In this Soul teaching on the Spiritual Void you will learn:
- How to recognize the void
- What the purpose is of the void
- Why the void is part of all Soul initiations
- How to best support yourself during the void phase
- And more…
Life is our Ascension or Mystery School and our Soul is our initiator! The Soul Initiations series is a collection of Soul Teachings on the various Soul Initiations we can be led through in our current incarnation. To be initiated by our Soul means to cross a threshold, going from one state of being to another. These initiations serve to bring us to the next evolution of our Soul journey and the embodiment of the truth of who we truly are on a Soul level.
Often these initiations require a period of time in the unknown. They bring a sense of uncertainty as we go into uncharted territory. A period where we instinctively feel that we cannot go back to the way things were, but we also don’t know yet how things will be in the new reality we are birthing. Like Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, we venture into a no man’s land (the initiatory realm) to journey back into the world forever changed by our experiences. As we cross the threshold, it is clear that things will never be the same again. We are asked to walk blindfolded into a whole new world and a whole new way of being, trusting the path our Soul has put us on.
Soul initiations come in different areas of our lives and in different moments within our Soul journey. The various teachings in this Soul Initiation series, offer you the Soul’s perspective on these initiations and how going through them as messy and as painful as it can feel, serves your personal growth and spiritual evolution. In the end, these are processes happening for you, meant to bring you to the next level in your Soul journey and help you strip away all that is not the truth of who you are. They are an invitation to let go of all your ego’s misunderstandings, false beliefs, and false self-identifications to bring you face-to-face with your true self. Each Soul initiation helping you reclaim yet another piece of your wholeness.
The void…
The spiritual void is a peculiar place as it holds you outside of normal life until it’s done with you. On the internet, you will find many different interpretations of the void, because it is often seen as a separate initiation rather than a recurring stage in all Soul initiations. But this is a question of mistaking the forest for the trees.
The void can be described in multiple ways:
- as the liminal space between one state of being (reality) and the next
- as a gateway or threshold to a different level of consciousness
- within the Hero’s journey, it is the other realm outside of the normal world where the initiation takes place
The void is the entry point into a new world, going outside of our comfort zone, it’s the gateway to uncharted territory, the unfamiliar, and gives access to a place you have not been before or have not been able to reach in a long time.
It is a spiritual desert, a barren empty landscape, that brings us face-to-face with ourselves because there is nowhere left to escape.
For this reason, the void is not an initiation of its own, but rather a stage we see return in all the Soul initiations we are initiated in. It is also why we can revisit the void again and again because it is part of the realm, the so-called other world where our Soul initiations take place.
In this Soul teaching, we will explore the spiritual void and its purpose within the initiatory process.
How to recognize being in the void?
The word void literally means an empty space, it’s a vacuum where we are held and often feel stuck on our way from one state to the next. It shows up in different ways such as the emptiness between the old reality you are shedding and the new reality that is being created and the time in between where you find yourself in a nothingness.
But it is also the emptiness that is created around, you that cuts out all distractions that would otherwise offer a means to escape yourself and the process your Soul has put you in.
The void opens up after the point of no return in our initiation, where we are brought face-to-face with our inner limitations (our inner dragon and demons) that must be released or overcome to become the higher expression of ourselves we are being initiated into.
This is why when we enter the void we often find ourselves cut off from:
Romantic relationships & sexual encounters
Love and sexuality can be huge distractions that keep us from facing what needs to be faced inside. Of course, some couples can grow together but during Soul initiations, we often find ourselves in separation (pay attention everyone who recognizes being on the Twin Flame journey) to cut out distractions and conserve/redirect our energy to the spiritual process we are in.
Being in love and being with the one you love can be so all-consuming that it is often cut off in these moments so that we can put the focus firmly on ourselves and use all that energy otherwise directed outward into the other and the relationship to direct it inward and make it available to fuel the process we are in.
Let’s also just be honest about sex, sex is the ultimate escape which is why it becomes limited or absent during periods when having sex would otherwise become counterproductive.
Our social life & friends
Entering the void puts us into hermit mode, not only because our attention is being pulled inward instead of outward but also because our energy levels tend to be lower during Soul initiations as all our energy is being resourced into the spiritual process we are in.
