dear loves, 

today’s article is going to bring some insight regarding the differences between what I define “ordinary ego”, “spiritual ego” and “spiritual self”. I will deepen the analysis of the spiritual ego in the hope to trigger unconscious parts of our “spiritual constructed-personhood” and enable us to let go of our attachments to spiritual experiences, as this is a key element to receiving real awakening insights and embracing our Unity with Divine Love. at the end I will share with you a simple practice of inner attitude which can be used to cultivate detachment from the ego-identification and therefore nourish your spiritual awareness.

understanding through which perspective we are functioning and through which ideas and beliefs we are giving meaning to our life-experience can help us comprehend whether we are choosing an inner attitude and mindset that is supporting our soul-expansion. 

by nourishing our awareness through observation we can embrace triggers as blessings in disguise that are serving our growth and choose more wisely and consciously how we want to respond to the events that Life throws at us. 

continue reading to know the difference between so-called “ordinary ego” and “spiritual ego” and how they completely differ from our True Soul Identity or “spiritual self”. I hope that the information serves you in some way and that you enjoy 🙂 

the ordinary ego

the ordinary ego is the personhood we’ve built mainly during our childhood and early adulthood and which persists as a fixed “me” up until the moment we are awakened to our true spiritual self. it is a constructed concept.

the ordinary ego is the one that knows pretty much only fear, frustration and suffering and that is trapped into constant comparison with others. this personhood tries hard to ‘fit in’ and is usually under the strong influence of the family, a social group or a culture.

 the ego knows no real freedom, is deeply identified with the human or physical form (body) and sees themselves as a fixed (=unchangeable) personhood. 

the spiritual ego

yet, as we might agree upon, we are so much more than our human form. we are so much more than just a person. this is what the ordinary ego realises when they have a spiritual awakening: at this point, this ego-identified personhood “dies to themselves” as they go through an expansion of their consciousness which enables them to see that they are a lot more than they thought: they are spirit, they are soul. 

so it is as if this human would go through a skin-shredding. usually the life of this person is radically changed as they realise that their old way of being is just not in tune with their new life-perspective. 

now, two things can happen here: the ego-personhood is let go of and the soul consciousness takes over; or attachments to the human form remain and the person starts identifying with a new personhood, a now ‘spiritual one’. 

this new spiritual personhood is the spiritual ego. 

if the identification with the ego persists, this newly awakened yet still imprisoned person takes off their old ego-mask only to put on a new, maybe somehow more coloured ego-mask: the spiritual ego. 

many remain trapped in this new ego-identity and continue suffering from fear, frustration and pain, they continue comparing themselves to others, they are still under a strong external influence and are still identified with the human form – simply they’ve changed the colours of their prison. 

we can recognise the spiritual ego for example in the need to dress, talk, eat or act in a certain way in order to show oneself and others how spiritually evolved one is or in all forms of spiritual dogma, as for instance the belief that one’s way of living spirituality is the only right one. 

another type of manifestation of spiritual ego is the attachment to “our spiritual gifts” (like being able to channel non-physical and/or extraterrestrial entities or being an intuitive reader) and building a human personhood upon that. 

in this case we can sometimes find a deep identification with spiritual skills and this might manifest as, for example, the need to constantly tell and remind others of those skills, as if such capacity made up one’s identity. another example is spiritual arrogance, that is believing oneself as somehow “superior” or “more spiritually evolved” than others because of such a skill.

spiritual gifts and talents exists and are a divine gift offered and given to those receptive to it and they should be handled very carefully and always with the intention of benefitting all beings in all dimensions. we should never brag about our spirituality and/or spiritual gifts and show off with them.

all kinds of spiritual gifts are divinely given and they can disappear all of a sudden, especially if we abuse them by making a pricy product out of them. 

spiritual information (like the one we can receive by being able to channel entities or healing energy, communicating with passed ones or perceiving non-physical energies) always pass through the consciousness of the person who receives them. it takes a lot of practice, discipline and a love-oriented intention in order to be able to receive and give forth pure information which is free from personal interpretation or bias.

making a product out of a spiritual gift might eventually pollute the purity of the service: we might not be able to channel that divinely-given energy every time we fix a client appointment and might therefore start to lie or give our own life-energy in order to keep up with the business. 

what we can do is rather offering our own gifts to others when they are available for us as a gift. if we want to make a living out of a spiritual or therapeutic activity we can educate ourselves through a professional course in any form of spiritual therapy we like and only ask money for that kind of professional service. of course we can then enrich our therapeutic work with our spiritual gifts if that’s appropriate. 

the spiritual ego, just like the ordinary ego, thrives in fear and in separation. they are pretty much the same, but wear different clothes and beliefs. the thing is that the consciousness inhabiting the body is still identified with the body and its activity. 

