In this article, I’m going to give information about a common primary life lesson that comes up for my clients when I read their Akashic Records: inner authority. (There are 88 life lessons that I know of, that souls can be learning on their soul’s journey. Souls choose one primary life lesson and then explore it from all angles over 5-15 lifetimes. Most souls also have several secondary life lessons that are less prominent.)
To explain what the life lesson of inner authority is about, I want to share something that happened to me:
Many years ago, I had a reading with a well-known (but not very friendly) intuitive who spent some of the time I had paid to consult with her, scolding me.
She told me that I was tuning into peoples’ energy fields and Spirit Guides and that I was wrong to do that. The only source I should be tuning into was God/Source. That was where she got her information from, and she felt it was a superior source of information. The advice was delivered with a dollop of shaming – ugh!
A student of mine recently received conflicting advice from teachers about which sources are OK to channel.
And their question was: how can I know what is the right source to channel?
My answer was:
Explore, try things out, observe the results and draw your own conclusions.
You may have trusted teachers and mentors, but your conclusions should be your own. See what benefits you. See what benefits others. See what feels right over time.
My experience of channelling Spirit Guides has never backfired. They are very tuned into us and they provide most helpful information precisely because they are the beings who are assigned to us and they are intimately familiar with the details of our lives. They know our life lessons and soul’s journey across many lifetimes. For that reason, they can give us advice that is both spiritual/high-level and yet practical and earthly. And it is advice that is customised to us.
I’ve been channelling guides for myself and others for around 17 years now because I find it helpful and my clients consistently find it helpful.
If I tune into Source/God and channel from that place (as the intuitive I consulted with told me to do) I get really high-vibrational but often more abstract guidance. It’s lovely, but it’s not as customised to a client’s life.
I’ve been through a process over the last 15-17 years of deciding what is worthy of sharing with clients and students and what isn’t. I am pragmatic and always ready to ditch what doesn’t work.
Here is my approach to everything related to spiritual and psychic development:
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
― Buddha Siddhartha Guatama Shakyamuni
The Life Lesson of Inner Authority
The quote I mentioned above encapsulates what a life lesson of inner authority is all about…
Souls who are learning the life lesson of inner authority will be having experiences which allow them to trust more in their own conclusions, perceptions and intuition. Sometimes this can involve being told what to do by others, following that advice and then learning that it doesn’t always work out when we assume other peoples’ knowledge or ideas are superior to ours, and put their opinions above our own.
We can learn life lessons through both positive and negative experiences. The hardest way to learn a life lesson of inner authority is through joining a cult (and then having to exit it.)
Another challenging way to learn this life lesson is to have a close relationship with someone who tries to control you and who has overbearing opinions about all your life choices. If you grew up with a particularly controlling parent who taught you that their approach and opinions are worth more than yours, inner authority may well be one of the life lessons that your soul has chosen for this lifetime.
Other signs that this is your life lesson include lacking confidence in your own perceptions and intuition and believing that other people are smarter than you and know better.
We are the expert of our own life and path!
But trusting ourselves can be scary.
It’s sometimes easier to trust others’ opinions over our own because in this way, we are able to shirk full responsibility for our own outcomes. If things don’t work out, we can unconsciously blame it on the person who advised us. We can also rest in a false sense of certainty that an authoritative person is offering us. This perceived sense of certainty and safety can be very seductive for someone who is learning a life lesson of inner authority.
Further resources – life lessons:
- Info on other life lessons that souls can be learning as part of any given karmic cycle can be found here and here.
- If you’re interested in learning about all 88 life lessons, and how to know which ones you or a client is learning, check out my Akashic Record Reading Program.
Hello Anna, I ask the field to get answers, or the infinity consciousness.
When I read for myself I ask my higher self and soul itself. When I do reading for clients I ask their soul to speak with me. And that’s the best way for me. I am very telepathic speaking with trees plants and animals since they start to speak to me. So I got a deep connection to mother earth. So much wisdom lay there inside. Nature is my home, because I am a part of nature since mother earth created.
Thank you, Anna, for your excellent writing on important topics. I did note with this that you used the word “authority” to describe a person’s conduct toward oneself; on one occasion, you used the word “responsibility.”
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to use “responsibility,” as “responsibility” means acting in the best interests of. The “best interests” are paramount. With this as the guideline, you’ve now entered into a dynamic, ongoing relationship with the other (in this case, yourself). “Authority” implies an autocratic position, in which the individual is now controlled (even if being controlled by oneself) by a hierarchical relationship, one in which the individual’s well-being is not
paramount, and outcomes are decided by the whim of the day. Hope this is clear. Thank you.
Hi Virginie, Yes, you make a good point. The word ‘authority’ can have negative connotations.
I’ve always called this life lesson “inner authority” so I think it would be confusing to me and my students to rename it!
Thanks for your comment!
Wow. This is so timely to the inner work I’m doing. I’m in knots around this issue. I’ve convinced myself that, because my inner critic can dismantle any perspective, fact, or opinion, then nothing is “true” and in fact that perfection is “nothing” (think, the movie _The Neverending Story_ and “The Nothing” that devours all that is). So, how can there be inner authority, if what it is to be a human being requires having an ego, and we’re all just competing egos, in a sense. Everyone is “right” and everyone is “wrong”, depending on whose side you’re sympathizing with.