48

Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

  • Upload
    doxuyen

  • View
    215

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant
Page 2: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

2

Find Your Soul’s Purpose

Discover Who You Are, Remember Why You’re Here, Live a Life You Love

by Janet Conner

Cover Art and Graphics by Christine Pensa

Labyrinths by Marina Phillips

Page 3: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

3

Other Works by Janet Conner:

* Please right-click on links to open in new window. *

Books in the Your Soul Wants Five Things Series:

Writing Down Your Soul

Soul Vows

The Lotus and The Lily

Find Your Soul’s Purpose (Book Page Coming Soon)

The Your Soul Wants Five Things LIVE Course Series:

Writing Down Your Soul

- Also Available On Demand

Soul Vows

Soul Purpose – Beginning May 24th, 2016

Soul Expression and Plug In for Writers – Beginning August 2016

The Lotus and the Lily (On Demand Coming Soon) – Beginning November 2016

Journals for Soul Writers:

My Soul Pages (Companion Journal for Writing Down Your Soul)

My Life Pages (Companion Journal for The Lotus and the Lily)

Adult Coloring Book (Illustrated by Christine Pensa):

The Soul Discovery Coloring Book

---------------------------------------------------------------

The Soul-Directed Life Radio Show

Join Janet’s Newsletter

Page 4: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

4

Dedication

for you,

because your soul wants five things

and one of them is to serve a purpose,

and your soul knows five things

and one of them is there is a divine Purpose inside you.

and for my Jerry who stayed

Page 5: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

5

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.

You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Rainer Marie Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours, I, 59 Translation by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Page 6: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

6

Table of Contents A First Thing to Remember

A Preview of Your Sacred Walk

The Purpose of Remembering Your Purpose

Walking the Sacred Path

The Sacred Spiral

The Map

Your Field Guide

What You Carry; What You Leave Behind

Tune into Your Soul’s Voice

A Blessing for The Journey

Walking the Sacred Spiral

Loop One—Feel the Spark of Longing and Open the Sacred Spiral

Loop Two—Listen to Your Soul’s Stories

Loop Three—Honor your Soul’s Birth Choices

Loop Four—Remember Your Soul’s Divine Purpose

Loop Five—Re-visit, Re-see, and Re-member Your Past

Loop Six—Serve Your Soul’s Divine Purpose

Loop Seven—Live a Life You Love and Close the Sacred Spiral

A Last Thing to Remember

Page 7: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

7

Walking the Sacred Spiral

SPIRAL LOOP TWO—LISTEN TO YOUR SOUL’S STORIES

We become fully aware, fully conscious of our lives through story….

It is only through story that our truth can be told, that the meaning of life

can be identified. Story makes the implicit explicit, the hidden seen,

the unformed formed, and the confusing clear.”

Robert Atkinson, The Gift of Stories

[insert image of loop 2]

The human experience is the story of stories. We are human because we tell stories. We

tell stories because we are human. Who we are as a species is the product of millions and

millions of stories. That’s not just a lovely idea; that’s neuroscience. In Remapping Your

Mind: The Neuroscience of Self-Transformation through Story, Lewis Mehl-Madrona

MD, PhD writes “[T]he latest research in neuroscience…reveals that our brains

coevolved with our narrative abilities. … We need to understand story, because story is

our default mode: it is intrinsic to who we are. Story is what we use to explain our world.

Story is what we use to create identity.”

Page 8: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

8

Everything we believe about what the world is, where it came from, and why we’re here

came to us in the form of sacred stories or myths. I grew up hearing Judeo-Christian

stories. How was the world created? That story was covered in a few paragraphs in

Genesis. Who created the world and how do we relate to this Creator? Well, that’s a

slightly longer story constructed over 5,000 years and told in over 1,500 fine-print pages

filled with a wild array of mind-bending, soul-nourishing, awe-inspiring, and often

terrifying stories. It’s quite a narrative. But it’s only one of many narratives.

When my son was little, he fell asleep each night listening to tapes of Native American

elders telling the stories of their people. I was as enchanted by those stories as he was.

When I fell in love with John O’Donohue, an invitation into the Celtic story world

arrived. When I fell in love with Hafiz, a sensuous gate opened into a Sufi mystical

magical world. And now, as I practice Kali Natha Yoga, I’m hearing a whole new set of

stories of Hindu gods and goddesses, each more wondrous than the one before, and each

awakening something long sleeping in me. There is no end to the sacred stories we tell

one another about this cosmos and our place in it.

You are a sacred story, too. Who you are at this moment is the current chapter in an

unfolding story that began before you were born. When you were small, you heard your

first stories. You listened, absorbed, believed, and tried to act out those stories as best you

could. Then in school, you heard more stories: stories about what was true and what was

false; how to behave, how not to behave; what you were good at and what you were not

Page 9: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

9

good at; what would get you ahead and what would leave you behind. You listened,

absorbed, believed, and worked hard to become those stories. Soon, no one had to tell

you the stories; you were telling them to yourself. Over time, all those stories morphed

into a master narrative, complete with major themes, central images, recurring problems,

and a cast of characters, including several who play the same role in different guises. This

big story—a story you constructed—has now constructed you. It has become the pattern

of your life, your identity, your self-image, your core metaphor. Your narrative has

become your personal myth with all the power of myths of old. And myths have power.

Power to inspire, comfort, and heal. And power to terrify, reject, and destroy.

Consider for a moment that your master narrative, your personal myth, is not always

accurate. It’s certainly not complete. If it were, you wouldn’t be reading this book. The

master narrative you’ve been telling yourself isn’t your whole story; that is, it isn’t your

sacred story. It can’t be, because the heartbeat that holds the real story together and keeps

it alive is missing. That heartbeat is your soul’s unique divine purpose, the pulse that

feeds a life with love, meaning, integrity, authenticity, and joy.

Have you ever wondered who you could be if you changed your master narrative? That is

what walking the sacred spiral is all about. But your new narrative isn’t a totally new

story. It is woven from threads and memories in the life you have been living. As you

walk this second loop of the spiral, you will revisit your stories, listening for the trail of

jewels buried in the nooks and crannies of the life you have been living. This does not

mean rehashing all those well-worn stories of problems, setbacks, woes, and foes. You

Page 10: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

10

know those stories entirely too well. You’ve told them a thousand times. And with each

retelling you etched them more deeply into your neural memory bank. To begin to

construct a new narrative—one that will re-member you into your original divine form—

you will listen below all the familiar noise to hear the small stories you have forgotten.

