The realm of the soul is calling out to us. She longs for our attention, our conscious awareness. She speaks in nuances, in coincidences, and everyday revelations: from startling moments of illumination when we’re stuck in traffic to mystical narratives playing out in our minds in that twilight space between sleeping and waking. She will emerge as a quiet voice, or a speck of blue light that beckons us to turn our heads, but when we do she is gone. Yet we have the distinct feeling we’ve been in the presence of something magical. The soul inhabits the world beneath ours: a world, like dreams, that is beyond time and space as we know it. She challenges us to venture beyond our reality towards hers, from the mortal to the eternal. The soul fills us with the assurance that this journey is possible.

Our modern world fears the soul, and for good reason. The soul often tells us what we don’t want to hear and reminds us of our deeply held beliefs that have been corrupted. As every child knows, soul thrives in the wild, secret places that modern humans desecrate and exploit for temporary gain. She cries out to us in our dreams, in our love relationships, in our solitude, everywhere that soul is present, urging us to do the right thing – to mend our relationship with her. This is our life’s greatest challenge.

The soul has a lover’s touch, but a warrior’s ambition. The soul of the world sings us into heights of ecstasy with her flowers and rainbows but brings us to our knees with her violent storms and mortal trappings. When we refuse to heed her sage counsel, she attempts to awaken us through discomfort. In our age defined by the human ego, we are often at a loss when it comes to interpreting her language. It is symbolic, holistic, and best apprehended by the heart, not the mind. To oppose the soul is a fool’s errand. To resist her call repeatedly results in deep suffering and even madness. There is no earthly obligation worth her penalty: sooner or later, we must honor the will of the soul or perish.

Human communities have always held within their ranks women and men who are skilled as guides to help us interpret the language of soul. In primordial tribes, there were medicine people and shamans. Monotheism brought us rabbis, priests, and pastors who interpret the soul through a particular religious dogma. In a culture defined by scientific materialism, doctors, scientists, and other academics disproportionately take on this role. But the soul defies man’s mental constructs. What satisfies the mind does not satisfy the soul. We now find ourselves in an auspicious time where the knowledge of the ages has been liberated. Humans lived for eons in accordance with the emanations of soul: within ourselves and the living world we inhabit. We are closer now than ever before to comprehending our appropriate place in an ensouled reality, if only we have the will to listen and the courage to act upon our deepest, most authentic feelings.

I’ve dedicated my life to becoming an emissary of the soul: as a student of the lifeway of animist cultures and the practice of depth psychology. At the age of twelve, I was overcome by the presence of the world tree, a dynamic symbol that reveals the primordial understanding of our spiritual reality. Through my own healing journey, escaping the clutches of madness in addiction and mental dysfunction, I have learned essential truths about the landscape of the psyche, and it is my purpose in life to guide others upon the path away from their own unnecessary suffering.