IMAGE: The further we veer off track, the bigger the lifebuoy required! © Louise A. Shilton (2005)
“Our lives are not the result of random acts or events. Lifetimes are wisely and carefully scripted to enhance our learning and spiritual evolution… Destiny points are part of the plan, but your reactions are free will.”
Dr Brian Weiss
Many of us are familiar with the notion of destiny as some sort of predetermined course or series of events in our lives. And many of us are also familiar with the notion that humans embody the gift of “free will”*―that we can make choices and alter the course of our destiny to some degree. These phrases and concepts get bandied around frequently and somewhat indiscriminately―some people even take a rather fatalistic view of life, feeling that circumstances and events are out of their hands. But who really knows how much of our life is guided by other forces and follows our destiny, or how much is determined by our own free will choices?
Many would probably argue that only God or Source Energy really knows the answer to this, and that the details lie in the chapters of our own individual Book of Life or Akashic Records. (Each and every one of us has a Book of Life―a record of everything our soul has experienced through its various physical incarnations as well as the learning we do during our life between lives, as discarnate souls in the spirit realm.)
I believe that our lives are shaped by a combination of events and experiences that have been decided upon and agreed to by our soul prior to incarnation, interwoven with the free will choices that we make along life’s journey. At any moment in time, our futures are a complex array of possibilities and probabilities. Each of us incarnates with potentialities for our life’s journey, and each choice that we make has a little ripple effect on something else―like the butterfly effect, some choices are fairly inconsequential, while others can have far-reaching knock-on effects, and may require some course corrections from the Universe to get us back on track.
So what do I mean by “back on track”? I am referring to when we get nudged (or even shunted!) back onto a preferred course―something that better serves our soul, our highest potential and greater good―when we have made decisions and taken actions that have moved us further and further away from our soul’s plan. (The concept of course corrections, interventions and adjustments from higher forces is interestingly explored in the 2011 movie “The Adjustment Bureau”, which is based on “Adjustment Team”―a short story by Philip K. Dick.)
Make no mistake―our soul does have a plan for us! Each and every one of us incarnates with a plan and a purpose for our life. Our souls undertake a lot of preparation before they incarnate for a human life―Michael Newton refers to this as “Preparation for Embarkation” in Journey of Souls, his seminal book on life between lives. (See my blog “You Don’t Need a Roadmap if You Can Read the Signs…”.)
Our soul’s plan is our true heart’s desire.
The details of our soul plans and our preferred life paths differ, but they are always designed to best serve our own soul’s learning and growth―the reason we are here, having a human experience, is to expand our consciousness and enhance our soul’s qualities. The experiences our soul plans to have are always about our own soul’s evolution―and often also involves lessons and experiences for other souls. We are all connected, and what we do impacts on others to a lesser or greater degree, depending on how closely connected we are, and what our souls may have agreed to prior to incarnation.
We each incarnate as a human with soul contracts―agreements we have made with other souls during the planning phase of our human life, prior to our incarnation. Our soul contracts often involve at least one of our close soulmates―another soul in our immediate soul group or soul family―but typically also involve affiliate souls, and an array of other souls to a lesser degree. It is mindbogglingly complex for our human minds to comprehend, but each of us affects the other to varying degrees with the choices we make and the actions we undertake. Impacts upon others may be subtle, or they may be profound. But soulmates are so closely connected that they are always affecting each other, even if they are not in physical contact or communication―the effects and influences are energetic.
Typically a close soulmate will affect us in profound ways even if the physical contact is only fleeting―we know them, and our soul recognises that something is about to change in our lives when we meet them, whether or not we attempt to talk ourselves out of it by trying to rationalise our experiences with our human mind. Meeting our soulmates―those who we have soul contracts with―typically triggers a deep inner awareness and knowingness in us. Our soul recognition may be discreetly subtle or it may be intensely obvious―but it is always significant. (I talk about recognising soulmates, soul communications, and soul contracts in blogs such as “And Then Their Eyes Met…”, “Do You Believe in Love at First Sight?”, and “You’re Not Alone”.)
Most of the spirit channellers and spiritual teachers that I follow to some degree, and my own channelling and communications with Spirit, agree―when we have a plan to meet our soulmates, we will meet them, one way or another. What we do next is to some extent up to us―and is affected by our free will choices―but, if the soul contract is important, destiny will present them to us again. This is true where souls have agreed to meet and unite for a higher purpose―a shared mission―such as twin flames who have incarnated together as an embodiment of unconditional love, and share a committment to express their love in the physical, and combine their energies as a powerful team to effect positive change as leaders in their world, and for the whole planet at this important time of transition and transformation. (Some “twin flame” articles are linked from my blog “Café de Flore: Soulmates, Twin Flames and Healing Karma from Past Lives”.)