You may not know where to find those stories, but your soul knows. Your soul

remembers. And your soul can’t wait to lead the way.

Deep Soul Explorations on spiral loop 2:

1. Listen to The Story of Story

2. Place photos of yourself in reverse chronological order along a spiral

3. Invite your soul to take the lead and tell you your stories

4. Look deeply into your own eyes

5. Gather nuggets from your soul’s stories Listen to The Story of Story

Tell me, she said:

What is the story you are telling?

What wild song is singing itself through you?

Listen:

Page 11: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

11

In the silence between there is music;

In the spaces between there is story.

Pay Attention:

We are listening each other into being.

Excerpt from “Tell Me, She Said,” by Dr. Sally Atkins

There are two essential elements in Your Soul’s Divine Purpose: the sacred spiral and

story. I’ve introduced you to the spiral, now I’d like to tell you a bit about story. Perhaps

the best place to begin is one of my own stories—the story of how I discovered my soul’s

purpose. The scene opens on a hot July afternoon in 1996 in a rented conference room.

After eleven years of headhunting, I had stopped filling individual positions and opened a

consulting practice to help organizations build comprehensive selection systems. On July

9th, I asked two other independent consultants to meet with me to work on a large client

project. In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and

yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant walked in holding up a book on

how to write a personal mission statement. All three of us were new at the independent

consulting life, so we pushed aside our project folders and agreed to do this exercise. Our

friend read a long list of questions from the book and told us to jot down the first thought

that came into our head on a yellow pad. When the questions ended, she told us to select

a few key words and rearrange them into a sentence. I grabbed a pale blue 5 x 8 note card

Page 12: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

12

and wrote my sentence: use words to connect people to the light. I stared at the card. As

far as I could tell this had nothing to do with being a successful human resource

consultant and I very much wanted to be a successful human resource consultant; so I

stuck the note card in my briefcase and said, “That was fun; now let’s get back to work.”

That blue note card set something in motion. Within weeks, my marriage imploded and I

found myself tossed out of my home and out of my consulting career and onto a strange

twisting path that led to a completely different career as an author and teacher. But I

never attributed my writing career to that card. In fact, I totally forgot about it until I

interviewed Akashic Record consultant and trainer, Lauralyn Bunn in 2007, as part of my

research for Writing Down Your Soul. After two lengthy conversations trying to decipher

the relationship of the Akashic Record to soul writing, Lauralyn said, “If you’re going to

write about this, you really should have an Akashic Record consultation.” So on

November 17, 2007, with my journal open, pen in hand, and carefully prepared list of

questions in front of me, I dialed Lauralyn’s office.

Before I could ask the first question, my ex-husband, who had died four years before,

barged his way into the conversation. I was flabbergasted and Lauralyn seemed surprised

too, but I kept my hand moving and wrote every word of his apology from the other side.

His last words were, “All good things come forth. Hold this in your heart and know the

love I have for you.” When I could breathe again, I asked the masters and teachers my

first question, “Am I fulfilling my soul’s purpose?” They said, “Writing is not what you

originally came in with. When you checked the box it brought forth talents that hadn’t

Page 13: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

13

been developed. Writing is now your first and foremost purpose and it will usher you out

of this body.” If that weren’t startling enough, they added, “If you come into another

physical body, you will be a future creative writer. Less memoir, less spiritual healing.

True pure absolute art form.”

When the consultation ended, I couldn’t get the words check the box out of my mind.

What box? And when did I check it? I called my old human resource consulting friend to

share this wild experience. She said, “I know when you checked the box,” and she

reminded me of our mission-writing exercise back in 1996. I hung up and frantically

rifled through my office closet. Despite a ruthless winnowing of possessions during four

moves during the divorce, somehow that pale blue note card survived. I pulled it out from

its hiding place and read it aloud for the first time in eleven years: use words to connect

people to the Light. I burst into tears. Oh my God, this is exactly what I do!

I am clearly a poster child for the power of a soul purpose to reorganize, recreate, and re-

member your life. But, I didn’t offer a soul purpose class because I couldn’t figure out

how to replicate what happened to me. When I looked at the book my friend used that

day, I knew I couldn’t build a process around it. It’s a very American, success-oriented

business book written with a fundamental Christian bias. I work with individuals, not

organizations, and the members of my courses and readers of my books are an

international, interspiritual community appreciating the wisdom of all traditions. So I

ignored the whole soul purpose issue and focused on teaching the four courses I did have:

Writing Down Your Soul, to connect with Source; Soul Vows, to commit to values; The

Page 14: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

14

Lotus and The Lily, to create a beautiful life; and Plug In for Writers to help writers

express their gifts and get published. I thought that was a rich enough roster of offerings.

But my angels must have thought otherwise because I was awakened on the morning of

January 24, 2011 with a chorus of short angels in my left ear announcing the startling

news: your soul wants five things.

In theory, you’d think I’d be thrilled to get such profound and clear marching orders. But

I wasn’t. I knew how to teach four things. I knew how to lead four courses. I was on my

way to writing four books. So, I ignored the message. I came into my office and played

with an image for my four courses. The next morning, the short angels were back. And

they were not happy. They shouted in loud masculine voices: SERVE A PURPOSE! I

knew full well what I was being told. But I scrunched my eyes in hopes they’d go away.

They did not. But they did downshift their volume into a gentle command: “Look at your

hand.” I slowly pulled my left hand out from under the covers, opened my eyes, and

looked at my hand. Oh! Go ahead, look at your hand. It’s right there: our souls really do

want five things—to connect with Source, commit to values, serve a purpose, express

beauty, and create life. Five. I stumbled out of bed and staggered down the stairs holding

out my hand.

My friend Rebecca Thompson was sitting at my dining room table writing her first book

in her Consciously Parenting series. My dining room was her office that year, so her kids

could attend a Waldorf School near me and she didn’t have to commute back and forth to

Page 15: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

15

her home an hour away. “Five,” I mumbled, “See? Five. Your soul wants five things!”

Rebecca was the first to hear the news.

Two weeks later the hand image with the five things was on my website along with a July

7th opening date for a course to teach people how to remember their soul’s purpose. There

was just one problem. I still had no idea how to teach it. A week before the course

opened, I had not one word written, no teaching outline, and no idea where to begin. In a

panic, I called Margo Mastromarchi and begged her to accompany me to St. Michael’s

Shrine on Friday, July 1st. I had received entire course outlines at the shrine in the past

and was trusting that Michael would come to the rescue again.

