Dear Soul Arcanum:
I value your opinions greatly! Everything you have written resonates with me completely. I work at a friend’s spiritual shop, and recently, I asked her about something I have been noticing. Some people around me are receiving wake-up calls now, and I’m not sure they’re listening. My sister may have cancer, and my ex-husband (the father of my son) was just told he has RSD (curling of the hand) for life. He’ll have to have surgery every seven years. A lost friend of mine was told she has a rare blood disorder that may cause organ failure, and another friend’s husband has a rare blood disorder that needs to be checked weekly. My question is why is this happening to these folks, and all around the same time? My friend said it seems these people are not awake, and that this is “the year” that will make or break ALL OF US. Those who are awake and facing their issues head-on will continue on in their spiritual evolution, while those who are not awake or not facing their personal issues will have things happen that force them to wake up. Have you heard about this year being “the” year? If so, what are your thoughts about this happening? How can I best teach and guide my son in light of all of this? He’s only five years old now; is this something I need to start soon? Thank you!
– Maggie
Dear Maggie:
Yes! I have heard that this is “the” year that we must either wake up and get it right spiritually or suffer various horrible consequences. Of course, I’ve heard this same thing EVERY year for as long as I can remember. Supposedly, the world is also going to end any minute now; we’re way overdue.
I’m kidding with you, of course. I’m actually really glad you asked about this, because if we don’t stop all those “spiritual people” spreading fear far and wide with their gloomy predictions of earth changes and other scary stuff soon, the planet is going to implode. Okay, I’m kidding again. I can’t seem to help myself!
All joking aside, when we first start to awaken into the upper range of spiritual awareness for this dimension, life on Earth begins to feel a bit uncomfortable. We used to be like most people – oblivious to how our choices and actions create not only our own realities, but also affect the Whole. Now, however, we not only “get it,” but must deal with the double-edged sword of compassion. As we become more sensitive to others’ feelings, we begin to feel their pain. It’s this compassion that motivates “spiritual people” to become helpers and healers, or to just try to make a difference.
I feel this is basically where you’re coming from. You’ve attained a new level of spiritual awareness, and are seeing a lot of contrast in everyone who hasn’t yet joined you. You’re sensitive to others’ suffering, and very much wish for them all the good things you now know come with being “awake.” In caring more than ever before, you’ve opened a whole new can of worms, and along with the blessings, there are some big fears in there.
As we have the power to consciously manifest what we want in our lives, all these health problems must stem at some level from a lack of conscious awareness – that is true. The more we try to avoid dealing with our own personal lessons and issues, the more pain we tend to experience. I’d like to suggest, however, that you’ve gotten into the habit of looking for potential disaster around every corner; if there is a health problem anywhere in the vicinity, you will be sure to hone in on it.
I recommend you examine your habit of focus. While the problems of those closest to us will naturally come into our awareness, if they touch off some deep fears of our own, we may start watching out for more of the same. This is when “lost friends” and the husbands of friends, and friends of friends of friends – anyone with any possible health issue – will leap up and grab our attention.
This is what I feel happened here. Fear gripped you when you got the news about your sister. It really socked you in the gut when your ex-husband then came down with this rare disorder. This made your own vibration plummet, which made you vulnerable to the fears of mass consciousness, the greatest of which is that the world is somehow going to end. This is how you went from concern about the people you’re close to, to fear of Armageddon.
As you ran around in a panic, trying to figure out if the sky really was falling this time, your mind scrambled to make sense of all of this by comparing these two individuals. At some level, you believed that if you could figure out what else these two have in common, you could determine what “causes” this sort of thing. Then at the very least, you could make sure you and your son would be okay. When you saw that neither of these two people are what you consider spiritually “awake,” you deduced this as the cause.
What I’m trying to do is illuminate how for all of us, allowing little fears to run wild can lead to general, pervasive anxiety. When something scares us, powerful primal instincts put us on alert for more signs of danger – and what we look for, we tend to find.
Since we’re all creating our own experiences of life based on our habit of focus, instead of looking for unawake people with health problems, I recommend you start looking for all the wellness in your world. If you just look for it, you will see wellness EVERYWHERE. For every one person you know who has an extraordinary health problem, you know hundreds who sail through every day without a second thought about their physical well-being, and most of those people are not what you would consider to be “awake.”
Also, when you encounter someone who basically says the sky is falling, beware. You don’t want to get caught up in the powerful fears of mass consciousness, nor do you want to contribute to them. Whenever you feel tempted, just remember that throughout recorded history, nothing like this has ever happened despite innumerable prophecies of doom and gloom.
This may sound radical coming from me, but I don’t think fear itself is a bad thing. The Universe would be a big blank nothing if not for the opposing forces of light and darkness, good and evil, creation and destruction, faith and fear. We should no more strive to eradicate all fear than to change nighttime into day.
To be happy, instead of trying to avoid or conquer anything, we must try to make peace with all we encounter. We can, however, choose to sleep at night and live our lives in the sunshine, where it’s warm and easy to find our way around. We can choose faith over fear, and contribute to that which we personally find to be right and true at a spiritual level. This is both the best way to be a positive role model for your son, and to also manifest a life of peace, joy and well-being. As you continue to evolve, you’ll naturally grow more and more into a deep inner knowing that there is a natural divine order at work in the Universe, and that in the big scheme of things, all is well.
I expect that for the rest of my life, I will continue to hear that this is the year we will either “wake up” or suffer catastrophic consequences. I don’t believe it, because it isn’t supported by anything I’ve learned or experienced in life. Instead, I believe the more we’re centered in faith, the more we dwell in knowing that all is truly well.
Those who are asleep will continue to lose themselves in both lovely and frightening illusions – in the great dramas of life – while those who are awake will learn to relax more and more with trust that everything is going to be just fine. I figure since there is no true end to our spiritual journeys, and thus no need to rush, we might as well quit worrying and try to enjoy the ride.
– Soul Arcanum