A Day in a Life: All Children Are Working Out The Karma Of Their Past Lives

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.” So said the Persian poet and mystic Kahlil Gibran in his book The Prophet.

All children must take the karmic journey... - Art by Jan Ketchel
All children must take the karmic journey…
– Art by Jan Ketchel

When I first read the above words as a teenager I was so happy, suddenly I was free. For the first time in my life I was given the answer to what I had always felt, that I did not belong to my parents and they did not own me. It was all I needed as I was soon to step out into the world as an independent being. In a sense I was discovering that we are all orphans, all adopted, with no real personal connection or background in this world, as the real work of our lives lies elsewhere, and that is what I discuss in this blog.

We are all born into this world and this life to work on our karmic issues, to resolve what we have not yet resolved through our many lives. Life itself gives us everything we need in order to do this. For those who have children of their own this idea can be both challenging and consoling. But for all of us, it means that we are all here, in Earth School, for our own karmic reasons.

We all come as infants, we all grow up and experience life, and we all leave when we die. That is the shared journey we all take, though the details of our individual lives vary greatly. What is left behind when we leave is the essence of who we were, the energy we expended during our lifetime, positive and negative, effecting the Earth and the energy of this world. In addition, if we have not fully resolved our karmic issues, the residue of those issues remain with us to be taken up again in a new life.

So, if we are all here for personal karmic reasons, we are all here for the same purpose. Can we find a way to accept all beings, just as we too wish to be accepted? Can we let go of attachment to and judgment of others and let them work on their karmic issues while we too work on ours? Can we do these things with compassion? These are some of our challenges as we live our lives, as we raise our children, as we care for our pets (for they too are connected to us for their own karmic reasons), as we struggle to make sense of who we are and why we are here.

Just what kinds of karmic issues do we face? That’s a good question, and it’s one that deserves our attention. It’s a far better question to ponder than the “why me” question, or the “how come I didn’t get” complaint, or the “poor me” mantra. If we are to really evolve it’s time for us to take on our personal issues with a little deliberateness, to get beyond thinking that our lives are sad and meaningless, or that we only live once and then we die, and focus on our karmic challenges because, really, our eternal life depends on it, as does the eternal life of the planet.

Parents are confronted not only with allowing themselves to take their own karmic journeys but to let their children do the same. Every child is here to work out their personal karma and each parent is here to do the same. Remember: we were all children once too. No one is the cause of, or responsible for, anyone else’s karma. We are not responsible for setting up the conditions of anyone else’s karma either, though we are all players in each others’ cosmic dance and drama as we live out our lives together.

This deer is on her own karmic journey. Her hooves indicate that she is sick... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
This deer is on her own karmic journey.
Her hooves indicate that she is sick…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Eliminating the guilt for being a bad parent may be the parent’s karma, but the parent is still not responsible for the child’s karma. The parent has only helped deliver the child to their own karma. The parent must let the child go at the appropriate age for them to discover and work out their own karmic issues. The parent is then freed to work out their own. Whether an actual parent or not in this lifetime, all of these issues nonetheless apply to all the people who dance with us throughout our lives.

Gibran offers further advice as we undergo this karmic/cosmic dance. He says this of our children: “You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”

We know the road is rough, for we too are traveling along it, day by day, attempting to remain focused on the imperative of our own spirit. No matter how cleared we think we have become there will always be a new challenge to tease and test us. As we advance we make decisions in how and where we wish to use our energy, whether to save our energy for our inner work or to continue to challenge ourselves with the enticements of this world. It’s always a choice.

Our true personal karmic journey is really a lesson in learning that we are not that important, that there is something far beyond this life and our human self on this planet that we are here to discover and reconnect with. Completion of our karmic issue involves fully living out our lives in this world—fully experiencing everything that life has to offer, so that we are in a position to leave it without attachment—learning what it means to lose our self-importance in the process. When we’ve done that we’re ready to graduate from Earth School!

In actually doing the work of our personal karmic issues we become naturally more compassionate toward others, toward the struggles we see them caught in, for the behaviors we see repeated, for the unawakened spirits that we all come into this realm as. We naturally see ourselves mirrored in the struggles of others.

As compassionate beings, we learn that we cannot change another being or make them take another road than the one they’ve karmically chosen, that everyone must take the journey they are on. Even as we have had to wake up to our karmic journey, so is the challenge the same for everyone. We are not present in other’s lives to alleviate, travel another’s path, or change the journey that must be faced, but to travel our own path and support when support is appropriate or warranted. Sometimes such support is the decision to give no support at all, to totally withdraw because our support only offers a detrimental crutch.

