Evolution and the Human Soul: Part Two

Evolution has long been the driver for our growth, both physically and mentally, but we evolve spiritually too. In the first part of this blog on Evolution and the Soul, we looked at how our souls make us “feel called”, to help us tap into our search for meaning and growth.

In the west we don’t really have a concrete understanding of what the soul could be. In shamanism, the soul is the ‘energetic essence’ of who and what we truly are; the immortal self, lived over many lifetimes.

The soul is our composite knowing; the informed receptacle for everything we have experienced and that we now know. The soul is our eternal Light, which is divine, informed by all of our experiences. In the 1740’s, philosopher and scientist Emanuel Swedenborg wrote that humans were the “seedbed” of the angelic realm. I believe this to be true. The soul is the mechanism through which we evolve, meaning that we rise in consciousness, by being and experiencing our true essence and identity.

The wisdom of the soul is ours, by right. We have earned it. We can learn quickly, or slowly, throughout our lifetimes but however we learn, the soul retains that wisdom from one lifetime to the next.

As we learn in each lifetime, evolution occurs by the wise soul making itself ‘felt’ to us like a compass, an inner guide, through suggestions to the mortal self, in any given circumstance. This ‘felt’ suggestion may feel like being “called” to do something, it might feel like ‘conscience’, or a small voice when faced with a decision, or it may feel like an ‘urge’ to be somewhere, or a feeling that we are ‘exactly where we are meant to be’ at this time. The soul more often speaks to us in feeling, not so much in thinking.

As consciousness elevates, we see a reduction in our judgement for others, and a reduction in our identifying with and our associating with the mind, and an increase in our compassion for all beings.

Knowing is Immortal

To probe our consciousness and to distinguish between our ‘knowing’ faculty and our ‘thinking’ faculty, is to expose where our mortal and our transcendent (immortal) faculties exist and sometimes how they overlap.

The mind and the ego are often best friends and, so, the mind likes to think of itself as the captain of the ship, master of all, the director of proceedings, especially in western cultures. However, the mind cannot know anything of substance, except that which has been given to it, so it can never hold the ‘knowing’ of the (multi-life) soul.

Notice that the mind usually sits ‘front and centre’ in the head, while the ‘knowing’ faculty sits behind, observing, not interfering. It is when we master “mental discipline” and tell the mind to sit down and be silent, and then invite the ‘knowing’ faculty to come forward and take the position of captain, that we move out of one level of human awareness and into another, into an altogether more advanced perspective.

‘Multi-life Identity Consciousness’

So, presuming that we attain mastery over the mind, have it be silent, and invite the soul to take control over our everyday life, what then? What good would it do us and how would that impact our lives?

Let’s look back over the course of these blogs, from the ‘Core Four’ and the sense of self, to now.

We’ve looked at how human development, and trauma, impacts soul development and how evolution is a natural part of that. We’ve seen how we need to finish our ‘personal work’ and to have cleared that which we are not. This includes removing the mind and its influence from our regular consciousness (meaning that we have mastered mental discipline), and allowed ourselves to be in ‘right relationship’ with the universe by inviting the soul to be a more permanent guide and compass for our lives.

Once the soul is the main navigator for our lives, then there comes a beautiful liberation. Where once we thought of ourselves as a ‘person’ with a story, where we grew up, who we married, what job we did, etc., we no longer see that story as the most important thing about us. Those details are still true, yes, but they are no longer the only story, they become just one story, the story of this lifetime only.

When the soul is the main navigator for the self, we get to know the soul in a true and deep way. And when we know ourselves at a soul level, we see our lives from a very different perspective; we move from ‘this-lifetime consciousness’ to a ‘multi-lifetime consciousness’. While we can access some of the details of who we were in those lifetimes, those details are not the most important pieces that we get to know. Far more useful to us is that we get access to the wisdom that we attained over lifetimes, that is retained in the soul. Let me repeat that. We gain access to the wisdom we attained over many lifetimes. Imagine that! Having real-time access to a wisdom far beyond our years, far beyond what we ‘think’ we know! We are literally wiser than we ‘think’!

Higher Self Perspective

In addition to the multi-lifetime consciousness becoming our “new” identity, we have easier access to the divine aspect of ourselves, sometimes known as the ‘Higher Self’. Having a Higher Self perspective is like having an aerial view over the self; we see ourselves in context more and not only does this help us to see ourselves differently, it helps us to see others differently, too.

Instead of seeing whatever is different between us as being ‘foreign’ or ‘other’, we now see our commonality. We are all different in our many ways, but we are all equal; we see ourselves as all part of the same ecosystem. This radically different perspective reduces judgement and enhances compassion. We understand better why people have behaved in the ways that they have. While we still may not agree with what they did, we take a more compassionate approach to other people’s perspective and their suffering.

Why Do this Work?

Doing our ‘personal work’ helps us to see ourselves more clearly. Most of us are familiar with this psychological model. But personal work and spiritual work are on different ends of the same spectrum. If we begin working from a psychological model, and then move through to the spiritual model, we recognise that our personal work goes from psychologically understanding others, to spiritually accepting others. If we do this, community is possible.

At this crucial time in human development, we are being invited to step forward, to own our own levels of soul evolution and to bring that into the world.

Who we truly are is the whole point of our spiritual discovery journey. Once we know who we truly are, we can discard our ‘this-lifetime’ identity consciousness. 

And there are three key steps that all humans take in the overall growth trajectory of human consciousness, in discovering who we truly are, and we will discuss these in the next blog; Evolution of the Soul, Part Three.

Do You Feel the Calling?

We are hosting a Retreat in the South of France in the Fall of 2025 to address all of these issues and to specifically help people to get into their highest awareness. We are inviting all of those of you who feel called to come forward, to step into their power and be a conscious player in this new stage of human consciousness evolution. Email mail@suzanne-connolly.com to be added to the list for more information about the retreat.

Blessings!