I have been thinking about the concept of soul contracts lately. I can not say that I know the origin of the theory, and I know that some people believe the idea to be new age hooey. I'm somewhere in between.While we pagans like to attribute everything to karma, I am of the belief that some of our life circumstances and events our soul agrees to pre-incarnation. I am of the belief that our soul makes pacts with other souls in our group pre-incarnation so that we may evolve. How the situations and life circumstances are handled by the two egos determine the amount of karmic debt that is repaid. This repayment determines how far the scales come back into balance.
For instance, a moderately prominent adult in my own community was recently accused of, what amounted to, molestation by a child. Having known this adult and the child for the better part of a decade now, I would have a difficult time believing the accusations. My own thoughts were that the kid misspoke. Period. However, the person who was given the information, initially, is a mandated reporter. So, of course, once word got out this person had been reported, it was a huge kerfuffle.
The reported adult, let's call her Beatrice, believes that she was reported out of spite. Her friends also believe this. The mandated reporter, let's call him Aaron, has repeatedly espoused that he heard about abuse and reported it as he is required to do, no judgment. The parents involved could not or did not communicate to each other about their children, which is what led to this situation. No judgment. It is precisely what life is made of.
If indeed, a soul contract was made within this soul group of people, this means that seven souls came together and agreed on the general semantics of the situation: one would be the reporter to the authorities, one would be the reported to the authorities, one would be the "victim", one would be the "victim's" friend and secret holder, and the final three would have communication issues that may or may not have prevented the whole situation. Soul contracts sound as complicated as mundane contracts!
Despite that complication, we still aren't even to the heart of the possibilities of the implications of a soul contract. So, to cut down on complications, we will focus on Beatrice and Aaron, since it is their lives that will probably be the most impacted in the long term. (We all know how long adult's memories can be.)
We will talk about Aaron, first. Aaron heard about abuse and, as a teacher/mentor/clergy, is required by law to report it. This is difficult if you don't know all of the people involved, so knowing those involved, I can imagine made it even more difficult.
The one thing I noticed people telling him was that he shouldn't have reported a rumor. Another thing I noticed was that he was told that he should have used 'common sense and good judgment' and gone to the other adults in the situation, including the accused. While that is good, sound advice in most situations, that is not how mandated reporting actually works. Many people, including other mandated reporters, think that just asking an accused abuser if they are abusing is enough to get them to stop (if the abuse is actually happening and not just a wild rumor).
For a mandated reporter, reporting abuse is just that, mandatory. If one does not report suspected abuse, it can be punishable by a fine. That's right. A person can be charged with a misdemeanor.
So, despite the judgment of not using 'common sense', Aaron did just that. He knew, as a mandated reporter, that his job was to not judge a situation. He knew that he should only report it to the proper authorities and make sure that the child was safe. In doing this, he created ripples throughout the community.
Sometimes, we do the right thing and, despite that, we are roasted alive because, let's face it, people have no ethics these days. Aaron was lambasted by our local community. His name was dragged through the dirt, repeatedly, by people calling him various names and accusing him of predating on women. Oh, the libel flew! People kept asking him why he would do such a thing but no one wanted to hear that it wasn't personal. People wanted to believe that Beatrice was just being victimized by another man.
Aaron has stood firm, despite the attacks on his person, his values, and his ethics. He knows that he did the right thing and he knows that no matter how many people tell him he was wrong, he wasn't.
Now, we come to Beatrice. She was accused of molesting a child. She is an inherently good person who, for whatever reason, got caught up in this terrible situation. She, too, is a mandated reporter and should know how that works. This terrible accusation has put her career on hold, among other things.
She now has to battle the stigma of having been accused of something so terrible.
She also has to deal with knowing that her friends, in coming to her 'aid', chose to name call, harass, and accuse the other person. While she may not have actively encouraged this behavior, it was done on her behalf, so those effects are something that she will have to deal with, even if it is to say, "Not my words, not my actions."
