In his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C.G. Jung, the great pioneer of the psyche, reveals the intimate connection between personal history, soul, and spiritual awakening.

Through a fearless exploration of his memories and dreams Jung came to the realization that:

Hidden within the patterns of your personal history is a code that once deciphered reveals the meaning, purpose, and direction of this life.

When spiritual teachers demean personal history—they’re missing the deeper point. Of course, identification with personal history is limiting. Your culturally conditioned personality is not your True Self.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a sacred code—as Jung suggests—within the patterns of your history. Because, the deeper truth is that even these highly conditioned patterns of personality reveal—if you have the meditative eyes to see—deeper meanings and revelations.

Here’s an example from my life (perhaps it will remind you of one from yours):

The father figure disappeared early in my life.

And by that very disappearance, loomed large. At the same time, I was surrounded by women—grandmother, mother, and aunt. They doted on me.

Thus, a primal tension was reinforced through this family dynamic. I was both an object of affection and an abandoned child; loved and rejected simultaneously.

Primal tensions are at the heart of all family karma.

You have your own primal tension—your own spiritual paradox that pulses at the center of your soul. This tension is reflected in the dynamics and relationships of your family karma and weaves itself into all your important relationships. It’s primal, pulsing in the center of your soul.

Now, here’s the spiritually liberating insight—your primal tension is not a problem to be solved.

What is it then?

It’s the call of your soul.

As Jung suggests, it’s a code to be studied. You study this code not with thought, but with the light of meditative awareness. It’s a practice of listening and attuning to the tension that allows the energy and consciousness encoded into that pattern to be released—to enrich your life.

When you attune to the tension—with meditative mind & loving awareness—it opens into the path of liberation.

You were born to parent’s who were embedded in their own family karma.

They had their own emotional wounds. How clearly and compassionately they faced their karma; how wisely they transformed their wounds; set the emotional climate of your childhood.

It’s likely that your parents, like most people, never learned how to heal their own family karma or infuse their wounds with loving awareness.

They didn’t know how to enter the primal tension or heed the call of soul.

So they struggled, reacted, and acted-out their emotional wounds. This is what most of us do . . . all in an attempt to heal our karma – we perpetuate the patterns of the past.

I don’t know whether they acted-out their wounded-ness dramatically or subtly. With shouting or silence. Either way, you were affected. Either way, you inherited the family karma.

Your family karma inheritance doesn’t have to be a burden.

The details of your story will differ from mine. But, we’re all conditioned. Your life—in its nitty gritty details—is your precise path to awakening.

That’s what C.G. Jung discovered. That’s what the yogi’s discovered in deep meditation.
That discovery is possible for you.  Family karma is not—essentially—a burden. When you know how to meet the patterns with meditative presence—the very patterns become your path to awakening.

Most people turn away from this path.

Rather than turn towards the patterns with meditative awareness—they turn away from the primal tension in the soul. They don’t study the code and release the wisdom that’s hidden there.

Instead they act-out and perpetuate their wounded-ness. So it goes, from generation to generation . . . unless someone wakes up, stops, and turns around in consciousness to infuse the patterns with meditative presence.

The beauty of the Healing Family Karma process is that it’s not just for you.

These liberating practices benefit you and those you’re connected to—living or dead. There’s a deep soul connection that links you to the members of your karmic family (which includes more than your family of origin.)  As you heal the wound in your heart, all those who are connected to you are freed.

What are the tensions in your family karma?

Share in the comments below.

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Editor: Bryonie Wise