More Soul Mirror Questions
© 2003
>> With the Step 1 character traits, I'm still trying to get a good grasp on what traits go along with the Akasha. <<
None of them. Character traits are assigned only to the four Elements.
>> Weird. I'd thought for sure you'd said something about akasha character traits but looking through the archives I don't see anything about it. I probably misinterpreted something somewhere. <<
Where you most likely got that idea was from my commentary (page 48 of "A Bardon Companion"). I titled the "indifferent" category (the items you can't figure out which Element they belong to) as "Aethyr/Unknown". I didn't mean that these items actually corresponded to the Akasha/Aethyr; rather, I used the term personally to signify their incomprehensibility. ;-) I see that, if my book goes into a second printing, I will need to change that particular phrasing!
>> I started the first step and have already problems to come to a hundred items in the soul mirror. I am stuck somewhere at 90. I checked almost my whole past but its always the same words coming up. I always wrote down the word (like greediness or whatever) and a little note I which context. but now I am running out of adjectives (words like greedy, hateful, angry). are there more then hundred? For sure, whatever it is, I lived it once or more times in my life. Or am i supposed to write down situations? Then of course there are thousands. Perhaps my language is just to limited. <<
One hundred items is a number to aim for, it's not an actual minimum requirement. :) So if 90 is what you can come up with, then that's what you've got . . . for now. As time goes by, you can always add to your list as you realize more items.
Nonetheless, it's wise to break down inclusive labels like greedy, hateful, angry, and so on. Each one of these can manifest in a variety of ways and arise in response to quite a number of different stimuli. So I suggest that you examine these broad labels and try to break them apart a bit.
The great advantage to be had in doing that deconstructing, becomes apparent when you begin the Step Two work of character transformation. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to transform something so broad as 'anger', for example. But if you break it down into more specific *types* of anger then you can grab hold of one type at a time and transform it. By transforming one type at a time, you can ultimately transform 'anger'.
A Reply by "Vovin" © 2003
Dear M ~
What makes you lazy? What are the reason(s) for your laziness? Use questions like these to dig deeper into the reasons for your traits.
For example: I am lazy. What am I lazy in regards to?
1) Lazy in my practices.
2) Lazy when it comes to getting the bills paid.
1) Now why am I lazy in my practices? I am hesitant to get to work with my practices because I fear failure.
2) Now why am I lazy when it comes to paying my bills? The dent in my bank-account make me feel insecure.
New traits from the word Lazy:
1) Fear of failure.
2) Need to feel financially secure.
1) Now why do I fear failure? And exactly what do I fear failure in?
etc. etc. etc. etc.
Through the process of self-analysis such as shown above, you will have little problem in finding your hundred negative traits.
Also, a good idea is to graphically depict the results of your analysis. This way you will get a solid picture of how your traits influence each other and how they interact. From the example above, the box 'Lazy' would branch out into two new boxes 'Lazy in practices' and 'Lazing with paying bills'. These two in turn branch out into 'Fear or failure', etc. Eventually the traits tend to go full circle and end where they started, or you may find that a couple of particular traits influence or are the root of many of the others.
The relationship between your character traits and the Elements cannot be perceived with the rational intellect alone. This is why Bardon suggests that the student meditate deeply upon each of the Elements and upon the character traits. Meditation taps into *more than* just the rational intellect and reveals an understanding of the Elements unattainable by just thinking. I suggest that you apply the Step One mental techniques of one-pointedness and emptiness of mind meditation to delve deeper into the Elements instead of focusing just upon lists of character trait and Element associations.
>> That said, I *think* the strong emotions full of energy belong to Fire because of the projective or electrical energy they contain. Anger is often depicted with lightning bolts, red rays, etc. Confidence is seen cartoons with a puffed-up chest, or like determination, with a certain set to the jaw-line. All these examples depict some form of energy expenditure to me, and so belong to Fire. Feelings like shyness are felt inwardly - drawn there magnetically IMO, and so belong to Water and emotions. At least that's how I see it, and hope that Rawn or someone else will correct me if I am wrong, and whether I am right or wrong, add some illumination to this subject. <<
In general, you've got the right idea. The problem though, is that the items you've listed are the *results of* character traits. Anger, for example, is a Fiery *symptom* or *effect*, it is not a *root trait*. With the Soul Mirror work, you must find the root itself. The root of anger *might* be Fiery in nature but it can also be Airy or Watery or Earthy. This is why I say that these broad terms *must* be broken down situationally and examined until you've recognized their root cause.
The Elemental attribution of your own character traits is a VERY personal matter, so lists of correspondences only serve a limited usefulness in this regard. What exists as a Fiery trait for one person may well be Watery for you, so even if you do find your trait in a list, you must still examine it and decide *for yourself* which Element it truly belongs to for *you*.
It's inevitable that *at Step One* you will make some errors in your attributions because, at this stage, your comprehension of the Elements is fairly under-developed. But that changes as you progress and deepen your work with the Elements. Your understanding improves and so you later re-assign your character traits as needed. Your Step One Soul Mirror should be as good as you are capable of doing, but it is also an evolving work that you add items to as you discover them and cross items off as you transform them, etc. It does not need to be *perfect*. :)
My counsel is that you do your absolute best at this point, based upon your current understanding of the Elements. Accept its imperfection and promise yourself that you will make corrections to it as your understanding deepens. Striving for absolute perfection in these attributions, at this stage, often leads to folks spending months and months on this phase of the work alone and getting themselves so frustrated that they quit mid-stream.
>> Having (without too much difficulty) finished my negative soul mirror a little while ago, I decided today to move on to the positive soul mirror. When I say down to write some positive traits I quickly came to a realization about myself and my self-image. I easily came up with just short of 200 traits for my negative soul mirror, yet I am struggling to get 80 for the positive mirror. This is something which is quite revealing for me and has meant that working on my positive soul mirror has actually been somewhat more upsetting than working on my negative one. <<
What you've recounted is a common experience. I think this stems from our modern culture in which it's more acceptable to be self-critical than it is to be self-praising, so we hardly ever take the opportunity to analyze our positive qualities. When we're suddenly faced with having to do so, we draw a blank and struggle to see the good amidst all the bad. Part of this is because we're so ingrained to shun self-praise; but the thing is, the positive soul analysis is NOT about self-praise, boasting or egotism -- it's about taking honest stock of the good parts of our own self. This requires just as radical a degree of self-honesty as does the analysis of our negative traits! The soul mirror is not an exercise in self-deprecation, false humility or self-debasing. It's an exercise in *honest* self-examination and analysis.
Often, when it comes to the positive traits, a person who has done a very thorough job of the breaking down the negative traits in almost microscopic detail, will suddenly be listing very broad terms like "kindness" or "joy", and forget completely about the need to be specific. :) The result is a very lop-sided view of themselves as an overly negative creature; whereas, in reality, this is seldom the case with someone who is capable of having so deeply penetrated their negative side.
Some will think that the negative mirror is the most important, but this is only partially true. Granted, the focus of the character transformation work is upon the transformation of the negative traits, but the positive traits are *essential* to that process. They are our allies, so to speak, in that they point the way to success. So, ferreting out as many as you can, proves most beneficial during the work of character transformation.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
05 -22 Jan 2003