My inspiration for creating the site True Sovereign Self came from the knowing that we are greater, vaster and more magnificent than consensus reality would ever lead us to believe. “What is the True Sovereign Self?” It is a big topic to cover in a blog and deserves several volumes of a book to do it justice.
However, I wish to share a few insights from my work, studies and experience that may inspire you to start this initiatory journey. It is my aspiration for life and those with whom I work with to embark upon the difficult, challenging, rewarding, frustrating, expansive and illuminating path towards the True Sovereign Self.
Man is lost in the wonder of his own Maya
"Man has no individuality. He has no single, big I. Man is divided into a multiplicity of small 'I's, and each separate small 'I' is able to call itself by the name of the Whole"
Gurdjieff here describes man’s illusory and fragmented mind in its oneiric form. Programmed by a trauma-based reality that creates separation and a discombobulation of the Self. Healing this puzzle frames the Inner Alchemy work I do with my clients where we alchemise and transform the many I’s into a whole.
The Big I Gurdjieff is referring to is ‘The True Sovereign Self’ which is unprogrammable and capable of becoming a conduit between spirit and the Self/Soul. It sits beyond the psychological I’s which house our parts/aspects. It is these parts/aspects that are all too often in the driving seat of our consciousness.
The True Sovereign Self is the divine aspect or higher mind version of our being, often hidden under deep layers of conditioning and fragmentation but always there, ready to take its rightful throne, as the image above illustrates.
Is there another way, a Sovereign way?
What is the Sovereign way? The starting point is to get radically honest and wake up not just to the external matrix, but also to our internal matrix of beliefs and the illusions we carry within our many I’s. Otherwise the matrix really will have you!
To live as a True Sovereign Self is a hard process and a bold move especially in a black magic reality (by black magic, I mean the ability to control another’s will which we see evident in today’s world especially with MSM). It requires dedication that often friends and family will not understand to hold your own will in a world that is becoming denser, darker, and more separated and controlled.
I’m reading John Baine’s ‘The Stella Man’ for the second time at the moment and want to share the steps he outlines for beginning the process of initiation:
1. To stop lying
2. To stop dreaming
3. To learn how to think
4. To live in the present moment
5. To activate the physical body
1. To Stop Lying
Baines states, “When a person has lied for a long time, the time comes when he can no longer distinguish between what is false and what is true. People convince themselves of their own lies, becoming victims of their own inventions as they begin to direct their lives by standards of behaviour, ideas, feelings or instincts which do not correspond to their inner reality. What is truly serious in this matter is that the individual loses all points of reference regarding what comprises truth and what comprises lies.”
If you wish to begin the process of untangling yourself from the web of lies, get curious with which part of you is lying and why? Perhaps you have a part that does not want to take personal responsibility for a difficult situations.
Maybe lying maintains a particular self image, and that image feeds you in some way. Or are you lying about your coping mechanisms (e.g addictions) to protect a deep wound within. Whatever your reason for lying, you must alchemise this I/part and bring it into alignment with your soul. On a soul level doing your inner work helps to evolve the soul and assists in expanding and anchoring your inner light.
2.To Stop Dreaming
Similar to lying, but this time in the realm of fantasy. Baines writes “People are always infused with all kinds of fantastic ideas about themselves, the world, people, love, idealism, society, etc. Led by his eagerness to evade a disagreeable reality, man gives free rein to his imagination and is inclined to believe the first agreeable lie he encounters along the way. The individual projects his personal illusions onto a cold and immutable reality, and thus deceiving himself, he endeavours to contemplate reality through rose-coloured glasses.'”
To add to what Baines is saying above, our many aspects/parts/I’s will cope with a dense reality by creating a fantasy or a myth. The New Age movement with its fantastical thinking is a good example of this.
This myth keeps a person in a prison of make-believe, but that prison will feel safe to the aspect in the driving seat. The myth may be so real to this aspect/part/I that it is hard for a person to see or spot as it lies in their unconscious or sleeping state.
This is not to say not to dream (or vision, to be more precise) from a waking or aligned soul state. It warns against dreaming from the many I’s as this creates different worlds and realities, keeping the individual in a condition of fragmentation instead of wholeness.
3. To Learn How To Think
Baines continues, ” It is important to completely reeducate the thinking process in order to make it really creative, because only when this function is accomplished can the individual think clearly. Creative thinking is not the act of “inventing” something, but rather consists of thinking in an unprogrammed way.
One’s intelligence should be used to face each event as if it were new, casting prejudices to the side. This will enable the individual to create a result or form a judgement that is truly impartial, as he has given up his habitual sources and does not consider anything as a known fact.”
He goes on to state, ” Dead knowledge is born solely from the intellect while living knowledge originates in the mind.”
Baines here is talking about the higher mind and its ability to interconnect and become a spiritual system. Again we see why great mystics such as Jung would talk about the need for wholeness because a fragmented psyche can never go beyond programmed thinking.
4.To Live In The Present Moment
“The only reality is the present moment; there is no past or future, both are illusory. ” John Baines
However, the many I’s myths can create past and future moments that feel very real. The True Sovereign Self is a container which can hold all these realities but knows that there is only one actual reality, the present.
Our physical bodies are always in the present reality, and our spirit is often elsewhere. Baines continues “The body and spirit belong to very different realities, to two times which are distant or apart from each other. As a consequence, the spirit is not manifested on Earth, but remains in slavery or chained to the physical body and must suffer the fantasies and dreams experienced by the ‘psychological I’.”
The path of awakening is to free the spirit and embody the soul, to do this the psychological I or many I’s/parts/aspects must be subject to the True Sovereign Self. This enables divine will instead of the ‘will of our wounds’ to create our experience.
5.To Activate The Physical Body
Baines final step in the initiatory process outlines the importance of the physical body being an instrument of our True will. “As the physical body represents the opposite pole from the spirit, it is obvious that it represents an ‘obstacle’ for communication with our “Superior I”. Nevertheless, at the same time it is necessary to ‘raise the vibration of the corporeal matter,’ which is done by making the body obey our will. To this end, let us briefly consider three principle elements:
- Food
- Breathing
- Physical Exercise
I would agree in most part with Baines that we need to disciple the physical body and to do so through food (earth), breathing (air) and physical exercise (fire), so it can be used as a instrument for the True Sovereign Self or the Superior I. I would also add Hydration/ water so the elemental circuit is completed.
I wish you well on your journey of awakening,
Anastasia 💜
