Twin, triplet, and quintuplet charts deepen our understanding of how Human Design manifests uniquely in real lives. Even with identical charts from the same birth moment, each individual expresses their Design differently. This unique expression is at the heart of Human Design’s value. Why does this happen? Keep reading!
Our Design, as defined by our unique Human Design chart, describes how our energy is meant to flow. It shows us our best tools for applying our energy, choosing appropriately, identifying our greatest strengths, and what we will be drawn to. The direction in which our energy flows is intended to show us where and how to carry out our life plan and soul purpose. That is because our energy naturally flows towards what we are supposed to be doing, being, and learning.
Our Design energies express themselves through our creativity, our relationships with others, our sense of place in the world, the kinds of vocations that interest us, and how we find meaning and fulfillment. In other words, our Design is the map that leads to the highest expression of our purpose. Above all, your Design is intended to serve your continuing evolution.
However, the Chart is not the Soul. Human Design offers a framework for understanding our energy, but core individuality goes beyond the chart. This distinction is essential to Human Design’s purpose: illuminating your unique expression rather than prescribing an identical outcome.
Although twin charts—whether fraternal or identical—share themes, each twin uniquely expresses them. Each person is born with a unique agenda or soul contract. We are all shaped by many influences beyond Human Design, including psychology, astrology, numerology, sociology, genetics, and upbringing, to name a few. Even twins in the same family have different perceptions. Each part of the Human Design chart has a range of expression, from reactive (lacking awareness) to aware (understanding responses and their impact). Everyone, consciously or not, chooses how to express their Design.
Most importantly, we each have a unique soul trajectory that describes where we’ve been and who we’ve been, including how we have treated others, how others have treated us, and how we may have impacted collective history, for good or ill.
Our soul history affects the purpose and direction of our current lives. In other words, the dharma, or life purpose, which we incarnated to express and explore, and the karma we came to restore (karma meaning the law of cause and effect, where past actions influence current experiences), is influenced by our previous lives. Karma is inevitable, as all actions must be brought to balance. Dharma is necessarily woven into the fabric of our lives.
This is because the direction of the Universe evolves towards higher consciousness. Higher consciousness is about unity; it is not about exclusion. Exclusion always results in imbalance, inequity, suffering, and the continuing creation of karma. The agreements or soul contracts we’ve made help us connect to our dharma and bring us to the karmas that seek resolution.
Your life is woven into a complex tapestry of evolutionary intentions, spanning from the personal to the collective. This field is nurtured inside the boundless consciousness of the Universe, which any one interpretative modality or combination cannot fully express. Its breadth appears immeasurable, its beginnings shrouded in mystery.
The bottom line with how any Design will express has everything to do with the Soul that took it on for that lifetime. Again, souls are at different stages in their evolution — we have different histories; some longer, some shorter. Some of us are younger souls, while others are older. All of these influence the unique goals (dharma) and different obligations (karma) for your life.
As you become more aware of who you are and what you came here to do, your discernment about what choices are correct for you also increases.
This is why even those who share your exact Design will lead dramatically different lives—the soul’s uniqueness determines the lived expression of any chart, underscoring Human Design’s true power.
So, what does this reveal about Human Design’s value for self-discovery? Its power lies in helping you understand your unique soul’s purpose, despite identical Designs.
Because different people can be born with the same chart, does it render our Design meaningless? Does it mean we can’t use our Human Design to identify our uniqueness and purpose, and to help us anchor into that purpose? Of course not.
You give your Design its meaning and direction. Human Design is a tool; your soul determines its purpose in your life.
Your Design offers valuable information and points you in the right direction. It is up to you, the unique soul living that Design, to express it as you intend. You are more than your Human Design, but you can use it to find your path and purpose.
Even if you do not believe that the Soul creates intentions or has a trajectory shaped by previous lives, you are still driven by unique yearnings that compel you to create an authentic life.
I leave you with this: follow your Soul’s (or your authentic) intentions because therein lies the direction for your life.
Positive thinking can help bring out the best in your Human Design. When you are optimistic, it is easier to access your innate gifts.
A positive mindset clears emotions and keeps fear out of your decisions. It helps you see options and opportunities. When you are not weighed down by resentment or unfairness, it’s easier to access the gifts of your Human Design.
Optimism helps you succeed. While positive thinking can’t change your Soul Intentions or your Design, it can support them. Your optimism can’t create wealth, fame, or extraordinary talent, nor can it transform your appearance. However, it can help you become trustworthy and keep you on track to express your Design at its best.
Your Soul Plan was Decided Ahead of Time. Your Human Design supports your Soul Plan. You arrive with a complex, interconnected Plan. You may make new agreements here; these can replace or supplement those that don’t manifest.
Becoming an author or speaker requires specific agreements and talents. You must inspire others and choose your words wisely. If you want to be a best-selling author or speaker because you are passionate and believe in justice, take some time for self-reflection. Check if you are designed for those platforms. Using your talents and following what calls you aligns your life with your Design and agreements.
When you use your gifts and your interests, you align with your Intentions and Design. Life is more complicated when you try to become someone you are not meant to be or when you lack the agreements that would help you. Agreements move you along: mentors, introductions, employers, and teachers. In arenas without established agreements or personal and professional strengths, you will struggle to gain recognition and support.
Follow the Unfolding of Your Soul Plan to See Where it Takes You. Over time, you discover your Plan. If you’re not interested in fame, it’s not a matter of laziness or failure; it’s a matter of personal preference. If your work doesn’t appeal to a broad audience, it may not be your mission, or it could mean you’re not meant for celebrity status.
Please don’t assume that a humble life has no impact. Your unseen actions may support those with big missions. You may never know how many benefit from your words and deeds.
You will be happier being yourself, not chasing achievement for validation. Your Soul Plan doesn’t require grand gestures unless these are intended. How do you know if your life is “big” or “small”?
Follow Your Heart. Follow your passions and interests. Consider your resources—physical, emotional, and financial—and those who support your calling. Remember that rest and nourishment matter. Health supports what you do and helps you feel good about your life, even if you relax and enjoy your surroundings. Sometimes, inspiration strikes when you least expect it.
Have you lost your mojo, your energy, passion, and sense of purpose in life? This feeling of emptiness and lack of excitement that you may be experiencing is often a sign of burnout—a state that touches every aspect of our being. Many of us face periods when nothing seems enjoyable, rewarding, or worthwhile. If you’re feeling stuck or disconnected, you’re not alone.
No mojo means you’re burned out. Burnout has multiple origins and affects every aspect of our being: we become physically tired, emotionally exhausted, unfocused, and spiritually depleted. When burned out, nothing appeals, and questioning your purpose is easy. Disconnection from meaning, purpose, and oneself can leave you feeling cut off from life. Burnout can last for a brief period or persist for years. It can block your ability to see alternatives and find solutions to reclaim your life. This mindset convinces you there’s no way to turn things around, so why try? Now that we’ve identified what burnout can look and feel like, let’s examine what might be behind it.
Causes of burnout:
Investing your energy in unfulfilling projects.
Committing to things without genuine interest or out of obligation.
Chasing a dream that may not be your dream.
Overdoing it and not enough rest.
Losing a loved one, including pets.
Did you move somewhere you didn’t want to be?
Did someone betray you?
Did you lose your job?
Do you secretly feel not good, talented, or smart enough?
Or not attractive enough?
Do you hide your feelings of inferiority with extra effort?
Is your food nourishing you?
Have circumstances changed suddenly and unexpectedly?
Have you forgiven yourself?
Have you forgiven?
When was the last time you saw beauty?
Have all the things you tried to get unstuck yielded zero results?
Have you given up on getting meaningful change?
Recognizing possible causes is the first step. Let’s talk about how you can move forward.
Take time to do some serious resting. Take a break from expectations about who you should be or what you should have accomplished. Pushing yourself now will only worsen burnout. Without clarity or focus, seeking solutions will exhaust you further and may seem pointless.
The dark seduction of burnout is believing there’s no hope or solution. Review your track record—remember when your talents benefited others. Much of what we think is important is superficial or untrue. Identify where these myths trap you. Free yourself. Walk away.
Focus on rest. Nurture yourself with what brings you joy—nature, pets, music, poetry, or art. Tend to your basic needs and release pressure to feel better immediately. Patience is key; your desire for change is the crucial first step.
Commit to reclaiming your life. Despite difficulties, you remain in control and have the power to advocate for yourself. You are valuable as you are, and every decision should serve your best interests. Write yourself into a new story.
You can tune into your desires for the future. Let your choices serve the life you want, the way you want to look and feel, the people and experiences you seek. Be patient and kind to yourself. Many who survived the holocaust found comfort in memories and dreams of a better future.
Beyond rest, there are practical steps to help reignite your enthusiasm:
Put on music. Dance. Get your energy flowing again.
There is something you’re passionate about. Reconnect with it!
Believe in yourself. Choosing to do so will create your own personal movement.
Trust your intuition. Don’t second-guess yourself.
Focus on what is working, focus on your strengths. Focus on what makes you feel happy.
It’s okay not to know the outcome, the answers, or how you will get from here to there. Let your creativity unfold and lead the way.
Surround yourself with beauty. Yes, there is still beauty! Create beauty.
Could you write your story the way you want it to be?
Treat yourself with love and respect.
Get out of your head. Stop overthinking and second-guessing yourself.
Create rhythm and consistency in your life.
Enjoy being YOU.
You can reawaken your mojo by moving toward what calls you and taking small steps to feel alive again. Life holds enormous possibilities. While you are here, there is much to explore and enjoy. But first: rest, let go of demands and expectations, and surrender to life’s flow. There is another vision for you. When ready, take action and live as yourself.
After taking steps to recover your energy, go deeper: identify your core essential truth. It is indefatigable and primal, helping to get you moving. Something endures at your core, unchanged by time or place. This is revealed when everything else is stripped away. Your life anchors in this truth—it is steadfast. Stay connected, and it will sustain you.
What do you need to do to release, heal, and align to reconnect with your core essential truth?
It’s human to experience isolation, depression, and loss of hope or focus. This can happen when we ignore our needs or what’s around us. We often fall to rock bottom and must find a way back up. Many have fallen and recovered. Don’t see what happened as permanent. Every event is just a point in your life’s journey. As long as you say yes to life, more follows.
Even if your original plans fail, don’t give up. Your soul still finds ways to realize its agenda, even if the helpers and timing have changed. Because you have a purpose, the force behind it persists. Despite obstacles, your soul strives to create the experiences intended for you.
As long as you are alive, change will happen, and new opportunities will arise. Keep your heart open, and when a hand reaches out to pull you up, take it. Say YES to life!
