Are You an 'Old Soul ' ?
Posted: Monday, June 26, 2006
by Steve Gunn
Steve Gunn
The particular life challenges and destined events that are the hallmark of being an old soul...
If you're an old soul you will undoubtedly be giving, caring loving and compassionate - all wonderful attributes that we are taught are the signs of a developed person who cares for others, and the actions that we take that may affect others.
· Giving and caring often putting others first
· Had a difficult romantic life often with much pain and disappointment
· More than likely had a soulmate relationship
· Things just seem to happen to you and around you, often becoming very dramatic through the seemingly extreme reactions of others
· Events repeat themselves
· Have trouble connecting with your family
· Somehow know you're different
· Have some psychic intuition and 'just knowing' things
· Find that you have deeper emotions and passions than most people
· People have extreme reactions to you - some just adore you and some seem to really dislike you yet you behave the same to everyone
· Have an inner creative passion
· Suffer lots of jealousy
· Often perceived wrongly
· Feel your don't have much free will, like your life is being controlled by some outside force
· Often feel 'stuck' like events just keep on happening to you time after time
All of us can relate to some of these characteristics and events at some time in our lives however the 'old souls' amongst us will shout "Yes that's me !"
and immediately understand and relate.
In contrast, we have all met the 'young souls' the ones who profess to be giving and caring and often seem to seek us out, but who never really give, just take, and who then commit the most insensitive and often cruel acts but seem to have no understanding of what they've done or any sign of remorse whatsoever. In fact they can often go to such extremes to get very aggressive when we point out their actions and the effect that they've had on us..
Soul Age
The terms 'old soul' and 'young soul' aren't just descriptions of personality types but do give us a meaningful clue to why we find ourselves in this life cycle…
The journey of the soul through many lives is one of growth and learning from the earliest manifestation of that soul in human form - where it's focused on material things, power, ego and the "now", eventually through to the higher levels of compassion, truth, destiny, caring and fairness in later lives as old souls.
The soul is required to visit human form many times in order to learn these lessons. It is through interaction with others on the three dimensional plane that the soul accrues karma, the results of its actions on others and paying the price of those actions ( first rule of karma "what goes around comes around" - or what I often refer to as the 'karmic boomerang') that develops, hones, and tunes the spirit into the higher levels, eventually becoming attuned to the highest level of as 'old soul' in later lives.
Part of that developing process is to become infinitely more empathic, attuned to the universe and destiny, and for our intuition to develop more towards psychic powers. At this stage we sense that destiny plays a greater part in our lives that we could previously have imagined as we 'peek behind the scenes' of the universal mechanisms through our developing intuition.
This itself is also a challenge as we watch those less enlightened who are still contained in the "I know best" mode, mess up their lives going wandering down the wrong path. Typical of this is the soulmate where we are tasked to watch them wander off knowing somehow that the tests they will face will ultimately bring them back around, older, wiser and more spiritually aware.
It's important to understand that each time our soul revisits the earthly plane, that we play 'catch-up', developing through our earthly actions and learning experiences quickly to regain that level of spiritual awareness we attained when leaving the previous life. In other words, in entering this life we are initially unconscious of the fact that we are required to have a very testing life to 'fast track' us to the spiritual level we are meant to be at in this one.
So the older the soul, the harder and more testing the early events in order to make us reach inside and spiritually open to regain previously achieved levels of spirituality and to further develop..
'Soul age' with Soulmates
I've already mentioned that we have all had to deal with the 'young souls', the ones who seem sent to test us and can often leave us feeling dazed and confused and hurt.
At this point I have to highlight something that's particularly important and relevant to soulmates. Your soulmate is unlikely to be a young soul even though their actions to-date may fit what we've described as a young soul.
We get terribly confused when we sense they are loving and caring and deep and spiritually enlightened yet they frequently behave in the totally opposite way
The important difference between a soulmate and a young soul is that the universe does not connect young souls with old souls in soulmate connections. What your soulmate is most likely going through is the life tests on that "fast track" , i.e learning fast and developing to their real soul age through meeting all the tough tests and making all the mistakes, acting in that earthly controlled, ego based, "I know best" way.
