“You and me and we are all together...”

I AM THE WALRUS – Lennon and McCartney

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Symbols and Color

• Background Image: Of course, the Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognized icons of modern industrial design and of Paris, France. It was the crowning life achievement of Gustave Eiffel. I chose this image (taken in 2006 by me) to remind us that any purpose we have, no matter how large or how small, cannot have its impact fully assessed or absorbed, until it is complete! What would culture, let alone music sound like today, if two Task Companions in the adjoining picture had not gotten together? I’d have to yell Help! It’s been a hard day’s night, so I’ll follow the sun. etc, etc.
• Border Color: Shades of Gray –Nothing is black and white.
• Hourglass: Representing the constrained time period that one has to
  complete (what?)
• The Eight Ball: Signifies the power of chance, foretelling, and possibility.
• Clip Board: Signifying the dutiful but mechanical nature of completing
  activities on a check-off list.
• The Gun: A direct reminder of the karmic nature of life task.

Implications of the Upright Position or Positive Pole

While a Task is yours to complete or not, during a life you will meet persons from whom you gain either direction or reflection, or both. Those interactions can range from chance meetings to profound or long lasting relationships. In the Michael Teaching, Life Task is spoken almost synonymously with mention of the ‘task companion.’ The handshake symbolizes both a grip on one another and forming a bond based on Agreement (See Covenant Card Set).

Card messages in the Illuminated position.

+ Purpose

(Goal, dharma, direction, passion, meaning, raison det’re, nobles oblige, quest, mission, intention, target, faith)

1. Essence directedness is at the basis of this card. Purposeful outcomes are either learning or achievements in the world. How does your purpose reveal itself here?
   
2. It is almost impossible to underscore the importance of dedication to purpose in this card. No amount of success feels as good as the sense of duty and accomplishment that occurs when you are on an important task. Find a companion to share the work and cooperate with them. You don’t have to do it alone.
3. Accepting our task may feel arduous, but it can be done more effectively jointly, with a companion. Sharing work or acting in concert the message here is you don’t have to do it alone. Frodo could not have reached Mordor without Sam.
4. Keep on! Your directions, decisions, and patterns are consistent with your principled objectives.
5. What you see is what you intended, no matter what you believe you planned instead. There is a simple underlying purpose even if it seems hidden. Stand back a bit and recount your steps.
6. Everyone has a dharma, a path to follow. The problem for most is that their expectations far too lofty or grandiose.  Perform with elegance and complete focus on the task, no matter how tedious.
7. A Life Task can feel like a quest. Percival’s task was to find the Holy Grail. Little did he realize that it wasn’t a cup, but a higher purpose uniting the fitness of the King with the health of the Country. Whether tangible or abstract, realization brought on from experience is why a Life Task is so vital to a Soul.
8. Create goal and accomplish it. Without a purpose, even a minor one, motivation is fleeting.
9. What you see is what you intended. There is a simple underlying purpose even if it seems hidden.
10. Keep on! Your directions, decisions, and patterns are consistent with your principled objectives.

Quotation Illustrating this concept…

• “The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.” Mohandas Gandhi
• “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. ” John F. Kennedy
• “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”  Robert Byrne
• “The purpose of life is to live fully.” Michael through Stephen Cocconi
• “I will take the ring, though I do not know the way.” Frodo, Fellowship of the Ring. – J.R.R. Tolkien

Implications of the Reversed Position or Negative Pole

Consider the life task cursed upon poor King Sisyphus? A deceitful opportunist who, depending upon the version of the story, finally so angered either Zeus, Thanatos (Death), or Hades, that one of them gave him a task that would never end. The image is a simple representation of an endless theme of being doomed doing the same thing repetitively (Card 31 – Perseverance negative pole) i.e. roll a boulder up a hill. Then at the moment nearest the completion, the rock careens back to the bottom and he must begin again. Even knowing the futility of his endeavor, his lying and trickery doomed him to this fate. A burden, by my definition, is one where we know there is no other option but to keep going, until whatever conditions are in place have changed. But, while the external circumstance might not change, we have the power to change the internal ones.

Card messages in the Shadow position.

