People sometimes ask me what the difference is between Spirit and Soul. This is my personal take on it.
I think of connecting with Spirit as having my own relationship and conversations with God, Source and spiritual allies such as angels, spirit guides, spirit animals, etc… and Holy Spirit is to me the means by which we make that connection. It is the Holy Spirit that links us with the Divine. It is the breath and light of God, an energy that we can directly experience and interact with.
Having “a spiritual life” means to actively and consciously engage with practices of thought and attitude, study, and actions that make one feel they have a personal relationship with their Creator or some creative power that is more than they are and more than here and now. A spiritual life carries one through the turbulence of human life. It provides us with profound trust and a deep sense of connectedness.
(Please note, a person can be deeply spiritual, even experiencing a profound intimate relationship with the sacred, without holding any religious affiliation. It’s okay if we are “religious” – it’s just not a requirement.)
I think of soul as our personal spiritual essence, the part of us that is of God. It’s the light within us that connects us to our Source. Our soul is immortal. It’s the individual spark of the Divine in each of us. To me, it is this innate essence that calls us homeward, that draws those of us who feel so drawn to have a relationship with God in the first place.
When our soul is awakened, we naturally appreciate and value the physical world. We care about and for the planet, the animals, and our fellow humans. To me, the soul and Higher Self are the same. It’s the part of us that carries the blueprint of Unity, that propels us to Greater Good and Higher Love. It is from the soul that we experience our capacity for compassion and empathy. It is what ignites our yearning and fires up our awe and wonder. Our souls compel us to service and ministry. Our souls carry humility and can be instruments of healing.
Now, these are all my personal understandings, developed over decades of practice. It’s not a comment on anyone else’s definitions or teachings. I am simply putting these “definitions” out here to clarify where I am coming from in my writing and teaching.
Ultimately, it matters not what any of us call anything. It is the energy behind the words that matter. That’s what we want to tap into – the place beyond and behind the language.