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Soul Ages
BY
JOYA POPE
Excerpt from The World
According to Michael by Joya Pope
Copyright of Emerald Wave Publishing
THE SOUL AGES
Michael affirms what we've
suspected; life is indeed a learning game. He then describes the structure and
rules of this game, making note of patterns which are much too large to be
perceived easily while in a human body, living in their midst.
To begin the game, sparks of
light and consciousness (that's us) who are attracted to experience on the earth
plane cast themselves out from the Tao or God--the birthplace of all souls--and
merge into a family of consciousness that includes about 1000 individual
fragments or essences. This is the group Michael calls an entity. Seven entities
are loosely bound together in a larger group called a cadre.
Each spark of consciousness
first checks out a prospective planet in what Michael calls devic form. A deva
is an intelligent energy being, without a body, who tends, and blends in with,
nature. If, after gaining experience of the planet in a devic state, the entire
cadre is in agreement to begin physical life, each fragment must slow its energy
down to become solid and start the process of incarnating on the Physical Plane.
All the individual essences
will have dozens upon dozens of lifetimes and gather up incredible amounts of
experience which will be shared, to the core, with the entire entity. When all
members have completed the whole growth and experience cycle on earth, each
entity again merges back into one very intimate consciousness. Each fragment
will then share in the experience, feelings and knowledge of all the others.
Thus, the individual essences
in the entity gradually start incarnating, over many hundreds of years, onto the
earth as individual human beings. The first essences to jump into earth
lifetimes tend to be the most brash and brave of individuals in their following
lives too; and the last ones, some of the most thoughtful.
Before taking a body each
lifetime, every essence determines for itself, perhaps carefully, perhaps not,
which culture, which parents, what the body type and sex will be and what the
personality will be like. Individuals generally choose to put themselves in the
vicinity of their entity mates in order to have these familiar and comfortable
other parts of themselves available for relationships.
Each physical plane existence
changes and deepens the essence's point of view. The structure is to go through
the developmental levels Michael calls Infant, Baby, Young, Mature, and Old Soul
levels. Each will take a minimum of seven lifetimes, more likely around twenty.
After that there are six other planes of existence to grow through, and then
it's back to the oneness of the Tao. This is an extraordinarily long
"game" we are talking about, at least from our earthly perspective.
Soul age refers to how a
person has grown from experience on the planet, not just to how many lifetimes
he or she has lived.
No person, essence or entity is
"ahead" or "behind" any other, but is simply occupying
another place in the continuous circle leading to and from the Tao.
Ways of being are supposed to
be different in different developmental stages; at some point we experience it
all, moving continually along to different levels of understanding and
responsibility. Michael always emphasizes that while each stage is unique and
manifestly distinct from the others, no one place is better or worse than any
other; they all belong in this game we have chosen to play.
INFANT
SOULS
The fragment, or essence, just
cast out from the Tao, is raw, without experience, and usually enmeshed in a
struggle over physical survival on the unfamiliar earth plane. Thus the Infant
Soul stage is one characterized by many fears. Often, there is a frightened,
furtive, animal-like look in their eyes. In this stage people are often born
into primitive, sometimes tribal, conditions. Learning how to survive is the
primary concern. So, Infant Souls learn to identify and find roots, berries and
other edibles: they fish, they hunt and grow food; they build shelter to keep
dry and warm or cool; and they learn to avoid predators.
To our eyes, Infant Soul
lifetimes look pretty rough. They are often short. Famine, plagues, drought,
flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, tigers, bears, poisonous snakes and combat
are experienced along with every other survival threat imaginable.
On the positive side, being so
fresh from the Tao can give a mystical flavor to Infant Souls. They resonate
closely with nature and many times feel not individuation but great oneness with
everyone in their family or tribe. They can be intuitive and earthy in a simple,
unquestioning way. They have the knack, all too soon forgotten, for living in
the moment.
The intellectual center does
not become fully opened in this phase, so there isn't yet much feeling for
ethics or personal morality. The Infant Soul has to be taught what is right and
wrong. Even a highly intelligent person may seem dull or not quite pulled
together with his or her thinking.
Cooking and eating are strictly
exercises in survival, not even close to being opportunities for optimizing
pleasure. Love or sexuality will be experienced on the level of lust. Questions
like, "How can I get him (or her) to like me?" basically do not arise
unless it becomes a survival issue. Survival is what is important, and whatever
needs to be done for survival is done. The Infant Soul can sometimes be driven
to violence or extreme self-protective behavior by a merely unfamiliar
happening.
Infant Souls tend to cluster
around the equator because the constant climate makes some aspects of survival
more simple. Rural Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras, Sri Lanka, Borneo, New
Guinea, the Amazon basin and much of Ethiopia and Sudan are areas with
predominantly Infant Souls; Iraq and Iran have them in increasing numbers.
Our society is ordinarily too
perplexing and complex in its demands to be a place Infant Souls feel
comfortable choosing. When found in the United States, which is rare, they will
generally gravitate towards less populated, "backwoods" areas. Infant
Souls will not tend to seek regular employment because it is too complicated and
involving to handle. Living on the fringes of society, they are often viewed by
the rest of the population as inept or slightly out of tune.
Infant Souls rarely come into
the spotlight except through notoriety brought about by heavy karma-creating
lifetimes. Richard Ramirez, the California serial murderer who became known as
the Nightstalker, exemplifies that type of celebrity. He is a late Infant Soul
enmeshed in a lifetime of intense experience and intense karma formation. Willie
Horton, the Massachusetts prisoner who escaped while on a weekend furlough and
went on to rape a woman and stab her then-fiance, is another karmic Infant Soul
who, with his actions, called into question the wisdom of Governor Dukakis'
liberal prison reforms. With his Stockton, California, schoolyard massacre,
Patrick Purdy, another Infant Soul, gave new fervor to the gun control debate.
Joel Steinberg, who was
sentenced for up to 25 years in the killing of his young adopted daughter, was
unusually sophisticated for an Infant Soul in that he chose to and was able to
become an attorney. Steinberg had the awareness that he needed to be exceedingly
heedful with his image, that it was important to watch carefully how he appeared
to others. The sentencing judge, in fact, accused him of extraordinary
narcissism and self-involvement.
Commenting further, the judge
said, "I have come to believe he is incapable of accepting
responsibility." Typical Infant Souls don't yet feel regret; and when they
get into court, their lack of conscience stands out.
Planet Earth is close to the
time when the last Infant Soul will incarnate.
Many fewer are beginning cycles
here now than even one hundred years ago. Though there are still many entities
checking the planet out, most will decide to look elsewhere. Earth is a little
worn, there is much hard work ahead and most entities prefer to start a
"round" with the score card a little fresher.