Sometimes the journey is clear and at other times it blurs before us, but it is still our path to take... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Sometimes the journey is clear and at other times it blurs before us, but it is still our path to take…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Sometimes we may wish to offer advice but are soundly rejected, and that is a sign to step back and wait. As people face their issues, clarity will come. We simply have to look at ourselves, at our own journeys to know that many days we too could not face our issues, could not accept advice, could not get beyond our self-pity, could not forgive or get beyond our own resentment. We remember that our maturity has taken time, continues to be challenging, and that we are still learning too.

As parents must send their children off onto their own journeys, so must we all send ourselves on our own. As Gibran says in one of the final stanzas of his poem On Children: “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.” We have all been launched into this world to take our karmic journeys, and we all have the potential to go far. The path before us all is the path to eternal, conscious life in infinity.

We are all beings on journeys of karmic encounter, with the possibility to wake up and change at any time. Perhaps the challenge will begin in this lifetime. Or perhaps it will be in another. Keep in mind, however, that each life is an advancement along the karmic route. Everyone, in each lifetime, evolves another step along the road, and the planet evolves a little bit more too!

Taking the changing journey,
Jan

Soulbyte for Friday April 17, 2015

Use your energy wisely today. Do not overextend but be mindful of the self at all times, paying attention to what is good, helpful, and considerate of the self. Sometimes it’s just time to take care of the self. Today’s energy suggests that this is one of those times.

Be especially aware of your physical body and how it feels today. Pay attention to what it tells you, to what it needs, and to what it does not want. It will speak volumes of truth if you let it, and you will understand it more fully if you listen to it carefully. When the body speaks it uses its own language of sensation so that is the language to learn, if only for today. This is today’s message of guidance: pay attention to and take care of your body today.

Soulbyte for Thursday April 16, 2015

Each day is a new opportunity to set off in a new direction, to take the journey you have been putting off, to set off on your path of heart. A path of heart is a path that is not without obstacles but also is without obstacles, because nothing will get in the way. Once a path of heart is recognized and the journey of heart begun, the way will open, the work of life will flow, and the obstacles will be mere glitches, soon passed by without attachment.

Disturbances on a path of heart are seen for what they are and each day’s journey, rather than a constant chore, becomes a constant joy. To be alive and eager to enjoy the journey and to look forward with gratefulness and humbleness are the trademarks of a path of heart. Once you find it, you will have no doubts, for a path of heart knows no doubt. It is all heart!

Chuck’s Place: Beyond Archetypal Bondage

We are all part of this vast collective we call home... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
We are all part of this vast collective we call home…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Carl Jung broadened the scope of who we are as human beings by introducing us to the Collective Unconscious, a vast region within ourselves that we share in common with all human beings, in fact with the entire planetary being, planet Earth.

Earth is a living being whose survival is ensured by a powerful governing body that Jung defined as the Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. All human beings are equally impacted by these governing forces that emanate from the deep unconscious of the planetary being Earth, of whom we are all a part while in human physical form.

Archetypes are rules and definitions existing independently of human beings. Preceding our personal selves, they shape our perceptions, interpretations, emotions, and actions in each moment of our lives, inhibiting our ability to be present in the purity, in the actual truth of each moment.

In a dream, Jan and I go to visit my long-deceased mother in her apartment on a holiday. She has been ill, physically incapacitated and limited in movement. I suggest immediately that we go out to eat. This is a visit to Mother who must be honored as special, treated royally on this day of celebration.

Jan says, “No. Ask her if she really wants to go out.” As suggested, I ask Mother. She says no. She’s relieved at not having to rise to the occasion. Relief for all.

The dream illustrates how the archetype Mother precedes the reality and the true physical disposition of the human being who resides in the apartment. The archetype demands reverence, honoring, special action, excitement, and celebration. The human person needs only rest.

Archetypes generate fear, anger, love, anxiety and awe. Archetypes define life and judge our ability to do the right thing. This dream clearly illustrates how the archetypes of Mother and Child take over the feelings and expectations of an encounter, so removed from the actual needs of the moment.

We too are earth-bound beings first... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
We too are earth-bound beings first…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Archetypes correspond with chakras. The first two chakras, the root and the sex chakra, are concerned with individual survival and survival of the species via copulation. The planetary being, Earth, has control of the chakras around these issues to ensure its own survival. Two archetypes at this level are the Child and the Soul Mate.

The child archetype evokes very powerful emotions of protection in adults, as they see in the child ultimate vulnerability and innocence. The helplessness and fragility in the newborn and young child evokes the necessary responses from caretakers, spurring them to make great sacrifices in their own lives and attend to the survival needs of these deeply dependent beings. Failure to thrive by a young innocent life can evoke the most powerful sadness in adults, as they find themselves powerless to assist the failing child.

