Exchanging Ego for Soul: Listening for Soul Messages from the Spiritual World
Have you ever been going about your day, doing something totally normal like getting groceries, logging into your email, picking your kids up from school, or going on a hike, and something happens that stops you in your tracks… some little coincidence or a moment of deja vu, or a text from a long lost friend you just had a dream about the night before?
I think most of us have. One of the most beautiful things about believing that there is a bigger purpose for your life, a divine destiny for your soul that the whole universe is conspiring to unleash, is that you get to go through life expecting to be amazed by these little moments where the spiritual world and the physical world intersect.
It’s amazing how the further I’ve gotten from the rigid and sometimes dry faith of my childhood, the more I see God at work in the world around me.
Can you relate?
God got real and fun (and real fun!) for me when I truly began to experience God outside of the teeny tiny box God was put in for me growing up in the American South’s Bible Belt. God was church three times a week. God was bible study. God was in a building. I couldn’t imagine then how much more God could be. That God could be playful, fun, and near. Here’s how…
When I lived in an Airstream and hiked in creation most days, when I moved to Nashville and began working with a spiritual advisor, when I became willing to see how God moved in aspects of my life that the baptist culture I grew up in would demonize or laugh at… that’s when I felt most loved, known, and cared for in supernaturally specific ways.
When I learned to see the spiritual world around me, I got to know God in a truer way.
Like I've shared before, my spiritual advisor first shared with me about how God used astrology as a map to connect the physical world– where and when we were born– to the spiritual world– who we are and why we behave the way we do.
Hearing that theoretically was one thing, but seeing how precisely my own Southern Node and Northern Node gave me true and helpful insights into myself. I was absolutely blown away. It was so spot on. It felt like a secret wisdom that had been withheld from me my whole life, but at the same time, it was very familiar. I mean, who else was taught that the three wise men found baby Jesus by a star?
Why were they even looking at a star? They were astrologers who spent their careers watching the stars, seeking wisdom and blending mystical prophecy with the physical heavens. So why should it be so strange that we each have our own unique personalized map, a tool, a guide, a personal stamp, the moment that we are born. This map, created and given to us by God, gives us spiritual wisdom that made me feel more connected and known and cared for. I couldn’t understand how that was left out of my faith culture growing up.
And then my spiritual advisor started to share with me about energy and about how it's so obvious that the moon affects the tides of the ocean– that’s just science. And that physical reality impacts other areas of our physical world, just ask nurses and teachers who deliver more babies and have rowdier kids around the full moon!
And those who have my similar faith background all believe that God created the moon, and we all believe that God created the water and the seas and the land and the animals, and if the moon can control the enormous oceans tide, then why are we so unwilling to consider that it might influence us and how we move about the world each month?
Initially, I felt the way you might be feeling right now. This is just a little too much for me. I don’t know if I’m comfortable with this. This all feels a little “woo woo” to me.
And then I asked myself, if I’d been taught about the new and full moon, if I’d been taught about birth charts and astrology, if I’d been taught about energy and astrological signs from the beginning, right along other seasonal rituals and patterns like Lent and Advent, would it feel so strange?
I realized that if that had been introduced to me with all these other preconceptions I had, I wouldn’t even think twice. If it was wisdom I’d grown up with and I’d seen it confirmed in my actual life, I’d trust that wisdom and lean into it.
And that’s the story of limiting beliefs, right?
If you have a belief that you only hold because you were raised a certain way, or something you’ve experienced to be true but don’t believe because you were raised a certain way, it’s time to reexamine those limiting beliefs.
Ask yourself what Rings true. Be willing to see truth in unexpected places. Make God bigger than the tiny God box you’d been given.
God isn't just in this book that you take with you to church. God isn't just in this book that you read for 10 minutes in the morning before you go about your day. God is everywhere.
Once you believe that and know that to be true, you can start seeing the ways God’s looking to show love to you through signs, synchronicities, and creation.
MY TELL-ALL MEMOIR
Sleeping with a Stranger is officially available everywhere books are sold, in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. Since the book’s launch, I’ve been amazed by how it has been received. From being named a best seller by USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, #1 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble Top Ten to incredibly personal and touching reviews from my amazing readers, it’s been such a wild journey!