Because the median soul age on
the planet is currently edging into Mature, any soul incarnating for the first
time will be pushed into a continual catch-up game. While being so far behind
mainstream consciousness is an interesting experiment, it is, Michael says, not
much fun when the gap is so large.
BABY
SOULS
There are seven discrete parts
within each of the soul ages, each taking somewhere between one to ten lifetimes
for completion. Thus when individuals are complete with all seven levels of
Infant, they have probably averaged twenty or thirty lifetimes. At this point
their consciousness will start to explore the early Baby Soul process.
Since there is now a little
experience on the earth, more sophistication and less fear are found in the
individual, though the world is still experienced as a scary place. Survival has
been worked out; this is a time to get civilized and be proud of it, a time of
demonstrating you can do it right.
Structure helps Baby Souls to
feel comfortable in the world. They want to be directed and therefore seek out
higher authorities who are willing to lay out clear rules for them. As a small
example of this, they would rarely defend their child to the school principal,
but push to make the child act acceptably to the teachers and administration.
Sometimes a Baby Soul will seek out - even again and again - discipline from the
prison system as a way to civilize himself. This soul age will hold traditional
religious leaders in esteem, turn doctors into gods, and likely feel their
country, their army, and certain politicians, can do no wrong.
Traditions, rituals, and law
and order provide a welcome sense of security. "That's the rule and that's
what we'll do," is typical thinking . They make sure your car is not parked
in front of their house and that their lawn is mowed and sprinkled. In a
dogmatic, black-and-white way, they know right from wrong. Usually
conscientiously good citizens, they can be counted on to do the
"right" thing. This is also the soul age with the greatest propensity
to long-term grudge holding.
The Ku Klux Klan would be a
Baby Soul organization in a negative pole, while many service organizations like
the Knights of Columbus or the Rotary Club would be in a more positive pole of
expression. Anti-abortion right-to-life organizations, school prayer promoters,
and fire-and-brimstone preachers all tend to emerge out of Baby Soul
consciousness and concerns.
Preferring to be big fish in
small ponds, Baby Souls are often found in small communities. Though the United
States is primarily a late-Young early-Mature Soul country, middle America
between the two coasts is packed with Baby Souls who prefer life when it is a
little simpler. They often emerge as pillars of the community, staunch, upright
and unshakable in their beliefs. They become mayor or sheriff, president of the
town council or PTA. Because they are interested in organizing and developing
the fabric of society with laws, regulations and lines of authority, they are
often found in governmental bureaucracies such as schools, hospitals, regulating
agencies and so on. When their beliefs are opposed, Baby Souls may become
inwardly bewildered. Baby Souls are so sure they are right that they have
difficulty comprehending opposition. This is not a self-reflective phase.
Many patriotic Baby Soul
soldiers coming back from Vietnam were perplexed and confounded. Their country
had changed; there were no heroes' welcomes. Usually a Baby Soul won't show
inner quandary; when perplexed or thwarted there is more likely to be an outward
display of belligerence. Baby Souls feel justified in fighting for their beliefs
and may demonstrate not just dogmatism but a fairly brutal mentality.
They are very interested, if
not obsessive, about cleanliness, neatness, and keeping germs at bay. Not yet
able to perceive that chronic feelings or attitudes may cause physical and
psychological problems, their emotional difficulties are, in fact, often
somaticized so that angry feelings become gallstones, or fear turns into kidney,
bladder or back trouble.
When dealing with physical
problems like these, Baby Souls ordinarily prefer conventional medicine,
medications and surgery. Considering alternative therapies or looking for the
root of the problem doesn't make sense to their way of approaching the body.
With the exception of the new popularity of healing within charismatic churches,
this soul age is sold on orthodox medicine.
Around sexual matters, there is
uneasiness and some degree of shame or guilt. This is not a time for hot tub
entertaining, but hiding bodies, making love in the dark - probably with pajamas
and without great sensuality.
Families, however, feel very
good during this period. Raising children (maybe lots), seeing relatives,
celebrating holidays, going on family outings and participating in church
rituals all make a person feel a solid upstanding part of the community.
Many of the people who create
what we call folk art or naive art are Baby Souls expressing their values and
concerns. You see paintings of the countryside, church picnics, Bible stories,
family weddings, the 4th of July, and ships with flags waving proudly in the
breeze. The art can be quite lovely, though neither perspective nor method of
presentation is sophisticated.
Baby Souls sometimes come into
prominence. They don't often look for a big stage, not having the
resourcefulness or experience to handle it well, but they may gather fame for
their unyielding political or religious beliefs. Jerry Falwell is a prominent
religious leader with Baby Soul beliefs; Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart, two
others. Idi Amin, Hitler, Khomeini, and, in the United States, Richard Nixon,
Evan Mecham, Jesse Helms and some of our more rigidly conservative Governors,
Congressmen and Senators are examples of Baby Souls putting out their world
views on a larger scale. Pat Boone is one of the few Baby Souls peopling the
entertainment business.
South Africa's President Botha
and Libya's Colonel Khadafy are both seventh level Baby Souls. The seventh level
of any soul age can be a time of smug complacency, because everything at that
soul age has been handled. (The next lifetime or so, of course, finds a person
uneasily in the first level of a totally new consciousness phase.)
Matthew Strode, the schoolyard
preacher whose shouted fire and damnation sermons have resulted in him being
repeatedly suspended from elementary school in North Carolina, is a vociferous
example of the consciousness of seventh Baby.
Baby Soul countries often have
a puritanical tinge and may be divided against themselves or a close neighbor.
Countries expressing a primarily Baby Soul perceptivity are Iran and Iraq as
well as most of the newly strict Muslim countries, though not Saudi Arabia or
Syria; also included are China, Ireland, and much of both Central and South
America. India, which historically was an Old Soul country, is now mostly late
Baby, poised to enter its Young Soul phase. Japan has recently completed its
Baby phase, where individuality was suppressed, and is swinging into high Young
Soul gear. Interestingly enough, the whites who ruled South Africa were mainly
Baby Souls while the blacks are primarily Mature Souls.
YOUNG
SOULS
Having mastered the Infant and
Baby Soul issues of survival, discipline and order, the essence is now looking
to see how powerful it can become in the world.
Independence and the ability to
get what one wants out of life are the driving force of the Young Soul stage.
