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July 1 through July 7, 2024

Astrological highlights this week include Neptune turning retrograde, Mercury moving into the sign of Leo, and a Cancer new Moon on Friday. With all the shifts occurring this week, we’ll want to practice higher awareness and pay attention as our moods and activities change daily. Luckily Monday unfolds under a Taurus Moon, which means it’s the day to get as much done as possible before blocks or reversals arise. Tuesday is when Neptune will turn retrograde and Mercury will enter Leo. Neptune is a subtle shift as it travels backward five months out of the year, so we may not notice too much under this influence at first, but Mercury’s move into fiery Leo will bring out our expressive and generous sides for the next three weeks. The Moon will travel through Gemini Tuesday through Thursday, bringing out our imaginative and social sides. We’ll be more prone to chatting than working, as we connect with others on an intellectual level. The Cancer new Moon occurs on Friday, promising new beginnings in our emotional lives and security; be sure to make a wish! Saturday and Sunday unfold under the easy-going Cancer Moon as well, turning our focus to home and family.

How the Mind of the Soul Establishes Wellbeing, by Neale Lundgren, PhD

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

The soul is always open to reveal itself to the sincere seeker. And because the soul is naturally positive and unpretentious, it projects a receiving spirit to all. As such, the soul can help us maintain not only a physical, mental, and emotional sense of wellbeing, but when operating at a high level, can also be a powerful force for the world.

This is because the soul is who you really are. The soul is a finder and revealer of universal truth and mirrors the highest principles of human existence. A universal truth is knowledge that transcends doctrine. A Hindu can find benefit in a Hebrew proverb and a Christian can be inspired by a Sufi poem when viewed from the unifying perspective of the soul.

Only the soul understands how to love the self as the other, and the other as the self. Whether one is an atheist or a theist, in the right circumstances, silence is golden when compassionate action is implemented.

The moment we embrace a path guided by the light of a universal truth, life then becomes more than a mere system of thought. Life becomes a way of soul seeking, a way of soul finding, and a way of soulful living with soulful others in the material world.

Although immaterial, the soul gravitates to all things of true substance. Anything that has integrity and coherence, an inherent wholeness about it, the soul's intelligence recognizes as a reflection of its own nature. This intelligence is the mind of the soul, located at the deepest center within every human being and within the being of all living things.

When we discover our soul mind, we awaken to a level of consciousness beyond ordinary awareness. The soul mind sees all things as part of an interrelated web of a greater wholeness. The soul mind has this capacity because it is an open systems intelligence. The material, or "closed systems," mind, on the other hand, is made up of inherited beliefs, opinions, or any limiting model of reality that we take for actual reality.

There is a relationship between close-mindedness and mental dullness. A material mind is shut off from the light and spaciousness the soul mind by its nature produces. Enclosed within its own boundaries, the material mind tends to be narrow, rigid, and oppositional.

Accessing the soul's intelligence can both refresh and strengthen the material mind and yet expand its horizons. An open mind tends to be porous, flexible, and strong, as long as it stays rooted in the fertile soil of the soul. A closed mind is like a hard stone at the bottom of a dried-up stream. An open mind is like a flourishing tree near the bank of a flowing river.

Mysticism, a frequently misunderstood term, is really nothing more than an open systems approach to spirituality based not upon a belief or a concept, but upon actual experience. Mysticism is the treasure house of spiritual technologies, providing the seeker with maps for the journey of consciousness as well as means to reach higher states of awareness and love. Spiritual experience at its best, both expands and stabilizes the material mind by rooting consciousness in the mind of the soul.

The soul's intelligence encourages thought, including every one of the physical senses, to stretch beyond the consensual grids of ordinary cognition and perception, but not as a way to abandon the world and daily responsibilities. The soul mind connects the material mind more intimately and meaningfully with others, with the earth, and ultimately, with the entire universe.

