By Helen Roberts

Did it ever occur to you that a soul could be lazy? Many New Age philosophies think of the soul as being perfect, but Dr. John has told us that souls are godlings, individualized, with extensive potential, but are not perfect. They must develop their good characteristics and reshape any weaknesses.

The first Loehr-Daniels Life Reading has the story of Desiree—the prostitute whose husband urged her to ply her trade in order to support him. This was in spite of the fact that he had been a priest for ten years. It was while researching her material that I discovered her husband, Roscoe—a personality from a lazy soul. He received his own life reading. In his reading, Dr. John gives the background of his soul:

Dr. John: That portion of the soul that is incarnate now comes from the basically masculine framework and has come into this lifetime following incarnation in the feminine. He is a young soul in earth living. This is only the fourth earth life for this one. There were two in masculine expression, then the feminine, which was the immediately prior lifetime, and now the masculine again.

Now the soul started well in earth living. It didn’t make a big splash but it got a good start, in what might be called two strenuous masculine lives with a quantity of experiences. We will go into those later.

Then the soul came into feminine valence and this was a much more quiet life; not so much was demanded of it. There was not a great pressure to achieve put upon the personality. In essence the soul could in that personality life just relax and enjoy it. The result was that this soul was not ready to come back into masculine living at this time. It would like to have stayed in feminine expression. It has identified feminine living as pleasurable and easy, and it cultivated somewhat a lazy characteristic in feminine expression, and is simply not too eager to get into the rough and tumble that it has known in masculine living.

The result has been a compromise made on the part of the soul in this earth life. It accepted the divine order of things and has come into masculine expression. The soul achieved a good masculine expression, a good physical development and a fine specimen of manhood physically. But the soul has carried an insistence that it not be made to participate too strenuously in earth living as a man. This was the initiating drive behind this personality interest for several years in entering the religious life.

Now the personality was interested, had a genuine religious response. For a time the personality genuinely conceived priesthood to be its place in earth living. But the deeper driving force which initiated that interest in the personality was a drive from the soul level to stand aside from earth living, not to get into the thick of it, not to take a major role or carry any major responsibilities while in the present masculine expression.

Now this same drive in the soul has shown up subsequently since the release of this personality from the religious vocation. It has shown up in the fact that the personality has not prepared himself to move forward in this earth life in the sense of building toward a career. He has not trained himself in any particular framework, nor does the personality accept much responsibility. He does not have a good record as we see it from this side on carrying responsibility as a husband or as a father. There is a quality of laziness and inertia in this life. There is a failure to take hold of earth living and win mastery from it. And there is lacking the initiative, the drive, to move forward and make a success in terms that earth beings generally consider success.

This overall failure in the personality life has rootage in the soul, because of the soul’s lack of sincere acceptance of this life in masculine expression. But the lack of drive and cooperation from the soul level does not excuse the personality in its weaknesses. It gives a source of explanation—this is not the entire source, but it is one source of explanation. But the personality is not expected to rock back on his heels and fold his hands and simply accept this picture and, with a shrug of the shoulders, just excuse himself from effort on the grounds that his soul doesn’t want to. That is hardly a constructive way to go through earth living.

Now in spite of the resistance on the part of the soul, this can be a very good earth life for this personality and for the soul getting the experience, if the personality will take the initiative, make the decisions, and get going. He is a relatively young man. He is intelligent. He could expand that native intelligence he has and discipline it by going to school. He could go to night school and carry a job in the day. He has a healthy body, he has vigor, and he could carry two such programs simultaneously. He can do something to break the ineffectual pattern of living in which he is presently engaged...The personality has the strength to offset the lackadaisicalness of the soul. In fact as we look at this picture we can find no reason from the soul level, or even from the personality level, why this personality cannot take himself by the shoulders, give himself a shake and start walking in a more creative, positive direction.

Later in the life reading, Dr. John gives details on the Roscoe soul’s past three lives. His first full lifetime:

Dr. John: This soul had its first incarnation in the 1500s AD in Spain, in masculine expression...He was born into poverty, in nothing but a hovel, in the middle of a large family with older and younger brothers and sisters. His mother was too busy with oncoming babies to pay him much physical attention after the first ten months. However, there was one thing that that home had that each member of the family shared in common, and that was the love between the husband and wife and its radiation to their children…

The atmosphere of the home helped him develop a friendly outgoing personality that gave him contacts with people. Along with this, he had a drawing talent…Gradually he attracted to himself a Patron and he became a rather fine portrait painter, married, had a family. Although it was a successful life in that framework, it involved a great deal of effort on the part of the soul…Following that lifetime the soul had the choice given by its guides and teachers to rest. It chose not to, but it wanted a less strenuous pattern of earth life...

It chose a masculine lifetime set in France in the 1600s…The father was a baker and he and the father had a good relationship and the son became a baker…He chose a setting where there was ready made work for him and that lifetime rolled along rather comfortably…It was a sunny, lazy, happy-go-lucky life and the baker grew lazier and fatter as the years went along. This was an easy framework of living, but it had a problem in it. The baker married a woman with a great deal of ambition and drive, who wanted to better herself socially and who kept prodding the baker in directions he didn’t want to go…

He saw his daughter grow into a duplicate of her mother in a negative way. He saw his daughter marry and bring much unhappiness to her own family. This caused pain and suffering to him. Again the soul experienced a strenuous Earth life, although now on an emotional level…The third lifetime was feminine, in Switzerland in the1800s--goat herders in a small village in the alps…Nothing disturbed either the personal life or the family life or the village life…She married a boy who had been her playmate from the time she was six, had four children of her own who were really a joy, presenting no major difficulties.

The masculine soul liked this life. Here was a quiet lifetime in which it was taken care of; it was watched over, life was good. It wasn’t exciting but it had fun in it, it had pleasures in it, and all was well.

Following that lifetime the soul was presented with coming back into masculine living, which it did not majorly reject. If it had, there would be many more complicating factors in the present life than there are. The soul accepted the present masculine expression without much enthusiasm and, as we said in our opening remarks, with a certain attitude of laziness and unwillingness to move forward into it. And that brings him into the present life. (1945)

The Roscoe soul has had only three past lives: two were strenuous and one was easy, requiring no big effort on the part of the soul. That third life was purposed to give it the rest that it needed, but souls cannot expect all lives to be effortless. Roscoe’s soul has to realize that Earth is not its playground, but is its responsibility. In this life it needs to stop leaching off Desiree and shoulder its own responsibilities.

Life on Earth is not easy, but it is the soul’s laboratory to put into practice what it has learned in cosmic schools other than Earth. If souls refuse to work on their growth, they will eventually lose their birthright as souls. If the Roscoe soul does not wake up in this life, it will be forced to work even harder in a future life.

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