Hence the duality of their existence and the confusion they cause within our lives. What you are sensing is that destiny. It's the butterfly sensing another butterfly but seeing a caterpillar….
This is the main reason soulmates have to part, in order that the less developed one catches up with their earthly experiences in order to fully awaken spiritually and be ready to reconnect with their real soul age from the past life and to reconnect with you to continue the journey at the same spiritual level…
Energy Vampires and Attack
Old souls will also be no strangers to people who try to cling to, or take or attack our energy. Often the more we give to people the more abuse we take. It's an extreme example of the "no good deed goes unpunished" rule.
Energy vampires are those who somehow spiritually sense our power and energy to come into our lives to using us as a crutch, often draining us through their need to explain their problems and us be the solution.
Frequently they will use our caring, giving nature to assist them with their lives, often becoming too close and draining and we don't seem to be able to find a way to tell them that this is something we aren't comfortable with and so we allow it to continue to an abusive level.
Most times the person clinging to us won't be aware of why they are doing this they just sense, feel that we have something they need that causes them to be drawn closer and closer.
This is because their spirit, their energy senses a more powerful energy. It's not on an ego awareness plane, we're not talking 'mind' stuff here we're talking spiritual energy which all of us sense even if we aren't realizing it. It's on the "there's something about him/her" level.
Some will migrate to that energy for healing and comfort, the 'karmic vampire', others will fall for the energy in a romantic way and become instantly attached, with others seeking us out as a focus for blame and negative attention ( karmic dumping ). When confronted with their actions, even in the most caring and compassionate of ways, aggression and blame are often the responses they visit upon us as they lash out...
Jealous bosses or co-workers, unwanted sexual attention, being 'picked out', blamed, the focus of attention when we don't want to be - all of these are classic symptoms.. Yes anyone will experience some of this in their daily lives but what we are talking here is something that happens to the old soul again and again at a frequency and intensity far above anything that can statistically be considered average..
Now you may think the word attack is rather strong and negativity and conflict are a common phenomenon of everyday human interaction, however any old soul will point out the frequency and veracity of their experiences- often amazing others when they hear the stories.
At this point I remember lots of incidents in my own life but the most profound moment was when I was confronted by someone who spat anger and bile at me proclaiming I'd done this and that and the other with dark motives.
The total shock was something I won't forget. Actually I hadn't done any of these things in fact I wasn't even in the country when they happened. However that didn't mean anything to this man - he set himself up as judge, jury and executioner and that utterly stunned me. It was only one of lots of incidences but is typical of an 'attack'.
On an energy level, this guy, to my definite first hand knowledge, cheated on his wife, was unfair in business, had a huge ego and had controlled and manipulated several people to his own ends. Nevertheless I had never taken it as my task to judge any of this, I just treated him like I treated anyone else. That was what caused the utter disbelief the astonishment that his 'reality' was 180 degrees from actual events.
Attacks from young souls who misinterpret our actions based upon their own narrow understandings are commonplace. In the example above, this guy had judged me based not upon his perception of me, my morals and motives - but from his own. He projected people's actions as having the same intent as his own and not realizing what he had done, had given me an insight into his own dark world by the veracity and ferociousness of his attack.
He could not perceive any of my actions as being honest, decent and caring and putting others first because he wasn't capable of acting from that place within himself. In addition, whatever anger, frustration and emotions this caused necessitated him exaggerating these false claims to a level so ludicrous that it lost all connection with reality.
In the end a quick chat with his lawyer resolved the problem because the lawyer simply told me the case was so ludicrous he couldn't take it seriously. However it was still very painful for me and really illustrates that in addition to giving love and light and understanding, we need to be prepared to defend ourselves against attach from a darker or afflicted soul - 'karmic dumping' as I call it.
This again is one of the spiritual karmic tests that every old soul has to face.
