The word transformation first became popular during the 1960s and 1970s, as a new era of spirituality began to emerge.

For new-age seekers, it was a word associated with spiritual awakening, though its deeper meaning remained unexplored for quite some time.

However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the word took the corporate world by storm as a trendy synonym for change, and by the start of the new millennium it had become so mainstream and common, that it was used by many government agencies.

The spiritual significance of the word had become completely obscured, and I now see why, having walked my own spiritual path on this particular topic.

Having the courage to walk a true spiritual path transforms the very nature of our being, and by walking this path we become an entirely different person from the one in which we had identified with before. Undergoing a metamorphosis is often painful. The journey of transformation, in this context, is light years away from the spiritual and new age material on this topic today.

It is not a glorified bells and whistles affair where we experience instant enlightenment and then life changes forever. It is real, raw, painful and wild in its sweeping away of our foundations, beliefs and perceptions of reality; and it is a slow process that takes years of self-reflection and deep inner work.

Often this type of deep spiritual transformation and awakening begins with an event or personal experience that shakes our foundations to the core and turns our world upside down.

Until that moment of awakening, which is often experienced with an opening of the heart and consequent sensing of the oneness of life, the human soul is imprisoned by the matrix of material forces in which it dwells.

On the path of transformation, these material forces are transmuted into spiritual energies and gifts such as wisdom, love, compassion and a higher purpose in life. Technically speaking, the process of transformation occurs in three stages.

The terms used to describe these stages of development are: transmutation, transformation and transfiguration. Lifetimes are required to complete the metamorphosis at the stage of transfiguration, which is when the divine light of the Soul pours down upon the outer persona and changes it. Permanently.

Ultimately, through such a transformation, the individual comes to recognize the divinity in All. Divine qualities seeded in every soul begin to manifest in the individual. Beauty, truth, wisdom, grace, love and compassion—largely hidden until now, behind the mask of the persona—are increasingly revealed.

My own Journey to Soul through spiritual transformation began about two years ago, at a time when I thought I had lost everything in my life.

When I say everything, I mean it: my son died at birth, my husband and I divorced and I almost went bankrupt. What I didn’t realize at the time, was that these struggles transformed me.

What I have come to learn is that we must face all of the darkness, the grief and pain, if we are to truly transform and be able to rename any powerful experience in our lives, and claim the gifts of such an experience.

My life is completely different in every sense of the word from two years ago. I am no longer the same person. I am much richer and have found my true spiritual vocation.

I now experience a deeper sense of connection in a way that I hadn’t before. I know the impermanence of most things in this life, and in that knowing, I have liberated myself from fear.

In many ways I have come Home to a place of Freedom that is not governed by external factors. This is our natural state of Being; we have just forgotten it along the way. This conditioned fear has been perpetuated time and time again through society, education, unconscious parenting and media.

It is time for all of us to stop playing safe in our lives and to make a difference in the world. It is time for all of us to find the courage to take the path of spiritual and personal transformation—that Journey to Soul.

I promise, it is worth it!

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Assistant Editor: Tifany Lee/Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

Photo: elephant archives