Seizing what the physical plane has to offer, vying to gain positions of
prominence, power and great wealth, causes this to become the most competitive
period in the whole cycle of lifetimes. Those who are expressing themselves from
a Young Soul perceptivity will tend towards a sort of tape measure mentality
that makes them monitor who among them has the hottest investments, the most
lavish parties, the most important friends, the greatest weekly aerobic output,
the tallest building, fastest motorcycle, broadest shoulders, thinnest hips or
heaviest diamonds. The most powerful places in the world--Japan, Hong Kong,
Germany, Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada and the United
States--all express a strong Young Soul perceptivity. Everybody growing up in
these places, regardless of soul age, will receive Young Soul imprinting or
conditioning about how to act, think, look, and feel in order to be a success.
Japan is now the example par excellence of this: an extremely competitive,
focused society where even having fun looks competitive. Often, there's no time
off on the way up!
Ambition is important with the
attitude being, "There is you and there is me, and I am going to win."
There is a great drive to get ahead. In the process of getting to the top, it
doesn't matter too much what needs to be done or who's stepped on or over. Think
of the CIA, John Sununu or Saddam Hussein. A Young Soul typically has little
respect for anyone whose ideas are not their own. That's where the difficulty
between Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachev began. Reagan is a Young Soul, and
though socially polite, offended the quite perceptive Gorbachev who could sense
judgments being made against her. Gorbachev would have liked to set politics and
opinions aside in order to make a warm, human connection but was not willing to
ignore the harsh feeling quality underneath Reagan's polished behavior.
At this consciousness level, if
one can make money or gain influence, the long term consequences of any act
aren't terribly important. The problem with toxic wastes being dumped all over
is one result of being in a Young Soul culture in a hurry to make a buck. While
Young Souls are productive, industrious and goal oriented, their vision extends
only so far, and they are not likely to question their motives or ethics.
Because they are desirous of
making something of themselves and leaving their mark on the world, Young Souls
can be tireless workers. We owe them our efficiency, much of our high
technology, our military might, and our continual push to make things happen and
change. They are the architects of civilization and its builders. However, with
a focus on quantity and not necessarily on quality, something like
"scientific agriculture" will be valued.
Bumper crops being bumper
crops, the fact that this method has destroyed 95% of the huge variety of seed
types available just 125 years ago, and that it poisons the earth with nitrates,
selenium, pesticides and dastardly ecological problems would likely be little
noticed.
Young Souls don't always pursue
what they like, which they may see as an indulgence, but what they believe will
create success. It is natural for them to learn how the system works early on
and use it to their advantage. Driven towards achievement, they flock to large
well-known universities to obtain degrees of prominence. Some of these people
seem born with the ability to make the economic system jump through hoops of
their own design and to turn their hundreds into thousands and their millions
into billions with apparent ease.
The essence of a person at the
Young Soul stage will actually be pushing him to acquire as much as he can in
order to soak in how it feels. He will covet prestigious cars and itch to live
in a "better" area inside the most impressive house he can afford.
Great silent estates somewhat smaller than Buckingham Palace with twelve foot
walls, ornamental hedges or fountains, radio-operated wrought-iron gates, and
serious art collections may be obtainable during some lifetimes in the Young
Soul phase. If your Young Soul glory days were spent in ancient Egypt, your
riches took a slightly different form and no doubt included slaves and plenty of
wealth for the afterlife. There is not much laziness to observe in this period.
Though you can find Young Souls shoving things in closets or drawers just before
people come over, that has to do with priorities being more out in the world,
not laziness. Baby Souls tend toward compulsive neatness, while the Young period
is concerned with success and appearances.
Because Young Souls are not
emotionally open, they tend to make poor parents who don't make strong feeling
connections with their children. However they will buy their children everything
they can afford. Like the prototype Yuppie baby in an Aprica stroller and
exquisite French togs, children become status objects for their parents. These
children with expensive toys, haircuts, cars and educations, will be pushed to
excel in all they do from nursery school through college, to marriage and
career. Those successes will reflect favorably back on the status-seeking
parent. Children are not pushed to express their feelings.
Young Souls tend to be
conventional, but less adamant than Baby Souls in their religious beliefs. At
church, you'll more likely find them networking and promoting their businesses
than pushing dogma or being critical about some other member's behavior or lack
of attendance.
Because Young Souls are heavily
identified with their bodies and really not sure that consciousness survives it,
we have cryogenic suspension; plastic surgery for noses and elbows, thighs and
chins, breasts and waists; a booming multi-billion dollar industry devoted to
beauty products for men and women; and an incredibly huge and costly (Young
Soul, high-tech) medical system which intends on keeping everyone alive as long
as possible regardless of desires, costs, pain, or quality of life.
As superb manipulators of the
environment, humans are unequivocally good at the Young Soul phase. Winning out
over rivals, gaining acclaim, power and money make them feel on top of the
world. In spite of incredible stress--and fears about losing--this is an
essentially exciting, fulfilling time. Because the earth just now completing its
Young Soul phase, acknowledgement for Young Souls, who are already outgoing
go-getters, comes along quite easily. Towards the end of the Young set of
lifetimes, people will start to experiment more with food and sex. They'll
likely become adventurous with extensive travel, both to experience the world,
their oyster, and to gain status among peers.
Creativity begins opening up
during this phase, although it comes to a fuller fruition in the Mature phase.
Many, many people rise to fame and prominence during this period; we find movie
stars, TV anchors, singers, comedians, politicians, executives, religious
leaders, Nobel prize-winners, Hollywood producers, authors, and people like
Donald Trump and J. Paul Getty, who get so rich they get famous.
Clarence Thomas, Ed Meese,
Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker are examples of men at the very beginning of their
Young Soul adventures and growth. They've pulled in power but are not great
judges of people, events or ethical strictures.
Two famously avaricious couples
exemplify in extreme what can be the Young Soul grasp for wealth and power at
any price. They are Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, formerly of the Philippines,
and Jean-Claude and Michele Duvalier, formerly of Haiti. Neither pair
experienced regret for their actions nor have the slightest suspicion of the
extensive karmas they've created. Like George Bush and Ronald Reagan, most
recent U.S. Presidents are Mature Souls. John Kennedy, a Young Soul, nearly had
to be that in order to have the ambition and energy required to break down
significant barriers against Catholics. Similarly, Geraldine Ferraro used her
energy and drive as a Young Soul to loosen the obstructions against women
entering the White House. Being mid-Young helped Margaret Thatcher have the
spine and ambition to hold on her position for so long. Professors at
prestigious universities come primarily from this soul age, as do corporate
executives.
