Our Spiritual Journey: Milestones of Development

As above so below, as below so above … so goes one of the most referenced spiritual principles. Yes, it has a ring to it, it sounds true, but have you ever wondered what exactly this means? Another way it’s stated is … as within so without. Perhaps this one’s a bit more obvious … when you have love in your heart, you’ll have love in your actions. When you have resentment in your heart, even if your actions are coming from the good intentions of wanting to do the right thing, the energy of your actions will be impacted, will feel different.Now let’s go back to the first statement: As above, so below. This principle is referencing planes of reality in which we exist. Each of us, as a being we call self, is existing on various planes of reality at once - mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Our experiences on one plane directly impacts our experiences on the other planes. Here is one example, if you are clear as a bell from a morning meditation practice, you are clear on a mental and emotional plane. This, in turn, will positively impact your physical plane, or health, in that your subtle energy will be less congested from stress. As each of these planes clears, it clears the way for the spiritual plane, your Higher Self, to direct your path as your energy fields clear, allowing you to receive higher guidance.Development also works in this way. Because we are holistic beings operating on multiple levels of reality, we have a spiritual course of development that resembles our development on the other planes - physical, emotional, and mental. The last three planes we are fairly conscious of, not always so with our spiritual plane. The physical plane is the most obvious to us, our bodies grow and change, and then we move through a trajectory of development across the lifespan. Our mental development is also fairly obvious as it closely parallels our physical development and we spend much of the first quarter of our lifetime going to school to orient our thinking mind to specific programming that helps us succeed on the physical plane. Our emotional development varies due to our value system, and how much emphasis and energy is placed on this aspect of our being, both in our family of origin and on into our adulthood. But definitely there is an emotional development trajectory accepted by much of the west, known as Erickson’s Theory of Development, and it follows along the same course running parallel to our physical and mental development. The glaring omission here in our standard perspective of development is our Spiritual path.Let’s plug in our spiritual principle here and see how this works … as above so below, as below so above … so if we’re developing along a common trajectory in our physical, mental and emotional development, each one impacting the other, how does our spiritual development relate? Spiritual development relates most closely to our mental / emotional development, whereas our physical development is most significant as our vehicle in which to house the spirit, and provide a track or framework for the emotional / mental development. It’s the mental / emotional development that links to and allows for greater spiritual development, it too is part of our holistic being! Cheryl wrote earlier in the month about the trajectory of spiritual development, and what supports it. So, what we’re going to look at here are the developmental milestones, to help you get a clearer sense of where you are in your own spiritual journey.Spiritual developmental milestones … in our human body, we need parents to care for us in our infancy - physically, emotionally, and mentally until we can begin to become independent - in stages. It’s the same with our spiritual development. Spiritually we are cared for in numerous ways in our Spiritual infancy. Although our soul is connected to All That Is / Spirit, our soul generally forgets this as we are born into form, it is part of the journey of being here on earth. Our soul is cared for in our spiritual infancy by the part of us that is closely linked with the Divine, our Higher Self or Oversoul. In our spiritual infancy we also have what’s known as a Solar Angel, a being of great light who stands by patiently holding our light for us until we learn to hold our own light and maintain it’s integrity. Similar to parents caring for our physical body, these beings nurture and feed us at a soul level … providing all that we need to be spiritually nurtured and assisting in our development.Childhood … the stage of growth in which children are learning how things work in the world, by trial and error, as well as feedback from trusted adults. For most of us though, as we grew we lost touch to some degree with our Soul’s guidance system, as we were taught to listen to the outer world for advice. Thus we steadily grew outer focused rather than developing the ability to listen to our inner guidance system, spirit guides, and our young imagination that opens the door to visualization and exploration of dimensions! Additionally, our spiritual anatomy slowly numbed by a steady diet of electronics (varied by generation) and a cultural over-dominance on the rational mind.At the soul level, we too learn from trial and error about the ways of the spiritual world.Spiritually we often stagnate and drift as we move beyond early childhood and into the teen years, as many children are raised in a world that suppresses the natural order of things as far as spiritual development goes. Thus, our spiritual development often lags behind our outer development, simply because the world in which the majority of us are raised is often lacking in spiritual nurturing, and is quite possibly even in opposition to spiritual principles and beliefs.We also have a spiritual adolescence, although it typically occurs in our young adult years. Spiritual adolescence is the time when we rage against the expectations and guidance of our Higher Self … a time when we say no to Source and strike out on our own path, doing what we choose even though it may feel wrong, and despite getting some serious signs not to head in a particular direction. This is also an attempt by the ego to dominate the soul, for the ego to shout out, “I am the self, and I’ll do what I want!”. Much like physical adolescence, this time of spiritual adolescence is often quite a painful time on our journey, and as such, offers great lessons if we heed them. The option that we have to heed the lessons or not, introduces us to another spiritual principle - free will. Free will is a principle of this earth plane and as such means that we really can do what we want. As we mature spiritually, we choose to follow our ego in making choices less often once we begin to realize the folly of such choices … not much is gained other than some tough life lessons by these go-it-alone choices. However, the spiritual maturity gained by allowing ourselves to expand and learn from these sorts of missteps, usually helps us get clear that it is our Soul who is the wise self, and not the ego with its defensive structures and nature.In the mental / emotional realm, people often go through what’s termed a ‘mid-life-crisis’. Generally this means that they feel themselves coming unglued, things fall apart. It is in this crisis state that people re-think their physical trajectory … Do I choose to stay in this marriage or not? Am I in the right profession? Is it time for a new career? Why am I living in this place that doesn’t resonate with me when I could be living in the mountains? Etc. Often these times demand a major shake-up of one’s life, and folks are sometimes thrown into states of depression or crisis. Spiritually this is known as a dark night of the soul. It’s a time when one wakes up from some less conscious state and realizes that he / she is off course, and have perhaps totally shut out the voice of their Higher Self for a very long time. For some, they listen, quickly make some rather remarkable changes, and begin to lead a much more expansive existence. For others, they dig in their heels, listening to fear, and feel stuck … people can stay stuck here for years. They usually suffer some depression or anxiety in this time frame. The more they vaguely hear the Soul’s message, but don’t opt in, the deeper their sense of stuckness, and the stronger the discomfort grows. At other times the dark night of the soul is brought on by a sudden and unexpected loss, and the person clings to their fears and sorrows, shutting down his / her heart so as not to feel the pain, believing it’s unbearable. Dark nights of the soul come to an end once we remember that we are truly never alone, that our Higher Self is not only with us, but sending us radiant love night and day along with offering us wisdom at every turn. The trick of healing and expanding through pain is in opening to it rather than shutting down or clinging to fear. This is true on all planes - mental / emotional, spiritual, and physical.Eventually we achieve maturity, we become the balanced, wise, compassionate adult. This is the stage in which the ego has learned to take a back-seat to the Soul-self. When the Soul-self becomes the main operator of the self, all splintered parts of the ego self have been healed and merged into the heart center. It is at this stage when we can hold our own light, our Solar Angel can then pass the torch. Our Oversoul can then guide us from a distance, only showing up when we solicit advice. At this stage, we too are a radiant being of light!Many Blessings on your journey!Lynn & Cheryl(photo credit: Shannon Sweeny)