“From the Ancient Wisdoms to Quantum Physics,
It's All About the Energy!”
Etymology and Spiritual Development©
Dennis L. Dossett
(All Rights Reserved)
I have always enjoyed reading about the etymology—the origin—of words in the English language as they are traced back through the centuries to earlier words in various (usually European) languages, often to Latin or Greek roots. I often find myself getting distracted by this activity as I am searching for the “right” or best word to use while writing my blogs and books. A common theme in many of those efforts is soul evolution. One day recently I looked up the origin of the word “evolution.” (I know this sounds really lame, but what is a guy to do when his inspiration is “stuck” and he’s looking for an excuse to “learn” something interesting? LOL!). Here is what I found:
Evolution (noun)
• a process of change in a certain direction: unfolding
• a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state: growth or transformation
Evolve (transitive verb)
• to produce by natural evolutionary processes
• to develop, work out, unfold, or transform
Evolve (intransitive verb)
• to undergo evolutionary change
The underlying thrust of all of these words has to do with “expansive change,” or “transformation.” Their root (or at least their common denominator) are the four letters “E-V-O-L.” I couldn’t find any etymological information for just these four letters as a prefix or some other linguistic form, but the exercise did start me thinking about “EVOL” and soul evolution.
Then it hit me like a 2x4 board right between the eyes. All of a sudden EVOL almost jumped off of the page into my mind’s eye and my fingers began flying on the keyboard in response to an undeniable urge to capture the message in writing.
What I saw was the mirror image of the root E-V-O-L, and that mirror image spells L-O-V-E. What could be more expansive than that? Think about it. How does LOVE feel, expansive or contractive? When you “fall in LOVE,” does your heart open or close? I would bet that almost everyone who reads this will answer these questions in the same way as you (and I) did. (I qualified that wager in accord with my own Rule #9, “Never say ‘never’ and rarely say ‘always’”).
Aside from the human experience of LOVE, philosophically we are told that “God is LOVE” (Bible, 1 John 4:8). Of course, God doesn’t do anything just half way, so I believe that God is unconditional LOVE. I can’t even imagine a degree of LOVE beyond unconditional LOVE. Scientifically, Charles Darwin’s theory of EVOLution (natural selection) is all about expansion into new forms, behaviors, etc. to fill an empty environmental niche in the world of Nature. Sounds a lot like the historical roots (the etymology) of life, doesn’t it? Putting these two very different trains of thought together actually becomes the operational definition—and the practical application—of soul EVOLution, LOVE.
Of course, any good dictionary will list many different kinds of LOVE distinguished by their etymological roots (for example, eros, storge, philia and, of course, agape in Greek; amor, caritas, and dilectio in Latin). But they are all characterized by (if not explicitly defined as) variations on the same expansive transformation of E-V-O-L, as in “soul EVOLution.”
Maitreya (channeled by Margaret McElroy) tells us that we are enmeshed in the human experience while on the Earth plane to work toward accomplishing three things: (1) Learning life lessons, (2) balancing karmic energy with other souls (which always involves lessons), and (3) detaching from “trapped” (Maitreya says “unused”) energy in the soul memory, most of which originated in past lives (sounds a lot like “etymology” doesn’t it?). But even detaching from negativity always involves lessons. In short, Maitreya outlines the major requirements for soul EVOLution (soul expansion) as described in my Dancing with the Energy books.
In Book 2 of the Dancing with the Energy series (Conscious Living – What’s Holding You Back?), I write about “the BIG Lesson” in Chapter 6, and that is to learn to LOVE yourself unconditionally. In short, LOVE is the entire basis, the “raison d’etre,” of soul EVOLution. It is at the heart (no pun intended) of soul EVOLution, the very purpose of life here on the Earth plane.
And since you can’t pour anything from an empty cup, the “ULTIMATE Lesson”—unconditional love for all of creation (yes, especially the parts of it we don’t personally like)—cannot be learned until we have largely mastered the BIG Lesson, loving ourselves unconditionally. That’s a big job in itself aside from all the other lessons we are here to learn, which is why soul EVOLution is such a lengthy, step-by-(sometimes painful)-step process over many hundreds (actually, thousands) of lives.
But it’s all OK. Cut yourself a little slack and allow yourself to grow into and through the BIG Lesson piece-by-piece as you are ready to do so. Just remember that God is unconditional LOVE. The Ultimate Lesson becomes a little easier to manage when you also remember that God is each one of us, including YOU.
God, as your Higher Self, is expressing Source Energy through your body in this life. You are one of God's personal representatives on the Earth plane at this time. You are God’s right hand, unless you are left-handed, but God needs left hands too! You are God’s mouthpiece. What an awesome honor. What an incredible responsibility. Think about that while you are working on the BIG lesson.
Have a great month!
Dennis