INFANT SOUL

You come to the planet as an Infant Soul. In this cycle, you are self‑concerned while you accustom yourself to a new type of existence (physical) and learn how to survive here. Infant Souls usually choose lives in primitive conditions or cultures that stress the survival element. Infant Souls are survival‑oriented, curious about the Physical Plane, and have little ability to perceive that others' wishes could differ from their own. They do not open themselves emotionally because their emotional natures are not yet fully developed. They are truly self‑centered. Infant Souls also have yet to develop a sense of what each culture, or even the human race in general, considers right and wrong. Their conscience is just developing.

Infant Souls in a more advanced culture can appear pathologically naive or amoral, and perhaps out of place because they do not fit into society at large. Infant Souls are still close to the Tao and have a mystical sense of religion, which can manifest as worshiping the sun or nature in general. When you are born you manifest your Infant Soul aspect, whether that is the highest level you will manifest this life or not. This aspect deals with the primitive, instinctual part of yourself and learning how to survive in a human body. There is a close bond to the Earth, particularly the Earth‑Mother, the feminine part of oneself. You can see in children's attraction to playing in the mud, with bugs, insects, toads and lizards the manifestation of this instinctual infant soul part. Adults often get in touch with their Infant Soul part through ritual: for example, music, dancing, shamanistic ritual, sex, drugs, drumming, tattooing, or wearing face paint and ornaments.

The Infant Soul part can also be evoked through a bodily experience, such as illness, accident, or through an enlightenment experience that taps into the primal energy centers. You will experience this part when your survival is threatened or when there is a perceived threat such as losing a job. Warfare, hunting, walking alone in the dark, scary movies and situations which evoke primal fears will put you in touch with that aspect of yourself. When you can detach from the belief in fear, these experiences give you "highs" that take the form of instinctive adrenal rushes or chills and an acute awareness. The heightened awareness is the result of your instinctive center opening up to your Essence so that it can immediately perceive any possible danger and be alert enough to act on it. Generally, Infant Soul experiences are physically intense and primitive, as opposed to refined and mystical, in the sense of getting one in touch with forces greater than oneself.

BABY SOUL

By the time you have reached Baby Soul perception, you have handled survival on an individual level. The emphasis in Baby Souls is toward developing and maintaining civilization and order. They learn how to harness their creative energy in this direction. Baby Souls like their lives to be structured and look to authority to provide that structure. In religion, they prefer large, organized belief systems that provide ritual and standards of behavior. They seek cleanliness and medical care (i.e., having rules and authority in charge of their bodies and their health). Baby Souls are uneasy around anything out of the ordinary.

Baby Soul societies are rigid and have strict hierarchies of authority: for example, the Roman Empire. These souls are less violent than Infant or Young Souls, and look to the survival of the group, as opposed to their individual survival. This is the soul level at which the conscience, or a sense of the morality or immorality of certain acts within society, is fully developed.

Your Baby Soul aspect is the part of you that has learned to deal with structure and authority figures and to relate to the world in a more civilized manner, whether you are a Baby Soul or not. The civilizing influence that parents and society imprint on children is that which evokes the Baby Soul aspect to control the raw Infant Soul aspect. The first major experience for that part of you is toilet training. It is where you are told to control your natural instincts in order to please the existing authority (your parents). Next comes controlling your eating habits, controlling your anger and fear and controlling your speech. (Parents often experience this phase as making "real people" out of little barbarians.) As you continue to grow up, you have your behavior modified by teachers in school, by your peer group and by authority figures such as police, doctors, ministers, and politicians.

Your Baby Soul aspect is that part of you that is conscious of following the rules such as: "Make your bed in the morning." "Bring a sweater." "Don't accept candy from strangers." "Drink plenty of fluids." Your Baby Soul aspect likes cleanliness, order, and structure, and is flustered by the lack of it: "Why didn't you clean your room?" "Why didn't you tell me we were going to eat early?" "We've never done it that way before!" Your Baby Soul aspect feels it needs to control instinctive behavior such as eating, bathing, dining, sleep, and having sex. Also, all social behavior is primarily influenced by the Baby Soul sense of propriety: when to cross the street, how to dress and act in public, how to behave at social gatherings, how you use your words, and so on. You will notice it come out most strongly during traditional social gatherings such as holidays, weddings, and funerals.