the only difference between the ordinary ego and the spiritual ego is that the spiritually-enriched personhood now embraces non-physical experiences (like sensing energies, seeing spirits, visions, etc) and builds a new personhood upon their spiritual experiences. 

this personhood still builds a “me-story” upon experiences of the body and its (psycho-)senses, and this actually reduces the openness and surrender needed to truly experience the one and only purpose of the spiritual path: spiritual union with Divinity. 

the ultimate, or initial, aim of all religions and spiritual organisations is to guide one towards full self-realisation. if your spiritual practices are guiding you towards a more loving, inclusive and gentler life-style, then embrace them; practices or beliefs that make you feel stuck or trapped, that divide you from “the others” or “the unfaithful”, that push you over your healthy boundaries, that just straight-out make you feel miserable should be observed with a very critical eye –maybe that’s not what your heart needs and wants.

it doesn’t matter whether we follow a spiritual group, a tradition or a religion; the point of growing spiritually is realising our Unity with All That Is. 

it doesn’t matter what we practice or how we dress up; the only thing that matters is that whatever we choose to do is supporting us in our self-discovery and self-realisation…

this can be called Self-Realisation, Ascension, Enlightenment, Union with God… it is the end of suffering… it is real freedom and true peace… it is eternal joy, contentment and acceptance… it is the embodiment of Unconditional Love… it is the inner union of our masculine and feminine energies… and it available to all of us, right here and now.

whatever is helping us cultivate feelings of peace, joy, acceptance, love and freedom is supporting us in our Self-Realisation. 

the Spiritual Self

being self-realised equals embracing and embodying our spiritual self, which is our True Self. 

I am using the words “spiritual self” as terms that approach a consciousness that embraces an existence way beyond the limitations of the human form and physical perceptions, but we can also talk about: True Self, True Nature, Soul, Enlightened Consciousness…

when an awakening experience is deep enough and the human consciousness is ready to melt with Divinity, the human being completely lets go of the attachments to their ego-self and Divine Consciousness takes over: there is no longer an identification with the human form. this is when we start to embody our Soul Song and Soul Consciousness. 

this doesn’t mean that we stop being “someone” on the earthly planes. of course we continue having a human body and life and human experiences. we actually need a human personhood in order to function in human society, but this human personhood exists in surrender to Divine Will and is therefore free from the limitations of a “fixed me” and of all “little-me stories”. this human consciousness experiences itself as “I Am” because it is fully reunited with Divinity. the consciousness inhabiting the human body is no longer identified with the physical form, but rather embraces being Oneness with All That Is.

Oneness is the true nature of Everything That Is. 

when we’ve recognised the ultimate illusion of all forms of ego, we embrace our true self, or spiritual self – and that we’ve always been only that. we were never the ego. the ego never existed: it was always just an idea. we don’t become the spiritual self: we unveil or recognise the One that we’ve always been. 

the spiritual self is the Soul or Divine Entity that lives within our hearts. 

the soul is pure light, it comes from the Source of All, which is Divine Love or Unconditional Love, it exists beyond time and space and is therefore infinite and eternal. the soul exists in constant and permanent Union with God or the Source of All. 

when our human consciousness is in tune and aligned with the soul, we are aware of our Unity with All That Is. everything in the human world becomes effortless and spontaneous as we rest in the Peace of the Soul and in the Consciousness of the Eternal Now. being in the Flow of Life, existing in the Presence of Now, being “I Am” means embodying our so-called Soul Song.

I know this may sound all very “spiritual” or distant from rational understanding, but really there are no words which can truly describe this state of being – it is the experience of the Unknown, the Unknowing, the Unknowable. 

what I can say to this is that it is totally and absolutely normal if and that fully embracing our Soul Consciousness takes up a longer period of time. as I’ve said over and over in other articles (check out this one on Ascension), embracing our True Nature as Oneness is a process. 

it is quite rare that we straight-out release our human form all of a sudden and no longer get triggered ever again – what is more common is that we slowly shred more and more parts of ourselves which were existing in contraction until most of our consciousness is freed into expansion in love. 

this means that we usually have many smaller awakening experiences that show us more and more of who we truly are and that enable us to let go of the attachments that are keeping us trapped in fear and separation. 

this also mean that we might be embracing our Soul Consciousness for a moment and then “fall back” into some ego-driven behaviours when we are triggered – however I believe that as long as we are responding with love and acceptance to our ego-driven actions and the events of our life-experience, we are still expanding more and more into our Soul Consciousness no matter what unconscious reactions might have arisen. 

