The Stages Of Spiritual Initiation For Light Workers

The Stages of Spiritual Initiation for Light Workers - Dark Night to Soul Embodiment

In this episode, I share my journey through the dark night of the soul, and my spiritual awakening. You'll gain a clear understanding of the stages of the journey a light worker goes through.

In this episode, you'll learn: What the dark night of the soul truly is and how it differs from life’s ordinary challenges. The deeper purpose behind this spiritual initiation and why it’s essential for awakening. The key stages of the lightworker journey: dark night, learning, healing, activation, and embodiment. My personal story of navigating trauma, awakening my psychic gifts, and finding my soul’s purpose. Practical tools like energy work, meditations, and connecting with spiritual guides to support your journey. How to recognize where you are in your own transformation and feel empowered to embrace what’s next.

Transcript

You haven't really had a spiritual awakening if you haven't had a dark night of the soul,

Right?

That is the hallmark of the dark night of the soul.

And the dark night of the soul,

It's very different from,

Let's just say,

A dark period in your life because we go through ups and downs and deaths and rebirths all the time in our lives.

We have seasons of our life.

We have our summers,

Winters.

Some of you watching this are now going through your own death.

You're in your winter.

Some of you are in your summer,

Right?

You're in your rebirth and you're feeling amazing.

So we go through these journeys in our life and that's something that's totally different to the dark night of the soul,

Which is actually part of the overarching and the full spiritual journey of your soul's consciousness and what you go through.

The dark night of the soul is the ultimate death that the soul needs to go through.

It's not your soul going through the death.

It's part of you,

But the soul needs you to go through it for you to begin your spiritual journey,

Your conscious journey.

The dark night of our soul is the unveiling.

It's the revealing.

It's the,

Oh my God,

This whole reality is completely different to what I thought.

I've been living a lie.

Oh my God.

And you spend a fair amount of time just adjusting to what the reality actually is.

It's very different from just a death that you go through.

However,

Because there is so much unveiled to you and you are struggling to find again who you truly are,

The truth of who you are,

The truth of this world,

It can feel very dark.

It can feel very happy.

Not quite.

Heavy.

You come out on the other hand happy.

You do.

But when you're going through it,

It's not quite so happy.

And as you're moving through these challenges,

You are going through massive challenges.

You are going through massive issues because it's like you have to have this pressure applied to you so that you burst open.

That's the visual I get when I think about the dark night of the soul.

So you've got to have all this pressure applied to you.

And then you go,

Oh my God,

I see it now.

I get it.

Right?

That's what the dark night of the soul is like.

So in today's episode,

I'm Athena Kroll,

By the way.

Thank you for being here.

I want to talk about what the dark night of the soul actually is and share a little bit with you about my journey in it.

I went through my dark night of the soul very,

Very young.

Everybody goes through their dark night of the soul at the time that their soul chose them to,

Right?

It's not something we consciously choose.

The soul says,

Right,

You're going to wake up at this age.

One isn't better than the other,

Right?

Because like this,

Because I had my dark night of the soul at a very young age,

I see a lot of people who had theirs at 40 comparing themselves to me.

It doesn't make me any better than you just because I had it early.

You had 40 years of having to pursue something,

Be something,

Do something that's going to be so deeply invaluable for your soul purpose,

Right?

So we don't want to ever compare ourselves.

Or if you feel like you're just going through yours at the moment,

It doesn't make you worse or better than someone that's already gone through it.

There is a perfect timing and reasoning for you,

Right?

The same way you were born onto the earth at the time your soul wanted you to,

Right?

You're not going to go,

Well,

Maybe you do go,

I wish I was born 50 years ago.

You needed to be born now and you needed to have your dark night of the soul at the time that you did that was perfect for you.

So I did have mine very young.

I think I was about 16,

17 when I started going through mine and I had a really hard time.

Those years were the darkest of my life.

I've never since then,

All the years that followed had years as dark as those.

That is the dark night of the soul.

It is really the hardest time of our life.

