The pictures we paint with the words we use is powerful. The spiritual world (whether the Church, the New Age movement, etc) continues to words like “higher self” pointing to a hierarchy. If you are like me and this image of “higher self” triggers you and your inner being….here is a reframe.
In her book “The Wise Woman Tradition”, Susan Weed talks about the ancient preHistory ways of living. These cultures used the EXPANDING SPIRAL and the number 13 to represent Life. No hierarchy, no coming back to the exact same spot on the circle just to go again…it is a 3D at least image that can go deeper and wider throughout all of life. In fact, they saw birth at the center of the spiral, and that throughout life you are always EXPANDING – your knowledge, wisdom, energy, life….to the point that death wasn’t when you were all dried up…but that death was the point where your energy and wisdom exceeded the physical body’s ability to maintain that energy…and you EXPANDED out of the body into the next dimension.
So for me, whenever I read “higher self” I am rephrasing it to say “Expanded self”….allowing me to see the chakras/the aura around me as a 3d bubble …not as 2D line up or down.
