Maria is a beautiful, highly sensitive, and empathic 7-year-old girl. She has deep brown colored eyes that draw you in while reflecting back light and clarity. She is also the daughter of a dear friend; who told me that Maria was drawn to my painting titled The Eyes of Love, which I published on my website in October 2019.
Her mother asked me if I could print a copy of the painting. Since I use gold leaf, I found it challenging to capture the essence of the artwork in a printed copy. It just didn’t feel right or the same. So, I decided to paint a new one for Maria.
When I started to draw the Merkaba (the 6-pointed star), I found it curious that I felt guided to use different measurements, for some of the angles and lines, than the ones I had used in the original drawing. I felt guided to draw the eyes differently and use different colors from the ones I had drawn before. Even though it felt awkward to change it at times, I trusted it was the ‘right way’ and dimensions. Throughout the days that I worked on it, a lot of information came through (was channeled) for Maria’s mother. I wrote it down so I could share it with her.
I have a love and growing interest in sacred geometry and gematria. Numbers and symbols speak (communicate) a deep and rich language that carries codes and information beyond time and space. My artwork seems to have precise numerical significance whose meaning would unfold in the drawing process. The images usually appear in my mind as very basic outlines, and only when I start drawing and painting do they come alive with numerical values, messages, and colors.
I felt guided to first show the painting to my friend (the mother). I explained the four numerical values I wrote down and their correlation to the drawing; 16, 6, 5 and 21. I then used my Soul Plan Archetypal Tarot Deck to show her the corresponding symbol to each number; while relaying the messages I had written down. The information resonated with her, and it gave her insights into her daughter’s highly empathic and sensitive nature. It also confirmed that she was on the right track in supporting her.
Soul Plan Reading: A Mother/Daughter Journey
I found the numbers quite curious and wondered whether they matched both of their soul plans, so I asked my friend if I could look at their soul plan charts and read them together. It turned out that the 16 (7) is the mother’s Soul Destiny, and it is also Maria’s Worldly Talent in this life. In Soul Plan, the energy of the number 16 brings spiritual frequencies and the love vibration to others in an authentic and ‘down to earth’ manner; the number 7 is related to integration, which is about trusting with an open heart to make magnetic connections. They are working together to inspire others in an uplifting way above and beyond our conditioned eyes and feel connected with our true essence.
The energy of the number 6 is about thought and creativity. This energy, when in balance, provides a clear focus for the flow of the universe’s creativity. Maria’s mother always has paper and colored pencils readily available because she knows that it is what Maria loves to do most and helps her stay focused and balanced with her emotions. When Maria is in this creative flow of energy, it is when she can best ‘listen’ to her own voice and feel centered, grounded (present), with herself and with others around her.
Maria’s mother carries the strongest Earth vibration as a Spiritual Talent which would help Maria with grounding. She mentioned that she always felt she could help her daughter in ways that the medical profession could not fully (yet); and, therefore, she had decided to learn as much as she could through alternative and holistic methods. My friend had recently trained as a Reiki practitioner to help her daughter balance her emotions and ground her high vibrational energy.
The energy of the number 5 relates to spirit and freedom. This energy is pioneering and visionary and can express spiritual connection. In Soul Plan, this energy appears as a challenge for Maria. However, in her relationship with her mother, Maria’s challenge helps her mother trust her inner voice, the voice that tells her what is best for Maria. Maria is helping her mother to see her without any doubt. She is helping her mother connect with her inner wisdom and guidance and trust her intuition which can be challenging at times for my friend; also expressed in her soul plan.
When we follow this path of inner trust, we build endurance, which is reflected in the 21(3) numerical value. With endurance, intelligence, and great inner strength, we can clearly communicate what resides deep within our hearts. Our heart is our greatest channel of creative expression. This is from where our inherent wisdom wishes to communicate freely and openly without judgment.
This energy of endurance and expression is my friend’s Worldly Talent. Where Maria may sometimes struggle to communicate clearly what she feels (as most highly empathic children do), or where others may misunderstand Maria’s moods and behavior, her mother can help Maria communicate or communicate confidently on her behalf. Therefore, my friend is also teaching others how to understand what Maria is feeling and why. Maria is helping her mother learn to trust her feelings and believe that she is on the right path with all she is doing to help her.