Steve Rother, Channeller for “The Group”, says in Tuning In Two:
“If for some reason―since you are on the planet of free choice―if for some reason you come up to this contract that means and has meant so much to you and they choose opposite, or they’re in another relationship or whatever happens, what takes place is if it is important it will come around and have another chance to it―another opportunity―and sometimes two or three back-up plans will take place…”.
Each moment we make choices based on either love and faith, or fear. Love and faith are soul-based. Fear is ego-based.
“Keeping up appearances is a form of fear. It is fear of rejection―fear of how you are perceived by others. Self-acceptance is the only antidote.”
Christine DeLorey
As humans we can be very cunning about how we trick ourselves into believing that we are doing something out of love for ourselves or for others, which is actually based in fear and is our ego getting in the way of our soul. Our heart knows the truth―always―but we have to listen to our heart and align ourselves with our soul.
As a natural risk-taker I have generally been quite good at following my heart and soul, but I have, of course, also made a number of poorer, fear-based choices in my life. A relatively big ‘mistake’ I made several years ago was buying a house in a city I didn’t really want to live in, when I could have worked largely from home in my humble abode on the Tablelands, and commuted only a couple of days a week to the city for meetings and to check-in with my employer. But it had been a time of property boom for years, and having missed out on being able to purchase prior to the boom in the UK, I was keen to get more established in the property market. My heart was really in the liveable shed that I was renovating in a beautiful landscape close to crater lakes where I swam and kayaked, but I bought a second property and stretched myself financially, telling myself it would set me up nicely for the end of my job contract in a few years. As soon as I bought the second property I knew I had gone off track… I was off plan. I didn’t understand life and soul in the way I do now―but deep down I knew I had taken a wrong turn. My ego had fooled me into thinking I was doing the best for myself, but one thing after another went wrong after this choice, and it took a few hard going years and coming to terms with cutting my losses in what I had invested before I got myself out of the pickle, exhausted, but relatively intact.
Whereas my liveable shed brought me joy, and also sold at a profit―my house brought me heartache and sold at a loss. The global financial crisis (“GFC” in Australia) kicked in shortly after I bought the second property, and the strain financially and emotionally took its toll on me. But worse than the financial challenges was the inner knowingness that I had created this situation for myself through a poor choice—and it wasn’t something that I could easily back out of!
I often encounter people who are struggling to make decisions for their future through my work with Life & Soul Insights, and in almost all cases, deep down they do know what is really best for them. They often have fears about financial security, fears about not being good enough at something, fears about being seen to be irresponsible if they follow their heart―sometimes crippling concerns about what other people will think of them―but invariably there is a kernel of knowing within themselves of what potential future scenario makes them feel lighter, happier, freer, and more excited. Sometimes it’s abundantly clear to them what path fills their heart and soul with joy—it’s the changes they need to make to pursue that path that fill them with fear, not the path itself. When it is joyful―it is your soul. No exceptions.
When we go off track and are in situations that are not serving our soul and our highest potential, our soul will let us know in a variety of ways. It may, for example, tell us that a relationship is over―it is no longer serving our soul. If we are really off track, and it is important to get us back on track, the Universe may conspire to deliver course corrections to nudge us back onto our path. If we are in peril and potentially jeopardising a greater plan―such as a shared mission with other souls―the Universe may deliver interventions that have been agreed to by our soul. Divine interventions in this context are in response to our soul’s SOS―when our human is not listening, and is living in fear. (Fear thinking tends to go something like “I can’t do this because I would look foolish”, or “I can’t do that because then I would have to admit that I made a mistake”, etc.)
Interventions may not be pleasant in human terms―they are an emergency response after all! Course corrections as part of a destiny rescue can be subtle signs and symbols, soul communications, and any manner of things to guide us to make different choices and change our current path. A course correction may be something like your soul telling you that you have finished with someone you are in a relationship with―letting you know that it is in your highest good to leave the relationship that does not serve your soul. An intervention is likely to be a ‘two-by-four’―it is not negotiable! An intervention may be something like a serious accident, or a faithful partner suddenly leaving you for someone else, or a sudden employment termination from a job that is not fulfilling your soul and is making you ill or friendships suddenly disintegrating.
