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THE JOURNEY
OF YOUR SOUL
A Channel Explores Channeling
and the Michael Teachings
By Shepherd
Hoodwin
|
PREFACE
Channeling is a modern word for a means of
accessing intelligence not in human form, something people have
been doing in virtually every culture since perhaps the beginning
of human civilization. In the past, such access was the domain of
priestesses and priests, shamans, oracles, seers, and so on, who
contacted "gods," "ancestors," or "spirits." Today, channels are
from many walks of life and communicate with many different kinds
of beings.
Michael is the name of a group or "entity" of
one thousand fifty souls (also referred to as "essences" or
"fragments" in the Michael teachings). For this reason, they refer
to themselves as "we." The name Michael was chosen somewhat
arbitrarily: the last soul in the entity to finish its cycle of
physical plane lifetimes had the name Michael (or its equivalent)
in its last lifetime, which, according to Michael through the
channel known as Jessica Lansing, was about fifteen hundred years
ago.
Michael's teachings provide a unique and
fascinating vocabulary identifying the building blocks we use to
create our lives. They offer a context for understanding what is
occurring and why, helping us be more relaxed and accepting. They
also offer tools for making positive changes.
With any teaching, it is easy for beginning
students to oversimplify or jump to conclusions about it. If a
teaching is substantial, it is worthy of in-depth study, with
attention paid to nuances and distinctions. This book is dedicated
to a serious study of the Michael teachings, as well as of
channeling itself. These two subjects are complementary: in
seeking answers to questions about the teachings, we come to
understand more about how channeling works, and vice
versa.
The Michael I work with is not the same as the
archangel Michael, or other Michaels who are channeled. There are
several people, however, who channel this particular Michael. The
majority of them are in the San Francisco area. For the most part,
they each draw on different members of the entity.
The first book on the Michael teachings was
Messages from Michael by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. It
chronicled the experiences of a small, anonymous group that
developed around a woman who channeled Michael at a Ouija board.
The channeling in Messages (and in Yarbro's subsequent
Michael books) laid the foundation for later Michael channels and
groups. For this reason, I frequently refer to the Yarbro books. I
am not a member of the groups portrayed in the Yarbro books,
although I have become friends with the first Michael channel and
have spoken with others who have been involved. (See Appendix A,
"Interview with Former Messages Group Member.") I also communicate
with other Michael channels and refer to some of them throughout
this book. In particular, JP Van Hulle and Aaron Christeaan, a
married couple who both channel Michael, also channeled some
fundamental concepts covered here, and I owe them a great debt. My
own contributions to the basic Michael teachings are mostly
limited to the concepts of cadre groups, greater cadre groups, and
so forth, covered in Chapter Ten, "Cadres and
Entities."
Shortly after I began channeling, I was invited
to write a chapter for a book project on the Michael teachings.
Because I wanted to better understand channeling itself, I decided
to research and write about that. The book project never
materialized, and the chapter became an article, "The Nature of
Channeling," which was instead published in a now-defunct magazine
called The Michael Connection.
I continued to write articles for the
Connection. This book contains those and other articles,
greatly revised and expanded. It also includes direct quotes from
Michael channeling I have done over the years in both private and
group sessions. These are italicized and indented; questions
preceding them are also indented but not italicized. Double
spacing between channeled passages indicates that they were
channeled at different times. I did not channel specifically for
this book, other than for the "Introduction by Michael," and to
clarify material I already had.
This book is not intended to provide a
comprehensive treatment of any aspect of the Michael teachings. It
instead offers my personal and somewhat subjective introduction
and supplement to what is provided so well by almost twenty books
by other authors. A list of these books is in the Bibliography at
the back. Other than to provide clarity and continuity, I have
avoided repeating material available elsewhere. I have sought to
make this book accessible to those without knowledge of the
Michael teachings, and have provided an extensive glossary to aid
beginning as well as more advanced students, but you might also
find it enriching to do other reading.