When Mikhail Gorbachev first
gained international attention, he was acting primarily from Young Soul
consciousness, no doubt an important factor in his coming into power in the
first place. When Gorbachev consolidated his position and felt confident, he
began acting out of his true soul perceptivity, mid-Mature. He started shaking
his country out of stagnation almost single-handedly. Note the difference
between Gorbachev's sharp-witted Mature Soul statesmanship and the Young Soul
diplomacy of Henry Kissinger which tended to interpret Soviet-American relations
in terms of confrontation where one side's gain is automatically the other
side's loss.
Rose Kennedy, the decades-long
driving force behind the Kennedy clan, is a Young Soul with a will of iron.
Mohammed Ali, who viewed life as a contest, is a grand Young Soul sports
personality, as is Leon Spinks. Mick Jagger is the quintessential Young Soul
rock personality, and Billy Graham, a quite powerful Young Soul religious
leader. Young Soul Ralph Lauren pulled himself into a high income range by
designing clothes he thought looked like what "old money" would wear.
Joan and Jackie Collins have both made themselves famous as Young Soul
characters, to the bone.
Johnny Carson, Bing Crosby,
Jack Benny, Dean Martin, Bob Hope and, yes, Joan Rivers and Vanna White, are
perfect embodiments of Young Soul show biz personalities. Whitney Houston,
Diahann Carroll, Sean Young, Don Johnson, Bruce Willis, Robin Givens, John
Wayne, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris are Hollywood stars who typify Young Soul
consciousness. And then there are the visionary reformist crusaders, Richard
Simmons, Ayn Rand and William F. Buckley.
MATURE
SOULS
By the end of the Young Soul
phase, an uneasiness arises that something is amiss. All the wealth, power and
acclaim aren't quite enough; profits and winning no longer have transcendental
value.
Thus begins the search of the
Mature Soul period. The questions "Who am I? Why am I here?" are asked
with frequency in these lives. These are trying, intense times; emotions open
up, boundaries between people break down. Seeing another person's point of view
becomes possible as people become deeply immersed in relationship issues.
Suddenly it's clear everybody has feelings, and these feelings are usually
either interesting or unavoidable. One of the reasons Young Souls are able to
direct so much energy towards success is that their inner lives aren't calling
for attention. This allows their energy to flow easily after externals. Not so
in the Mature period. It is a stirred-up, introspective time. There is more
emotional centering here, more intensity, more schizophrenia, more pain, more
suicide, more love, more sensuality, and probably more drugs to intensify it all
than in any other period. Boy George, Sean Penn, Richard Burton and Marlon
Brando have (or had) lives that illustrate this tendency toward immoderation,
Sally Field, while pregnant with her third child, was quoted as saying,
"It's scary to think that there will be another human being in the world
that I will love that much." Her lament embodies the typical Mature Soul
intensification of feeling.
Creativity flows. Philosophy
and art come into prominence. Illusion and distortion of reality are inevitable
as a person opens up because there is not a clear path nor an easy way to sort
through all the feelings. Nothing is so solid as in the Baby and Young phases.
Being flexible is not easy. Until the last couple of decades our culture
provided few guideposts for this vexing set of lives. The hippies with all their
"flow" and "beingness" facilitated everyone's understanding
of the Mature Soul phase and helped disassemble some of this society's blinder
adulation of Young Soul consciousness.
Because they are often
misunderstood and perceived as disturbed, when actually just perceiving more
than the Baby or Young Soul, Mature Souls often gravitate towards a community of
other Mature Souls where they can be understood. Berkeley and Cambridge are two
notoriously Mature Soul cities in the United States, as is Amsterdam in Holland.
Both the creative and the gay men's communities in Los Angeles, San Francisco
and New York are a mixture, but tend to be Mature in flavor. Mature Souls enjoy
the company of other Mature Souls for their emotional potency as well as for the
"being on the same path" kind of feeling. They appreciate Old Souls
for their information and perhaps an occasional rest, while Young Souls are
enjoyed for their reminders of how to push forward in the world.
This, like the Young Soul
phase, is a time when many people rise into prominence, though less now through
ambition and power, and more from vim, verve and dash. Notice that the
individual's character tends to be full, usually quite interesting and creative
in the Mature period. Painter Vincent Van Gogh suffered continually from the
intensity of his feelings, while Paul Gauguin hoped to find solace from them in
the peaceful South Seas. Jean Genet, Truman Capote and J.D. Salinger each gave
an intense, Mature Soul flavor to their writing. And, don't forget Barbara
Walters, the TV interviewer who is always interested in helping people reveal
their most intimate feelings, and Morton Downey, Jr. who rather cynically
aggravates people's feelings.
Notice the pep, excitement,
enthusiasm and intensity with which these stars live: Michael Jackson, Bruce
Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Frank Zappa, Randy Newman, Holly Near, Janis
Joplin, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna and Barbra Streisand. Like Marilyn Monroe, Judy
Garland, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Vanessa Redgrave, Molly Ringwald,
Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Charlie Sheen, Warren Beatty, Lily Tomlin, Jane
Fonda, Donald Sutherland and a host of others, most of our actors are Mature.
Crusaders Ralph Nader, Gloria Steinem, Oliver North, Abbie Hoffman and Tom
Hayden are all Mature and occasionally inflamed. Carlos Castaneda, Lynn Andrews,
Terry Cole-Whittaker, Brugh Joy, Shakti Gawain, Dan Millman and Elizabeth Clair
Prophet are Mature spiritual seekers, teachers and authors. Mature Souls will
seek higher education but often gravitate towards smaller non-traditional
schools. This period has its own priorities and inner sense of direction. For
example, Mature Souls will sometimes, much to the bewilderment of their Young
Soul relatives, purposefully turn away from a well-paying, high status position
to choose something more in line with their developing priorities, whether more
casual, more risky and creative, or more save-the-world.
This whole period is marked by
exploration, much of it inner, but plenty of it outer. Madonna's mother probably
didn't picture her innocently named daughter wearing a crucifix and odd
underwear while prancing on stage one day.
A person may fall in love with
opera, jazz, Pavarotti, Mozart, chamber music, tango, polka or playing a Pan
flute while he gathers mushrooms from the woods. Non-traditional religions,
meditation, and metaphysics start to look interesting, while outer horizons
broaden with unfastened lifestyles, sex of all sorts, art of every type, gourmet
and foreign cuisines. Out of the high sensuality of this period there may come a
passion for sushi or fine wines and the ability to distinguish and appreciate
exquisite nuances in flavor.
In fact, most of the
first-rate, four-star chefs around the world are Mature.
Countries with Mature Soul
attributes may tend to put more attention on social relationships than on
material goods or efficiency. Examples are Italy, Greece, Egypt and Mexico.