The morning of July 1st, Rebecca called asking—begging, really—to have lunch. The

school year had ended and she was no longer camped out in my dining room. Her own

life upheaval was underway and I could tell she really needed to talk. I wanted to say no;

I really wanted to say no; but I couldn’t abandon her; so I said come over, but you have to

leave by three. Rebecca arrived with a bag of goodies and we settled at the kitchen table

for what I thought would be a litany of her woes. Instead, she launched into the story of

what happened two days before in her parent consulting practice. As Rebecca talked, I

stopped eating. My eyes got bigger and bigger and bigger. I knew I was being shown the

open doorway into the process to remember your soul’s purpose. I looked at the clock. It

was ten to three. Suddenly I wished Margo wasn’t coming. On cue, the phone rang. It

was Margo: “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but suddenly I don’t feel well. I’m so

sorry, but I just can’t go with you to Michael’s.” I hung up, turned to Rebecca and said,

Page 16: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

16

“Finish the story.” This is the story we now call The Story of Story.

I had been called to a family going through a really difficult time. The mother was

diagnosed with breast cancer right after she got pregnant. She had a very difficult

pregnancy and wasn’t doing well. Then, when the baby was born, he had Down’s

Syndrome. The baby was eight-months-old and just had heart surgery. The mom

had IVs and oxygen tubes, and the baby, also with tubes, was on dad’s lap. I

remember wondering, why did this baby choose this hard experience.

I spoke to the parents about creating a space to hear the baby’s story. The parents

said we don’t even know where to start. I said, “The baby knows; the baby knows

what he needs.” So we all slowed down to create the space for the baby to show

what he needs. I suggested they begin with the most recent thing, the heart

surgery. I asked them to tell the baby that story. They started to tell the baby his

story and you could see he was taking it all in. His eyes were trained on his dad’s,

and he’d look over at his mom once in a while.

The dad told the story of the surgery and said, “After the surgery you were so

happy, you were smiling.” As he said that, the baby started wailing the deepest

most painful mournful cry. The dad stopped and said, “Well, I thought you were

happy. But watching you right now it looks like that must have been really hard.”

The baby cried even louder. The dad finally said, “It must have been really hard

to come into a body that was so broken.” The baby cried and the mom, who’d

Page 17: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

17

been very quiet said, “I know what that feels like.” When she said that, the baby

practically threw himself into her arms. At that moment they were feeling the

same thing. The baby and the mother cried together, melted into one another, and

the baby fell asleep in his mother’s arms. The mom looked up at me and said,

“You know this is the first time he’s fallen asleep in my arms.”

As I wiped my cheeks, I understood why Rebecca had to come for lunch that day. Her

assignment was to hand me the vehicle that would carry us back to remembering our

soul’s purpose—story. But how did the baby know what the parents were saying? How

did he remember the experience of heart surgery? And how did he know the language of

voice and tears and eye contact to communicate his truth to his parents? The baby

remembered because the baby is a soul, a fully embodied, fully present, sentient,

articulate soul, here to experience its own life story. Your soul knows its full rich story,

too. It knows your story going back to birth, and beyond. It knows the special destiny you

chose before you incarnated. It knows all the option boxes for all the ways you can

express and fulfill this purpose. It knows the gifts you carry and the shadows you will

face. It knows. It is only your conscious mind that doesn’t—or thinks it doesn’t. In the

next deep soul exploration, you will listen to your soul as it remembers your story, but

before you go there, allow the story of story to speak to your heart.

Inquiring

Are some startling questions bubbling up:

Just what and who is a baby?!

Page 18: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

18

What is the language of tears?

If we are born with this ability, when or why or how do we forget?

Has my soul been trying to tell me my story? Have I understood? Have I even listened?

When intense emotions well up out of nowhere, is that my soul remembering something?

Noticing

If you have a baby or child in your life, pay close attention to how they communicate

their desires and stories with their whole bodies. Watch and listen without trying to move

them toward a conclusion. Ask open-ended questions that encourage them to tell you

more. And when an adult wants to tell you something, see them for a moment as a wise

child, and listen with the same open, non-judgmental ears you would use if you were

speaking with a three-year-old. Then, watch what happens.

Soul Writing

Take The Story of Story to the page in dialogue with your divine Voice. Seek to learn

more about this vast reservoir of memory the soul can tap into. If questions penetrate

territory the conscious mind doesn’t have access to, are we experiencing soul memory

every time we write down our souls? Now, there’s a question!

Place photos of yourself in reverse chronological order along a spiral

Ultimately, it is the soul that makes the face beautiful.

Page 19: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

19

Each face is its own landscape and is quietly vibrant with the invisible textures

of memory, story, dream, need, want and gift that make up

the beauty of the individual life.

John O’Donohue, Beauty

On this second sacred spiral loop you will revisit and re-remember your own stories by

asking your soul to tell you the important memories and by looking at yourself in old

photographs. Because you may need some time to gather your photos, I’ll explain their

function now and you’ll have them when you are ready to look at them. The photos help

you experience being the observer of your story with adult eyes, while at the same time

being the person in the story looking out at the world through child eyes. You are the

container and the contained, just as the spiral is the container and the contained, and just

as your soul is both the divine container of your life and the divine contained. Through

this parallel simultaneous role of being both the container and the contained, magical

information can, and will, filter up to you.

Some people don’t have photos, or very few. If you don’t have pictures, don’t worry;

your soul knows your stories and will tell them to you without photos. But if you do have

pictures, even just a couple, you’ll discover that when you look at them, you are

transported into memories you have long forgotten. Your child-self looking out at you in

photos from the past, speaks a language you have forgotten but your soul remembers and

understands.

Page 20: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

20

Photographs from birth, early childhood, and grade school are particularly rich fields for

remembering who you were and still are. If you have photo albums or boxes of old

photos, go through them quickly scanning for close-ups of your face as a baby, toddler,

child, and on into high school, college, and adulthood. Select the ones that show your

face most clearly. Don’t focus on the other people in the scene. You are not looking at

these photos to remember holidays, vacations, or other events. For this deep soul

exploration, you will be looking into your own eyes, so large studio portraits and class

photos are ideal.

Let the photos reach out to you. As you skim through them quickly, you’ll instinctively

feel a little nudge to select one, then another, and another. Perhaps a funny one will grab

you, or a sweet one, or a pensive one. Perhaps you’ll remember the moment in the photo,

but often you won’t. Don’t dwell on what you’re picking, or how the photos will look, or

what you’ll do with them. Just let the photos jump out of the scrapbooks and boxes and

into your hands.

