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by
Mateo Sol
April
08,2016
updated July 03, 2021
from
LonerWolf Website
Your soul is not only
your true nature, it is your true
place in nature.
We're all born to occupy, serve, and nurture our place within the
ecosystem of the universe.
But tragically, in the 21st century, our species has come
to perceive existence as something to consume and use, rather than
to truly forge a relationship with and appreciate.
Finding your Soul Place, while an unusual and largely forgotten
avenue of self-discovery, can help us reconnect with the living
earth, and therefore ourselves.
Lessons From
the Magical Australian Outback
A few years ago I had an experience in
the Australian outback.
On a walk, I found a
beautiful stone lodged into the earth.
After picking it up
and admiring it for a bit, I put it back down and continued
walking.
The Aboriginal man that
was with me laughed, shook his head in disbelief, and exclaimed,
"It's strange!
Usually, white man always wanna own everything he sees and
touches."
I pondered his words and
realized that something (a stone in this case) only retains its
beauty and value when in its own setting.
Away from the Outback, the sand dunes, and the sun, the stone simply
becomes a "thing" to be hoarded and left to gather dust on a
bookshelf.
Just like this rock, we too have places and spaces that most
resonate and 'fit' us.
And when we're put in foreign settings that don't match our energy
or essence, we inevitably feel out of place.
What is a Soul
Place?
The concept of having a special 'Soul Place' in this world is not
new.
We see mentions of this fascinating concept from ancient shamanic
cultures who believed in power places to modern psychologists such
as
Bill Plotkin.
In essence, a Soul Place (or power place) is a special site or spot
where we experience unique feelings of belonging,
empowerment, expansion, and
energetic rejuvenation.
We all have at least one Soul Place in this world.
As I mentioned before, many eco-centered cultures knew of Soul
Places. The Australian aborigines, for instance,
believe that each
person has one place in the natural world where they most belong
- a place that is as much part of us as we are part of it...
In finding that place, we
also find and reconnect with the soul within us.
What We Can
Learn From Indigenous Cultures
Stand still. The
trees ahead and bushes beside you
are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
and you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
you are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
where you are. You must let it find you.
David
Wagoner
Traveling Light
Indigenous cultures and
shamans have known for thousands of
years that there are special places in nature that have a sacred
personal connection to us.
Unlike our modern ecologically disconnected cultures, their
awareness of the Spirit realm allowed them to create ceremonies that
were specifically aimed at initiating them into
spiritual maturity through
nature-based practices.
Here in Australia for
example, the aborigines have a cultural tradition called the
"Walkabout."
A walkabout occurs when an aboriginal youth wanders through the
bush completely alone for weeks, sometimes months. As the youth
wanders, they avoid all human interaction, going in search of a
place they feel at home.
Another example can be
found within the indigenous people of the Sahara, the Tuareg.
Saharan women who are
pregnant occasionally wander into the nearby desert with the
intention of finding - or being found by - a sacred site.
This sacred site would then be the place for birthing their
child.
While this rite of
passage sounds terrifying to the Western mind, these women report
not feeling alone or scared because they feel a great depth of
relationship and bone-deep kinship with the land.
Examples of
Collective Soul Places
While a Soul Place might sound personal, it isn't. Soul Places can
also be shared by collective groups of people.
Examples of collective Soul Places include,
-
Bear Butte in
Wyoming
-
Uluru in
Australia
There are also human-made
power places such as the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the megalithic
temple of Stonehenge, and the mind-boggling subterranean passageways
at Chavín de Huantar.
Soul Places can also be formed through religious and spiritual
beliefs.
Majestic examples
include,
How to Find
Your Soul Place
Most
shamans have special places in
nature that hold personal significance to them.
These places might be
locations where they enter the Spirit realm, or places where they
first experienced their callings or
spirit guides.
However, as exotic and mysterious as a Soul Place might sound, it
doesn't have to be.
