Module 1 – Care of the Soul

Introduction

“Caution: the loss of the way you’ve known yourself up to this moment is the price you pay for admission into the journey of your soul.” – Jonathan Gustin

Please listen to Jonathan Gustin’s introduction to Module 1.

You are embarking on a journey to the center of your being, where you will find your soul waiting to whisper images of your deepest purpose. Congratulations on taking a courageous step forward into living a fully self-expressed life. Before we dive into the heart of Module 1, let’s look at the four pillars of purpose work and setting the stage.

Four Pillars Of Purpose Work

1. Soul-Encounter Technologies

Purpose work requires consciousness-shifting practices known as soul-encounter technologies. In the Purpose Octagon Process you will be asked to engage in practices that invite your everyday consciousness to soften (and sometimes temporarily dissolve) in order to allow for a communion with the part of you that already knows your purpose. These soul-encounter techniques allow you to journey beyond what the rational mind is able to discern about your deeper soul-level purpose.

2. Daily Practice

Purpose work requires daily practice. You’ll need to set aside time for daily purpose discovery contemplation. Exposing yourself each day to the forms and forces of your Soul will enable you to make a rapid transformation towards living a soul-infused life. Each module of the Purpose Octagon Process has assignments for you to complete. Additionally, you and your Purpose Guide™ will create “tasks” that encourage you to live right now what you already know about your purpose. You will need to set aside 10 hours a week to engage in this journey (about 5 hours a week if you are doing this program 1:1 with a guide. If you are a busy person, this suggestion can seem insurmountable. Our (rather bold suggestion) is to go to bed 1 hour early every night for the next 6 months. Reduce (or better yet eliminate) your screen time for the duration of the program. Take a sabbatical from news, Facebook, YouTube, Netflix.

3. Decreasing Resistance

Purpose work requires that you reduce the exterior and interior pressures of resistance that keep you from opening up to soul-encounters. Lowering the exterior forms of resistance may include reducing: screen time, excessive junk food, alcohol consumption, etc. Reducing your interior resistances may include working with your “sub-personalities”, like the Protector-Controller, Image Consultant, or the Skeptic. By working with your resistances you create more freedom in your life from attachments like these that may be keeping you on “autopilot”.

4. Interior Shift

Purpose work requires that you make an interior shift. This refers to closing the gap between what you already know to be true about your purpose and how you live your life. To illustrate this point: you know that telling the crystal clear truth is in alignment with how you want to show up with your people and the world. But, do you always tell the crystal clear truth? Perhaps not, because it may feel uncomfortable or create more disharmony in the short term. The “gap” is the distance between what you know and how you actually live. During the weeks and months ahead you will make a practice of intentional purpose pivots: you can actively disengage the monkey mind, and invite your purpose to come to the foreground and embody it.

Setting The Stage

“Soul-making is a journey that takes time, effort, skill, knowledge, intuition and courage.” – Thomas Moore, Care Of The Soul

Let yourself contemplate this commitment: For the next year of my life, I commit myself to finding and embodying my life’s purpose.

But how do you approach such a commitment? There are several important factors involved in increasing the chances of achieving success with this commitment. You want to acquire the following.

1. An Effective Transformational Process

You’ll need potent tools of transformation to traverse the distance between where you are now (lack of complete clarity about your purpose) to where you want to be (deep clarity and embodiment of your life purpose). The Purpose Octagon Process is a 12-module set of practices that will get you from here to there, just as a raft gets us across the shore to the other side of a river.

2. A Guide

The second element you’ll need to successfully fulfill your commitment to living your deepest purpose is to find a qualified guide. The fact that you are reading these words right now indicates that the Mystery has blessed you with a guide who will mentor you through the Purpose Octagon Process. Your certified PGI Purpose Guide™ has experienced every facet of the Purpose Octagon Process themselves, completed a rigorous training, and practiced with several clients before graduating with their credential as a Purpose Guide™.

3. Soul Circle

You’ll want the support and encouragement of at least four close friends whom you trust to be there for you as you go through the next 12 months. Engaging in the Purpose Octagon Process without the support of trusted friends will make the journey much harder, and is ill-advised. It’s important to allow yourself to be witnessed saying these words: For the next year of my life, I commit myself to finding and embodying my life’s purpose. Choose at least four trusted friends who will help you to stay connected to your aim, for when the inevitable resistance to change rears its head. More on how/when to do this is below.