And even though in the years that followed,

I did have a lot of deaths and changes and winters,

None of them compared to what I went through during that period of my life.

I experienced sexual trauma,

Physical abuse,

Emotional abuse.

I was young.

I had a lot of jobs trying to survive.

Um,

I was at school.

It was,

It was not a good situation.

I won't get into my full story because I have that in some other episodes,

But I just want you to know that I was in a place where everything was just hard and stressful and awful.

And my joy at that time,

There were a few things I loved learning about spirituality and I loved reading.

I love psychology,

Philosophy,

And that along with music was kind of my joy,

Like my,

My escape,

Right?

Because everything else in my life was stressful,

Hard,

Abusive,

And I was not doing well.

I had severe anxiety and I was very traumatized.

I was constantly in fight or flight.

I was not in a good state.

So I don't actually remember if there was an exact moment.

Actually,

I think there was an exact moment when I went,

My dark night of the soul started because it all kind of collided,

Right?

Which is usually what dark nights of the souls are and different things begin to tie in and happen.

And so I was experiencing in my life,

All of this stuff that was really making me just go,

My life isn't right.

Something's not right.

This isn't working.

And I remember I,

I loved,

I love to read.

I still love to read.

And I read like I'm a speed reader.

I just read like crazy every single week.

I would go to the library,

Get 12 books,

Devour them.

And people be like,

You can't read that much.

And I was like,

I promise you I can.

Like,

That was my thing,

Right?

Definitely the girl in the library.

That was me.

And so I remember I went to the library and I didn't like to always go around the spiritual section because I was just drawn to it.

I didn't really fully understand why,

Um,

I did have by that age,

Quite a few psychic experiences.

So I would enjoy learning about it and understanding more.

And I remember I was taken to the,

To a book that was in the library.

Don't know why I was just taken to it.

And it was one of David Ike's book.

And this was many,

Many years ago before he was as well-known as he was now.

Like,

Um,

I did a couple of years after that.

I think it was about 18.

He came to Australia and I saw him live.

And I think there were like 50 of us in the room with him,

Right?

Like it was,

Uh,

If even that it was tiny,

It was like a little,

Little lecture hall.

So yeah,

This was,

This was back in the day.

And so I read the book and it went,

Right.

Cause I had already been in the constriction of like,

Okay,

Reality isn't working.

My life isn't working like this.

This is just not it.

And then suddenly this was like the,

Hold on,

Have a look at what reality actually is.

And that threw me into a hole.

And I just read and thank God I was born in a time for internet.

And my,

My soul knew I had to have the internet and I just read and I researched and I went all in.

And it was like,

My perspective on the world began to open up and I started to see,

Okay,

There's,

This is actually the state of the world.

This is actually what is happening.

This is actually what we need to be aware of.

And everything began to open up for me.

And at the same time,

I began to have really intense psychic experiences.

I began to have really intense psychic visitation because that's what the dark night of the soul is.

It's not just one thing they're like,

So you're like,

Oh my God,

Everything's too much.

It's supposed to be like that.

Right?

So my,

My worldview was being like this.

I was having so much trauma and abuse from every part of my life.

And on top of that,

I was having insane psychic visitations every single night.

I couldn't sleep because all these intense psychic visitations that were happening in the culmination of all of that happening into my life.

I had that moment that all of us do in our dark night of the soul,

When we're just hammered and we're like,

Oh my God,

I'm losing my mind.

Because that is actually how I felt multiple times.

I was like,

Do I need a psychiatrist?

Like I'm actually losing my mind.

You haven't felt that way.

Maybe you haven't had your dark night of the soul,

Because that is actually what it does feel like.

You go through a period of feeling like you're losing your mind.

And then after going through that period,

Which for some people,

It can be a long time.

For me,

I think all of that was about six months.

So it was quite a long period of time,

But it is like,

It's usually a few months for people.

And I was in it.

I began to work with angels,

With energies.