YOUNG SOUL

Young Souls have learned to handle survival on the Physical Plane and have mastered order and civilization. They now begin establishing themselves as the authorities that the Baby Souls look to. This soul perception is in the middle of the soul's experience on the planet and is the most oriented towards the physical. Young Souls are heavily identified with their bodies and their egos. They will have the most problems admitting their true age and will be the most likely to resort to cosmetic surgery to preserve a youthful, attractive appearance. Young Souls are also the most skeptical when confronted with any experience beyond what is subject to "scientific" proof. They usually do not concern themselves with mystical or religious experience except to the extent that it makes them acceptable in the world. They often will regard the idea of life after death as preposterous and, therefore will fear death.

These souls are the most highly motivated toward success in whatever field they pursue and will work the hardest to achieve it. The prototypical Young Soul is the attractive, rich, successful person most often portrayed on television. To a Young Soul, what you own, and how great a reputation you have, is what you are. They see the world through the perspective of right versus wrong and good versus bad, and so those who do not agree with them are usually viewed as wrong, bad, or deserving of punishment or contempt. Nonetheless, they want to keep up with or surpass their peers socially, monetarily, and politically. Young Souls often have strong political feelings and involvements, and are typified by historical figures such as Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror, and Genghis Khan—all founders of great empires. The Ming Dynasty, the British Empire, and the United States (especially in its early years) are examples of Young Soul empires.

This planet has, until very recently, been populated with mostly late-level Young Souls. Therefore, the dominant political, social, and cultural systems reflect these values. Only in the last 25 years, an eye blink of time in the history of the human race, have we begun to have early Mature Souls outnumber late-level Young Souls...and indeed every other soul age as well. This has created profound social, political, and economic shifts world-wide, and will continue to do so until the planet settles into an early mature soul consciousness. This will probably take at least another 250-300 years.

Your Young Soul aspect is the part of your Essence which has learned how to make decisions for itself, whether you manifest mainly as a Young Soul or not. This aspect is capable of leadership, particularly in the area of handling the Physical Plane. You use your Young Soul aspect when you take charge of yourself, discipline yourself, and become determined to succeed. For this aspect, what is "right" is that which promotes its goals, and what is "wrong" is that which is detrimental to its goals. This part of yourself is less emotionally connected than the baby and mature parts. It tends to be goal‑oriented and egocentric. Because we live in a predominantly Young Soul society, we are constantly bombarded with Young Soul values. Those values tell you to be success‑oriented, to be ambitious even to the detriment of others, to be sexually attractive and youthful in appearance, to make a lot of money, buy all of the right products, and to make sure you can explain just what you are doing and why. People who do not accept Young Soul values are often judged as inadequate or strange. A good example of Young Soul political ideology was the arms race. The thinking behind this says that if you don't get ahead someone else will. Survival becomes competitive.

The advantage of cultivating your Young Soul aspect is that it has the motivation and self‑confidence to be achievement‑oriented and to give you success when dealing with other people, particularly in your career. Older Souls who neglect this aspect feel that their survival is threatened and therefore put too much attention on the physical. Thus, this aspect needs to be in balance with the others in order for you to function well on this planet.

MATURE SOUL

The Mature Soul has handled her issues of success and authority and has reached the point where she begins to open herself to emotional issues. Mature Souls are less self‑concerned, and orient themselves toward others, especially in groups. Rather than opening themselves up to the world as a whole, they begin with intimates and family, feeling that their relationships with others are more important than personal success or career. Mature Souls feel their connectedness to others by identifying with them and by seeing others as mirrors of themselves. This quality gives Mature Souls an aura of sincerity not found in other soul perceptions. The worst offense to a Mature Soul is to do something to her that she would not do to you. Mature Souls are less warlike than Younger Souls because they see others as themselves. Often, however, they give themselves lives of emotional turmoil and drama in order to open themselves emotionally. It is at this soul perception, therefore, where you find the most incidence of drug abuse, suicide, and lingering terminal disease.

