“I’m Ok, You’re Ok”

Thomas A. Harris MD – Book on Transactional  Analysis 

Symbols and Color

• Background Image – The ever changing ocean of emotion. During the Mature Soul cycle, their lessons take them on a voyage through uncharted waters, where they must test their navigational principles above emotional depths of which they have little knowledge. Whether they will run aground on unseen shoal of a mistaken notion or sink into a crushing abyss of feeling, some days the seas are calm other times waves rise up pushed by a tempest of events; causing one to feel battered, disoriented or adrift.
• Border Color: Tan – like the Good Red Road of Life in Native American Mythology
• Atom: The Scholar Level Soul Age is of Assimilation
• Spiral Nautilus Shell: Cycle and Soul Age Set
• Chimpanzee: 4th Stage of Simian Evolutionary Complexity
• Adult : The Stages of Maturity

Implications of the Upright Position or Positive Pole

Involvement with another can ??? any level of interaction, but the best happens when love or respect are exchanged. The hug is our species’ form of social bonding. It may not be perfect and we might not always like each other, but to share body space means that a connection has been established. Reaching Maturity is to come to the realization, not conclusion, because things are ongoing, that to sow discontent is a cost to everyone. Ultimately, the Mature Soul struggles with boundaries and with responsibility. This is paraphrased by Paul McCartney’s poetry in a verse from the Beatles song, Hey Jude:

“And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain (step back)
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders (get neutral)
For well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool (realize your CF defenses)
By making his world a little colder” (arrogance)
(Understand the probable result of your Choice)

Card messages in the Illuminated position.

+ Involvement

(Implementation, relating, egalitarian, accord, similarities, integrated, symbiotic, teamwork, plurality)

1. Mature Soul motives explore relationships to get acceptance and a feeling of importance. Good and respectful friends can, and do, give you that.
2. When a design has been conceived and built it is fully developed and ready for implementation. A feeling of certainty about capabilities attend this stage. Manifest your true characteristics. Apply yourself and refine your unique features and specifications. Advancement is assured.
   
3. A fully developed person gives the impression of being the director of their own destiny. Yet maturity reveals itself, as Epictetus reminds us; “not what happens to it but how you respond to it.” An annoying circumstance is going to initially vex you but with a bit of patience and neutrality, it may blossom into good fortune.
4. Relationships mature when we risk being authentic. Showing your real self may feel vulnerable, but you will know where you stand.
5. Mature Soul motives explore relationships to get acceptance and a feeling of importance. Good and respectful friends, can and do, give you that.  Relish in the fact that you love inspire such bonds. 
6. When a person emerges exemplifying mature behavior and attitudes, learn by modeling their process.
7. Apply yourself and refine your unique qualities and specifications. Advancement is assured.
8. It has been said that the true mark of a mature person is the ability to hold two equally opposing view in mind at the same time. Both have relevance. Still, you may have to make a choice between them.
9. Not sure who to relate to or confide in? Sometimes just airing your thoughts aloud is what it takes to release the pressure and allows you to refocus.
10. When a person emerges exemplifying mature behavior and attitudes in this pole, learn by modeling them. You can and will be improved.
11. Start with telling yourself the truth, the real and total truth. It might seem ugly, but you’ll feel much more grounded and clear.
12. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt gave us the definition of adulthood, “A mature person is one who is does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably.” – OK, got it?

Quotation Illustrating this concept…

•  “A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Maturity of mind is the capacity to endure uncertainty.” ~ John Finley
• “Maturity is that time when the mirrors in our mind turn to windows and instead of seeing the reflection of ourselves we see others.” ~ Anonymous
• “Maturity is knowing when to be immature.” ~ Randall Hall

Implications of the Reversed Position and Negative Pole

Do you ever feel as if you are walking a tightrope? Having to balance between two tasks, people, obligations, ways of showing up in the world, or even your own thoughts and emotions? Difficulty increases when one wears the blindfold indicating that you can’t possibly know which side might have a safety net. Or, for that matter, you aren’t even sure if your next move forward is going to be met with something stable. Ambiguity of our choices often feels like blindness of options, or at least no clear path as to their consequences.

Card messages in the Shadow position.

