Spirituality

In my humble opinion, karma is kind of like spots or blemishes on you, and can drastically hinder your spiritual development. How? Because negative karma creates blocks, it ties up your light and your energy, and can affect how you perceive things. In some spiritual communities it is defined as, “energy / consciousness in action.” Every thought, word, feeling, action, and deed that you send out into the Universe will return to you, according to the law of the Universe.

The law of karma is exact, and states that whatever energy is sent out into the Universe will then travel around, gather more of the same, and return back to the sender either as positive or negative karma. Sometimes the return of karma is instantaneous and other times it is not. Because of this it is essential that we learn to properly balance any negative karma we may have consciously or unconsciously made throughout this lifetime or any previous lifetimes. One way to do this is through the path of initiation.

We are all being initiated, or tested, everyday. Many of these tests are the return of karma and deal with everyday things that happen in our lives. Some tests have to do with balancing negative karma made from lifetimes ago and some deal with recent events. Their purpose is to test and strengthen your soul and help you to master a virtue. So, who is giving us these tests? Sometimes it is your Higher Self compelling you to deal with situations that you have neglected or been consciously avoiding. And, other times these tests are given to you by an Ascended Master. It is very important to remember that the purpose of any test is to help you make progress on the spiritual path and that you are never given more than you are capable of handling.

Now, how then can we go about balancing this negative karma?

There are 3 ways that you can do this.

1. Enduring Your Karma: This method of balancing your karma is pretty straight forward. You simply let your negative karma come back to you naturally and deal with the consequences. Most people will choose to balance their karma this way, and it will usually involve a certain amount of struggle or hardship.

2. Service to Life: This method involves reaching out to others and going the extra mile. Helping a sick friend, or giving an elderly stranger your seat on the bus. Or, perhaps you choose to volunteer at a soup kitchen, or homeless shelter. The list goes on and on, and all of these actions create positive karma that will help to balance any negative karma created recently or in any past lifetimes.

3. Transmutation with the Violet Flame: This method is the easiest and quickest way to balance negative karma. You must ask for the gift of the violet flame from the Ascended Masters. Once given this remarkable gift, you must use it daily to transmute, or change the negative karma into positive karma. Over time, the violet flame works to literally dissolve negative patterns and can help you to obtain mastery over yourself and your surroundings.

After all, your sole purpose while in embodiment on Earth is to raise your consciousness and qualify for ascension back to Source.

We all have a divine plan that is laid out prior to our embodiment here on Earth, but it is not a concrete plan that is carved in stone and cannot be changed. Actually your divine plan is very fluent and ever changing, and is determined directly by the choices that we make on a day to day basis. Here is my interpretation of how it works:

Our divine plan, which was decided upon prior to out embodiment, will bring to you certain situations where you will have a variety of choices to choose from, and once we make that choice it will either allow us to raise our consciousness even higher, or remain at the consciousness level that we were at prior to the choice. Then, another situation will present itself along with another set of choices to choose from, and we repeat the same pattern over and over again.

As we continue to make these choices our divine plan will start to gradually shift so that if you make a higher choice, your consciousness will rise, and if we make a lower choice then our consciousness will not rise as much. The purpose of your divine plan is not to provide you with all of the correct answers to the choices beforehand. Because if that were the case we would not have the opportunity to grow spiritually. Once you make a decision or a choice, you are able to learn and grow from that decision, and that is how your consciousness is raised.

We have all heard of the ego, and we most likely think of it as something that becomes inflated when someone thinks highly of themself. But the ego goes way beyond that concept and can cloud your mind and your judgement when you are faced with difficult decisions. It has been said that overcoming the ego is the central aspect of the spiritual path, and that in order to obtain a higher state of consciousness you must first overcome this ego.

The ego uses illusions to trap you in a state of spiritual blindness by convincing you that the correct path to take is the path of least resistance. However, the true correct path to take is not the easiest one, instead it is the more difficult path because only by overcoming these difficulties are we able to learn and grow and raise our consciousness. The ego wants you to run away from difficult situations and continue to believe that nothing is your fault. But this is not the path to spiritual growth. The path to spiritual growth is facing your difficulties and seeking to learn the lesson behind it.