So, what can they each learn from this so that they, as universal souls, can evolve? Well, first, these situations create thick skins for those involved. Those who do the right thing will always be accused of doing the right thing due to selfish reasoning. Those who are falsely accused need that thick skin to raise their heads above the mess and move forward.
Another thing to learn from this situation is compassion. What if the involved child was being molested but not by the accused? What if the child was being abused and didn't know how to bring it to the attention of the adults in his/her life because they are so busy being grown-ups that they did not have the time or energy or whatever to listen to the child?
Why didn't the accused 'step out' of her own inadequacies and victimhood for a moment to put herself in the shoes of the one who reported her? Remember, the accused is also a mandated reporter and may, one day, end up doing the reporting. Wouldn't that compassion for the other person also translate to compassion for one's self? I would hope so.
Probably the biggest lesson to learn from this is that knee-jerk reactions to situations show us where we are lacking in our evolution. If our first reaction is indignation or anger, we should ask ourselves why. Yes, false accusations are horrible. They are beyond horrible, however, if one is innocent, there's nothing to worry about. If there's nothing to worry about one can focus on things like compassion and understanding. (And, understand, I'm not suggesting that anger or indignation signals one is guilty. I only suggest that maybe one has something to hide if they are doing whatever they can to get the negative spotlight off of themselves.)
We all experience horrible situations in life. Whether we are accused falsely (or rightly) of some crime or we contribute to or witness death or we just encourage something we should not. Our own actions and reactions suggest what and where we need to learn the lessons we were put here to learn. We have soul contracts in place with people whom we reincarnate with throughout various lifetimes. These people, whether or not our ego knows it, are people whom our soul trusts and whose soul trusts us, to be the best vessel for learning the very tough lessons we must learn and endure.
These souls agree with our own about the varied and potential outcomes within that lifetime. On a soul level, we agree to hurt each other in order to find healing. We agree that our ego may get in the way and that it will add another level of hurt/healing to our soul's journey. These contracts are, sometimes, difficult to digest. Just remember, the next time someone seems to go out of their way to hurt you, maybe you agreed to it before you were born and there is a lesson to be learned from it.
Blessed Be, Friends,
River
For instance, a moderately prominent adult in my own community was recently accused of, what amounted to, molestation by a child. Having known this adult and the child for the better part of a decade now, I would have a difficult time believing the accusations. My own thoughts were that the kid misspoke. Period. However, the person who was given the information, initially, is a mandated reporter. So, of course, once word got out this person had been reported, it was a huge kerfuffle.
The reported adult, let's call her Beatrice, believes that she was reported out of spite. Her friends also believe this. The mandated reporter, let's call him Aaron, has repeatedly espoused that he heard about abuse and reported it as he is required to do, no judgment. The parents involved could not or did not communicate to each other about their children, which is what led to this situation. No judgment. It is precisely what life is made of.
If indeed, a soul contract was made within this soul group of people, this means that seven souls came together and agreed on the general semantics of the situation: one would be the reporter to the authorities, one would be the reported to the authorities, one would be the "victim", one would be the "victim's" friend and secret holder, and the final three would have communication issues that may or may not have prevented the whole situation. Soul contracts sound as complicated as mundane contracts!
Despite that complication, we still aren't even to the heart of the possibilities of the implications of a soul contract. So, to cut down on complications, we will focus on Beatrice and Aaron, since it is their lives that will probably be the most impacted in the long term. (We all know how long adult's memories can be.)
We will talk about Aaron, first. Aaron heard about abuse and, as a teacher/mentor/clergy, is required by law to report it. This is difficult if you don't know all of the people involved, so knowing those involved, I can imagine made it even more difficult.