Italy has had about 50 postwar cabinet crises. In Mature nations the question
comes up, does a country really need a smoothly functioning government, or is it
more interesting to keep juggling? Sometimes "little" things like a
crumbling infrastructure won't receive attention until disaster is clearly
imminent.
England, even with its stolid
roots, is a little off balance due to its entry into the Mature phase. With the
advent of a socialism which aims for a more equal distribution of wealth, the
average Briton is suddenly more focused on internals than on the never-ending
struggle to maintain a power position in the world. People are less interested
in nose-to-the-grindstone hard work, but not just because their basic survival
is supported by the socialistic system. They have changed on an inner level and
now finally have a leader, John Major, who reflects their Mature Soul
consciousness.
Around mid-1987, many Young
Soul countries, like Israel and the U.S., started nosing into a Mature
consciousness. This happened because suddenly their populations had more Mature
Souls than Young, and the old balance started changing. Those countries will
still feel primarily Young Soul in ambiance and action for some time to come,
but you'll notice within them, though, that the desire to make sure everyone is
taken care of crops up to a greater and greater extent. Since Mature
consciousness realizes we are all in this together, importance may get attached
to the rights of animals, whether dolphins, farm animals, near-extinct species,
rabbits, monkeys or rats used for medical research or fur bearing animals used
for warm clothing. On a slightly different tack, Mature Souls are also likely to
be the ones patronizing pet cemeteries.
Poland and Russia are countries
brimming with Mature Souls where strong agreements exist for assets to be
divided fairly, for everyone to have equal shares of the wealth. Marxist theory
is very much Mature Soul in flavor, if not in actuality. The ruling groups in
both those countries have been heavy, hardy Young Soul types who have managed
through thick and thin, by hook and crook, to hang on to the power. And then you
have Mature Souls like Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev who are aiming to wrest
it from them.
OLD
SOULS
On deep inner levels, Old Souls
perceive the interrelatedness existing among all people. Intuitively they sense
they are part of an integral whole.
Grasping this big picture, Old
Souls then do their best to live by it and to not harm or judge others. There is
a strong urge to be impeccable and to maintain personal integrity in all
transactions. They detach from the emotional intensities of the Mature Soul
period and get more objective about the ups and downs of life.
Having dozens of lifetimes in
varieties of cultures and classes thoroughly blended into their essences, it is
much more difficult for Old Souls to get embroiled in the right-and-wrong,
us-and-them games people and countries both play. Seeing the whole picture in
this way makes Old Souls calmer, more peaceful and centered. It can also make
them appear passive or weak to the other soul ages.
While Old Souls do not tend to
grow into their full soul perceptivity until about age thirty-five or so, they
will, even before then, be accused of stepping to the beat of a different
drummer. They are unusual--two steps away from the norm--in this Young Soul
culture. Because they are inclined to individualistically follow their inner
perceptions and desires, they may be seen as eccentric, though usually
harmlessly so.
While there is great motivation
for spiritual growth, motivation tends to be lacking when it comes to developing
political or material punch. Seldom doing anything they don't want to and
preferring their own unconventional pursuits, they often seek the path of least
resistance as far as work, so that all energy can be poured into spiritual
development. Because of the essence's richness gathered over many lifetimes, Old
Souls tend to be extremely competent in a wide range of things--which often
aren't pursued. They will try to find work that supports their personal growth:
counseling, teaching, bodywork, gardening and carpentry being some favorites.
Many are magnetized by
philosophy and art. If higher education proves necessary in order to teach, less
orthodox schools allowing more opportunities for inner exploration will be
favored.
A fancy house or car, or
impressive clothes and jewelry aren't often too high on an Old Soul's real
priority list. Neither is a nine-to-five job. Plain laziness on the physical
plane sometimes creates difficulty paying the bills, but the material game just
isn't what it used to be. However, Old Souls do have one advantage with the
material world: as they begin to seek, understand and use the laws of the
physical universe, goals can be attained with less effort. Thus, there is an
outer, as well as an inner draw to understand the universal laws distilled in
astrology, metaphysics, tarot and other ancient teachings.
Old Souls may explore many
religions and teachings, being most drawn to those emphasizing love and to those
they've resonated with closely in past lives.
But being rule-bound or as
orthodox as some disciplines require does not usually last long. Unique,
personal spiritual practices, like an oceanside ritual to mark a birthday, are
often developed and used.
Old Souls are very capable of
agape or unconditional love, and many consciously work on not ever judging other
people. For this very reason, some Old Souls appear to be annoyingly remote.
This is usually an essence who has previously handled many emotional issues and
comes to the planet intent on examining intellectual, philosophical and
spiritual issues, period.
In the television rendition of
Shirley MacLaine's Out on a Limb, the character, David, who took her to Peru and
never stopped playing pedant, was noticeably lacking in warmth. David appeared
to function well with minimal feeling; he didn't seem to mind instructing and
mentoring all the time. However, some people get uncomfortable once they are
here with their aridity and lack of emotional warmth and set out to make up for
what their personality seems to lack. But, the force of essence--which, in this
case, is committed only to comprehending spiritual lessons--will not be behind
creating the change. This does not mean the change can't be made, just that it
is trickier to pull off because you and your essence agreed to work on spiritual
lessons.
A similar situation arises
after a person has had materially successful lifetimes. The essence has
completed the lessons to be gained from having riches and does not have much
impetus to recreate those situations except as it might peripherally help with
other lessons. Your essence may be willing to let you be dirt poor for the
duration of your lifetimes as long as it is gaining the desired spiritual and
philosophic lessons. Sometimes an essence actually interferes with a person
gaining money when it's clear that riches would distract attention from the real
inner work.
Remember, you are your essence
while you are astral; it is you who decides not to give yourself the wealthy
Young Soul parents or the drive and ambition to go out and get powerfully rich.
The problem is, of course, that when you arrive on the physical plane, the
personality goes a little crazy without material goodies in a material world.
The personality may push to make a comfortable living, and pull it off, but
again without the added impetus of your essence insisting, "Make a bundle!
You have got to be successful." As long as the essence is being fed what it
really wants--philosophical and spiritual food--it won't hamper your goals of
making money or creating warm emotional connections with people. But your
essence still won't be giving you its added push toward prosperity or
emotionally nourishing relationships.
A major challenge of the Old
Soul period is mastering self-esteem. No one is complete until there is
self-forgiveness and self-love. Self-esteem can be elusive when living in a
Young Soul society which doesn't acknowledge the work or innate value of most
older souls. And on top of that, Old Souls truly see what a small part they play
in this grand, infinite universe. For this reason, working this issue through is
often a very big deal, with lots of self-deprecation being used along the way.