I always say that an old soul can walk into a room full of people and without even saying a word, three others will adore them and three hate them instantaneously.
All of the above cannot be avoided and are not as a result of our actions but of who we are on a spiritual level.
The importance of power.
As we grow and learn, parents' teachers, mentors, the media, religious teachings and other influences in our lives all teach us that being giving and kind and caring and turning the other cheek are vital to being a good human being. True of course..
So why do we more caring, more giving, more compassionate old souls often feel walked over by life ??
As in all things there is a duality. Look at nature - there's no cold without hot, no up without down, no dark without light. The yin and the yang, the interplay of opposing forces seeking balance.
Although conventional teaching is to keep pouring love and light and openness and giving into situations there is a point where we become depleted. There is a point where our love and compassion can cause us to give more than is healthy, to accept more than is our lot, and when we run out of cheeks to turn.
Herein lies one of the most important karmic lessons in that, we must seek balance. We must maintain our own personal power and not allow love, compassion and "thinking the best of people" to become voluntary abuse when that person or persons repays us with negativity.
Allowing this to happen encourages lowering self-esteem, feelings of abandonment, and a sense that destiny has left us behind when people are responding to us in a very negative way. For many of us this is a lesson that takes many years to learn.
Most of use will have experienced abuse of our energy in different situations from work, family and relatives, within friendships and especially in personal relationships.
We often give too much because we are giving people, and through that action diminish our personal power. Give love and light YES, pray for people YES, BUT I believe that it is essential for all of us to sometimes have to fight to protect the incredible value of our energy to realize it is a rare thing and to value it even when others don't.
In achieving balance we understand that giving love and light and having compassion and caring and understanding of people, especially those that are afflicted and confused by negativity is essential but is only one half of that balance. Love and light won't get your elephant off the tracks so sometimes we need to use our power in an assertive way.
The old soul experience comes with many such tests. This is not about giving less or giving to receive, it is to balance our giving and loving and caring with a total respect for the gold that is our own energy…In all things balance…
"To thine own self be true", William Shakespeare
Steve Gunn - 6/17/2006
http://stevegunn.net
This Article has been viewed 185,581 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More commentsThis was interesting. You don't hear much about the negative things that happen to such people like those who are "old souls". You hear a lot about love and light; you don't hear about the dark things, you don't hear about the struggle that goes on behind the scenes. The psychics that go on about angels and ascended masters who never mention the monsters that lurk, they do a great disservice. There's a struggle going on and it's got little to do with any religion's understanding. I was born old. Painfully old, very aware and not really all that human. And I knew from a very early age to keep it to myself. So if you feel different, maybe you're not just old but maybe didn't start out here. The universe is not a lonely empty place. And let me tell you, never let yourself feel that the bad things that happen to you were because of anything you did or because you didn't "attract" enough positivity in your light. A lot of bad things happened to you? Then you were pretty damn likely a target for those that wish to destroy all that is good in humanity. This fate of this planet is crucial. Never forget that. And you are not alone.:-)when i finished reading your post, i had a strong feeling that i should respond to you :\
Thanks for a really interesting article! The part about 'the importance of power' and balance really resonated with me. I have read a number of articles about soul age but each one has a different take on things which helps to put things in perspective.
WOW TIMING PERFECT, INFORMATIVE, REASSURING,COMFORTING
INSIGHTFUL.......................UH JUST STRAIGHT AWESOME!!!!!!!! CANT WAIT TO VIEW ALL THE REST OF HIS ARTICLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wow, talk about vision for the blind, my life is beyond unbelievable, to the point i would'nt dare talk about it because someone would be calling the paddie wagon to pick me up, thank you for such a well thought out insight of the lifecycle.