I have allowed what I have to say to dictate
the length of my treatment of specific subjects. Some aspects of
the Michael teachings, such as quadrates and support circles (see
Glossary), are not covered here, and others, such as monads and
karma, are discussed only briefly. Each Michael channel has areas
of emphasis based on what he has an affinity for and has found to
be useful. What his clients ask about and what he is able to
channel well also enter in. For instance, I am interested in
"Michael math," whereas some channels aren't. On the other hand,
some channels get a lot of information about configurations such
as sextants, while, at least so far, they have rarely come up in
my channeling. In the chapter "Roles," I have more to say about
the roles of scholar (early in my practice, many of my clients
were scholars) and sage (which is my role) than about the other
roles.
There are some discussions in this book that
will appeal to those who are passionate about the fine points of
the Michael teachings, but may seem like hairsplitting to others.
For example, you might not be interested in the discussion of how
body types fit on the Michael axes, or whether chakras correlate
with roles. I have separated much of this kind of material into
individual subchapters, and you may wish to skim over some of
it.
In my channeling practice, I frequently give
what I call Michael Readings, in which I channel and explain
charts of Michael information for a person. I refer to these
readings throughout this book, noting some of the trends and
oddities I've found in them. (A blank chart follows Chapter
Six.)
Every channel, channeling practice, and
location is unique, so other Michael channels and students may
have had different experiences than I have. Also, they may not
agree with some of my views, or may have received channeling that
seems to disagree with what I present here. No doubt, my
experiences and perceptions will continue to change over time, and
perhaps some of what I present here will prove inaccurate. I
discuss inaccuracies and discrepancies, apparent and real, at
length throughout the book. For now, let it suffice to say that
although no channel is one hundred percent accurate, often what
seems wrong is just incomplete. There is sometimes what I call
"bridge information" that explains how apparently opposing ideas
can both be true, or at least mostly true.
When we work to find bridge information, which
is largely a matter of asking the right questions, our knowledge
is expanded in ways that are not possible when we stick with one
source. I don't believe that any one source, channeled or
otherwise, can bring forth the complete picture of reality--we
each have a piece of the whole picture. So although some
disagreement is inevitable, one of the values of there being
several Michael channels is the wide range of material that can
come through. Each channel has a unique "instrument" to offer. I
present this material not as the "final word" on any subject but
as starting points for thought and discussion. Michael constantly
reminds us of the need to self-validate information, no matter
what its source. In writing this book, I was reminded of the
saying, "The more I know, the more I realize I do not
know."
For me, self-validation means that I don't
assume that new information I read or hear is true or not true; I
"file" it under "possibly true." I may then play with it as part
of one of my "working models" of reality, seeing how well it
works. The process of letting ideas about reality prove themselves
out one way or the other is ongoing. Models of reality are always
imperfect, and I am constantly refining mine as I receive new and
better information. In this spirit, I encourage you to enjoy and
make use of the ideas on these pages without assuming them to be
perfect renderings of reality. Maybe they are close, but whether
they are or not, they are meaningless to you if you do not make
them your own.
I welcome hearing from readers, especially
regarding your experiences with channeling and other psychic work.
I cannot promise to respond to letters, but if there is another
edition of this book, I will certainly incorporate what I learn
from your feedback. You can write to me in care of the
publisher.
Even if the Michael teachings provide amazing
and extremely helpful models of reality, as I think they do,
models are not the same as reality. Reality is far more complex
and simple than models, including the Michael teachings, could
ever fully convey. If models are reasonable facsimiles of reality,
they can promote understanding by putting reality in terms to
which we can relate. Hopefully, that assists us to experience
reality more fully. The point is reality, not the
models.
