In the journey of awakening, the concept of “change” is fundamental. Yet, the Alchymeic understanding of this process is profoundly different from the conventional view. The writings of Jessa O’My Heart on this subject guide us to distinguish between the superficial alterations of our mortal destiny and the “Real Change” that signifies a true spiritual transformation.
The Illusion of Ordinary Change
Most of us associate change with accumulation. We learn a new skill, acquire knowledge, or alter our physical form. We become stronger, more educated, more adept. While these are changes, they are not Real Change. They are additions to the persona, modifications of the character who is animating a set karmic program. The essential self—the one who is the musician, the scholar, the athlete—remains untouched at its core.
This form of change operates entirely within the confines of our “usual unconscious destiny.” It does not, and cannot, grant freedom from the earthly vision, because it never transcends the one who is bound to that destiny. An artist may possess great skill yet still be governed by the reactive, sub-human dimensions of childhood or adolescence. This is the signature of ordinary change: the container is altered, but the essence remains the same, still subject to the ultimate reduction to zero at the end of its mortal course.
The Emergence of the Human
The first sign of a shift towards Real Change is the emergence of the truly human being from the “sub-human” condition. The sub-human state is one of unconscious reaction, of being moved by the unseen currents of emotion and subtle communication without awareness or accountability. The Human appears only when there is stable responsibility for these reactive dimensions. This is not a matter of social politeness or moral posturing. It is the profound act of becoming responsible for the entirety of our communication—the gross and the subtle, the seen and the unseen. It is the transcendence of our “mass of unconscious tendencies” so that they no longer form the basis of our relationships.
The Signs of Real Change
When this stable responsibility is present, the true signs of spiritual change become evident. These are not measured by worldly success or personal accomplishment, but by the constant and unwavering nature of one’s communication. The individual who has truly changed is one who communicates only happiness, only the mystery of existence, only the humour of existence, only understanding, or Only God, at last and forever.
This is not the “aggravated excitement and hype” of the usual person, but a state of real enthusiasm. This enthusiasm is Reality itself; it is Love; it is Only God. It is a steady, unwavering demonstration of abiding in the Mystery, regardless of external circumstances. Conversely, one who is “phasing”—appearing responsible one moment and collapsing into the dramatisation of negative emotion the next—has not truly changed. They have merely been touched or drawn along unconsciously by a Divine process, without having integrated it as a stable foundation of their being.
The Path of Conscious Responsibility
It must be utterly understood that this responsibility must be stably and perpetually demonstrated without fail. This is the pivot upon which our destiny turns. It is the conscious choice to move from the “usual unconscious destiny” to the “conscious responsibility that awakens our destiny as Only God.” This is the heart of the matter. Real Change is not an event, but a constant, living confession. It is the dissolution of the karmic entity and the awakening to our true form as a presence of Love, Happiness, and unwavering service to the Divine.
The Signs Of Real Change
BY JESSA O’MY HEART
The Alchymist
We all change spontaneously through maturation and aging processes and these are largely beyond any level of control; they are simply set as biological clocks as part of the karmic destiny of an individual. There are other kinds of changes, wherein we apparently engage in some deliberate process, such as bodybuilding, learning a musical instrument, gaining knowledge and so on. These latter series of changes are founded on accumulating something, that is we gain skills, we gain knowledge, we gain body mass and strength, but what remains unchanged essentially is the one who is doing all of this; is the one who would become adept at a musical instrument; is the one who would be strong; is the one who would be erudite and so on. These kinds of changes already mentioned are the most ordinary levels of change that everyone knows. The fundamental aspect that ordinary changes do not engage is this matter of destiny. Ordinarily we are simply animating a set karmic program from birth to death and, no matter how great we become in the scheme of things, we are always reduced to zero in the last few minutes of our destiny in the earth plane. Therefore, from the point of view of transcending karmic destiny, no matter what the usual person does; all ordinary changes are not real because all ordinary activities do not allow any real freedom from this earthly vision. Therefore the ordinary individual, and we see this often, may be an artist of very great skill, but still demonstrates the reactive dimensions of childhood or adolescence. Such demonstrations or dramatisations of reactive dimensions of existence are sub-human.
The human being appears when there is stable responsibility for these reactive dimensions of existence. The usual person is unconscious as to the form of their subtle communication and in fact most of us are not particularly aware that there is such a thing as subtle communication. However, most of us give some recognition to subtle communication in the case of ordinary speech when we talk about such things as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ vibrations, and such statements like, “… you could have cut the air with a knife…”
The human therefore is partly being responsible for all this unconscious communication and partly the level of true enthusiasm we bring to life. This level of change in an individual is what we call real spiritual change or development, wherein the unconscious sub-human levels of communication are no longer made the form of our relationship to each other, but are transcended in real responsibility for what we amount to as a mass of unconscious tendencies. Therefore the signs of real change in an individual are to be seen as stable responsibility for communicating only happiness or only the mystery of existence or only the humour of existence or only understanding or Only God at last and forever.
The energy demonstrated by someone living as reality is real enthusiasm and not merely the aggravated excitement and hype of the usual person. This real enthusiasm is reality, is love, is Only God. When we see the steady demonstration of abiding as the mystery of existence in an individual, we are seeing the signs of real change. If we see someone phasing, that is sometimes appearing to be responsible, but mostly collapsing into dramatisation of negative emotions, we are witnessing someone who has not truly changed at all, but at best has been drawn unconsciously by their association with some form of Divine process. It must be utterly understood that responsibility for ourselves as an ‘apparent karmic entity’ must be stably and perpetually demonstrated without fail before we can regard ourselves or be regarded by others as having truly or really changed from the usual unconscious destiny to conscious responsibility that awakens our destiny as Only God.
Jessa O’My Heart
