Soul Initiation
Make Your Ego An Agent Of Your Soul
Photo by Ray Bilcliff
Virtually everyone’s Ego, if left unchecked, drives one to distraction. The Ego is the source of self-importance. One way to begin to temper the Ego by the Soul is to become very relaxed.
Virtually everyone’s Ego, if left unchecked, drives one to distraction. It will lead one away from what really matters in an endless quest to be first and to have the most stuff. Making the Ego an agent of the Soul removes this distraction from better personal qualities. Making the Ego an agent of the Soul fosters and lays bare something that is vital to one’s personal growth, personal happiness, and environmental sustainability. This uncovering reveals one’s true calling. It reveals “The source of your deepest personal fulfillment and of your greatest service to others” (Plotkin, 2008, p. 54).
The Ego is the source of self-importance. Comparatively, the “Soul” is one’s ultimate place and that position is both distinctively yours and ultimately the world’s (in a similar way that a whirlpool is distinct from the river but still a part of the river). One’s Soul can be said to be one’s unique ultimate location and function within the world. Connecting with one’s Soul, while instinctual for other animals, is not guaranteed in humans, largely because, for most of us, our Soul seems to be communicating from two different and hard-to-access locations––1) buried in our psyches and 2) lost in nature. It takes wandering to find your true place, and, without forcing a destination upon you, the Heartwood Path offers tools to use for this search wherever that may lead you. You will know when you find your Soul, your true place, because it will be a “place” where you cannot be hired or fired, a “place” that, wherever it is, you are always “home.” Writes Plotkin: “Before soul initiation, wherever you go, there you are. After soul initiation, wherever you go, Here you are” (2008, p. 55).
This discussion of making your Ego an agent of your Soul and Plotkin’s words are reminiscent of the these lyrics of a song by Nahko Bear & Medicine for the People:
“What is the purpose
and would you believe it?
Would you believe it if you knew
what you were for and
how you became so in form?”
(Onecommunityglobal.org)
The Heartwood Path is not about, as Nahko says, “how you became so in form.” Nor is it about changing one’s Soul. It is rather about Ego development and, more specifically, helping participants alter their Egos in a way that it becomes an agent for the Soul.
Although the Ego—sometimes fearful of losing its dominant role in one’s life–– may attempt to stall personal development, it, nevertheless, has an important role. While the Soul “knows what the ego might find fulfilling in life,” only “the ego knows how to manifest in the world the Soul’s desires” (Plotkin, 2008, p. 58). That is why we need both; but, to keep the Ego from encouraging us to find self-esteem through endless striving and acquiring, the Ego ought to be an agent of the Soul. One way to begin to temper the Ego by the Soul is to become very relaxed. A way to find this relaxation is the purpose of the next activity.
Photo by Ali Nader
HumaNatureConnect Activity
Listening To Your Heart Rhythm
For this activity, shift from willful doing to the spacious energy of Being. Begin this “practice,” which means “leading over or beyond,” by simply lying on your back, preferably in a quiet spot outdoors, until you can hear or feel your heartbeat. Count up to sixty heartbeats before you sit up. Focus on the wholeness of your sensitivity by consciously pacifying your masculine doing aspect. It will take considerable relaxation to hear or feel your heartbeats clearly. Note how a quiet mind depends on a quiet body. Write down your impressions of this activity in your journal.
Photo by Rakicevic Nenad, Pexels.com.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage
Sleep. Dream. Tend to your dreams.
