Are you afraid of losing yourself? Rather surrender yourself, as it will only be the tinnie-tiny image of this world that you cling to, than your Super self, because it is impossible for anybody to take it from you!

Are you afraid of losing your mind? Rather surrender the mind that keeps you trapped in this dense reality and gain the super mind which is in constant communion with the Source.

Are you afraid of losing your intelligence or intellect? Rather surrender both, as the genius of the Super self has no respect for the mental prowess of the mundane self.’

Are you afraid of losing your body? Rather surrender the body, knowing that it is so temporary and a new glorified eternal one waits for you!

Are you afraid of losing your position in society? Rather surrender your position, as it is based in doubt, competition and uncertainty . . . and unnecessary.

Are you afraid of losing your possessions? Rather surrender your possessions as they cannot go with you and there are far more precious things to discover.

Are you afraid of losing love, acceptance or popularity? Rather surrender all of these because your Super self lives with these contained within, and cannot ever lose them.

Are you afraid of being a fool? Rather be a fool with a light and easy heart than a knowledgeable person with a heavy heart, who pretends they are know where they are going.

Ponder: I want you to think, where do you think all this came from, what do you think created the atom, do you think it was just there? Maybe you are actually lost in a material word and a material universe and you are sort of wondering through bumping into things that hurt you, bumping into other people and you don’t have anything to do with this at all. How do you know that? What do you think for, what do you have a thought for? What are thoughts for, feelings for?

It is time to address a poignant term in the Lazaris thoughtforms –

THE DARK SHIELD

This shield concept was formed out of a desire to survive and because you had to deal with your reality fully, consciously and be responsible for it. Yet, you were ill-equipped to deal with reality and your only hope lay in this shield that protected you.  In the beginning it was changeable, malleable and flexible and you quietly HOPED that life would get better . . . and still do. You use this to protect yourself and it is made up of a tapestry of all the subjects that we have covered in the first seven Quests – the sabotages, pay offs, hidden agendas, negative emotions, guilt, doubt, anger, abuse and fears. As an infant you learnt very quickly that you had to learn to protect yourself but you didn’t have the facility to do it positively. As an infant you knew how to give and receive love and it is the most important need. These are discarded very early. As a small child and as an adolescent you developed this protection device to protect you from the pain, hurt and limitations.

You were meant to evolve into loftier needs of love, caring and unity but instead you settled for the more primal need of survival and safety. It began at 18 months and remains so today until these needs are satisfied. This protective shield began being woven and constructed at that time. That shield is initially constructed of shame. It protected you from the personal tragedies that occurred in the various developmental stages of your life and during the different faces of your soul. During the development of your soul there are 5 specific wounds. They occurred to the soul in childhood, adolescence and there is a wound that occurs at midlife. Out of these wounds, come your Dark Tree and, it is the mythology by which you live.

The Dark Shield is made up of the shame that you used as a balm to put on the wounds, and compounded by issues of deserving. This shield not only did its job by blocking the negativity but it also blocked the positive energy. With the Dark Shield in place, you resist receiving and until that shield is taken apart it is difficult to receive consciously.

The Dark Shield, as a part of your Dark Tree, is a formulation of several very negative, destructive, isolating and numbing influences. It is a grand recipe for disaster (‘scuse the pun) as the ingredients can be a pinch of denied love, a wedge of self-punishment, a dash of self-sabotage, a cup of addiction, three spoons of guilt and the grinds of shame. Mix together in childhood and bake slowly in the oven of a lifetime! Each of you has a certain amount of one of these components but there are more than just these ingredients. It is the Dark Shield that protects you from the successes that would otherwise be yours and your metaphysical and spiritual success.

It protects you from all those wonderful and positive things, dreams, desires, hopes and wishes, the possibilities that could become probabilities on the positive side of your reality. It keeps you from having all this in your reality.

DOMINION VS DOMINATION

To understand the Dark Shield as part of the Dark Tree, we have to delve more into the concepts of Dominion and Domination:

There is the difference you know!

Do you know where your power is and whose authority activates that power or do you try to get power from others, lacking it or thinking it is not available within you? Do you justify getting power from others through debilitating entitlement? ‘I’m entitled because I have suffered so much, because life has been so difficult, because I have tried so hard, because I have done all the work and read all the self help books etc.’

The road of dominion is a road of participation rather than manipulation. Participation in co-creating with the nature spirits and with the elements, the forces and energies of your universe. Co-creation with your alliances of seen and unseen friends as opposed to manipulation through threat or undeserving. Even with these differences, domination isn’t just through overpowering. It also has its contrary side. People dominating through weakness. You who are on the road of domination feel that you must manipulate, while those on the road of dominion know that you participate by co-creating/sharing/giving. As if you were one. The next difference, is that the road of dominion changes the Dark Shield, as it has forgiven the past and has turned its focus, investing in and creating the future. Whereas the road of domination still lingers in the past, trying to fix and cure. You can pay lip service to the principle ‘you are more of who you are becoming than who you were,’ but you still have to fix, cure and perfect who you were.