Another major item on the Old
Soul school-days agenda is loving being in a body, manifesting sufficient
mastery that you have enough of what you want to make it pleasurably exciting to
be on the planet. It is never your last life until you like it here; essence
would never let you off the hook before then.
In order to even out your past
life choices, as an Old Soul you are often in the body of the sex you least
prefer. But having had both male and female bodies so many times before, you do
begin to blend the different energies and may not be greatly identified with
being either male or female. It becomes hard to work up a lather about someone's
homosexuality or "lack of masculinity" or "femininity".
Bisexual feelings are not uncommon; whether acted upon or not, they are allowed
to rise to the surface, sometimes. Sex which takes on a cosmic feeling by
blending all chakras becomes possible--and sought after.
Seeing an Old Soul as a baby is
telling, for while the child is still acting the demanding infant or growing
baby, another quality may be sensed. Because the soul has done all of this so
many times, the child has a peace, ease, and wisdom about it--at least in its
quieter moments--that can be sensed by the adults around it.
Many fewer Old Souls than
Mature or Young ones become famous, and when they do it is usually to teach, for
the Old Soul level is the teaching level.
None of us allow ourselves to
complete the physical plane experience until everything we've learned is shared
with at least one other person. Some musicians typifying this Old Soul need to
teach are Joan Baez, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sting, Judy Collins, Jerry
Garcia, Bob Marley and children's hero and folksinger, Raffi. Paul Winter,
George Winston, Kitaro and a burgeoning band of Old Soul, New Age musicians are
intent on moving us into gorgeous inner spaces with their music.
Mark Twain, John Muir, and
Albert Einstein were all Old Souls with a mission, as was Dr. Edward Bach. John
Robbins is busy changing the way America looks at food and food production. Film
director John Boorman (Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory), author Alice Walker (The
Color Purple), goddess researcher Jean Shinoda Bolen, Shirley MacLaine, Robert
Redford and Phil Donahue are some pretty active Old Souls currently doing work
on our culture. Directly on the spiritual front we find Don Juan Matus,
Nostradamus, Gurdjieff, Guru Mayi, Carl Jung, Werner Erhard, Rajneesh, Ram Dass,
Matthew Fox, the Dalai Lama, Sun Bear, Swamis Satchidananda and Muktananda and
transpersonal psychologists, Christina and Stanislav Grof. Jesse Jackson, Jerry
Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Anwar Sadat, Iceland's president, Vigdis Finnbogadottir,
and Brazil's Chico Mendes are six very affecting Old Souls who put their energy
into the political arena. You'll notice these individuals teach from their being
or essence in a unique fashion. Countries currently containing predominantly Old
Souls (but not always Old Soul leadership) are Iceland, Holland, and
Czechoslovakia. Old Soul nations prefer neutrality in international conflicts,
and when that's impossible, they prefer subjugation to violence and bloodshed.
Being aware that freedom is first an inner experience, they teach their captors
a great deal about harmony and humanity. Historically we see this in Alexander
the Great's conquest of (then Old Soul) Persia and parts of what is now modern
India. Old Souls are everywhere, at least sprinkled thinly. Burma has many Old
Souls, as do New Zealand, Finland and Norway. Most U.S. cities have Old Soul
groupings in them whether coastal like Vancouver, Miami, Laguna and Boston or
inland like Minneapolis, Chicago and Atlanta. However, the deepest United States
pockets of Old Souls are so far primarily in Oregon, Washington, and Northern
California. The Keys of Florida and Orcas Island, Washington are both magnets
for Old Souls. Certain other cities, like Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, and
Boulder, Colorado have taken on a comfortable Old Soul flavor. Russia also has
large scale Old Soul pockets, the major one was, for a time, Siberia. Michael
said that these Old Souls incarnated in the U.S.S.R. to help push that country
forward. They did not expect to end up in gulags, nor would they have chosen
that way to work. Soviet Armenia was bulging with both Old and Mature Souls:
even the best laid astral plans don't always pan out perfectly.
Many individual Old Souls are
scattered about, resting in comfortable island places like Tahiti, or
conversely, working spiritedly in places like Africa to help bring a country or
continent forward. Old Souls incarnate in Infant Soul areas like the Amazon in
order to protect, assist, foster, nourish and guide those that need it.
There is a tendency for older
souls to have a greater understanding of what the younger soul perceptivities
are like than vice-versa. Knowing about soul age perceptivity is exceedingly
helpful in understanding the way other people think, the way they look at life
and in understanding something about their life tasks.
Each soul age is trying to
experience as much as possible within that particular level of perceptivity.
It's absolutely to the point for an Infant Soul to be fearfully concerned about
basic survival and for a Baby Soul to be requesting law and order. A Young Soul
is appropriate when striving for great material wealth, power and acclaim, and a
Mature Soul when beginning to feel intensely emotional and ask those deeper
questions. It's appropriate for an Old Soul to not meet societal norms, to look
and act mildly eccentric and to be teaching others, even when his own personal
or material life isn't together.
To expect your Old Soul child
to make a successful climb up a corporate ladder is unrealistic. Likewise, it's
in error to count upon an aggressive Young Soul attorney turning her attention
towards saving the environment, or to believe a Mature Soul embroiled in a major
emotional drama would be able to calm down because you showed him the "big
picture".
An Old Soul starts each
lifetime being born as an infant who experiences Infant Soul consciousness and
gradually grows into prior levels of consciousness. A baby is often perceiving
through Baby Soul consciousness; think about a two year old shrieking because a
parent offended her sense of right and wrong. People vary, but generally reach
their competitive Young Soul consciousness sometime in grade school years.
Mature Soul consciousness arrives for many during junior high school and is what
your up-and-down, full-of-drama, teenager is experiencing.
Individuals don't come close to
obtaining their true soul perceptivity roughly one-third of the time. They get
stuck. They get lazy. Or the essence finds it easier to complete certain karmas
at earlier more ambitious or more emotional soul levels. While most Old Souls
(Mature Souls too) will be doing the intense Mature phase in their teens and
early twenties, an Old Soul is often not consistently acting out of Old Soul
awareness until about age thirty-five, and even then it may be only in some
areas of life and not in others. When security buttons get pushed, for instance,
it is often difficult to remain completely centered in your Old Soul
consciousness. Old Souls will be able to successfully drop out some of the Baby
Soul discipline, Young Soul ambition, and Mature Soul emotionality only if those
qualities are integrated sufficiently into their personality so that they have
access to them when necessary. It does not work to stick your nose in the air
(or your head in the sand) in an attempt to avoid lessons and gifts from the
other soul ages.
People who come into the
Michael teaching are usually relieved to find out why they are different from
mainstream society; they knew they marched to a different drummer anyway.
