Soul Journey: The Spirit of the Dove

By Starlight Devi

A comprehensive, modern-day guide to spiritual living and spiritual development.

Whether you are a beginner or have already made progress, this book is practical spirituality for everyday living. It tells you what the spiritual path is and how to walk it, how to cope with everyday situations the spiritual way and is packed with anecdotes, advice, spiritual and meditational exercises from one who has been on the path for over 30 years. An invaluable resource for anyone looking to develop his or her own spirituality and contribute to the shifting world consciousness.

Contents include: What is spirituality? Karma & Reincarnation – How it works, Between Death and Rebirth, Health and Spirituality, Money and Spirituality, Religion and Spirituality, Suffering and Spirituality, Escaping your Karma, Dealing with Every Day Problems on the Spiritual Path, Spiritual Masters and Avatars, Astral Battles and Righteous Anger (and more...)

About the Author:
Starlight Devi is an Avatar, and Mother of Unconditional Love and Compassion. She constantly works for the good of the world, absently and silently, as well as helping people on an individual basis – irrespective of race or faith. Starlight Devi teaches a pure philosophy of love, which awakens the heart and embraces the spirit to the glorious realisation that all Life is One.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Starlight Devi
• Release date: Nov 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9780952935032

Starlight Devi

Starlight Devi is an Avatar, and Mother of Unconditional Love and Compassion. She constantly works for the good of the world, absently and silently, as well as helping people on an individual basis – irrespective of race or faith. Starlight Devi teaches a pure philosophy of love, which awakens the heart and embraces the spirit to the glorious realisation that all Life is One.

Book preview

The information in this book is based on my own personal experience on all levels, as well as that gleaned from my teachers, Zoroaster, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Lao-Tzu and the Lord Jesus Christ. There are, however, areas, which I know are not fully explained as there is more to the picture than is presented. This is mainly in the metaphysical areas and is due to putting concepts into words where no words are available, as well as bringing through information from the Infinite into the finite mind which is limited. That being said, this book will, in its present form, take you as far as you want to go, even to the ultimate level. You will also find that some information is repeated under more than one heading, where the subject matter overlaps.

What is Spirituality?

When I was a child I had a wonderful experience. I was standing in the lounge of my grandmother’s flat in Central London, looking out at the sky. Suddenly I had the understanding that *G-d was the only Reality. I was 3 years old at the time.

On another occasion I was walking to school when I suddenly found myself lifted into a state of bliss which lasted all day and then, sadly, dissipated.

On another occasion I was sitting on the floor reading a book when I felt compelled to look out of the window. It was a beautiful summer’s day. The sky was an azure blue with not a cloud to be seen, or rather, it had been earlier. When I looked up this time the sky had gone and the whole expanse was taken over by the face of a woman. A woman, with a beautiful serene smile on her face, wearing a cloth of Madonna blue on her head. Not being a Catholic it was many years later before I understood that I had been visited by the Virgin Mary.

I was 17 when this happened and sitting on the floor of the lounge in my parents council flat in North London, hardly the place for a spiritual experience one would have thought.

Over the following years I had other experiences and visions. I also learned that visions do not make one spiritual, but come unbidden to those who have spiritual potential and offers the recipient of them an opportunity to take the path and go forward, a chance to seek the greater understanding.

So, having said what spirituality is not, what is it? It is a state of holiness, of being pure, and purity starts with pure thought.

And how does one become holy? By having integrity; selflessness; kindness and compassion. By letting go of the ego and doing only that which comes from the heart. And added to this, a yearning to be one with our Creator.

In this book I have sought to explain the process, to show you how to reach your full potential, what you can expect as far as spiritual tests are concerned and the rewards and pitfalls that you will find along the way. This book gives practical advice so that you can realise your true spiritual nature without having to go into a monastery or ashram. It gives metaphysical explanations in order for you to have a basic understanding of G-d’s creation and the universe around us. There are 2 meditation exercises (and a third, free to read on my site), as well as exercises to help you recognise and overcome your negative habit patterns. You may find that you are attracted to certain headings and want to read those first, that’s fine, the order does not matter, just let your intuition flow, relax and enjoy.

In the beginning........

‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’ So begins the Gospel according to St. John, but it is not quite where this book begins because, even after 25 years of meditation, I cannot answer the eternal question of how G-d came to be, for the simple reason that it is not possible to understand the Infinite with a mind that is finite. What I can tell you is that we are all part of G-d in the sense that there is no separation between us, although we are individual at the same time, a realisation that has to be experienced to be fully understood, and that we, like G-d, have always been. When people talk about a ‘young soul’ it is in their individuality, in their descent into matter that we are talking about, not their pure consciousness, their spirit, which, like G-d, has always been. So what we are is pure consciousness, an eternal flame.

I can also tell you that to G-d, past, present and future are all the same because to G-d there is no time and space, only ‘Is-ness’. At this point you may find that this concept is too hard to grasp, so we will leave it for the present and start at a point in time, at the point of the creation of our universe which is easier to talk about and to comprehend because it is within time and space. So we will start off with the formation of the spiritual and physical worlds in order to give you basic metaphysical understanding, but it is not essentially necessary for your spiritual progress and so this can also be skipped if you wish.

Our universe is created from colour, sound and mathematical formulae, (although sound, at some point, becomes colour). The balance of these 3, form different types of spiritual energy which gives us the multitude of forms there are. Although G-d created the first universe (of which there are many) after that all universes were created by spiritual beings. What was first created was the spiritual realms and later on planets which were, of course, of greater density, in other words, physical.

Everything is created by thought, using this combination of light, sound and mathematical formulae. One would imagine say a shade of blue and make it vibrate to a note and a formulae to create what one wanted. So it is the higher beings (and G-d Himself of course) who ‘thinks’ into creation the higher forms of creation, the planes of soul and the spiritual realms.

We, as human beings can also create our lives and our destinies by thinking about what we want. Whatever we think we want we will get, for our good or otherwise, and if we don’t get it in this life, be sure our desires will follow us into the next. That is why Gautama Buddha said that all desire causes suffering and to end the wheel of re-birth we need to stop desiring, a concept we will go into later on.

The Story of Adam and Eve

There are many interpretations of the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Many of us have seen through it as a factual account of a family. After all, if Cain killed his brother Abel and took a wife, where did she come from? I’ve had this argument with Jehovah’s Witnesses who say that Cain married his sister. If that was the case there would be no human race as we all know the genetic repercussions of incest! From the Taoist point of view, it is looked at as representing Yin and Yang who have never taken physical incarnation but are responsible for the formation of matter. Any acupuncturist will tell you that these two energies have to be in harmony for health and that creation depends on a balance of these male and female energies. You could say that Yin and Yang are the archetypal male and female energies or the Divine Mother and Father one being love and creation the other being destruction for renewal.

From another point of view it can be looked at in terms of temptation, but temptation in the sense of our conscience. It is the black and the white, the right and the wrong. The same story appears in the Bhagavad Gita (Celestial Song), which is the tale of Krishna and Arjuna. It is the battle of the soul trying to rise above temptation and pettiness and aspiring to G-d. Or one could say that it is about our innocence as pure spirits before we are individualised as souls and released from G-d, as in that state they/we know neither temptation nor desire. After Adam and Eve eat the apple, they know desire. This is the experience of the pure soul descending into matter where he (or she) is confronted with temptation and has to rise above desire which is the goal of every human being.

My own meditations tell me that the story has a far deeper meaning.

There are two parts to G-d. The Unmanifest, in which there is undiluted potential, and the Manifest which we call G-d and also referred to as YHWH or Jehovah (Latinised). It is the Manifest that spoke to Moses in the burning bush. This to me is the first created being from the Unmanifest and is therefore Adam. It is said that Adam created Eve from his rib and we know that G-d, YHWH, Jehovah brings forth individual spirits from Himself, therefore His first created being was Eve, being the first feminine principle and spiritual consort and in Hebrew known as Shekinah. In fact the second part of YHWH is feminine.

Eve ate the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and gave it to Adam. I.e. Eve descended into matter and transferred her experience to G–d/YHWH/Jehovah/Adam so He had compassion for all human beings.

If all this is too heavy for you, don’t worry about it. This book is basically to help you progress and in order to do so it is not necessary to have any metaphysical understanding.

