I did a past life regression with Rethnea on Sunday.  It was very cool.  It’s very similar to visual (intuitive) meditation except you’re answering questions about yourself and not someone else.  You can check Rethnea out on her blog.  She’s warmth, generosity and peace all wrapped in one delightful package.

I saw glimpses of 3 past lives.

In the first I was a cavewoman.  My cave was on the side of a mountain next to an ocean.  It had and entrance made of 2 long stones (top to bottom) standing on either side of the entrance and one on the top like a hood.  There was an ocean at the bottom and when I went up to it to look at myself I saw I had an average build, long dark hair, bare feet, brown clothes and was kind of dirty.  Then we fast forwarded to dinner time where I saw I had a husband (a big burly guy) and 2 young children, a boy and a girl.  We often ate meat.  I wasn’t very satisfied with my life and seemed to just be getting by, settling for how things were although I wasn’t really happy.  We fast forwarded to the next significant thing that happened where I saw that I was chased down and murdered by a man, being stabbed in the back with a sharp object.  I wasn’t clear on why.

In the second life I was a princess in either India or Egypt – at first I thought Egypt but once I was there I thought it was India.  I first saw myself walking through a bustling village and people stopped when they saw me.  I felt a lot of love and compassion for them.  I was maybe in my late teens and had long dark hair pulled back wearing a headpiece that come to a point between my eyebrows and a purple garment that wrapped around me.  We fast forwarded and I next saw myself living in an ornate palace with my father and younger sister (who I believe was my older sister Jen) – it seemed somewhat solemn in the scene I saw.  (This is extra interesting because afterward when I shared this with my sister she said she’s been told be two different psychics that she has been a Indian princess and a Egyptian priestess in past lives!  They say you frequently reincarnate with the same group of souls although they may exist in a different relationship to you.) There may have been more family but those are all I saw.  I had the sense that my mother had passed away after my sister was born.  Fast forwarding, I was forced to marry (or be with – I wasn’t clear on whether or not we were actually married or not) a man I didn’t know or love who was very aggressive and cruel and I was really despondent about it.  I had 2 children with him, both girls.  He abused me and treated both me & the girls with indifference most of the time.  When the girls were older he sexually abused them.  I found this out when I noticed they seemed upset and quiet – slouched over a bit.  I tried to run away with them but didn’t escape and was brought back.  I was raped and strangled to death by him.

What I learned from this was that in both these lives, I settled for relationships as they were, even though I was unhappy with them.  I just got by and put up with it.  I learned that if I’m unhappy in a situation to not just stay there and to follow my instincts and my heart.  To not worry about the rules and whatever circumstances seem to be present, but instead to pursue whatever my heart yearns for and have conviction in that it will work out.  But also to create joy or satisfaction no matter what my circumstances are.  Each lifetime ended violently which I wasn’t asked to look into but I think it speaks to why I’ve always been afraid of men taking advantage of me and not trusting them.

In the third, which I had just a brief look into it, I was a young boy (maybe 6 or 7) being picked on by other children and they threw sand in my face.  This was what I saw when we looked into the root of my habitually itchy eyes.  The lesson to learn here is that I let myself be affected by what others thought of me too much when it really only matters what I think of me and that I know myself as great.

Messages from my highest self:

I learned that I procrastinate in order to avoid feeling like I’ll be stuck with something if it works out.  Which is a waste of energy because I can always change things and take on new ventures whenever I want if I want.  I spend so much time avoiding doing things that would move me forward because I fear that I’ll end up stuck in a situation that feels like I’m settling or putting up with however things are.  Basically I straddle between the ’settling for’ and the ‘never settle for’ by sticking with things I know no longer serve me for longer than necessary while on the other hand (and sometimes simultaneously) jumping from idea to idea, venture to venture, relationship to relationship in order to not get trapped.  What I see I need to take on now is finding middle ground where I can commit to something and allow it to continually evolve into whatever serves me best.

I need to learn trust and compassion.  I need to listen to and follow my intuition instead of ignoring it.  Noticing when I have doubt or a nagging that something isn’t right for me and actually taking it seriously.  At the same time I need to learn to trust both myself and others.

Once persistent message was that everything I need is within.  Love is within.  I need to love myself completely and fully and allow it to flow forth from me to others. I also need to learn patience. I need to love and have compassion for people no matter what because everyone else is the same as me.