That’s the road of domination as opposed to dominion which has healed, changed and forgiven and now is focussed on the future, investing, inventing and creating it. The difference between the two avenues is a point of viewing the world. Viewing the world as an ally and potential friend. Knowing that the world isn’t out to get you or trip you up or ruin your life. But understanding that it is a potential ally, the world will work with you as an ally and eventually potentially even be a friend. Whereas, the avenue of domination has a point of view that the world is a saboteur, there screwing you up and messing you up. That’s the way the world works. The world is a frightening place that you must endure, survive and ever be alert of. The way of dominion is the way of giving and loving. The way of domination is a way of taking, before you are taken . . . a way of blaming, before you are blamed. To accept your challenge to change this Dark Shield, it is important to be conscious of the differences between the two paths.

The Dark Shield:

• Is out of sight and out of mind
• It blocks limitless energy
• It blocks positive energy
• It resists receiving
• It reminds you of your wounds and you reinforce them
• It makes you afraid of the human potential
• It is only a camouflage in the very beginning before your wounds
• It pollutes your strengths and powers
• It is your shield through adolescence
• Break it and destiny becomes clear

After the wounds of childhood where your trust was broken, in adolescence where your heart was broken and adulthood where your faith was broken, your Dark Shield then formed a hardened second layer. It became crystallized and could not be flexible anymore and you lost the hope of returning to that beautiful state of trust, love and faith. Hope went out the window and you buckled down to weather out the storms of your life . . .

This hardened layer, this impenetrable Dark Shield prompted you to control to survive. You moved from anger to control, terrified of intimacy, loneliness, and shame and you became the narcissist or martyr, who always played the unappreciated and misunderstood game and you hid behind your pride, guilt and a false self image. Your skewed self-image is the hijacker of your truth, transparency and dreams. It is the reason why you don’t build a Super self.

Here are some anti- fake self image questions – (now face them)

-Do you tell very close friends when you mess up or do you hide your mistakes and pretend that you never make any?

-Do you confess the abuse or mis-treatment as soon as it happens so that the voices of reason in your reality can help you transcend or do you suffer and hide it until it threatens to destroy you?

-You play the perfect, smiley friend, teacher, parent and never show your vulnerability or truth?

-Do you just suck up the damage and onslaught even if your gut instinct is screaming at you?

-Do you go out into the traffic without make up or branded shoes on?

-Do you drive with the window down so that you allow your hair CAN fuzz up?

-Do you hide all your emotions because you may lose friends?

-Do accept and settle for things that run contrary to your boundaries and principles?

Do you fart in front of good friends? If not . . . why not?

Do you weep in front of others?

-Are you a pleaser rather than honest?

-If you are verbally attacked, does it shatter your self-image? Why? It is the tiniest part of you and you base ALL of your self-worth upon it. Your Super self would say ‘thank you for acknowledging me!’ to any verbal abuse. ‘Call me anything you want, because you are acknowledging me and sending me energy, that message is also for them as they are seeing me as a reflection of a part of themselves!’

-If someone rejects you, is your self-image shaken?

-Are your friends, your friends because they suit your self-image?

-Your self-image is based in this world alone and does not come close to quantifying and qualifying you for acceptance into the Super self! If it did, you are up the proverbial creek (in trouble) because your parallel lives could have you begging on the streets, or whoring in the market places or cleaning toilets etc. Your Super self will never bend to the dictatorship of your self-image, even if you have over-compensated with degrees and accolades, hold a top of the food chain position in your own company or own half a country and hang around with the famous!

Or the complete opposite of course . . . oozing and dripping in shame.

The authentic, feeling fully, expressing honestly and being down to earth YOU – that is all it takes to open a channel to the Super self because ‘the lowest of low will become the highest of high’ and ‘the humble shall inherit the earth’ and ‘unless you have the mind of a child you will not see the kingdom of heaven.’ – biblical adaption.

THE FEAR OF FREEDOM

The Fear of Freedom: raison de la résistance

• -You want to be told what is right and wrong
• -You want approval and validation of others, you want comparison
• -You want to compete and beat others because your abilities are weightier’
• -You love to struggle
• -You are afraid of losing control of others
• -You want to believe you are being controlled
• -You are afraid of losing your identity
• -It takes too much responsibility to be free
• -You want someone to do it for you
• -You are a spectator and feel special and important
• -If it goes poorly at least you can blame someone
• -You need external validation, you want others to say that they are okay, good or healed
• -You pretend that life is full of risks
• -You stay imprisoned to imprison your parents or punish them
• -You are terrified to change your identity