Instead of struggling to identify a specific vocation, focus on what matters to you. What did you love to do as a child? You can look there for clues. What excites you? What feels adventurous? What makes you eager to start your day? These are hints to your vocation. Activities and topics you feel drawn to can highlight your next career. Follow your instincts, and your most fulfilling way of engaging with the world vocationally will follow.
• What do you love to do? You want to enjoy your work, so think about activities that make you lose track of time.
• Which specific activities or situations make you feel so happy and engaged that you lose track of your problems and time?
• What did you once love to do, but have essentially forgotten about or given up on because it didn’t work out at the time or simply made no sense? Or did you not receive much support for it? Revisit it. Re-engage it. These things, whatever they are, are yours. These are your gifts. They are to be used in service to others and for your own continuing development.
• What are you really good at? Again, what you’re good at is also what is fun and meaningful for you.
• What are you really passionate about? Where do your yearnings lead you? Your passion will get you over humps, writer’s block, self-doubt, waiting for an invitation, pretty much anything that rears its ugly little head and tries to talk you out of embracing your natural design. Or, put another way, your inclinations and your yearnings.
• What are you passionate about sharing or teaching others? If you don’t think these points point to your vocation, think again.
• What have you acquired much knowledge in just because you enjoyed going there? In other words, what have you really been training for all your life?
• What are you really good at? Take stock here. What you’re good at is more than a hint of where you should put your time, energy, and attention. What vocations does this translate to?
Having said the above things, consider whether your passions and yearnings best express themselves through a single vocation. Or even as a standard, conventional vocation.
We have been enculturated to believe that one’s talents and passions can best be expressed — or only expressed — through a particular vocation. That may not be the case for you. You may not be here to do “normal” or conventional work or specialize in just one area. Maybe you are here to explore, experiment, and do many things! Your passions and talents will likely connect naturally to several types of vocations or careers. Still, it is best to steer clear of thinking that what is out there in the ordinary workaday world will necessarily be your perfect match. What is important is that you put your attention and energy into what calls you. Follow that, and you will make the ‘career’ connections you need. In other words, you can find the right path for your gifts.
Understand that it is not uncommon that what you do for a living does not always require or ask for the highest expression of your gifts. Your official job may not be as fulfilling for you as a “hobby” in which you find a lot of joy, and where others also benefit. Our way of thinking is that what we do for a living should align with what brings us the most joy and where we have the most significant impact. This is actually not true; in real life, such jobs are not always easy to obtain, although it may work out that way. What is important is that you create the space to use your gifts, even if you are also working a regular job. In this way, you continue to cultivate your unique presence in the world, and most importantly, be your most effective self. You will also have the peace that comes with knowing you are being and doing all you can.
There is nothing more important than carrying out your soul contract because in doing so, everyone benefits. Your gifts are meant to be shared. They are part of an intricately interwoven matrix where each one’s gifts and callings are interconnected. Each time someone agrees to do what they came here to do, all of life is lifted up, and the healing and evolution that happens for everyone, including the Cosmos, is beyond measure.
Your life centers on fulfilling your purpose. Your agenda, or soul intentions, reside in your soul contract. You agreed to complete many tasks, both large and small. Each soul contract contains your primary mission—your dharma—and unresolved matters seeking balance, known as karma. How do you discover them?
Review where you have invested your time, energy, and attention. What have you been driven to pursue? These actions reveal your soul’s true interests. Your actions, shaped by your desires, point to your dharma and karma—what you are here to work on. How you pursue your desires also highlights your gifts and where to serve.
The most straightforward way to uncover your soul contract is to follow your strongest motivations. Early in life, we may not know our purpose, but we can learn about it. Each of us has natural gifts the world needs. Your talent may be humor, connection, cooking, handling complex ideas, organizing, or supporting others. Everyone has significant gifts—often many—and they are meant to be used in the service of your life’s purpose, bringing deep fulfillment.
So, how can you truly know what your soul contract contains?
Imagine God and your Higher Self helped design your life, then sent you to enact your soul contract. What would they point you toward?
Would it be about embodying kindness and goodness?
Would it be pursuing a specific career path or developing a particular talent?
Would it be reaching the top of your profession?
Would it be about becoming famous?
Would it be giving back through generosity and service?
Would it be creating art to inspire the world?
Would it be helping others using your abilities?
Would it be a peacemaker?
Would it be a civil rights activist?
Would it be to solve humanity’s problems with innovation?
Would it be animal rights?
Would it be teaching and inspiring others to have confidence and courage?
Would it be healing of the mind, body, or spirit?
Would it be to create communities that meet the needs of their members and, in turn, serve the greater good?
Would it be about becoming a visionary leader?
Would it be amassing as much money as you could so you could buy nice things?
You were put here for a reason; your task is to discover and fulfill it. You possess a range of skills and interests that can lead to numerous further opportunities. When you engage directly with your soul contract, you’ll find contentment and a deeper understanding of your life.
Your soul contract is meant to bring you joy. When you feel joy with certain things or experiences, you’ve found clues to your soul contract. The most important thing is to fulfill your purpose. Are you listening to your soul contract? Are you answering its call?
Carrying out your soul contract is paramount. Sharing your gifts uplifts everyone and connects us all. When someone fulfills their purpose, all life rises and healing spreads throughout existence, even the Cosmos.
P.S. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or if you feel that you haven’t made much headway. If you are alive, now is the time to act. Today, take at least one step, no matter how small, toward fulfilling your soul contract.
Navigating your calling is filled with challenges. Choices can be unclear, and the intentions of others can affect us in ways we cannot control. These outside influences, while not always meant as lessons, still impact our journey. The central message is to stay focused on your inner purpose while remaining adaptive to changing circumstances.
The main principle for navigating your path is this: adopt openness, curiosity, and a willingness to seek help to learn from every experience. Not everything is a lesson or meant for your growth, but you must respond skillfully, manage responsibilities, and maintain accountability to yourself and others. Trust that larger forces are at work even when your way is unclear. Focusing on inner resilience allows you to adapt and move forward.
Building on this idea of aligning with larger forces, it is often easier to fulfill your soul intentions for your INNER life — what you are passionately drawn to, what stimulates your creativity, what pulls you with the force of a giant magnet — because these serve your evolution, and because this is who you are and you can’t help yourself. When you feel compelled to move towards something, it is often because that situation aligns vibrationally with your soul’s overarching purpose.
Our inner life—what we choose to read, study, make hobbies out of, or develop fundamental skills in—is often more successful in achieving its original goals. This is mainly because these pursuits are self-directed and do not require others for fulfillment, unlike a professional career. As we satisfy some of our purposes and yearnings through an active inner life, we experience a great deal of joy. Meeting these needs can compensate for many things that do not occur for us in the outer world. Yet our outer lives bring a different set of challenges and dependencies.
Fulfilling our “outer” lives through our professional and vocational pursuits is often highly dependent on honoring previously established agreements. Important agreements are established before our incarnation, but some are made subsequently to expand further the original agenda or as backups to failed primary contracts. For example, it could be a business partnership, a decision to date exclusively and be monogamous, take a job where your employer has agreed to pay you a certain salary, sign a lease, or be in a specific location by a date certain to meet — and the other party then breaks these agreements. When this occurs, the goals you were aiming for are delayed, and you must rely on your resourcefulness to find alternative pieces that will fill in the gaps.
Some goals can even become unattainable when they were dependent on a specific agreement. The loss of essential contracts can make it more difficult to implement your plans as initially conceived. As these losses accumulate, we can find ourselves living ad hoc lives, making things up as we go, and using what’s available to make our lives as agreeable and meaningful as possible, finding ways to compensate for having missed the boat.
When plans stray from their intended course, remember your soul always seeks new ways forward. Even if new pathways differ from what you envisioned or happen on a different timeline, your underlying purpose persists. Staying resilient and connected to your core intentions brings meaning, even during detours, and this focus is the heart of your journey.
Even when dreams are delayed or altered and the journey takes unexpected turns, trust that support is present. Embrace change and enjoy the unfolding journey, allowing new opportunities to inspire you. Let go of resistance, follow your calling, and remain open to the meaningful possibilities that come your way.
Following your fulfillment is what will result in finding your purpose. I use the word fulfillment deliberately, as opposed to the word success. Success is too often associated with social status, with money, and with power. While we might be able to sustain “success” for a time, it will be abrasive and draining if we are trying to be someone we are not designed to be.
It’s not hard to identify the tracks that will lead to a purpose-filled life that also fulfills YOU — follow your bliss, follow your curiosity, follow what calls to you, and keep following that. You will always come to forks in the road, and if you keep following your curiosity, you will know where your next turn is. The forks in the road force us to stay true to ourselves. They force us to be honest about what is truly correct for us. Even when we do take a wrong turn, no experiences are wasted because it is all useful information.
Some things you will visit or study for a short time, and others you will major in. But if you follow your excitement, your interests, and your passions — in every moment you will be living your purpose, and gathering the specific information you need to keep growing.
Purpose is found in your experiences of the moment, in expression as well action, and it is not just one thing. Purpose is not defined as an end-goal or a product launch. Your purpose evolves over the course of your life as you expand in self-awareness.
While purpose can be expressed through a particular vocation or vocations, the vocation actually provides the CONTEXT for the expression of one’s purpose. In and of itself, a vocation is not your purpose per se, even though some vocations will be beautifully aligned with your purpose.
Think about your purpose as a living and ceaseless dynamic of pursuing your excitement and curiosity — which always includes following your heart — rather than as something that is easily contained or defined by a business suit, scrubs, a gavel, a hard hat, an advanced degree, and so forth. The reason is: purpose is ultimately about finding and staying connected to all those things that will support the continued expansion of your consciousness and your joy. And this has no ending.
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Soul intentions shape your purpose. These are agreements you made before incarnating—your soul’s agenda. They include dharma, karma, and promises to yourself and others. You’ll know your purpose by deep desires that call you. Notice what resonates most; it points you to why you are here.
Your soul’s purpose isn’t about material achievement or ego. It’s about sharing, giving, and receiving love, and being fully present. Life’s purpose is ultimately to learn to give and receive love.
Your purpose is not necessarily tied to a career; its focus may not be about making lots of money or being famous — at least, not for most of you. Maybe your life purpose is to make money, or maybe your life purpose will have the outcome of making money, but don’t assume that making a buck is your soul’s primary purpose for being in a physical vehicle. Rather than focusing on what vocation will make you the most money, focus instead on creating a life that gives you joy and provides you a forum to be of service. If you allow logic to overrule your heart’s desires, you will miss the boat.
Your soul seeks to be fully present and engaged. Whatever drives you to be involved and present is likely a part of your life purpose. By being present in your life and following what calls you, you fulfill your purpose.