I have to remind myself of why I fell in love with things in the first place and to CHOOSE joy as my predominate experience.  I got that I should meditate every morning when I wake up to practice being with stillness and that I could also meditate on a particular way of being like peace or joy or love.  (This will help me sleep better as I sometimes still have trouble as would having more regular sleeping hours).  I also got that I should write my book every day for at least an hour.

It was definitely a cool experience.  I’ll have to let you know what comes of it.

If you would also like to have a regression session email me at Rethnea[at]yahoo.com

An important decision was to be made.  The people in the crowd were refugees who sought to settle in the land of the king.  The king rose from his throne, walked down the steps and said:

“Anan shatlan temuk.”

It was not a language they understood and no one knew what the king said. They were all murmuring nervously amongst each other.  Soldiers surrounded them and the refugees were scared that they would kill them. However, their lives were spared and they were allowed to settle in the outskirts of the town in a separate, designated area where the land was not fertile.  Not much grew there and they mostly raised animals to survive.  It was hard living.  I asked Mario to go into his house and see where he lives.  Tears began rolling down his eyes.

M: My mom is telling me … I am a girl by the way, teenage girl.  I came home and my mother is telling me how hard life is.  Always is and always will be for us.  She loves me very much and she is telling me that life is always hard for us wherever we go.  And I believe her. I listen to her and I nod.  I agree.  We have to work so hard.

R: Is she distressed?  Does she have a heavy burden on her heart?

M: No.  She is not distressed.  She is just telling me how it is for us.  This is our lot in life.

The girl accepted these statements without questioning.  She was experiencing it and seeing it with her own eyes and she never questioned her mother’s attitude.

M: Our lives are really hard.  They always are.  They always will be.

The girl was an only child.

R: How does your mom call you?

M: Anash.

R: And how do you call your mom?

M: Lilia.  She is my mom.  She is my current mother.  She is a lot tougher in this [the ancient] life than she is now but she is the same soul.

Her father was a tall, balding man who had a beard.  The skin of the father was lighter and he looked different than the girl and her mother.  He was her second father.  One day, soldiers came and killed the father with spears right in front of their house.  The mother must have suspected that something could happen because when the solders came she was very organized and quickly hid her daughter inside the house.  He had stolen something the mother knew about.  The mother was not that sad when her husband passed away.

M: The significance of this event is not my father’s death but my mother’s reaction to it.  It confirmed everything that she believed in and has taught me – that life is pain and suffering.  That is our lot in life.  And that is what my mother still tells me today.

The girl got married to a younger man who lived in the town. The older folks refused to integrate but the younger people from Anash’s tribe over the years slowly integrated into the town by marrying and working there.

R: Do you visit your mother often?

M: Yes. I bring her oranges.

Tears rolled down Mario’s eyes and his voice betrayed the emotions he felt. She was often able to sneak away flat round pieces of bread and oranges and bring them to her mother.  Anash’s husband was not well off but he was a miller, which gave them a stable access to food. Life was a little better for Anash now. The house she lived in was an actual house.  It was not a tent or a shack it was an actual home.  There was still no money, or very little but Anash had access to food. He was a Jew and even thought he too was part of a minority group Jews were more integrated in the society than Anash’s tribe.  Mario, as Anash, began saying things in another language and said, “There is all these Hebrew words I know now.”

The next important moment in Anash’s life was the death of her mother.

M: My mother is old.  She is old and sick.  I am touching her face. She is dying.  I am saying that I love her.  She is weak.  She is bony… I was very close with her.

R: How do you feel?

M: I feel very, very upset.  I just feel like she was right – that life is so hard.

The subconscious told us that Mario needed to see this lifetime in order to understand the perception of life being a struggle because he continues to believe that life is difficult. Life is not all pain and suffering.  Changes happen in ways one could never predict.  Things happen in ways one could never expect.  And this is a very important lesson for both Mario and his mother to learn.   She continues to believe really deeply that life is a struggle and her religious believes and everything else in her life confirms that perception.  Life is full of potential.  Miracles do happen and they both need to know that.

In this life, Mario grew up hearing from his mother the very same thing she taught him when they were previously known as Lilia and Anash.  She perceives everything as a problem, nothing works out for her even though through the eyes of an outsider she has a great life.  Mario carried the same attitude in him and while describing the difficulties he was met with he really spoke of his life as something that needed to be constantly fought and survived and he often used the word “struggle.”   This attitude that life is a battlefield had spilled in every corner of his life – his career, his finances, his relationships and his creative expression as an artist.  That belief was the foundation of why he attached to negativity and constantly worried that things were out of his control.