Thank you for the increasingly spellbinding read! This was the very FIRST result I got whilst searching "old souls" on Google, and it served almost instant gratification. In the past few months I've felt as though a mental clarity was destined to occur, and this article is now a part of the staircased comprised of the very steps of this process. What caused this mental clarity? I quit cigarettes, and felt very healthy for a month. I then, out of nowhere, was afflicted with a nearly fatal mouth infection from an unfinished root canal, the pain peaking three days before Christmas and peaking again even more intensely on Christmas. This pain sent me on a research frenzy natural remedies and cures, and eventually this research gave way into research of spirituality - which lead me here.
(Note: These were all topics I've been interested in for years. I've been fascinated with the cosmos, astral projecting, lucid dreaming, and out of body experiences for a long time. I have kept dream journals and have looked into my interest in astrology. I am 23 years old, by the way.)
In my opinion, it is a very logical explanation for the unwarranted hostility us "Old Souls" face, and the explanation I've been looking for my entire life to put my mind to rest and soul to ease. I estimate that us "Old Souls" emit this strange and unique energy that either draws people in or pushes them away. Here are some startling examples I can think of throughout life:
In the 1st grade I moved to a new town, and only lasted in the school for a week or two before being transferring to a private school. Upon entering the private school, I was immediately disliked by the entire class besides my cousin, who chose not to speak with me to avoid being bullied as well.
Nevertheless, despite loving the idea of school I had no desire to attend and face the bullying of a harsh populace at this point, bullying I had been subjected to my kindergarten year as well, and thus would hide my school uniform to get called out sick. (I was a crafty little bastard, far beyond finishing first on nearly every test I've ever taken; it wasn't all just book smarts) When this didn't work I'd get sent home early from the bitter, resentful nurse.
In 2nd grade, I remained in the same school despite being an alienated child the last year, toughing it out because I was a resiliant bastard. This new teacher, however, was terrible. She HATED me for some reason. I wasn't even allowed to raise my hand until after lunch. And I was the only student she was mean to, the rest she was kind and warm hearted to, but to me very cold. I was quickly taken out of that school by my mother. Back in public school, my new 2nd grade teacher was very nice, yet her assistant loathed me. Why these random authority figures disliked me was any ones guess, since I always exhibited a passion for learning and creativity.
It was also the year they advised my mom to have me talk to the school psychiatrist to 'get me out of class' for a while. I was happy, enthusiastic, and energetic...like any other normal second grader. I was a bit BORED, because the assignments were too easy, but this never resulted in bad behavior. The initial reason brought up is when I drew a crude illustration of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day with "The Terminator" under it.
It wasn't until the 5th grade I finally snapped back at the system. In 3rd and 4th grade, I had been pushed around by the teachers themselves just as much as in the private school, but to far less an angry, borderline hateful degree as in 1st grade - they treated me like a danger in the catholic school, but now I was more of an irritance to the teachers, as I began to care less and less of THEIR perception and became more interestd in sharing my OWN perspective.
I was becoming disenfranchised with the entire, ridiculous charade of education at that point because of these educators lack of patience with my ambitions as a student, basically thinking "You put all this effort in, get nearly flawless grades of Bs and As, attempt to participate in class more than average and STILL get horrible marks in behavior? What is this? How much harder do I have to try to make my teachers happy so I can get good behavior on my report card? Eh, @#$%&* it"
In 5th grade, the teacher was SO heinous to me I lost entire weeks of recess at a time. I think for 3/4 of the year I was forced to sit and watch the other kids play while I sat for a half hour doing nothing on the pavement without ANY KIND OF BAD BEHAVIOR TO INCITE THE PUNISHMENT. My parents didn't believe me, I would be near on the point of tears trying to get moved out of classes but at this point they were sold on the thought I was the problem due to the recurring nature of my claims of being victimized.
And that was why I snapped, and just said "NO MORE behaving for these narcissistic teachers, I'm only gonna get poor behavior marks either way, I'm done looking up to them." I started being the class clown, a dissident, a rebel, using my wit to make the teacher look stupid and EARNING my lost recess by about the 4th quarter of 5th grade. I quickly fell into the outspoken crowd...I now had a social clique.
