The Fundamentals of Ascension. Understanding the Journey of the Soul

By Lori Lines

What Ascension is Not
“Ascension.” The word feels so buoyant and unrestrained. When we think of ascension, many of us picture the face of the happy Buddha or the laughing Yogi. However, ascension can be conceptualized as both a destination and a journey. And the journey is often different from the blissful, loving nature of the destination. The path of ascension is wrought with painful triggers, stark realities, and cataclysmic truths that often come to a head as a jarring Dark Night of the Soul. 

The path to ascension is also cobbled with choice after challenging choice to dig deeper into the triggered wounds. Because at the root of these wounds are soul lessons that guide the next step in the journey. As such, ascension is rarely an instantaneous thunderclap of a moment; it is a process, often a painful one, that only we can choose for ourselves.
 
Finally, though they are often used in informal contexts interchangeably, ascension is not awakening, self-actualization, or soul-integration through shadow work. However, these phases and spiritual benchmarks play an essential role in the path to ascension.

What is Ascension
Simply put, ascension is consciously choosing the path of spiritual growth to achieve higher awareness, consciousness, and vibration, along with deeper compassion, unconditional love, and devotion to serving others.

Ascension is often viewed as a bold journey into the unknown and finally meeting the Divinity of the Universe. However, it is not a departure from who we are but a return; It is a reunion with the higher self, Divine consciousness, and the unconditional love of the collective from whence we came.

The process affects us across all bodies, spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical. Ascension changes us on cellular and vibrational levels. It doesn’t just change how we feel, think, and look; it also changes how we perceive and interact with the world around us. While we gain much from the journey, it is also a reductive path. To keep ascending higher and higher, we must create space to integrate the codes, activations, lessons, and upgrades by releasing limiting beliefs, low vibrational frequencies, and conditioned perspectives. 

Ascension is the return to our Divinity. As such, it is the relinquishing of the separateness and duality of the 3rd dimension, transcending negativity and falsehoods, and awakening to the oneness of the 5th dimension.
 
Navigating the Individual Path to Oneness
Ascension is a very personal soul journey, and as much as we may want to, we can’t always take others with us. As we find alignment and achieve integration with higher consciousness and vibrations, we must remember that we cannot impose our 4th or 5th-dimensional perspectives on our 3rd-dimensional loved ones. Ascension is a profoundly personal journey when we are ready to choose it. Everyone will (or will not) walk their path according to Divine timing and spiritual readiness. It is necessary to remember that no level of consciousness or vibration makes one individual better than another; Of course, this soon becomes apparent to those with a 5th-dimensional consciousness.

Alongside this very individual journey, we must also prioritize being of service. The journey is split into service-to-self and service-to-others. People who devote 51% service-to-others will be ascending. So, how do we reconcile that a crucial aspect of this personal journey is better serving others?
 
A path devoted to solely serving oneself is one where progress is hindered because it is ego-led. When the ego leads us, it is all too easy to resort to shame, blame, entitlement, and self-victimization. In contrast, a path devoted solely to others hinders progress because it lacks boundaries and inner awareness.
 
The healthy juxtaposition of both leads to a life where personal awareness and self-knowledge are born of both introspection and reflection on the triggers, wisdom, or new perspectives that arise from our encounters with others. By also serving the collective, we cultivate greater compassion and unconditional love without overlooking or abandoning the essential work of spiritual growth and self-realization.

Signs of Ascension
Ascension is a journey. The process is a spectrum rather than a racecourse with a start and finish line. This means you may experience different signs or “symptoms” at different times in your journey, different markers more intensely than others, and the respective variations may fluctuate. With that being said, those whose vibration is rising will often experience the following during their ascension:

Increasing…

Release of limiting beliefs, low vibrational energy & social conditioning

Rejection of the victim’s role
 
Reluctance to extend blame to others
 
Authenticity and understanding of personal values 

Tendency to respond rather than react to triggers

Alignment with truth and justice

Higher awareness and intuitive wisdom

Unconditional love, forgiveness & compassion for the self and others

Commitment to self-care and self-love

Ability to see beauty in everything and everyone

Harmony with nature

Trust in the Divine

Oneness with the Universe and the collective

Understanding of the multi-dimensional nature of Being

Presence in the now

Gratitude

Joy

Freedom

3rd, 4th & 5th Levels of Ascension
During our age, most spiritualists, channels, and philosophers focus on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. However, there could be a 6th, 7th, or 100th dimension. It is all a matter of gaining the understanding that we are prepared for and require when the time is right.

3rd Level of Consciousness – Inner Separateness, Outer “Happiness,” Universal Division
This is where most people reside. This level is characterized by the view of the self-being separate from the Divine, Universe, and collective. As a result, people often view themselves as greater or lesser than others, which fuels competition and judgment based on arbitrary differences like citizenship, political party, and gender. Those who occupy the 3rd dimension often seek happiness outside of themselves through material possessions or approval, acceptance, and admiration of others. In contrast to the interconnectedness of the 5D, the 3D is often perceived according to divisive constructs, good and bad, right and wrong, and us and them.
 
4th Level of Consciousness- Dawn of Consciousness, Transformation, Bridge to the 5th Dimension
The 4th level is a transitional state and the dawn of awakening. It is not uncommon to straddle the 3D and the 4D or the 4D and the 5D.  At the 4th level of ascension, we may still think in constructs like right and wrong or good and evil, but the paradigms we are considering have shifted. We begin to question governing bodies, conditioned learning, and established beliefs.
 
Some still retain certain ego-based judgments of the 3rd level, referring to others as sheep or asleep in a disparaging manner and themselves as enlightened and awakened in a self-aggrandizing way. There are times when anger, despair, fear, and indignation arise. Journeyers in the 4D may even feel the call to rabble rouse, sounding the alarm about the broken systems.

There is also a burgeoning rejection of materialism and adherence to social norms and expectations. Those aligned with the transformation consciousness of the 4th will finally start to see that fulfillment comes from self-mastery, unity with the collective, and alignment with higher consciousness.

5th Level of Consciousness – Divine Consciousness, Universal Oneness & Awakening to God/Source Energy Within
This is when ego-based judgments and division begin to fall away with other fallacies, allowing unity and love to grow in their place. We begin to look not at the shortcomings of others and the darkness of the world and, instead, look deeper within ourselves to acknowledge, heal, and integrate our shadow selves.
 
In time, the inner understanding of Oneness naturally extends to the collective around us. Through soul integration, we release the labels “greatness,” “weakness,” and the separateness we pigeonhole ourselves with.  This is when we awaken to the Godlike/Source energy within us all, connecting us all. We then stop trying to change others and realize that the most effective way to heal the collective is to heal oneself.
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By accepting that the true power lies within, we no longer fear victimization, failure, or lack because we know we have full accountability for and sovereignty over our experiences and outcomes. And no force, no matter how negative or “powerful,” can alter our personal reality without our authority. This makes the destination that is ascension so divinely blissful; It is whatever divine existence your higher consciousness aspires to conceive.

In love and truth,
​Lori Lines