New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
 Bringing together the best of the Old and the New (As I've prefaced the previous editorials in this series, I want to state that I do not consider myself an "expert." I've been a student all my 77 years of this lifetime, and I’m well read in most areas of Body, Mind & Spirit sometimes, called "the Occult." I'm also well read in Psychology, Philosophy, Religions, History, Mythology, the Healing Sciences, Science, and those alternative areas sometimes called "strange science" that include the Paranormal, UFOs, Politics, Human Behavior and Sexuality, and various observations that don't quite fit the predominant belief system. I'm not a clairvoyant, an ascended master, a channel for advanced beings, or anything else that would enable me to claim to know more than you do. But, I think a lot and I'm writing about what I've come to believe as the result of study and thinking. That's it. I'm an old man who reads, meditates, and thinks—and I'm sharing my personal beliefs. I also want you to know that I am optimist. I think we'll survive 2012, and that we will co-create a better world.) In my last editorial, I am writing about Soul and Personality, the big "I" and the little "I." Do you have a Soul? Or does a Soul have you? Think about it: If you believe in reincarnation at all, you don't believe it is your body that is born again. Nor do you believe it is your Mind, because if it were, you should have conscious past life memories. Is Soul then Spirit? Before answering that, let's see what we really mean when we talk about your body and your mind. Your body is a particular coming together of physical substance guided by your DNA and other codes and filled with life energy. The most amazing part of the process is the formation of a "matrix" through and around your body directing the flow of energy. Within this matrix are the several auras, the chakras, and the various meridians and channels that make the totality that functions as your physical and energy body. Your Mind is not your brain, although the brain is its primary physical vehicle. Like the physical body, the Mind is a coming together of mental substance guided by the "I." The "I" is not who you think you are, but is, in fact, the main manager in charge of mind and body. The little "I," as I call it, the Personality, has the prime responsibility for trying to make your life meaningful and expressive of your "life purpose." "Life Purpose!" Where did that come from? It's the job you were given for this lifetime. It is not the job of being a mom or dad, of being a responsible person and citizen, or the one you are paid for whether you are a field worker or President of the United States. Your Life Purpose is a "plan" for the lessons you're learning. It is not written out as a series of steps like a study program but rather as a goal you will hopefully fulfill. And the goal may seem very simple, but all those goals together define the entire plan for humanity. A "plan for humanity?" We can get into that, sometimes called "the Great Plan," another time. Where did your Life Purpose come from? According to the research of Dr. Michael Newton and others, it involves your Soul and various guides. The Soul is the "permanent being" behind the Personality, the Mind & Body combination that is yours alone. The Personality is the little "I" that you think of as your self, but it is not the Soul. In a "mythic" sense, the Soul is "up there" and the Personality is "down here." Of course, in an ultimate cosmological and spiritual sense, there really is no up there and down here, but we are not yet anywhere near that ultimate unity. Just as the body is an assembly of physical substance, and the Mind an assembly of mental substance, I believe the Soul is an assembly of spiritual substance—what we commonly call "Spirit." At the physical level, we work with physical substance in a variety of ways and forms. At the mental level, we work with mental substance, and the Soul level we work with spirit substance. All of this leads to the realization that the ultimate, big "I" is not physical, mental, or spiritual. (We have a big problem because of the loose way we use words. We think of "spiritual" as the opposite of "physical." It is not. We do not have a good word for "that which is above that which is below," so we say "spiritual" in an abstract sense to mean, essentially, that which we are striving toward. It is our goal for our "becoming more than we are.") Just as the Personality is not Soul, I believe that the Soul is not the big "I," but is a vehicle just as the Personality is. And just as there is a kind of "disconnect" between Personality and Soul, so is there a "disconnect" between Soul and the big "I." By "disconnect" I mean to convey the Soul may not be paying a lot of attention to the Personality, but can be appealed to through meditation, prayer, and ritual. When a connection is made, there is a flow of Love and Intelligence called the"Knowledge & Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel." How do you make the connection? Firstly, when the student is ready, the master will appear. You cannot command this, but you can prepare for it, and you can ask for it, you can pray for it, and you can "open the way" for it. I like to call it "bridge building"—like a bridge between worlds. The point is that we have to work to grow, and growth involves transformation so that we become more than we are and it is in becoming that we fulfill the plan. Everything we know about the universe shows that change and growth always happen. Species evolve, the Universe expands, and the Soul grows. The "substances" that compose all things evolve through the experience of life moving through them. The Soul evolves as it accumulates abstract human experiences retained as memories. "Memories" are like computer folders containing many files. We can "drill down" and examine any of those memories through past life regression and other techniques of self-knowledge. Through self-knowledge, we learn the lessons for our life purpose. At each level, substance is organized into entities by thought-forms and life-force. At the human level, Intelligence and Soul are added. Soul is ever incarnating to grow as an individual. Each of us results from a push and pull—Push from the past of evolution and heredity, Pull from the future by the Divine Matrix of "In this image did We create them." Evolution is a fact, but it is given direction by the Divine Matrix, the Great Plan. I like to use that word, "Light." Humanity has been enriched by the "messengers of Light" and at the same time we must reach for the Light. "Light" is more than a metaphor. We can say that it is a spiritual reality, for as we meditate and see ourselves filled with Light we are using that experience to change and transform the Personality to call to the Soul and open the way for that union. It's a long journey (the entire formula of the Tarot), but all journeys begin with a first step and progress with more steps. That journey is our Life Purpose. For us, it is a combination of Knowledge and Action. We study Knowledge, but unless we Act with purpose, we have yet to take the first steps on the Journey. Selected reading:
Carl's other editorials are also available: Brave New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit: The Body |
Carl Llewellyn Weschcke (Minnesota) was the owner and chairman of Llewellyn Worldwide, the world's oldest and largest metaphysical publisher. He played a seminal role in the rise of Wicca and Neo-Paganism in the 1960s and ...
