From the blog series, Unlocking Your Karmic Potential
julian santa ana via unsplash
We left off from Chapter One exploring what Karma is, and how it is carried through lifetimes.
To expand on this, I’d like to share with you an experience I had many years ago now – when my guides shared with me a perspective that deeply shifted how I think of the transformative, crucial moments between living, and dying.
At the time, I didn’t realize that this was a core aspect of how I would affect shamanic healing with clients. It was years later as I began traveling on my own path of being a mentor and healer, helping others, that I started to understand fully the importance and the gravity of what it was they had shown me, and how it fit within the healing of our karmic wounds (and, I dare say, also is an amazing insight as to how the world could heal future generations on a global scale, one person at a time).
I was attending a workshop years ago in Berkeley, with bard and author RJ Stewart and his (then) wife, Josephine, and we were being led through a lengthy guided journey. I was going very deep, very fast into an altered, trance-like state. Instead of following the guided journey others were being led through, my guides pushed everything aside and took me on a detour.
In my trance, I was brought to this beautiful cliff overlooking the ocean on the California coast similar to where I grew up – despite the landscape’s familiarity, I immediately recognized that I was in another time. Down on the shore, it seemed a battle was going on – the men were in armor, with spears, and I could see what to me looked like a very old ship anchored offshore.
Suddenly, a man came charging out of the brush where I was standing on the cliff. He rushed and stumbled just past me and fell into the bushes. Looking him over, I could see he had been mortally wounded.
At first, I thought to myself I’m just witnessing in this moment as a voyeur – but it became clear quickly that he seemed to be aware of my presence. His startled eyes took in my presence, his breathing shallow and afraid.
Trying to get my bearing, I pondered over this powerful experience – somehow we were manifesting a mutual vision – had I in some way, dropped into a moment in time?
There was no chance to contemplate this further, as I realized he was moments from death; suddenly, his face took on a countenance as if seeing someone or something that moved him deeply… a spiritual reverence flowed from him as he gazed at me, and I realized that to him, I was some form of an angel of death, come to help him with his final battle.
With this growing awareness of the gravity of this moment in time this soldier and I were sharing, my guides explained to me that as we are dying, our mind is filled with a myriad of thoughts, feelings and emotions that rush through us.
Whether it be an easy death or a violent one, we all have a spectrum of emotions that are keenly felt, and for many the difficult ones like fear or grief are the frontrunners (why? Because they generate an awful lot of energy, for one, thereby taking up a lot of space; this also keeps ego working, which may in turn serve to keep you alive).
At the moment of death, as a person is taking their last breath, it is crucial that they experience as much love as possible.
And so when I was with this man, my guides asked me to be present with him, to stare into his eyes and be the face of Love for him.
I instinctively surrendered to being the beautiful, comforting form he saw and most needed, making eye contact as he was filled with fear and anguish dying there on this cliff, many miles away from his home in a far off land.
Our eyes held one another, as his breath relaxed and then gently ceased, and he slowly released into a state of calm and peace, leaving this world for the next.
Years later, with deeper education from my soul guides, I understood what was happening as I’ve now experienced this many times in shamanic journeys when healing karmic wounds and needing to shape shift in order to complete my mission: this dying man was not seeing me as I appeared now in the flesh.
He was seeing an energetic imprint, a spirit image that presented what he most needed to see in that moment in order to be comforted, in a way that fit his personal gnosis (this is often why a Christian may see Jesus, or a Buddhist may see the Buddha, or instead a person may see their Grandmother Judy, when passing – we will be presented with the most comforting aspect of Love possible that our ego desires and needs in that critical moment).
I will never forget that experience in a second story room there in Berkeley, sitting in a large circle in uncomfortable chairs, transported to another place and time – it was a profound experience, and ultimately has greatly influenced the way I serve others, as well as my own gnosis of the Mysteries.
It was also an invaluable lesson in karma, the human condition, and Love.
What I learned from guidance that day was that whatever is with us as we take our final breath, is crystallized and imprinted into the etheric, or subtle body.
That means whatever you are feeling utmost in that moment – your emotions, worries, anything unresolved from this lifetime, preferably a deep and abiding Love for all – becomes a part of your Soul’s karmic bond, carried over into other lifetimes as both lessons and wisdom.
All of this contributes to your soul constellation, which we’ll explore in the next chapter.
It was years later in my studies that I discovered other spiritual paths have teachings around this, particularly in Buddhism; if you have studied Buddhism, this may be familiar to you. So much of Buddhism’s rituals and training in meditation and mindfulness is serving to prepare you to be in a calm state of peace and abiding love in that moment when you pass over.
This is to help you be more likely to achieve full awakening or enlightenment at your moment of death and be released from the cycle of suffering.
But what happens if we’re not at a state of peace when we cross over? What happens if we are not held in Love at that moment, or we are angry or upset with someone and your soul carries it forward?
I see this again and again in clients’ past lives, as I travel shamanically – the shadows, the baggage that we’re carrying from this inability in that moment of death to surrender, ultimately, to Love itself. We weave such a tangled web across the ages!
Remember though, that we are generating karma all the time, even as it seems to come to a head at the end of our lives.
Karma is in all the actions that we make, which is why you can change it by being proactive, purposeful, compassionate and self-aware.
Addressing issues throughout your life and consciously working towards resolution can help influence your current lifetime as well as future incarnations from the result of a well-lived life and it’s reward at the moment of death.
Invitation to Inquiry
Throughout this series, Unlocking Your Karmic Potential, I’ll be offering up some questions that I encourage you to explore with: journal, meditate with them, create art with them… however you feel called to explore these queries.
They are mean to stimulate greater awareness and possibilities. I encourage you to find others who are reading this series, invite friends and loved ones you feel could benefit, and come together to discuss these questions!
- What is one trait that you have that people have always pointed out – whether you love it or hate it?
- How has this served you? What lessons have you learned?
- Consider that this trait may be karmic heritage from another life, or many lifetimes. How does this shift the way you can be with this trait – can you have more compassion for it, or a desire to utilize it better if it’s a positive one?
Next, in Chapter 3, we’ll begin to explore your Karmic Cocktail – the ingredients to this make all the difference in your life (whether it’s a fancy mixed drink or a green smoothie ;>). Click here to read it now.
Reader Note: Unlocking Your Karmic Potential … is series of articles I’ve created to help you navigate your journey here on Earth with greater soul-awareness. Think of it as a foundation from which to build a deeper understanding of the karmic lessons you are working through within this lifetime, the roles your spirit guides play, and why understanding things like energy, dreams, shadow work and chakras can make a profound difference in your life – a life lived with clarity, confidence and purpose.
