At some point in life, I decided I was not going to be a victim of my circumstances, but I had to question, what could I do to understand the circumstances that life had led me into? That was the beginning of my shamanic journey of recapitulation. The Recapitulation Diaries tell the story of that journey of change.
A new book, All The Gifts You Are Given: Re-imagining the life you are in, from a higher spiritual plane, gives further insight into how to question and evolve in the life circumstances we find ourselves in. This is not based on my own life but comes from a higher plane of knowledge, which we all have access to.
This new book could not have been written had I not taken the arduous journey of recapitulation, a journey to retrieval of my own soul and the journey it had thus far taken, understanding it all from a new and deeply satisfying perspective. Horrible and beautiful in its unfolding, that journey nonetheless brought me back to my true self and connection to the knowledge of the greater Universe of which we are all a part, that which we all sense and so long for.
This knowledge of and connection to the true spirit within all of us are what Chuck and I write and speak about, and with which we seek only to inspire others.
One of the biggest lessons I have learned from spirit is to have patience.
“Don’t push,” Spirit says, “if you wait, what you need will come to you in the right way.”
Find your Self in the calmness of your breath, in the stillness of your heart, in the quiet of your empty mind, for your true Self waits within for your notice and connection. Look not outside of you in others for your Self but inward in the nature of your own substance, in the life-force within you that keeps you alive and functioning, for your spirit is you, in every breath you take, every heartbeat and every moment of quiet mind.
Everyone wants the same thing, though most don’t even know what it is they seek. It’s wholeness within the self, the knowledge of the true self, the spirit within the body. If everyone turned inward and worked to mature their true inner self, their spirit self, wouldn’t the world be a different place? Knowing this, how can you not turn to this beautiful self and work to bring it forward? You are your spirit, that ethereal you that seeks to connect with you as much as you seek to connect with it. This is the wholeness you seek and it lies within your reach.
Our home, as the personal repository of the remnants of our earthly existence, is the perfect metaphor for our human personality, our soul. Closets house moments of the past, some joyful, some deeply sad. Bedrooms house our intimate lives and our nightly journeys of rejuvenation and ventures into infinity.
Bathrooms meet our animal needs and ego primping; kitchens our desires and physical sustenance. Living rooms support our relaxation and social gatherings. Basements are home to the powerhouse of heat and the central electrical nervous system. Upstairs are rooms of spirit, hobby, and fanciful dreams.
Dreams utilize this powerful metaphor of home to reflect the status of our soul’s journey in this life. When we leave this physical life the home we leave is the home we arrive to, replete with the sensations, emotions and thoughts of our earthly experiences and attachments. Some rooms of our familiar soul are polished, some a mess, some avoided, others the home of creative possibility.
Our work beyond this life is no different than our work in this life, that is, until we have perfected the home of our human personality we won’t be ready to continue the great adventure of new life beyond the human personality.
In spiritual terms this would mean our readiness, beyond physical life, to shed the astral soul body, called the double, as it completely resembles the physical body it entwined with while in physical life. Once we have perfected the completion of our earthly challenges beyond physical life, our spirit moves on to a new body of experience. While in physical life, however, our dream homes remain an active playing field to enhance our soul’s refinement.
When we dream of childhood homes we are brought back to our entry into this world, with our primal attachments and core feelings and beliefs about ourselves. Such dreams invite us to recapitulate and free ourselves from formative habits and hurts. Such dreams also suggest that our current waking life is a milieu for reliving the past. Meeting deep challenge in waking life can free one of past limitations.
Dreams of explosions of the furnace, or electrical fires in the home, speak to unruly passions of desire, fear or rage. Often they correspond with physical symptoms in the solar plexus and heart. Dreams of this genre beg for acknowledgement of suppressed and repressed emotions, seeking safe release and practices, such as meditation to gain mastery of the energy of emotion.
Dirty bathrooms and compromised toilets correspond to the digestive and elimination systems, where certain experiences of life refuse to be cleansed or flushed away. These dreams generally point to the need for deep self-reflection and honesty, where we acknowledge the truths we have denied or projected away onto the lives of others.
Attic dreams may reflect promptings from our high Spirit to build a new room for creative endeavor by opening, in our waking lives, to new projects, relationships, and innate unfolding of potential. These promptings might also appear in visitations to homes never inhabited, or in the discovery of a room never before known about in one’s current abode.
Kitchen dreams might harken back to a spotlight on early nurturance and how those patterns overshadow the present. Cooking dreams focus on self-care, the quality of what one is taking in to nourish physical body and soul. Kitchen adventures also reveal one’s relation to the desire body, often the one hidden away in waking life.
Houses in the mountains are the abodes of spiritual life. Houses by the ocean depict one’s relation with one’s inner nature. Is there threat of tidal wave? Here, nature warns of a coming major life transition or a compensation for too much repressed life. Dreams of this type call for a broader view of the balance of the energies within the self.
Homes under construction portray the soul work you are currently engaged in. Is the foundation secure? If not, the dream asks you to slow down, have patience with the basics. Are the building materials inferior or insufficient? Perhaps one is asked to be more generous at devoting one’s resources to true needs.
The dream house is a guide to soul work in this life. Perfecting that home leads to fulfillment in this life and advances the soul when it lands at the next stop on its infinite adventure, beyond this physical life.
Maintain inner stability at all times. Place yourself under house arrest by keeping yourself to a certain standard of inner control. Stay grounded and centered even while you are pulled in a direction you no longer wish to go in. Stay connected to your spirit, the part of you that is often neglected and yet which is you. With inner control of yourself, the way forward may be more measured, contained, and bearable, all the things that make progress in a new direction possible, for to say you are going to do something is one thing, but to actually do it is another. Action takes discipline and commitment, and that’s also how to keep your inner house in order and yourself on your path of heart, with intent.
