In its religious sense, purification means the atonement of sins via pain and suffering. While this is not wrong, it is not the enlightened perception, as purification, or the cleansing of the Soul from evil, is not necessarily also suffering although it does include a fair amount of discomfort; and its purpose is not penance but healing, in the form of enabling the Soul to receive Spirit.

The process of purification is akin to a body detox, where a strict diet eliminates toxins, leaving the body cleansed and receptive for nutrition. The diet itself is not a pleasant experience but does not automatically qualify as suffering, as suffering is a relative term, a feeling based on the mind’s perception of the cause for the food withdrawal. If the diet is due to punishment or deprivation, the mind will boost its pain by conjuring feelings of victimization and misery; if, however, it is part of the mind’s own goal for detoxification and healing, the experience will be one of empowerment and purpose.

The purification of the Soul is a necessary step on its path to wholeness, and an unavoidable one in the overall ascension of consciousness. Throughout the Soul’s incarnations, Spirit accumulates a huge amount of wounding and begins to break under the burden, akin to an abused body showing symptoms of illness. Such symptoms are the body’s way of asking the mind to begin a course of healing. Similarly, the Soul’s sudden and overwhelming fears, sensitivities and self-sabotage tendencies are Spirit’s way of asking the mind for healing.

The way the mind heals Spirit and body is always by receiving first the Truth of their condition, and then acting on it. Body delivers Truth via a sensation of pain and discomfort, and asks the mind to please seek the underlying cause, rather than solely treat it with painkillers. Spirit delivers Truth by impressing feelings of impotence, worthlessness, failure and powerlessness, and asks the mind the same: to please not ignore and numb them by means of force, sensual pleasures and drugs, but seek wisdom about their underlying cause. Should the mind choose to ignore body and Spirit pleads, it will have pushed the Soul into a period of stagnation, head buried deep in the sand of lies, and body swamped by all kinds of anaestethic engagements.

For body and Spirit, the stagnation of the mind is a period of acute lack and powerlessness. As the mind is their power and protection, its unwillingness to face Truth and take action is akin to the knight’s refusal to save town and princess from the dragon, thereby sacrificing them to evil: illnesses deteriorate and wounding accumulates at a rapid rate, undetected and unattended by the Soul. The party will go on until the destruction shuts down the body’s functionality, hampering the mind’s mobility and vitality; and the exposure to wounding disconnects Spirit, hampering the mind’s potency and ability to experience fulfillment.

Both shut-downs push the mind into a state of acute impotence, making it difficult to keep ignoring the pain. Given the new circumstances, it has a new choice: either to finally embark upon healing, or resort to force in an effort to eliminate the pain. An act of force invariably constitutes a killing of Spirit which moves the Soul straight into hell, exponentially increasing its experience of conflicts while disabling all means of overcoming them. The Soul will stay in hell until it is exhausted and hurt from fighting, and its willingness to use force fully broken. At that point it will be allowed to exit from hell and embark on the purification of evil from the mind, wounds from Spirit, and toxins from the body.

A Soul that receives rather than ignores or kills Truth avoids hell altogether, entering purification with Spirit as its guide and support. It will be provided wisdom and right experiences at each step of its path. In this way, the calamities that befall the Soul serve as intimate case studies for its ascension in consciousness. The wisdom thus attained empowers the mind, as it acquires a whole new worldview and experience of Spirit. The discovery of Spirit puts the mind in awe and brings out feelings of appreciation, reverence and humility, as well as gratitude for such beautiful Power to exist and desire to serve it. The rising of such love and appreciation heals Spirit wounds, and builds a fertile and beautiful connection between Soul and Spirit.

In contrast, a mind that killed Spirit will embark on purification without the benefit of acquiring wisdom, as it needs to be in a state of suffering to close all the karmic loops that its force has previously manifested. Its failure to attain wisdom constitutes a lost opportunity for ascension, however, and implies souldeath. The difference between purifying with the benefit of wisdom vs. devoid of it can be grasped by imagining enduring a fierce infection with knowledge on how to heal it and certainty in the gradual process, versus enduring it without any diagnosis or help at all, swamped by fears and assumptions of the worst kind, powerless over its deadly spread and finally succumbing to it.

The Soul’s healing only begins at the end of purification, and only for Souls in ascension. Having first received Truth of its own evilness, the pure, loving and humble mind is now ready to receive Spirit itself – Truth, that is, of its own worthiness. The union with Spirit comes in the form of receiving fulfillment, power, potency, health and abundance, all gifts of the grace of Spirit and instruments of Soul’s healing. Like medicine for the sore wounds, they descend upon the holes and crevices of the deprived body and mind, bringing rejuvenation, beauty, vitality and desire. After a long winter and a severe drought, rain is falling in plenty and nature’s blooms and blossoms are springing up again.