Getting Off the Planet?

By Elisa Novick

Mercury retrograde is a good time for retrospective and evaluation, so I’m going to talk about the idea that we can complete enough karma or become enlightened or God-conscious in some way so as to complete our incarnational pattern on earth. And in case you haven’t thought me weird enough quoting my highest guidance and trees in the same article, today you’ll hear some words from a rock, too! Both refer to having fun.

Elisa Novick; photo by Eric.

A Facebook friend posted a request yesterday for suggestions of what to wear for a next-life party, while saying she didn’t want to come back. The idea that this can be our last embodiment on Earth is gaining popularity, with many people wondering whether they are “last-timers.” If indeed there are many of us completing here, what does that mean for the Earth? (Big subject — not for this article.)

Through practice and testing over decades, I have come to trust the guidance I receive, though always with a grain of salt, especially for future prognostication. For the most part though, I trust when my guidance indicates it is my or another’s last lifetime here. I don’t always get that it is clear to share the information, but it can help me in evaluating what is happening when I work with someone in session or in class.

Interestingly, I find that when it is not the person’s last time here, they will usually tell me so in some way, like saying how much they wouldn’t want to leave or that they know they have so much more to do, but there are also times when someone says that they do indeed accept and love life here and most likely will not come back. It is actually easier to leave what you love than something you still have unresolved issues with. Then there are those who have to plow through the sense that they are tired and everything seems to feel like “been there, done that.” It can seem like a depression, but with a specific cause, but that also must be transcended.

No one is saying that they definitively know what will happen to them when they leave, as it is hard to imagine life without an earthly body. But we get glimpses.

One way you cannot judge whether this is someone’s last time is by whether they are dealing with unusually heavy issues, because that can mean that they are still “young souls” in the midst of it, or that they are coming back down through the levels to clean up anything they missed on the way up. Many of the people I counsel are last-timers, but that doesn’t mean that they can sit on their hands and do nothing. A friend once called it the “mop-up, clean-up life.”

When it is decided by the soul or Karmic Board or whoever decides for you, you might go all out on a joyful blast of loving, of joy, of service, or you might find yourself going through it the hard way or some combination of the two modes. My wayshower said something like, if you have to eat your karma, “snap, crackle and crunch” — for those of you who remember Rice Krispies commercials’ “snap, crackle and pop” — meaning, get busy.

Assuming you subscribe to a belief in reincarnation or that we can complete our embodiments on Earth and move on, or whether you know that this is your last time here or not, the idea of having a final life on earth can be compelling, more than knowing you will die at the end of this life — rather like having a deadline (forgive the pun). It can give you energy when you get tired of having to work so hard mopping up and it can provide a sigh of relief, trusting that indeed, you are the Beloved and your way is assured.

My guidance is that in general, about 75% of the karma we are working through comes down to us through past generations, and while that can include past-life patterns, the way in is by working through family issues. So for many of my clients that is where we begin. Here is some information I received about 10 years ago that ties a lot together (brackets are my explanations):

When you are working with your clients, see them as needing to find a way to connect with their fellow members of families and other relationships. In their connection they can be whole. Forgiveness is always helpful but also finding their place in their families is necessary. This placement can be done by seeing the twisted nature of their lives and straightening out their orders of precedence [father, mother, first child, second child, etc., according to Bert Hellinger] and then looking at it objectively. They can see themselves in the order and then can supersede it by being active and proceeding to fulfill their life goals without interference.

Moving ahead takes courage and can be difficult when it threatens the status quo, so support them in finding peace with the reactions they engender in others. “Movement involves danger” [quote from Ralph Blum’s Book of Runes] but is necessary to complete the picture of the life. Painting this picture is every soul’s task. It can be simple. It can be beautiful. But it has to be finished before death or else it starts again in similar circumstances. If it is desired to do it over again, it takes doing nothing to change the karmic circumstances. If the decision is made to continue on the upward track, overcoming the circumstances is necessary.

Some families aren’t fraught with difficulty. They can work together to find peace and move into a group harmony for service. Still, the members must transcend this group to their own destinies. When they form new groups they can move back into old patterns without harm and then the new patterns supersede. Over and over again, the form of these relationships is breached to make way for new forms. This way they can be found anew and can successfully become adepts.