Soul Places can be
simple, humble, local, and even largely unknown (or ignored) to
others.
Your Power/Soul Place, for instance, could be a local park,
hidden creek, or back-alley bookstore.
Your Soul Place could be near an ocean or woodland, or a
childhood home filled with memories.
Your Soul Place could even be the restaurant where your partner
proposed to you or a chapel you happened to stumble into on one
rainy day.
Our power places can be virtually anywhere...!
So how do you find your
power place?
The most important thing to look out for is a place that allows you
to experience deep emotions.
Pay attention to any place that feels intimate or divine to you; a
place that allows you to experience timeless moments of beauty and
hyper-awareness.
These holy places will facilitate your ability to go inwards and
touch something deeper. You may experience moments of awe,
gratitude, joy, and interconnectedness with life.
Whatever the case, your Soul Place will be a whimsical friend of
your soul.
11 Signs
You've Found Your Soul Place
Many people wonder how to identify a Soul Place.
Is it a space where
you feel cozy, like a nook of your house?
Do you have any
mystical experiences?
Here are some signs that
may help you to confirm that you've found your Soul Place:
-
If it's a new
place, you'll feel a sense of familiarity.
-
Colors may look
brighter, almost like a surrealist painting (this happened
to me in my first encounter with my Soul Place).
-
You'll feel a
greater sense of inner and outer harmony.
-
You might
intuitively sense that "you're finally home and can rest
now."
-
You can tune into
the interconnectedness of life.
-
A sense of awe,
wonder, peace, and joy bubbles up inside of you.
-
You'll feel
inspired and have spontaneous creative thoughts/ideas.
-
You'll feel a
sense of freedom.
-
You'll feel
introspective and contemplative.
-
You'll feel
recharged and energized.
-
You feel
expanded, less centered in
the ego, and more connected
with your deeper essence.
Sometimes our Soul Places
can also be imagined places within our minds.
If you've ever entered altered states of consciousness and pierced
the veil of reality, you'll realize that there's no distinction
between each of the different layers of reality.
In other words, the places within our minds exist in the world just
as much as the places within the world exist within our minds.
Do I Have to Find My Soul Place to Be at Peace?
No. You don't have to find your Soul Place to be at peace.
The whole point of the
spiritual awakening journey is to
live from your inner Home, no matter where you are. When our inner
peace is based on an external condition (which can be taken away),
then we suffer.
So the point of finding your Soul Place isn't to reach a promised
land or escape your current life.
Instead, your Soul Place
is a doorway to accessing:
Your Soul Place is a
gateway of Soul retrieval - it is merely a tool that can assist you
in bridging the gap between the ego and the Higher Self.
It's important to mention this misconception about one's Soul Place
because many people use this pursuit to avoid developing qualities
of present-moment mindfulness.
When we learn to live in the moment, any place can eventually become
our Soul Place.
As sufi mystic Rumi once wrote,
Today, wherever
you stand,
Be the soul of that place.
Rumi
The Essential Rumi
Your Soul Is Not Only
Yours - It's Also Part of the World's Soul
Your soul is IN and OF the world, like a ripple in a river, a wave
in the ocean, or a twig on a tree.
The human mind tends to fragment existence. But the closer we look,
the more we see how interconnected everything is - and how connected
to It All we are.
The reality is that we are an integral part of the Whole, just as
much as a mountain, tree, whale, or cloud is.
The human Soul and the world Soul (or 'Anima Mundi') are
inextricably entwined.
As such, mystical experiences of belonging aren't divorced from the
world around us. We don't have to 'ascend' or leave this body and
planet. On the contrary, Home is rooted in this physical reality!
The world's greatest souls all found their sacred places:
Your place of power is
more than a sanctuary.
It is a place (or many different places) in the universe where you
feel at home - it is a doorway into greater
self-awareness, internal evolution,
clarity, awe, and joy...
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