Conversations with Christine
Conversations with Christine, Chapter 9: Evolution of Consciousness
When we returned home after our long walk to Fort Worden, we nestled into the wooden Adirondack chairs in our side yard. I was grateful for Christine’s extended stay, for it allowed us time to explore topics in depth.
Our yard is a place of great beauty. Brett’s nurturing of the soil and his masterfully constructed rock garden beds and pathways made our yard an oasis. Christine and I sat together without talking, both absorbed in watching and listening to the family of hummingbirds that had a nest in the camellia bushes.
After some time, I broke the silence. “Christine, several times you have referenced the levels and evolution of consciousness. What exactly does that mean?”
“Such a small question, Becky!” she quickly replied with a light laugh. “How in-depth do you want me to go in my explanation of such a massive topic?”
“Can you give me a basic overview? Kind of an ‘evolution of consciousness for dummies’ version?” I asked with a mischievous look on my face. “I really would love to start with a macro-view of what you know, and then we can go into more detail once I have the overall gist.”
“I’m not sure if I can do that, but I do like the challenge!” Christine replied as she moved her chair so she was directly facing me. I could tell that she was settling in for a long conversation. She closed her eyes and sat for a while. Maybe she was in prayer, so I closed my eyes too. When I opened my eyes, Christine began talking.
“In all world cosmologies—a culture’s creation story and mythologies—they all have universal common themes. Those themes are universal because they all come from the same Source or Origin.” Christine paused.
I took the chance to ask a question before she got too far along. “Are you referring to our conversations about Brahman and The Godhead? Is that what you mean by Source or Origin?”
“Yes,” she replied. “We have been talking about this for the past couple of days as we have been redefining God, exploring trinities and religions. Within all of these systems, they all explore this concept you are asking about: the evolution of consciousness. Since you want a macro view and we can unpack it later, I’m going to give you an overview by blending the thinking of many great minds because so many before us have articulated these things better than I can. I believe that there are Universal Truths that many traditions and enlightened teachers have taught and understood throughout the centuries. These truths are in our collective consciousness.”
“I remember you talking about CG Jung’s ego fracturing and how our childhood wounds create beliefs, habits and behaviors that keep us trapped in our false self,” I replied. “Is he one of the great minds that you are referring to?”
“Yes, he is one of the many great minds I am referring to. It was Jung’s work that led me to understand how it is possible that all of these world teachers spoke these Universal Truths that I’m going to describe. Jung did this for me through his understanding of the collective unconscious or what the Hindus call Akashic or Ether. Even Albert Einstein had a name for Brahman and the Godhead that was acceptable to the world of science; for him, it was the unified field. All of these genius minds are what I am accessing to explain my macro version of the evolution of consciousness.”
I shifted in my chair, trying to shelter my eyes from the intense sun. The shade from the hawthorn tree made it possible to see into my sister’s eyes.
“The Hindus have a wonderful framework to describe the pure state of consciousness we come from,” Christine began. “Our ultimate destination in our lifetimes is to obtain Moksha, a word derived from the Sanskrit root word muc, meaning to untie or let go. What I think this means is that when we are born, we emerge from Brahman, the Godhead, pure consciousness. We are born with the remembrance of a state of awareness that is free of suffering, illusions and madness. A remembrance of our true spiritual Essence that the Hindus call Atman and CG Jung defines as the true, transcendent Self.”
Christine paused for a while to get a drink of water and to close her eyes again. I waited patiently for her to continue.
“Our journey as humans is to eventually untie or let go of our attachments and mistaken beliefs that we form through our early childhood woundings and during the years of our developing egocentric self. We often forget about this umbilical cord that connects us to Source. But this forgetfulness allows the Divine to experience itself through us. Each of us has a unique journey that we are here to explore. As we grow up, we go through certain life situations that set us on our own unique paths, or as Joseph Campbell states, our hero’s journey. Some of us have more difficult lessons than others, but that isn’t because we are bad. Hindus call this karma, and it is the life’s lessons that we contracted to explore in this lifetime.”
Again, Christine paused. She then asked, “Are you tracking me so far?”
“Yes,” I responded. “But what I want to understand is how this all relates to the Garden of Eden story in the Bible that we grew up with in the West. How did the concept of the ‘fall from God’s grace’ become about disappointing God and being banished? Why was it necessary to buy into the belief that we are inherently bad and separate from God?”
“This is the mythic worldview that we as humans have to go through,” my sister tried to explain. “As the human psyche, or soul, grows, it needs to have a scaffolding or container in which to do so. Just like in art and creativity, we need to have restraints or our creative endeavors will turn into total chaos. We have to have rules and understand color theory and the do’s and don’ts within the creative process. The same is true with the boundaries that were established within the myth of Adam and Eve. We have to know the fear of chaos that will erupt if we only live to serve ourselves.”
“I’m sort of getting lost,” I said as I shifted around in my chair to get more comfortable. “Try to explain this in terms of parenting. If in Christianity we believe in God as the Father, how was God being a good parent by kicking us out of paradise? It doesn’t make sense.”
“We have to know our separateness through the development of the egocentric self, the parts of us that are wounded. The story of Adam and Eve is symbolically stating that we have to be wounded in order to know and experience good and evil, light and darkness. We have to see the opposites and the world of dualism in order to transcend them. This connects to the trinity explanation we discussed earlier today on the beach. God, as a loving parent, wasn’t doing these things to punish, they were done to help us evolve.”
I sat in silence for a moment, staring at the hummingbirds darting through the camellias. Christine’s words about light and darkness, wounds and opposites, began spinning in my mind. Suddenly, I thought of our previous conversations about the Enneagram.
“Let me see if I’m tracking you correctly,” I said, the pieces suddenly locking into place. “The mythic story of Adam and Eve is really about explaining how we have to know our separateness from God to fully understand our oneness with God? In the same way we have to know the vice of anger in order to experience the virtue of serenity? We have to understand the vice of pride before we can understand the virtue of humility? Is that what you are suggesting?”
“Yes!” Christine stated. “That is exactly right.”
“How is this the macro view of the evolution of consciousness?” I asked.
“It isn’t just one theology, philosophy or psychology,” Christine explained as she slowly lifted herself out of the chair and started to stretch. “It is a universal blueprint that ties all of these stages of human development together into one big picture. That is what you asked to understand, is it not?”
I shook my head yes. I followed Christine’s lead and stood up to give her a hug. I knew our lesson was done for now.
I was filled with gratitude for her insights and guidance.
Conversations with Christine Series
Becky has been exploring creativity, spirituality, and the patterns that shape us through her ongoing series, Conversations with Christine. The series imagines two sisters in deep conversation about life’s larger questions, who we are, what shapes us, and why we are here.
Chapter 1: Archetypes, Symbols and Talismans ·
Chapter 2: Defining the Ego ·
Chapter 3: Woundings ·
Chapter 4: Vices and Virtues ·
Chapter 5: The Spiritual Practice of Journaling ·
Chapter 6: Redefining God ·
Chapter 7: Trinities
Chapter 8: Reconnecting
Chapter 9: Evolution of Consciousness
Chapter 10: Understanding the Persona
Chapter 11: We Are Whole
Chapter 12: This/And
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