Parallel Shifts - Michael Teachings

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Parallel Shifts

BY EMILY BAUMBACH

Parallel shifts are phases happening about two to three times a year, and they last about a month. During parallel shifts the whole world seems to change form. Parallel shifts typically bring dramatic alterations in what life looks like.

March and April 2007’s parallel shift is happening in a year with the Goal of Growth and Moving Center. Growth and Moving Center will magnify the collective need to do new things in new places. A lot of people will move to new houses and sell or rent out their old ones. Some people will rouse themselves out of stagnant jobs, and either apply for new ones or decide to go into business for themselves. People who’ve been running their own businesses might shift on over to getting a stable, predictable job with reliable income. Stagnant marriages will be hit with relationship lightning, with the choice to stay together (with counseling), or separate to play out and discover their individual life directions.

Reasons for Change

The subconscious urge for progress in March and April will win out over the instinctive urge to stay in our familiar old caves. These two months will present an opportunity to review and reevaluate everything, including our very own carefully-crafted self-identities. We’ll stretch beyond former limitations, and we’ll build confidence in our life skills. We’ll experiment with new ways of living, and we’ll magnetize what we want.

Our first reaction to change is usually fear, which makes us want to stay in our comfort zone. Once we’re in fear, we’ll tend to succumb to our Chief Feature(s): Self-Deprecation, Arrogance, Self-Destruction, Greed, Martyrdom, Impatience or Stubbornness. In March and April we’ll see a lot of Chief Features in the news and in ourselves.

On the other side of this parallel shift, we’ll realize the value of change. Change is what allows the universe to play out stories. Change stretches our limits and keeps things interesting. It offers relief from old patterns, and it unsticks us from hiding out. It points out forgotten resources and shows us how far we’ve come, as we jettison what’s no longer useful. Change forces us to go deeper than our previously assumed apparent reality.

These two months we’ll make decisions to either change up or change down. Changing up means expansion: marrying, moving to bigger houses, taking that job promotion, expanding our businesses. Changing down means voluntary shrinkage to make things simple: getting rid of clutter, having a garage sale, moving to a smaller and more easily maintained home, divorcing, consolidating our finances. Both changing up and changing down are symbolic little deaths and little births: acts of creation and destruction. We’re becoming conscious of our ongoing participation in the very nature of the universe, which is always in flux as it creates, maintains and destroys Itself.

The Seven Roles in a Parallel Shift

Whenever the familiar arrangements of life start to change, our reaction will tend to match our Role and overleaves in the Michael system. For instance, Priests are typically the first Role to predict and catalyze change, because it’s their job to inspire everyone to get off the couch and improve themselves. Artisans run neck and neck with Priests, being very good at coming up with new ideas for change. Artisans are responsible for designing new environments and methods, new inventions and fantasies about the future.

Once the Priest/Artisan visions are out there, Scholars then step in and map out the protocols for implementing the change. Scholars will make lists of what needs to be done, and will be busy Googling to gather information to make the change go more smoothly.

Next, the Warriors come in to work with the Scholar blueprints. Warriors will actually implement the change in an active way, making things happen. Kings will oversee the new construction and delegate duties as necessary, helping the Warriors push through any energetic or political logjams. Sages will find a way to bring joy to everyone, cracking jokes and beer can tops in the midst of any potential intensity or collective fear in the group. Finally, Servers will be there to hold everyone’s hand, happily do gopher work, and bring tea and cookies to soothe the troubled instincts of people around them.

Seven Stages of a Parallel Shift

At first, we’ll start to feel a subconscious desire for something new. Our thoughts will flutter with flashing images of what life could be in its new form: a new home, new job, new spiritual teacher, etc. We’ll feel stagnant with our current state of affairs. Outer life won’t cooperate in the beginning, as the physical plane is simply too unwieldy and dense for things to shift as rapidly as our thoughts.

Here is what typically happens during a parallel shift:

1) Subconscious desires: At first we’re unaware that change needs to take place. Our subconscious thoughts, however, start to bubble with visions and urgings and creative dreaming.

2) Destruction: Things start to fall apart: relationships, jobs, homes, lifestyles. We freak out, watching the flotsam and jetsam disintegrate and start to flow out the door. We’re asked to sacrifice what’s safe and comfortable.

3) Reevaluation, retreat and denial: This is a trap level, and we can easily get stuck here. Some take refuge in alcohol, others get stuck in spite of themselves in personal paralysis and fogginess. This is the level of the Void, where we feel burned to a crisp.

4) Growth and Submission, where we face our demons and hug the hell realm. This self-busting stage takes fortitude and requires our willingness to release and let go of all that’s familiar and “ours.” Our “demons” are imaginary mental conjurings that look like worst-case scenarios, brought into our minds by our lurking fears of the unknown. If we hunker down, release our bondage to our old outdated identifications, and are willing to let the past dissolve into the recesses of universal memory, we’ll do well at this stage.

5) Movement: We take action toward the future. We research the new territory and experiment with new forms. We buy new furniture and paint the walls of our new homes, or we have our first day on the new job. We move in with our new life partners; or our divorce papers come through, freeing us up to move on — in some cases both events occurring simultaneously. We get to know our new neighbors and office mates, and scope out the territory for grocery stores and gas stations.

6) Discrimination: “Did I make the right decision? Do I like my new house? Is my new career / life partner / hobby / philosophy the right one?” It’s necessary to take some time for review at this stage, which often means we go back and forth between happiness and regret. Yoyo-ing is normal as we take time to bring all the parts of ourselves into the new parallel, not just the adventurous, growth-oriented parts.

7) Acceptance and stillness (eventually leading to inertia and stagnation). The parallel shift is complete, and we’re solidly into our new life situations. We get to take a breather and experience the new parallel completely. At this stage we feel we can count on the mundane world to satisfy our needs, at least until we get bored and the inner stirrings for change rise again. When those stirrings get strong enough, the whole cycle of change starts over.

By the end of a normal lifespan, say around 85 years of age, we will have gone through 150 - 250 of these parallel universe shifts to the point where we can actually get used to them. Ideally we don’t resist the process. Ideally we say Yes.

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Emily Baumbach is an astrologer and author of the Michael books, Celebrities and Parallel Universes. Her organization Causalworks has a newsletter, tapes, and channeling services. She can be reached at: emilyb@causalworks.com