Once you have a nice pile, maybe a dozen or so, draw or make a large spiral, big enough

to hold the photos. You might draw it on a whiteboard and use magnets to hold the

pictures, or you might draw a big spiral on an old sheet. One woman in a soul purpose

course pinned a long yarn spiral on an oversize poster board. Another purchased a three-

fold project display board, drew her spiral on the large center panel, and pressed her

photos to the board with push pins. She liked being able to close the flaps when people

visited. Other members have placed their photos in a spiral shape on the dining room

Page 21: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

21

table or guest bed. If you don’t have a place to create a large photo spiral, simply stack

the photos in a pile. Place your photos along the spiral or in your stack in reverse

chronologic order starting with your most current photo at the entrance and getting

younger and younger as you approach the center. Put your earliest baby picture at the

center. If you can find a photo of your mother pregnant with you, that would be

spectacular.

Inquiring

As you poke through your photographs, do you find yourself amazed at the wonder of

photography? Isn’t it miraculous that we can hold little windows of our own past in our

hands? Perhaps a few questions like these are surfacing:

What was my family’s relationship with photos?

Who took photographs? Who took photos of me?

How do I feel about my photographic record?

Are these decades of pictures telling me something?

Reflecting

As you gather your photographs, look at them with love. If a particular photo jumps out

at you, stop and speak to yourself at that age. Close your eyes and take that image, that

person-who-is-you, into your heart for a silent exchange of memories and love. If

memories want to come, let them, but don’t work to remember what happened or try to

figure anything out. Just hold yourself in your heart.

Page 22: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

22

Mourning

Gathering photographs can bring up great joys. But it can also bring up great sorrows.

Members of the soul purpose course are often struck by the contrast between their

photographic record and their siblings’. Noël in Pennsylvania was stunned to realize there

were no pictures of her when she was a baby. A deep sadness welled up and she took it to

the page in deep soul writing. If you are experiencing a similar sadness, the response she

received may comfort you: “The immensity of your soul is more immense than any

moment in your past. You are not defined by your moments.” If you feel sadness as you

gather your photographs, you, too, may find wisdom and comfort in dialogue with your

divine Voice.

Playing

If you feel led to draw or doodle or color, pick up some colors and play. Or perhaps

you’d like to make a copy of a black/white photograph from childhood and color it. Do

you remember the color of that shirt, that dress, that toy? Even if you don’t, you can still

color them. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to draw a favorite toy or paint with the colors you

adored at five. Think of the paint pots that disappeared first in your watercolors or the

crayons in the box that were always short and broken. Play with drawing and coloring as

you played with them as a child.

Remembering

If you are blessed to have some childhood mementos, this would be a lovely time to pull

them out of storage. My mother saved a handful of my favorite books and gave them to

Page 23: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

23

me in my fifties. What a treasure. Holding Madeleine again, I can hear my mother

reading it to me and remember how I loved that story. I am forever grateful to my

mother. In appreciation, I saved my son’s favorite books, so he can remember how much

he cherished dinosaurs.

Soul writing

As you enter this experience of being both the observer of the container and the one who

is contained, consider experimenting with how you speak with your soul. Just as you

address your divine Voice by name in deep soul writing, perhaps you’d like to give your

soul a name. It is you, so you could address your soul with your own name. I could write

or speak to “Dear Janet.” Or perhaps, as I’m looking at photos of myself in childhood, I’d

like to write to “Dear Sweet Janet.” You might use your spiritual name, if you have one.

Or perhaps this is a moment you feel a spiritual name bubbling forth. Play with soul

writing to, and with, your precious soul by name.

Invite your soul to take the lead and tell you your stories

Childhood is an absolute treasure-house of imagination.

There is so much that we can find out about the magic of our souls by revisiting these

memories of first acquaintance.

John O’Donohue Eternal Echoes

Page 24: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

24

How do you know where to begin to unpack this treasure-house? The answer is you

don’t; that is, your conscious mind doesn’t. If you follow your conscious mind’s trail,

you’ll find yourself reliving the old trauma-based plot that opens in a strange and difficult

family, proceeds through a series of stressful stories around vocation and money,

punctuated by a few big scenes of a heart traumatized by love or disappointment. You’ve

rehashed these stories countless times in therapy and with friends, and still you wonder,

what is this really all about?

If you ask your soul to take you by the hand and dive below conscious mind, you’ll hear

very different stories. Not the plot filled with “who did what to whom,” but the themes—

the images, ideas, and desires that grabbed you by the heart and wouldn’t let you go.

You’ll hear stories about what you loved, what fascinated you, and what repelled you.

These themes are like little flashes of starlight and gold dust buried below the surface of

your biographic resume. You know they’re there, you’ve always known they were there,

but you’ve forgotten what they signify or where to find them.

A perfect metaphor for not knowing what’s next, yet knowing something is not only next

but it’s waiting for you to find it, is the seek button on a car radio. Imagine your life as a

radio with hundreds of stations playing thousands of songs and stories accumulated over

decades. You can’t possibly remember them all, and you can’t listen to them all at once,

and you don’t even know where to start, so you press the seek button, and let your soul

choose the next story she wants you to hear.

Page 25: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

25

You may be surprised where your soul takes you. The seek button may well leap right

over your standard plot lines: job, marriage, divorce, birth of your children, scary

illness—everything you thought was so pivotal. Your soul may beckon you instead to

listen in on a conversation with a college roommate, or take you back to a moonlit night

walking under trees feeling and hearing the crunch of snow, or she may take you back to

the moment you knew you were ready to leave home. Or she may ask you to play again

with a favorite toy or knock on the kind neighbor’s door for a warm cookie. Or the seek

button might land on your secret hiding place in the back yard, or the book you snuck off

your father’s shelf, or your obsession with Madame Curie…. These are the real seminal

moments when your soul’s great loves peeked through. So listen to whatever your soul

wants to talk about. Trust her and follow where she wants to go. Don’t judge her

selections. Welcome them, whatever they may be.

There are many ways to listen to your soul’s favorite stories. You can press your soul

seek button on the page in deep soul writing, or speaking aloud with yourself, or in

meditation, or in your heart as you go for a solitary walk. Once the door to soul memory

is open, don’t be surprised if unusual memories sneak up in the shower, on the pillow in

the morning, in your dreams, while you’re driving—basically anytime you slip into theta.

There is no end to the ways your soul will reach you to tell you your stories. Your job is

simply to create a silent container of welcome and ask your soul to take the lead.

