Today’s blog is an article by Jo Leonard, author of The Would Be Saint.
Jo Leonard on the Then and Now
Heidi Skarie’s interest in Native Americans, and generally in past life recall, are two subjects that resonate deeply with me. I was looking at her website the other day and read this review from Colorado Libraries on her and her book entitled Red Willow’s Quest: “…and obviously has extensive knowledge about the life and customs of the Shoshoni tribe.”
I know that kind of authenticity doesn’t just come from an author doing research. Whether a writer is conscious of it or not, memories of the past are often sprung open from little cages stored within us as we write. Words then begin to appear as though by magic on the computer screen and even the author can be left to wonder: “Where did that come from?”
The sweat and toil of research aside, there is often a flow of what I have come to call superior knowledge (or knowingness) that surpasses what mere research can bring to a story. That superior knowledge often shows in the details; details that come about because one has known them first hand.
In the story below, I recalled “a gorgeous morning filled with bird song, the smells of impending summer, and the fluttering sound of curtains blowing in the open windows.” It was a memory from this lifetime. I also wrote, “I remember looking at a yellow sun hanging high in the sky just before I heard the pounding of horse’s hoofs and the screams of terror.” That was a memory from a past lifetime. Is one memory less valid than the other?
We each have a very long history extending across oceans upon oceans of time and space. How much you recall depends on how much you want to recall and accept. Learn to embrace your many lives, after all, you are the sum of all your parts and then some.
The story to follow is one of many Native American past life recalls.
Little Big Man
I was elated when I first heard the word reincarnation. It explained the inequity of life and the feelings of familiarity I had about certain people and places. But most of all, it eliminated my fear that a single lifetime precluded the possibility of any truly significant spiritual unfoldment.
Of all the past life recalls I have had since learning about reincarnation, one in particular stands apart from all the others. It was a lifetime in which I had been taken from everything I loved in an abrupt and horrid fashion.
In present time, I’d been hanging around with a group of like-minded Souls who met on weekends at a friends non-working farm. We’d gather as a group for spiritual conversations and meals, but we’d also spend time alone in various parts of the house or surrounding fields pursuing our own desire to read, paint, or meditate upon the mysteries of life.
The day of the past life recall was a gorgeous morning filled with bird song, the smells of impending summer, and the fluttering sound of curtains blowing in the open windows. I was sitting in the living room of the house wondering about some of the people who were currently in my life. These were people who were not present at these informal weekend convocations but were connected to me or to others in the group. Three people in particular paraded across my mind’s eye as I rested my head against the back of the sofa. I knew I knew them, knew them from before.
Was this a dream? A vision?
I saw myself as a Native American woman working in a field in the company of two of her three children, beautiful brown-skin children. My miserable, wizened, old mother-in-law was back in the teepee with my other child, the youngest of the three. The two children with me in the field, and the mother-in-law, were the three I knew in my current life.
It was a beautiful day. The men were out on a hunt while the women tended to the crops. I remember looking at a yellow sun hanging high in the sky just before I heard the pounding of horses’ hoofs and the screams of terror. I watched from the dreamer’s perspective as Custer’s men rode through the fields and slaughtered me, my two beautiful children, and all the other innocents in that field.
It might have been months or perhaps years later, that I saw the film Little Big Man. In this satirical recounting of how the West was won, there is a scene that mirrors my recall of that day in the field. I was strangely detached as I watched the movie. I had already come to terms with how that life had affected this one. It was no longer of any consequence.
So much of the now is colored by past events that exist like little film clips we carry along with us from life to life. How do we keep from replaying these clips and start afresh? It begins by waking up to the fact that these memories of other lifetimes do exist. Then, when you’re ready, you ask to see them. Just put the thought out there into the great unknown that you wish to know. Ask for insight and, more importantly, ask for guidance lest you become entrapped in the past.
Want to get started? Here’s a way to prime the pump of past life recall. First, you ask to see. Next, you watch your dreams and the events in your waking life. Let’s say, for example, that your son asks for help with his homework. His assignment is to write an essay on the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of the Roman city of Pompeii. Later that evening, you tune into the History Channel. What’s on? A documentary on the city of Pompeii! It starts you thinking about a trip to Mexico and how strongly you reacted, though in no danger, to seeing smoke rising from “El Popo,” the volcano that sits between the cities of Cuernavaca and Puebla.
Are you beginning to get it? When you connect the dots, a picture begins to form. Pursue that picture as far as you want to or need to. Simply let it go when you are done looking and learning. Then is then and now is now.
Excerpt from The Would Be Saint by Jo Leonard
The Would Be Saint by Jo Leonard is a collection of short anecdotes chronicling the spiritual experiences of a soul in search of God. Writing with simple authenticity, the author demonstrates that the mystical experiences of the saints are actually available to us all.
Jo Leonard has traveled the world presenting consciousness-provoking talks and workshops to other like-minded seekers. A published author, her writings, both non-fiction and fiction alike, are spiritually insightful, inspiring, and often laced with humor. She currently lives in Occoquan, Virginia (near Washington DC) with her husband and a Siamese cat.
The Would Be Saint
by Jo Leonard
ISBN 978-1439232859
Available at www.amazon.com
Website: www.jeleonard.com
share this:
The story above is such a useful and inspirational work and resource for modern day would be saints. A rare work of scholarship.