A fascinating interview with Shepherd Hoodwin on “What is my purpose in life?”. Shepherd shares in a three part series The Micheal Teachings on this topic and his book “Journey of Your Soul“. Learn a simple way to understand our soul’s path.
All text in this post are pulled from blog posts written by Shepherd Hoodwin
Michael Teachings: What is my purpose in life?
Even at birth, everyone is unique. The Michael teachings, an extraordinary body of channeled work, propose that we are each unique souls who deliberately take on a specific combination of traits to give us the experiences we seek. Shepherd Hoodwin shares these teachings based on his thirty years of experience as a as a Michael channel in his book “Journey of Your Soul “,
Who is Michael?
“Michael” is a group of a thousand or more souls who teach that we are eternal beings journeying from the Tao and back again in an adventure of exploration and creativity. The Michael teachings address many age-old questions, such as “How did we become who we are?” “Why are we here?” “Where are we going?”, “What is my purpose in life?” and “How does the universe work?”
What is channeling?
Channeling is a means of communicating with any consciousness that a channel (or channeler) allows to express through him or her.
Shepherd Hoodwin is a channel who works with the Michael entity. His book “Journey of Your Soul “ is a synthesis of his research on the various channeled writings of the Michael teachings since it’s inception in the 1970’s.
Where does this information reside?
The Michael Information accesses each person’s Akashic records that reside on the causal plane.
What is the causal plane?
We live in a multidimensional universe. Michael teaches that the physical plane is only the first (and most dense) of seven planes. The next plane is the astral; we dwell on the lower astral plane before birth and after death, and sometimes visit it when dreaming. The other planes are the causal, akashic, mental, messianic, and buddhaic. They aren’t really separate from our lives here on the physical plane. Through channeling, Shepherd makes conscious contact with higher planes.
Shepherd explains that we can also communicate with beings who are physical but nonhuman, such as devas (nature spirits), dolphins and whales, and extraterrestrials.
What does Michael teach about the journey of the soul?
“Journey of Your Soul “ looks at two aspects of the soul. The first is the essence which includes a person’s role, mode, and soul age. It is one aspect of answering “What is my purpose in life?”
As this spark, we each decided a long time ago to begin a great journey or adventure that might be called “planetary sentience.” To be sentient, as Michael defines it, is to have consciousness that is complex enough to be capable of purely intellectual function, such as self-awareness and long-range planning. To be a planetary sentient is to play a particular game the universe offers that involves coming to the physical plane of a planet such as earth, inhabiting a life form such as the human form, and experiencing what that planet and life form have to offer. When we’re done, we ascend through the higher planes until we’re fully reabsorbed back into the Tao. That whole loop, from the Tao, through the physical plane and each of the six higher planes, and back to the Tao is called a “grand cycle.”
In order to do a grand cycle, we need a vehicle, something that will anchor us into the seven-plane dimensional universe and carry us along this journey. That vehicle is called the “essence,” or “soul.”
My Body: Who am I? What is my purpose in life?
If you were going to take a road trip, you might first go to a car dealership to get a vehicle. The first thing the salesperson would probably ask you is, “What kind do you want? A sedan, a hatchback, a minivan, or an SUV?” Once you narrow that down, you choose your options, accessories, and colors. It’s rather like that with the soul.
When you decide to undertake this journey, you go to the “soul dealership” and decide what basic model you want. The seven models, or types of souls, are called the “role.” The seven roles consist of three pairs: server and priest, artisan and sage, and warrior and king, plus the single role of scholar. Certain role combinations are “classic” and are often found in mates. In addition to the pairs mentioned, scholars often mate with priests and warriors, and servers often mate with kings. However, every soul will eventually experience most, if not all, combinations.
Michael Teachings: 7 Roles and Life purpose
Your role dictates your primary way of being and therefore, how you contribute to life. You might say that it’s your inner style. Every role can do any profession, but there are proclivities, and your role indicates how you are likely to approach anything you do. For example, although many actors and musicians are sages and artisans, there are people of each role who are successful actors and musicians. It’s no so much *what* you do but *how* you do it that reflects your essence traits. A priest actor or musician, for instance, might underline how she might inspire others through her craft, rather than focusing so much on the craft itself.
Shepherd offers the following stats on the percentages of each purpose:
Servers 25% (7/28)
Artisans 22% (6/28)
Warriors 17% (5/28)
Scholars 14% (4/28)
Sages 10% (3/28)
Priests 8% (2/28)
Kings 4% (1/28)
Descriptions of Roles
“Journey of Your Soul “ shares the following descriptions of the seven purposes:
- Warriors are persuasive, single-minded doers, often with a hearty sense of humor and sometimes the subtlety (and strength) of a Mack truck. They seek challenge.