As your stories surface, listen to them with the gentle loving ears of your heart. Whether

the stories carry pain and frustration or wonder and joy, take them all into your

Page 26: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

26

unconditionally loving heart. Because all these stories are you. And the very first person

worthy of unconditional love is you. When you take something sad or painful into your

heart, you may wish to speak to your younger self having that experience and reassure

her that all is well. You can do this in soul writing, doodling, visual meditation, or

speaking heart-to heart silently or aloud.

As you are remembering your soul’s favorite stories, little flashes of buried gold and

starlight will peek up through the surface. They may be images, feelings, colors, songs, or

words that feel like they carry clues to your soul’s purpose, or they may simply be

something delightful or interesting you’d like to remember. One image for me was

reading with a flashlight under the covers. That image makes perfect sense to my adult

self and clearly fits my soul’s purpose. But a big surprise was remembering my

“squeezee button,” a dark green curved button that fit my three-year-old right thumb

perfectly. Of the thousands of buttons in my mother’s button box, this was “the one.” I

carried it around with me all day when I was little. Other children had security blankets; I

had my squeezee button. Is that green button a clue to my purpose? When it first

surfaced, I didn’t think so, but I loved that button and I could feel it on my thumb, and the

memory made me smile. So my squeezee button became one of my little golden threads.

If something awakens a strong memory of love, it’s probably a nugget of gold. When I

attended open house for my son’s freshman year in high school, his physics teacher

shared the moment she fell in love with physics. Her face glowed as she told the story.

That moment is undoubtedly one of her gold nuggets. But other, much smaller things

Page 27: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

27

would be as well. Simply allow your nuggets to surface. Don’t judge them. Don’t push

any aside because they’re not “right.” For now, your role is to listen, remember, and

gather anything that surfaces wanting to be remembered.

Inquiring

Deep questions may be surfacing along with your memories. Welcome them. Perhaps

some sound like:

What is the difference between my plot lines and my themes?

Do I rehash my trauma stories?

What is a memory? Why do we forget what was once important?

Looking back, when have my themes been trying to get my attention?

Are my themes still trying to get my attention?

If I asked my soul to show me my themes, what would I see?

What did I love? What have I always loved? Am I living what I love?

What are the key questions of my life?

Remembering

Are there stories your family often told about you as a child? There’s meaning and magic

in those stories. When George Ward asked his family about his childhood, they laughed.

When anyone asked “Where’s George?” they’d say, “Look outside.” Sure enough, little

George would be in the yard looking up at the sky. It took twenty-eight years for George

to “remember” that he is an astrologer, but his soul always knew. Ask family members to

remind you of stories told about you as a baby, toddler, and young child. Then, ask your

Page 28: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

28

soul to tell you a bit more about the meaning of those stories. And as a gift to your

children and grandchildren, start gathering and saving their family stories for them.

Doodling

Along with your stories may come visual memories—images, symbols, colors, objects,

sounds and places you loved. You may not understand what you are seeing or why

they’re important, or even if they’re important, but if an image or color awakens a feeling

in you, grab your colored pencils or markers and start drawing or doodling. You don’t

have to figure it out, just capture it.

Soul writing

Is your hand itching to explore the goldmine of your memories, especially your childhood

memories? If you wish to dive into a particular memory, see the blank page in your

journal as a doorway into the Imaginal Realm where you can walk around inside that

memory again, feeling the temperature, smelling the air, touching the things and talking

with the people in the scene. Smells always come as a great surprise, but they do seem to

love coming through the speakers of the soul’s radio. Members of the soul purpose

course love sharing sudden memories of their grandmother’s bread or onions simmering

on the stove or the scent of their mother’s perfume. The page is a wonderful place to

capture the memory of smells.

Often a specific question will elicit a sharp, immediate memory. I had this experience

reading The Soul’s Code. In the first chapter, James Hillman recounts wonderful stories

Page 29: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

29

about objects famous people loved in childhood. I stopped reading and asked aloud

“What did I love?” Before I could open my journal, up popped the memory of playing

with stacks of gold-edged holy cards. I loved those holy cards. I spent hours touching and

looking and rearranging and sorting. I loved the saints. And if I didn’t, I traded them

away. (Sorry, St. Sebastian.) Those holy cards were the most beautiful and meaningful

“toy” in my life.

And don’t forget the opposite. There’s as much, if not more, juice in what you hated or

avoided or ran away from. When I asked “What did I hate?” up popped a memory of me

clinging to my mother’s skirt, afraid to go to a friend’s birthday party—even though I

really wanted to go. Lots of gold to explore in deep soul writing in that visceral memory

of my shyness.

Look deeply into your own eyes

“When you look at some faces, you can see the turbulence of the infinite

beginning to gather to the surface. … Suddenly, without their intending it or

being conscious of it, their gaze becomes the vehicle of some primal inner

presence. … In that slightest interim, something more than the person looks out.

…. The infinity gazing out at you is from an ancient time. We cannot seal off the

eternal.

Page 30: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

30

John O’Donohue Anam Cara

You have heard “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” Is that true? Can you look into

someone’s eyes and see all the way into their divinity? If you could look deeply into your

own eyes, would you see your own soul looking back at you? Thanks to the miracle of

photography, you are going to look into that endless black well, not once or twice, but

over a lifetime. What will you see? Will your eyes reveal stories like your soul’s radio

did? A profound experiment awaits.

Sit in front of your photo spiral or loose photographs from the present back to birth.

Begin with your most current photo or take one right now with your cell phone. Sit with

this first photo, this picture of you as you are right now, an adult walking the second loop

of the sacred spiral. Look deeply into your own eyes. You may feel an urge to flinch or

move on to the next photo. But stay. Stay with yourself. And gaze at yourself with love.

Look into your physical eyes with the eyes of your soul. Your soul that sees who you

really are. Your soul that sees through your pupils into the infinite being who chose to be

here in this particular body at this particular time. When you are ready, move your gaze

to the next photo of your adult self, and on back in time, slowly savoring the stories your

eyes wish to tell you.

Viewing yourself this way is a completely different experience from looking at photos as

mementoes of shared experiences. If anyone else is in a picture, you might notice them

Page 31: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

31

and recall their role, and you might remember how you felt at the time, but shift your

attention away from the story the photo tells and back to the person who is you, and look

deeply into your own eyes. For example, in a holiday family scene, you need not dwell

on what was happening to everyone else; instead focus on the little girl or boy who is

you. Perhaps the essential soul memory captured in that photograph isn’t the decorations

or the feast or the family, but the treasured gift in your hands. Or perhaps the soul

memory is how disappointed you were that no one seemed to understand who you really

were or what you really wanted. Or the memory of how you retreated as quickly as you

could to the sanctuary of your room—a harbinger of honoring a core need for quiet and

retreat. Whatever those soul memories are, hold them in your heart and record them in

your soul journal.