And I began to be led to people,

Groups,

Organizations who were able to help me and support me with this.

And I began to throw myself into doing the pillar of light every single day,

Which I still do.

And I still teach from the age of 16.

I've been doing the pillar of light every single day,

Multiple times a day now.

But back then,

You know,

That's what I would do.

All I would do at night is I would do decrees and mantras with angels.

I would work with St.

Germain and the violet flame.

I would call the angels forward.

I would see them,

Connect to them,

Feel them.

I would meditate.

I was going all in on these spiritual practices.

And like,

It was so deeply,

Like,

I was obsessed with it.

I absolutely was.

I was reading every divine virtue book that I could get my hands on,

Reaching all the spiritual texts,

Learning about chakras.

And just every single day,

All I did was energy work.

I was so devoted to raising my vibration and shifting my consciousness.

I just became like the thing that I knew that I had to do.

And I did.

And it became so embodied to the point,

I remember when I was 17 and I broke up with a boyfriend that I had,

That I was very into,

And I had a hard time with the breakup.

I was like,

Okay,

Well,

I'm just going to meditate until the pain goes away.

So that's actually all I did.

I was just sit in my room and meditate,

Which was probably a lot of avoidance and bypassing,

But it really helped me.

I would just sit and meditate for hours as a way of coping with that.

So I threw myself fully into this,

Into the age of 17.

It pulled me out of a lot of the stuff.

And then it's like life began to shift after that.

It didn't shift immediately,

Right?

It doesn't immediately,

But I was doing all these energetic practices and my energy was raising and raising and aligning to what comes after the dark night of the soul,

The rebirth,

Right?

The new.

And what comes after the new?

After we've moved out,

Right after the dark night of the soul,

We go through a period of intensive learning,

Right?

So it's just like,

This is where you watch all the YouTube videos,

You listen to all the podcasts,

You read all the books,

You go to all the courses.

That's a period because you're like going,

Okay,

I see the world for what it is now,

And now I need to figure out how to live in it.

So I was learning how to live vibrationally in this new world that I saw.

And it was during this time that I went and I studied Reiki.

I was doing different courses and I was implementing it like crazy.

Now,

What I generally see after we go through dark night of the soul,

The phase of learning is we go through a phase of healing,

Right?

So I went through dark night of soul,

16,

17,

Like intense learning that really continued up until like,

Honestly,

Till 20,

But it overlapped because my healing began at around age 19 and 20,

Um,

Pretty intensely.

And like that,

I was so traumatized at that age.

I could not be physically touched by a man,

Like whether it was a therapist or a doctor,

I couldn't,

My body would go into fight or flight.

I had severe anxiety that was actually getting worse,

Not better.

Um,

I like,

I couldn't even watch a movie in the dark.

Like just,

It was not,

It was not good.

Um,

I had a lot of other issues,

Just a bit of a mess.

I was,

And I needed a lot of healing.

I had gone through a lot of trauma and I needed a lot of healing.

And so I had done so much learning and what came after the learning was a period of healing.

And it's almost like we spend a portion of time healing all the stuff that we've taken on in that old identity,

Pre the dark night of the soul and during it.

So we can become this higher version of ourselves.

So for about two years,

I was just healing like on my own time or seeing healers,

Just doing so much deep and intensive healing.

And it doesn't mean the healing stopped after that,

But it was like,

There was really like this intense period of time where it was like,

I healed this,

I healed this.

I saw a healer for this.

I saw a healer for that.

Like really,

I look back at it and so many things healed and shifted.

But yes,

I did then continue with healing obviously.

And I still do,

I still think it's very important,

But there is a dedicated time that we see in this journey of healing.

Now what comes after the dark night of soul,

The learning,

The healing period is the activation period.

This is a really exciting time because we've come out the other end.

We've gone through the shit.

We've come out the other end.

We've integrated the lessons.

We've healed from them.

We understand this world we're living in and we know how to live in it.

And now we are asked to contribute,

To bring forward our contributions to this world through our soul purpose.

