My Soul and the World are But One
How the death of a world figure becomes a soul event?
The Queen is dead and our world is different. Her death is a world event. Her life was a world event.
All world events are personal life events in one’s soul.
“My Soul and the World are but One,” said Rudolf Steiner. How Elizabeth experienced this spiritual truth and how you and I experience are both different and the same.
My world
is different and my soul has been impacted.
I’ll be 75 in December. My earliest memory of television is seeing her coronation.
Yesterday, I cried. Today, I mourn.
Elizabeth II was extraordinary, not perfect. Her karma and her destiny are hard to imagine both as an individual and a world figure. Yet, each of us would be wise to reflect and consider both Elizabeth, the human soul, and the Queen, the world figure.
Goethe said there was no crime that he was not capable of committing. I have always been so grateful for his humble
wisdom in admitting this truth that I willingly align with. Elizabeth’s death asks another equally humbling question: Is there any duty of destiny you are unwilling to fulfill? A life of crime and a life of duty, each of us needs to contemplate these and find them in our own lives.
How many people do you consciously feel a duty toward? How many people did Elizabeth
consciously feel a duty toward?
How many people think you are a moral criminal or saint? How many people thought Elizabeth was a moral criminal or saint?
Who loves you? Who condemns you? How do you respond? How did Elizabeth respond? How did the Queen
respond?
When Rudolf Steiner spoke “My Soul and the World are but One.” what did he mean by “world”? What was he admonishing when he said: “but One”? How intimate are you willing and able to be with the world and with the times?
When I ask myself these questions and
attempt to go deep, high, and wide with my quest, I come to a sense of three soul spectrums — the social, moral, and spiritual spectrums of being human. When I place my soul on any one of these spectrums I am never at a fixed point. My soul is dynamic and evolving (and occasionally back-sliding). Where am I on the spectrum of being one with the world today?
This world event of
Elizabeth’s death as part of the story, the history of the world, and as part of my story, my memories, and my attachments, offers me an opportunity to know myself and the world a little better as I move and dance on these soul spectrums.
Let me share with you one of the exercises I will be offering in the Imagine Self Academy program, Beyond 63 — Imagining Right Aging and
Blessed Dying.
As I am preparing to offer the Beyond 63 program, I am aware that reflecting on the times of your lifetime is essential and foundational to understanding the evolving meaning of your own life. Why did you incarnate into these times?
What are the
world events and world figures that impacted your sense of life, that wove you into the strange intimacy of being a citizen of the world and the times, of having a global and evolutionary soul and heart?
So I suggest you reflect back on world events of the 21-year cycles of your life. What world events and deaths of world figures impacted you in your first 21 years? What happened
and who died between your 21st birthday and your 42nd? Between your 42nd and your 63rd?
How were you impacted by each event and each death? Your feelings? Your worldview? Your understanding of karma and destiny? Your sense of hope or despair?
We are beings of our times.
When we are Beyond 63, we have reached an age where we have lived enough years to not only see patterns and threads but to find meaning, lifelong meaning.
It is so very important to know that in Beyond 63 we will not be satisfied with recollecting our story. We don’t take our stories with us when we cross the threshold of death. We take the meaning of our lives, the evolution of
our own consciousness. We leave behind our personalities and take our evolved understanding of truth, our evolved feeling for beauty, and our evolved capacities for deeds of wonder and devotion.
How did the world and the times shape your sense of self? How did you become one with world events and world figures?
If we look at this through the lens of the moment, the death of a world figure, we can be more specific in attempting these self-reflections. Choose three world figures whose death changed the world as you knew it in your soul. And I suggest at least one of these figures you consider to be a moral criminal. How did you feel about their death - sad or glad or neutral? Do you feel you could become one with them…have a Goethean
relationship?
Was this person someone you loved, admired, or idolized? Was this person someone you thought was frivolous yet famous? Was this someone you thought made the world unsafe? Did this person’s presence harden your soul or enliven it? Was it a quote by this person that resonated deeply? Was it a gifted artist that always nourished your soul with amazing talent?
Why do this? It requires deep thinking and it is scary as it will reveal something of your own soul that you haven’t contemplated before. It’s a risk. So before you run off to read some book offering spiritual guidance or watch some Netflix, ask your angel if reflecting on the death of a world figure would be a way to fulfill the ancient admonition, “O Human Soul, Know thyself!” And if
you are worried that you might not do this in a meaningful way, believe the other compassionate wisdom: there is no perfection in this process…it is just a small step on the way of becoming one with the world.