The ego will play tricks on your mind and try to control your thoughts all in an effort to lead you in the wrong direction in life. The ego’s goal is to keep us from learning that we are all one consciousness, and that we all can draw from the same Source. The ego wishes to keep you believing that you are a separate entity from others and that you are walking the path alone. However, this is far from the truth. The truth is that we are never alone. We have dozens of angels, spirit guides, archangels, and ascended masters who are with us throughout our entire lifetime to help us along the way. If we open our hearts and our minds and embrace these facts then we will have a much happier and blissful life here on Earth.

An “aura” is the electromagnetic field that surrounds the physical body, and is made up of seven different, but directly related layers. Each layer affects the other and are a direct result of our daily mood and emotional levels. Below are the seven layers that are present in everyone’s aura and a brief description of what each one relates to:

1. The Etheric Layer

This is the first of the seven layers that make up our aura, and it emanates from the root chakra. This layer relates to the overall health of our physical body and is approximately 1/2 inch to 2 inches from the surface of the skin.

2. The Emotional Layer

The second layer is the emotional layer and it extends approximately 2 to 4 inches away from the physical body. This layer is primarily connected to the sacral chakra, and relates to feelings, emotions and experience. This layer is constantly in a state of change, and is a direct reflection of our current mood. This layer also stores unsettled emotions such as fear, resentment, and loneliness.

3. The Mental Layer

The third aura layer is the Mental Layer. Its extension is four to eight inches from the physical body. This layer is connected to the solar plexus chakra, and directly relates to our consciousness, ideas, logical processes, belief systems and intellect. In this layer, thoughts and ideas are rationalized and validated. Mental health and mental issues present themselves in this aura layer.

4. The Astral Layer

The fourth layer of the aura is referred to in short as either the Astral Layer or Bridge Layer. It is eight to twelve inches away from the physical body and connects to the heart chakra, which directly relates to our sense of love, well-being, expansion and life-balance.

Where the first three layers of the aura reflect our physical nature and presence, the fourth layer is the window to our spiritual nature, separating the first three layers from the outer three aura layers.

5. The Etheric Template / Layer

The fifth aura layer is the Etheric Template Layer. It is one to two feet away from the physical body. It connects with the throat chakra, and relates to sound, vibration, communication and creativity. This layer of the aura primarily serves as a carbon copy of the physical body on the spiritual plane.

The etheric template layer is the seat of our higher consciousness and higher will. Vibrations from the physical plane and the spiritual plane communicate here, thus manifesting thoughts into substance, and creating paths for all possibilities.

6. The Celestial Layer

The sixth aura layer is called the Celestial Layer. It extends two to three feet away from the body and relates to the third-eye chakra which reflects our subconscious mind. It is where the physical mind comes to connection with the spiritual mind through meditation and devotional practices.

It is connected with the sixth chakra, memories, dreams, spiritual awareness, intuitive knowledge, trust, honesty, and unconditional love. The Celestial Layer holds our experiences of having a connection to something greater than ourselves.

7. The Ketheric Template Layer

The seventh aura layer is known as the Ketheric Template Layer or Causal Layer. It is connected to the crown chakra, and represents all knowledge and all possibilities. This layer protects and holds all other aura layers together, and contains the blueprint of our spiritual path, reflecting all of our soul’s experiences and events through time.

Quantum physics supports the theory that everything is energy, and it states that if we want to attract something into our lives then we must align our vibration to the same frequency as our desire. It also supports the notion that our purely focused thoughts eventually manifest into our reality, whether we want them to or not. Think about that for a minute. Could the concept of life really be that simple? Are we able to control circumstances in our life by simply directing our focus?

I read recently that prior to incarnating into our Human bodies that each one of us choose what we want to focus on learning in this life. And once we have chosen the focus of our life here on Earth we then set out to find an appropriate family for our soul to incarnate into that will allow us to learn these specific lessons. Remember, that with each lesson that is successfully learned we are expanding our consciousness, and that is the overall goal of all souls.