Change is necessary in order to supersede these forms of Earth and find yourself in the stars with other formats and agendas. These new lives aren’t ready yet for that. You are ready and can go on without needing to come back, but your agenda must be involved and fulfilled too. So change the dynamics with victims and perpetrators inside your consciousness and be aware of taking your privileges to the extent that you change your ways with food, reaching out, being available to others who need help.

When you are ready to be available, people will show up. I love you and help you when possible. You have to do it yourself to the extent you can and will be maintained in your life pattern until it is time to go on. So laugh, dance, exist in spiritual realms as well. Have fun and be breezy with others and you will succeed.

Many of us have been gathering information about what we’ve been doing all these lives and what we are learning, but that doesn’t mean we have the entire picture. Maybe that is necessary to get us to go through what we have to go through. I had a fascinating talk once with a large boulder in a forest, which referred to this limitation. I was filled with awe and delight talking to an Earth entity that was so unimaginably old. It felt joyous and very approachable. (I will publish that conversation here soon). Toward the end of our conversation, it indicated that there was much I didn’t know:

Your sensory apparatus is limited by your small brain and other limitations that have been placed in order to keep your awareness in check so you will have certain experiences and not others.

Can I release those?

It is not beneficial at this time. You need these blinders/halters to finish up the game of living on this limited planet before going into a more supreme bliss state.

I understand that. I would say that we are kept from knowing the full reality in order to complete karma and strengthen ourselves and then we get free at some point, presumably when our bodies die.

That is approximately correct.

You are wise and I so appreciate the perspective. I am glad. You feel friendly and caring and humorous.

It is all funny, my dear.

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To listen to and read past conversations with Elisa Novick on Planet Waves, plus her articles, please use this link. You’re invited to visit her website and Facebook page to view more photos of Bali and leave comments.

Elisa Novick, MSS does profound work as a healer, teacher, counselor, coach, minister, and facilitator of workshops and trainings in personal, professional, and spiritual development. She can assist you to clear personal, karmic and genetic patterns that have limited you and teach you exquisite attunement skills so you can become the magnificent master of life and Light that all of us are destined to be. Elisa has been assisting people in their growth since 1982 through her counseling practice and in facilitating over 1,000 workshops in holistic health, human development, family constellation, systemic constellation, organizational dynamics, planetary healing and spiritual awareness. You may email her directly at elisanovick [at] thrivingplanet [dot] org.

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14 thoughts on “Getting Off the Planet?”

  1. Thank you, dear Elisa, for your wonderful answer to Johanna’s question, and thank you for telling your eagle story and asking that question, Johanna. There’s a part of me that is still incredulous when I get these messages – and this encourages me to open up wholeheartedly to the universe.
    Birds have been special messengers for me over the last few years. Last August i was in the beloved wood I have been going to for some years now. I had always heard a woodpecker tapping away in the wood but had never managed to see one till last year. As I was making my way through the forest I heard the woodpecker’s drumming loud and clear and looked up to see one above the forest, high up a tree – in all its elegant glory. It seemed to be such a clear message about rising up out of the trees, getting a clearer perspective on ones journey and some distance from thoughts, which was confirmed when I read the totem of that bird. I had been hoping to have another close encounter with a deer, that I had had the year before, so was totally amazed when the woodpecker appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

  2. Dear Johannah, I’m not sure how to answer as you already know what works for you. We receive information in myriad ways, through words, impressions, images, sense awareness, the inner “yes” and “no.” When I have these conversations, typing in my questions and typing the answers that come, clearly they are using my language, even idioms, to speak to me. We’ve joked about it.

    Here was the first thing my Maple friend said to me, years after I had called her the Secretary Tree because I saw that she gathered information:

    “Sweet dear one, This formation of words is difficult but I’ve been preparing for this. After all, I’m the Secretary Tree; one would think I’d be good at it.”

