Beyond the Career: What Our Souls Actually Came Here to Learn

The focus of the Spiritual Exploration Lab was to examine whether purpose is a profession, a role, a way of operating in the world, or soul learning.

Four women gathered for this spiritual exploration lab. All of them arrived with questions about their purpose; all of them had questions about their profession.

We brought 6 representations into the space:

Myself, My Soul, Purpose, Profession, Soul Learning, and "Something Else"—with the "Something Else" holding the energy of being open to whatever emerged from the field. It could have included fear of purpose, or perhaps a different profession. We didn't know, so we left it open.

We conducted 4 sessions, one for each participant.

Usually, I arrive at these labs without an agenda. I don't hold tightly to any specific "credo."

This time, I did.

I don't believe that purpose is a profession. I believe there doesn't have to be any connection between the two, and that purpose is far more about soul learning than it is about our occupation or the way we earn a living. I shared this belief with the group so it wouldn't linger as a hidden theme in the field, and we set out on our exploration.

The biggest, most recurring theme was that the profession was simply irrelevant. In all four sessions, the profession almost immediately stepped aside, felt detached, and the session focused much more on the relationship between the person—the "Self"—and their purpose.

The stories that unfolded were fascinating.

For one participant, her profession as a therapist kept stating that it was irrelevant. It felt bored during the session, even though she herself deeply loves therapy and feels a calling to practice it. Within the constellation, there was no connection between the two. The session became much more about the relationship between the "Self," the Soul, and Soul Learning. We couldn't quite define what the soul learning was, but the session ended with a profound sense of connection—and perhaps that connection is the soul learning.

In the second session, right from the start, the representations were "thrown" back into childhood. A confusion emerged between the mother's purpose and the daughter's purpose—questioning whether the daughter was fulfilling her mother's purpose, or perhaps her mother's unfulfilled profession.

In the third session, something very interesting occurred: the Soul Learning behaved like a hedonistic man, and no one in the field liked it. My hypothesis was that this soul learning didn't actually belong to her. Indeed, when I introduced a representation for her husband, the Soul Learning moved toward him and claimed it belonged to him. When we then brought in a representation for the woman's true soul learning, we could see there was still confusion between being connected to her purpose and being connected to her husband—showing that her relationship with her husband directly impacts her alignment with purpose, soul learning, and yes, her profession too.

In the fourth session, the soul lesson was equally powerful and revealed itself through the work: a lesson of connection and disconnection, and the capacity to accept and embody the "both/and."

In none of the four sessions did Purpose show any interest in Profession, nor did Profession show any interest in Purpose.

Our soul's learning is the path our soul walks. The soul arrives here with a desire to learn all kinds of things. That is our purpose: to learn, to grow, to evolve. That is the soul's purpose.

Work, profession, and occupational definitions are simply vehicles through which we learn things. They are not the main event.

Have you ever felt a disconnect between your daily profession and your soul's true purpose? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.