Navigating Reality
One of the most difficult things for the awakening Empath to understand is Ego and how Ego aspects can be managed and understood on our journey. Ego has driven our realities for most of our lifetime(s) in one way or another. Whether you are trying to lose it, ignore it, or kill it, there is an ongoing battle between what Spirit guides us to be and what Ego demands that we protect and defend.
When we can look at this reality with eyes open, many of the dichotomies dissolve. It is really a beautiful process when we realize that we see reality in different shades than most of humanity.
Rituals
Our lives here are all about rituals. We establish patterns and ways of navigating reality. Habits and routines are vital to the “human’s” wellbeing and so are rituals in this 3D reality. We maintain our homes and our bodies, laundry, cooking etc.
There are behaviors (unconscious), that we have always done, without question like brushing your teeth and there are rituals that we perform for higher experiences such as meditation and ceremony.
It is ALL ceremony from a spiritual perspective whether it is taking the trash out or participating in a sacred ceremony. It is maintenance of our experience and reality. Reality is. We are the storytellers. We choose how to respond to reality and what we wish to make of it, whether we are doing it in an aware or unconscious way.
Individual Realities
We now know, and science is beginning to grasp consciousness and how consciousness is used in our 3D reality; that how we choose to view and engage in these activities defines our experience, changes how our DNA expresses, and opens new avenues of perception and experience.
How we approach these tasks is sacred and a soul expression at all levels. It is impossible to fathom another’s approach to reality. If I said to you, “Scotch tastes like tartan plaid to me.” Or, cilantro tastes like Dawn dishwashing soap to me.” How would you respond? Could there be valid reasons? I’ll come back to this…
Ego as a Tool
“The Ego is an exquisite instrument. Enjoy it, use it–just don’t get lost in it.” ~ Ram Dass
Ego is a tool for 3D expression here. It is a mechanism in place to navigate reality from a unique and individual perspective. And that is all it is. Ego does not create our reality. It does not create the series of circumstances we are met with.
It simply reflects to us the “slant” on reality we have learned to embrace. Knowing this means we can change everything, with our focus, intention and thought. And reality, as a stream, has an unlimited and untapped potential beyond any concept held in 3D reality.
Ego, the earthling, is not reality and how ego defines reality is not reality. How we each choose to heal, educate and expand our earthling is how we choose to experience reality. Reality IS and Spirit navigates at one level; Ego at another. We are all storytellers here. What amazingly fascinating stories can you write about your unique perceptual field and expression here.
The Stream of Reality
Reality is a stream. It is in constant flow, but content or context are what we decide to focus on. There are overriding patterns established by the collective. But, there is also many new energies and perspectives being awakened at all times.
Imagine this stream as a large, multi-lane highway that circles the globe, (or runs from edge-to-edge, for my Flat-Earthers). You are in one vehicle leaving the east coast. The highway is packed from end to end, cars, trucks, horse-drawn carts, motorcycles, bicycles, skateboarders, the works.
Each vehicle has its own position and perspective of the whole and each one is different. A motorcycle driver is going to see the traffic (reality) differently then the woman driving a semi truck even if they are side-by-side. And a driver approaching the west coast is having a total different experience in the same “stream” of traffic.
The Inner Earthling
The ego aspects of personality develop at a very young age. Many begin the cognitive process around ten or eleven. Our Ego concepts of what reality is, are formed long before the brain, personality or psyche (the earthling) is matured.
Many of the behaviors are deeply unconscious and automatic. These are patterns from family constructs, often dysfunctional. Whatever current cultural and societal paradigms are reflecting also limit our perspective during this time in development.
Based on the current state of the collective, the earthling learns to defend and protect us, develops a strong sense of right and wrong (judgement), and strategies for meeting perceived needs; food, love, validation, attention, stimulation etc. These patterns revolve around fear and a sense of lack.
Imagine yourself as a sentient being with an inner “Earthling” who is fighting to save you or protect you in every moment and instance. This is Ego. This is an inner child. This is the wounded, broken, disappointed in humanity, sad, yearning earthling we all carry within us.
This is the same energy that sees reality as a child and rages at the horrors produced in the current collective. The same energy that came in innocent and veiled, with you and Ego’s response to all this mayhem is to protect you at all costs, physically and emotionally in a 3D reality.
When untrained and unaware, it senses without the higher processes of maturity. It operates from childhood perceptions of lack and needs fulfillment. This young earthling needs to be grown; heard, healed and reintegrated with higher vision and understanding. This requires dialogue and attention. Yes, talking to yourself.
Killing or ignoring a ten-year old earthling is not my idea of healing the gap between my wounded aspects and my Spiritual essence. Instead to understand reality and its natural flow and how the Ego filters or colors our unique perspectives of this flow, is the key to integrating the Ego into a higher understanding and expression in this reality.
The Empath experiences reality in different ways than many, and we are wired to receive on energetic levels. Ego, when unaddressed and unhealed changes how we perceive this reality and changes our ability to embrace the gifts we have earned through lifetimes of doing this work.
Astral Scribing
Many Empaths naturally Astral Scribe. We hear things on many levels simultaneously. This is where a lot of the confusion comes in. As the third eye opens and we are not attuned of this ability, we find situations very confusing.
We can hear the words being spoken. Then, there is a second level of hearing. We can “read between the lines,” and often this is not what is really being said, at all.
Next is a level of non-verbal perception, this isn’t easily expressed in words. This is a constant stream for the Empath. With all this division and so many blindly lost, the asleep say one thing and then act in totally contradictory ways. This is reality.
This is eight billion individual lenses watching the same show and seeing it from different and unique wounds, societal restraints, cultural conditioning, global positions and personal hardships. When this awareness comes, and we begin to see the imbalance, we, as Empaths, tend to isolate and struggle with tolerance for those expressing in such unproductive ways.
