Hi Open, Thank you for your elaborate reply. I do love the fact that you’re so bluntly honest about things. Naturally, it encourages me to explore a little further, both with you and with myself. First, I just have to say that I had to chuckle several times while reading your response. Not because of the content, but because of the way you referred to the ‘black snake’ energy as BS energy. You see when I lived in the States, we used to refer to ‘bullshit’ as BS. So every time, you said ‘BS energy’, in my ears it sounded like ‘bullshit’ energy (It still cracks me up actually, LOL! ). I don’t know why I find this so hilarious, maybe because it’s kind of befitting, the way this deceptive BS energy ‘bullshits’ you around all the time. Any ways, let’s get Sirius about things :-) The last couple of days I’ve been trying to feel into what your response activates for me. There is no better catalyst than someone who disagrees with you or questions the validity of what you present. Since I value and respect your ‘expertise’ very highly it serves as an excellent measure for me to test, how does my ‘truth’ hold up in relation to an opinion of a (through my eyes) perceived ‘Master’? The first thing I notice, is that I don’t immediately crumble emotionally. Although it fires off a strong intellectual activity, I find that my emotions remain quite calm, which a few years ago would not happen. I would go into all kinds of feelings of emotional breakdown - worthlessness, self-doubt, regret that I ever spoke, a need to defend my experience etc. I’m really glad to see that this isn’t happening, so there has been a considerable improvement in that area. Yes! Then of course there’s the issue with the intellectual plane which is a biggie for me and the main focus of my work right now. When I came home after the Intensive, I saw a black snake coiled up tightly around my solar plexus. Its purpose being to constrict the flow between my lower and higher chakras by ‘strangling’ the passageway. I could feel how the energy gets stuck in the density there and instead of continuing its natural path up or down through the chakras, it gets derailed into my head where it just spins around in circles until I finally realise what’s going on and take myself back out again. This happens over and over, but I find that I’m beginning to discover what’s going on a lot faster than I used to. So moving on to your thoughts about what my soul family said to me and how I feel about that. I don’t find myself neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but rather holding the space open for exploration. If there’s something I’ve learned doesn’t serve a soul, it’s a fixed opinion or standpoint, so I need to keep it open until a ‘knowing’ lands of its own accord. What I do know is that the connection with my soul family felt very real. I don’t connect with them very often. It’s only happened a few times, and when it’s happened the energy and the presence has been so strong and palpable that I can’t doubt it. I’m quite clear about that. What could be explored though is the validity of the ‘information’ I received. As I see it, there are 3 key ideas that I felt they conveyed and to be honest, if any of it was a deception by BS, I’m the first that wants to know about it. So although I’m not doubting their presence, I can see how it would be possible for an opposing energy to ‘filter’ the information I received, causing me to ‘misinterpret’ certain things. The 3 key ideas they presented to me (in my interpretation) were 1) One soul processing aspects of some sort of collective karma 2) Being able to assist this soul by temporarily ‘moving in’ to aid them 3) The idea that “we all ascend together” Nr 1) I don’t know if there can be a difference between individual and collective karma. I imagine you’d say that collective karma is built on the accumulation of individual karma and therefore must be processed individually, each his own. I totally agree with this, but in my dialogue with them I experienced an added dimension. In my understanding, apart from the individual soul and consciousness, there was also some kind of empathic ‘collective consciousness’ that ran between us. A kind of energy that could be felt by each of us at all times, no matter which dimension we were in. When they said I was here ‘processing’ aspects for them as well, it referred to this ‘collective’ thread, something we experienced together in this collective consciousness, not any individual challenges or issues. I actually had the feeling that they were slightly more evolved than I was, in the sense that they had already passed the challenges I’m facing and that they didn’t really need to be here anymore, but that there was still something that felt unfinished. Now that I come to think of it, ‘karma’ may have been a word I invented in order to somehow define the feeling that was being conveyed. It may have been that they meant ‘service’ as opposed to karma. That I was performing some sort of service for them as well whilst being here, apart from processing my own karma. Does that make any more sense? Nr 2) As far as this one is concerned, this is true for me. It totally goes along the lines of my temporary walk-in experience that we talked about in Köln. For those few months that I was ‘visited’, I received so much help from this other consciousness. Suddenly, I had skills I haven’t experienced having before. I cut off and instantly dumped several life-long negative thought patterns. Conditioned behaviours instantly changed, childhood traumas were speedily processed, and I found myself spiritually evolving at a speed that didn’t really make sense. So there is no question in my mind that ‘someone’ was helping me process certain things in just a few months that would have taken years for me to process on my own. Nr 3) Well, this one is interesting because the statement or the idea of "we all ascend together" means absolutely nothing to me. I don’t feel emotionally invested in it. If there is one of the Sirian archetypal influences that I don’t resonate with at all, it’s the one of feeling loyalty or responsibility towards a community. I have had romantic ‘fantasies’ about belonging and being loyal to a family or a community of some kind, but in reality the idea has never worked for me. Although very loyal in relationships, I’m a highly individualistic soul that will always go my own way. I have never feared breaking away from family, friends, communities etc., when I felt they no longer served. And I never had a problem just being in my own company. So, knowing this and knowing me, why would my soul family make that sort of statement? I’d say you could be absolutely right, Open! And although I still want to keep an open mind, I'd say it sounds a lot like BS to me :-) I think that’s all the exploration I can handle for now. I invite you to add to it or tear it all apart if you wish. All perspectives welcome! Love, Anastasia