Looking deeply into your own eyes may awaken memories you did not know you had.

You may feel waves of love and affection for your child self. You may feel her or his

strength—a strength you didn’t realize you had. You may also feel sorrows, confusions,

frustrations. Don’t judge anything that rises. Simply look deeply into your eyes. As you

gaze at your own face, you are both the one who sees and the one who is seen, the

container and the contained, the grown self in the present and the younger self in the past.

Through the loving gaze of your adult eyes, your ancient soul sees and recognizes and

gazes with love at your ancient soul in your younger face. Then and now merge into one

moment.

Page 32: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

32

As you look at photos spanning decades, an odd knowing may arrive out of the blue. One

woman in a soul purpose course was stunned to realize how happy she was as a child.

That realization shifted her view of her entire life. When I sat with my photos one long

afternoon, I suddenly noticed a dot of light in a particular spot of my green iris. I went

back and checked—yes, it was there at two and at twenty-two and in all the photos. I ran

to the bathroom and looked into my sixty-plus-year-old eyes. There it was. That moment

transformed how I look at myself in the mirror. Since then, I smile every time, a little

soul-to-soul acknowledgment of the miracle that is me.

This mystical soul-to-soul experience with your photographs is in this book because it’s

the guidance I received the day after Rebecca Thompson came for lunch. The next

morning in deep soul writing, I poured out my gratitude for The Story of Story and asked

how I could help people listen to their own stories. Before I could think a thought, my

hand began to doodle spirals, then the seek button on the soul’s radio, and finally eyes

and photographs. It all came faster than I could write. I didn’t understand it all, but from

the beginning, members of the soul purpose course have been floored by the wisdom of

the spiral, the power of story, and especially by what they see looking into their own

eyes.

But it wasn’t until I read The Heart’s Code by Dr Paul Pearsall that I understood why

looking into our eyes in photographs is so profound. When we speak of someone’s eyes,

we talk about the color of their iris. But Dr Pearsall emphasizes the pupil, the black hole

at the center of the iris. When we look at someone, he explains, we are sending a dose of

Page 33: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

33

infra-red energy—what he calls an info-energetic love map—directly from our heart into

the pupils of the other person’s eyes. That energy passes through their pupils to their

retinas and up the occipital nerve to the brain. From there it spreads into the cellular

memory of every cell of their body. And, of course, as they look at you, you are receiving

an info-energetic love map as well. It’s a heart-to-heart loop, sent and received through

the pupils of the eyes.

Have you ever wondered why our irises have so many magnificent colors, but the pupil is

always black? “The black color of the pupil results from an energy convergence and the

total absorption of all of the energy waves of the color spectrum. When you look into

another person's eyes at their black pupil, you are looking at what has become of you in

their eyes.” (The Heart’s Code) So when you gaze at yourself in your photographs you

are looking at what has become of you in you! No wonder photo-gazing is such a

mystical experience.

Inquiring

As you look into your own eyes, you can’t help but ask big questions:

Do I see the turbulence of the infinite in my own eyes? Even when I was a baby?

Who am I seeing when I look at myself? Is this person an old friend or do I feel like I’m

meeting someone for the first time?

Is this baby, toddler, child, teenage me sending an energetic love map as we look at one

another? How is that possible if the photo was taken years ago?

Has my essence changed over time or is there a golden thread that never changes?

Page 34: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

34

Does time collapse as we look at one another?

Remembering

Of all your photos, choose two or three that feel particularly redolent with meaning and

emotion and story—even if you don’t know why those are the ones. Sit with those

photos, one at a time, looking deeply into your own eyes, as memories of what was

happening in that scene or around that time surface. Those particular photos have

something important to tell you. A seventy-nine-year-old man in a soul purpose course

discovered a photo of himself at three in his mother’s arms as the family was getting

ready to move overseas. The seventy-nine-year-old was stunned by the confidence and

pure joie de vivre pouring out of his three-year-old self. As he looked into his three-year-

old eyes, the adult felt a fresh surge of confidence in his ability to embrace the next and

possibly last adventure in his life. The circle was complete. He had found himself in

himself.

Meditating

After you’ve looked at a photo that feels sacred in some inexplicable way, you might

enjoy closing your eyes and stepping into the photograph. Take the time to feel yourself

wearing those clothes, combing your hair or having it combed, putting on those

shoes…everything that went into that moment in that photo. When you open your eyes

again, capture your memories and experiences on a sketchpad or in soul writing.

Drawing

Page 35: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

35

In addition to soul writing, or perhaps while you are soul writing, you may find yourself

drawing eyes—your eyes, other people’s eyes, eyes in general. Don’t try to draw an

accurate eye—that’s difficult even for an artist to do; instead, play with the concept of

sending a radiant “love map” from heart-to-heart by looking eye-to-eye. See what images

your unconscious mind brings to the surface. As you draw, you might discover something

mystical about this scientific concept of sending infra-red energy through the pupils of

our eyes.

Soul writing

Your photographs coupled with the stories on your soul’s radio create a treasure trove for

deep soul writing, don’t they! There’s no end to the gold you can uncover. You might

have a conversation with your divine Voice about each photo as it comes or about the

entire experience. And don’t be surprised if photos, stories, and other images arrive in

your dreams or pop into your mind in idle moments. Your soul has been waiting a long

time to have these conversations with you, so don’t rush. Give her all the time and space

she needs to help you remember your stories.

Gather gold and light from your soul’s stories

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections

and the truth of the Imagination.

John Keats in a letter to Benjamin Bailey, November 22, 1817

Page 36: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

36

As you listen to your soul’s stories and look into your own eyes, are you noticing lots of

stardust and gold poking through the memories? I like to visualize these as golden

nuggets or threads or sprinkles of gold dust. Another lovely visual is to see them as

sparks of star light or shimmers rising from multi-colored crystals. However you see

them, these are the little hints and clues pointing to your own “heart’s affections” and the

“truths of your imagination.”

Some nuggets are so big they are impossible to miss. Carl Jung had one that was rock-

sized. In Pathways to Bliss, Joseph Campbell tells the story of Carl Jung deciding at

thirty-seven to seek his personal myth. Campbell writes: “[Jung] asked himself, What

was it I most enjoyed doing as a little boy when I was alone and allowed to play. As it

turned out, what he liked to do was put rocks together and make little cities out of stone.