TO BEGIN, STATE YOUR INTENTION TO CONNECT TO YOUR SOUL’S PURPOSE:
I am now connecting with my soul purpose. I am worthy of my soul’s purpose. Without me, my soul cannot execute or complete its plan. Through expressing my soul purpose, I bring great clarity and joy to myself and to others. By expressing my soul’s purpose, I support the continued unfolding of my soul’s plan. By expressing my soul purpose, I support the ongoing unfolding of all creation. I now allow my soul’s purpose to come forth and call me to live it.
TO HELP YOU IDENTIFY YOUR SOUL’S PURPOSE:
• What experiences have been profound and meaningful?
• What do you love to do?
• What types of activities or situations bring you so much joy that you forget your troubles?
• What did you love to do, but have essentially forgotten about or given up on because it didn’t work out at the time or made no sense?
• What are you naturally good at?
• What are you really passionate about?
• What are you passionate about sharing or teaching others?
• What are you here to contribute? Don’t think about it. Just say it.
• What have you really been training for all your life?
• What have you acquired much knowledge in just because you enjoyed going there?
• What experiences do you desire to have? List them.
• Why do you desire these experiences?
• What do you need to do or have to get these experiences?
COMMUNITY and LOCATION: where and with whom you feel aligned gives you important information on your soul purpose.
• Who are your people (who do you feel accepted by, at home with, comfortable around)?
• Who are your people (who do you feel accepted by, at home with, comfortable around)?
• What organizations and environments do they tend to be in?
• What type of work do they do?
• What work environments attract you? Indoors? Outdoors?
• Do you like to be around a lot of people? A few?
• Do you prefer big cities, small towns, or rural settings?
CHOOSE YOUR TOP VALUES, starting with the following list of ten. Identifying what you value will help you discover your soul’s purpose.
• Achievement – mastering goals
• Aesthetics – working with beautiful things, being surrounded by beauty
• Affiliation – working with people like you
• Authority – managing or directing other people’s work
• Creativity – ability to innovate, to try new approaches
• Ethics/Morals – free to work with your values
• High Pay – commanding a large salary
• Independence – free from other people’s direction and control
• Recognition – becoming known for your expertise
• Status – having a high prestige job
YOUR INFINITE SELF
Your Infinite Self is your Higher Self, your Super Wise Self, which sends aspects of itself out into the dimensional world to experience a new way of being.
HOW TO CONNECT TO YOUR CALLING
Believe that you can create what you need. When you allow those things that are not yours to do to fall away, what you are here to do becomes much clearer. Here are some processes to help you let go of behaviors that lead to taking on responsibilities and obligations that aren’t truly yours:
• Get back inside of your own truth. This will reconnect you to your center.
• Re-engage your creativity.
• Do those activities that bring you joy and pleasure.
• Connect with people who truly see and appreciate you.
• Take breaks and rest!
• Have genuine, innocent fun.
• Reconnect with what is beautiful to you.
• Engage the rich world of your imagination.
• Remember that you are truly resilient.
• You are lovable and deserve love.
• You do have the power to call in and create your right life.
• Remember that you have a track record of courage and having made correct decisions despite how hard it was.
• You have a unique wisdom that has been built brick by brick from your life experience, which you can share.
• Trust yourself to act in your own best interests.
• Strive to be real, that is, authentic to yourself and others.
• Value yourself. Understand that the time you have is precious and needed for your evolution and joy, and for that of others.
• Get to know and respect your energy capacities and learn to work with them sustainably.
When you apply these actions, what belongs to you will remain, and what does not belong to you will fall away. In this way, your purpose and calling can emerge freely. The gifts and challenges of your journey and the hard-won insights and knowledge you have acquired are too precious, too necessary, and too much fun to be allowed to be buried or put off by energy-consuming false callings (including wrongly assumed responsibilities) that distract from and are not in alignment with your authentic nature or purpose.
You have to do your calling. And that doesn’t mean you become selfish and unavailable. When you act out of integrity and faithfulness to your purpose, your responsibilities to others become much clearer.
NEXT STEPS
• Allow yourself to feel into your desires. Your desires contain your truths. Identify your truths so that you can live from them.
• Listen intently and deeply to your heart.
• Say yes to whatever causes your heart to zing. Your truths will make your heart zing.
• Let go of thoughts that say you’re not good enough. You can do this by facing your fears. The act of facing your fears will take you to the very edge of your courage. That edge is a place from which you can launch who you are.
• Become willing to be in the journey (letting go vs. striving).
• Live each day as if it were your calling.
• Take action on what seems most right or most important.
YOUR SOUL’S PURPOSE IS THE MOST SACRED THING THERE IS!
That goes without saying! It was so in the beginning, and will be to the end. You have a unique purpose encoded within. You are here to act from that purpose. You are here to live, breathe, create, and experience health and great joy from that purpose. Living your purpose has immeasurable ramifications in the good that it does. Even if you cannot at first articulate that purpose, if you seek it with an open heart, it will find you.
How can I know what my life purpose is?
What do you care about? What have you fallen in love with? What did you love to do when you were very young? Look there for your life purpose. What are you compelled to bear witness to? What is it that loosens your tongue to speak the truth? What will cause you to leap out of bed? Look there for your purpose. The activities you are naturally drawn to, what you long to learn about or explore, will point you to your life purpose. Follow what calls you.
Your soul’s intentions drive your purpose and are not tied to the material world, though it must express itself within it. Bear in mind that the soul is not about hierarchy, ego, or one-upmanship. Your life purpose will not be found there. The soul is about sharing, giving, and receiving. It is about coming from love and being fully present. In its grandest sense, your life purpose is to learn to give and receive love.
Is it about living an exalted life, that is, one where you are famous and glamorous and impressive and influential and make lots of money?
Your purpose is not necessarily tied to a career; its focus may not be about making lots of money or being famous — at least, not for most of you. Maybe your life purpose is to make money, or maybe your life purpose will have the outcome of making money, but don’t assume that making a buck is your soul’s primary purpose for being in a physical vehicle. Rather than focusing on what vocation will make you the most money, focus instead on creating a life that gives you joy and provides you a forum to be of service. If you allow logic to overrule your heart’s desires, you will miss the boat.
Of course, there is room in any life for trial and error, especially around finding your life purpose. In fact, there is a need to make mistakes. And you inevitably will. No matter. Mistakes will teach you what is dear to you, and what you can live without. This discussion is not intended to imply that only a rigid course of action will get you on the right path. It is the willingness to test the waters and be resilient when things don’t work as planned or don’t follow a neat trajectory that will be the most beneficial to you in identifying your purpose. The goal is to permit yourself to experiment and not know.
Does my life purpose best express itself through a vocation?
We have been enculturated to believe that one’s life purpose can best be expressed — or only expressed — through a particular vocation. And it can be deeply satisfying to pursue mainstream courses of study, or to take a job in an established and respected vocation. When that is the case, it is intended that you pursue those interests further. But many of you are not here to do “normal” or conventional work, or specialize in just one area. Many of you are here to do many things! Because there is an almost infinite variety of life purposes and ways of expressing them, it is not always possible to find a vocation that will seamlessly mesh with or match your unique purpose.
The reality is that collective culture and consciousness are behind in their understanding of vocation. As a result, most of you will live your purpose as best you can, in conjunction with (or not), and in addition to, what you do to make a living. The important thing is that you live your purpose and do what you can with the support you have. When you courageously live your purpose, you are truly in the vanguard to raise consciousness on the deeper meaning of vocation, including making new criteria for the standards by which vocation is valued.
What does it look like when I’m living my purpose? More importantly, what does it feel like when I’m living my purpose?
You will know you are living your purpose when you experience a deep sense of personal fulfillment; you will know, from your sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, that this is what is right for you. Your purpose is something you do whether or not you get paid for it, because it gives you tremendous satisfaction. Your soul’s need to experience profound fulfillment and the connection to all things that arises from living your purpose will light a fire under your feet.
What is the common denominator behind every life purpose?
Your life purpose is given specific form and meaning from the soul. Your soul is the driver of your life purpose. So you can ask: What does my soul want? What is meaningful for my soul? Your soul wants to be fully present and engaged. Whatever compels you to be present and thoroughly engaged is your life purpose, or part of it. By being present to your own life and following what calls to you, you will live your purpose. How do you get there? It’s actually quite simple. You do it all the time without thinking about it. Follow your bliss. Follow your joy; follow your yearnings. If you follow your joy, you will find yourself gradually shaping a life that is in sync with your life purpose. Your joy and fulfillment are your clues.
I want to be faithful to my life purpose. I want to live it, but I don’t know what the next step is, mainly because I’m still not clear on that purpose.
Trust that the next step will become apparent. Take the step that brings you the most excitement — this is always your cue for the right direction. Taking the next step toward your joy is much better than not moving at all. If you find yourself losing your joy, then correct your course to reconnect with it. When you follow your joy, your life will gradually come back into alignment with your life purpose. When you follow your joy, what is right for you will find you. If you cannot feel anything, move forward anyway. You will again find what feels best.
Believe in yourself.
Believe that you have a right to be here. You have as much right as anyone to be here. There is a place in this world for you, and it is yours alone. Your role and your contributions are needed more than ever.
What is calling you at this time?
Pay close attention to what draws you. There are significant clues here to help you find your purpose. Are you responding to those, or ignoring them because they are impractical and perhaps even somewhat crazy? Trust that you were built to surmount the obstacles to your purpose. Trust that you are meant to follow your path, however crazy and unwise it may seem to others. If you are authentically living your purpose, you will be supported in living it.
Our world desperately needs your gifts! This is what makes it imperative that you live your purpose. Pay attention to what will not leave you alone. Living your purpose is not just for your sake, though that is important, but also for the world’s sake. Because each one of us contains a unique piece of the creative genius behind this world’s design, every human being’s participation is required. Therefore, understand that being who you are is everything. Your divine assignment is meant to be a force for the evolution of this world; it is effective only to the extent that you are living your purpose.
Develop your talents to the fullest and use them to make the most significant contribution you can – this is true success.
The soul is that part of you that never dies and is re-birthed into incarnation after incarnation. The soul is the part of you that was made by the Creator Source, which is of the Creator Source, and is the Creator Source. Your soul is your portal back to God, it is your piece of God, and it is what makes you God. It is your unique experiences, contributions, mistakes and insights that inspire and teach God and the Universe, and cause them to expand.
Each one of us is a unique, never-to-be-seen again expression of personality and soul. And just as no snowflake is alike, neither are any two souls alike. Each one of us is created in a manner that is like no other. Each one of us has a legacy to fulfill that is like no other. This is why it is so critical for you to do what you agreed to do. Your legacy begins with your unique piece of the Tao. That legacy is the result of the path your soul has traveled lifetime after lifetime. Your signature, or frequency, is unique. This frequency is your piece of the Tao, or your chip off the old block that is God. No one else has it.