4. A Purpose-Based Community

You’ll want a community of people who are going through the same challenging process as you are. Your guide and circle of trust are there for you as you move through the Purpose Octagon Process. But it is also advantageous to have a broader community that is going through the process just as you are. The Purpose Guides Institute has created a safe and secure place to share your ups and downs with others who are undergoing this process. You can join this group only if you are actively engaged in the Purpose Octagon Process with a PGI-certified Purpose Guide™. If you’d like to join, simply log onto Facebook and request to join the PGI Community Page.

5. Psychic Space

You will not be able to engage in the Purpose Octagon Process without clearing a significant amount of space in which to allow the process to do its tidal work upon you. If you try to cram the Purpose Octagon Process into an already full life, you are likely to experience diminished results with unsustainable impact. We don’t advise it. It is recommended that you gently prune back your commitments while engaging in the purpose discovery program. Here are our top recommendations: 1. Go to bed an hour earlier and wake up an hour earlier and presto (!) you now have one hour at the beginning of each day to devote to soul work. 2. Reduce (or eliminate) your screen time (say goodbye to Netflix, News, Facebook for 6 months.) 3. Reduce your work and/or social commitments.

Module 1 Practices

Please listen to Jonathan Gustin’s introduction to the practices.

Practice 1:1 – Morning Miracle

“The soul might be cared for better through our developing a deep life of ritual rather than through many years of counseling for personal behavior and relationships. It is helpful to know that all work with soul is process – alchemy, pilgrimage, and adventure – so that we don’t expect instant success or even any kind of finality.” – Thomas Moore, Care Of The Soul

How we begin our morning has a deep impact on how we move through our day. Your year-long commitment to finding and embodying your purpose is well served by beginning each morning with a ritual that is designed to orient you towards your goal. This is (in part) why we suggest you go to bed one hour early, so you can give yourself the gift of morning practice.

27 minute Morning Miracle

- 7 minutes scientific workout: Follow along with the workout video and read this New York Times Magazine article for a graphic showing the whole workout and additional information about the design of the workout.
- 3 minutes pranayama: Watch this introduction to pranayama video and then this video on slow and easy diaphragmatic breathing pranayama. The first time through will take longer since you have both videos to watch. After this you can practice the slow and easy breathing for 3 minutes.
- 3 minutes of gratitude: Contemplate on 3 things you feel gratitude for. You can read this gratitude article to learn some of the scientific benefits of gratitude.
- 3 minutes of asking for help: Ask Mystery for support with three challenges in your life (include your desire for discovering your purpose)
- 1 minute of blessings: Include: 1. Self, 2. Significant Others, 3. People you work with, 4. World.
- 10 minute meditation: Do Practice 1:6 Evolution’s Purpose (or any alternate meditations).

Practice 1:2 – Purpose Altar

You will find great merit in bringing your commitment to find your purpose into your physical home. An altar is a sacred space where you can take refuge momentarily from the busyness of life, to abide in your intention for this year: to live in accordance with your soul’s deepest desire.

Purpose Altar

1. Clear a space.
2. Choose a theme. In this case the subject of the altar is Purpose.
3. Select objects.
4. Bless your altar – conduct a ritual/ceremony to invest your altar with your intention. Take a picture of your altar and share it with your guide, Soul Circle and the Facebook virtual fire circle.

Example of Jonathan’s Altar: My altar is an evolving and living force in my home. Some of the objects that have been a part of my altar include photos of my ancestors and teachers, candles, spiritual books, poems, framed quotes, elements of nature, a bell, incense, pictures of purpose exemplars,(e.g., Jane Goodall, Gandhi, Thoreau, Harriet Tubman), plants/flowers.

Below are some altars that past participants have created. Used by permission. Click on an image and navigate the gallery.