This high-grade connective capacity of the soul enables consciousness to enlighten the material mind because the soul's intelligence at its core is a substance of light, a luminous being of affectionate awareness. Although the soul's intelligence is by nature empathic, its structure is its own strength. Inner poise and mental sharpness are essential characteristics of the soul mind and formulate its energy "backbone." While the material mind tends to be anxious and neurotic and easily drained of energy, the soul mind is able to connect and resonate empathically with other minds in its vicinity and abroad, yet without being easily exhausted.

Because the soul's intelligence is intimately connected to the heart of being, it resonates more immediately with love than with any other emotion and has continual access to its wellspring. When we strive to connect with others from a higher frequency of non-judgment, for example, we sense others with more clarity and understanding. Understanding is empathy with boundaries and instrumental in the maintenance of the soul's hygiene in the material world.

A healthy state of mind is re-energized and refueled not only through sleep but also through the practice of meditation. Unlike sleep, meditation has been clinically found to produce a coherent brain state of relaxed alertness. Relaxed alertness gives the mind entry to presence.

Presence, by its very nature, is a positive energy state of being. When the mind is in presence, it looks neither forward nor backward. Only the regretful past and worrisome future is able to create negative stress upon the mind.

Being in presence helps to shift awareness into a new key. As the material mind learns to open up to the expansive and fecund field of the soul mind, the result is that something gets quickened in us beyond our physical senses. We awaken to the grander senses of the soul.

How do we know when we have experienced the soul's senses? Every time we are touched by awe, enthusiasm, attunement, and resonance, for example, we experience life with the senses of the soul.

In my book, Meditations for the Soul, I provide meditations and awakening exercises to activate and strengthen these deeper senses that can help us access and maintain presence. This is why every moment is potentially a soulful sense experience. Only when our mind is fully and freely present to being, are we then more alive.

Think of these moments: a sunrise or sunset, a gaze into the eyes of a beloved, a moonlight-drenched earth awash in softened hues, the birth of a child, the peace-filled dying of a seasoned soul. Even a seemingly ordinary moment can trigger a soul-sense experience: the smell of rain, the dance of light's shadow through a gauzy curtain, a moment of thoughtful silence. These and so many other tastes and glimpses of soulful reality, that seem to suspend the self in time, would seep into our very pores if we would but allow them entry.

Our soul mind also makes its journeys into "darkness" when the tides of the ocean of light momentarily recede. All of us from time to time have been drawn into those dark nights of longing and sorrow. These slower movements of the soul have their own rhythm. Their cadence resonates with the moon's waxing and waning phases and with the daily rising and setting of the sun.

In our soul's dance with love in any one of its forms, love can seem to move toward and away from us, bringing us happiness one moment and sadness the next. The soul mind has the ability to contain both extremes and all that lies between in a spacious wholeness of acceptance.

This continuous cycle of darkness and light, empty and full seen now in the larger context of wholeness, reveals the rhythmic patterns occurring within our soul mind throughout the inner seasons of our lives. Knowledge and acceptance of these cycles has a great capacity to stabilize the material mind as it calibrates to the frequency of its true center. The soul mind is the true center of the self, as instanced in the wise saying, "And this too shall pass."

Everyone has the potential of companionship with one's own soul and the soul of others. In essence, the soul is the inner physician that heals all ills and bridges all distances. For it is indeed the soul and its perpetual breath of life that makes each of us whole, moment by moment, day by day, and life by life.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2021. All rights reserved.

My sister committed suicide, and someone told me that because of this, she must be an earthbound spirit stuck on the astral plane. Is this true? I know that suicide has traditionally been viewed as a big sin. Do you believe this reflects some higher spiritual truth? I'm very worried about her, and would love your advice on how to contact her and make sure she is okay.

- Jan

Dreamchaser:

This is a really touchy subject for me because my birth family sister killed herself, and I have seen the devastation this wrought on the rest of the family.

I have stated many times in this column that King James mistranslated or altered the Christian Bible so that he could control the population. I think he was the one who decided to make suicide a "mortal sin."