Your soul transmits your legacy of evolving consciousness to your physical being. This legacy of consciousness incorporates the body of experience gathered from both the incarnate and discarnate planes. It is the sum cumulative of the trajectory of your soul (the history of where you’ve been), and it was set in motion long ago. Your soul’s trajectory compels you to seek your purpose for this life. It is your soul that is equipped to guide you, first and foremost.
How do I draw down my soul?
This can also be asked as, how do you bring your life into alignment with your truth? There is no manual other than listening to the call of your intuitive knowing. When you listen to the call of your intuitive knowing, you become more and more adept at discerning the next right action. You do not need to wait for inspiration per se. By taking actions that reflect best what you know is true for you, you will connect to your path. It is critical to take action, even if it is not clear exactly what that action is or how it should look. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it is necessary to stay engaged even if you don’t know what your next step is. As you move forward, you will innately self-correct because you will know when you’ve stepped off your path.
More tools for drawing down the soul
Follow your yearnings. Your yearnings are very useful pieces of information. It’s important to know what will give you emotional satisfaction. If you want to be happy, you’ve got to tune into your yearnings and follow them. When you follow your yearnings and allow for their expression, they will lead directly to your appropriate way of being and expressing in the world. And that is because they demand a certain kind of focus and experience. In fact, whether or not you are conscious that you carry an internal agenda for your life, you will connect more and more to your soul intentions because that is the inevitable result of following your yearnings.
How will I know when I’ve drawn down my soul?
Latent powers, talents and abilities that you had no idea you possessed will appear. You will feel, along with great excitement, great fear. You will find yourself blasted right out of your comfort zones. You will be challenged to walk a path seemingly covered with burning coals, and this path apparently continues – and continues. You understand that you will have to plunge ahead into the unknown and into terror if you are to take a stand for yourself, for your right to live your right life. You will also have the inexpugnable sense that you are the one in charge of the creation of your life, and this recognition alone will empower you to slog on. You are, after all, your own highest authority, and you do know what is best for you. You will come to know without hesitation that you have finally come face to face with the Divine. Your great excitement will lead you to your Great Work – the creation of your life, the life you were meant to live.
Your soul purpose continually expands and evolves
Drawing down your soul is not an act or event that takes place once; it is ongoing for the rest of your life. And that is because your soul seeks mastery. Your soul seeks expansion. The soul needs expansion. Once you have mastered a subject or activity, you will feel the urge to create something new. It is the nature of soul to continually reach towards greater and greater exploration, and greater soul-expression. It is the nature of soul to create without end. Each time you are in a process of expansion, bear in mind that the map has not yet been created, and it is your ongoing willingness to be creative with your next step that will create that map. Working with your soul purpose will stretch you beyond what you thought was possible for you. No one develops mastery or finds their greatness without being stretched or taking on some struggle.
In that struggle towards mastery your soul is your biggest and most loyal ally. You will be empowered to bring your divine plan into form by unfolding and activating your gifts. With your soul as your co-creative partner, you will be motivated to fulfill your purpose. Your soul is your blueprint for your life. Your soul is you.
~ end ~
For a session on finding your purpose, see Life Purpose
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Your birthright is to express your true gifts. The activities that you are naturally drawn to, what you long to learn about or explore, are the indicators of your birthright and your soul purpose. The key is to follow the paths that you find fulfilling. Every human being is an aspect of the Creative Impulse that spurs the evolution of humanity and the world. Therefore, understand that being who you are is everything. It is what truly matters, because your part as a positive force for the evolution of this world is effective only to the extent that you have drawn down your soul, activating your true nature.
When you find your efforts repeatedly obstructed, it is because you are applying yourself towards goals that are not appropriate for you. Closed doors and rejections are clear indications that the approach you have been taking is not for you. The other side of this is that when you are making concerted efforts towards those activities that are your birthright, you will receive assistance to move ahead. This assistance comes in many forms: through dreams, through words not necessarily spoken to you but meant for you just the same; through strangers as well as through co-workers, family and friends; through those who share your values, and through open doors. You will feel as if you have just emerged from deep waters that you have aimlessly swum in for a long time. You will have broken through to a brightness and freshness that offers new vistas you had no idea existed.
Your soul is in partnership with the universe. When you are on a sincere quest to identify and follow your mission, you will receive assistance from many quarters. When we say that the Universe itself is available to help you, we include every one who makes themselves of service to answer your questions and reflect your thoughts back to you; we include the words you read and hear and with which you especially resonate, finding deeper meaning in them; we include the images that speak to you; we include your dreams; we include physical sensations and emotional responses that invoke a sense of heightened knowing that something is right for you. These are among the ways the Universe conspires with your soul to guide you.
Sometimes things are really, really tough. There will be times when you find yourself in extreme life circumstances where, as the saying goes, you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Some examples of these are job losses with protracted periods of unemployment where you watch your available resources whittle down to nothing; or where you find yourself in a health crisis that disables you from being able to support yourself and care for yourself and your dependents; or where someone you depended on to maintain your financial stability leaves. Add to this dismantling of your life the crippling losses of a beloved pet or a break-up with your long-time beloved. When your house is burning down, your only recourse is to surrender. I know, you didn’t ask for this. You didn’t want it, either. Not by a long shot. Not ever. And you’ll be damned if you surrender. Until you can’t take it anymore.
But now that your house has burnt down, and the resources you depended on to maintain the coherence and stable foundation of your life are gone, you are dependent on your wits and the kindness of strangers. And of your friends and family. And hopefully, there will be some kindness. It is in these times of extended crises, where we are stripped of our anchors, our comforts, and our very identities, that the soul has an opportunity to assert itself in full-blown clarity. It’s hard to believe, I know, but when we are stripped down to nothing that is when we can truly see, once we clear the terror from our eyes. And you will not clear terror until you walk right into and through it. Let me give you some examples of those who worked with seemingly insurmountable life circumstances and a great deal of terror. Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Mother Theresa. These are among the well-known who did not permanently succumb to despair, but instead surrendered to the calling of their soul. They pursued their truths despite tsunamis of opposition and heaping platefuls of personal sufferings of every conceivable kind, too painful to contemplate. And there are others — Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Chelsea Manning, and Chris Hedges. These outspoken truthsayers experienced ridicule and denunciation by many because they raised to the light information — against the will of the powers that be — that the world community desperately needed to see. These courageous persons could have continued to live their lives in relative privacy and quietude, but they were compelled by a calling greater than the peace and safety of their immediate lives. Your soul’s assignments will sometimes take you completely out of your comfort zone and land you straight in the middle of terror.
Your soul is an out-of-the-box thinker. When we experience terror, the choices available to us expand or contract depend on our ability to think out of the box and to push back against the impossible. We can engage a higher level consciousness, the consciousness of the soul, thereby gaining insight into new options. Your soul is an out-of-the-box thinker. Having traveled thousands of years through time and space and between, it has a perspective and problem-solving capacity that far exceeds the limitations of a frightened mind. When we reconfigure our thinking to include what is possible beyond the bounds of what we formerly believed to be possible, entirely new vistas open up. With the creation of a new paradigm and a new lens to look through, all previous paradigms are eclipsed and collapsed. We can now go to places we have not been to before and find solutions that we did not know were available.
It is human nature to see only a very small picture of the totality of what is going on at any moment. True, we can’t possibly see everything, but we can train ourselves to go outside the normal boundaries of how we respond so that we can see more of the picture. Our capacity to see is often limited by our needs of the moment – whether they are physical, emotional, or survival-based, etc. There are always many influences coming to bear on a given situation. Some of those influences can be challenged and removed. Some can be eliminated with ease, and some with effort. But once certain influences are removed, we have simplified our situation. With our expanded soul consciousness we can train ourselves to hone in on what the core issues are in any given moment and armed with this information, we can problem-solve with relevance. We can deconstruct the terrible in what is happening right now so that we have a much more effective handle on dealing with a complex and frequently messy situation.
~ end Part II ~
For a session on finding your purpose, see Life Purpose
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When I was a very little girl and I looked in the mirror I had a powerful feeling that that reflection wasn’t really me. I silently asked: Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here now? I would get chills when I asked those questions, and the shadows of timelessness would begin to envelop me. My image in the mirror morphed into a thousand different shapes. That was absolutely frightening to my four-year-old self and I would run away each time. Even so, I continued to go back, surreptitiously stealing towards the mirror to again investigate my reflection. As I got older, I forgot to pursue this adventure. I didn’t, however, forget my questions, nor did the deep need to have those answered go away.
To draw down your soul
you must drink from its well.
But where is that well?
It is the depth you have always carried.
It is the murk in which you’ve hidden your deeds
and the light which exposes and cleanses all imbalance.
It is your inheritance and your legacy.
It is you.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
What Does it Mean to Draw Down the Soul?
When we draw down our soul, we are seeking to align ourselves with our authentic nature, our true nature, so that we can remember who we are and act on what we came here to do. It is inherent to our authentic nature to act in concert with our higher self. Drawing down your soul refers to aligning yourself with that aspect of yourself that resides permanently in the higher vibrating planes. And it also means to activate that eternal aspect from within.
Why Draw Down Your Soul?
So you can find out what you planned to do when you got here. So you can come to know who you really are. The great yearning we have to uncover the mystery of who we are, and the great yearning we have to take ourselves on our own heroic journey is what propels us to draw down our soul. It is through coming into alignment with our souls that we will come to know ourselves and really see what we are made of. The current trajectory we’re traveling – what we do, who we meet and bring into our inner circle – will drastically alter.
When you bring down your soul you will be moving out past your comfort zone, but you will also experience your high potential as it unfolds before you. When you are aligned with your soul’s plans and purpose, you will be astonished to discover that you can stretch beyond what you ever thought possible around what you can create for your life and the benefit of others. You cannot wait to get out of bed so that you can get back on task, because when you bring down your soul, you are bringing Creation into manifestation. You are standing in the shoes of God.
You Were Born to Greatness
That greatness unfolds through living out your soul purpose. But to live your greatness, you must know who you are, and then do what you can in each moment to support that. Your soul contains vast reservoirs of knowledge and abilities that you have acquired over the course of your many incarnations. When you bring forth the sum cumulative of those gifts you can create profound change in yourself and in the world. Think of your soul as your personal library filled with everything you need to guide you to a life that is clearly directed, resounds with rightness, and is deeply fulfilling. The greatness of your purpose is not defined by fame, conventional forms of power, or fortune and wealth. Greatness is not defined by your being in the world’s limelight in an exalted way – it is about successfully identifying, pursuing, and accomplishing your purpose.
When you are not living your purpose, your life is at best dull, ordinary, and unfulfilled. At worst – your life is characterized by setbacks and even cruel experiences. It is difficult to overcome the limitations imposed by being in the wrong place and situation. It is nearly impossible to come into our own when we are in the wrong environment, with the wrong people, and applying ourselves to tasks which are not ours to do.
