
by
Aletheia Luna
October 04, 2025
from
LonerWolf Website

The
great malady
of the
twentieth century,
implicated
in all our troubles and
affecting
us individually and socially,
is "loss
of soul."
When the
soul is neglected,
it doesn't
just go away;
it appears
symptomatically in
obsessions, addictions, violence,
and loss
of meaning.
T. Moore
What is at the root of all our
suffering?
This is a question that has haunted the minds of humanity since the
dawn of time.
What we've learned from religion and spiritual traditions alike is
that the core of our torment is rooted deep within human beings.
It is a canker of the Soul. A fragmentation of the psyche. A
disturbance of the mind. A severance from nature. A desecration of
the very world around us.
All of this pain is rooted in the loss of Soul.
This is why Ensoulment - being in the soul or living in alignment
with the Soul - is so critical.
What Happens when we are Severed
from the Soul?

When we are cut off from the Soul, we are cut off from each other
and the world.
It is then that we collapse into a state of fundamentalism, cold
rationalism, and mechanistic reductionism that sees the world/others
as an object to be used and discarded.
When we are severed from the Soul, human beings become deranged.
Illnesses of every kind begin to emerge, starting within the body as
chronic illnesses and eating disorders - ending with mental
illnesses, existential crises, paranoia, hatred, suicide, murder,
and the psychotic abuse of our most innocent members of society.
For humanity to heal, we must reconnect with the
Soul. We must become Ensouled. For us to reverse, in whatever way
possible, the direct path of self-destruction we're forging right
now, we must be initiated onto our Soul's path.
Ensoulment is the answer to Soul Loss, which is the most severe
pandemic of all time, afflicting all people of all races and
countries.
Humanity has lost its Soul, and without a move toward Ensoulment,
what hope is there for our children's children to survive in a world
that is being laid to waste as we speak?
What Actually is the Soul?

We all possess a 'Soul'...
On a fundamental level, Soul is our animating
essence.
It derives from the Old English word sāwol,
which means "spiritual and emotional part of a person, animate
existence". (1)
Through the ages, thanks to both religious and
wider spiritual influence alike, the Soul has been understood as the
indwelling spark of Divinity we all carry.
In a nutshell,
Soul is your innermost essence or Spirit
embodied in earthly form.
To use a simple analogy,
Spirit is like pure light, whereas
Soul is the kaleidoscopic,
multi-colored lens through which Spirit shines.
Your Soul can also grow and expand throughout life.
In the words of poet Kahlil Gibran,
'The soul walks not upon a line, neither does
it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of
countless petals.'
The Soul is paradoxical in nature and is both
wholly human and wholly Divine.
Ever heard the expression,
"He's a lost soul," or "She sold her soul"?
The Soul can become sick, lethargic, and lost.
But there is another part of the Soul, the Divine
part (the "Immortal Soul"), that can guide and support us.
What is Ensoulment?

There's a part of every
living thing
that wants to become itself:
the tadpole into the frog,
the chrysalis into the
butterfly,
a damaged human being
into a whole one.
Ellen Bass
The word Ensoulment is composed of,
'Ensoul,' which means to endow or
imbue with a Soul, and the suffix 'ment,' which means
action or process.
So, Ensoulment quite literally refers to
the process of being infused with Soul.
Ensoulment is about,
learning how to live more in alignment with
your Soul by listening to its authentic wants, needs, and
values.
It's a path of embodying your most authentic
Self.
Another synonym for Ensoulment is Soul recovery or the
shamanic notion of Soul retrieval. However, Ensoulment
is more of an ongoing philosophy and lived experience than a single
shamanic ritual.
Note on the traditional meaning:
Originally, Ensoulment was a term with
religious connotations, referring to the moment in which a fetus
gains a Soul.
But that's not what we're talking
about in this article.
Instead, we have intentionally redefined and
re-imagined Ensoulment to mean,
the ongoing experience of Soul Initiation...!
12 Deep Transformations that
Happen when You become More Ensouled

