personal responsibility
Seeing The Spiritual Essence In Others
My world was turned upside down when my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For seven agonizing months in 2005, I became his caregiver, managing the extreme emotional and physical toll of his illness.
Even the hospice staff, experienced in end-of-life care, commented at the time that my father was not an easy patient to care for. Their observation confirmed my own feelings on the matter and highlighted the unique challenges of the difficult karmic relationship I had with my father.
Throughout this stressful time, I held out hope for a miracle. I felt compelled to seek guidance, but unfortunately Spirit revealed a timeline of six to twelve months. This devastated me at the time, but I’ve since come to accept that arrivals and departures are part of every soul’s journey. Spirit was simply confirming a poignant truth: at some point we are all called home to the spirit realm.
Despite his resistance to any form of treatment, my father allowed a trusted colleague of mine, a master in his healing modality, to visit our home weekly for body alignment sessions. These sessions became a turning point — not only for my father, but for me as well.
During their second session, my healer friend shared an observation that struck a deep chord. He sensed an immense amount of bitterness and resentment in my father, energies he had perceived without any prior knowledge of my father’s emotional state or life history. He then offered me a piece of wisdom that changed the way I viewed not only my father, but all of my relationships: “Try to see only the true spiritual essence that is your father.”
Karmic Healing: Can You Handle The Truth?
In the famous courtroom drama A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson’s character, Colonel Jessup, exclaims in an iconic movie moment, “You can’t handle the truth!”
I suspect this scene has become legendary in movie history because it resonates so deeply with most people. On some level, many of us sometimes struggle to face the truth about ourselves and our lives.
Whether it’s difficult memories, unhealed wounds, failed relationships, or unspoken regrets, facing our truth can be challenging, even traumatic or overwhelming.
Yet, from a spiritual perspective, facing and owning our truth is one of the most powerful steps we can take on our path to karmic healing and soul growth.
Our soul journey is a karmic balancing act in which the energy we put out into the world eventually comes back to us. When we hide from our truth – whether through denial, justification or avoidance – we accumulate karmic debt.
Like a heavy boulder that we carrry around, karmic debt hinders our soul growth and spiritual progress. On the other hand, when we consciously choose to face our truth, we release this burden and open ourselves to healing, growth, fulfillment and inner peace.
Denial is our most common response to unpleasant truths. We tend to avoid acknowledging aspects of ourselves that we find unattractive, justify our negative behaviors, and make excuses for our bad choices and failures in order to protect our fragile human egos. However, these “untruths” build up over time. By avoiding them, we create layers of illusion that distance us from who we really are and cloud our understanding of our soul purpose and the divine spark within.
Forgiveness Is Choosing To Take Back Your Power
Ah, forgiveness! Such a misunderstood concept. For many people, forgiveness, as noble as it may sound, is very difficult, even impossible.
Sometimes certain wrongs are so grave to us that the offender doesn’t deserve forgiveness in our eyes. There is also a misconception that forgiving someone is tantamount to excusing or justifying their terrible actions. But forgiveness is not about absolving someone of responsibility. Instead, it is a powerful, personal act of release and healing.
When we forgive someone, whether they’ve hurt us emotionally, betrayed our trust, or even caused us physical harm, we’re not letting them off the hook.
We are not condoning their actions or giving them permission to repeat those offenses. Rather, we are choosing to free ourselves from the weight of resentment, pain, and bitterness that binds us to them and their past actions.
Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. It allows us to move forward without the burden of past grievances and with an open heart, free of resentment.
By forgiving, we determine for ourselves that the transgressor’s actions and the memory of their misdeeds will no longer hold us hostage or march with us into the future.
While we may not be responsible for what happened to us in the past, we are responsible for how we choose to carry the memory of it into the future. This is the power of forgiveness: it gives us the strength to embrace our present reality with clarity, compassion, and freedom. It also transforms our future, for it is ultimately a karmic choice that will shape our destiny in ways we will only understand much later in this life and beyond.
How To Navigate The Sun’s Debilitation In Libra
The current debilitation of the Sun in Libra is causing challenges and disruptions in various aspects of life. In astrology, “debilitation” refers to a planet being placed in a sign where its qualities are weakened or limited.
When the Sun is debilitated in Libra, the usual energies are diminished according to the qualities of that sign. This astrological event therefore weakens the Sun’s influence in terms of authority, recognition, and personal power. As a result, many of us may experience unexpected changes in our careers, relationships, and personal lives until November 15th.