Similar to what happens when we are sick when we instinctively want to move and eat less because our body needs to redirect all the energy we have to our healing process be it mentally, emotionally, or physically.
We may have one or more good friends who take on the function of mentor, teacher, and guide as we see in the Hero’s Journey, but you won’t be social butterflying to art galleries and soirees, nor will you have the energy or desire to go out clubbing because everything is urging you to go inside yourself, which is why the outside world has lost its luster.
Money beyond what we need at that time
When you are in the void you will always be provided for, the money you need will often magically appear. However, no matter how much money you had before, you will find that your financial resources become temporarily limited during the time spent in the void because it is meant to limit your freedom and wiggle room to escape yourself and your process.
Money allows us to travel, have fun, entertain ourselves, distract ourselves, fuel our addictions, and so on. It’s not that there is anything wrong with having money or even large amounts of money, it’s that the Soul wants to cut out distractions and ways you try to avoid facing yourself, your emotions, and reality by chasing ‘feeling good’.
The void would not be an empty space, if you were able to fill it with everything money can buy, this is why you will often find your money flow restricted during Soul initiations to ensure that you cannot ‘buy’ yourself out of the experience.
Obviously, that wouldn’t be possible anyway but you could keep yourself stuck longer than necessary trying to buy your way out of it which is why you eventually or pre-emptively become cut off, depending on whatever suits the Soul best. The Soul will give you what you need during this period but will be sure to cut out the frills to help you in your spiritual evolution, which is the only real and lasting evolution out there.
Career opportunities & recognition
Fame and recognition take a backseat as well during times of Soul initiations and our time spent in the void, this is of course because these are all things that pull our focus outward instead of inward.
They are about how others see and value us, which is irrelevant when we are in the void unless it serves to help release stuck unresolved emotions, false beliefs, and false self-identifications that keep us from stepping into a higher expression of our true self.
During Soul initiations and journeying through the void, we need to be focused inward on the process happening inside of us. Fame and fortune are distractions that pull our attention away from ourselves, which is why they become completely cut off or limited during our time in the void.
Instead, a situation will be created that ensures a roof over our heads, our bills paid, and food on the table. We (especially our egos) may not particularly like the solution our Soul comes up with, but it is by creating this situation that we can go deep into our own process. Think of situations such as needing to get a job, being forced on sick leave, unexpectedly getting fired, having to rely on welfare, or perhaps even on the kindness of family, friends, your community, or church.
In the 3D world, this may look like a step back or ego hit but in reality, it is a springboard that allows you to quantum leap into a different future because of the transformation experienced within the void and the initiatory realm state that you find yourself in.
Achieving our goals & future aspirations
The same can be said for your future aspirations and goals that are simply put on hold during your time spent in the void and the Soul initiation you find yourself in. More often than not the hurdles and challenges you have to overcome in this in-between world are what are putting you firmer on the path to manifesting your aspirations and goals but it doesn’t always necessarily look that way, this is because much happens in the unseen when we find ourselves in the void.
It’s like the bamboo tree, according to legend, the Chinese bamboo tree takes five years to grow. During the first four years, it barely grows at all, staying underground and seemingly doing nothing. It is only in the fifth year that the bamboo tree suddenly shoots up, growing as much as 80 feet in just six weeks.
In the same way, while in the void we can feel like we are in a spiritual winter where everything seems dead and gone but that is only because we cannot see what has taken root and has started growing beneath the ground. Because we live in a world that is cyclical in nature, the winter is always followed by the spring not only in the external world but also within ourselves.
How to best support yourself during your journey into the void
Entering the void can be the most challenging phase of our Soul initiations because we have passed the point of no return and there is no way to back out of the transformation that we are being initiated into.
It is a time when we are confronted with truths about ourselves, the world, and our sense of reality that we perhaps don’t want to see. It is where our wounds are ripped open and our inner truths are laid bare, which is a very liberating but at the same time very painful process as we are forced to face the lies we have told ourselves and dispel our inner illusions.
We need to be gentle and loving with ourselves as we hold ourselves through the spiritual metamorphosis that is taking place within the sacred chrysalis of our psyche.