Practice 1:3 – Community Letter

Part of the purpose discovery and embodiment process is clearing a space for something utterly new and generative to be revealed. However, the homeostasis of your life doesn’t want you to change. In some ways your community doesn’t want you to transform. It is natural that your community would contain antibodies/immunities when it comes to your evolution. After all, they (mostly) appreciate you the way you are. Furthermore, your community desires to spend time with you. Alas, during this time-consuming process you have undertaken you are going to need to gently prune your social life, your commitments, etc. You are going to need to enroll your friends and family to support your purpose discovery journey. Your spouse, child, roommate, friends, business partner likely want to be supportive. But you have to give them a chance. It would behoove you to ask for support in the form of their understanding that you will be less available to them, since you will be adding 5 hours of purpose work a week to your life over the next 6 months.

Here is a sample letter you can share with your whole community. It’s recommended that you send it to all of your different communities. An additional benefit of sharing this with everyone in your life is that you will have not only asked for support, you will also have “outed” yourself as a person committed to a spiritual journey. This public commitment will aid you during periods when your enthusiasm for the journey ebbs. Edit and disseminate as you see fit. It is recommended that you send the “Community Letter” to your whole community now.

Dear Friends,

For the next 6 months August through January, I am gently pruning back on a number of things including, screen time, junk food, alcohol, and socializing. I am requesting two things from you, my deeply valued community. First, I’d appreciate you taking a moment to make a prayer for my success with this program. Your well wishes would feel good to me. Second, I ask for your understanding over the next months, as I will be curtailing some of my usual social time, to create space for this spiritual journey. Lastly, if you are curious about what this purpose/Soul journey is all about, you are welcome to read the attached essay Discovering Purpose and/or watch this short film Discover Your Purpose.

Your Friend,
John/Jane Doe.

Practice 1:4 – Soul Circle Letter

Contemplate eight friends who you would like to join your Soul Circle. You may use and edit this letter any way you wish. About 1 week after sending the “Community Letter”, send the “Soul Circle Letter” to about eight friends. Because some friends will say “no” to belonging to your Soul Circle (and some may even not respond to your invitation) it is suggested that you ask twice as many people as you want to have in your group. (Example: ask 8 people to ensure you have at least 4 people join your Soul Circle group.)

Dear Friends,

I want to share with you something I am doing and then invite your support. I have started a program called Discover Your Purpose. In this course I will work with my Purpose Guide to find and then start to embody my soul’s deepest purpose. I am ready to step beyond my current default purposes of safety, security, comfort, material success, etc., as they show up in my life in ways that hold me and my greatest gifts back. Though these things are still necessary and important to me, I want to live deeper, to “…suck out all the marrow of life,” as Thoreau put it, and more fully experience life from a place of my true purpose, the gift of service that I am born to offer this world.
The request: Periodically, through the next six months of the course and then about six months after graduating the course (for a period of 12 months total), I’ll be asked by my Purpose Guide to convene Soul Circle Meetings to share updates about where I am on the purpose journey, in which I will be asking you to hold my experiences (rather than offer feedback or assessments). These meetings will happen via Zoom, Skype, or conference call, 4 times over about six months, and then 3 more times in the subsequent 6 months. So, the commitment (on your part) is: joining me for 7 Soul Circle meetings (75 minutes each) over the course of one year. This week, I’m asking two things of you:

One: Would you be willing to be a part of my four-person Soul Circle? As part of this intimate circle, I’d expect you to meet with this group 7 times during the next 12 months, to be true and brave as you hold my experiences, and to encourage me when I meet with my own resistance and become discouraged.

Two: If the answer to the first request is “yes”, my second request is this: Kindly read my commitment to myself here: “For the next year of my life, I commit myself to finding and embodying my life’s purpose.” Please write back and inform me, in any way that feels natural and easy for you, that you will stand as a witness to my commitment to discover and embody my life purpose and are willing and able to offer support and encouragement.

I am not asking you to “drink the purpose kool-aid,” for you to be part of my Soul Circle. However, you need to at least be open to the possibility that every human being has a purpose, a mythopoetic identity, a symbol or an image at their core that is the foundation of their deepest work in their world. What I am needing is not your doubt about my entering this process (as I have already committed myself to it), but rather to have you join as a cheerleader and ally as I run this marathon. As the course unfolds and we prepare to meet for our first Soul Circle council, I’ll forward you a link to a recording that will explain exactly how a Soul Circle council works. So you need not presently be concerned about how to be a part of this council. In fact, the teacher who originated the idea of such a circle (calling it a Circle of Trust) – Parker Palmer – wrote, “A Circle Of Trust has no agenda except to help people listen to their own souls and discern their own truth.” Thank you for your consideration.

