The Higher Self has become the mainstay jargon of self-help meditation books. Everyone wants to talk about getting to the Higher Self and they list out different, or not-so-different, meditation techniques to do so. They don’t talk about what the Higher Self is or how it operates.
First, I don’t like the term Higher Self but I will use it as it is more commonly known. I have found that the Higher Self is more of a Council of Self. A Knights of the Round Table imagery comes to mind absent King Arthur. When meeting with your Council of Self, all of the parts we have discussed so far come into play. They each have their merits and weaknesses. This is why we must have them in a council setting to complement each other.
If you just listen to one piece of yourself all the time you will inevitably fall into an unhealthy pattern. Think of it like taking vitamins. People like to stress taking multivitamins daily but medical professionals have started telling people not to do that. I remember when my eye doctor found irregularities in my optic nerves I was sent to a Neuro-ophthalmologist, a specialist for my condition. Sitting in the room with her she asked if I was taking multivitamins and I answered honestly and sheepishly, “No.” I knew I was about to get chewed out for not taking them. In a surprising turn of events, she spun around and yelled out, “GOOD DON’T!!!”
It turns out that taking multivitamins is unhealthy because if you already have a good level of a vitamin a multivitamin can push that level into excess causing more health problems. It is the same with each of the components that make up who you are. If you only focus on the Light then you become an overwhelming presence to others, intimidating and intense. If you only focus on the Mind you end up overthinking and overanalyzing everything to the point of exhaustion with no forward moment.
There has to be a balance. The Higher Self/Council of Self is all about creating that balance. Foundationally, 6 components of self have a seat at the table. You have your Body as one seat. The Mind is given two seats, one for the Conscious Mind and the other for your Subconscious Mind. Your Spirit has three seats for your Shadow, your Light, and your Darkness. It is when each has a place at the table that you begin to balance your life.
Life, as life does, presents us with different scenarios and events. Some are great and some not so much. When you are not living a spiritual lifestyle you end up just going through the motions. You exhibit avoidance maneuvers or rush headlong into things without thinking. In a spiritual lifestyle, you find the flow of these events and start to connect the dots. You realize what each event is trying to lead you towards and how to continually grow into the best you possible. This growth and journey leaves an impact and legacy on the ones you leave behind. It sets the stages and the examples for others to learn from and navigate their own lives better and continue building up to evolution in consciousness among the collective. That is how we progress as a community and society.
When these different events come into play you can call for a conclave of your Council of Self to discuss what the best way to proceed is. This is when each component of the Self has an opportunity to have a voice.
The Conscious Mind will present the situation.
The Subconscious Mind (Ego) will relate it to previous experiences and detail similarities and differences.
The Shadow will then go into its journals and explain the weaknesses the situation could call forth and what strengths the situation allows you to exhibit.
Your Light will remind you that you are powerful and how to use your power(s) appropriately for this situation.
Darkness will remind you to slow down and take it one step at a time. The situation doesn’t need to be handled immediately or all at once.
This brings us back to the Conscious Mind which will then take all of the information presented and create a healthy game plan.
The Body steps up at this time and takes over the game plan moving through the actions decided on.
This is an overly simplified explanation of what happens. It's not as linear a process as that. There is some back and forth but always in a constructive discussion and never argumentative. That is where people get hung up though. We hear it all the time when people say they argue with themselves. Arguing with yourself means you are privy to the necessary information but you don’t want to accept it. This isn’t necessarily saying there is something wrong with you. It just means there is an imbalance that needs to be corrected.
This arguing with oneself can come from different things. Like standing in the presence of your Light but not becoming one with your Light. This can create the feeling of being unworthy. In this example of course you will “argue” with yourself because all the pieces of you want you to move forward and progress but you don’t feel like you deserve better in your life. This is just one example though. You can argue with yourself because you feel like you have to go go go all the time and you’re not allowing yourself the time to rest and release. Your Ego may be trying to tell you what good memories you have but all you can focus on is the bad.
All of those examples are easily traced back to the Conscious Mind. But imbalances can happen from each piece of self. Boasting about your power and grandiose displays of it could mean that you have either tasted your Light OR BECOME ONE WITH YOUR LIGHT and rejected the counsel of the Shadow and the wisdom of humility. Maybe you are too engrossed with your Shadow because you started using one of those self-help wastes of paper. Now you’re constantly looking over your shoulder waiting for the next time you make a mistake and you’re not letting the Darkness in to receive grace and let go of the mistakes. Maybe your Body is bent and broken and you have been to multiple Doctors who can’t figure out the problem because you won’t go to your Ego. “The doctors know best so shut up Ego and let them figure it out.” The doctors won’t figure it out if you don’t tell them what is going on. The best way to tell them is to let your Ego go through your memories and show you what pains or aches you have experienced and what you were doing when you experienced them so you can vocalize the problems.
Each part of the Self is vital to becoming whole. No one part is greater than the other and no part is out to get you. They all just want you to grow because they are you. If you’re not growing neither are they. Our society has trained us to become mere numbers rather than functioning vital members of the world. We have lost the aspects of a community where everyone knows each other and knows who to go to for what is needed. We are promised that anyone can be anything they want to be in the world today, which is true. But the approach is more you can be anything you want to be so long as you do it this way and this way only. That’s where we have come to this impasse in not just spiritual practices but in living in general.
This has gone on for a long time and instead of getting the help we need we have people capitalizing and preying on the pain of others. Which in turn means there are devices to keep us broken. Like misinformation or misdirection. The mystifying of the mystical. Someone messaged me privately on an app and said, “Secret knowledge should be kept secret.” NOPE!! I can’t get behind that one. I never responded to that person directly and never will. If they see this post then they will have my response. There is no such thing as “secret knowledge.” All knowledge should be shared with those who seek it.
Going to your Council of Self will help you find the best ways to obtain knowledge. To heal the fractures placed on you. And how you can best interact with people around you to bring change to the world. We each have a role to play but before we can stop fighting each other we have to find a balance in ourselves. That’s the real work to be done to meet with your Council of Self. A reconciliation of self. This is where we give ourselves time to air out our grievances with ourselves. We come to understand the polarities we experience in life and how to find a balance to those spectrums. Do I behave more masculine or feminine? Are my ideals more aligned with good or evil? Am I more of a thinker or a doer? Am I liberal or conservative?
There’s a bunch of spectrums we fall on and try to define ourselves by the labels and categorizations. None of them matter though. What matters is finding the balance in them all. Imagine each spectrum as a bunch of lines crossing over each other. You want to find the center where all of those lines cross. Because that central point is you, the true you or “True” self which is what I will talk about in the next post. The Council of Self is where to go to figure out that central point and find that balance. It is here with all the segments of Self that we can come to understand who we are, how we are, what we are, and why we are. The when and where are ever-changing though so we don’t necessarily need to focus too much on those at a foundational level.
But this is it, if you have been reading along this is where we have gone foundationally. We have come to the elusive and mysterious Higher Self that people swear is the best place to be. Its great yes but it is not the end of the road. There is so much more still to work with. Remember this, you are fascinating and unique among all of us. So am I and so is the stranger you pass on the street. Thank you for reading and I will catch you on the next post.