Do you believe sexual orientation and/or gender identity issues have spiritual roots? If so, are they a chakra balancing issue, or perhaps related to subconscious/past-life baggage that is hanging on and interfering with one's current outlook on life? Thanks!
Jacqueline
Dreamchaser:
I have done a lot of research and praying on this question. I really wanted the correct answer, not only for this column but also for my own understanding.
I don't believe that if a person is homosexual or straight in this life, they have been the same in every life, nor do I believe that we carry a propensity to be attracted to a certain gender from one lifetime to another.
Before we come into each lifetime, we sit down and figure out the best way to teach our souls what they need to know. We figure out what gender we need to be, who our parents, family and friends need to be, where we need to live, and every other possible variable.
We also choose the main life lessons we will work on. I believe this is when we choose whether we will be straight, gay, bi or non-sexual.
I have often encountered the idea that many people who have been sexually molested by the opposite sex in their childhoods choose to become gay when they grow up. Personally, I feel something like that was planned on the Otherside before that person was born. The molestation was planned along with any supposed change
in sexual orientation.
Our gender and our sexual orientation do not affect our chakras. If we practice tantric sex, then of course those come into play, but by and large, our sense of well-being is not dependent on our sexual orientation or gender.
While we can have clogged chakras due to repressed or unconscious sexual issues, our particular gender and orientation are not the source of the problem. It's how we process our experiences as a certain gender or person with a particular orientation that affects us on a spiritual level.
For example, if someone is raped, they will more than likely hold that inside for a while, which will cause chakra issues such as clogs or blocks. If that person encounters more and more negative experiences in addition to that rape, they'll end up with lots of chakra issues.
Your question seems to suggest that being anything but heterosexual is unnatural or must present special problems. I know people of both genders and various sexual orientations who are healthy, functional, happy and fulfilled. I also know plenty of unhappy, unhealthy, dysfunctional people of those sexual orientations.
There is nothing inherently positive or negative about our natural sexual preferences. It's how we react to our experiences and the choices we make as a result that determine our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being.
I wish you peace.
*****
Astrea:
When I was a kid, the only vegetable I would eat was spinach because of Popeye. I didn't especially like the cartoons, but I liked Popeye because he always said, I am who I am.
He didn't try to be someone he wasn't, and he was happy that way.
Even with all the progress we've made towards enlightenment in the past few years, people who are different from the majority in ANY way are often not accepted or understood.
Gay men, gay women and transgender people live outside what is considered the mainstream. Since artists, psychics, dancers, and some religious groups are also marginalized, it's easy for us to relate to each other.
Our souls live as many as a thousand lifetimes, during which we experience ALL genders. We're male, female, and even androgynous beings in both physical and celestial incarnations.
Most people who have studied reincarnation will agree that our most immediate past life will have at least some influence on who we become in this incarnation. For instance, most people who are homophobic were homosexual in their most recent past life.
When I first began to explore past lives, I assumed that people who had recently experienced a gay incarnation would be the most understanding and accepting of such matters, but my research has shown that this is rarely the case.
Often a person who was gay in their last lifetime will not be tolerant and understanding of such things in this lifetime because they were maligned, ostracized, tortured or somehow made to suffer greatly for their sexual orientation.
This suffering causes deep wounds in the psyche that need to be healed, and until that happens, those folks will tend to be much less tolerant. Tolerance is then a big spiritual lesson for them to learn in order to develop the divine love and compassion we should all strive to embody.
I've also noticed that people who are most open and accepting of homosexuality were usually female in their most recent past life. Everything influences the way we are. It's very complex and confusing because some people repeat lives as women or men several times before they switch to experience being the other sex.
Basically, any person who has had to live with pain, guilt and rejection is going to carry that from lifetime to lifetime until they've learned and healed on all levels of their being.
Aside from these issues, spiritual evolution in no way correlates with sexual orientation. Regardless of who and how we love, our life experiences are naturally designed to move us toward enlightenment.
Astrea:
Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.
Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!
While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!
I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!
As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.
I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.
You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!
Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.
A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.
You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.