Familiar Faces from Past Lives
I will always remember the first time my mother met my ex. She’d been out of the country travelling more than a year, so this was a long-awaited meeting. My mother had barely even entered the room and I felt it. I vividly remember thinking “Oh no! They hate each other!” and I was right. There was an immediate and palpable dislike. It was awkward to say the least! It was impossible to explain – they’d barely even laid eyes on each other. But there it was.
Have you had this feeling before? Have you felt an instant sense of familiarity and a connection with someone you’ve only just met…and an instant aversion for others? Obviously, this can’t possibly be based purely on first impressions or body language!
Evidence abounds of children’s ability to recall past lives easily that gradually diminished with age. It brought up some really fascinating evidence and similarities to see what occurs for a soul from one lifetime to the next.
Dr Ian Stevenson spent four decades researching 2,500 children aged between 2-5 “who had inexplicable phobias or detailed memories about a previous life”. He corroborated these recollections in 1200 cases all over the world. Dr Stevenson photographed and compared each incarnation. His findings were that we are born with similar facial features, personality traits, talents and even writing style, not to mention innate talents.
Our souls retain an essence of our being carried over from one life to the next. No wonder we recognise others from our soul group – we don’t change. We are intrinsically the same from life to life. Only the outer shell, the vehicle varies but even our facial expression and general appearance remains the same.
Externals shift according to the life lessons chosen, meaning country of birth, ethnicity, religion and gender will vary from life to life. Changes are a conscious decision.
I know that in all the past lives I remember I find an uncanny sense of self…I am the same. Only the external casing, my body, changes through the millennia. My thoughts and attitudes feel the same. It is bizarre to see yourself in another body but still have the same essential thoughts and feelings. So, what motivates us remains constant.
Ian Stevenson’s reincarnation studies show that souls change gender in only 10% of cases. Most people maintain the same gender from one lifetime to another, and it seems that our soul retains an innate masculine or feminine quality. We all choose to switch gender periodically to learn what it is like to be a different gender. If a soul changes gender it is likely the person would feel confused by their new identity.
I believe we have been incarnating for millenia…that’s hundreds if not thousands of lifetimes! From this perspective, this one lifetime is just one of so many. I have recalled all the way back to cromagnum, where I was a woman hiding in a cave before being discovered and stoned to death by the new race of men. I have vivid memories of countless lives all the way through the millenia until relatively present.
Various time frames between incarnations have been given. I used to believe that you could reincarnate after 7-9 earthly years. Apparently this has dramatically accelerated to within 2 years now. But then I’ve also done enough Past Life Readings that just didn’t add up.
One stuck in my memory as it was just so perplexing and far fetched – 10 lives in 8 years! I had to do a bit more questioning to satisfy my own curiosity. Turns out it was during a plague so this soul had chosen to reincarnate over and over and over again to die in infancy and early childhood. There’s always exceptions to the rule.
Uncovering the Truth of Who You Truly Are
I often delve into past lives in Akashic Records. The Akashic Records give access to who you truly are on a soul level: past, present and future. An Akashic Reading gives you a comprehensive description of your soul gifts, life lessons and life purpose.
This is the truth of who you are- from one lifetime to the next. An Akashic Record Reading speaks to the heart of who you are as soul, as an ancient timeless multidimensional being of love and light!
An Akashic Record Reading go far beyond the personality traits and circumstances of this incarnation. An Akashic Record Reading offers a picture of you as a whole, and a past life offers a piece of that puzzle.
An Akashic Record Reading gives the place and period in history where the soul experienced the most growth along with the spiritual tradition or religion you participated in. These Readings offer tantalizing glimpses into other world (that’s a whole Past Life Reading!) giving a wealth of detail a past life is impacting you now.
Understanding your most significant past life can explain why you are drawn to a specific geographical location of the world or why you hold an interest in a historic time period, a spiritual tradition or a religion.
Exploring past lives help put the pieces back together and create a fuller understanding of who you are on a soul level; the experiences, beliefs, attitudes, spiritual traditions or religions that have shaped or influenced your soul.
Often a spiritual tradition or religion will carry over into your current life in your values or belief system. These insights are invaluable to understand because religions and spiritual paths can be purposely chosen as a vehicle for learning a particular life lesson.
Your Soul Group
According to the Akashic Record teachings, we are all part of a soul group who incarnate together over and over in order to support each other’s soul’s growth. Each soul group contains between 5-20 souls. The same souls pop up together over and over and over again.
Souls take part in the Sacred Contract written in your pre-incarnation process. In this you choose your life lessons, significant relationships (parents, siblings, friends and life partners) in order to serve each other from lifetime to lifetime. You choose to come through in various relationships and genders, swapping roles with each other.
These are the same souls, lifetime after lifetime who reincarnate together to assist each other.
A Relationship Reading gives a significant past life connection flavours a current relationship. This is where past lives are so useful as they unravel the unconscious dynamics within a relationship.
Relationships often play out old past life issues (dramas!) so awareness means you can let the old story go and focus on the current relationship. It can put unconscious patterns into focus and release any that no longer serve you or your loved ones. It is important to look at past lives in order to remove any old patterns, habits or oaths made to each other that no longer serve you in this lifetime.
When you accept past life relationships with family and friends it often brings a new context and makes sense of seemingly odd relationships. So often just having an awareness of the past life is enough to clear the issue. Often it is a case of forgiving past wrong doing and letting it go.
Delving into the Past
Finally, a the Past Life Reading is devoted to accessing and exploring the most significant past lie that is impacting your current life. I always make sure I ask for the most significant lifetime during a period so that my client can access understandings of current life issues. It’s not necessary to know every single life we ever had – that would be overwhelming! It just important to look at the lives that impact your life now.
A Past Life Reading gives details of your most significant past lives that affect your current life. In a Past Life Reading, I specifically ask to be given the most significant earthly periods of history where your soul experienced great strides in growth and shaped who you are on the soul level. This means you are aware of the undercurrents at play in order to let it go.
The well-earned wisdom from your past lives can be used to your advantage when integrated into your current life. It is possible to allow it to guide you in the present by trusting your intuition – hunches based on past life experiences.
When it comes to members of your soul group, there will be a sense of familiarity – those immediate first impressions! If the relationship was loving and ended well in the most recent lifetime together then unconsciously the memory then there’s an immediate aversion to the person.
These relationships are not always loving. They may be fraught or another soul may agree to come through to be a malevolent force in the other’s life. Everything is chosen for your higher path and purpose for the greatest soul learning.
Exploring past lives help you understand all those unconscious automatic responses and preferences, including your first impressions and aversions to strangers!
This was obviously not the first time my mother’s soul had met my ex. Lucky for me they were able to put the past life behind them and get to know each other in this life. It was an amicable enough relationship and I believe they saw beyond what ever those initial gut reactions had been!
Art by Lucy Pierce