The healthy child archetype serves to spur the core survival needs of new life on Earth. However, too often the child archetype continues to govern beyond necessity and when this happens the opportunity to become an independent autonomous being is delayed or totally denied. In such cases, the child archetype rules well past its usefulness, resulting in a being who is ever-dependent on others for their survival.

Inwardly, the child archetype can distort one’s relationship with one’s own inner child. When the archetypal child takes over it can evoke an overwhelming sadness that induces utter despondency in a bottomless pit of helplessness. Sometimes we may be tricked into thinking we must release our sadness in a great catharsis of tears, expecting relief and healing, only to discover that the wound never heals. This is not human activity, this is the child archetype ever-extracting our energy, keeping us in the grip of powerlessness and woundedness.

We must vehemently stand up to this archetype and shoo it away if we are ever to be able to take hold of our will and achieve adult autonomy in life. If we are ever to develop mature relationships with our families we must break away from the rudimentary archetypes that govern family relationships. Our spiritual development requires that we all become independent equal beings, no matter what our roles once were within the family. We must grow up to become mature adult peers facing the same destiny: death and preparation for what comes next.

The soul mate archetype at the second chakra level is ruthlessly interested in having us hook up and make babies. The power of the sexual instinct under the rulership of the archetype controls most individuals for the better part of their lives. If people are completely honest, the drive for sex and children dominates life from puberty through midlife.

Drawn by powerful archetypes... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Drawn by powerful archetypes…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Most relationships shine with promise in the beginning, sprinkled with the fairy dust of the soul mate archetype. Post-coitus, and particularly post-children, the archetype deserts a couple as its job is done. There’s nothing in the archetypal program beyond coitus. If you want a mature relationship you’re on your own. Many relationships break up at this point, partners split, often to be drawn once again, by the reactivated archetype, to feel the entitlement of promised magic and wholeness projected onto yet another.

I recently recalled a haunting song that I always felt stirred the soul mate archetype, Wicked Game by Chris Isaaks, a brooding song of archetypal projected love. I found a video that he made for the song on Youtube, one I’d never seen. I include it here —Wicked Game— as it is a wonderful exposition of the powerful draw of the archetype, a man possessed, a woman responding but clearly merely playing a part. There is no personal relationship here. The archetype is a witch’s brew—Watch out!

I recall in my twenties how overwhelmed I was by the soul mate archetype, by the flood of women in their summer attire as I moved about Manhattan. One day, I realized I was exhausted by the time I got to work at 9 a.m. from the unending stream of stimulation! I decided to fight back, to break the slavery I was caught in by an archetype bent on taking over my life.

From that day on I blurred my vision whenever I detected a woman approaching from afar. After about six months I’d completely broken the spell! I allowed my eyes to go in focus once again and realized: I just don’t have to look! The archetype never again exerted its power over me as it once did. I was able to see woman as person, period!

Ready to take your place in a different light? - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Ready to take your place in a different light?
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

The archetypes at the first two chakras are nature at its fundamental best. However, as we ascend to the heart chakra we discover that these same archetypes exist at a spirit level, beyond the domain of the planetary being Earth. Soul mate at the heart level is a genuine outpouring of compassion and love for another, a deeper appreciation for who the other is as a person and a partner. At the highest level the soul mate archetype guides to merge with our own soul in enlightenment. Similarly, the child archetype at the highest level brings us to the truth and innocent essence of who we are as we shed our egos in preparation for merger with our divine selves.

To rise to the spiritual heights, we must pass through and engage the archetypes at the level of the first two chakras, but we must refuse their dominance if we are ever to reach our spiritual completion and move beyond our cycles of bondage to reincarnated Earth lives and move on to new adventures in infinity.

Focused on moving on up,
Chuck

Soulbyte for Wednesday April 15, 2015

Change may be instigated by what is happening outside you, but change can really only happen inside the self. That which is going on outside comes to guide, inspire, and incite. The catalyst to real change, however, comes from the desire of your spirit to be awoken and to become a participant in your life. Spirit belongs not only to you but to everyone, a shared being connected to your personal journey but equally connected to all that is, for in spirit nothing is personal, for the personal does not matter, only the journey to wholeness matters.

In turning focus inward, discover your personal secrets so that you may free yourself of them and free your spirit as well. Your spirit is your agent of change within, yet there is another part of you that must wake up to its call and join it on its journey. That part is consciousness. In becoming conscious of spirit and all that is, your life will change. Is this not what you seek, the change that will turn your life in a new direction? The change that will bring you your all?

All that you are, that you will be, exists within you at this moment. Your true potential is unlimited. Seek and you shall find. Ask and you shall receive. From your heart’s request will come your spirit’s reply.

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR