Something I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about, being the pragmatic spiritual person that I am… a friend of mine recently asked me if I was an “old soul” (I’ve gotten asked that question a lot in my life) — and my automatic response was, “yes… I have been around for a long time… I remember being here even before this current cycle of existence on this planet.” 

Later, I started thinking about these kinds of terms… like “old soul” and “twin flame” and other dogmatic ways we tend to talk about our souls in the world of “woo woo,” or new age spirituality. It’s not the first time I’ve ruminated on this stuff… and it won’t be the last. I have thoughts on all of it. But, I just want to share about “old souls” and the stories we tell around these concepts and what my perspective is…

I fully admit that I use that term. It is a descriptive term with certain emotions attached to it, and I think it has a place in our vernacular and in our conversation. I think it is a familiar term for many of us. I don’t think it is good or bad. I think it speaks to a longing in our hearts to want to be a part of something bigger than us. To want to feel like all of this stuff we do here, on this planet, is not for nothing. That there is meaning for us here.I feel that way. And I use the term “old soul” to describe someone who has a lot of wisdom, or who I read as being someone who has had a lot of lifetimes on this planet (Earth). And yet, I know there’s a lot of dogma attached to the term “old soul” and a lot of stories that go with that. We talk about being an “old soul” as a sort of badge of honor. As “old souls” we’ve seen a lot. Done a lot. And now we know a lot. Right?

And yet, our souls are infinite! So how can we be old OR young souls? How can we be anything but infinite? How do you put an age or a timeline on infinite? How do you contain or define infinite? How do you make infinite fit into anything that we, as human beings, can actually comprehend?

The answer is, of course, you can’t. Our souls are infinite. God is infinite. The essence of who we are is absolutely infinite. These things have no beginning and no end. We have no beginning and no end. And we have no real way to comprehend that inside of these human bodies we are walking around in! And that is amazing! And (probably, for most of us, a bit more than) slightly confounding!

So, confounded as we are when we try to comprehend what this infinite-ness actually is, we naturally start to put parameters around it. We have a driving need to define things, to understand! That’s our human brains at work. That’s our brilliance. You know? We can figure it all out, right? It’s actually kind of lovely how we do this! It’s all a part of our human design… our purpose here. We make rules about this game we’re playing and then we play by the rules we made so that we can continue to keep playing because that’s why we are here! Pretty clever, right?

So, I think this notion of “old souls” and other bits of the new age dogma is really this brilliant upleveling of the rules. We know we don’t want to play by the “older” rules that have come from darker places in this planet’s history. We want to bust out of the old dogma and the old restraints, but we still can’t quite grab the whole reality of infinity and of how God and our souls cannot be contained (because that’s part of the game!), so we make up other rules and other ways to start wrapping our minds around what we feel and know, at some level, to be true. This brings us comfort. As humans, we feel like we HAVE to define everything! It’s what we do. It’s kind of in our wiring.

So, at some level, we know and we feel that we are infinite. And the closest we can come to comprehending what that might mean is to think in terms of “old” and “ancient” and so on. So we begin to spin the stories around these kinds of terms and ideas. And that is why we fall into some of these kinds of belief systems. It’s a natural thought progression, actually.

Knowing that my soul is infinite, knowing that I am truly one with God and the Universe and all other beings and souls, but being inside of this human body and wanting to individuate (because that’s what humans do), I naturally look for an explanation for what I know and feel, and a way to talk about it. I know I’ve done a lot of lifetimes on this here planet. I know I feel ancient and I feel that I’ve been through a lot and seen a lot and I feel that I came here this time to be a part of something bigger than me.

And I think I use the term “old soul” more as a way to define my history on this particular planet. And I think that is mostly the way people use it, whether they are aware of that or not. If you have had multiple lifetimes on this planet, you probably do feel like an “old soul” but that does not make you more or less infinite than someone who has only had one or a small handful of experiences being human and living here on Earth.

There is a lot more dogma floating around out there that lays a structure around all of this… different lifetimes, different planets, different kinds of beings (i.e. aliens, etc), and I am not going to get into that stuff any more in this writing. I only wanted to share what has been running around in my head since my friend asked me that question about being an “old soul.” But I will say this: all I can talk about, all I can ever share, is my own experiences. Right or wrong, good or bad… if I’m talking to you about something, it is coming from my own experiences. If I’m sharing what other people believe, or what I’ve read or heard from someone else, you’ll know it.  I make that very clear. But my desire is to truly share from inside of me, from my own experience and my own truth, and so much of what I teach is just that. Most, in fact.

I can’t prove anything to you. I can’t tell you what is right or wrong to think or to feel. And I cannot tell you your truth. All I can do is share my experiences, my thoughts, my feelings. And my truth.
I would love to know what you FEEL about this… not what you’ve read… not what you’ve heard… but what YOU have experienced and or FELT about your own soul’s journey!

Blessings and love and light to you!

Donna

PS… I am not trying to make anyone else “wrong,” either. I fully believe that everyone is entitled to their own experience and their own beliefs. So, I won’t argue with you. Just letting you know in case you’re looking for that. 🙂