“The wealth within you, your essence, is your kingdom.”
Rumi
Krittika Nakshatra carries the bright and brilliant light that seeds new life in matter. The deity of this Nakshatra is Agni, the fire that consumes consciousness. The light that emanates from Krittika is sharp and precise and cuts through the veil, bridging the world of spirit and matter. Krittika Nakshatra bears the first Shakti, the seed that initiates the cycle of creation through the Nakshatras.
LIGHT IS a powerful form of energy that impacts everything it touches. It’s a mysterious phenomenon that can transform and influence everything nearby. What might surprise you is that light is also a part of you. At the core of your being, there is an essence of light, like what the Tibetans call “the clear light.” You carry a seed of that clear light within you, which exists underneath your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, traumas, ego, and personality. Each soul holds a particular spark of that light, an energetic signature that distinguishes you and allows you to experience reality from a unique point of view.
We can think of our unique essence as a single light particle emanating from the Sun and embarking on a courageous journey through the universe. It is a separate particle but profoundly connected to all the other light particles, forming a beautiful light display. Each particle may seem small and insignificant, but they are all necessary to create the phenomena of light. They are profoundly interconnected and reliant on each other for existence. Like the Sun in the sky, your unique essence sits confidently and self-sustained in the center of your being, unfazed by what’s orbiting around it.
Each of us has a soul essence in our core that shines as brightly as the Sun in the sky. It tends to be visible in us as young children, but then life takes over, and we often lose our connection to that inner Sun. This essence is the lens your soul chose when it began its journey, an energy field that vibrates within you, wanting you to do certain things and move in specific directions. Your unique spark of light carries the talents and skills associated with that essence. It’s who you are and has always been; it’s your true nature.
FINDING YOUR ESSENCE
As young children, we often express our essences naturally before life and societal expectations move us away from that original spark. What did you dream about as a child? Examining our childhoods can give us a clue as to our essence. Often, our stupidest wants and wishes point us in the direction our souls want to go, but as we grow and socialize, we tend to push them aside because of outside pressure to adapt to our environment. We often let the world take us away from our original spark because we want other people’s validation and love. That’s what everybody ultimately wants: to be loved. So, to ensure that we get that love, we begin to adapt and change so that other people will accept us, often drowning out that original spark of light that is us.
The human animal is a social species; humans need other humans to survive. This is how we have evolved as a species; separating from our group has historically been perceived as life-threatening. For mammals, connections mean life, while separation and disconnection mean death. This is etched into our biology and brains; we must feel connected to feel good. Seeking love and connection is a beautiful trait, but it can also lead us astray, where we put on false masks and change who we are to be accepted. We create false identities to fit in and sacrifice who we feel we are on the inside to avoid exclusion. However, by doing this, by suppressing our true selves, we slowly begin to lose our spark. We sense that something is off, that there is a disconnect between our souls and our external persona, and we spend our whole lives trying to return to that original spark.
Like sparks of light, our essences are abstract and often complex to describe or pin down. But like light, they are always pure and high-vibrational. One essence might be described as “wisdom,” while others can be “nourishment,” “luminescence,” and “joy.” These are broad descriptions, each essence branching off into a narrower flavor in each soul, seeking to shine that unique flavor into the world. The essence of “wisdom” might be expressed through being a teacher, writer, guru, counselor, or storyteller to their kids! Someone with the essence of “nourishment” might express it through being a mother, a father, a doctor, a nurse, or a good friend. No matter what essence you carry, it will radiate out of you, give you energy, and make you feel good when you express it. And it’s okay if the essence is something nobody else understands! Because each soul has its journey, and living as yourself imperfectly is much better than living someone else’s life perfectly. So, ask yourself: What would you do if you had complete freedom to live as you chose, with no expectations from others? What would you do out of pure joy? What gives you energy and enthusiasm and makes your soul awaken? You move closer to finding your unique essence by asking and answering these questions. You might already know what it is or spend your life searching for it – and maybe the search itself is a part of living and expressing your essence!
We feel discomfort when the separation between the soul’s essence and our lives becomes too big. Pretending to be something we are not eventually becomes unsustainable. All the comforts and pleasures in the world cannot sustain that broken connection, and it will only lead to frustration, anger, and bitterness. Nature is always seeking balance, and whenever there is an imbalance, the intelligence of nature will eventually step in and force a change. This is how nature works; humans are no different from anything else in the natural world. We see this rebalancing happening when people choose certain roads that might lead to external success, where they seem to have everything, but then their lives collapse spectacularly. They become so imbalanced and miserable that balance must be restored. For example, someone with the essence of “nourishment” chooses to be a company CEO in a cut-throat business environment. It takes a certain level of brutality to survive in such a harsh climate, being able to play that game, and it’s easy to see how brutal that would be for someone with a soul that wants to nurture! There would be a constant need to suppress their true nature to fit in and survive. Other essences might do better in such roles, but the nurturer would feel significantly out of place.