Michael's explanation is useful, making it easier to understand why humans come
in such varieties and why it is that some share global perspectives and others,
no matter how intelligent and cultured, just aren't interested.
The purpose of the teaching is
agape, not creating yourself to be one up.
Younger souls are not less
intelligent, less appropriate or wrong. Their lessons are about survival,
structure, ambition and success, while your lessons are about emotional and
universal connections. Younger souls are a natural part of that whole you know
is all connected, right? So, if you're indulging yourself by feeling superior,
aim for mild tolerance as a way to begin clearing up that attitude, which
ultimately is a painful, separatist one to carry around.
SEVEN
LEVELS WITHIN EACH SOUL AGE
As mentioned, each soul age has
seven distinct stages, so that an individual can be referred to as a fourth
level Old Soul or a seventh level Young Soul. Every level gives a distinct
flavor to the lifetimes spent within its arena. Except for the sixth, which
takes more, each level takes about three lifetimes to complete, though some
essences speed through faster, while the solid types enjoy a more thorough,
leisurely pace.
A description of each level is
given below along with examples of people in that level. You can see how each
level influences a lifetime's behavior. The reason there are so many more people
listed in some of the levels is because those are the places that lend
themselves more easily to comfort with a fair amount of public attention.
The first level is a tentative
exploration of the new soul age, kind of a feeler or probe. There is a sense of
uneasiness, and people at this level will usually spend about 70% of their time
back in the comfortably familiar level just completed. The first level is
ordinarily enough of a trial balloon that it does not give itself to center
stage behaviors. Mike Tyson, catapulted into the media spotlight by his divorce,
is, at first level Baby, a bit awkward with so much attention. While both Jim
and Tammy Bakker are first level Young, emotionally they still relate primarily
to Baby Souls. They opted for the spotlight in order to enhance their wealth and
power. Sylvester Stallone has apparently moved away from the complacent
qualities of seventh Young. That he's become more interested in relationships
and more self-reflective indicates he's now exploring first level Mature. And
for idealizing Warrior-ness as much as he has, he seems quite graceful with this
change
The second level, though
cozier, still has much push-pull. People begin to realize they can function best
by forging ahead into the new consciousness, that the former perceptivity keeps
them frustrated; yet they aren't sure of their footing within the new level at
all. Nobel peace prize winner, Oscar Arias, is, at second Mature, an example of
this. His strong outer task of bringing peace to Central America helps him pull
his own consciousness to that (Mature) place within himself where relationships
and unity are more important than ambition, power or material advantage. Jesse
Jackson is an example of this phenomenon too, but at the Old Soul level.
Prince Charles is second level
Mature, though held back by much Baby Soul imprinting which his (Mature) wife is
pushing to eliminate so that their lives can be more fun. Ronald Reagan is
another example of second Mature, but with a wife who would prefer to keep him
functioning at her soul age, Young. Salman Rushdie is second Mature and in a
push/pull battle within himself. He vacillates from an elbowing, ridiculing
power stance to seeing that people, foibles and all, are very connected.
Alice Walker, who wrote The
Color Purple, is second level Old as is Actor Dustin Hoffman. California's
former governor, Jerry Brown, a Roman Catholic, who's both spent time with
Mother Teresa in India and time studying Zen in Japan, seems determined to grow
himself into his full soul perceptivity, second Old. He's really wrestling with
his Mature Soul behaviors to do this. These people display strong desires to
push forward in their understanding of life.
The third level person begins
to gain the full perceptivity of the new soul age internally, but has difficulty
manifesting it in the world. This person becomes extremely introverted and
intellectually introspective while trying to integrate the new awareness into
day-to-day life.
A person at this level, like
Michael Jackson, who's allowed himself to bring in some fame is going to feel
stress about it. Public television's financial show host, Louis Rukeyser, is
another person functioning at third level Mature. With his Wall Street Week
television show he is more "out there" than most at this level. Both
his goal of growth and chief feature of arrogance [see chapter on "Overleaves"]
give him a push that is clearly somewhat uncomfortable to his essentially
introspective, third level nature.
Ralph Nader is another third
level Mature person who allows his goals and principles to push him into the
limelight despite his personal desire for quiet introversion. J.D. Salinger,
who's spent most of his 69 years ducking the sort of publicity some authors pay
to create, is a reclusive third level Mature Artisan. Jeremy Irons, an actor,
again third Mature, is cautious about interviews. He does not like to reveal
information about himself and admitted to feeling an interview was akin to rape.
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko got nearly a year to himself with his
record-breaking 326 day mission aboard an orbiting space station. He had plenty
of private time to look both back and forward at his life and did a superb job
with the isolation.
Third level people do best when
they give themselves the space and time to stay home and be alone as much as
they want. Respecting their own proclivities and loving themselves just the way
they are always smooths the way for more enjoyment of self and life.
Fourth level, bingo. Integrated
and consolidated, the perceptivity is now both inner and outer. Comfortable and
feeling assured while pushing out into the world, fourth level lifetimes are
spent in full swing, doing and achieving any number of things - perhaps forming
bits of karma along the way. Singer/Poet Bob Dylan moves between third and
fourth levels. Pope John Paul II, Fidel Castro, Corazon Aquino, Jane Fonda, and
Terry Cole-Whittaker are all fourth level Mature, while Imelda and Ferdinand
Marcos, Panama's General Noriega and Syria's President Assad are fourth Young.
Queen Elizabeth is fourth Baby and doing excellent job being in such a spotlight
at a very early soul age. Phil Donahue and Kevin Ryerson are both busy, fourth
level Old Souls.
Fifth level people start
pushing on the limits of their reassuring fourth level existences. Believe it or
not, humans don't stick with comfort long, especially when it starts impinging
on growth. Leaving the beaten path, like Old Soul Carl Jung, for exploration,
experimentation and the unorthodox, this level stretches every point and often
shows up as pretty eccentric in the process. Mikhail Gorbachev is now
manifesting his full soul age, fifth Mature, in precisely this way. The unusual
birthmark sitting on his forehead should have been one clue to his ultimate
destination. How perfect for a fifth level person to be leading Russia out of
its tiresome stodginess. Another fifth Mature person, Robert Bly, is leading
American men from their stuckness. Fifth Old feminist witch and author, Zsuzanna
Budapest, is leading women towards the blessings of nature and the goddess. Zsa
Zsa Gabor cultivated her fifth Young eccentricities and power needs with charm -
for the most part. Joan Quigley pushed her need for eccentricity and power with
astrology, quite an unconventional Young Soul pursuit.