One of the things that my spiritual advisor encouraged me to do early on in this journey was just to be outside in nature as much as possible.
And as much as I love a city, as much as much as I love being a homebody and sitting at home being all cozied up in my bed with my pajamas on, the best places to experience God, to hear God, to see God, is to be out in God's creations. And one of the best ways to do that is to go on a hike– to not just get out in nature, but be in vast nature.
I will never forget— it was March 2022 and I decided to go on a hike by myself, and there was this incredible reserve smack dab in the middle of Nashville. I parked my car and I began hiking around 11am.
I had not been hiking for more than fifteen minutes, and I look up, and just a few feet in front of me, in a tree, is what looks like the back of an owl. I whispered under my breath, is that an owl, and it turns its head and looks right at me.
I was in complete awe. This nocturnal creature is out at 11am, seemingly just waiting to look at me. Two women hiking in front of me hadn’t even noticed the owl. A man right behind me just kept walking; he didn’t notice the owl.
The owl and I were locked in on each other. It felt like we were the only two creatures in the whole world. After several minutes, the owl looked away and I moved on, kept walking, and turned back. The owl was back to watching me.
When the owl turned to look at me, I snapped a quick photo of it because I couldn’t wait to share with my spiritual advisor about it. I was still in a phase where I needed proof or felt like I needed the validation of someone believing me. When I see this photo, even today, it sends chills up and down my body.
I later looked up the symbolism of an owl, and this is what I found:
Seeing an owl during the day symbolizes a coming change, an awakening of knowledge.
1. Change Coming Your Way
A daytime sighting of an owl might signal a transition or change coming your way. Perhaps you’re about to turn a significant page in the Book of Life, or maybe you’re headed for a significant crossroads.
Just as an owl adjusts its routine from night to day, you might be about to shuffle some aspects of your life.
2. Messengers Of Clarity And Enlightenment
If you’ve been seeking clarity or answers, an owl’s presence during the day might be a sign that enlightenment is near. Owls tend to see things others can’t, so their daylight presence might symbolize that the drapes of confusion and uncertainty are soon to be lifted.
3. Trust Your Gut
Symbolizing intuition, an owl’s daytime presence might encourage you to place trust in your gut instincts. Are you paying attention to your inner voice, the one that subtly guides you? It might be time to open up to your intuitive strength.
4. Embrace Your Solitude
Finally, owls are solitary beings, and seeing them during broad daylight might be a subtle nudge toward finding comfort and solace in solitude. Are you prepared to tune in and connect with your personal universe to revel in the authenticity of your own company?
A few days after the encounter with the owl, I met with my spiritual advisor and I told her about the hike and seeing the owl. “Can you believe I saw an owl? I found an owl in the middle of the day?!”
Here I am squealing with excitement and with all the calmness one could have she simply replied, “Oh honey, that owl found you.”
She went on: “See, you’re beginning to believe God is more than the box God was put into for you. You are beginning to genuinely believe it, so now God is showing you through God’s creations that yes indeed, God is much bigger. God is everywhere. If we ask, God will show us. If we believe, we will receive.”
Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. I had been taught that. And once I believed the things my soul was telling me was truth rather than blindly following the religious teachings that had been handed down to me, God began to show up in mystical and personal ways.
Each layer of limiting beliefs you pull back expands into a new opportunity for messages and synchronicities to get through. For me, after I explored soul guides, I learned more about another vehicle for receiving messages. I realized that just like Mary received a message from an angel that she would have a son and she would call him Jesus, prophetic messages didn’t end there, and we can receive prophetic messages and divine truth from a variety of sources.
Sometimes, that’s from people. Sometimes that’s from our own inner knowing, and we need help unlocking that knowing.
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Let’s talk about angel numbers.
Angel numbers are repeated numbers that grab your attention. Could be on a clock, a license plate, a sign, a receipt, a cashier could tell you your total is $77.77, etc.
One of the most consistent things that started happening to me when I started waking up spiritually, is I would see the number 1111. I talk about this in the Uncovering Divine Femininity series when I talk about the artwork I created, but that started happening so often I would always see it 11:11 a.m. 11:11 p.m. every single day on the clock, and I would see it on license plates, I would see it on an ad on the computer, and it just got to be so frequent that finally I Googled it.
