Gerrit Gielen

Introduction

Here on Earth, in our human society, we live in an atmosphere of division, of pigeonholing. At the root of this are our ideas about time and space, about masculinity and femininity, and our fears. Fear creates duality: you versus what you fear – often other people. Duality creates borders, and borders create boxes; for example, the boxes we call countries.

The world of the soul, on the other hand, is a world of unity, a unity that transcends all borders. The basis of that unity is love. There is a field of tension between the world of the soul, the world of unity, and our world, the world of division, of time and space, of fears. They are almost opposite in their premise: love versus fear. This field of tension ensures that the soul is suppressed, that it is difficult to get in touch with our soul.

If you look at the journey of your soul on Earth, your soul’s plan, you can distinguish a number of phases, which have to do with the relationship between these two worlds. These phases are different for every person, because one person is better able to maintain contact with the soul than can another person. Yet for everyone there are schematically four phases in earthly life.

1. The phase of forgetting

The first phase is the phase of forgetting, of losing contact with the soul. This is also the stage of discovering the energies and ideas of human society. Initially, a newborn child is very open and very aware of the energies of the environment, the atmosphere, the culture and the country in which it is born. That is all internalized. Also fears: the fears of your parents live in you. Often there are even deeper layers: personalities that you have once been on Earth you will feel again in your new life.

You start your journey here as a baby. You can actually consider this child as the soul itself, stripped of all layers, of all wisdom, of all knowledge surrounding it, of all memories of past lives. A baby is a very pure manifestation of the soul energy. And the intention is that that core remains during life, and that new experiences grow around it.

You could compare it to a tree. A tree has a core – in our case that core is the inner child – and many layers grow around it: the annular rings of a tree. This is how it should be with us: the child remains central, with layers around it which help the child – the soul ultimately – to manifest here on Earth. Think of those layers as things like knowledge of world, wisdom, and experience in the way you have to deal with other people. And also specific know-how. For example, if you want to make music because you feel the urge to do so, you have to learn the techniques: singing techniques or the technique of playing an instrument. And of course that applies to everything you are going to do. If you want to become a speaker, you will have to learn to master a language well. But whatever you do or learn, the original soul impulse should be at the core. The function of the outer layers is to ensure a full manifestation of the soul energy into this world.

This image immediately clashes with the traditional ideas that prevail on Earth: a person is not supposed to be original and to produce something new, but to adapt to the existing. And so the original impulse has to be suppressed, which means that we suppress the child in us. We do this by placing the child in the past; when our childhood is over we can’t be kids anymore. In doing so, we create an artificial wall between ourselves and the child, and consequently there is a loss of contact with the soul. We are no longer the child, we think; we have changed, we have grown up. And that means that our thinking has completely adapted to society in which the soul is not welcome.

Growing up in our world also means becoming a man or a woman. However, the child is neuter, it includes both the masculine and the feminine. The child learns from adults that it is a girl or a boy. Being male or female is one of the boxes we push ourselves into as we alienate from our soul, which encompasses both aspects. When the child has finally become an adapted adult man or woman, the forgetting phase is complete.

2. The phase of crisis

In the long run, this “forgetting” leads to a crisis, in whatever form. The phase of crisis has been called “the dark night of the soul’, because our inner sun, the soul, is no longer seen or felt; life no longer fulfills. You start to feel unhappy, you feel that something is not right. And you often think that you don’t fit into this world, or rather the “performance society”.

In fact, that feeling is correct. Only what does not suit you are the constructed ideas you have about yourself and all the fears you have internalized. And also you, the original you, doesn’t fit the source of those ideas about yourself: the human society that is so out of balance.

The crisis phase ends when the realization comes that the ideas you have about yourself, about who you think you are and, therefore, also the ideas you have about the world and how you should live, are not really correct, even though they are generally accepted. It is precisely these ideas – the judgments, the pigeonholing – which block the light of the soul.

Letting go of who you think you should be and thereby allowing who you really are is the way out of this crisis.

This is, of course, not easy, because we have come to identify completely with certain ideas about ourselves and how we should be. The only solution is to let go of that identification and surrender to the flow of life itself. Life wants to restore contact with your inner child: the soul impulse.

There are often two attitudes that block this process: 1. wanting to go back to the past, and 2. victimization. The first is an active attitude: there is a problem, eg an illness, breakup, etc, that needs to be solved. Then everything will be fine again and we can go back to the old life and continue to live as we used to. This does not work. The impulse that pushes us towards the light of our soul through the crisis cannot be easily suppressed.

The second attitude, victimhood, makes the crisis a permanent state. We think that the misery is caused by external circumstances, which we cannot change. You can persist in this attitude for a while, but eventually the misery becomes so great that something has to be done. Ultimately, only the movement within and the letting go of the old brings enlightenment. Then the third phase begins.