In Vedic astrology, each planet has a sign where its natural qualities are considered at their weakest, called a “debilitated” or “neecha” state. The Sun, which symbolizes our core self, vitality, ego, and sense of purpose, represents the energies of confidence and assertiveness. In Libra, however, the Sun’s qualities are tempered, tending toward compromise, diplomacy, and harmony.
The placement encourages us to prioritize cooperation over independence, as Libra’s emphasis on relationships, balance, and the perspective of others mutes the Sun’s usual assertive radiance. As a result, we feel more compelled to seek balance and harmony over confidence and assertiveness, and less inclined to take center stage or make bold, self-directed moves. Instead, there’s a focus on harmonizing with others and considering their points of view, which can shift the typical expression of personal power.
The debilitation of the Sun in Libra can be both empowering and challenging, requiring us to balance our individual goals with our relationships, and to examine where we may be overreaching for the sake of peace. While the Sun’s weakened state can feel limiting, it also offers a time to consider how cooperation and mutual respect can enhance our lives and strengthen our purpose from a place of unity rather than individualism.
Tarot Forecast November 2024: King Of Pentacles
The card I drew for this month is the King of Pentacles, which predicts a time of stability, abundance, and grounded success. This card is associated with material wealth, financial security, and mastery of the physical realm. It signals that now is the time to use your practical wisdom and focus on tangible results.
Whether we’re building a business, investing in a new opportunity, or seeking a stable foundation, the King of Pentacles reminds us that patience, diligence, and careful planning are the keys to long-term success.
The imagery of the King of Pentacles is rich in symbolism. Sitting on an elaborate throne decorated with carvings of bulls and vines, he is a figure of authority and strength closely associated with the earth element. The grapes and lush greenery surrounding him symbolize fertility, prosperity and the fruits of hard work.
In his hand he holds a golden pentacle coin, representing mastery over the material world and the ability to turn dreams into reality. His robes are embroidered with images of grapes and vines, further reinforcing the themes of abundance and material growth.
The king’s pragmatic energy of self-mastery suggests that this November will not be a time for reckless actions or impulsive decisions. Instead, it’s about making strategic moves with confidence and a long-term perspective.
The symbolism of this card also encourages embracing a provider role – whether in business, family or community – as the King of Pentacles is a generous benefactor and pragmatic leader who shares his wealth and success with others.
The Empowering Eight Energy Of September 2024
As this month unfolds, we find ourselves in a powerful and transformative period in terms of numerology.
September 2024 carries the dynamic energy of the number 8, which resonates strongly with the overall vibration of the year, as this is a year of the number 8.
In numerology, each month is assigned a number based on its position in the calendar year. September is the 9th month of the year, so the number for September is 9.
To find the numerological number for a year, you add up each digit of the year until you reduce it to a single digit. So the number for 2024 is 8.
2024 → 2 + 0 + 2 + 4 = 8
To find the combined energy for a particular month within a particular year, add the number of the month to the number of the year and reduce the sum to a single digit (if necessary).
9 (September) + 8 (year 2024) = 17
Reduce 17 to a single digit: 1 + 7 = 8
Thus, September 2024 carries the dynamic combined energy of the number 8. This creates a powerful alignment that amplifies the qualities of the number 8 this month with significant opportunities to achieve personal growth, balance and abundance.
Letting Go Of Guilt
We all like to be seen as good people, and it can be deeply unsettling when others perceive us otherwise. When we find ourselves in a disagreement with a dear friend or colleague and take the blame for something we’re not responsible for, it’s natural to feel unhappy.
Spirit teaches that while it’s important to own our actions and the roles we play in conflict, guilt only serves to amplify feelings of remorse. If we allow guilt to fester, we may begin to believe that we are “bad” people who do not deserve happiness and success.
This is far from the truth. We are human, and human beings have the ability to change. Our actions may not always be right, but that doesn’t mean we are inherently bad or deserving of punishment.
Making mistakes is part of being human, and sometimes we need to adjust our responses, especially in challenging situations, in order to grow and improve. Spirit suggests that this is a much healthier perspective.
However, taking this “healthy approach” is often easier said than done. We’ve grown up in a world where elders, peers, and society define what is good and bad – even when they’re not always right. This can lead us to judge ourselves harshly and feel unnecessary guilt.
Many traditional spiritual teachings emphasize the importance of forgiveness, both of oneself and of others. In Christianity, for example, the concept of repentance is central; believers are encouraged to confess their sins, seek divine forgiveness, and then release their guilt, trusting that God’s grace has absolved them.