You Were Born to Power
Most of us never access the power we have because we have agreed to conform to the paradigms of culture. You were born the leader of your life. You are in charge. Sometimes, or even often, it seems absurd to think of ourselves as leaders, and especially as powerful leaders of our lives when we don’t seem to have much power or control over anything. When our livelihoods don’t yield much in terms of paycheck or meaning, or when a livelihood is nowhere to be found, it certainly does not feel or look as though we have much say over our lives. But these circumstances, painful as they can be, are not statements about our value or our true power. They are not reflections of who we are. We may believe that we have no value, but the truth is, our value always stands outside of time and place. You cannot give in to any belief that tells you your value rises and falls with your accomplishments and the approval of others. We may believe that we have no power, but the truth is we have the power to move heaven and earth.
Can you say more about this power we have to move heaven and earth?
When we say that you have the power to move heaven and earth, we are referring specifically to your innate capacity to bring in the life you agreed to live, even despite the challenges you find yourself in, or have been in for quite some time. We are referring, specifically, to your personal power, the power that comes straight from your soul. That is the power to be the leader of your life. We are also referring to your capacity for resilience in the face of uncertainty and opposition. Your soul will lead you, but you must be open to receiving its information and instruction. This information comes in many ways and through many sources. They are the sources that speak to the depths of you, causing you to experience a heightened sense of excitement and increased curiosity. You will know when you are hearing your truth – it will have the unmistakable ring of conviction. You will know beyond a doubt that it is your soul speaking to you.
~ end Part I ~
For a session on finding your purpose, see Life Purpose
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Job loss and extended unemployment are recurring realities for millions in the United States. I have faced multiple layoffs, and each time I return to employment, it has not restored the previous stability I had. The financial damage caused by unemployment is rarely made up, especially when savings run out and debt mounts—a nearly inevitable result, given inadequate unemployment benefits. Even after finding work, debt can seem insurmountable, making recovery an elusive goal. While some insist that personal responsibility or karma explain job loss, these beliefs overlook the scope and frequency of unemployment, which cuts across all demographics. This is an issue much larger than any individual’s actions, challenging the myth that hard work alone ensures success. Self-reliance fails to account for the systemic forces affecting all of us.
What stands out, then, is that employment depends on more than individual effort. Securing a job always involves others, whose decisions ultimately determine our opportunities—no matter how much we try to lift ourselves by our “bootstraps.” This interdependence challenges the notion that personal merit alone is enough to secure a job.
My Personal Story Towards the end of 2010, I was laid off for 14 months. During that time, I applied to over 300 jobs that matched my qualifications. I received just two interviews. The first led nowhere. The second one got me a job at a law firm, but the role was nothing like what was advertised, and the actual duties didn’t enhance my resume. Still, after 14 months and dwindling resources, I was grateful. After a little over a year, I was laid off again—this time due to the firm’s economic restructuring. It was another in a long line of layoffs that dated back to the early 1980s.
To better understand my situation, I sought input from others. Well-meaning friends suggested, “This is your karma coming due,” “You’ve ignored your life’s calling,” or “It’s a wake-up call from the Universe—figure it out before it’s too late.” These views gave me total responsibility for my hardships while suggesting the upside—if I can create discomfort, surely I can create joy and abundance. Supposedly, this journey is about recognizing what the “Universe” wants from me, which allegedly I can’t accomplish by simply holding a job.
What is Karma? I want to take some time to explore the feedback on my question, “What do you think might be going on here?” We’ll begin by getting on the same page with an understanding of karma. According to Hinduism, karma is the reaping of what was sown previously – in the current life and/or a previous one, and perhaps even several previous ones. It’s a cosmic principle that you will not ultimately get away with stealing what rightfully belongs to another, especially those things which are needed to keep that person alive (food, clothing, shelter, funds) and which also enable their well-being (education, reputation, health) such that they can live the life they agreed to and have a right to live. Stealing someone’s foundation of support is akin to stealing their life force and can be akin to murder (where all choice is removed). It is a significant tear in the matrix of both personal and universal balance that must be repaired by being paid back at some point. No one really has a choice about eventually returning what does not belong to them. You may get away with putting it off for several lifetimes, but the irresistible force behind the immovable demand for balance through restoration will compel you, sooner or later, to do the right thing whether you want to or not.
Karma is magnetic. When you are in the vicinity of someone to whom you owe restoration (or who owes you), you will feel drawn to them. Often, you will feel an overwhelming attraction. The intensity is not easily dismissed. This is necessary to establish a relationship that will allow you to resolve past painful interactions. Note that there is also attraction with dharmic agreements (but perhaps without the burning intensity of karma), such as teaming up to perform a mutual task. Follow the yellow brick road as it were, and the purpose of the connection will eventually be revealed. In both cases, there is a mysterious pull that you will want to explain as “that person is fascinating,” or “that person is attractive,” or “they have something to offer that I’ve been looking for.” In any case, your karma has hooked you—or your dharma is calling.
Sometimes karma takes on the form of direct payback. What you did to another will be done to you by that same person. In this instance, the other person is forcibly taking back what belongs to them rather than waiting for you to return it graciously. This is far less pleasant than engaging a relationship that may have other mutually rewarding aspects, but lacking gracefulness as it does, it gets the job done, and you are released from that karma. This is the form of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but more advanced souls prefer to avoid such literal payback. It is far more pleasant to heal the broken connection between you by offering gifts that serve the same purpose as returning stolen goods. This also opens the opportunity to take the relationship to a higher level, one in which you mutually find ways to assist each other’s journey. The willingness to do this will depend on the severity of the original theft. It will be much harder to accept someone who previously murdered you as a friend you can trust. It can, however, be done.
Often karma works like this: instead of being drawn to a person or a situation (place of employment, organization, course of study, educational institution, and so on), you find yourself the surprised and unwilling recipient of a series of unpleasant and life-altering events. Bewildered at how and why these events have occurred to mess up your life, you may begin to search, not only for the cause behind those events, but for the meaning that might be behind them. In this scenario, you are experiencing what it is like to have crucial support taken away from you, allowing you to intimately understand what you did to another when you stole what they needed to live a flourishing life. This type of karma is sometimes referred to as self-karma because it is not brought about by the direct manipulation of another person but by an agreement you made with your higher self to understand the ramifications of undermining or destroying another’s life options.
Unemployment as Prima Facie Evidence of Karma Given the above, I could conclude that I might be in the midst of self-karma. Alternatively, I’m receiving direct payback from former employers, reflecting past actions of mine towards them. If stressful circumstances are always a sign of karma, unemployment becomes a forced restoration by my employers, repossessing what I once denied them: livelihood. That’s one possible answer to why I lost my job. But other facets exist. Perhaps karma is not involved at all. The immediate reason given, downsizing, often points to a complexity that encompasses more than a simple explanation.
How to Know If It’s Karma How do we determine when karma is at work? I don’t believe there is any way we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we have entered karmic territory. Still, when you feel as though you have stepped into the twilight zone – meaning that the status quo of your life peels away unbidden to reveal strange images, dimensions or new insights, or time seems to slow down and even freeze, or there’s nothing you can do to convince the other party of your good intentions, then you might be in the zone of karmic payback. Other things may also be happening that have nothing to do with karma and are not the subject of this discussion; however, it is sufficient to say that karma can manifest similarly to what I’ve just described.
However, the proof of release from the karmic pudding ultimately comes down to this: you will know when a karmic tie has been released when the charge of the situation is gone. You no longer feel compelled to remain in a relationship with someone, or at a job that was replete with unsolvable issues, because after the restoration has occurred, you begin to feel calm, balanced, and neutral about the whole thing – that is, after you are done processing your human reaction. It is as if you have awakened from a long nightmare, and you know you are now in your right mind because the fever that once held you in its thrall has finally broken. At this point, it is a matter of choice whether you walk away (assuming you haven’t been irrevocably dismissed) or stay to create a new, healthier configuration that all parties agree to take to a higher level.
Signs of the Times Sometimes it isn’t the karma of the immediate parties that is in play. It could be the signs of the times, that is, the historical context that everyone shares, and which is the common denominator to which everyone, regardless of station, status, creed, race, or gender, is subject. According to a July 28, 2013, article, Survey: 4 in 5 face near-poverty, no work (published online at TPMLIVEWIRE by Hope Yen), “Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Survey data…points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.” From another article: “The vast majority of people in the United States will experience poverty and economic insecurity for a significant portion of their lives.” For the statistics behind that statement, see Gary Lapon’s article, Poor Prospects in a ‘Middle-Class’ Society, August 18, 2013, published in the online magazine Truthout.
Without too much argument, I think we can agree that national and world affairs are an inextricable superimposition on the course of our lives, mixing their enormous bandwidth into the much smaller frequencies of our own. We barely need to raise our heads to see that fracking, the broken nuclear reactors of Fukushima, the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, ethnic genocide, human sex trafficking, and many, many more life-ravaging actions have a reach and impact far broader and deeper than any personal karma could hope to claim. These acts are karma against the entire planet, generated intentionally on an incomprehensibly large scale by the abusive politics of power.
The Global Karmic Pandemic of 2020 In 2020, the entire planet found itself at the mercy of a pandemic caused by a new virus, SARS-CoV-2. Some believe this virus was cultivated through the imbalances resulting from the cruel and unconscionable ways human beings treat animals and the environment. The extreme physical cruelty that caged animals in wet markets and factory farms endure affects their immune system. Forced to live in filth and lacking health and freedom, they become easy hosts to bacteria, parasites, and viruses, which quickly overwhelm their bodies. These malefic entities easily pass to humans (and then the animals get blamed and subjected to inhumane wholesale slaughter). When you consider that these beings have emotions, live in constant terror, and endure horrific pain, it is clear that the damage done is multi-dimensional with far-reaching effects and is nothing short of sacrilegious.
There is also a belief that this virus originated in a laboratory. Regardless of its origins, one must consider that the actions taken to create it or cause it to be manifested reveal a disrespect for life, including a disregard for the impact on the planet as a whole.
The effect of this virus, whether one wants to call it karmic or not, is nevertheless karmic in its impact. When I first wrote this article in 2013, the number of people suffering from unemployment was far, far fewer. Yet each one of those people suffered no differently from those whose multiple sufferings are directly related to unemployment. At the time, the numbers were not enough to influence change in federal and state policies. Now the numbers are striking — off the charts — and yet Congress must argue and delay taking obvious action to do what needs to be done. They must do their job and take care of their people, or add yet another straw to the unraveling of the structures that support the lives and well-being of human beings. Not doing what you have been tasked to do with the explicit power to do so, especially at the level that can make or break civilization, creates karma.