So he said, Why, I’m a big man now, so I’ll play with some big stones.” And he did. Jung

built by hand a stone tower-house on Lake Zurich in Bollingen Switzerland, where he

spent several months each year developing his ideas and writing his papers and books. In

Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung devotes a chapter to “The Tower.” “At Bollingen I

am in the midst of my true life. I am most deeply myself….I built it in a kind of a

dream... Only afterward did I see how all the parts fitted together and that a meaningful

form had resulted: a symbol of psychic wholeness.” Notice that only after Jung built the

tower and worked and lived in it did he see it as a symbol of his life’s work. I wonder if

Page 37: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

37

he would have ever created this symbol, or recognized its meaning, if he hadn’t first

asked himself: “How did I love to play?” What gold is revealed in that question!

Gold isn’t always that big or that obvious. A golden thread might be a phrase or even one

word that cracks your heart open. Or it might be an image you once loved and, like Jung,

still do. You’re on the alert now for gold in your soul journal and sketchpad, but the

funniest nuggets—and sometimes the most significant—show up in some pretty strange

packages. A jewel might fly through the air in snippet of conversation in the grocery line

or in a song lyric you haven’t heard in years. One might grab the corner of your eye as

you whizz past a billboard or notice an odd neon sign flashing in a store window. I can

practically guarantee that several will jump off the pages of your master-teacher

companion. If something seems a little off-topic and out-of-the-blue, but lands with a

thump in your heart, grab it, especially the wee little mysterious ones. Don’t let them slip

past you. A tiny affection may turn out to be a big key to your heart’s great love. The

memory of my squeezee button was sweet, but I didn’t see what it could possibly have to

do with my purpose. So I asked in deep soul writing if there was a connection. As soon as

I saw the word connection, I had my insight. The key verb in my soul purpose is connect.

And what do buttons do? Why they are beautiful, creative, colorful ways to connect two

things and hold them together. My mother was a superb seamstress and her button box

was her creative treasury. That little green button connected my thumb with beauty,

safety, mother love, and creative possibility. It was a tiny green harbinger of my soul’s

great delight: to use words to connect people to the light. Thanks to the memory of my

green squeezee button, I now see the words in my books and courses and radio show as

Page 38: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

38

beautiful comforting “green buttons” holding people closer and closer to the divine. I

wonder if my wee self somehow knew I would sign my adult emails: the connection is in

your hands.

You will collect more nuggets on the third loop when you remember your birth and on

the fourth as you ponder the big questions of life and death and incarnation. When or how

will all these threads of gold and light weave themselves into your soul’s purpose? That’s

a bit of a mystery. Some people receive a message as soon as they step onto the imaginal

spiral. Others gather bits and pieces on all the loops, but their soul purpose stays elusive

until they step out of time at the I Am Point at the center of the fourth labyrinth. Still

others hear their soul purpose on the pillow in the morning or deep in a dream. You do

not know when or how your soul’s divine purpose will announce itself.

For now, just enter the wonder of your soul’s stories and gather all the gold that comes

your way. As you collect your nuggets, don’t try to determine the value or importance of

an image or memory. If you do, you are beginning with the end in mind and trying to

control the journey and the outcome. If you try to control this mystical walk, you’re not

actually on the sacred spiral. You’re back in logical conscious mind, a mind that sifts and

sorts and judges. And that mind isn’t the mind that can remember your soul’s divine

purpose. A gentle reminder to carry with you as you walk this loop and all the loops is:

The soul takes nothing for granted—nothing.

Inquiring

Page 39: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

39

Have you ever looked for the golden threads in your past? If this is a new experience,

some new kinds of questions might be surfacing:

What is a golden thread? How can I recognize them all? Does the gold want to be found?

Why is all this beauty in my life hidden? Did I bury it? Why? When?

Do I have a big rock-sized nugget like Jung had? Does that frighten me or excite me?

What would happen if I embraced a nugget of that size?

Do I trust that the golden threads will somehow weave themselves into a soul purpose?

Gathering

How are you going to hold on to your golden threads or in Keats’ words your affections

and truths? Here are a few ways that have worked for others:

Set aside several “Gold” pages in your journal and jot down or quickly sketch any

idea or image that comes through or create a small special notebook just for your

golden memories.

Create a special bowl or box for your gold. Marina Phillips in Alberta found a ten-

inch-diameter bowl carved out of a large dried gourd. She painted the outside with

a multicolored spiral and put all her clues and hints and treasures in her special

spiral bowl.

Put all your clues and images on note cards or sticky notes. The cards themselves

will teach you how they want to be rearranged.

If you have a lot of visual images or mementos or photographs, you might enjoy

making a shadow box display of your images. Some people commandeer the

surface of a coffee table or end table for this purpose. It’s great fun to play with

Page 40: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

40

the items and key words. As you finger them or even just stare at them, they are

communicating with your subconscious and beckoning you to see their messages.

Soul writing

As you finish the last of your deep soul explorations on the second loop of the sacred

spiral and prepare to hear the meditation and integrate all that you have experienced and

remembered on the special eye labyrinth, take some time to have a long rich conversation

with your beloved divine Voice.

Page 41: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

41

Sacred Spiral Loop TWO Guided Meditation—Listen to Your Soul’s Stories

Preparation

Create sacred time: set aside a window of quiet, uninterrupted time.

Create sacred space: turn off electronics and anything else that could disturb you.

Dim the lights, if possible. Place a glass of water, your talisman, and your journal

or sketchpad and colored pencils near at hand.

Create a sacred container: as the meditation opens, you will create a sacred

container in your heart with an invocation, calling the archangels, stating your

sacred desire, activating your invisible clairs, and taking a few sacred breaths.

Invocation

The eye with which I see God

is the same with which God sees me.

My eye and God’s eye is one eye,

and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love..

Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart’s Sermons, Sermon IV, “True Hearing,” Johannes

Eckhart

Call Your Angels and Guides

I will call in the archangels who protect Your Soul Wants Five Things with their colored

light and the meaning of their name.

Page 42: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

42

With purple-blue, Om, Michael, who is like God

With moonlight, Om, Haniel, the glory of God

With magenta, Om, Jophiel, the beauty of God

With pale yellow-white, Om, Azrael, whom God helps

Now, call on your own angels and guides…

Sacred Desire

Speak your sacred desire to enter the spiral, to walk the sacred path to remember who you

are and why you are here, and for this guided meditation on the second loop, to revisit

and re-remember your life to date.

Breathe your sacred desire into your talisman if you have one.

Place your talisman in your actual or imaginal pocket, or somewhere near you.

Awaken Your Clairs

Close your outer eyelids.