– Ambiguity

(dependency, entanglement, enmeshed, incomplete, ambivalent, indifferent, enabling, paternalistic, codependency, deployment, apathy, estrangement, incomplete)

1. Reaching the stage when one is supposed to be “grown-up” doesn’t insure actual maturity. Deployment in life is inevitable but with the motto “ready or not, here it comes.”  Insecurity, fearing lack of adequate performance, the problem and solution lies with support or lack there of. Get some support to revise or repair dysfunction and try again!
2. You can get older only once, but you can be immature perpetually. Seek a solution.
3. In the interest of being ‘fair minded’ someone has reached a place of indecision. In order to help the process move through, you might need the equivalent of an emotional suppository.  Shit or get off the pot!
4. Insecure whether your performance was adequate or not? The solution lies with support, or lack thereof.
5. “You only get old once, but you can be immature forever.” Such is the saying that reminds us to never stop seeking greater wisdom. Time to stop the childishness. Grow up!
6. Don’t confuse acquaintance as friend. Meeting someone and knowing their name does not mean you know their character or have been taken into their confidence. Friendship is founded on the intimacy of mutual sharing, caring, and yes, even disagreement. Getting real with someone that strengthens a bond is life enhancing. Share it but don’t just give yourself away.
7. Careful! Emotional enmeshment is not intimacy. It is simply drama.
8. Immanuel Kant, father of the categorical imperative, said in typical philosopher’s fashion, “Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another.” A double negative in every sense. Grow up and think for yourself.
9. Get some support to revise or repair dysfunction. Then redeploy, this time with savvy.
10. “You get old only once, but you can be immature forever.” Time to see things as they are instead of how you fantasize them to be!
11. It is impossible to make everyone happy. It is possible to make sure that most everyone gets something they need. Include yourself on that list. Sometimes you should be first, other times last. Be thorough and figure out what you need and your priority for getting it.
12. It has been said that the true mark of a mature intellect is the ability to hold two equally opposing views in mind at the same time…and still function! Discern where they might coincide.

Quotation Illustrating this concept…

• “Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
• “Maturity is only a short break in adolescence.” ~ Jules Feiffer
• “Youth is when you blame all your troubles on your parents; maturity is when you learn that everything is the fault of the younger generation” ~ Unknown
• “Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another.” ~Immanuel Kant

The Mature Soul Stage in the Michael Teaching

In some ways, we might think of it as the turning point in the series of incarnations.  The Mature Soul, with many of the more painful extremes of events now under the belt of experience, so to speak; a soul begins to focus on the nuance of the underlying emotional qualities of their lives and choices.

The focus becomes contemplative with an emphasis on connecting; or perhaps more accurately, reconnecting. Relationships to people, work, life, one’s principles, take center stage and pivot the Mature Soul’s choices based both on how the other will be affected by an act or decision, but also how they themselves feel about those same events. Genuine conscience you might say, emerges more strongly than ever.

Not to be confused with Ego imprints of shame or guilt which are more likely to seem like a foreboding inner parent or imposing guardian ready to impose punishment for not following regulations meant to contain you. At the Mature Soul level, the conscience is more a Self regulating monitor between ones actions and one’s genuine values and principles. That difference is important and profound! Because now the emphasis for authority and guidance turns inward, and the quest for spiritual connection and reunification toward something fulfilling can no longer be ignored.

Yet, Michael has stated, and unfortunately many have reduced an entire Soul age to one word: drama. Why drama? The answer lies in the inherent conflict that arises between an up-till-now Ego-directed set of Soul Ages, and the emergence of a Self which will no longer be denied or ignored. Hence, if you consider the concept of projection, where one’s inner turmoil’s are acted out upon others and the world. Then the idea that emotional conflicts are transferred and played out with others, is the idea upon which the word is used.  To see a Mature Soul invention one need do little more and watch day time television: soap opera’s and reality shows.

Famous Examples

Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Nicole Kidman, Nelson Mandela, Soup Opera’s, Charities, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, FDR, United Nations (why do you think it has so little power?)

Cultural Meaning

When societies realize that their cohesion is better served when the all its member citizens are cared for, and have the ability to work and live in safety without want, everyone benefits from a more stable and equitable environment.  Reliance upon police, military, or heavy handed means of keeping citizens “in control” are far less necessary because the Mature Soul, guided by an inner monitor and sense of responsibility, is far more likely to respect his/her fellow citizens and if just, the rule of law.

As mentioned on several places on this web site, the human race, burgeoning now at 7 billion plus people, is at a crossroads.  A time between the height of our self indulgent, hyper consuming, isolating individualism which epitomizes the Young Soul mentality. Contrast it with beliefs of the Mature Soul Paradigm that suggest that we are all in this together. That the Earth is not unlimited and we must curtail our indulgences upon her. The attitudes of these two Soul Ages are in conflict on a scale never seen before.  Philosophical differences, now in extreme opposition to each other, like Liberals and Conservatives, reveal the mounting tension which is the precursor to change. Change that is usually intense, and sometimes violent.

It is at times of great pressure, social, economic, with the added effect of a world ecological transition which might devastate our food and water supply for centuries to come; that signal the harbinger of change. Our choice as a species is whether we work together to shape ourselves for the good of the whole? Or do we allow for further segmentation’s into small groups who think of themselves as us, and then rationalize whatever action they might carry out on them.

You might be at the Mature Stage if….

Coming Soon

by Stephen Cocconi © 2011, Updated, 2024

For a Tarot Session or Channeled Consultation call: 209.768-4956 or email Stephen at channeling@themichaelteaching.com