Spiritual Turning Points: A Metaphysical Perspective of the Seven Life Transitions

By Victoria Marina-Tompkins

SPIRITUAL TURNING POINTS offers a groundbreaking look at the Seven Life Transitions of Birth, the Terrible Twos, Adolescence, Mid-life Crisis, Life Review, Dying, and Death through the lens of Shamanism, Astrology, and the Michael Teachings. It represents the culmination of twenty years of client work, personal experiences, and spiritual mediumship. Victoria Marina-Tompkins presents a compelling explanation for the mysteries of birth, life, death, and beyond. A must read for serious students of metaphysics, SPIRITUAL TURNING POINTS is a fascinating investigation of how the soul evolves during each lifetime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456825720

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Copyright © 2011 by Victoria Marina-Tompkins.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2010917840

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4568-2571-3

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4568-2570-6

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4568-2572-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

Cover Photos:

Author Photo by Paula Ruffinelli

Cover Photo: Magnolia and Blue Sky by Victoria Marina-Tompkins

Interior Photos

Note: All interior photos by Victoria Marina-Tompkins except for

Zander Merrill by Whitney Merrill

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Contents

Author’s Note

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 Birth

Life Transition One

Birth

CHAPTER 2 Establishing Personal Identity

Life Transition Two

I Am Not the Mama

CHAPTER 3 Independence of Spirit

Life Transition Three

Adolescence and Independence of Spirit

CHAPTER 4 Midlife Spiritual Crisis—Part One

Life Transition Four

Part One

Midlife Spiritual Crisis

Life Transition Four

Manifesting the True Self—Part Two

Life Transition Four

Part Two

Manifesting the True Self

CHAPTER 5 The Life Review

Life Transition Five

The Life Review

CHAPTER 6 The Onset of Whatever Will Be Fatal

Life Transition Six

The Onset of Whatever Will Be Fatal

CHAPTER 7 Death

Life Transition Seven

Death

In Closing

Acknowledgments

Photo Credits

Contact Information

DEDICATION

For John and Brendan

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Author’s Note

All stories are based on real-life events and are either direct quotations or author’s interpretation based on interviews. In some cases the names have been changed at the request of the contributor or initials have been used.

The terms transition and monad are interchangeable as are the terms soul and essence.

General references to gender are interchangeable except in the case of a specific individual story.

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Introduction

Spiritual (adjective): Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material.

Turning Point (noun): The point at which a very significant change occurs; a decisive moment, a crossroads.

The human evolutionary process includes a series of seven spiritual turning points that we all have the opportunity to process in every lifetime. At each threshold, we are challenged to move from one state of consciousness to another as we make the transitions that are the cornerstones of the human maturation process in physical, psychological, and spiritual terms.

Spiritual Turning Points is based on twenty-five years of experience with both clients and personal studies. Each chapter includes authentic stories that illustrate how the transitions were engaged, ignored, left unfinished, or completed, providing a complete look at the transitions from many different viewpoints. This metaphysical perspective is based on a combination of causal plane studies, astrology, and shamanism that together have served as the anchors in my private practice, providing a lens through which to understand the process of life.

While the human being is maturing in tangible, physical, and psychological ways, the soul is also evolving as it experiences all there is to learn on the physical plane before returning to the Tao, the universal creative source from whence it originally came. The cycle of reincarnation includes experiences of separateness while in human physicality, but you are always connected to the divine through your own essence even if you forget during the course of your everyday life.

The Greeks used a literary device, deus ex machina, or god from a machine, when they would lower actors playing gods and goddesses on a crane onto the stage, thereby solving human dilemmas with divine intervention. Later, Horace, a first-century BCE Roman lyric poet, would argue in his Ars Poetica that using a technique such as this actually defied logic and that the resolution of the conflict needed to come from within the characters themselves rather than by the intervention of a god. It is human nature to look outside the self for reassurance, but learning to resolve the conflicts, to move through the discomfort, and then to emerge with a new state of awareness is an integral part of the evolutionary process. The seemingly random events of life are in most cases not random or accidental, and we always have the choice of how we will respond to any external stimuli, eventually learning through the totality of human experience.

The ideas presented in Spiritual Turning Points are to some controversial and to others, reassuring. Many of the concepts may be thought-provoking, encouraging the readers to contemplate their own relationship to the universe and the choices they make. The stories may then be considered tangible evidence of soul evolution in action, illustrating metaphysical concepts that can serve to open the doorway for increased personal awareness and the validation of higher spiritual truths.

Victoria Marina-Tompkins

El Granada, CA

CHAPTER 1

Life Transition One

Birth

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Life Transition One

Birth

We choose the moment we are born.

The soul enters the body at the moment of the first breath, that rush of energy that ushers the soul into the physical body and which marks the beginning of what is called the first monadal transition, the first of seven major transitions for our sentient species. This is the intersection between the divine and the ordinary, when consciousness becomes soma or the body of the human organism. A baby takes his first breath, and consciousness is awakened in an instant as the soul makes the transition from the astral plane to the physical body, continuing the cycle of reincarnation for many, or for some, the very first life in what will become a continuing cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. The operative word here is transition in that it is during the birth process that the soul changes from being discarnate or not alive to being incarnate or alive.