After our session, Mario chose to dissociate from the belief of life as a struggle.   He realized that the circumstances that created the belief do not exist in his life, that he is a different person now.  He realized that he has the power to choose and that he does not need to perceive the world through his mother’s eyes.  He chose to be grateful for everything good that he is given instead of ignoring it and focusing on what is wrong.  To support his new vision every day he writes a positive though on a sticky note and places it on his computer so that the intent of it carries him through the day.

It has been a week now since our regression.  From speaking with Mario I see that the shift in him is permanent.  The understanding that our session brought him freed him from the need to recreate constant struggle in his life.  Just like his higher self said, life is full of potential and miracles do happen.

This material is protected by Copyright Law. We are freely sharing it with you with the hope of inspiring you and bringing light to your life.

© Copyright 2009, Rethnea. All rights reserved.

Rethnea is my soul name.  Rethnea is the name of the bigger, wiser, more evolved soul that I am only a part of.

I really do not know what “Rethnea” means or what language it is in but I can tell you how the name came to me.

A few years ago I did a spiritual regression with Nancy Canning.  Spiritual regression is a session where the person is led back in time to a past life and into the Spirit world to meet with his or hers Spirit Guide and Council of Elders. I was in a very deep state of hypnosis during my session when the name “Rethnea” came to me.  I just knew that this was the name of my spirit and my knowing was so profound that nothing in the world could convince me that I made it up.  In fact, it sounded so strange and unusual to me that I told Nancy that I would like to spell something so she could write it down.  While in hypnosis, I explained to her that this was my spirit name and if she does not write it down I would never remember it.

After my session with Nancy Canning I researched everything I could on Rethnea and this is what I learned.

Image: Rear Entrance Road to Secure Fort – Cnoc Ros, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from michaelbix’s Flickr stream

This story begins in 480 A.D. in county Waterford in Ireland when a girl is born to the noble and influential Déisí clan.

As a child this girl showed an unusual inclination to prayer and holiness. She had a remarkable spiritual presence, and everyone around her took note of her purity and grace. The girl grew up believing she had a calling from God and wanted to become a nun.

At the age of 16 she moved west to the county of Limerick, a mystical, beautiful country and established a community of nuns.  The girl became known as Saint Ita, the second most famous woman saint of Ireland.

St. Ita and her nuns spent their time praying, teaching the young and caring for the sick, the poor and the elderly. The convent came to be known as Killeedy, that is “Ita’s cell.”  The nuns had a school for little boys where the boys were taught “Faith in God with purity of heart; simplicity of life with religion; generosity with love”.

St. Ita and her nuns must have been inspiring teachers, for among their pupils were the future St. Columba, St. Fachtna of Ross, St. Pulcherius of Liath, St. Cummian of Clonfert, and St. Brendan of Clonfert.

And this is where Rethnea comes in our story.

Rethnea was one of the nuns who was a part of St. Ita’s community.  Rethnea was the teacher of St. Columba.

St. Columba is an outstanding figure in the early Catholic Church.  He was a great missionary saint — a statesman, a scholar, a poet, and the founder of numerous churches and monasteries.  St. Columba was born in 521 A.D., therefore, he must have been Rethnea’s student in the late 520s or early 530s.

This story is told to us by Adomnán, the ninth Abbot of Iona, an abbey established by St. Columba.   Adomnán who died in 704 later was canonized as a saint himself.  Adomnán wrote Vita Columbae (“Life of Columba”), the most important surviving work written in early medieval Scotland.

In 1874, Vita Columbae was translated and adapted from Latin, and was included in The Historians of Scotland, volume VI,  Life of Saint Columba.  In Latin the text which references Rethnea reads:

And that, my dear friends, are the only facts that I was able to gather on the name Rethnea.  If you know anything further or if you ever come across any other references please let me know.

Am I Rethnea, the teacher of St. Columba?  That is a questions that I am yet to discover the answer to.

Image: celt, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from piglicker’s Flickr stream

This material is protected by Copyright Law. We are freely sharing it with you with the hope of inspiring you and bringing light to your life.

© Copyright 2009, Rethnea. All rights reserved.