Your Mature Soul aspect begins to develop after your Young Soul aspect has peaked in its achievement. It begins with the feeling, "There must be more to life than just this." Sometimes people feel the need to sabotage their Young Soul aspect by giving themselves times of poverty, tragedy, great loss, or ill health in order to open up the Mature Soul part. Usually this is achieved through being in relationships of great emotional intensity. For Mature and Old Souls, this period is often experienced when they are in their twenties. If you have reached a Mature or Old Soul level, you can use your Mature Soul aspect as that part which has an investment in your relationship to others and to the planet. "Others" can include intimate friends, family, people you work with, the community, a political group, humanity at large, or even the ecosystem. The value of the Mature Soul aspect is in the full development of conscience, compassion, and the ability to be emotionally connected and fulfilled, as well as to give and receive love. Those who neglect this aspect will feel unfulfilled in their emotional expression and will appear aloof, callous, or estranged from others.

The group consciousness of the Mature Soul aspect desires to be "like" others and therefore seeks to be understood and accepted into the group. This can be seen in its means of expression: clothes, speech, values, where you go and what you do and how you behave. From this point of view, Mature Soul behavior is a further evolution of Baby Soul behavior, as they both operate with group consciousness. As the planet shifts towards a more mature perception, we see people acting out of group consciousness and becoming interested in the emotional harmony of the planet as a whole. With the acceptance of mature perception will come an increase in spiritual awareness and the ability for Mature and Old souls to manifest themselves more readily at their appropriate soul ages.

OLD SOUL

The Old Soul has learned how to emotionally connect and puts her attention toward spiritual growth. Old Souls learn to detach from the emotional intensity of the mature cycle and then gradually detach from the Physical Plane entirely. They have a more intellectual approach to existence than Mature Souls, and they are able to conceive of the greater whole of which we are all part. Old Souls need to complete all of their Physical Plane experiences and karmas before turning their attention toward Astral lessons.

Early Old Soul behavior is characterized by a period of internalization, soul‑searching, and a feeling of no longer fitting in with the mainstream of society. Once this aspect has been "discovered" and fully internalized, the next step is determining, "How am I going to show up in the world?" For the older Soul, this means finding a way of expressing herself in her personal life and in her career that is in alignment with her inner purpose. Because each soul is unique and wants to make its individual contribution, there are not many role models for Old Souls in a Young Soul society. Old Souls in this society also have a tendency toward self-deprecation; they know they do not fit the norm and may deem themselves unworthy as a result. Older Souls usually investigate various spiritual teachings that are available, but, in the end, create their own belief system from a combination of many different spiritual perspectives.

Your Old Soul part has the ability to rise above the mundane events of life and put you in touch with the greater purpose of being here. It does not become "stuck" or identified with the difficulties and tragedies of human existence but is able to see itself more objectively and with a greater sense of humor. It cultivates a sense of philosophical detachment, humor and non‑identification while attaching itself to the sense of something greater and beyond itself. Old Souls learn to flow with life as it happens, as opposed to resisting and fighting with it. Your Old Soul aspect is the part of you that has the agreement to teach and assist others along their chosen paths of spiritual development. Most Old Souls teach through example. Along with teaching is the commitment to complete your existence on the Physical Plane by integrating and balancing all of the different aspects of your entire being, infant through old.

The last lesson for an Old Soul is agape, or unconditional love, toward herself and others. This is the most difficult lesson because it means self‑forgiveness as well as being able to love others to the extent that you can give them permission to be on their own chosen paths. Once all aspects of human existence are fully accepted, an Old Soul becomes eligible to move on to the other Planes of Existence.