Here are seven ways to lovingly support yourself through the spiritual void experience:
Seek daily higher guidance
Being in the void can leave us feeling lost and without direction as none of our old ways of doing work anymore, this can feel very disorienting which is why it is important to tap into daily higher guidance whether this is through meditation or external resources.
Some people on the spiritual path, tend to believe that they are somehow cheating or that it is spiritually superior to find all the answers within oneself but that is an ego illusion.
It is limiting how we tap into our inner wisdom and understanding when external sources can actually help us unlock or tap deeper into our own Soul wisdom, the Soul teachings such as the one you are reading now are an example of this, they stir the remembrance of what you subconsciously already know on a Soul level.
If you are a meditator and this works for you to find your inner answers go for it, but multiple roads lead to Rome. A marvelous way to tap into higher guidance is through books, asking what it is that you need to know and then randomly opening the book to a page to receive the exact message you need in that moment. Another way to tap into Divine guidance is to ask for direction or clarity before you go to sleep as you will often receive your answers in the dream state or upon waking.
Last but not least are the various Oracle card decks that can give us the right message at the right time. I am not really talking about Tarot cards or other types of decks that are subject to personal interpretation, but rather more clear-cut messages that give you direct direction or insight.
Some of my favorite decks are the Kuan Yin and Wild Kuan Yin decks by Alana Fairchild, the Power of Surrender Cards by Judith Orloff, and any of the Oracle decks by Rebecca Campbell.
Many of these Oracle decks were born through the Soul initiations that the authors went through themselves which can assist us in navigating our own initiations. I have always loved the Kuan Yin oracle by Alana Fairchild, but I didn’t fully understand the messages until I was initiated into reclaiming the Divine Feminine within.
It was when reading the messages while going through this Soul initiation that I really recognized my own process in the oracle card descriptions and was able to understand them on a deeper level than I had been able to understand them before. This is why each new Soul initiation, might call for a different deck or decks to guide us with the Soul wisdom we need to help us come to the other side of the journey.
Face your dragons & demons (inner shadows)
The whole point of any Soul initiation and being put in the void is transformation, which is not possible without coming face to face with the aspects of ourselves that have to be let go of in order to step into the higher expression of ourselves that we are being called into.
In other words, there is no escaping facing our inner dragon and demons or as Carl Jung would call them our inner shadows. These are the parts of ourselves that we have denied, rejected, hidden, or disowned in a misguided attempt to fit in and be accepted based on past wounding, pain, or trauma that was left unresolved and is still seeking resolution in our lives now.
Journaling can be a valuable tool in this process, but journaling on its own will not be enough. This is because journaling doesn’t allow us to access the subconscious mind deeply enough to find the parts of ourselves that we are afraid of or that we have judgment on. As scary as this may sound, it’s the truth that sets us free.
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” ― Carl Jung
This is because this type of unresolved pain and wounding is buried deep within the subconscious and we need the help of a healer or a therapist to access it. This is true for everyone, even the most spiritually evolved as well as the very gifted healers and therapists who are excellent in their work with clients but cannot access their subconscious by themselves.
The reason is very simple, to access the subconscious mind you have to be in a relaxed state and out of the conscious mind – the very thing you need to guide you into and within the subconscious mind state is what is keeping you from accessing it. Because you cannot stay in your conscious mind while going into your subconscious mind, you need someone to guide you and help you navigate past your own defense, protection, and survival mechanisms that you have created to keep yourself safe.
Soul Embodiment® Therapy is the most effective method I know to do this work because it goes much deeper than other healing or therapeutic modalities such as EMDR, hypnotherapy, RTT, QHHT, Talk therapy, Hearthealing, Reiki, etc. This is not to say that those are not powerful methods in their own right, but rather that SET brings us to the root cause on a Soul path level which is the ultimate root of all our wounding. This is why many of my clients say that one session with me is the equivalent of multiple sessions with other healers because I take them deeper than they have ever gone.
Sure, you can access some low-hanging fruit on your own but the absolute gold, the stuff that actually moves the needle in a significant way is hidden where you can’t find it. It’s often during our Soul initiations that we finally commit to diving deep inside ourselves and becoming whole again.
Every part we have abolished or disowned is a missing piece of our wholeness. These parts need to be reclaimed and embraced if we want to embody the truth of who we are.
