Before we get going, this is to let you know that Simple Soulful Words will be taking a break for a couple of weeks … then I’ll be back on 19th July with an announcement! ✨😍💫
Today I’m sharing some thoughts on the idea that we are each born with a unique soul calling - it’s an ancient concept, dating back at least to the time of Plato. But first, I’ll start with a poem…
Listen to me read this here:
Rip Up The Script
Her life had seemed a script
Written by someone
Who had no knowledge of her.
This script lacked direction
And the more she tried to follow it
The more out of place she felt.
So she walked off the stage
Ripped up the script
And began to write her own directions.
Her soul knew the way
She’d just needed to realise
It was ready to guide her
All along.
Whose life is it anyway?
It’s not uncommon to get to a point in our life where we stop and look back and wonder, how did I get here?
Why am I here?
Is this what I truly wanted?
For it is all too easy to fall into following the script that familial and societal expectations provide you.
A script that will largely be determined by your gender, cultural heritage, social class, financial means – and perhaps the unlived life of your parents or carers.
But what if your soul had a different agenda?
What if you were born with a calling?
What if you were born to share something with the world that only you can?
In this world view, your soul knows what you’re here for. It knows the potential you carry within you and will guide and nudge you to follow pathways that will help you to remember.
This idea of calling is an ancient and longstanding one that can be traced from Plato in Ancient Greece to modern depth psychologists such as James Hillman.
From Plato’s Myth of Er to Hillman’s acorn theory (articulated in his book The Soul’s Code) this notion of calling proposes that, before birth, your soul selects a purpose for you to fulfil during this time on Earth. It then passes through the Plain of Oblivion and drinks from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness.
And then you are born, forgetful of your purpose.
But you are also born with a ‘daimon’: a spiritual guide; a guiding image; a vision that you carry within. Your innate potential. And this daimon or guiding image will prompt you to find and follow the path that aligns your life with your calling.
Tending to the soul then is choosing to listen to your deep longings and yearnings and to develop the courage to follow them, even when they don’t make sense, or they challenge the ego’s desire to fit in and follow the path of least resistance.
Your calling isn’t necessarily expressed through work by the way, though it may be. Perhaps it could simply be your way of being in the world rather than what you do[1]. Such as being compassionate, truthful, creative, inquisitive, ever-curious, or deeply loving.
Those of us with a more sensitive nature seem to have an innate understanding that there is a deeper meaning to life beyond superficial materialism.
We yearn to discover our purpose and will spend much time and energy seeking it because we long to live a more fulfilling and authentic life in alignment with our deepest values and dreams.
How is your soul calling to you to pay attention?
Have you felt the call to rip up the script and start again?
What aspects of your life would you like to rewrite?
What, if you were to be unflinchingly honest with yourself, do you already know needs to change?
If you were the director of the story of your life (hint, you already are) what directions would you give yourself so you can perform to the best of your abilities?
Tend to your soul by listening to and acting upon those longings that call to you and the images and themes that have fascinated you throughout your life.
Tend to these and they might just lead you to your calling – the unique gift you were born to share with the world in this life.
Until next time, wishing you the healing blessings of tender & fierce self-compassion,
Stella x
Thank you so much for being here.
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P.S. This piece is adapted from my book I Am With You out now in paperback and for eReaders, worldwide.
You can download a free sample here (PDF) - no email required.
✍️Join me in the comments
Does this resonate? Are you in touch with your calling?
What gets in the way? What helps you to remember?
What IS your calling?
When we share our experiences we help both ourselves and each other feel less alone.
[1] A perspective articulated by writer, psychologist and mythologist Sharon Blackie.