The traditional approach of past life therapy has always been to find out how a problem began. It works because it makes conscious what was previously unconscious. This reduces its blind power over us.
The drawback, however, is that by focusing so much on ‘fixing’ something, the issue they want to be free of remains central to the client’s sense of identity. To truly move on we also need a positive, inspiring vision to lead us forward. This is exactly what the psyche often provides – but which is usually dismissed as fantasy.
When Linzie (not her real name) came to me for the first time, she was hoping to confirm her impression that she was once a noble warrior queen who was also a good spiritual leader to her people. This wasn’t some idle wish. It had introduced itself to her in vivid dreams, meditations and striking synchronicities – all the classic ways in which our souls speak to us.
The journey into darkness
However, the two past lives she first accessed couldn’t have been in greater contrast. They were times of poverty, drudgery and sheer helplessness. These experiences were the source of her low self esteem, which she was finding so difficult to shake off. Understanding this was a big step – and as it turned out, only the beginning of her journey.
The best way to deal with unpleasant past life memories is to find out what their inner purpose was. When that’s understood we no longer see ourselves as victims of a random and cruel fate – we realise that we were on a deliberate spiritual path all along, and there was a purpose to those experiences that was ultimately good.
How to turn the light on
When it’s appropriate during a regression, I suggest that the client goes to a beautiful place to talk about their memories with a spirit guide or guardian angel. When people are open to this possibility, it works wonders. They receive wise advice which transforms their perceptions – and therefore the effects – of negative past life experiences.
Anyone can access this beneficial higher guidance for themselves. Three good methods are:
Put your question up to your higher consciousness, trusting that the answer will come in its own way, and its own time.
Ask for wisdom to come to you in a clear dream. Visualise the issue in symbolic form. Transform it by surrounding and infusing it with light.
Linzie’s guardian angel said she’d chosen those tough lives because her inner self knew it would be a painful but quick way to break down the walls of her ego consciousness. She’d then be able to move onto a higher spiritual path in her subsequent lives – which is exactly what did happen. This echoes shamanic initiation, in which the candidate is metaphorically torn apart and then put back together again with magical powers.
Remaining focused on the unpleasant past lives would be like staying in the torn apart state. The underlying goal of those lives needs to be followed through to complete the process.
Emerging into sunshine
In her next session, Linzie accessed two past lives that helped to restore her sense of self worth. She first recalled being a dancer in the Middle East. Bright, feisty and full of chutzpah, against all the odds she managed to carve a happy life for herself there. The next life she remembered was as an officer in the First World War. He made a brave decision to sacrifice himself to save the lives of many others.
The purpose revealed
We then did an exercise in which she accepted the special gifts that those two lives had for her. During that exercise she saw the two characters blending. The combination created a higher version of her best yin and yang qualities.
To Linzie’s surprise, this figure became the warrior queen she’d first wondered about, but had almost forgotten by then. She realised then that it hadn’t been a literal past life. It was bigger than that. It was a symbol of her true inner nature, come to heal her from her crushing experiences and help to rebuild herself in a completely new way.
Life really is on our side – even during those times when it seems to be against us. In the words of Guatama Buddha, ‘Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it.’
If we trust and work with the messages our inner spirit sends us, it will help us to achieve that goal. In the process it will also bring us healing, fulfilment and a joyful sense of the underlying purpose of all our lives.
© 2013 Atasha Fyfe, author of
Magic Past Lives,
www.pastlivesglastonbury.co.uk