Tap your forehead or third eye, awakening the eyes of your soul.

Imagine the “lids” of your outer ears closing.

Tap your temples, awakening the ears of your heart.

Breathe

Page 43: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

43

Take three deep breaths, filling your heart with love and releasing it into the universe:

With the first sweet breath, relax your jaw.

With the second, relax your neck and shoulders.

With the third, feel your whole body soften and sink into the chair or floor.

Open the Spiral

With your next breath, bow your head until your third eye is looking through your

forehead at the ground around your feet. With your imagination, see a pinprick of golden

light in front of your toes. This is the point that opens the sacred spiral. Focus the light

coming from your third eye onto this spark of golden light and watch as it expands, and

expands a bit more, until it is larger than your feet. This is the round open door between

worlds.

--

Lift a foot now and tap this door, this circle of light on the ground once, twice, three

times. As you tap the door, silently ask the spiral to open and welcome you to walk its

sacred path.

--

Watch from within your third eye as the door opens, and you begin to see the spiral that

has been hidden beneath your feet. This is a mystic spiral, so it will look different for

each of us. The colors, the lights, the surroundings, the surface of the spiral path, all will

be uniquely designed and revealed for you and you alone. When the ground has opened

wide enough for you to enter, call upon your guides to walk with you and witness your

Page 44: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

44

adventure. If you’re uncertain who is walking this loop with you, simply ask for someone

to appear, and wait to see who or what arrives to accompany you.

--

When you are ready, step into the spiral. As you begin to walk, look down and you’ll see

that there are four loops, each one smaller than the one before. You are stepping onto the

first and largest loop. As you descent below the surface of the ground and begin to walk

around the curve of this first loop of the sacred spiral, you may wish to look around with

the eyes of your soul. You are familiar with this first loop, so you can walk it fairly

quickly remembering again just how exquisite and mysterious and wondrous the spiral is.

--

As you approach the second loop of the spiral, notice how the imaginal walls of the spiral

are changing. On the second loop the wall or surface floating beside you becomes a long

movie screen running the entire length of the second loop. As you step onto the second

loop, the first scenes you notice are current. You see things that happened yesterday, last

week, last month, last year. Keep walking and watching as your movie reel plays scenes

from your recent past.

--

As you walk deeper down into the curve of the spiral the scenes go further back in time.

You see something that happened several years ago, then ten years or twenty years ago.

You see scenes of yourself at work, at home, with people, alone. You might see scenes

when you are angry, happy, afraid, upset, praying, eating. If you wish to pause and look

at a scene or look yourself in the eye, please do. As you walk, simply observe and

remember, “Oh! These are my stories.”

Page 45: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

45

--

As you go further on this second spiral loop the movies will take you back to your young

adult and teenage years. Watch yourself getting younger and younger until you are 17 or

16 or so. Stop walking for a moment. Stand in front of a scene of your teenage self. Look

at yourself with love. And speak to your teen self: What would you like me to remember?

Hold out your hand. Your teenage self is reaching through the screen and handing you

something or telling you something. What is it? What are you remembering? Take a

moment to receive or remember the gift from your teenage self. Look at it or hear it with

love even if you aren’t certain what it means. Then, tuck it in your heart.

--

Keep walking, watching yourself in yourself in your movie get younger and younger until

you are 11 or so. Look at yourself with love. And speak to your pre-teen self: What would

you like me to remember? Hold out your hand. Your pre-teen self is reaching through the

screen and giving you something or telling you something. What is it? What are you

remembering? Take a moment to receive or remember the gift from your pre-teen self.

Look at it or hear it with love even if you aren’t certain what it means. Then, tuck it in

your heart.

--

Walk a bit further. Stop again this time in front of yourself at 9 or 8 or so. Look at

yourself with love. And speak to your grade school self: What would you like me to

remember? Hold out your hand. Your school age self is reaching through the screen and

giving you something or telling you something. What is it? What are you remembering?

Page 46: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

46

Take a moment to receive and remember the gift from your grade school age self. Look

at it or hear it with love even if you aren’t sure what it means. Then tuck it in your heart.

--

Walk a few more steps. Stop in front of yourself at 5, kindergarten age. Perhaps it’s your

earliest school experience or your first adventure outside your home. Look at your self

with love. Ask your 5-year-old self: What would you like me to remember? And hold out

your hand. Your very young self is giving you something or telling you something

important. What is it? What are you remembering? Take a moment to receive and

remember the gift of your kindergarten self. Look at it with love and tuck it in your heart,

even if you don’t understand what you are being given.

--

You are almost at the end of the story of your life loop. There’s one scene more. It’s you

at 3 or 2. Look at yourself with great love and hold out your hand. Ask your toddler self

What would you like me to remember? Hold out your hand. Your toddler self is giving

you something or telling you something important. What is it. What are you

remembering? Take a moment to receive and remember the gift of your toddler self.

Look at it with love and tuck it in your heart.

--

It’s time now to return to the present. Turn around with the memory of all the gifts you

have received in your heart. Walk back up the second loop noticing the movie again, now

in chronologic order from babyhood to the present.

--

Page 47: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

47

Then, step onto the first loop and walk back to the surface. Notice as you complete your

spiral walk, what it looks like and feels like to step out of the spiral and back into the

physical world.

Close the Spiral

When you are back on the surface, pause for a moment, say thank you to your angels and

guides, and to your talisman. And thank the sacred spiral for all she has shown you and

taught you.

--

When you feel complete, tap the ground three times and the round door will gently close

back down to the size of a golden pinprick, and disappear.

--

With your eyes still closed, take a couple of breaths to bring your awareness back into

your body. Thank the ears of your heart for their wisdom and open your physical ears.

Thank the eyes of your soul for their vision and gently open your physical eyes.

--

When you feel ready, drink your water slowly and consciously, whispering all the

insights and blessings you received on your second sacred spiral walk. You may wish to

soul write or sketch some of the gifts you received and the things you experienced and

remembered on the sacred spiral path. Or you may wish to just sit with your hands on

your chest holding all that has happened in the sacred container of your heart.

Page 48: Find Your Soul’s Purpose - janetconner.com · In preparation, I set up my storyboard and put client folders, note cards, and yellow pads on the table. But then, the third consultant

48

Loop Two Labyrinth Walk with Eye

For 8 ½ x 11 color and black and white labyrinths, thresholds, and reflection benches, go

to janetconner.com

[insert loop 2 threshold on one page]

[insert loop 2 labyrinth on one page]

[insert loops 2 reflection bench on one page]