The one thing I noticed people telling him was that he shouldn't have reported a rumor. Another thing I noticed was that he was told that he should have used 'common sense and good judgment' and gone to the other adults in the situation, including the accused. While that is good, sound advice in most situations, that is not how mandated reporting actually works. Many people, including other mandated reporters, think that just asking an accused abuser if they are abusing is enough to get them to stop (if the abuse is actually happening and not just a wild rumor).
For a mandated reporter, reporting abuse is just that, mandatory. If one does not report suspected abuse, it can be punishable by a fine. That's right. A person can be charged with a misdemeanor.
So, despite the judgment of not using 'common sense', Aaron did just that. He knew, as a mandated reporter, that his job was to not judge a situation. He knew that he should only report it to the proper authorities and make sure that the child was safe. In doing this, he created ripples throughout the community.
Sometimes, we do the right thing and, despite that, we are roasted alive because, let's face it, people have no ethics these days. Aaron was lambasted by our local community. His name was dragged through the dirt, repeatedly, by people calling him various names and accusing him of predating on women. Oh, the libel flew! People kept asking him why he would do such a thing but no one wanted to hear that it wasn't personal. People wanted to believe that Beatrice was just being victimized by another man.
Aaron has stood firm, despite the attacks on his person, his values, and his ethics. He knows that he did the right thing and he knows that no matter how many people tell him he was wrong, he wasn't.
Now, we come to Beatrice. She was accused of molesting a child. She is an inherently good person who, for whatever reason, got caught up in this terrible situation. She, too, is a mandated reporter and should know how that works. This terrible accusation has put her career on hold, among other things.
She now has to battle the stigma of having been accused of something so terrible.
She also has to deal with knowing that her friends, in coming to her 'aid', chose to name call, harass, and accuse the other person. While she may not have actively encouraged this behavior, it was done on her behalf, so those effects are something that she will have to deal with, even if it is to say, "Not my words, not my actions."
So, what can they each learn from this so that they, as universal souls, can evolve? Well, first, these situations create thick skins for those involved. Those who do the right thing will always be accused of doing the right thing due to selfish reasoning. Those who are falsely accused need that thick skin to raise their heads above the mess and move forward.
Another thing to learn from this situation is compassion. What if the involved child was being molested but not by the accused? What if the child was being abused and didn't know how to bring it to the attention of the adults in his/her life because they are so busy being grown-ups that they did not have the time or energy or whatever to listen to the child?
Why didn't the accused 'step out' of her own inadequacies and victimhood for a moment to put herself in the shoes of the one who reported her? Remember, the accused is also a mandated reporter and may, one day, end up doing the reporting. Wouldn't that compassion for the other person also translate to compassion for one's self? I would hope so.
Probably the biggest lesson to learn from this is that knee-jerk reactions to situations show us where we are lacking in our evolution. If our first reaction is indignation or anger, we should ask ourselves why. Yes, false accusations are horrible. They are beyond horrible, however, if one is innocent, there's nothing to worry about. If there's nothing to worry about one can focus on things like compassion and understanding. (And, understand, I'm not suggesting that anger or indignation signals one is guilty. I only suggest that maybe one has something to hide if they are doing whatever they can to get the negative spotlight off of themselves.)
We all experience horrible situations in life. Whether we are accused falsely (or rightly) of some crime or we contribute to or witness death or we just encourage something we should not. Our own actions and reactions suggest what and where we need to learn the lessons we were put here to learn. We have soul contracts in place with people whom we reincarnate with throughout various lifetimes. These people, whether or not our ego knows it, are people whom our soul trusts and whose soul trusts us, to be the best vessel for learning the very tough lessons we must learn and endure.
These souls agree with our own about the varied and potential outcomes within that lifetime. On a soul level, we agree to hurt each other in order to find healing. We agree that our ego may get in the way and that it will add another level of hurt/healing to our soul's journey. These contracts are, sometimes, difficult to digest. Just remember, the next time someone seems to go out of their way to hurt you, maybe you agreed to it before you were born and there is a lesson to be learned from it.
Blessed Be, Friends,
River