3. The Awakening Phase

This is often a phase where people seem to do little. For example, they are covered by a sickness benefit, or have little or no work for other reasons. It is a phase of self-examination. The soul demands attention and that takes time, time in which there is less or no attention to the outside world. In the inner world, there is a process of discovery of the true self, the light of the soul.

Contact with nature almost always plays an important part. Anyone who thinks he doesn’t fit into this world will be touched by the plants and the animals, and the subtle unity of all life when he goes into nature. Anyone who really opens up to the Earth and nature, and feels the love and warmth that comes to us from the Earth, realizes: “Hey, I belong here.”

However, in human society, an atmosphere of fear, division, and oppression of the soul has arisen, so that you can indeed not feel at home there. But as soon as contact with yourself awakens and recovers, you notice that there are still people who “see” you. The moment you decide: “This is me, I give myself a chance to show myself”, a second birth takes place.

There doesn’t have to be many people close by who see and understand you, just a few, or even one other. Through such heart connections, a network of light is created in this world, soul light. Gradually, phase three turns into phase four.

4 The phase of radiation

The light of the soul can now flow through the outer layers of the personality. The tension between the world of the soul, of love and unity, versus the world of adaptation, fear and pigeonholing, has largely been lifted.

It is not that we are going to do spectacular things in this phase. The phase of radiation means that we radiate inner peace: the peace that results from the natural contact with ourselves. We are detached from the frantic energy of human society. Deep down we know who we are and that makes us radiate peace and tranquility. Knowing who we are also means that we can see who the other is and where he is.

This means that we look at our fellow human beings with eyes of love. And eyes of love see the lost child in the other. In conversations, we go into depth and remind others of who they are. We don’t do that by preaching; it happens naturally, because we have no other choice.

Shine in a time of crisis

We are currently living in a time of unrest, fear, and crisis. At a fundamental level, the solution to the crisis is for humanity as a whole to re-establish contact with the source, the soul. There are two attitudes that block this recovery. It is the same attitudes that appear in the personal life of a person who finds himself in crisis.

The first attitude is wanting to go back to the old. That is the response of many people to the crisis, including that of the government. “Thanks to all kinds of measures, we will overcome this crisis, then the economy will get back to normal and wewill return to normal” is the thinking. Even if that seems to work temporarily, the end result will only be another and larger crisis.

The old was not desirable, the old was a world out of balance. The global crisis is ultimately caused by a lack of soul contact, and restoring soul contact is ultimately the only solution.

The second attitude is victimhood. Victimhood traps you in duality. As a result of the crisis, there are many people who are terrified and no longer trust the government, and in some cases even blame  the government for everything that goes wrong. This dualistic way of thinking, in which you see yourself as powerless against a powerful government and its affiliates, creates a psychological state of victimization and mistrust that is at odds with the loving creative energy of the soul.

One who is in touch with his soul looks at the other with eyes of love and sees the good in everyone. He sees problems as possibilities for a deeper contact with the soul. That is not a naive attitude; it leads to a deeper descent of the light, which is ultimately the only solution. Also, the wisdom of the soul brings with it the realization that good people can do bad things. However, living from the soul will always mean seeing the good in the other and trying to nurture it by touching it with your own light. “Love your enemies” said Christ. We are all human and in our humanity connected to each other. It is only  through love do enemies eventually turn into friends.

All our fear-based ideas form a sphere around the Earth, the so-called astral world: a shell of darkness that blocks the light of the soul and keeps humanity away from the Source. But we can poke a hole in that shell. How do we do that? By admitting the light into our inner world again and starting to shine from there. And the more openings there are, the more contact is restored between the Source and humanity. So, be such an opening of light yourself, be a star on Earth yourself.

What best helps you to reconnect with your divinity, what best helps a human to reconnect with the Source? Often that is the presence of someone who has already achieved that, someone you feel who is connected to his divine essence, who is focused on his or her inner light. Filled with love, filled with contact with the Source. That is someone who doesn’t judge, someone who radiates unconditional love, someone who can say: “I love everyone, I see everyone’s fears, the humanity, the struggle, the uncertainty. I reach out to them.” Such a person was Christ, such a person was Buddha. There have been many teachers who could see the other with a look of unconditional love. It is these people who ensure that others find their way again. Try to be such a person yourself. Try to look at every fellow human being with eyes of love. Try to see every fellow human being. Try to see the lost child in the other. This is how you bring others back to the light. And don’t forget step one: rediscover your own light, restore contact with your own source. Shine!

© Gerrit Gielen

Translation from Dutch by Gerrit Gielen and Frank Tehan

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