Last week, a mother dolphin off the coast of New Zealand carried her dead calf on her back for days as she obeyed nature’s instinctive spiritual call to grieve her lost child. The religious instinct is inherent in all of nature, dolphins and humans included.

We make a grand mistake when we blame the human animal, with its instinctual underpinnings, for all the egregious sins and excesses of humanity. As our mother dolphin demonstrates, nature’s religious instinct knows how to safely discharge, regulate, and transform its deepest emotions.

Our physical body, our faithful companion for all of our physical life, is born with the highest level of knowledge of how to safely navigate and fulfill life in this world. This is innate archetypal wisdom that we may not be conscious of. Consciousness, which resides in the ego Soul, is separate from the archetypes that govern the physical body and has assumed the role of decision making for the human animal. On all levels, we are alive at a moment in time that truly reflects the errors of that ego Soul’s decision making.

The spiritual instinct in nature, with its imperative for evolutionary exploration, delivered humans the ability to override nature’s accumulated wisdom of archetypal solutions to life’s problems. Thus, contrary to mother dolphin’s laborious journey of mourning, corporate programs structure acceptable time-off to grieve. When ‘consciousness’ overrides archetype the dissonance created often results in mental health problems.

Of course, the overseer of the body at the subconscious autonomic level, whom I have termed the little soul, does not always select the right archetype to solve an issue. Thus, a self-hypnotic suggestion from ego Soul, at the heart center of consciousness, might do well to override a negative belief held by the little soul, which may be generating a physical problem.

The problem with the little soul is that it doesn’t think; it guards the sanctity of the archetypes, its true master. This conservatism is critical to protect life, yet its rigidity might prove fatal. Like a faithful General it follows, never questions, its orders. The problem is, it is susceptible to any orders. Thus, if we insist on constantly thinking about our bondage to negative habits, the little soul makes sure our body experience backs up and fulfills those orders. Hence, we repeat our habits.

This of course can lead to bodily excesses in such instincts as hunger and sex. We may be quick to blame our instincts, but we do well to look more deeply into where little soul received its marching orders. Often, we will discover that the true culprit is ego Soul, lodged at the solar plexus level of consciousness.

Many world leaders currently mirror this fixation of consciousness. The solar plexus is the center of personal power. Needs and wants at this center are exceedingly narcissistic, all about ME. Thus, marching orders from this center reflect entitlement. “I want more” is its general imperative, be it with food, sex, money, clothes, screen time, attention, etc.*

Thus, ego Soul’s powerful wants override the little soul’s archetypes, commandeering the body and its instincts to fulfill its appetites, not the body’s appetites. The body falls victim to the ego Soul’s power play, and though it might react with illness, the disease may lie more in the ego Soul, with its lack of consideration of the body’s true needs.

Unfortunately, the learning curve for ego Soul at the solar plexus chakra is generally a function of karma, the groundhog day law of cause and effect. Many repetitions may be required of self serving destructive behaviors before a light of higher consciousness shines on the truth of the illusion one has been living.

This light issues from the heart center, where ego Soul glimpses the truth of its high SOUL, which reveals the interconnected and true workings of everything. Narcissism is purified at this level, as ego Soul sees clearly right action in conformity with the reality of the situation. Here the high SOUL becomes the ego Soul’s guide, as it delivers to the little soul the correct orders for body maintenance, healing, and action.

May we fully appreciate the wisdom and support of our most intimate partner, our own body, which contains and allows for our Soul’s transformation, as it sojourns through life within its precious physical body.

With love and deep gratitude,

Chuck

*NOTE: Synchronistically, today’s Soulbyte addresses the side of personal power susceptible to taking on outside influences as its own. Outside influences are both the outer personalities and thought currents of our time, as well as inner archetypes that target the ego Soul’s naive will to power, for their own nefarious intentions.