At fifth level a person may
feel out of his element, odd and off-balance socially, and may be seen as less
mature than his more secure fourth level friends. Divine, the fat, quite
fabulous drag queen star of Female Trouble and Hairspray, obviously wrote
his/her own rules but didn't find much balance in life. The enigmatic Andy
Warhol didn't find much personal balance either. Neither does PeeWee Herman,
whose eccentricities give him little rest. Gary Larson, the creator of the
extremely bizarre and wonderfulThe Far Side is fifth Old and reclusive.
Madonna maintains stability by
by sheer force of personality and by hopping from a very unconventional fifth
level to a solid, businesslike fourth. Lyndon Johnson, also fifth Mature, was
full of personal eccentricities (Remember him pulling those beagles up by their
ears or showing off the new scar on his abdomen to photographers and news
reporters?) but could manage business and the presidency with ease.
Sixth level lifetimes are about
karma. In Infant, Baby and Young lifetimes, you are usually busier creating
karmas than paying them back. Every essence plunges in during these early phases
and forms the karmas which cause shudders when you sense, from the perspective
of later lifetimes, what took place and what troubles you caused. Usually, once
these karmas have come back in your face, you know you would never act like that
again, ever, because you understand all too well what it felt like.
Richard Ramirez and Charles
Manson, both at sixth level Infant, obviously created large amounts of karma for
themselves. So did Joel Steinberg, who was responsible for severe wife abuse as
well as the death of his adopted daughter.
Jesse Helms, fundamentalist
Oral Roberts and Evan Mecham, the impeached, ultra-conservative ex-governor of
Arizona, have all enjoyed stirring up controversy and are sixth Baby. A Young
Soul at sixth level may do something as inspirational as John Kennedy or quirky
as Robert Bork's aborted run for the Supreme Court - where he itched to form
interesting karmas with just about every minority in this country.
In Mature and Old sixth level
lifetimes, you piece together the experiences of the prior levels and start
handling obligations incurred along the way. This means accumulated karmic debts
get paid back through numerous, intense, nearly overfilled sixth level lives. A
person will likely have trouble after hard luck and be at wits end from all the
calamitous action coming her way. These sixth level catch-up lives are a
difficult and demanding group, usually taking longer to complete than any other
level. As an Old Soul, these lives are truly the last chance for all karmic
completions, some of which have been avoided for dozens upon dozens of
lifetimes.
Think about what's been jammed
into these sixth level lives: Elizabeth Taylor, Timothy Leary, Norman Mailer,
Rajneesh, Jeremy Rifkin, Deng Xiaoping and Patti Davis. Joe Kennedy II, who now
holds an elective office, is a Mature sixth level Sage likely to have a lot of
news-making incidents occurring in his life. While Old Soul Chico Mendes paid
with his life this time, Ram Dass and Yogi Bhajan appear to have completed the
last of their sixth level karmas, enabling them to move on to the comfort of
seventh level.
Whew, seventh level! The
karma's paid; it's time for some well earned poise, rest and complacency. Not
too many obstructions or impeding subplots here; seventh level lives usually
unfold rather gracefully. Having freshly understood the lessons themselves,
individuals are in a good position to teach others - especially those of the
soul age just completed. For Mature and Old Souls particularly, there is an
urgency to share their perceptivity and ways of being with others. Think of how
fired up Roseanne Arnold and Robin Williams are, for example, to share their
perceptions with us, or George Lucas and Martin Luther King.
Moamar Khadafy, at seventh
level Baby, and Israel's Prime Minister Shamir, seventh Young, don't have lives
that flow as easily as some but are tenacious enough with their beliefs, even
under fire, to display that seventh level self-satisfaction which can feel
maddeningly smug to those who happen to disagree. Ayn Rand is another seventh
Young person who was quite self-contained regarding her belief structure.
Seventh-level lives often have
a comfort and flow to them. Pat Sajak, for a time a late night-talk show host,
formerly a disk jockey, TV weatherman, and sidekick to Vanna White on Wheel of
Fortune, is ambitious, at ease, and seventh Young. Actors Alec Guinness and
Danny DeVito, singer Bruce Springsteen, author Frank Herbert and sexologist Ruth
Westheimer are all seventh Mature. Spiritual teachers Swami Muktananda and Swami
Satchidananda both manifested at seventh level Old, as did the politician who
bridged more than a few gaps in the Middle East, Anwar Sadat, and the one who
insisted on ending slavery in the U.S., Abraham Lincoln.
TRANSCENDENTAL
AND INFINITE SOULS
There are two other
levels of soul consciousness which may take human bodies, but are vastly beyond
the sometimes all-too-human levels of Infant to Old just described. They are the
Transcendental Soul and the Infinite Soul.
A transcendental soul is a
representative from an entity that has completely recombined, meaning all the
fragments or souls in the entity have completed all lifetimes on earth and have
merged into full consciousness of each other, into oneness. The entity, which
may be on the Astral, Causal, Mental, Messianic or Buddhaic plane, may decide
for teaching purposes to send a representative to the planet. Every entity does
this at least once. Because of the consciousness levels obtained by the entity,
the representative, the transcendental soul, shows up on the planet as a
buoyant, balanced being with easy access to higher centers and states of
consciousness. The teaching of the transcendental soul, whether verbal, by
example, or by leading action, is centered on the greater connectivity of the
universe.
There are always some
transcendental souls on the planet; in a time of change like the present there
are many. Some, like Sai Baba, Meher Baba, Yogananda, Babaji, Rumi, St. Francis,
Pope John XXIII, or Ghandi, obtain wide recognition for their teachings while
others are monumental influences on their communities, but do not receive global
recognition. These souls are not totally self-aware. They may fall into maya,
that is illusion, believing perhaps that they are "A Perfect Master"
or an ultimate authority of some sort. They may forget in their teaching about
"All That Is" that they are teaching from one perspective only. They
can become attached to attention, love, adulation. But mostly, transendental
souls stay amazingly clear, centered and conscious.
Infinite souls are the
manifestation of All-That-Is, of the Tao. The entire universe is consciously
encompassed in the one body of the Infinite soul. The Infinite soul is
self-aware and does have superhuman abilities. This soul usually enters, by
prior agreement, into a person who is seventh level Old or Transcendental. The
energy of the Infinite soul is so great that were they to be born into a human
body and dwell consistently in it, the body would not last long. The Infinite
soul may enter later in life as for Jesus and Buddha or come in and out as it
did for Krishna and Lao Tsu. These souls are always noticed, always teach
oneness and love. Earth is set to be visited by four or five of these incredible
souls over the next 20 years. They will have the same message: love one another
and the Earth, and will represent different races and both sexes.
Comments:
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