    At least so far, I do not expect an intelligent discourse in English from all lifeforms, but then I haven’t tried them all, so I am in an exploration, too. Besides channeling from Spirit, which I was doing for many years before I started with the trees, mostly my work is with the larger, older trees working at a high level spiritually, who are sentient or awakened and with whom I have a personal response, with occasional forays, as you’ve seen here, with a star, a boulder, etc.

    Each person receives in their own way, as in your experience with the eagle. When you got the message there was a response letting you know. We are multidimensional, fine-tuned instruments. My work with people is to assist them in clarifying their own voice from others’ and fine-tuning their instrument, whether using the system I teach in Accessing the Inner Master, or in the subtle knowing that comes from other methods we work with, or even just validating when they’ve “got it.”

    Great love to you. I so appreciate these comments and questions and the different experiences that everyone shares here.

  3. My husband has been told his spirit will remain here after his body dies in this incarnation. Not because of “bad karma”… as I am given to understand it, he’s sort of “indigenous” to this planet, and a caretaker of sorts. In this incarnation, he’s of Scotch/ Irish/ Cherokee descent, a “greenman,” a tree-talker, and someone who has an open line of communication to various deities. As for me, I have no definitive message to that end, but I’ve always known I’m just a sojourner here. This incarnation has been very painful for me.

  4. thank you, elisa, for another interesting, inspiring, and beautifully written article. i have a question and a comment. first, the question – do we use thoughts and words to interpret and communicate when we’re not in human form? i think not. i think it’s a human quality to create a narrative framework and understanding as information comes to us. the comment has to do with a narrative interpretation of an eagle’s communication. the eagle was cawing and cawing at me until i finally interpreted its screeching to its satisfaction. its message was that the universe generously blesses us with all the time and opportunity we need to learn what we need to learn – just as the eagle had done with it’s incessant cawing. previous to that interspecies interaction, i had perceived life and karma to be about crime and punishment. afterwards, i perceived life and karma to be a generous blessing and consequently felt a heck of a lot better about being in body.(-: looking forward to your next article!

  5. Wow, I guess something has opened up here. In my next article (after the boulder conversation), I too will tell stories of working with people who have passed on. Thank you for your love, encouragement and engagement.
    In Loving,
    Elisa

  6. jinspace,

    I thank you too for sharing your story. When my dad died he was in another town in the same (geographical) state but not all that close to where I lived. He was in a hospital and had a heart attack after some elective surgery. That night (I later found out it was about the time he died) my dad came to me . .it wasn’t like a dream ( I was technically awake), but very similar, and he communicated without words that he was leaving and was that okay with me, to which I nodded up and down. I think he was crying a little, as was I. I didn’t tell anyone this for a long, long time but did find out the next morning he had passed over just when I was getting my vision of him. That was in 1981, way before I started studying astrology and certainly long before I had encountered any spiritual entity personally. The veil is thin between our ‘states’ but from the earth side, it is substantial enough for us to continue on our own life path without the physical presence of our loved ones. Some lessons we must learn on our own I guess.
    be

  7. Weird? Elisa, this is perfect!

    I hope my remarks aren’t too longwinded. The subject of staying vs. moving on has been very much on my mind lately.

    I’ve always had contact with “ghosts,” by which I mean spirits of people and animals long gone, who I never knew. Usually they keep repeating some action. Unfinished business from Earth, it seems. For the most part I find these to be benign spirits, though there have been a couple of malevolent exceptions.

    My newest experience is completely different. In recent months I’ve been in the presence of my father, who died almost two years ago. He also seems to have one foot in this world and one in the next, but he’s still directly engaged here; our communication is in real time, and pertains to what’s going on here.

    When my dad passed away it was sudden and unexpected. Though he was in his late 80’s, he’d always been in good health, he loved life and wasn’t at all ready to go. He was a Virgo with Cancer rising, very much loved and appreciated by everyone who knew him, and always the first person to offer help wherever it was needed. One morning last spring he suddenly showed up (a year after his death), with a practical solution to a small problem I’d been trying to work out in my house. Boy, was I surprised! I’ve had contact with other loved ones, but it’s either a simple hello or, at the other extreme, information about experience in the non-physical dimension. But my dad was connecting to me from there about a matter in my physical here and now. When I thanked him, he said how very pleased he was to know that he could still be helpful “here on Earth,” and added “There’s so much I still want to do here, and it’s so hard to be helpful without a body!” The sentiment was so sweet and characteristic of him. Several months later he returned, and was a near constant, palpable presence that other people could feel, too. Though she couldn’t sense him, he began to help my mother, and also to be mischievous, in ways that we all recognize as his. He seemed to really want to hang around.