Process & integrate what comes up
The people, situations, and experiences we encounter during our time in the void are part of our Soul initiation and can give us clues as to what we are being called to heal and release. This isn’t necessarily easy to recognize, because through our wounding (aka trauma filter) we are used to seeing the world in a certain way.
This is what I do in the Soulology sessions with my clients, by helping them connect the dots and showing them the Soul’s perspective on their experiences and the people and situations they find challenging.
Although we tend to think that our perception of reality is the correct one, it is a distortion created by our unresolved pain and trauma.
Part of our inner work within the void is learning to see things as they truly are, rather than how we thought they were because of the distorted or skewed perspective that we were previously holding.
The void can be a time of huge disillusionment as you come to terms with what you thought to be true, but wasn’t. At the same time, it can be a time of deep Soul liberation where accessing the actual truth on a Soul level sets you free.
It’s this shift in perspective that is the hallmark of any transformation process because we cannot change who we are, without changing how we view ourselves, the world, and reality itself. Without change, everything stays as it is – which inevitably leads to stagnation.
Some people take this to mean that you aren’t good enough as you are, but this is often a subconscious desire to keep the status quo. Change in this context isn’t about worth, it’s about becoming who you truly are which means letting go of the masks and inauthentic parts of yourself that you created to keep yourself safe.
Rest & recharge
Spiritual processes such as these demand huge amounts of energy not only to run the daily programs that keep us functioning but also to repair and reprogram the system on a cellular level as we eliminate old conditioning and programming.
It’s like a computer put into overdrive and all the fans and help programs are being activated to avoid system overload, when this happens the computer can even shut down less important programs to give all the capacity it has to the most vital programs that it has to run to stabilize the system.
The same is true for the human system, during huge upgrades such as these.
Make sure that you carve out enough time to rest and recharge because any Soul initiation as well as time spent in the void is very taxing on the system, as it often leads to a complete or partial overhaul that simply demands all our resources to be allocated and reassigned to the spiritual process we are in.
Spend time in nature
All of this inner work, reprogramming, and recalibration puts a lot of stress on the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. In fact, as long as we carry unresolved pain and trauma we are taxing our nervous system, and facing our shadows (our demons and dragons) as described above activates our stress response triggering our fight, flight, freeze, and fawn reaction.
Revisiting our unresolved pain, trauma, false beliefs, and false self-identifications is stressful, but leaving them unresolved isn’t an option either as they continue to co-create our reality in a negative way in an attempt to find resolution. Carl Jung said about this mechanism “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” This means that we live out (or PLAY out) our subconscious wounds in our day-to-day lives.
So not addressing them, is not the answer even more so because we need to heal our unresolved pain and wounding to de-densify our energy field from a physical being into a light being which is the Ascension process. I explain this in-depth in the Soul Path Series which you can read here.
Spending time in nature is a natural way to de-stress. Spending just 20 minutes connecting with nature can help lower stress hormone levels, according to a study in the April 4, 2019, Frontiers in Psychology. Being outside for at least 20 to 30 minutes immersed in a natural setting avoiding unrelated stimuli like social media, phone calls, conversations, and reading was associated with the biggest drop in cortisol levels. After that time, additional stress-reduction benefits accrued more slowly. Source: Harvard Health Publishing
This means that spending this time in nature is literally helping you balance your stress hormones and helping your body lower its levels of cortisol which are automatically triggered when our fight or flight system gets activated.
‘Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugar, also called glucose, in the bloodstream, enhances the brain’s use of glucose, and increases the availability of substances in the body that repair tissues. Cortisol also slows functions that would be nonessential or harmful in a fight-or-flight situation. It changes immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system, and growth processes.’ Source: Mayo Clinic
In our computer analogy, cortisol reallocates resources to increase our chance of survival by slowing down less urgent functions. Because the subconscious mind can’t differentiate between then and now any trauma revisited is seen as happening now triggering our fight or flight response. Spending time in nature is a way to help our bodies return to homeostasis more quickly and to balance out the inner work that we are doing and how it affects our physiology.
This is therefore not just some woo-woo tree-hugging New Age Ascension theory, it’s backed by actual science. Spending time in nature helps us mitigate the effects of stress and reduce the levels of stress hormones in our system.