So during this activation period,

What people actually do is their soul gifts,

Spiritual gifts,

Psychic gifts activate as does their soul purpose.

So for me during this time,

It was going fully all into my soul purpose and in my service work here as well.

A lot of my other spiritual gifts came online.

So I was already channeling,

But my trans channeling came on.

My clairvoyance came on.

All of my other psychic abilities came on like just fully.

It came on during this time.

This was the time when I began to offer healing sessions.

I dropped out of psychology because I was like,

Oh,

Like this is what I meant to do.

And I went all in.

I began building my business.

I was excited.

I felt the passion.

I taught my first class and had that feeling in my being of like,

Oh my God,

This is what I'm here to do.

I know it without a doubt.

This is what I was put here to do and what I have to pursue.

So we go through that phase of the react,

Well reactivation,

But the activation of the soul.

And we start to operate and live on a soul level because suddenly we're aligned with our soul purpose.

We're aligned with our soul gifts.

And what comes after that then in that soul embodiment period is I don't actually know what to call this period.

To me,

It's like a soul magnetism period,

Right?

Which is where suddenly we've been embodying our soul.

We've been in our soul purpose,

Doing what's aligned.

It's like we've been doing what's aligned with our soul purpose.

And then the step that comes after that is we begin to actually magnetize and create a life that is aligned with our soul,

With our soul,

Which means we attract our soul mates.

We attract our soul tribe.

We attract the soul aligned space that we're meant to be in.

It's like our physical reality begins to change to reflect the full soul alignment.

And when I entered into the space,

It's like I finally found my true friends.

I found my husband.

I found the place I want to live,

Right?

I began to feel like I'm living the life that I'm meant to,

Not just I'm doing the thing that I should do.

Because I've felt for a long time before that,

Oh,

I'm doing what I came here to do,

Right?

I'm doing my soul purpose.

But in this next phase,

It's like I'm going to call it soul embodiment.

So we have soul activation where it all comes online.

But then the soul embodiment phase is where it feels like we're finally living the life that was meant for us.

And I remember being in the activation phase and being like,

I was always waiting.

I'm like,

I'm waiting for my life to arrive.

Even though I'm embodied in my soul purpose,

Even though I'm utilizing my soul gifts,

My life still hasn't arrived.

And I remember it.

And it was like this feeling of like,

I'm waiting,

I'm waiting,

I'm waiting.

And then I remember I met my husband,

We moved in together.

I had a beautiful home.

I had the friendships,

The community,

The travel,

My business took off.

And I remember there being a moment where I'm like,

I'm living the life that I was always meant to.

I'm embodied.

I'm embodied in my soul.

And it being a really defining moment of like feeling I've arrived.

I've arrived.

Like,

This is the life that I was meant to be living.

And I think that is the final phase for us in this dark kind of the soul,

Which is the soul embodiment where life around us begins to reflect,

Reflect us,

You know,

In this,

This journey that we've had.

And so the ultimate reason for the dark night of the soul is for us to embody who we came here to be,

To embody our soul,

To be fully soul embodied,

Right?

That's the journey.

And what comes after that,

I think it's just a deepening into it.

Over the years,

I've just deepened into that,

Deepened into that,

Deepened into that more soul truth,

More soul expansion.

And so that's the journey that I see with the dark night of the soul.

So as you're listening to this,

You might have been able to identify which phase you're in or relate to it and know that the outcome of it is going to be incredible.

Like you're going to enter into soul embodiment,

Living the life that you're meant to live.

You might be in soul activation right now.

What's just around the corner for you is very exciting.

If you're not sure where you are,

When you're in dark night of the soul,

Everything feels fucking awful.

You feel like life is falling apart.

You're kind of like,

Oh my God,

I've just realized the actual true state of the world.

And it's a lot.

I felt like I'm losing my mind.

That's the energy of it,

Right?

The learning phase,

It's like you're being given the tools and you're going to be spending most of your time just going,

I need to learn from spiritual teachers.