Ego and Spirit
With this awareness of patterns, we begin to see our own wounds and limitations in others. This can be very disconcerting. The earthling still wants to run the show. Yet, the soul is now seeing a different reality. This is the gap. This is the space where Spirit and ego can align in focus, love and intent.
The ego must now learn the new model of perspective. It has been referred to as upgrading our guidance from street maps to the GPS. The function of Ego in the evolving process is to contrast Spirit. It is the physical or shadow of Spirit or source.
When I say shadow, I do not refer to darkness. The earthling is the 3D tool of the higher dimensions and possibilities. It is just uneducated at present. I refer to this shadow, instead, as the unhealed Ego expression of the 3D, fear driven model and Spirit or Source aligned with Ego, as the enlightened 4D-5D model of expression.
Shadow and Light
All things cast a shadow when light is present. A shadow cannot be cast when no light is present. Building on this visual; the farther one is “slanted,” displaced from the light or living in an unaligned Ego state, the larger the shadow.
The brighter the light the deeper the shadow appears. Empaths carry a lot of light naturally in their auras and fields. When light is close and bright, the largest and darkest shadows are cast. When an Empath stands directly aligned with Source, and ego is aligned, the shadow is directly below, and not visible at all.
It does not mean the shadow ceases to exist. Instead, our earthling is sacredly aligned with Source, and the primary expression becomes one of light. As Empaths, we bring the shadow to the moment just by carrying our light with us everywhere we go.
Often we find that others have strong re-actions to us, and situations can spiral into absurd. We are often there, as a catalyst, whether we are aware of our role or not.
Empaths bring out the best and the worst in others and ourselves. Here is where our earthling can reflect our own wounds and paradigms to us through others. When I attract a particular circumstance that resonates with me in an uncomfortable or unpleasant way.
I now have to acknowledge that it could not resonate unless I am carrying baggage or a wound around that energetic. If I do not possess the aspect or behavior on some level, I will be unable to see it. If I say to you, “You are chartreuse.” And, you know you are not. This remark will have no impact on you.
For many Empaths in the process of understanding and aligning ego, self-reflection is difficult. But, remember, we only resonate with what we believe in, on some level. If I say to you “Scotch tastes like tartan plaid.” Or, I say, “Cilantro tastes like dawn dish soap.” Would you agree with me and tell me it’s not true? That I am out of touch with reality? More on this later…
Owning Our Earthling
When the Ego wishes to deny a flaw or a fault within us, it rebels, defends and distracts. “I’m not like that.” The aspects of ego we deny are the aspects that we cannot align and heal. The unhealed Earthling needs to be right.
The unhealed Ego needs another to feel whole. The unhealed Earthling is afraid of being alone. The unhealed Ego seeks attention and validation. The unhealed Earthling has no desire to see past its wounds, only to express in them and be defined by them.
This just perpetuates the struggle and suffering paradigms. These are many of the dynamics we see in our collective and circles of friends and family. When our awakening brings us these new insights, it is difficult to deal with the negativity we are attracting and experiencing within ourselves.
When the Ego is addressed and acknowledged, we are called to develop a dialogue with our internal processes and all the misinformation we have been fed from infancy.
We find that nothing we thought we knew or believed makes sense any longer. Time to honestly and humbly see our wounds and the patterns we have adopted to survive in this harsh reality.
When we can embrace the clarity we are receiving and see the Ego as the little earthling aspect, we can then teach, mature and heal ourselves and the collective. Then we stand centered in our light having removed our own resistance to what reality is. We can better understand our abilities, and how to best serve humankind during these dynamic times.
Allowing vs Surrender
So Empaths strive and reach for clarity and enlightenment. We often hear the word “surrender.” I do not see the process of evolving and growing in clarity as surrender. Reaching and striving has its benefits and serves our process of self discovery and broader awareness, and it helps us to integrate our intentions with action in a 3D manifestation.
But, ultimately this process is about “allowing”. We are not striving to be something we are not. We are learning to allow ourselves to be our best versions in every moment – by allowing ourselves to be broken and unhealed and by accepting that this is a product of expression in this matrix.
When we allow reality to be what it is, we gain perspective. We no longer attach ourselves to outcomes such as validation or needing to be right, or needing a partner to be complete. We know that one’s perspective of right and wrong, good and bad, is from a totally different frame of reference then our own.
Everything that the Ego “needed” to take personally or internalize is a fleeting perspective with eight billion interpretations. Everything is in constant motion. Everything is energy. The only constant in the multiverse is change and all soul is in constant flux.
The Ego believes things should be a certain way, and if it is not, it is personal. There are eight million personal opinions and perceptual fields out there. All valid in their framework of reference. Nothing is personal but our internal connection to Source.
Cilantro
Cilantro does indeed taste like blue dawn dish soap to me. Believe it or not, there is a genetic basis for this. I carry the gene sequence for this particular trait. And as for Scotch and plaid. Is it a genetic sequence? Some single malt scotch tastes like I imagine tartan plaid would taste. Do I have a past life as a Scottish moth? Maybe. But, my point, we are all different perceptual, emotional and genetically and have a wide range of expression.
Our abilities and gifts will manifest differently and at different stages and times for each. To assume one slant on reality is All that is or the only correct one, is a bit presumptuous.
To assume that your gift is less or more than another’ is pointless. To understand the nature of reality is to better navigate the lessons provided. Perception is EVERYTHING. Change your perception and relationship to your inner earthling and change your perception and relationship to everything.
Image Sources:
Art by Joanna Barnum
Art by Emelisa Mudle