It's important not to take models too
seriously. Debating models might be interesting and useful, but
there are ideas in the Michael models, as in most other models of
reality, that we ultimately will never be able to prove
conclusively. For example, one could probably not prove Michael's
concept that the universe has seven planes of creation, even if
the number seven makes sense in light of other teachings; what if
there were six planes, or eight? Although it may be useful to have
a sense of our larger context, what cannot be proven is probably
not essential to a model's function in our lives. The measure of
an idea's worth is the extent to which it expands us and helps us
live more fully, which is to say, helps us experience greater
reality.
In a sense, every Michael student is using at
least a slightly different model, because every Michael student
understands the teachings at least slightly differently even while
using the same or similar terms. (This could be said of adherents
to any body of thought.) The Michael teachings are malleable
enough to lend themselves to somewhat different models without
losing their integrity. There are some relatively minor
differences between the way the Michael teachings are presented in
the Yarbro books and by the various authors from what I call the
"Orinda group," (which includes JP Van Hulle, Aaron Christeaan,
and those who trained with them). These two "camps," along with
various scattered individuals, could be considered the mainstream
of Michael thought. When major differences from it arise, often
they stem simply from misunderstanding; however, they are not
necessarily invalid. If the model works for the person using it,
that may be the most important thing, even when, strictly
speaking, it is no longer Michael's model. (When communicating
with someone who uses Michael's vocabulary in significantly
different ways, the "shorthand" of a common vocabulary is somewhat
lost, and a defining of terms can be called for: "What do you mean
when you say…?")
I channel consciously. That means that I am
awake and fully present during the process. Although the material
does not originate with me, Michael makes use of the contents of
my consciousness, and to some degree is limited by my limitations.
Transmitting information that is too foreign to a channel is
difficult. Channeling is a collaborative art as well as a science,
involving translation through many levels of the channel. Although
the material I channel is generally well beyond what I could
produce on my own, in a real way it is mine, and I take full
responsibility for it.
Some channeled passages needed little or no
editing, while others required extensive revision, for various
reasons. One is that much of it was originally spoken, and what is
clear orally may not be clear when it is transcribed, because
speaking and writing are different media. Some editing was
necessary simply due to my imperfections as a channel and the
difficulties inherent in extemporaneously translating complex
concepts from the invisible to the visible. I felt guided through
the writing and editing process, and I asked Michael for
clarification as needed.
I am concerned about sexism in language, but
constantly using "s/he," "he or she," or alternating "he" and
"she" all seemed awkward, so I decided just to stick with "he" in
most cases. The Elements of Style states that over time,
"'he' has lost all suggestion of maleness in these circumstances."
I hope that no one is offended by this choice.
I changed the names of all clients who are used
as illustrations.
This is a book that can never be finished. I'm
certain that even before it "rolls off the presses," I will have
thought of numerous changes and additions. Nonetheless, here it
is. I hope that the insights and information in it are not only
interesting, but support you on the journey of your
soul.
- Shepherd Hoodwin, New York City, New York,
November 28, 1994
- Updated May 14, 1997, Laguna Beach,
California
INTRODUCTION
BY MICHAEL
This book will be a helpful clarification, we
feel, not only of many points in the Michael teachings, but also
of fundamental truths of life. We appreciate the care that the
author has taken to be specific so as to illuminate important
distinctions, which tend to get lost when too much understanding
is presumed. As we have overseen the preparation of this
manuscript, we have not felt it to be warranted for us to
intervene too much. The author has been engaged in his own process
of discovery, asking questions that he might not have asked had we
guided him with too strong a hand.
As you read, we expect that questions will also
arise in you. Questions are the beginning of knowledge. It is a
good idea to learn to be as content with questions as you are with
answers. As the author states, nothing in this book is the final
word on any subject. But we are confident that if you appreciate
the Michael teachings, a lively interchange with this volume will
lead you to a deeper and more productive knowledge of it. Your
self-validation is your best ally in this.
We support our students in further establishing
a direct connection with us, whether or not they channel. In
reading a Michael book, your thoughts are naturally with us.
Opening to an energetic connection through those thoughts can
increase your intuitive ability to use this material in your
life.
Michael
SUMMERJOY PRESS
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