The Destruction that DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) Wrought In 2025, the new administration’s actions resulted in a blindside ‘cleansing’ of multiple departments in the federal government, leading to thousands of people losing their jobs. Most of these departments were already understaffed, making their ‘cleansing’ severely crippling. Some departments were shuttered entirely. The eradication crusade against ‘waste,’ ‘fraud,’ and ‘abuse’ included demanding that law firms, universities, and individuals exercising their right to free speech restrict their businesses and activities to comply with new rules. Legal scholars universally regard these new rules as unconstitutional, but the consequences for violating them have been severe. Although the majority of lower courts have ruled that these actions are unlawful and unfounded, the administration continues to pursue its objectives in defiance of these rulings. The Supreme Court has vetted the racial profiling of brown people and people with accents. The Department of Homeland Security’s ICE forces are responsible for the violent assaults and detention in squalid hellholes of thousands, including pregnant women and children.
What is this about? Human beings have a dark nature that desires to conquer and subdue, and nothing is excluded. Conquering has also often meant breaking and destroying systems and structures that, despite not being perfect, nevertheless cobbled together processes that supported humanitarian goals. There is nothing sacred when this nature is unleashed. Think of the Dust Bowl effect, the swarming of ravening locusts, tornadoes, or hurricanes. Has the karma of the United States, whose founding fathers were wealthy white slaveowners, come home to roost? Are we being shown that democracy, voting rights, and equal opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice were always tenuous? And are they tenuous because these were never solidly based on the genuine belief that all people are created equal and all have the same right to a life where they can actualize themselves? The truth behind all the lies is being brutally revealed on a giant screen that everyone can see, and will hopefully inspire the necessary corrections and restorations to be addressed.
It is very likely that when so much breaks and falls apart, our karma has caught up with us.
Karmic Impact, Delays, and Detours It is not sustainable to be repeatedly knocked down in the name of paying back karma. It doesn’t make sense to continually remove a person’s livelihood, leaving them unable to fulfill their life tasks and agreements. In other words, it may not be karma that is at work. When we painstakingly created the agenda for the current incarnation, we agreed to address our karma – working through past unbalanced painful situations with others, the working out of our own self-karmas — as well as our dharma-through the continuing expansion of our souls. We do this by surrendering to experience, including specific life tasks, agreements, facilitating and mentoring others, relationships, upgrading old skills and learning new ones, and stepping up into a larger (or smaller) game, to name a few. To fulfill both karma and dharma, we bring through the themes of a dozen or so past lives that are consonant with the themes of our current life. The goal is to realize ourselves more fully.
But things don’t always work out as planned. Sometimes we have to fill in the gaps, creating and re-creating from scratch. We can experience delays, detours, or reroutes. Sometimes there’s a deliberate abdication by those who agreed to help us. And, life isn’t set in stone. The best-laid plans of the wisest souls are still subject to the slings and arrows of unpredictable fortune – accidents and other people’s choices.
When your efforts to make yourself at home are repeatedly obstructed, it could be because you are presenting yourself for membership in a tribe whose tasks and agreements are not in alignment with yours. They will not recognize who you are or what you have to offer. This is true even if you function competently in their environment. The phenomenon that occurs in these instances is a lack of familiarity at the soul level and a lack of agreements of various kinds, including work agreements, facilitation agreements, mentor agreements, and opportunity agreements, among others. The phenomenon of lacking agreements makes one a foreigner. And although foreigners can be seen as attractive because they are different, those same differences can also be perceived as threatening and even repulsive. If you find yourself in a workplace where you experience constant abrasion, and the tribe is busy creating “evidence” to support their low opinion of you, it is time to leave. It is not likely you will be able to convince anyone of your value. You may consider that what is at work here is a form of self-karma in which who you are is ironically mirrored back to you by reflecting who you are not.
However, finding yourself in situations like this doesn’t always mean that you are working against your own agreements. It might mean that, or it might mean that the community that holds your agreements is not available. Your creativity and willingness to participate wherever you find yourself are essential to keeping the threads of your life from unraveling. Sometimes it is necessary to make things up as we go. The upside is that we develop mastery in flying by the seat of our pants, using our own initiative and wits to keep body and soul together.
The Larger Context We all live within a context that has been shaped and is being shaped by capitalism gone wrong. Those of us who know better make no bones about this – human beings have created a political and economic civilization built on the belief in power-over, competition, and the “survival of the fittest.” This paradigm is pervasive, and even if one sees right through it, we as individuals are still left to deal with its consequences. Without a cultural belief that embraces the right of everyone to the tree of life, which includes making available the financial resources and opportunities to allow individuals to bring forth their best contributions, each one of us is on their own. Some of us have family and friends who can, from time to time, help bridge the gaps, but many do not. Even so, without a larger societal support structure that recognizes the grave reality of unemployment and resulting poverty, the suffering of millions will continue. These comments are also meant to include the handicapped, the aging, the lesser skilled, and those who suffer from debilitating physical or mental issues. Their entry into the “game” is even more severely circumscribed.
The reality is that for most of us, our voice is limited, and our contributions undervalued. Still, we cannot give up or surrender. We must believe in our right to be here and the right and necessity of fulfilling our unique agreements. We must also believe that there is a universal truth in this: without our full participation, the evolution of life and of the Tao Itself will be impeded. These times call for collective courage and a willingness to dig deeper to bring it about. They call for us to be conscious of how we personally contribute to injustice and inequality, the places where our words and deeds are thoughtless or cruel. Individually, we must do all we can to live righteous lives with conscious awareness. In doing so, we can mitigate the consequences of individual and collective karma.
These times also call for the creation of a community that takes its directives from an ideology that fearlessly declares: We are all one; it is unthinkable to leave anyone behind.
I wrote this piece to examine how we respond to traumatic, life-altering events—specifically, how we might remain engaged after irrevocable change disrupts our intended path, and whether such turning points are accidental or purposeful. I aim to explore how we maintain meaning and agency in the face of unforeseen upheaval.
The following discussion is limited in its exploration of these ideas, but it provides a starting point.
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If I do what I agreed to do (follow my soul’s intentions), will my life unfold smoothly?
This is not the astral plane where injury can’t happen. On the physical plane, your intentions often clash with others’, leading to conflict and even destruction. These obstacles don’t mean you’re on the wrong path; instead, they illustrate that purpose does not guarantee ease. The main question persists: how do we stay connected to our purpose when our path meets resistance? Stay committed to what you believe is your unique purpose, even in the face of external challenges.
In other words, following your intentions doesn’t mean you’re not going to have to work hard. When tracking your purpose, your choices and actions will align with your beliefs and goals, not with what others expect of you. When you are true to yourself, you gain clarity and the deep satisfaction that comes with being on the right path.
Your soul intentions will cause discomfort.
Indeed, following your soul’s intentions often brings discomfort, which is necessary for growth and change. Discomfort forces us to seek solutions and propels us from inertia. While seeking comfort won’t automatically lead to fulfillment, it can spur the necessary action. The essential argument: Creation and meaning arise from tension; discomfort reignites our engagement and creativity, demanding we actively shape our path even when security is lost.
What if my world explodes even though I’m doing what I agreed to do by following my soul’s intentions?
Now and then, life throws us serious curve balls—unexpected shifts that derail our plans. The 2000 film Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks, exemplifies this: Chuck Noland faces total upheaval after an airplane crash leaves him stranded. With his established life destroyed overnight, he is forced to confront whether and how he can rebuild his sense of meaning and agency. This story illustrates the fundamental question: how do we respond when our lives change in ways we did not choose?
A hypothetical exploration of Chuck’s soul choices. Holding up a lens that looks at the events in a life as the direct result of soul choice, some questions (far from exhaustive) come to mind about Chuck’s life-transforming event:
1. Was he following his original soul’s agenda before he crashed into the ocean, and was the course of his life untimely ripped by an unforeseeable accident? 2. Was he forcefully reminded to return to his original intentions, and if so, what might those have been? 3. Or, was his ordeal on the island always meant to be the next phase in his unfolding life plan?
Before I proceed, I would like to clarify that I do not offer definitive answers, but rather ask these questions to illuminate how we can find meaning and agency in the aftermath of life-altering, unexpected events. The process of grappling with these questions may offer insight into how trauma helps us regain purpose and direction.
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Question 1: Was Chuck following his original soul’s agenda before he crashed into the ocean, and was the course of his life untimely ripped by an unforeseeable accident?
Scenario 1: As an employee of an international company, Chuck was doing what he came here to do. He was developing leadership skills, including those in managing others, time management, and relationship-building with coworkers, supervisees, friends, and intimates. He was successful at his job – he accomplished his goals, and he was competent, trustworthy, and reliable.
He planned to get married, have children, and support his family both emotionally and financially. He handled stress and responsibilities maturely. Conscious of time as a resource, he lived a deliberate life with clear plans.
Then his tightly crafted, intentionally designed life was completely derailed by a horrific accident.
The accident destroyed his old agreements. He had to reinvent his life, creating it one moment at a time. What did he bring to this sudden shift? Everything he knew and was capable of.
Chuck could have died in the ocean, but instead, his life raft drifted to an uninhabited island. Perhaps he was guided there, or maybe it was just luck.
If he were guided, there was a higher intention for his life to continue despite it being thrown so completely off course. If it was an accident that he landed on a shore, he was still faced with the choice to give up on his life or to do whatever he could to survive and find a way to return to the life that had been ripped from him.
Do we choose to give up or persevere?
Whether or not there was a higher force that guided Chuck to the island shore, he still had a choice to make. He could continue living or find a way to exit.
When stranded and isolated, we can either give up or surrender, or we can engage fully with the unknown. Isolation and scarce resources can break the faint-hearted or push you to find courage and embrace life, even with no idea what it may look like.
Although Chuck’s ordeal was unplanned, he had to decide what to do with it. Creating his life alone, he faced the challenge of building from scratch—drawing on his inner resources without support from others. He had to become the creator of his own survival.
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Question 2:Was Chuck reminded, by harsh intervention, to route back to the original intentions for his life? In which case, what might they have been?
Scenario II: Chuck wasn’t living his true purpose, just relying on existing skills. He was competent but not working on what he was meant to do. He had already mastered these skills and was avoiding the effort needed to grow in new ways.
Sometimes we ask for wake-up calls.
The truth was that Chuck had resisted taking on new skills and relationships in his previous incarnations, and now his resistance had come back to haunt him. In fact, he had asked that this time around, if he failed to track his original purpose, that he be reminded in no uncertain terms that a change of course was required. Enter a horrific accident. Now his tightly crafted life was completely and intentionally derailed – by his own design.
The accident ended his stale patterns. Forced to improvise and adapt, Chuck was pushed to develop new skills and a fresh mindset. Only by losing old comforts did he find the drive to evolve into who he needed to become.
