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The development of the soul
Jun. 26th, 2021 04:07 pm I think it's not uncommon to perceive of life as a slog, a struggle, a crap-shoot of limitations, chaos, and confusion, and a diversion of uncertain aim away from what could be or ought to be or ontologically IS.
But without it (life, living), the soul - a raving presence from on-high and wild beyond belief - would be relegated to stasis, incapable of development - potentiality only.
The question arises: why has the soul not already mastered all planes? Why incarnate at all?
Perhaps souls are simply divine "stuff" present everywhere in raw form until they become incarnate, becoming incarnate in order to consolidate all experience through the physical plane. Supremely limited, the experience of physical manifestation entails a honing process that shapes and crafts the soul into itself. Damien Echols notes a differentiation between angels and archangels, with the archangels having been "personified," and he follows that up with the notion that we're all in the process of becoming such beings through experiencing all things, working through all things, becoming all things. Each soul, he suggests, is an unformed (or less formed) angel. Following this line of thought, then, one can see that souls are in need of the shaping, developing, tempering process provided by uncountable numbers of incarnations.
So, being alive - going through this "slog" - is a requirement. Self-development and self-improvement are requirements, unavoidably part of the soul's process of becoming its full self; still containing potentialities, rather than diffuse, they become potencies. The soul develops - and it's in its nature to develop, as much as it's the nature of a seed to sprout, a shoot to grow, a plant to bud and flower and set seed. The exact cycle may or may not map perfectly to the soul's development, but the drive to grow through all inherent properties is ingrained.
If conditions (internal or external) aren't favorable, the life-force may be challenged or removed and the inhering power/force/drive become manifest elsewhere.
As above, so below: how living beings grow into themselves fully is a reflection of the power that moves souls through all experiences and phases, fully. Learning as they go.
What are, on the physical plane, biological or physical processes - seemingly unthinking/unconscious processes - are, on the spiritual plane, lessons. So, for a typical human consciousness, the processes of being born, growing, maturing, aging, and dying are feared and mysterious occurrences obviously outside our control. For the soul, they are deeply meaningful. We can cultivate soul-connection if we approach these events (and frankly, all events) through our own attempts at meaning-perception and meaning-making around and through these experiences.
These lessons (lived over and over through all incarnations) carry deep teachings that the soul can choose to engage with, each and every time it experiences them. Or it can resist or refuse to learn, or remain in ignorance, or misunderstand - all valid options for beings with free will - for the physical realm IS mysterious and confounding; but eventually that inherent drive will direct the soul to learn from and grow through that which life hands it to a new state of development. And in those instances in which the inhering development drive is not activated, the soul will be "allowed" to re-experience that lesson until it integrates the pattern and the fullness of what any experience means or implies, through all the planes, including all permutations and combinations.
The soul cannot escape the past - all the ways previous intentions, decisions, and actions have created limits, it must work through them, study them, and learn from them.
***
Related post: https://temporaryreality.dreamwidth.org/11990.html
But without it (life, living), the soul - a raving presence from on-high and wild beyond belief - would be relegated to stasis, incapable of development - potentiality only.
The question arises: why has the soul not already mastered all planes? Why incarnate at all?
Perhaps souls are simply divine "stuff" present everywhere in raw form until they become incarnate, becoming incarnate in order to consolidate all experience through the physical plane. Supremely limited, the experience of physical manifestation entails a honing process that shapes and crafts the soul into itself. Damien Echols notes a differentiation between angels and archangels, with the archangels having been "personified," and he follows that up with the notion that we're all in the process of becoming such beings through experiencing all things, working through all things, becoming all things. Each soul, he suggests, is an unformed (or less formed) angel. Following this line of thought, then, one can see that souls are in need of the shaping, developing, tempering process provided by uncountable numbers of incarnations.
So, being alive - going through this "slog" - is a requirement. Self-development and self-improvement are requirements, unavoidably part of the soul's process of becoming its full self; still containing potentialities, rather than diffuse, they become potencies. The soul develops - and it's in its nature to develop, as much as it's the nature of a seed to sprout, a shoot to grow, a plant to bud and flower and set seed. The exact cycle may or may not map perfectly to the soul's development, but the drive to grow through all inherent properties is ingrained.
If conditions (internal or external) aren't favorable, the life-force may be challenged or removed and the inhering power/force/drive become manifest elsewhere.
As above, so below: how living beings grow into themselves fully is a reflection of the power that moves souls through all experiences and phases, fully. Learning as they go.
What are, on the physical plane, biological or physical processes - seemingly unthinking/unconscious processes - are, on the spiritual plane, lessons. So, for a typical human consciousness, the processes of being born, growing, maturing, aging, and dying are feared and mysterious occurrences obviously outside our control. For the soul, they are deeply meaningful. We can cultivate soul-connection if we approach these events (and frankly, all events) through our own attempts at meaning-perception and meaning-making around and through these experiences.
These lessons (lived over and over through all incarnations) carry deep teachings that the soul can choose to engage with, each and every time it experiences them. Or it can resist or refuse to learn, or remain in ignorance, or misunderstand - all valid options for beings with free will - for the physical realm IS mysterious and confounding; but eventually that inherent drive will direct the soul to learn from and grow through that which life hands it to a new state of development. And in those instances in which the inhering development drive is not activated, the soul will be "allowed" to re-experience that lesson until it integrates the pattern and the fullness of what any experience means or implies, through all the planes, including all permutations and combinations.
The soul cannot escape the past - all the ways previous intentions, decisions, and actions have created limits, it must work through them, study them, and learn from them.
***
Related post: https://temporaryreality.dreamwidth.org/11990.html