Prior to incarnating into our Human bodies, we know the power of our thoughts. We know that we are always connected to Source energy and that we can easily change our circumstances to fit our desires just by re-focusing our thoughts. So while we are choosing our life lessons we do not consider things like money, sickness, abuse or any other difficulties because to our soul these issues are very minor and therefore seem well worth it to be able to expand our consciousness. This may be a hard pill for some to swallow because of all of the hardships that people suffer in their lives, but we must remember that before we incarnated into our Human bodies that we knew of our strengths and perserverance and that overcoming any obstacle could be done with purely focused thoughts and determination. So, we need not feel slighted if we chose a life with hardships and obstacles to overcome because these are the life lessons that we have come here to experience and learn from.

So, when difficulties arise in life, try to remember that your soul chose these life lessons for you so that you can overcome them and learn from them; which in turn is expanding your consciousness. If we try to put our everyday struggles into perspective and understand that we are not encountering these hardships because we have done something wrong, but because we seek to expand our awareness and consciousness so that we may better understand our life’s purpose here on Earth.

If you want to be successful with the Law of Attraction and manifesting you have to learn to love yourself. For me, this is a difficult concept because for my entire life I have always put others first, and I always thought that was an unselfish way to live and even prided myself on it. Now, many years later I have finally realized that this behavior is only prolonging my true happiness, and that I must learn to put myself first if I am ever going to be successful at manifesting my desires. Because, after all of the research that I have done and all of the reading and interpreting I finally discovered the key to it all….and that is self love!

If you do not love yourself you will never be able to manifest your desires, nor will you be able to become your true self, and that means you will never reach the ultimate place of happiness that so many of us are seeking. Why? Because for any of our thoughts to become our reality we must passionately believe them with an unwaivering desire, and if you do not love yourself and truly believe deep down inside that you are worthy and deserving of those desires you will not be successful in your manifesting efforts.

So, it is imperative that we all learn to love ourselves unconditionally and without judgement. Because the longer we continue to put others and their needs first the longer we continue to be out of alignment with our true selves. And, once we become aligned with our true self the Universe will begin to deliver all of our desires to us very quickly. I know this is much easier said than done, but we must all reach a place in our life where we decide to love who we are and accept all that we are without any type of negativity attached to it. Trust me, once you can conquer the self love thing you are well on your way to seeing all of your desires come to fruition.

In my opinion, a “Spiritual Awakening” is a shift in consciousness where we look at the world through the eyes of the Spirit, and not through the eyes of the ego. From this higher consciousness we connect with the energy of unconditional love and leave the ego behind. A spiritual awakening requires a willingness to let go of limiting beliefs formed by the ego, and learning to be in the present moment.

When you start to experience an awakening your senses will heighten and you will develop an acute awareness to your surroundings. You will notice the sky, the trees, the leaves on the ground and the sun on your face. You may also begin to tune out those things that usually cause distractions in your daily life. Your overall dispostion will change to one of contentness and confidence. Although I truly believe that each one of us will experience our own unique awakening in our own time, there are some common steps that we will all go through once we find ourselves on the path to becoming spiritually awakened.

Stage 1: Spiritual Awareness is Triggered

This is the beginning of the awakening process and it is usually triggered by a traumatic event such as the loss of a loved one, depression, illness, economic crisis, or a near death experience. However, this is not the case for everyone, for some will start their awakening process spontaneously whenever their soul is ready.

Stage 2: Questioning of the Afterlife, Spirituality, and God

This stage is represented by a thurst for knowledge about the afterlife, and what happens to us when we die. You may start to question your beliefs and wonder if there is something more to this life than what our five senses have been allowing us to experience. You will start to acknowledge that there is a much higher force guiding us in our daily lives.

Stage 3: Awakening of the Chakras

This stage is where your seven chakras begin to gradually awaken and you may start to experience some awakening symptoms such as a change in your energy level, dizziness, ringing in the ears, or extremely heightened senses. Please be aware that this is completely normal and will eventually subside once the awakening is complete. Try to embrace the symptoms.

Stage 4: The Healing Process

This is the stage where your heart and your soul will begin the healing process. You will start to move away from the anger, resentment, depression, and / or grief that you have been experiencing to now feeling happiness, contentment, fulfillment, and an overall joy for life.

Stage 5: Spiritual Awakening is Completed

The 5th and final stage is when all of your efforts and sacrifices will prove to be worth it because you are now vibrating at a much higher frequency than before and all of your desires will begin to manifest into your reality. Enjoy!