perceived “step-backs” are totally normal and part of embracing our Soul Consciousness is accepting the ever-changing energetic movements that arise in our field and consciousness – and choose to not identify with them. so it is actually not a step-back – we are never stepping back. we are only growing, only expanding. at our rhythm and in mysterious ways. perceived “step-backs” are divinely-planned events that give us the opportunity to respond differently to a given situation.

embracing our Soul Consciousness means responding with compassion and forgiveness towards our human experience. this mean that when we “make a mistake” or react unconsciously, we forgive ourselves, immediately. we don’t punish ourselves for reacting unconsciously, but we show ourselves comprehension and shower our unconscious self with love and acceptance. 

we can recognise whether we are functioning through the ego or through our soul by observing whether we are judging or accepting ourselves for being who we are, where we are.

if you respond with rejection, hate and anger to a situation, you are responding through your ego-attachments (=“I don’t want this, I want that”, “I want more of the pleasing stuff”, “I don’t want what I have, I want what they have”, “I want to be like them, not like me”). 

if you respond with love, compassion and forgiveness to a situation, your human awareness is melting with your soul’s, which only sees beauty (=“I surrender to this situation, I see the beauty in what is happening”, “I am loving myself through this difficult situation”, “I am trying my best”). 

inhabiting the Soul enables us to recognise ourselves as eternal and infinite beings and this potentially gives us feelings of lasting joy, peace and love as we recognise that we are One with All That Is. 

the happiness we can experience through our Soul Consciousness doesn’t depend on external circumstances, but on our inner state of being – this is what gives us ultimate freedom as we embrace our power to choose how we want to feel and then go and feel that, no matter what is happening in our world. 

ultimately the experience of inhabiting the Soul through a human body is an experience of Union with Divinity, of serving love and of consciously creating one’s life. 

cultivate being the observer

as I promised at the beginning of the article, I will now share with you a simple yet powerful practice of inner-attitude which can be used to cultivate and nourish your witness-perspective, enabling you to detach yourself from the external circumstances and anchor yourself in your Inner Divinity (=inner connection to Love/God). 

developing detachment from worldly circumstances and from your actions takes time, focus and effort. 

of course meditating is a great tool and you can practice this as you do your silent or sitting meditations. however, this kind of perspective can be embraced in any situation of your life and therefore I am only suggesting the kind of inner attitude that I invite you to embrace throughout your day and in any given moment – that said, you can’t practice too much of this 😉 

you can start cultivating this inner state of observation during your moments of meditation / contemplation, so that when you are most triggered you can use this tool easily and effectively.

practice being the witness of your bodily sensations and your physical activities. 

whatever you are doing, whatever you are thinking, whatever you are feeling: observe that. don’t judge it. observe as if you would look at something you have no opinion on whatsoever. 

and then love it. love what this being is doing, thinking or feeling. you are just observing. so you are in no way the doer of the action, thought or emotion. you are not the source of the action, thought or emotion: you are observing it as if it was someone else’s. this action, thought and emotion that strolls through your consciousness is not yours, it does not belong to you. it is washing over and through you like a wave in the ocean – you are the witness of this.

you are not the doer – can you feel compassion, understanding and forgiveness for the one who is acting like this, thinking like this, feeling like this? if you struggle with this, imagine that the one who’s creating that is a little, hurt child. 

can you expand your heart up to the point where you embrace all of this without judgement and with love and acceptance only? 

loving what you observe means that you accept it. 

maybe your body is crying because of the sad thoughts that create aching emotions in your system. don’t judge. observe. watch yourself crying – as you cry. 

it doesn’t matter how small you have to become in order to be that little part of you which remains untouched from physical existence. 

try as much as possible to connect with your inner witness – and from there you can easily accept whatever is happening as part of the whole. 

you don’t have to like what is happening in order to accept it. 

you accept by realising that this is what this is – and this gives you the opportunity to choose the way you respond to what is happening to your human form: “I accept what this is and I have compassion for myself for creating this situation”, “I accept what this is because I know that this is exactly what my soul needs in order to expand more into love”, “I accept what this is even though I can’t understand why this is happening but I surrender to the Will of What Is”. 

if you have difficulties with taking on this inner attitude, you can strengthen this perspective by imagining being a consciousness floating above your head and watching your body from there. 

my loves, I hope you’ve enjoyed this article on the differences between ego-identification and Soul Consciousness. 

remember: the ego reacts in fear and contraction; the soul embraces with love and expansion. the ego is resistance, rejection and desire to change; the soul is allowance, acceptance and love towards All That Is because it recognises itself as the Divine Creator of All That Is. 

we step out of ego by releasing the need to identify with the physical form; we step into the Soul Awareness by embracing everything (ourselves included ofc!) with love, acceptance, surrender, compassion and forgiveness.

drop me a comment or send me a message if you want to let me know anything about this issue or if you have any questions. I am reading you with great joy!

love and blessings, 

sara