The sole purpose of
human existence
is to kindle a light in the
darkness of mere being.
Carl Jung
Psychiatrist & Ensouled human being
Soul Loss looks like anxiety,
depression, addictions, narcissism, violence, and abuse of all
kinds.
Ensoulment, on the other hand, looks like,
openness, warmth, creativity, compassion,
connectivity, joy, and a purpose-driven life.
To summarize, here are twelve transformations
that often happen when you start to become more Ensouled:
-
Living more in the present moment.
-
Receptivity, humility, and openness.
-
Creativity and living a life of rich
self-expression.
-
Having a strong sense of meaning and
purpose.
-
Knowing and honing your unique spiritual
gifts.
-
Feeling more connected to and led by your
intuition.
-
Greater ability to
let go and surrender to a
Higher Power.
-
Moving toward internal
integration and Wholeness.
-
Experiencing more signs, synchronicities,
and doors opening.
-
Feeling connected with other people, the
world, and Life itself.
-
Heartfulness (awe, reference, wonder,
enchantment, devotion, compassion).
-
Orienting to the mysterious, the
numinous, and the magic within and without you.
Ensouled people live with a great sense of
creative meaning and purpose, are connected to their hearts, and
feel a stronger connection with the Divine.
This journey isn't something we can quickly "achieve" in the
traditional sense.
It's not a linear path.
It's a spiralic, ebbing and flowing journey.
It's a movement of nature: organic but
powerful.
There is no single "finish line":
Ensoulment is an ever-deepening
process of illumination, growth, and interconnectedness.
30+ Sacred Paths of Ensoulment

The doors
to the world of the wild Self
are few but precious.
If you have a deep scar, that
is a door,
if you have an old, old story,
that is a door.
If you love the sky and the
water so much
you almost cannot bear it, that
is a door.
If you yearn for a deeper life,
a full life, a sane life, that
is a door.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Writer, Analyst & Ensouled human being
How do we become more Ensouled...?
That's the next reasonable question.
The answer is that there are different types
of doorways, all with their unique potentials, gifts, and
capacities.
I've spent over a decade exploring paths of
Ensoulment.
Here's a sample of 30+ powerful paths divided
into four sections:
Physical/Earth-centered
Paths:

The soul is placed
in the body
like a rough diamond,
and must be polished,
or the luster of it will
never appear.
Daniel Defoe
-
Dancing
-
Singing
-
Solitude
-
Drumming
-
Nature walking
-
Gardening
-
Plant Medicine
-
Ecotherapy
Emotional Paths:

Love is the nature
of the soul.
John O'Donohue
Let yourself be silently
drawn by the strange pull
of what you really love.
It will not lead you
astray.
Rumi
Imaginative Paths:

Music and art and
poetry
attune the soul to God.
Thomas Merton
-
Writing/Journaling
-
Drawing/Painting
-
Crafting
-
Music-making
-
Ritual
-
Mythology/symbology
-
Vision quests
-
Shamanic journeying
Mental Paths:

Knowledge
is the food of the soul.
Plato
Quiet the mind,
and the soul will speak.
Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
Of course, not all of these paths lead
exclusively to Ensoulment.
Gardening, for instance, can easily become a mindless chore if it
lacks a sense of heart and soul. Another example from the above list
is chanting, which can become a dead droning of empty words if it
isn't first imbued with deep feeling and intention.
In summary, whatever we do with depth and focus can be a path of
Ensoulment (i.e.,
Soul Work) - it's all about your
heart's inner attitude and the meaning you infuse into what you do.
Essentially, Ensoulment is inner archaeology - it helps us to
go back to the root of our being. Choose what resonates with you and
leave the rest.
Conclusion

Ensoulment is essential because you and I - and Mother Earth
at large - crucially and desperately need it.
We're suffering from pandemic proportions of Soul Loss that's only
getting worse, putting us on the fast track to the sixth mass
extinction.
We're not only destroying Mother Nature and the ecosystem, but we're
also experiencing large-scale cultural collapse that is undermining
the fabric of our civilization.
We need to think bigger as a race. Whatever we do can't merely be
for the individual - we don't have that luxury. Our efforts must be
directed toward the Whole.
And that starts at a root level:
becoming reconnected to our Souls again...!
Being true to who we are
means carrying our spirit like
a candle
in the center of our darkness.
Mark Nepo
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