A LOVING, SENSITIVE SPECIES
Nothing is more natural than being who we are. However, we have lived in such imbalanced and unnatural ways for so long that we struggle to do so. We haven’t been encouraged to be ourselves simply because, as a species, we have no idea who we are. If the species is confused about its nature, it’s no wonder its members struggle to be themselves. What happens in society gets mirrored within us, and vice versa.
As a species, we have been pretending to be something we are not. For the longest time, we have lived unconsciously, as if a veil has been put over our eyes. We have been living a false persona, a defense mechanism created to help us survive in a harsh, disconnected, and insensitive society. We have been led to believe that we are a brutal species and have been forced to fight and compete and pursue profit, power, and prestige, which has fueled greed, selfishness, and a kill-or-be-killed attitude. We are constantly pitted against each other, convinced that we must compete and outdo everybody else. We must hustle to be better, smarter, prettier, wealthier, more influential, more popular, and have a higher status than others. This thinking fuels the ego and is a sure way to sever bonds and connections with other people. You can’t connect sincerely and honestly with people if you simultaneously try to compete and win over them. However, this is a completely distorted idea of the human being. It’s a lie, but we have become so disconnected that we don’t even recognize that this isn’t our true nature. If this were indeed our true nature, we would thrive in this sort of society, but the reality is, of course, the opposite. We are witnessing a massive increase in mental, emotional, and physical health issues among humans. We are suffering from depression, anxiety, and a multitude of addictions. As a species, we are heartbroken!
It might surprise you that humans are naturally loving, creative, and sensitive animals. You wouldn’t believe it if you looked around today’s world at the brutal things we do to each other. But at our core, we are beings of light, deeply connected and bonded through our essences. Humans are naturally loving and able to express great empathy and compassion, creating deep connections with other people and species. The inhumane behaviors we see today are not evidence of our inhumanity. Instead, it’s a trauma response after living in an imbalanced state for so long. This is precisely what happens when you neglect and traumatize an animal and disconnect it from its natural habitat, where they develop abnormal traits and defense mechanisms to survive. Because humans are a very sensitive species, our complex nervous system requires much care and nurturing to develop normally and for the brain to wire correctly. Where a horse can run a few hours after birth, the human baby needs several years to do the same! Because of our sensitivities, we had to disconnect, both inside and outside, shutting down those sensitivities to protect ourselves. It was an effective defense mechanism to survive the harsh environment humans have created for themselves for thousands of years.
HEALING HUMAN NATURE
We, as individuals, also develop protection mechanisms to survive in environments and with people who don’t accept who and what we are. If we don’t feel safe and accepted enough to be ourselves and show who we are, we wear masks when interacting with others. Doing this from a young age becomes a habit, and we get confused about who we are. We suddenly find ourselves in situations and lives where we feel we don’t belong. Something is off, but we don’t know what it is. Being unable to be yourself is painful, and we carry the sadness of being disconnected. We have grown into something we are not, and there is never a happy ending when that happens. Authentic connections can only happen when we connect from our souls, not from a false and limited personality. There is a profound sense of loss and pain when we find ourselves without genuine connections, both to others but primarily to our soul’s essence. As discussed earlier, humans don’t do well without connections, so we seek ways to numb the pain. We may use food, alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex, codependence, social media, or addiction to achieve external validation and success to numb our discomfort. But the numbing only fuels a vicious cycle, making us feel more and more separated from that original spark we had as children.
Healing our human nature as individuals and a species requires the same thing. It’s not about adding or fixing something but removing whatever is blocking us from being who we are. Building and upholding masks and false personalities is hard work, but living as you is easy! It doesn’t require extra energy; it’s effortless. All the other animals on Earth do it without thinking about it. You can easily sustain it if you give it the right conditions and leave it alone. This is what nature does. If you leave it alone, it will rebalance and return to life. If a species in nature diminishes and you leave it alone, it will eventually return. It’s the same with humans; if you stop being what you are not and provide the correct conditions for your true self, it will spring to life!
When you reconnect to your authentic essence and see the world from that place, things look different. You can then zoom out and see how false personalities, traumas, and wounds create disturbances in your consciousness field. You see how they work as a “filter” that distorts your view and how you see others and the world. When seeing the world from your essence, your awareness changes. You get a new perspective on how you want to express yourself in this reality. You focus on how to be that original spark that you are and how you best can express it so that it radiates freely. When living from your essence, you are in the flow of life, and it feels natural. And when you can sense the light in yourself, you can also see it in other people. This is how we reconnect to our true nature.
This is the wisdom of light.