Your Friend,
John/Jane Doe.

Now copy the text above (editing it as you see fit) and be ready to send it to at least eight friends. Because your Circle will have 4-8 of your friends, you are encouraged to ask significantly more than 4 friends to join, because some will be unable or unwilling to join your Circle. Remember, you are NOT bothering your friends. Rather, you are giving them an opportunity to serve you. Serving is a gift. Don’t feel shy about asking for support. Those who are uninterested or unwilling will NOT say yes to your request.

As people commit to the Soul Circle you can send them to the Soul Circle page so they can read about what is expected in more detail and listen to the first audio from Jonathan Gustin on the first circle.

Practice 1:5 – Mikveh

We are going to borrow an ancient Hebrew word for your bathing purification ritual. For our purposes a Mikveh is your bathtub! The purpose of a ritual bath is to 1. Mark a threshold of passage into a “practice period of soul discovery” and, 2. to clear your Psyche to prepare for a new undertaking.

Note: We will be doing this practice at our first class during the meeting. Fill your bathtub up just before we meet for our first class. Then, halfway through the meeting we’ll have a 10 minute break and you will perform the cleansing ritual in your bathroom, which is one single dunk in your Mikveh-tub. We’ll all come back (with wet hair!) having ritually crossed the Threshold into our Fall season of practice and discovery. Of course you are welcome to do this practice on your own before and/or after our group ritual. Also, if you do not have a tub, you can use a shower. If you aren’t at home, you can use a washcloth in the privacy of a bathroom.

Mikveh Ceremony

Meditate/contemplate on the themes of “beginnings”. Feel into this poignant moment where you stand at the threshold of a new chapter of your spiritual journey.

Note: You are welcome to edit these three prayers any way you see fit.

Say this prayer before entering the Mikveh. (You can say this either outside the tub or standing inside the tub):

I stand here, ready to gently dissolve what is ready to be unbound and released. I stand here with humility, ready to deepen the relationship with my Soul. I stand here with dignity and strength, ready to “up my game” of courage and commitment. I stand as a whole and complete person, entering into the relationship with my Soul not from lack or emptiness, but from wholeness itself.

Dunk the first time. While immersed, pray:

Wash away what has been outgrown, I am courageously committing to my Soul.

Take a breath. Now repeat 2 more times, for a total of 3 immersions. With each immersion repeat:

Wash away what has been outgrown, I am courageously committing to my Soul.

Upon leaving the the Mikveh repeat the prayer you spoke on entering. (You can say this either outside the tub or standing inside the tub):

Get dressed. Come back to our virtual fire circle while internally praying:

I move from wholeness to wholeness, always compete, always full.

Practice 1:6 – Evolution’s Purpose

At least once this week listen to the audio Evolution’s Purpose.

Thank you for daring to consider that a human being may have a soul-level purpose. Thank you for courageously diving into the depths of human aliveness that perhaps few of your immediate friends are accessing. May this course and community benefit you, your family/friends, and all life on this precious planet.

Module 1 Summary

Written Reflections

- 1:1 – Morning Miracle – Perform every morning.
- 1:2 – Altar – Construct over the next few weeks.
- 1:3 – Community Letter – Write and send now.
- 1:4 – Soul Circle Letter – Contemplate who you would like to ask. Write the letter. Send in a couple of weeks (you will be reminded).
- 1:5 – Mikveh – Perform the water ritual at our first group meeting (or at a time of your choosing if you cannot attend).
- 1:6 – Evolution’s Purpose – Do this meditation a couple of times at your discretion.

Write at least one paragraph about your experience engaging each of the practices above. Email your writing to your Purpose Guide™ before your 1-on-1 meeting for Module 1.

Soul Circle

You can find all the needed information on the Soul Circle page. The Soul Circle meetings are very important. Make sure you schedule them within the suggested time frames.

Circle Meeting 1 will be held during Module 3 (September 13 – September 26).

Reading

No assigned ready for this module.