOUR SOUL
(a description of the many benefits of a deeper connection with your soul)
(an exploration of the various levels and aspects of your soul)
(a brief introduction to soul work)