A bit over two years ago I had a chemical poisoning that forced me to stop, rest my body, and acknowledge my deteriorating physical health. It was a blessing in disguise, and I had enough awareness at the time to recognise this as it happened―but it was an emergency intervention because I wasn’t heeding the signs! The chemical poisoning was absolutely a wonderful wake-up call for me, and definitely in my highest good―but it has also been hugely challenging as I had to surrender to not being a Trojan any more. My body was suddenly in a critical condition and I had to repair my liver, my kidneys, my lungs, and my joints―just for starters! My condition also presented considerable financial and logistical challenges, and it affected friendships as I could no longer be the stalwart support for others in the way I often was―there’s nothing like a Divine Intervention to sort the wheat from the chaff!
So what about free will? Aren’t we here to experience the results of making our own choices? Yes―we are. But some things are too important for our soul to leave to us alone, as each choice that we make has a ripple effect…
In “The Adjustment Bureau”, Terence Stamp plays Thompson, an ass-kicking member of the Adjustment Team who is brought in to intervene in a situation that has gotten out of hand―in other words, off plan and into risky territory! One of my favourite scenes in the movie is when Thompson first confronts his charge, David, played by Matt Damon. After outlining the disasters that humans have collectively brought upon themselves and the planet, necessitating major interventions, Thompson says, “You don’t have free will, David—you have the appearance of free will”. David responds, “You expect me to believe that? I make decisions every day…”. Thompson admonishes, “You have free will over what toothpaste to use or which beverage to order at lunch, but humanity just isn’t mature enough to control the important things.”
In a clever twist about shaping our own destiny, the members of the Adjustment Team are trying to prevent David reuniting with Elise, played by Emily Blunt. The Adjustment Team are following their own instructions to the letter to keep David and Elise apart―for a full kiss between David and Elise will cause “endless ripple effects” that not even the team’s strongest authorised interventions can override! As the movie title suggests, the members of Adjustment Team are bureaucrats―they only have access to information according to the level of their ‘pay grade’―only “The Chairman” has the whole plan…
Three years and eleven months after they first met, David follows his heart and finds Elise again… He doesn’t know what exactly is in store for them, but he knows that he wants her by his side, and that this is all he has really wanted since they first met. Elise follows her heart and risks upsetting conventional norms by choosing to be with him. So impressed is The Chairman that they choose their destiny to be together, the plan involving them is ‘re-written’ so that they can be together without further impediments. But really, the original version of the plan for them was that they were always going to be together―they and others were tested along the way so that they gained the inner fortitude and courage to follow their hearts and choose their own destiny despite the interference from others.
Although I do not believe our angelic support teams are anything like the somewhat heavy-handed “case officers” portrayed in The Adjustment Bureau, I do love the way the movie explores the interplay between destiny and free will, and the tests we are all given to choose our path based on what we truly desire, rather than what other people are telling us is good for us. Listening too much to the opinions of others―rather than trusting our own heart and soul―is one of the biggest mistakes most of us make at some point in our lives.
We should trust and follow the dictates of our soul―always―for it knows what is truly best for us. Our soul understands the bigger picture of why we are here.
Postscript: * According to Dolores Cannon‘s work―which involved communicating with the Higher Consciousness of thousands of people during her 45 years or so of hypnotherapy work―Earth is the ONLY planet on which the inhabitants have “free will”. The gift of free will is viewed with both awe and trepidation―it’s what sets Earth’s humans apart from humanoids on other planets. In order to experience free will, souls agree to have amnesia when they are incarnated or born into a human life―they typically arrive on Earth with no memory of who and what they really are, or why they came here―and journey towards remembering and rediscovering this as they navigate the complex terrain of human emotions and experiences.
As we collectively evolve humanity and raise the vibration of ourselves and the Earth, the veil is thinning―children are being born now with less amnesia, and more conscious awareness of who and what they really are: magnificent, creative spirits. It’s an exciting time to be on Earth!
I trained with Dolores Cannon in her profoundly powerful Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique (QHHT). As a QHHT practitioner I can help people access their Higher Consciousness, and rediscover who they really are and why they are here.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation with a niggling sense that you made a poor choice somewhere along the line, and now you are having to over-compensate or compromise yourself?
Have you ever had a wake-up call that you recognise was an intervention from the Universe to get you back on track with something better for your soul?