I also believe that big questions like this do not have cut and dried answers. Issues this complex are never black and white, so I think it's wise to consider each case individually.

For example, let's think about soldiers from the Civil War. When soldiers on the front line were moving forward into hand-to-hand combat, they could probably assume that their lives were going to end. Japanese kamikazi pilots from World War II knew when they stepped into their cockpits that they were going to their deaths. Are these not forms of suicide?

What about the Jews that moved up to Masada and killed themselves so that the Romans could not take them alive? That was considered a brave and honorable thing to do. Hari Kari is another form of suicide that is considered an honorable death.

Not every soul that commits suicide is punished. I also do not believe that every soul that commits suicide is stuck in the lower astral plane, or becomes earthbound.

I do believe that in most cases, that soul is taken to a "classroom" type setting, and looks at what happened in the life that they chose to leave. I have also heard from Spirit that the souls of those who commit suicide reincarnate rather rapidly, and are put right back into another life that has the same challenges as the life that they tried to leave behind.

I believe that suicides' paths after death depend on their intentions in taking their own lives. I also think that a soul's journey and lessons are sometimes too complex for our human minds to comprehend, and I feel that this is one of those cases.

No one really knows why my sister killed herself. No one who knew her can figure it out. I feel that she just got tired of the constant struggle that her life had become. It was selfish and thoughtless for her to take her own life, of course, but it was HER decision at the time.

I do not feel her soul will be held in some awful place because of that decision. I do not feel that YOUR sister's soul will be punished as a result of her decision.

I expect that her soul will be forced to look at the decision and why she chose it. I also think that she is going to have to come back and do it again and again and again until she gets that part of her soul's lessons right.

I wish you peace with this horrible situation.

*****

Astrea:

I'm so sorry for your loss. Nothing feels worse than losing someone you love in this way.

Though some suicides become earthbound, most go on to Heaven and wait to be born again. Your sister certainly is NOT bound to this earth in any way, though she may choose to return to "check" on you and the rest of your family from time to time.

Over the years I've learned that no matter what earthly experience led suicides to take their own lives, it all instantly falls away from them when they die. They then travel on into the Light for a period of rest and reflection, just like everyone else.

It IS a bit harder for suicides to communicate with us at first, but in time, she'll come to you in dreams and talk to you again. Right now, it's HER guilt over taking her own life that prevents her from being with you. That takes time to heal, and is the worst of what she'll go through in the afterlife as a result of committing suicide.

The people left behind suffer from wondering much more than people who take their own lives. Suicide is a dreadful and horrible decision to make, and it's selfish when it is designed to punish others. "They'll be sorry when I'm dead" is SO TRUE. We're all SO SORRY that we couldn't make that person's life worth living.

The person dying isn't the true victim of suicide because she'll be fine. It's the rest of us who have to deal with that selfish act for the rest of our lives.

Obviously, people who take their own lives are caught up in profound suffering. While it's the ultimate arrogant act, and God certainly doesn't like it, God forgives it IMMEDIATELY. God is so all-forgiving and compassionate that even throwing their life away will not bar a person from Heaven.

Old superstitions still affect us subconsciously, and of course religions that seek to control us have many convinced that if we take our own lives, we'll be "out of the sight of God."

Perhaps that's true for a little while. I'm sure that like everyone else, your sister had a divine process to complete when she died. Then she went into Heaven - or whatever she perceived to be heaven when she was alive. For her, I'm sure it's very peaceful there, as she seems to have been very tired here.

I know you miss her, but you can still talk to her whenever you want. She hears you and she'll help you. It seems to have been a bit easier for her than some of the other suicides I've spoken with over the years. Please know that in saying that, I am not trying to make light of her choice or your suffering.

Let's face it: she was miserable here. She had family and friends on the other side, and they are helping her see herself clearly so she can join the light. She will get there for sure, but in the mean time, you can offer her your healing prayers.

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.