– Burden

(Ambivalence, drudgery, nihilist, encumbrance, hardship, expectation, bane, scourge, nuisance)

1. When guilt motivates duty, the shadow shifts the experience of a task to that of a burden. The grind wears on as one is worn down. All empowerment gives way to effort and suffering. How are you causing suffering?
2. Without a purpose, even a minor one, motivation is fleeting. Create goal and accomplish it.
3. Nihilism is the attitude that nothing matters. Are you sure what you are doing has value?
4. How can you travel anywhere if you have not chosen a direction? Get your bearings and a copilot. Don’t waist your life waiting.
5. When life decisions are base upon a purposeful direction or principles, the choices made fall within a pattern consistent to those objectives.
6. Does work seem like drudgery? Is it because you only do it for money? Re-establish your mission.
7. Make a goal and accomplish it. Without purpose, even a minor one, motivation is fleeting. 
8. People attempt to fill the empty hole from work without purpose, that bores, with toys, entertainments, and indulgences. Because their jobs lack a purpose consistent with the needs of their Souls. Are you getting your needs met at work or are you secretly starving? Or worse yet, stuffing yourself?

Quotation Illustrating this concept…

• “To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.” Friedrich Nietzsche
• “Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.” Author Unknown
• “I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time.”  Charlie Brown (Charles Schulz)
• “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” George Bernard Shaw, “Family Affection”
• “You only life once. Sometimes, less.” J.R.R. Tolkien 

Relevance within the Michael Teaching

Life Task is one of the fundamental concepts tying the description of an individual incarnation and the path that a personality will tread during his/her days of living. Task has to do as much with performance and service as it does with overcoming and obstacle or learning a specific theme.  As one might imagine, these may vary greatly and no two are exactly alike.

When an Essence incarnates into a body with a personality, programmed into that psyche is a sense of “destiny” or direction that a person will take. Using the term destiny, something pre-destined or somehow fated or fixed. In fact free will plays a substantial role whether and how the Life Task may be implemented or even activated in the first place.

Separation is requisite aspect of the Physical Plane but having the help of another person is often necessary to completing tasks.  That help may come from many sources but one connection will be instrumental in the accomplishment of a Life Task, even if in a small way. That person is simply referred to as the Task Companion. As the several examples below might indicate, each had a huge influence upon the other and created a synergy for both. Most ventures are neither so public nor involve fame or large scale activity. The Soul Age of the people involved will greatly influence the choice and the scope one chooses.

In the Michael Teachings(MT), beyond the directive qualities of Life Purpose and the facilitation of a Task Companion, there is another concept that lends further understanding of how one is to work within a group. Under the category referred to as “Work Groups” there are designations and work positions which tend to self organize with each member acting in ways that reflect a given strength or need.

The Life Quadrant positions consist as the name implies of four characteristic forms of expression: Initiator or Love Position, the Director or Power Position, the Support or Compassion Position, and the Analyzer or the Knowledge Position. Each bring to the task certain personality predispositions that do not always line up with the assigned duties or authorities assigned in a formal team. These tend to be more readily witnessed in informal groups like families or peers. When no restriction is imposed artificially persons will naturally tend to express their most suitable and natural capacities.

Extending these groups in number to 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and in the case of some groups like the Apostles of the New Testament, each additional player has other characteristics which lend greater diversity and complexity to the mix. Position 5 is the Eccentric or Distractor. Position 6 is the Integrator. Position 7 is the Mediator. Position 8 is the Arbitrator. Position 9 is the Visionary.  As some might immediately account, the United States Supreme Court has 9 members. The size of the group usually indicates the scope, complexity, and significance of its function. The purpose, one might say, is paramount and far reaching.

Famous Examples

Bill and Melinda Gates – Philanthropy, Lennon and McCartney – Song writing, Ronald and Nancy Reagan – political career, Marie and Pierre Curie – discovery of Radium, and Gurgieff and Ospensky – the Fourth Way.

Cultural Meaning

Madam Marie Currie and husband Pierre discovered Radium and won the Nobel Prize

Team work! At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, work in collaboration is all the rage.  Projects of multilayer effort require a number of specialists to complete. In such an arena, the voice of the individual becomes interwoven into a latticework of ideas that become something larger. In micro economic theory this type of work comes under the heading of marginal productivity. The idea being two, and progressively more persons added to a task produce greater results than one person alone. Eventually reaching a number on a team where the return becomes counterproductive.

Every person alive who has ever needed an extra set of hands to lift a heavy object, or an extra set of eyes to proofread a written work, or musicians who realize that an ensemble of certain instruments produces a more captivating work than a soloist, knows of this phenomenon.

In a time when Inspiration tends to the side of the fantastic or the sinister, finding someone whose mutual goal or interest spurs one onto greater exploration and contribution is crucial at a time when humanity is at it’s most tumultuous. But to do that effectively one must find a passion of Life Porpoise ™ which galvanizes their attention and sets them upon the path. We are all in this together, yet finding those who are walking in the same park and the same direction is a must to help sustain the perseverance necessary for long term success.

by Stephen Cocconi © 2011, Updated, 2024

For a motivation Card Reading or Channeled Consultation call: 209.768-4956 or email Stephen at channeling@themichaelteaching.com