Ultimately, the soul seeks not only survival but growth, meaning, and transformation. No matter how disruptive or unplanned the detours may be, it is through these challenges that we find both our resilience and our purpose. Our task is to keep moving forward, to reinvent ourselves if necessary, and to trust that even in times of upheaval, our lives can evolve into something meaningful. By embracing each twist in the journey, we discover new dimensions of ourselves and our path.
Who was this person that Chuck needed to become? It was the person his soul required him to become. The soul wants to be fully present and engaged. The soul needs to have experiences that challenge it to expand and develop new aspects of itself. It is inherent to the soul to be creative and to be dynamic. As sparks of God, we are each a god in our own right. God is the mastermind par excellence of Exploration and Creation. When his/her incarnational expression spends too much time going over the same lesson plan, the soul will endure boredom only so long.
What was included in Chuck’s new lesson plan?
Self-reliance. The courage to persevere in the face of an unknown future The courage to persevere without external aid from tools or others. The courage to tend his own wounds. Profound creativity in designing new applications for otherwise mundane objects. Learning to deal with and accept severe restrictions and limitations. Learning new skills.
What else did he learn? He came to know his heart’s desires. He understood what was truly meaningful to him now that he was removed from the din of his former noisy and hurried life. He came to be in far greater alignment with his soul.
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Question 3: Was the life-changing event of living on the island simply the next phase in the story of his unfolding life plan?
Scenario III: As an employee of an international company, Chuck was doing what he came here to do, but there was more he had agreed to. He was developing leadership skills, including those in managing others, time management, and relationship-building with coworkers, supervisees, friends, and intimates. He was successful at his job – he accomplished his goals, and he was competent, trustworthy, and reliable.
The truth was that Chuck had resisted taking on new skills and relationships in his previous incarnations, and he had asked for an intervention that would require him to make a radical departure from life circumstances that no longer offered his soul either challenge or excitement. However, he still wanted to polish his abilities to handle the challenges of high-level leadership demands, and so included those in the first part of his life. When the time came for him to achieve sufficient mastery, he wanted to be allowed to step up to new life skills. And so it came to pass.
When Chuck was finally returned to his former life, he had a medicine bag bursting with new skills and self-knowledge. With these hard-won and intrepid tools under his belt, his capacity to handle whatever life brought him had increased by magnitudes. Whether or not he had asked for training in new levels of mastery, he was nonetheless given a stark and unprecedented opportunity to do so.
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Additional Reflections Sometimes life takes unexpected twists and turns, getting out of hand. Sometimes we don’t have much in the way of resources or know-how to deal with unknown territory. What can we do? We can find help where help is available – usually in unexpected places. We now have a genuine opportunity to reach deep within ourselves and beyond to seek solutions that will give us the momentum to move forward and escape from dark places. Not only do we seek solutions, but we also strive to find the courage to face our fears. We find hope in each breath, and we receive messages and guidance from sources that were previously hidden from us. In extremity, our senses intensify, giving us the ability to understand the language of signs and symbols that were previously invisible and incomprehensible.
Aligning with our Souls There are some exquisite gifts to be attained in the process of standing for our lives. The more difficult the challenge, the more ferocious we must be in our resolve because that is what is required if we are going to live. The more difficult the challenge, the more determined we must be in our intentions to live the lives we have agreed to live. The more difficult the challenge, the greater the demand to find creative solutions that will get us clear of the breakers. And why should we live? We must live so that our souls can continue to experience more love, more beauty, more joy, more knowledge, more connection, more excitement, and more anticipation of what is yet to come and what we can yet become. There are some exquisite gifts to be attained in the process of standing for our lives. The biggest one is that we become more aligned with our own soul. And when we are aligned with our souls, we know intuitively what our right lives should look and feel like.
We often forget or fail to truly grasp the reasons behind life’s reversals. While we may have asked for intervention on behalf of our souls, it is also possible to be thrust helplessly into irrevocable life shifts that were not part of the original plan for our lives. Despite being cast away – whether or not of our own choice and design – we can still forge our way forward in reliance on the most powerful intrinsic attribute each one of us possesses. And that is our legacy, as chips off the old block that is God, to be the Creators of a new life.
When you express your unique piece of the Tao, your life will be a beautiful reflection of who you are, because you will be being who you came here to be and doing what you came here to do.
Carry on my wayward son
There’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no more
Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
The center lights around your vanity
But surely heaven waits for you ~ Kansas
You are already whole. The physical you, manifesting now, is a smaller but still beautiful version of your entire self. Whether you are thriving or struggling, remember: what you see is just one piece of the whole you. No matter your situation, only a part of your spirit is present here. Your essence, or higher self, never incarnates but watches over your experiencing self and remains whole, no matter what happens.
You might question how wholeness is possible in a world filled with so much suffering and atrocity. How can we claim to be whole amid personal and collective pain? How can anyone believe wholeness or grace endures even in the presence of evil and suffering?
Let’s reflect on the human spirit, resilient and indomitable even amid unbearable circumstances. History holds many examples of such courage and resilience, including Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Mother Teresa. They did not surrender to despair but to their beliefs, pursuing truth despite overwhelming opposition and suffering.
How did they do this? What kept them going?
They believed in a cause greater than themselves, took action to change conditions, and remembered their original purpose, even if only as a deep compulsion for truth.
How do you keep going if it’s just you?
You cannot take on every cause. Follow your own guidance and stay on your path by living your unique soul purpose—your dharma. You aren’t expected to work alone. Seek organizations working for causes you care about, and find your mission mates there.
How do I discover my dharma?
What do you love? What do you care about? Look there for your dharma. Use your gifts for the benefit of everyone. You received these to help you fulfill your dharma. What calls you to bear witness or speak truth? There lies your dharma.
To strategize social justice work, regularly meet with a supportive community to uplift one another as channels for mutual support and grace. You can’t face evil alone; grace supports your spiritual immune system and acts through you when you respect your sacred mission.
It’s all an illusion anyway, isn’t it?
Since we are already whole, is it correct to conclude that the horrors of the world are an illusion? Some new age schools of thinking answer, “It’s all an illusion, anyway; everything is perfect as it is.” This prompts a difficult transition from personal and spiritual wholeness to confronting real suffering.
Tell that to the Syrians who are being turned out of their homes and massacred. Tell that to the victims of Sandy Hook. Tell that to the 27 million women and children who endure bestial treatment in the enforced slavery of sex trafficking. Tell that to the victims of the Holocaust. Tell that to the Vietnamese who were decimated by the murderous ideology of “Kill Anything that Moves.” Tell that to the women of India, who have been raped and murdered, many generations over. Tell that to the Native Americans. Tell that to the Native Americans who walked the Trail of Tears. Tell that to the slaves of African ancestry. Tell that to the undocumented workers. Tell that to women who have been subjected throughout history to violence against their gender.
It’s a worthless debate. This question becomes even more apparent when we consider what happens to our understanding of wholeness when we are the ones experiencing great suffering. Here, the philosophical notion of illusion clashes with lived human pain.
How can you be whole and maimed at the same time?
Your ultimate self is always whole. The part of you in this world may be wounded. Connect with your Spirit Body to heal your Physical, Emotional, and Mental Bodies. Remember your promise and why you came here. What contribution are you withholding by forgetting your courage?
You can use the tools that will bring heaven to your aid. You are already holding them. What are these tools?
Grace. Prayer. Community. Friendship. Self-reflection. Self-care. Connect with your heart. Remember. Bend, don’t break. Stay strong. With abundant energy, it’s easier to face adversity.
Grace compels us to live boldly, despite fear. Will Grace protect you? Not from every encounter, but enough to help achieve your soul’s intentions. The field of Grace is always present and active in the world. You are still here, aren’t you?
What if you’re too depressed to take further action? What if you’ve given up in overwhelm? How do you transform your condition?
At this point, the fundamental question shifts from personal pain to a broader consideration: how do we transform the darkness in the world?
Refuse to surrender to the belief that darkness is more powerful than light. Refuse to surrender because you do not accept that darkness, no matter how powerful, how painful, or how savage, is the ultimate reality. Refuse to believe that you have nothing of value to contribute. Bear witness to your own suffering. Continue to act on what you believe is the greater truth. Connect to the eternal flame of the peace within, the peace that passes all understanding. Stick to your dharma.
Know that your spirit has what it takes to be in this world. You would not have been put here otherwise.
Choose actions that serve humanity, as this aligns with your higher self. Setting intentions and following through allow you to realize your full potential. Develop your gifts to the fullest extent and utilize them for a meaningful contribution. You have the capacity to fulfill your purpose.
(This is a continuation of a discussion that began with Soul Intentions, Part I – A Reflection on Soul Purpose. Part I can be found in the November archives.)
What is Soul History? How Soul History and Soul Intentions create your Soul Trajectory
Soul History is the record of what you have been up to in each of your incarnations. Your Soul History also includes your role within your originating group and the groups your Soul has associated with over its many incarnations. These groups are formed around a larger vision that require everyone’s cooperation. That larger vision encompasses an aspect of Divine Evolutionary Intention that is beyond our ability to truly grasp. We can, nonetheless, try to guess at what that larger intention might be through the part we play in it. Soul groups themselves create trajectories for better or for worse, and your various incarnations will move between different groups, learning from the primary focus, or dharma, of each one.
Some groups focus on breaking down what no longer serves; others have agreed to create what sustains all, and yet others will preserve and protect what sustains all; others build bridges that connect cultures to each other. These are just some of the foci that groups rally behind; there are many more. Over time, soul group intentions (or their failed expressions) make their mark in history, and where they have failed, much work and attention is required to repair, reinvigorate, or even create new forms that will support the original intentions. These experiences inform and define your own trajectory.
A trajectory is the arc described by the progress of your soul as it creates, with each incarnation, its unique history across time and space. Your trajectory is characterized by how you have lived your life. If we were to assign a thick ribbon of light to a life well lived and a thinner ribbon to a life handled less well, a soul trajectory could show increasingly thick ribbons connected to thinner ribbons and then again to thicker ribbons, as it etches its record through time. Or, we could graph a trajectory using a 100-point system with the highest points given to lives well lived and fewer points for lives handled less well. The graphed trajectory for a life that went back and forth could show some dramatic rises and dips. We can do well in some lives and then find ourselves taking the proverbial two steps back in subsequent lives.
Of course, one could reasonably argue that if one does well in a life, overcoming desires for revenge, for example, and generally rising above most fears, the trajectory should improve, arcing higher with each life. In lives where the heart expanded with unconditional love and a person’s actions were informed by that expansion, the graph would spike. Or, using the ribbon of light analogy, the ribbons would increase markedly in thickness. It is true that some life circumstances will be far more challenging and require more “light” to manage, but over time your soul’s trajectory will reveal its unique pattern.