    To others it’s a fleeting sensation, but I’ve felt him constantly, which has been comforting up to a point. After a month or so (and with my thoughts suddenly tainted by the “well meaning advice” of a friend), I began to wonder whether I was holding him back, and also whether I wanted to keep feeling him around all the time. (Really, I’m used to living alone.) Then in a lucid dream I saw him standing at the doorway of a very large school building. As faceless students went streaming by in and out of the school, my father stood before the front door, looking at me. No words this time, he was pensive and not moving, though we both knew that he should; he was expected inside, and was holding himself back. I sensed guilt in his hesitation, like he was afraid to leave me “unprotected” but knew he should really be going through that door to the lessons awaiting him. And he wanted to go. I realized I didn’t want him to possibly leave forever, not yet. Only half sincerely, I gave him a smile of encouragement to enter the building, but he didn’t, at least not while I was with him in that moment.
    Was he also thinking/knowing there’d be no turning back? Was he asking me or telling me it was time to move on for good? Was I letting him go or pushing him away to help us both? Realizing it was at least all of those things, I opened myself to all possible outcomes, accepting his right and his need to move on (and me mine).

    He did disappear for a couple of weeks. Really vanished. And then last week he came back, and brought others with him – including my cousin and my grandfather, both long gone. My cousin’s been out there exploring for nearly 30 years. We were in frequent contact for many years after he died. He used to try to share his discoveries, but the concepts were so advanced my brain couldn’t even take in the words. Each time these lessons began, his words and voice would quickly fade into static, and then he would fade away, too. I wasn’t ready to absorb the information, not consciously.

    Unlike my dad, my cousin had terrible health problems. But they both had creative, scientific minds and loved being fully engaged in life. Now Dad has joined my cousin, which makes perfect sense. They can travel and explore and learn, and still keep coming back to check in now and then – even after thirty years. I’m thinking these are not beings who’ll be returning to any earthly body. Knowing the people they were and the beings they’ve now become, I think they are very happy as they are. My cousin long ago joined my other cosmic guides, and now my dad is getting the hang of it.

    What a gift for us all! I’m still supported by the love and encouragement of my “dead” relatives, who really aren’t dead at all. My knowing they are present and even helpful makes them happy, too.

    Of course your post delighted me, Elisa. I especially appreciate the concept that the limitations of our brains (we only use about ten percent) are designed keep us focused on this life. And the boulder’s remark that “it’s all funny.” Since this has happened I find myself laughing a lot, too, spontaneously, heartily, and about absolutely nothing at all, or about everything.

    Thank you for sharing your wisdom!

  8. Totally and utterly wonderful! Would write reams about my thoughts on karma, but will spare you dear Elisa, as I can only take a short break. Thank you so much for this.

  9. Thank you, Elisa. I have so loved your blog and your deep connection with the trees and nature, and have taken inspiration from you to try to connect with the trees in my home and surrounding cloud forest in which I live. There is one tree in particular which I am constantly in awe of because so many other plants grow on it, and so many different birds and insects call it home, or use it as a port. It supports so much life!!
    A friend opened a vortex on my land and described this tree so perfectly, she called it a flag in the area that stood out from all the trees and attracted the birdlife I described. I have called her Fu’a, which is the Samoan word for flag, but I’m still establishing a connection with her……all in good time.
    This entry has been particularly helpful to me as I’m going through the release of my marriage, the reunion of my own blood family, and the karmic almost compelling attraction to an old friend who has turned up in my life after 16 years, right at the last eclipse of last year. I feel particularly blessed at this time to finally have the courage to instigate change, and feel supported in this, but understand and take responsibility for the sadness my decision will cause to others. This entry has helped me to validate my decision, but also know that I need to lighten up and enjoy the wonderful life I have too.
    Thank you so much, and all the best,
    Sina

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