Soul with a capital S is the Lower-World part of us: our true nature, part of Mother EarthMother Earth. The sacred Feminine pole: pure potential, from whom all the Peoples arise. The Lower-World is her realm, and she is all the realms: “The Earth is indeed our Mother.” More about this, the person we were born to be. A soul part, with a small s, is a part of the middle-world selfMiddle-world self. The everyday self (ego, persona, head-and-heart), made of our stories and experiences. A genuine and needed part of the Inner Tribe: of service, not in command. Read the full answer, such as a frightened four-year-old or our lost playfulness, which can be sent away and retrieved. Soul is never lost and so is never retrieved; it is found, and then grown into over a lifetime.
What is the difference between Soul and soul? #
Two different parts that share a word. The middle-world self is “our ‘soul’ with a small ‘s’, in terms of it being our “self” or self-identity in the middle-world”. But “We do have another soul. A Soul with a capital ‘S’, for this is the part of us that is of the Lower-World.”1 The capital letter marks the difference.
What is Soul? #
Our true nature. “Unlike our middle-world self, which is constructed from the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, our Soul is our truest self, our true nature.” It is “part of nature; part of Human, of Animal, a sibling to Plant and Stone, and a child of Mother Earth. It is both who we truly are deep down, and the blueprint for what we are meant to grow into and become in the world.”2 It is the “Deeper Soul”, “Free of middle-world influence and distortion”.3
What is a soul part? #
A part of the middle-world self. It can be lost. Modern soul loss usually happens because we send parts of ourselves away to fit in: “playfulness, creativity, spontaneity, joy, passion, wildness, sensitivity, vulnerability, confidence, assertiveness”, and more.4 Soul retrievalSoul retrieval. Finding an exiled soul-part and inviting it home. In the modern psyche the fort-holder who sent it away must consent first, and the retrieval itself is a beginning: the real work is integration. Read the full answer, “The act of bringing back a lost soul or soul part”, is about these middle-world parts, which is why most shamanic soul retrieval is of middle-world parts.5
Is soul retrieval the same as finding my Soul? #
No. They are two different kinds of work. Lower-World Soul is not something we lose, but something we have to find, if and when we are ready: a lifelong process, not something we can retrieve via soul retrieval. The two are related, though: the middle-world self “should be the vehicle through which our authentic Soul can express itself in the world.”6 See What is soul retrieval?
What is the difference between an Orphan and a lost soul part? #
They are the same thing. There are fort-holdersFort-holder. A protective part of the self that stayed behind to ‘man the fort’ when we were wounded: the inner critic, perfectionist, pusher, pleaser: the loyal soldier still fighting a war that ended long ago. Usually the part that sent an orphan away, so no deep healing holds without its consent; befriended, never extracted. Read the full answer, parts that stayed and marched on, and OrphansOrphans. The parts of the self sent away altogether when we were wounded: our confidence, vulnerability, playfulness, innocence. Having genuinely left, they cannot merely be talked with: they must be retrieved. Read the full answer, parts that were sent away. An Orphan is a lost soul part, which can be retrieved. A fort-holder never left: when part of us goes, “part of us stayed behind and carried on, ‘holding the fort’ so to speak.”7 See What are child, Orphan, fort-holder and protector parts?
Why is Soul connected with nature? #
Because it is born of nature. When Father Sky and Mother Earth come together, “from the body of Mother Earth, a Soul is born.” And “In the Lower-World, the Soul is what something was born to be. It is its truest nature; the essence of it.”8 Nor is anything in the Lower-World wholly separate. Picture the Lower-World as a great tree, where what seem to be separate individuals in this world are like the tips of twigs, joined into branches such as “the branch that is the Human OversoulOversoul. A branch of Mother Earth representing the whole of a species: the single being all the individuals arise from. Lower-World work is always with the Oversoul, never an individual; environments are composite Oversouls, wheels within wheels. More about this.”9
What is the relationship between Soul and Power-loss? #
They are different things. There are two main reasons we get ill. “Power-lossPower-loss. Disconnection from nature, the web of life and our place in it: like being unplugged from the national grid. One of the two root causes of shamanic illness, healed by reconnection (not by soul retrieval), beginning with the Power Animal bond. Read the full answer occurs when we become disconnected from nature, from the interconnected web of life and our place in it.” Soul-lossSoul-loss. The sending-away of parts of the self in order to survive: through shock or trauma, or (the chief modern cause) exiling our own parts to fit in. With Power-loss, one of the two root causes of shamanic illness. Read the full answer, by contrast, “occurs when we lose part of our soul”, a small-s soul part.10 The Lower-World Soul itself is never lost, though it is part of the nature from which Power-loss cuts us off. See What is Power-loss?
Does finding Soul mean escaping modern life? #
No. It means living differently within it. Soul gives guidance on how. Soul gives us templates, which the middle-world self adapts to the life we actually live: “Your middle-world self will then need to translate and adapt these Templates, to make them relevant and useful in your everyday life and the environment in which you live”.11 It can be hard, because “in the modern world, many of the roles we adopt are at best pale reflections of Soul”.12 But the aim is to bring Soul into everyday life, not to leave it.
Is finding Soul a one-off event? #
No. It is a beginning. Living from Soul takes the rest of a life. “The process of finding your Soul does not have to be a dramatic one”, and it carries on for life.13 Over time, “little-by-little, you will find your default notion of who you are gradually shifts from being your middle-world self, to being your Soul instead.”14
What is Soul work for? #
Becoming who we were meant to be, for the sake of more than ourselves. “Finding your Soul is an initiation into Adulthood.”15 It “isn’t just about you; it’s about stepping into your place within the world and being of service to it; being the organ you were meant to be in the larger body.” See What is the Adult and what does healthy inner leadership look like?
What is the difference between Soul and Spirit? #
Roots and branches. “If Soul is the roots of the tree, Spirit is its branches.” Soul is our unique self; Spirit is our share of the universal. Neither is enough alone: without Spirit, Soul lacks perspective and discernment; without Soul and Body, Spirit becomes abstract and unhealthily detached from the living world. “We must cultivate Soul and Spirit in equal measure.”16