A trajectory is not created randomly. It is created by the Soul’s Intentions. Soul intentions are created for the purpose of fulfilling your agreements to your self and to others. These intentions compel us to take on incarnate form, for life is required to fulfill them. Their agenda is driven by what your soul desires to experience, and also what you may need to release or delete from a former life.
We do not always live out our Soul Intentions; there are many lives in which we become decoupled from them, in whole or in part. This can happen because we choose to “go our own way,” rather than follow the original life plan. It can also happen through interference from external factors. When we lose our connection to our Soul intentions, life can become more confusing and even difficult.
One Soul’s history and how that history demonstrates how a soul might seek to express its intentions
Now we will look at the trajectory of a young woman, Emily, who sought to understand the origin of the pain in her heart. Emily is seated before her Council of Elders. She is deep inside Spirit territory, in a regression process that has already taken her through a past life in which she died by her own hand. Emily tells the Council she is experiencing pain in her heart. She believes this pain is from her attachment to a man she loves. This man, Brian, is much older than she is, and he is also married. The Council is gathered in what appears to be a bright open meadow. Emily is feeling optimistic. She knows that she is going to get the answers she seeks.
Emily asks how she can let go of the powerful attachment she has to Brian, and how she can fulfill her highest purpose. The Council tells Emily that Brian is connected to her purpose, but she has to be patient. There are things yet to unfold. She asks again about the pain and wants to know – what did she agree to do with this life? First, the Council begins with a review of her past life connections to this man.
A Council Elder speaks: This soul is not a member of your originating soul group. He belongs to a “mate” soul group. You first met approximately 4,000 years ago. This took place in the desert; it looks like Saudi Arabia. You were a member of a nomadic tribe that lived in the desert, moving from time to time when the water sources dried up. The tribe had sheep and goats. You were a small girl when a group of marauders traveling on horseback raided the camp dwellings. Their way of life was to plunder and destroy, to take what they wanted of supplies, food, and women. The man you are currently involved with was a young teen then, and his heart did not truly embrace the violence of this way of life. Nevertheless, it provided him with survival, skills, and companions. The young teen intervened on your behalf, saving your life and henceforth, he cared for you. This was the beginning of the love that grew between you, although it was not an easy love. This young man did the best he could to raise you, but it was a hard life for a woman, and you died at an early age, still filled with grief. This is the originating source of the pain in your heart.
The next life where Emily and Brian meet is in Oregon, in the late 1700’s. They were siblings. She and her brother were very young. They were playing by a creek when they were shot with arrows by an Indian who was angry about the white “invaders” who were settling in Oregon in greater numbers. As the souls of Brian and Emily departed, they promised to be there for each other the next time they incarnated together.
Emily and Brian meet again in rural England, in the early 1800’s. Retaining the same gender as before, they marry and live out their lives on a small farm. They have two children – a boy and a girl. They live a happy, though hard life, caring for each other and their children, and they die in their 50’s. They had a strong and loyal connection, and supported each other in every way. The heart bond between them increases with each successive life they share.
The Elder shows Emily one more life where she and Brian again find each other, this time in London. Brian is well-off and entitled. Emily is poor, and lives outside the city. They occasionally see each other when Emily goes to the city to purchase supplies. When they first see each other on the streets, they experience a sense of familiarity and are drawn to each other, but do not act on this. Their interaction consists solely of glances. Emily, ten years younger, would love to approach Brian, but she cannot do this outside of an appropriate social context. And given that she is not his equal, the meeting will never happen. Not having much to do, Brian hangs out in the saloons, drinking and gambling. To Emily’s sorrow, Brian eventually marries someone of his social standing. He later dies in a saloon brawl, shot through the chest. Emily sees him in his last moments, as he lies dying in the streets. This life where each was forced to keep their distance, not able to explore their real connection, added to the pain in Emily’s heart.
Emily’s and Brian’s heart connections to each other were initially forged from circumstances that were deeply painful for her, while at the same time Brian experienced an opening to compassion despite his warrior-marauder perspective. The plight of the small girl whose parents were murdered offered him the opportunity to rise above the lawless, insensitive ways of his band. As the Elder revealed, Emily’s heart-pain around Brian had its origins in that life. After that life, the souls of Emily and Brian saw a spiritual opportunity to apply the lessons of the open heart and so made the decision to explore these through incarnating together. As we can see, the pain in Emily’s heart is complex. It began with great anger towards him for 1) what he did to her desert tribe so long ago, and is also complicated by her appreciation of his efforts at saving her life. In summary, Emily’s heart bonds to Brian further include: 2) her love for her little brother, 3) her love for her husband, 4) the unrequited love from the London life and 5) the current situation in which Brian is not available to live his life with her.
In this trajectory, successive incarnations between Emily and Brian do not necessarily create increasingly better connections – at least as we understand these from the level of personality and what most of us would like to see happen. There is a difficult beginning through forced contact where Emily learns to love her enemy and then a series of lives where there is familial bonding. However, in their most recent lives they are prevented from sharing the profound affection they genuinely have for each other. Personality would much prefer a story where the lovers are happily and permanently reunited each time, but the soul – like the heart – has its own logic and more importantly, its own higher purposes.
Now the Council is ready to answer Emily’s question about why she chose the current incarnation. Don’t you remember? You came here to be a peacemaker. We have formerly told you the best way to bring peace to this world is to help individuals find it inside themselves. You are going through this struggle with Brian so that you can learn peace in the midst of personal turmoil and uncertainty. The best thing you can do at this time is to stay connected to spirit, to trust the process, and to be joyful.
Emily is also told that each of their souls is working to manifest their individual purpose. She is told that the path of joy and love is the one that she needs to commit to. If she can do this, her attachment to Brian will diminish as her focus turns more and more to accomplishing her unique soul intentions. She is encouraged to pursue her studies in psychology and meditation. They tell her: Yours is a peace-making soul; it is also an illuminator for love. Healing vibrations for others emanate from your heart when it is open, and you are following your path. These soul gifts are able to be expressed through the venues you seek to study and work in. When Emily asks again about the possibility of a future with Brian, she is again reminded that it is the path of love and joy that she must pursue. It is best to understand that this is the highest approach to living your life. The path of heart is the path of wisdom. The future cannot be foretold; you make your destiny by the choices you make in each moment. The more your choices are informed by your soul’s intentions, the more joy and fulfillment you will have.
Through her incarnations, Emily’s soul was specializing in the path of the open heart. A heart that is open will be broken, but the power of a broken heart that is navigated well is its ability to create an expansiveness that can hold space for the brokenness of others. It also teaches by example that the gifts of an open heart lead to wisdom and compassion. The cumulative influence of her incarnations created a gentle, approachable personality that others find safe and welcoming, and her successful passage through some difficult experiences gave her the insights and tools for showing others how they can do the same for themselves.
Understand the ways in which we can recognize our soul intentions
Emily’s need to understand the purpose of her current life is indicative of her desire to align with her original soul intentions. Emily’s natural interests in meditation, psychology, reincarnation and harmonious connections with others have been persistent and strong this life. She received validation from her Council that these are areas where she could fruitfully focus her professional efforts, but they also observed that while these approaches to fulfilling her purpose are appropriate, there are other ways she could express her soul gifts, and suggested that she might want to further explore this. In other words, Emily should follow the general warp and weft of what she seeks to accomplish because this will allow her to discover additional ways her objectives can be satisfied. She will be surprised and delighted to find that the spiritual path she is committed to is richer than she realizes.
“What is it I need to do in order to fulfill the requirements of my intentions, and what is my next step to getting there?”
Pay attention to experiences with which you especially resonate as this will assist you to identify and remember what you agreed to show up for. Pay attention to your emotions as these will guide you. Letting go of the paths not taken and the roads not fully traveled, begin here: live each day as if it were your calling. Without excessive attention to detail and over-thinking, choose those activities that seem the most right or important. And instead of demanding immediate results, revel in the quietly unfolding intrigue of each moment. Take small steps, one at a time. There is no need to offer up arguments or resistance; simply do each step, improvising as you go. You do not need to know the next step or the next action – by responding to the choices that call to you, to those impulses that seek expression – your life plan and purpose will reveal itself.
As you faithfully listen to the call of your intuitive knowing, you will become more adept at discerning the next right action. You do not need to wait for inspiration. Simply take actions that reflect best what you know to be true for yourself, and you will steadily regain footing on your course as you remember your passions, which will re-connect you to your soul intentions.
I lived with this question for years, but I didn’t know I was asking it. Later, in my studies of transformational tools and principles, I was told that “Something unique wants to express itself through you – something that only you can give birth to.” I thought this was, at best, a nice sentiment. It was very egalitarian as it left no one out, and it even made everyone special. But I had also heard the phrase often enough, expressed somewhat less loftily: You are special. There is no one like you. By the time I heard it again, I was already seriously inured to it and perhaps even somewhat cynical. Of course, we’re unique; who isn’t? And that’s where, for me, the whole concept of personal uniqueness distilled itself to not having any significant meaning.
So, for quite a while, I succumbed to the enervating perception that uniqueness in and of itself is not unique. Since we are all uniquely distinguished from each other, what’s the big deal? You’re tall; I’m short. You’re muscular; I lack definition. You have red hair; I have black hair. Your eyes are green, and mine are brown. You excel in tennis, but I can sing. You’re great at math, and I write more clearly than you. What’s to get excited about? Now, if you’re handy, I’m feeling a bit of excitement. But I digress.
At some point, it occurred to me that I was looking in the wrong direction, on the incorrect concept, and that I was stubbornly myopic. I decided to challenge my habitual perception of uniqueness by changing my stance that uniqueness is a common attribute with no benefits. In a departure from my earlier state of jadedness, I asked: What exactly is it that makes each of us unique? In no time, a realization asserted itself with incontrovertible clarity: It is our soul’s longing and the agenda contained in that longing that leads us to our purpose. Our specific longings show us the paths we need to take and who we can become. So what makes us unique? What makes us who we are?
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV. 4.5 tells us that it is our deep, driving desire:
You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.
Here is the beginning of discovering your soul’s purpose: identifying your more profound truths through your deepest desires. Our uniqueness and destiny lie in our desires and in what awakens our passion. When we act on these unique desires, we are compelled to seek what is right for us, which in turn nourishes us. Following true desires attracts what we need to become who we are meant to be. Ultimately, by honoring our soul’s longing, we express our purpose and find fulfillment.
Twin, triplet, and quintuplet charts deepen our understanding of how Human Design manifests uniquely in real lives. Even with identical charts from the same birth moment, each individual expresses their Design differently. This unique expression is at the heart of Human Design’s value. Why does this happen? Keep reading!