Many of us think the circumstances of our births are random, a happenstance event that occurs relative to many factors, including the attending doctor’s schedule, the phase of the moon, or how busy the hospital was that night—all pointing toward external circumstances that would determine the actual time we entered the world. But what if our soul actually had a say in the matter? Instead of depending on what was happening on the physical plane known as planet Earth, our soul had a bigger picture, a larger perspective that was able to see not only what was happening the days or weeks surrounding the proposed due date, but also planetary influences which would be put into play at the exact moment of birth.

And then there’s the matter of our parents. You mean we choose them too? Yes, indeed. There are many reasons we might choose the parents we did, including their genetics, education, interests, and location. We choose the circumstances of our birth in order to set up the foundation for experiences we want to have for our soul to evolve in this lifetime. For example, we might want to be the eldest of six or the youngest of twelve, an only child or a twin. We may want to be raised by our adoptive parents but want the genetics of the birth parents in order to have musical talent or physical prowess. Our life plan may include teaching at a later time, so we need a good primary education with parents who value school. Or we want an agricultural setting in order to have a simpler life. Urban or rural, Western or Eastern, North or South America, multilingual or just plain English, the palate is extensive! Fortunately, for us we have more than one life to live and many opportunities for experience.

What Happens Before Birth

Soul agreements are made on an essence level before birth in most cases. In fact, many things happen on the astral plane whether or not our personalities are aware of it. Here’s an example: Mary and John want to have a baby, and she becomes pregnant. Their personalities are not aware of having an agreement with the soul who will become their new son, but their essences are. In fact, the soul is much bigger than what we usually see in someone. That spark in their eyes is, as many say, the gateway to the soul, not the soul itself. So on an essence level the parents have each made an agreement with the new soul who will soon be born. While Mary’s pregnancy develops, the soul is focused or present on the astral plane, without human form, until the moment of birth and the first breath.

Sometimes the agreements that have been made prior to birth just don’t work out. Maybe Mary never meets John, or they decide to not have kids, or any number of other things occurs. That’s why your personal blueprint comes with an eraser, and you are the one in charge of any changes you need to make. Maybe baby Sarah needed a little more time before incarnating again and decided to pass on the chance of being born to Mary and John. That’s fine. There are backup agreements and many other souls who would see the opening and take it, sometimes at the last minute.

The overall picture of the upcoming life is viewed through the lens of what will become the life plan and the life focus. The life focus has to do with what your soul wants to learn in this lifetime, while the life plan is how you will go about learning it. If you are choosing to learn about responsibility, then you might choose various scenarios where you would have the opportunity to experience responsibility from many different angles such as in your family of origin as the eldest of five, the parent of three at a later time, or the head of a company where the buck stopped with you. If your soul wanted to be sure, you would really focus on this task, then you might choose to agree to a karmic repayment where you would take care of your younger brother who was mentally handicapped. This would be called a narrow life plan. On the other hand, a broad sweeping life plan might include many different experiences—travel, relocations, and multiple relationships and jobs—all designed to give you the widest possible range of experience.

Some individuals choose very specific plans and tasks. Gary wanted to experience individual freedom so he chose to become an airline pilot and have only that job for his entire life, visiting many foreign countries, but also remaining single, never marrying or settling down. His family pressured him to get serious with his life, and even though he did struggle with some going-against-the-family wishes, he stayed true to his chosen focus. Nancy chose the application of theory as a life focus and chose to get her PhD in science in order to do research on the advancement of cancer treatments. A wide sweeping plan was chosen by Adriana who, over the course of her lifetime, married four times, had six children, two of whom were stillborn, lived in three countries, and frequently changed jobs. The soul who would become Charles wanted a broad life plan but stayed in the same house for forty-five years, changing jobs frequently.

Parental Expectations and Iconography

Before birth, the souls of the soon-to-be parents make an astral plane agreement concerning what will become the familial icon for the child. According to Merriam-Webster, the term icon is defined as an image or symbol of the thing it represents. When such an agreement as this is made, there will be expectations placed on the child that may or may not have anything to do with their true nature and always have to do with parental projections.

Both parents can agree upon the icon or they may decide to each give the child one. A subsequent icon may also be given if an event occurs that changes the basic constitution of the family such as when one parent dies, the surviving parent remarries and a new icon is granted the child.

Some icons are more palatable and include the one who is compliant or the good son. Others are more negative such as the one who is deviant or the lost child. Whether the chosen icons are pleasing is not of great importance, for no matter what the chosen icon is, it is still a projected expectation and one that the child will adhere to in order to gain acceptance in the family. It is in fact not until during the fourth transition that the icon is disassembled and broken as part of the birth of the true personality. Until then, the icon is the cornerstone of the false or learned personality.

What’s a Monad Anyway?

A little background on where the term monad originated. In the 1970s a small group of students of Metaphysics—more specifically, George Gurdjieff, an Armenian/Greek mystic and spiritual teacher born in 1866—were meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area. One night while using an Ouija board they contacted Michael, a spirit entity that over time transmitted an entire system of soul evolution to them that was later published in a series of books by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. As part of this system, the term monads began to be used to describe both internal and external experiences.

The Michael Definition of the Seven Internal Monads is as given below:

"An Internal Monad is a process that is self-contained and experienced by one fragment as a result of a necessary and pivotal developmental phase . . . The monads are a process through which maturation occurs and includes the following: Birth, Separation from