- Kingsare the large-picture counterparts of warriors. They are charismatic leaders, organizing others to action, sometimes in a tyrannical manner. They seek mastery.
- Scholars, rather than being oriented toward doing, are a resource for others. They study and assimilate, intellectually or otherwise. Sometimes they are overly theoretical and distanced from life. They seek knowledge.
- Artisans create what is new, whether in art, hairstyles, or computers. They are often warm and playful, and sometimes out of touch with reality. They seek originality.
- Sages express and communicate. They are witty, friendly, entertaining, and sometimes loud and verbose. They seek insight.
- Priestsinspire others through their compassion and vision. They sometimes get carried away and take too much on faith or try to force their beliefs on others. They seek what is highest.
- Servers support and nurture others, sometimes in a self-denying and victimized way. They seek the well-being of all.
Why do several roles look possible?
Shepherd explains that you may find that several roles feel right to you. If this happens, this may be a result of imprinting.
Childhood imprinting is how we were taught to be, or conclusions we drew about what we needed to do to get along in our family and community. It can override our true personality and prevent us from manifesting who we really are, especially earlier in life. If it does not fade away as we grow up, we will likely confront it during our fourth internal monad, which is typically during our mid-thirties, when essence seeks to overthrow anything standing in the way of our accomplishing our life task.
We examine our imprinting to see whether it still serves us, and attempt to let our true nature emerge. Many people do not successfully accomplish this, and therefore do not completely look the way their Michael reading chart indicates. For example, a suppressed sage may not be able to express herself freely, which is an especially big deal for a sage. A warrior or king who was beaten down as a child may be afraid to let his power flow, also a key issue for someone in that situation. Childhood imprinting may continue themes from past lives. That warrior or king who was beaten down may have abused his power in past lives.
What are other parts of my essence?
Once you decide your essence role, you pick the equivalent of options. For example, you choose your ratio of male to female energy, and your frequency, which is how fast the soul vibrates, giving it its texture. You also choose your unique location within larger groupings of souls, which gives you particular resonances. And so forth, until you’ve ready to “drive it off the lot” and begin your journey.
Soul Mates: What souls to you vibe with and why? (Essence Twins)
(Source: https://shepherdhoodwin.com/book/loving-from-your-soul/finding-your-mate-and-developing-intimacy/)
What are you seeking in a mate, if you do not have one and would like one? What is finding a mate was preordained before you came to earth? Shepherd shares the Michael Teaching’s concept of a “essence twin (ET)”, which is another soul you team up with in the beginning to help you with your lessons by being vibrationally similar to you, and thereby reflecting you back to yourself. When your ET is discarnate (not in a physical body), it’s almost as if it is living in your vest pocket, and some of its traits blend into yours if its role is different. (I write “it” because the discarnate soul has no gender.) There is less bleedthrough if the soul is incarnate and knows you, and even less if you don’t know each other.
In addition to the natural attractions each role has, we also tend to be attracted to people who have the same role as our ET.
About five percent of us have no essence twin. A lesson of a cycle without an essence twin may be self-sufficiency, finding balance and completeness within, experiencing our reflection within ourselves rather than externally. We might choose a fairly balanced male/female energy ratio to facilitate this. People with no essence twin sometimes tell me, when they learn of it, that they aren’t surprised; they always had a sense of doing this planet “solo.” They may need to be especially deliberate about drawing in support from others. Sometimes they team up with someone who functions like an essence twin for a lifetime or a series of lifetimes. I refer to them as surrogate essence twins. When someone has no ET, his casting becomes his only source for secondary role influences and therefore is especially important.
Even when we have an essence twin, we only know him or her in the flesh during ten to thirty percent of our lifetimes; it can be a very involving relationship, anywhere from very pleasant to very unpleasant, and the soul wants a wide range of experiences on the physical plane. Many Michael students make the mistake of romanticizing this relationship. There are many other reasons a soul may be close to you, and your ET is not necessarily a soul mate. However, no matter who or where your essence twin is, your soul connection is always there.
Essence twin and task companion are the two key relationships defined in the Michael teachings. However, they are not necessarily close to us on a personality level in any given lifetime, and it is not unusual for both to be discarnate. There are many other reasons we can feel close to other people, such as being in the same entity, or having shared powerful past live experiences.
