SoulEssence: Your unique spark of the Divine

"May the stream of my life flow into the River of Goodness.

May the bonds of my ignorance be loosened that I may be free.

May the thread of my song not be cut while I sing,

And let not the work of my life end before its fulfillment." -Rig Veda 11:28

The three Transpersonal cards are Source, SoulEssence, and Witness. These cards represent the Oneness Beyond Form. Although these cards point to Oneness, they cannot adequately represent its vast mysterious reality.

In SoulCollage® Evolving, Seena Frost describes SoulEssence as "the spark of Source within each Soul, and within each living thing. It is formless potential and without Shadow, and therefore SoulEssence does not have a voice you can intuit to answer questions. SoulEssence is the personal calling which nudges and directs, and gives a special reason to be alive. It's the quintessential-ness of a being, ever-present and immortal."

Much like the acorn carries the coding for the oak tree, SoulEssence is our unique divine coding. When you observe very young children, or remember your own childhood, SoulEssence is apparent in the child's "natural-born" interests, inclinations, and gifts. Family members wonder why the child plays School all day when the family is full of athletes, or why the child is always building things when the family is full of writers and artists. I've observed the unique SoulEssence of each of my seven grandchildren and am curious to see how SoulEssence will manifest in my two great-grandsons!

Even as a petite child, my granddaughter Madeline was The One Who Energetically Takes Charge of any situation. Applying unusual self-discipline as a young gymnast, Maddie was always willing to put in the hard work to reach her goals. At four, when stage fright set in during a recital, she stepped up and led her older ballet class to finish victoriously. Now in her twenties, Madeline continues to show up and take charge. That tiny acorn has grown into a mighty towering oak. She is an amazing and popular leader, known for her competent, in-charge, no-nonsense approach to life. Look out world, here she comes!

Seena wrote that when a Soul is on track, manifesting its SoulEssence coding in the world, the Soul feels balanced and happy. "Our SoulEssence is a gift that we can never lose no matter how covered over and hidden it becomes. In the moments when we succeed in doing this we will probably experience our life as happy, no matter what the external circumstances."

Seena reassures us, "However, gradually our intuitive knowing dims as our Committee Neters try to manage life's experiences. Shadowed Neters such as competition, fear, laziness, egotism may dim the message from our SoulEssence. Even though we may ignore the signals, SoulEssence never vanishes. SoulEssence will flow whether we pay attention or not. It will guide us. It will compel us. It will make use of our blunders and our discoveries."
When the twin pandemics of Covid-19 and Fear began to surface a few months ago, my first question was "What should I do to respond to all this pain and suffering?" Around the same time, excruciating pain in my right shoulder began sapping my energy. There was definitely a Disturbance in the Force! Through many sleepless nights, the same question haunted me: "How should I be helping now?"

No answers came. I felt lost, panicked at the rare experience of being estranged from SoulEssence. None of my dreams for service seemed possible. I reluctantly wondered if old age had defeated me. I considered retiring from service of any kind. Then, in desperation, I began asking the pain-body for its wisdom.

I decided to postpone any vocational decisions until I'd fulfilled my commitment to teach a 90-minute Zoom class for KaleidoSoul Kindred Spirits on my work with Walking the Beauty Way. I told myself to power through and observe what guidance might surface.

April 19 came, and lo and behold, 48 people showed up and were completely engaged with diving deep into the Neter of Beauty! I was in the flow of my SoulEssence. Thank Goodness! That night, for the first time in months, the shoulder pain vanished, allowing me to sleep through the night. The pain is healed now.

In the days that followed, many dream symbols revealed this message: "Once again, Marti, your Should-er Neter causes you pain. Notice how you feel when you are in the grip of your many Shoulds. Notice how different you feel when you are in the flow of your unique calling. Your SoulEssence is about serving Life through your faithful attunement to the vibration of Beauty. Walk the Beauty Way and continue to immerse yourself in its transformative healing, its vitality and balanced aliveness."

PRACTICE ONE- If you've created a SoulEssence Card
Take the card out, along with your journal and pen. Create a sacred space and commune with your SoulEssence card.

Possible Journal questions to ask yourself might include...

• What are your earliest memories of expressing your SoulEssence?
• What were moments when you felt most alive, most like 'you'?
• How did family and friends react to you when you expressed your SoulEssence?
• Were you affirmed or mocked or shamed or...?
• What was your internal response to these reactions?
• As you grew up, did those reactions impact your ability to embrace and express your SoulEssence?
• Currently, how do you know when you are in the flow of your SoulEssence?
• What Neters can encourage or discourage you from being in the flow of your SoulEssence?

PRACTICE TWO- If you haven't made a SoulEssence Card yet

Explore your deck for clues. Whether you have a card or not, your SoulEssence is alive and present! Take out your SoulCollage® deck, your journal and pen.

• Call upon your Neter of Curiosity to help you discover more about your SoulEssence.
• Look in all four Suits for clues about your SoulEssence.
• Notice the symbolic patterns of free flowing aliveness in the cards that may reveal your unique SoulEssence.
• Pull these cards out and look at them more closely.
• What do they have in common-symbols, colors, people, animals, etc.?
• Listen carefully when each card reveals its messages about your unique SoulEssence.
• Fortified with this wisdom, trust that the exact right images for your SoulEssence will appear at the exact right time.

Here is a photo of my Transpersonal cards. Source is in the center, with Witness on the left and SoulEssence on the right. They serve as a trifold screen, setting sacred space when I make SoulCollage® cards. I followed Seena's guidance to make the Transpersonal cards a different size. Instead of the 5"X 8" size of my deck's Neters, my three Transpersonal cards are each 9 inches square. Although I covered them with tape, by now they're kind of battered, yet so beloved! By the way, after nearly setting fire to the house, I do not keep a lit candle near my card-making space!

I also took Seena's suggestion to mount the Witness and SoulEssence images on top of copies of my Source image. From the beginning, I was told to "trust the process" in searching for my Source image. Sound familiar? Though it took me several years before I found the right image, when it appeared I knew beyond a doubt that it was my Source image! After that, my SoulEssence card was easy to create. Even though I didn't know its name at the time, the Transpersonal Witness was the second card I made way back in 2005!

Dear Friends, cherish being in the flow of your SoulEssence. More than ever before, the world needs you to express it!

Since 2007, Marti Beddoe has been a SoulCollage® Facilitator and meditation teacher in the Kriya Yoga lineage. She is Founder of Designs for Peace, a service offering practices to support lives of Meaning, Joy, and Beauty. In June, she will begin guiding the first online Walking the Beauty Way Circle. Marti's monthly Contemplating the Beauty of..." essays explore the mysterious Beauty of various Neters. Visit this page and scroll to the bottom to subscribe. You'll receive a fr*ee Harmony Self-Assessment. Marti invites you to contact her at [email protected].