My friend and I were emotional when we saw the correlation and direct significance of their soul plans; and their mother/daughter relationship in this lifetime. Clearly, we were learning from a dimensional space that sees beyond our two physical eyes. Tapping into soul wisdom that is helping us to remember to keep coming back to our feeling center, to our heart center, to the space where the connection through our heart only knows truth.
My personal perspective on empathy
An empath is a highly sensitive individual who has a keen ability to sense what people are thinking and feeling. I believe all children are born with this ability, and therefore all humans are empathic beings. However, empathy is experienced as a spectrum; and the degree of depth to which one feels depends on a person’s experience, particularly in their early childhood years, the soul’s journey, and choices made before coming into this life.
Those born with their ‘feeling’ center wide open don’t always understand what they are feeling, and many times, they feel what another person can’t feel within themselves. Very empathic people cut through the ‘blocked’ layers of another person. Still, because the other person may not be aware or exhibit any visual characteristics, it is confusing for the highly sensitive individual.
If a highly sensitive individual expresses what they feel, they may be told by the other person that they are overreacting, that they are too emotional, or that they’ve got it wrong. The person who has not yet become aware of their own trauma will push back or get defensive, and the empath who has not learned about their gifts will feel misunderstood by others and themselves.
A child who is still learning through observation, where all they observe, experience, and feel is programmed into their subconscious mind, then they will take these comments and negative feelings as a limiting belief. With time the child’s feeling center will slowly start to close up, or they may find numbing outlets as young adults or throughout their life.
Furthermore, they may store the emotions they felt from others as their own and then carry them into adulthood until they (hopefully) learn or seek help to tap into their subconscious mind again and ‘unlearn’ all the conditioning and limiting beliefs. Being consciously aware of a limiting belief is different from healing it at its root. Knowing a trauma does not necessarily resolve it. It will continue to show up in your life as a pattern until you go to the incident and transmute the energy at its root.
Maria, and many children like her, are teaching us to feel and learn what it means to feel, truly feel connected without relying on external sources or validation, and see with our hearts and not through our ‘conditioned’ eyes. Our conditioned eyes are eager to label, identify, and blame others, but we must move away from this way of thinking that only lends itself to more conditioning and trauma. We all know how to do this, but we have forgotten.
When we feel different or wrong in our ways, we start to put protective layers around ourselves (creating a series of false selves) like masks to ‘relate’ and not feel different or wrong. This is how we start to feel disconnected from ourselves, from our true essence, and then many spend a large portion of their lives ‘undoing’ and reconnecting. Feeling disconnected can lead to embodiment trauma and traumas that impact the individual throughout their life. This, in turn, will naturally extend to the collective group.
To understand empathy, we also need to change how we are conditioned to think of trauma and ourselves. If we have any negative physical or emotional condition or are triggered by anyone, we may have some form of trauma. It is not a bad thing; it is part of being human. However, how we react and respond makes the difference, and it is the responsibility we take to do the inner work that makes the difference. Our conditioning and lack of understanding of trauma label it as bad and keeps individuals and societies alienated from each other.
When we understand trauma within ourselves, we can view all else with compassion. Empathy is the emotional path of understanding what we feel, and compassion is the ability to rise above our emotions, understand why we have trauma, and then relate with others with compassion. Easier said than done!
How amazing would it be if we could all help our children with this level of understanding so they (and we) do not feel different and disconnected? How wonderful would it be for parents to take on the responsibility to heal themselves from any past or ancestral traumas (emotions) they carry? Show up for their children in a loving and balanced way; and not project their ‘hurts’ or limiting beliefs onto the next generation of humans?
I am grateful to Maria and her mother for the incredible privilege and gift of drawing Maria’s Eyes of Love, for teaching me that my compass has always been, and will always be, within my heart, for the healing and insights I have received, and for allowing me to share this message and image with others. I invite you to look into Maria’s eyes of love and feel what you feel. What is she teaching you? What is she teaching us as a collective?
When I showed the painting to Maria, I asked her, “What do you see?” She said, “My mommy.”
Testimonial
Maria’s Eyes of Love, acrylic and gold leaf on paper, finished December 29, 2019 and gifted to Maria January 1, 2020.