Become an expert in self-care
To become an expert in self-care we need to eat clean, get enough movement and exercise, spend time with friends and loved ones while honoring the alone time we need to focus on ourselves and our own desires and needs.
If we want to take it up a notch we can also do cleanses, detoxes, and self-massages to help our body clean out the major organs such as the gut, the liver, kidneys, skin, and lymph system.
There is a strong link between lifestyle and depression and/or anxiety, indicating that by making positive lifestyle changes we can greatly decrease depression and anxiety while increasing our sense of well-being.
According to WebMD.com ‘if you eat lots of processed meat, fried food, refined cereals, candy, pastries, and high-fat dairy products, you’re more likely to be anxious and depressed. A diet full of whole fiber-rich grains, fruits, vegetables, and fish can help keep you on a more even keel.’ Unprocessed meat can be part of a healthy diet as well, the carnivore diet has shown how healing eating meat in large quantities can be for certain types of people and diseases such as autoimmune disease.
Any form of self-love should start with the basics and should include taking good care of yourself and your physical body which is the temple to your Soul.
Allow yourself to be in solitude & silence
Being in the void brings your life back to the basics, by cutting out all the excess noise. There is a time and a place for crying, screaming, raging, dancing, chanting, singing, etc. but it’s also important to honor the process you are in.
Your world has been made smaller for a reason, you are being thrown back onto yourself for a reason as well, to allow yourself to make a quantum leap in consciousness by facing and releasing what no longer serves you anymore.
You can spend your days watching Netflix or listening to your favorite playlists on Spotify, but this is of course not what the void was created for. It was created for you to enter the solitude and silence you needed to birth a new way of being, which is also why you help yourself by embracing the process.
Because in the end, fighting it or filling the silence with unnecessary noise and distractions only lengthens the time we have to spend in the void.
This doesn’t mean you have to approach this fanatically or that you can’t watch Netflix or listen to music at all, but rather that you should catch yourself when you are in resistance or trying to escape yourself and what wants to be seen and felt by distracting yourself. This allows you to course-correct and choose to more deeply embrace the process you find yourself in.
How to fully embrace the void
It can be extremely challenging to fully embrace the spiritual void because it cuts us off from the very things we want in our lives. We can run in circles trying to ‘fix’ our lives, our relationships, our money flow, our careers, etc., or realize that we are being initiated by our Souls and that the circumstances we face are part of the void experience.
It isn’t always easy to differentiate between what external circumstances are caused by us playing out our subconscious pain and wounding and what is part of the void experience. This can be even more tricky because some areas are interrelated, for example, those who struggle in love often struggle with money as well. All you rigid inner feminines and collapsed inner masculines raise your hands, please.
However, when we find that our worlds are being made smaller and we are being forced into hermit mode it is a good indication that we are entering the spiritual void and being brought into a position to be able to deeply transform and make a quantum leap in consciousness.
When this is the case the only option is to surrender and allow the process to take you where it is meant to. Although surrender is easy for some, it isn’t for most because it means relinquishing control. For those who identify with the wounded rigid inner feminine archetype, this will be almost next to impossible because they need to be in control in order to feel safe.
This is why this archetype often becomes the bottleneck to their own success, to their own wealth, love story, etc. because they cannot get out of their own way. One first has to heal this masculine & feminine wounding to be able to relinquish control and truly trust one’s soul.
This can be a struggle for every human being because the ego has run the show for so long, but it is especially challenging for the rigid inner feminine and collapsed inner masculine archetypes because of the trust issues they have with the Divine aka the Father wound on a Soul path level and with life itself, which represents the Mother wound on a Soul path level.
Their spiritual evolution and getting what they want in 3D depends on healing these ancient old wounds, that they have had on rinse and repeat throughout lifetimes and lifetimes.
I pray this Soul teaching has helped you get a better understanding of the spiritual void experience and how to navigate it. Because it is a stage in every Soul initiation we undergo, it is a stage that we will revisit more than once throughout our current incarnation. I hope that with these tips and a deeper understanding of the purpose of the void, you will feel better equipped to journey through it.
I would love for you to share your experiences and tips for passing through the void with our community in the comment section below. This is an opportunity to find and offer support for some of the most difficult moments in our lives.
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With my deepest love,