I need to watch YouTube videos.

I just need to keep learning and implementing.

You're going to be doing a lot of processes and practices.

You're not really going to know what you came here for.

You're not going to know your soul purpose.

You're not going to know your spiritual gifts.

Some of them might be coming online,

But you just have this overwhelming desire to learn,

Right?

Then in your healing phase,

You're going to be like,

Wow,

I'm being sent to so many courses,

So many healers,

And I'm shifting.

I can feel that there is a massive,

It's like an onion peeling off.

All these layers are just falling off.

You're still probably not going to know what you're here to do.

You might have more of a knowing of your desire now for it.

You might have some of these abilities starting to show their head,

But you're not going to have that full clear.

I know,

I know what I came here for.

I know my gifts.

I know my purpose,

But you might have a vague idea of it,

Right?

The phase that comes afterwards,

The activation,

This feels exciting because you actually see the path for the first time.

I just remembered what it was like for me.

I remember it after one of my Reiki courses,

Driving home,

Being like,

I'm getting goosebumps as I think about it.

I'm dropping out of psychology.

This is what I was meant to do.

I saw that timeline of like,

Oh my God,

Of course,

I'm here to be fully in the spiritual embodiment of this work,

Right?

So you get the first glimpse of that timeline,

Of that path,

And it's exciting.

I threw myself in for two weeks,

Just creating,

Learning,

Working my website.

I was so excited,

Right?

And during this time,

You often go and begin to take your gifts and share them with the world.

So for example,

During that phase,

I was doing healing sessions.

I was doing channeling sessions.

I wasn't yet fully in my sole purpose,

But I would have told you that what I was doing was sole purpose aligned.

Because in a sense it was,

But it wasn't the fullness of my sole purpose,

Right?

Not like what I'm doing now,

But it was sole purpose adjacent,

Which is usually what I see people with that level.

And people in the activation phase,

Abundance is not a thing.

They're usually struggling financially because they're not fully in the sole purpose.

They feel like something is missing.

They don't feel like their life is fully reflecting it,

But they love what they do.

They're passionate.

They're excited.

They're inspired by it,

Right?

It's like,

It's a pretty good phase to be in,

But you also recognize there's a lot missing for you.

The next phase is where you actually go,

Oh,

Hold on.

This is it.

This is the thing.

Oh my God,

It's so clear.

And you begin to really truly embody it.

And there's no doubt in you anymore.

And life begins to reflect that.

You start to make the money.

You start to attract the right people.

You're like,

Oh,

Hold on.

This is feeling like the universe is rewarding to me.

Opportunities are flowing.

People are coming in.

Abundance is coming in.

Oh,

I'm fully in my sole purpose.

And all my gifts have come online.

Oh my God,

This feels easy now.

I feel so anchored and clear in who I am.

And then the last one,

It just feels like you're you.

You're the fullest soul embodiment.

And if your soul had to choose a life,

This would,

This would be the life that your soul would choose.

I know my soul has chosen this life,

The way I live,

How I live,

All my experiences,

All the people in my life.

This life is my soul's expression.

That's the soul embodiment phase,

Right?

It's peaceful.

It's easy.

It's abundant.

It's aligned.

It's a very different experience to the other ones.

So beautiful souls.

That's the journey.

That's the light worker,

Light leader journey,

The dark night of the soul.

It's pretty intense.

But when you come out the other end,

You'd have a million dark nights of the souls just to be so embodied.

And it's what we chose to do.

It's part of our journey.

It's part of initiation of being here on earth.

So thank you beautiful souls for being here.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Leave a comment,

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Sending you so much love.

Reviews

Full bodied chills dear heart! Thank you for sharing your gifts and encouragement for humanity!! Brightest of Blessings!! 🙏🙌😇🙌🙏

I have been listening to all of these in order from the new year on, and I’m blown away. Such amazing content with so much information that you can actually put into action. I’ve never found someone that spoke in a way that resonated so much within my life. Thank you so much for this!