Why Learning to Work Effectively
with the Basic Self is Important to
the Training of the Initiate

by Margaret Stephens

As energy is expended in the effort to evoke the super-consciousness, under the Law of Action and Reaction, there is an equal and opposite energy expended in relation to the subconscious mind. It is this that produces the rapid and often drastic crises peculiar to the disciple who is orienting his entire conscious effort towards the higher integrations and the service of the Plan.”
(From Weavers in the Light Study Set 7, Headquarters Letter 3)

In the early stages of development, we’re not really in dialogue yet with the soul. When we’re in the process of growing ourselves up and out, the first work we usually do is to get in touch with our high self. And to do this successfully often requires that we first deal with our personality issues.

As we continue to do our work on the path of initiation, we absorb more and more of the soul energies that are held in trust for us by the high self/solar angel. Much to our dismay, the illuminating light of the soul can bring us face to face with our “stuff.” Old patterns and conditioned thinking that hold us in bondage to personality and all that comes, quite naturally, from what parents, teachers, and society tried to teach us in their well-intentioned attempts to civilize and socialize us comes up for our viewing pleasure.

We’ve been conditioned with the belief that we come from our past: our mother, father, our childhood experiences, genetic heritage, educational and religious upbringing. Our past can become our unconscious story, like an all-encompassing trance that often affects, or distorts, our view of reality. Mark Twain suggested that “life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head.” (Mutts comic strip 2/8/08)

Have you ever wondered why your emotions just won’t do what you want them to do or why certain behaviors or experiences keep repeating themselves in your life?

In the natural course of events, everything that we have learned and all that we have been taught to believe has been organized and downloaded into its proper place, the Basic Self, which is the Huna Wisdom tradition term for the subconscious and the instinctual nature.

The Ancient Huna tradition understood that the human being is the outer expression of a huge spider web of interrelated systems and processes and that the living brain is always responding and adapting to everything that is happening inside, around, and between us. Thus the brain constantly repatterns itself in ways that are changeable. Basic Self becomes our ally when it is ready, willing, and able to let go of old patterns and form new patterns that are better suited to the needs of the authentic self and to the purposes of the soul.

Modern science has shown us that as we learn and grow, patterns of neuron cells in the brain become closely associated with each other and tend to “fire” together in established patterns, some of which, like driving a car, are very useful. Other patterns may be more problematic.

Modern science has also proven that this process of growth and change does not end when we reach adulthood, but continues throughout the life span. The human brain can continue to rewire (rewrite) itself throughout the life span, affecting how the brain and the nervous system function and thus affecting all aspects of a person’s life. The ability of the brain to change its patterns and networks is called “plasticity.”

Living a creative life is a never-ending process of recreating our self. The awakening aspirant strives to identify patterns that no longer serve the unfoldment of the highest potential within oneself. The awakening disciple learns to form new relationships that are based on preference, not on patterned behavior or unconscious conditioned reactions. Thus the disciple builds the future, not by recreating the past, but by recovering and/or rebuilding what may have been lost.

Living a creative life is more than learning to adapt to the world as it exists. To live a truly creative life is to transcend the limitations imposed by the world and by ourselves. Underneath any physical or psychological limitation, a part of us—the authentic self—is fervently trying to make its voice heard. When we, the conscious self, can allow ourselves to recognize and go beyond the “gatekeepers”—the defense mechanisms and persona selves that protect us so well, but that also block our knowledge of our authentic self—we become better able to let go of the energetic emotional imprints and preconceived interpretations that color and often distort our experience of life.

In the past, priests and other spiritual figures were often called father and mother, while the spiritual aspirant was called my child. In the past, the role of the priest was to be a spiritual parent for someone who was choosing a new life and to help retrain the younger consciousness (the Basic Self of the Huna tradition) in the ways of holiness. That worked well for spiritual aspirants on a solar-plexus path, which is the path of law as defined by someone or something outside of the self.

But today, many spiritual aspirants are striving to follow a heart-centered path, the path of the soul and of Self-responsibility. We still aspire to be made new, but not in the image of someone or something outside of our authentic self.

We are challenged to assume the role of spiritual parent to and for our self/Self and, by learning to work effectively with the Basic Self, to become the loving, directive authority to the younger consciousness within this little universe known as “us.”

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