Dear Soul Arcanum:
A Tibetan Master I met two years ago told me that names contain karma, and that by changing your name, you can alter your karma and therefore your destiny. Is this true? If so, where can I find out more about the karma of certain names? I’m very curious, because over the years I have had many psychic readings, and each has stated that my karma is pretty heavy. I don’t wish to avoid it, but if I could make things simpler for myself in any way, I would like to. I am desperate to do something deeply spiritual to help others, but I feel so blocked. Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Mags
Dear Mags:
Names have long been valued as essential to our identities and our destinies. Some cultures have traditionally given children a public name and a soul name, which remained secret or was only known to those who could be trusted, for it was believed that if a sorcerer or enemy knew your “real” name, he or she would have power over you. Ancient mythological gods also kept their true names secret to prevent their enemies from gaining power over them. Even the Bible makes reference to the power of changing your name. For example, Saul was supposedly a man of violence until he changed his name to Paul.
Throughout history, people have taken new names when going through spiritual initiations or rites of passage. They might be given new names by shamans or other spiritual leaders, or choose new names themselves. Jewish Rabbis will give someone who is seriously ill a new name, the idea being that this will infuse them with new life. Some peoples have even believed that if a person didn’t have a name, he or she didn’t really exist.
All of this reflects the underlying metaphysical truth that names have energetic vibrations, and everything in the Universe is ultimately energy. First, the sound of your name carries a vibration; it’s like a mantra. There is great power associated with the spoken word, with bringing something abstract into the physical by speaking it out loud. Your name is the sound constantly associated with YOU, so if you change your name, you change what is associated with you.
Think about it: if you meet someone and his name is “Billy,” you have different associations and expectations than if he is introduced as “William.” I know that people act differently toward me if I’m introduced as “Julie” as opposed to “Soul Arcanum.” This reflects their subconscious awareness of the different vibrations of these names. Even more important is how you feel about your name, and who you feel yourself to be because of your name, for who you believe yourself to be is ultimately who you will become. What you are regularly called or call yourself is thus perhaps more important in terms of your everyday experience than your given or birth name. Nicknames usually reflect our subconscious awareness of one’s true energy, or at least their energy during the period of their lives when the nickname was used or given.
You’ll find all the information you need about this subject by studying numerology, which is an art/science that attempts to understand life and people via the energetic vibrations of numbers. The best book I’ve found on numerology is Numerology and the Divine Triangle by Faith Javane and Dusty Bunker. I’m sure there are other good ones – allow your intuition to guide you. You can also learn all the basics of numerology online; while you’re searching, try researching the Kabbalah and Pythagoras.
Numerology teaches us that the name we are given at birth reflects our life path, the energy our souls incarnated with, the blueprint for our experiences on earth. By assigning numbers to the letters of the alphabet and adding those numbers together, one can determine the numerical vibration of any word. Your Tibetan Master suggested that changing your name might change your karma. While I’m not saying this is untrue, in numerology, the day of the month we were born reflects our karma. Thus if you were born on May 3, your “karma number” would be three, and this suggests the lessons you must face and learn this lifetime. The day you were born is not something that can be changed, of course, and there is an underlying truth here about the nature of karma. Perhaps there are no “short-cuts” when it comes to the lessons we must learn; to change our karma, we must honor it as divinely appropriate for us, and consciously and patiently transmute whatever is sent to us into something higher.
Further, there are no “bad” numbers, just as there are no “bad” musical notes or colors. All is simply vibration. You will resonate with some vibrations and not with others, just as you will like some music, or look good and feel right in some colors and not others. If your mother named you Petunia and always dressed you in pink and you hated it, odds are that your mother was trying to force her own vibration on you. If you were okay with it then but aren’t now, you’ve changed. As an adult, you may realize you’d feel more like “yourself” if you wore purple and were called Dark Wolf or Dolfyndreamer or Delores.
I recommend simply that you honor what feels right to you. Do you feel that this Tibetan Master’s message to you was really from your own inner being or from Spirit? Does the way it struck you and stayed with you feel to you like you are being directed toward changing your name? If so, perhaps you have “outgrown” the vibration of your name. It may have fit you when it was given, but if you’ve profoundly changed, it may no longer feel right.
Think of your name at any given time as a “role” your are playing in life. My kids call me “Mommy,” and “Mommy” feels appropriate with them, given my role in their lives. My husband calls me “Honey,” and this also feels natural. If my kids called me “Honey” and my husband called me “Mommy,” it would feel really strange. Similarly, I can’t describe the sense of relief I felt when my first marriage ended and I was able to shed that name reclaim my maiden name. It was like I’d been underwater holding my breath for years, and could finally break through the surface and take a deep breath. These are examples of how our names reflect certain roles, and how what we’re called definitely affects us.
I encourage you to do whatever feels good to you, for that good, comfortable feeling is your inner being communicating the “rightness” of your choice. While you might like to, you don’t need to consult a numerologist; your inner being knows what’s best. Just keep in mind that you’re not going to change anything essential by changing your name. Simply switching from Mags to Matilda will not change your karma, your reputation, your sense of happiness or the way you look in a bathing suit. As a symbolic gesture of deeper personal change, however, it may feel great to you and empower you to manifest more of what you want in your life.
– Soul Arcanum