So let’s begin, but one thing before we do. If you are wondering how people first came to earth, it was by a process of solidification. We did not evolve from apes (or any other species), as all life is a special creation although, I do agree with Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest and also that humans, animals and plants often adapt to their environment and those that don’t die out.

There are seven planes of soul and three of spirit and these correspond roughly with the chakras in the body. Originally the planet was populated by beings of a high spiritual level. When they were ready to incarnate they would start at the highest level or plane of soul, and gradually work their way down through these layers, each one being denser than the one before. As they went through the layers they would take on another subtle body, like an overcoat, until, arriving on earth, they had become fully physical. But after living on earth for some time and being faced with temptation, some of these beings found they could not keep up their spiritual ideals. They began to fall and so did everything else around them. Parts of the earth became dry and turned into deserts, others became too wet. Animals picked up the feelings of aggression from people and became aggressive themselves; plants grew thorns, reflecting man’s feelings. So the earth devolved and we have the situation we have today. This is the story of the fall of man, but not everyone has to fall. We are not all suffering because of those first beings. All of us, before we enter incarnation have a choice in what we want to do, what we wish to undertake: and it is the result of that first life, that first undertaking that determines the path of our incarnations.

What is Eternity?

The dictionary defines Eternity as, ‘endless or infinite time,’ but that isn’t strictly true because in Eternity there is no past or future, only ‘Is-ness,’ an Eternal, ‘now.’

This concept is hard to understand unless one has experienced it. To us everything is governed by day and night and the 24 hr clock.

On the planes of soul, however, time is different. It is marked by the events of being between incarnations, of learning whatever we need to for the next one, but day and night as we know it, do not exist. On the planes of spirit, where the Ascended Masters and Archangels exist, time is only relative to what is happening to those they guide and the events on earth or whatever planet their charges live on.

Once we get above those levels, time doesn’t exist.

Eternity lies outside the created universe, and could, in a sense, be described as a state of non-existence, except that isn’t correct either because rather than not-existing, one feels a sense of joy and liberation which, compared to other states, is unmatched and prompted me to write this.

JOY

Our spirit is boundless.

We can create our own canopy of stars

And dance beneath it.

So can Eternity be experienced with the finite mind?

When I first experienced this state, I had been meditating deeply for 27 years and was out of my body during the sleep state. When I woke up, the feeling was fleeting and thereafter all I could remember was that I had felt this and understood it, but could not recall the actual feeling.

Five years later I experienced this during meditation and so it was far more readily available to my conscious mind, although the total experience cannot be recalled but only glimpsed when I go back into meditation. However, it has left me with a feeling of abiding peace and security, far stronger than anything I had felt before.

Reincarnation and *Karma – How it Works

When we take on an incarnation, it is to experience all of the facets of life, by which I mean how to be patient, tolerant, give service to others and to love our fellow man. In order to do this we incarnate into various situations, various relationships. We usually incarnate in groups, the families and friends we have, husbands and lovers, are invariably people we have met in former lives, although often in different relationships. How we deal with the complexities and difficulties of our relationships, our choice of job, attitude towards money (generosity or the reverse), even how we spend our leisure time, defines us and determines our next life and lessons. In between our lives, those of us who are aware, will work out, with the help of our spiritual guide, the best location and family for what we need to learn in our next incarnation.

When we have failed to learn our lesson or have acted in an irresponsible, violent or hostile manner, than we start to incur bad karma.

As we go from life to life, so our experiences are held in the cells of our body and it is our bad karma plus trauma (and it could be argued that a traumatic life or childhood is the result of bad karma) that starts to create disease, both mental and physical, in order to get our attention, to tell us we are on the wrong path, or have been on the wrong path in the past and it needs to be addressed. When we have blood transfusions and spare part surgery, we are adding the personality and energy of those whose blood and organs we have used, which was why the ancients were against such a practice, because you now have another energy in your body which is not going to fit in with your vibration. I know this because I have gone into an altered state of consciousness and felt it, it is awful. And whether the deceased person has given his permission or not for transplant, he will still be attached to those organs which will cause him problems on the spirit side of life until the recipient has himself died, (although sometimes it is possible to rectify the matter afterwards for both the living and the deceased). Someone who is unaware may not notice the change in energy and the internal conflict it causes, and it is assumed that an aware person wouldn’t have such a procedure! Neither does this take away the original