Clearing the Residue of Past Lives Can Help You Own Your Creative Power

I am lounging in a lush green recliner in an office near Greenlake, Seattle, a narrow pillow over my eyes. Urban mystic Judith Laxer has one hand on my ankle. In the other hand she’s shaking a small gourd rattle. Her eyes are closed. Every once in a while she opens them to write notes on a pad.

My only instructions are to remain awake and present. 

Judith is performing a shamanic journey to help me answer the question: “How can I fully own my power as an artist?”

The journey is quicker than usual. She comes out of the trance, puts down the rattle, makes a few more notes, and we move to chairs at a round table in the middle of the room.

She dives right in. I have worked with Judith for 25 years, and we no longer need a lot of explanation in our work together. “Snake took me straight to a past life. To a dungeon where you were brought and left to starve to death for being an artist,” she says.

This resonates. I can feel it’s true. My stomach growls. 

For those of you reading this who are not familiar with shamanic work, for those who think that snake spirit teachers and past lives in dungeons seems too odd, I can relate. I was an international journalist before I was called to the life of a mystic. At first, I thought it was all just so whack! I discuss my transition from old world to the life of a mystic in my novel WATER. If you’re interested in the mystical, if you’re being called to a more mystical life and it feels scary, read the book. It’ll help you see one woman’s journey from “normal” to the metaphysical.

Judith continues: “You were put in the dungeon for saying things, drawing things, painting things, singing things, writing things, something that was not OK. You were from a rather wealthy privileged family and were given painting lessons. And where you went with that was way beyond what a woman of your station and age should ever have gone. Because your family had money and you were privileged, they didn’t actually execute you, but they left you in the dungeon to starve to death.”

I’ve been having stomach and digestion problems lately. Judith explains that my artistic blocks and stomach problems are related to this past life. Understanding this past life can help me resolve both issues.

“You were enraged and you were filled with grief. A lovely combination of emotions, guilt, terror, rage and grief.” She explains that my family’s land was confiscated when I was thrown in the dungeon. My family was ruined by my art. “Snake went up inside you,” she demonstrates by moving her hand in front of her up the center of her body, “and ate the resonance from this past life, the emotional leftovers from your chakra system.”

Resonances from past lives affect us all. Many people spend years in therapy over a particular sticky issue and nothing shifts. That’s because the residuals from the trauma are not from this lifetime.

Judith continues explaining the journey. She was brought to my current lifetime, to my childhood.

“You didn’t feel safe. Not feeling safe as a child cemented that earlier life lesson — you couldn’t do art and feel safe. You couldn’t be yourself and feel safe.

“Your guides want you to know that the only way to feel safe and for you to fully be who you are as an artist is to prove to yourself that you are safe. You cannot wait until you feel safe and then put your art out there. You will have to show yourself how safe you are by putting your art out there.”

She continues: “Once your work is out there and the world sees it and they don’t throw you in a dungeon, you will know, oh, I’m safe this lifetime to be an artist!”

Judith and I spend more time processing and chatting. I know from experience this will take a few days to sink in. I need to go home and do my own past-life regression to talk to the me in the earlier life. 

Over the next week, an explosion of art happens around me. I find artist after artist who inspire me. Image after image after image — it feels like eating delicious soul-filling food. I feel a crazy passion to paint and paint and paint. I see a shift in my stomach issues, and I commit to finding a herbalist to help me rebalance my gut health. I begin to explore how to get my art out there in a bigger way.

Exploring our past lives is an incredible way to own our creative power. I believe every person is a creative powerhouse, and all we have to do is remove the psychological obstacles that hinder our natural brilliance. Sometimes those blocks are not about the difficulties of this life time. Sometimes they hark back to centuries past. 

If you’re struggling with issues that block your creative power, if therapy isn’t shifting it, consider a past-life approach. Dr. Brian Weiss’ books on past life regression and future life progression are a good place to start.

Contact me if you’d like to set up a reading to explore your creative past lives.