What is the Hearts Quest?
I begin with this question. In different cultures around the world there are many people on their hearts quest. Some are following it consciously and many more unconsciously. Like with all things it can be a simple answer or we can create complications around it. The tendency is for humans to create complications. You see the more complex a situation is the more the mind can figure it out.
The Hearts Quest is an inner calling. The heart get excited when you begin the adventure. there is a level of exhilaration and in the Here's journey is referred to as "the call to adventure", in spiritual terminology it can seen as "divine calling". In more modern references it's the 'knight / prince' off on an adventure to rescue, treasure hunt or called to battle. It is the backbone of storytelling, myths and legends and the search of the grail. I refer to it as the 'souls calling', or the 'call of the heart'.
The way we respond to this calling is dependent on your environment, who you are and what is calling you. It is your truth uncoiling and rising through the challenges to express who you are at soul level. This journey become perilous journey. It takes you out of your comfort zone as you find your hidden path and begin to clear the debris, the overgrowth that is hiding it from your sight. It is the journey to find the hidden treasure, the prize at the end of the path.
The Hearts Quest refers to the journey of your soul in this life. It is connected with the heart chakra. The place where fear and love both reside. Many travel with fear guiding their decisions in life. In the hearts quest we look to embracing decision making from a place of love. The Souls's true nature. The thudding of the heart is both fear and excitement in different contexts. Facing the fear is facing the unknown. It is through embracing our fears and moving through them that love begins to shape us and our lives. The greatest fear is the fear itself. Yet it is this fear that holds the secrets of our truth.
In the call to adventure, it is the heart calling you to return to your truth, your souls truth which is hidden. It is speaking to you to just listen and take the steps it guides you. It is returning you to your wholeness once again. This is the purpose of going on your hearts quest.
I was born into the Hindu faith, which has influenced my path. In my teenage years I read something my father had written on the caste system and spirituality. It struck a deep cord with my heart and I began to refer tot he caste system as showing you where you are on your journey To me it represented more the deeply the journey of the soul frequency from the lowest vibration to reaching the highest levels. Below I look at this from this perspective of what the 5 stages may mean as human on a soul path:
The Wounded Heart : It is an impure heart and mind, filled with negativity at every turn. Full of judgement, criticism, fear and complete disregard for life. Stuck completely unable to see a way out of the meaninglessness of life.
The Call of the Heart: Where you are drawn to begin the healing journey. exploring various tools to heal the wounds. investigative journey, reading, studying, exploring different ways to understand this inner calling. Dipping into different areas to learn land seek answers. Experimenting with ideas.
The Hearts Quest: Responding to tools that call you, practicing deeper the different systems that call your heart. Connecting to inner guidance, intuition and use of divination for guidance in form of spiritual guides and higher self. Becoming adept at using the tools of deepening your quest.
The Leading Heart: Develop deeper connection into your heart, hearing your soul speak, listening and trusting and basing more decisions from the heart a place of love. Ability to know what feels right for you and follow through. Becoming heart-centered in your approach to life. Begin to forge your own path. Leading forwards from the heart in all areas of life.
The Sovereign Heart: Ability to trust and listen to your heart and soul and act on it more each day, until every action is aligned to your souls truth. Connecting deeper into experiencing your consciousness as you ground in more of your truth everyday.
Embracing Your Journey
In the early part of my journey I would not have written about the journey in the same way. I had to go through my own hearts quest to understand the stages as they involved more deeply. You see when your heart is involved, your life changes and unfolds differently to how your mind had planned. Whether you are listening to your heart or not, it is always attempting to break through the barriers placed. Suffering is seen as not listening to your heart.
Though the stages have been expressed above as a step by step process; in reality it is still like an onion, where it's peeled layer by layer. There are times, you may feel like you are cutting in deeply, and learn later that it only covered certain parts of your wound. Your quest reveal the the aspects that need to be released in the darkest fears of your mind, a light will beckon you forwards through the darkness. This is how life unfolds. Each layer you are armed more information and tools. Each situation shows you how much you have adapted the tools to move through each stage quicker than the last. Through this process you are clearing more of the old patterns in life. The deeper you go the more intense it feels yet your skill for internal alchemy eventually creates instantaneous results when dealt with consciously.
Reclaiming Your Heart
As your journey deepens into your heart, it enables you to reclaim more of your truth. You are then able to refine the knowledge you have acquired leading to sharing your pearls of wisdom. This wisdom emerges from your inner guidance actively working through you. The more you listen to this, the easier life becomes. You begin to create more balance and harmony over time. Meditation is a core tool for deepening your alchemy. It does not mean you stop feeling, or become detached from normal life. It does the opposite instead. You become more involved with life only now you are armed from a higher deeper soul perspective. This ability to be aware in the moment allows you to be more fully present and grounded in your life. You experience each moment with greater presence and consciousness. It is this ability that enables you to powerfully reclaim your heart.
The Path Unfolds
In a world where you are trained to be obsessed with chasing the material life, and the biggest and the best there is. The mind finds it difficult to relax and let go. It does not matter what field you find yourself in, it is constantly about doing, pushing and achieving success is a specifically, defined way. Otherwise known as 'keeping up with the Jones'. Appearances dominate identity. People decide on an identity and then live to it. Even within the so called spiritual circles there is a level prescribed way to behave. This in itself creates limitations on your soul. The interesting part is that even when you choose not to put yourself into a box, even those who identify as being spiritual, have spiritual boxes. We all go through this process. It is only human.
Over time you learn to relax, and relax more into your heart. The urgency to 'fit in' begins to dissolve and need to 'play an identity' diminishes. Instead you strip away all that you believed you were to allow your truth to unfold. This is a natural unfolding. It cannot be sped up, pushed, manipulated into arriving. You soul has a plan and it is this that is unfolding. Any attempts to manipulate the process only hinders progress. In turn all this does is create more suffering on your path. Instead you learn to 'soften' your heart. The softer your heart become the greater your resilience as resistance to your own path begins to be removed. It is a new learning curve which supports you going forwards.
You begin to understand the concept of 'purpose' and 'unique' soul stamp. All of us have our own signature stamp. The key is to find the unique stamp of your soul. This means simply being different in the way that it allows you to be be simply you. No identities, no masks. Just your true nature. Now you soul purpose can truly unfold.
Bhavna Mistry
Soul Story Alchemist
The Sovereign Heart