Why am I seeing 11:11 all the time?
This is what I googled and the response:
What does it mean if you keep seeing 1111?
Whether you keep catching the time at 11:11, or see 1111 in phone numbers, addresses, license plates, etc., take it as a good sign. "If you are seeing the number 11 repeated, you're connecting with your intuition in a new and powerful way."
The article went on to read…
From angel numbers to numerology, the interest in 1111 comes from the belief that different numbers carry specific energetic vibrations and, further, that you can work with those vibrations.
I didn’t start seeing 1111 until I started on the pathway to raising my vibrations. That's what I was doing during this time. I was learning about energy, I was learning how to connect with my intuition, for maybe the first time I was learning about angel numbers in a way where I actually paid attention. So then I started researching angel numbers, and I came to learn that once again, they find you. You don't go looking for them, and they often come in repeated patterns.
So just as a feather may find you, or an owl found me, and that was a way of God showing me God is with me God is so much bigger than the box he was put in for me, this became another way to show me that God is with me.
What was so interesting is that, once again, I would be thinking about something specific, or maybe I would be worried about something, and I'm at a stoplight and I'm thinking about a certain situation, and I look up and the license plate in front of me says 555. And so I would research the meaning of 555 and I remember genuinely smiling, laughing, dancing out of joy again.
I have been in the deep dark for so long, I'd shed so many tears, I had felt so lonely and I just was giddy. I was like are you kidding me? I realized that I hadn’t been alone. That God had been trying to communicate with me this whole time, and I just wasn’t speaking the same language. I realized how fun listening to God could be, that God has a sense of humor! Like, this is a good time!
And let me just say, if you don't have a lot of high vibrational people around you or people who have tapped into their spiritual side or who have done the deep work to begin listening to their own intuitive voice or start trusting their own soul, this is not information you want to share with them. They will think you are batshit crazy, okay? Not everything is for everybody, not everything is to be shared with everyone, some things are just for you, and that’s okay. So may I suggest during this time that you just keep these beautiful interactions between you and God that's who they're intended for anyway.
This is all part of the idea that we are more soul than ego, and when we live into our eternal souls, we can be more aware of those souls that have left the physical realm fully.
I understand if this is a stretch for you and I understand if it seems like a lot. It's overwhelming! Know that none of this came to me all at once. If it did, I might have rejected it. Everything I just shared came to me in little drips, a bit at a time.
I wasn’t ready for them all at once, but I stuck with one until I was ready for more, and then I had my spiritual advisor guiding me to the next one. Don’t rush the process or pressure yourself. Trust and take your time.
On the other end of the spectrum, when you first learn about this, some of you might be tempted (like I was!) to google any ole thing and keep your eyes out for messages all the time. That’s also a trap. Try to stay passive and just observe messages being sent your way. If you have to go look for them, it’s probably you reading into things instead of wisdom being shared with you.
Regardless of which way you go with this, I hope, at the very least, that you can hear that God is amazing. God is so creative and God is so funny. God loves a team, and God is with you always. And all the magic God used to create this Earth, God also used to create you, and is still using that magic to speak to you.
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And just now, as I thought I had finished writing this portion earlier in the day, I tucked my kids into bed. The weather was nice, so I went to sit on my back patio for a few minutes before going to bed myself. It was dark outside, I was sitting on my outdoor sofa when a raccoon walked up towards me. I guess it smelled my raspberry lemonade that I was sipping on, and was distracted enough that it didn’t even see me.
When it did, I startled and it ran away. I immediately grabbed my phone and looked up the spiritual meaning of seeing a raccoon at night. That’s not something that happens everyday! And remember, I didn’t go seeking it. It came up to me. It found me.
Encountering a raccoon at night carries profound spiritual significance, representing the end of a cycle, personal growth, and empowerment.
The spiritual meaning of seeing a raccoon at night holds a powerful meaning.
It can symbolize the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one, representing growth, transformation, and stepping into one’s power.
Remember, every encounter with nature is an opportunity for spiritual growth and understanding. Embrace the wisdom being offered to you.
If you want to read about the more soul synchronicities that have found me since I began this journey, I invite you to join The Path Back to You! I explore this topic in more detail and share several other ways I’ve learned to see the divine purpose in my day-to-day life.
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