In the 6th grade, I picked up a musical instrument, along with two other friends. I started taking lessons with one of these friends, and we got joint lessons. We had to stop taking lessons together because I was excelling a lot faster than my compadre was. It was later on in life, the 7th grade, there was a constant debate about who was the best guitarist. When a friend suggested I was the best, another friend started talking immense amounts of $%&*@$%& about my playing, and a 3rd friend later told me how he watched the whole thing unfold and agreed I was the most successful of the musicians at that point.
When I was in a band for many years, but I was plagued with musicians that would stab me in the back. The scenario was almost ALWAYS the same in the early years: fresh new musician joins my band. I teach them how to play their instrument from a few weeks experience and an idea into playing through my prog-metal compositions. They became competent musicians, and FAST. Then, after several successful months to a year of jamming and building a solid chemistry, they will decide to abandon the band in other pursuits. I realize I must come off as somewhat egotistical, but I was just as confident and vocal in my confidence of my friends talents as I was of my own.
I watched this trend follow me to work. It followed me to college, which I quickly dropped out of. It followed me to every message board I've ever went to - a divided set of forum members, one set absolutely love me and the other half despise me. I could go on and on and on about the backstabbings and whatnot, but I am now over it....because of your article. I originally figured it was a form of "Gang Stalking," and there very WELL may be an asterick that was put on my file around the 1st grade that's haunted me (it certainly FEELS like an inner-government or inner town sabotoge of me as an individual has been haunting me, especially later in life), but that wouldn't explain why I was attacked at such a young age and even by young children who would have no incentive to further some agenda against a dissident citizen.
I guess I just had to vent my frustration a final time to lift the burden of that pain of my early years off my chest. There are still many instances I am plagued with to this day - but those early instances were always a curious issue due to my age and behavior not warranting the abuse I received.
In feeding back into the negativity and giving it life, one will only perpetuate the effect it has on their own conscious. Forgiveness is key - to forgive one for intentionally wronging or slighting you for no reason other than jealousy or bitterness is key in overcoming the conditioning constant negativity has on all of our minds. The entire society is conditioned to be narcissistic and cut-throat, and whether or not you showcase loyalty is will oftentimes backfire. This is some good advice I recently found when asking a answer generator why a supposed friend in a current business scenario is isolating my business in his promotions but is heavily promoting everyone elses business, including contacts he either only knows through me or hasn't even met yet.
The high Heavens over a yawning Deep chasm:
An expansive void where nothing can dwell.
Even though he sincerely knows he is right, the Superior Person anticipates opposition and carefully prepares for any incident.
Good fortune if your conflict results in compromise.
Misfortune if your conflict escalates to confrontation.
Seek advice.
Postpone your crossing to the far shore.
SITUATION ANALYSIS:
Conflict is a necessary part of life.
Tension upon the strings of a violin can make majestic music.
The critical mass of two hydrogen atoms trying to occupy the same space fuel the sun that nourishes our solar system.
Most conflicts you face in life are the result of your Path converging with another's.
Your Path is not his, and one Path is not necessarily more right than the other.
Can you work together to remove the blockage?
Only recently have I been aware that we are all on a journey towards inner peace, We are all works in progress, and we must realize our own faults and mental pitfalls, for there are many and they are vast.
I am a scorpio and Earth Dragon, a very fierce and emotional combo, but am learning to quiet the outside, negative influences and to instead focus on being the solution you wish to see to the many problems and adversaries you as a human will no doubt face.
I am coming to terms with who I have always been, but through the troubles of life never really understood. I am grateful for the article and intend to devour it fully before commenting further. Arohanui.
I feel like this is the same gimic horoscope readers/ psychics have. Life has its ups and downs and attributing it to a theory that has no evidence behind it is a danger of false reassurance and stunted growth.If you can't see the evidence just scroll down
While looking up old souls on google, I found this post. I want to thank you for writing this. It was just what I was looking for. I can surely relate to this post in every way. I have passed it on to other people that I know and trust. Just amazing it was to read.
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