Abasement: The negative pole of the obstacle of self-deprecation, in which one degrades oneself out of an extreme sense of inferiority.
Abrading overleaves: Overleaves that tend to clash, especially in their negative poles, either internally or with other people’s.
Abstraction: The negative pole of the attitude of idealist, in which one’s ideals don’t work in the real world.
Acceptance: The second most common of the seven goals. Its positive pole is agape, or unconditional love, which is also the highest goal in general for all sentient consciousness; its negative pole is ingratiation. It is used for lifetimes emphasizing tolerance, saying yes, and making peace with what one cannot change.
Accomplishment: The positive pole of the young soul age, in which one asserts one’s individuality in a way that helps the world. Yarbro uses the term intention.
Achievement: The negative pole of the number four. It is a more limited experience than the positive pole, consolidation, in which one creates a coherent whole rather than doing a series of tasks that don’t add up to more.
Action axis: One of the four axes, or universal qualities, upon which the roles and overleaves lie. The action axis relates to doing in the outer world.
Active: The negative pole of cardinal, as opposed to the positive, lucid. Lucidity implies more consciousness, rather than merely acting upon the environment. It also refers to traits of four body types—saturnian, mercurial, martial, and solar—in which their tendency is to move rather than remain still.
Adventure: The negative pole of the number five, suggesting the exploration of unknown territory. It is a more limited experience than the positive pole, expansion, in which that new territory is constructively integrated into experience.
Agape: (From the Greek, this term is pronounced ah-guh-pay.) A state of unconditional love, considered the ultimate goal of all sentient evolution. This is the positive pole of the goal of acceptance.
Aggression: One of the seven modes. Its positive pole is dynamism; its negative pole is belligerence. In aggression mode, one releases one’s energy vigorously.
Agile: The positive pole of the mercurial body type. People with a mercurial body type are typically flexible.
Agreement: A plan made between two souls, usually before incarnating, to work together on the physical plane in a particular way. There are many kinds of agreements, including to help one another in a variety of ways or to have a particular kind of relationship, such as that of mate or parent/child.
Akashic plane: The central, neutral plane of creation that interconnects the other six. The distilled knowledge of the universe is found there.
Akashic records: Windows into the universe’s past experiences that show events as they were experienced or later clarified. Once the universe fully assimilates these events, they are stored on the akashic plane.
Amoral: The positive pole of the physical center. It refers to experiencing one’s physicality purely, without limiting moral judgments.
Anatomic: The negative pole of the instinctive center. Instincts anchored in the core atomic level are according to their original blueprint. Those that come from a more surface (anatomic) structure can go awry, such as genetic abnormalities or negative cell memories.
Androgynous (body type): Each body type is either masculine, feminine, or androgynous. Solar is the androgynous type. The sun itself is a masculine symbol. However, it is also suggestive of the neutral assimilation axis in that its light and heat interpenetrate everything in the solar system. The radiance of the solar type is simply present rather than forceful like the masculine types.
Arrogance: One of the seven obstacles. Its positive pole is pride; its negative pole is vanity. It is a fear of being judged or of vulnerability.
Artifice: The negative pole of the role of artisan, referring to artificial or superficial creation.
Artisan: One of the seven essence roles. Its positive pole is creation; its negative pole is artifice. Artisans seek originality.
Assimilation axis: One of the four axes, or universal qualities, upon which the roles and overleaves lie. The assimilation axis is neutral; it provides objectivity and a resource for the other axes.
Astral plane: The second plane of creation. Its medium is concrete emotional energy. It is where consciousness is focused between lifetimes and after completing the physical plane.
Astral self: The part of essence that resonates with the astral plane. The lower astral self is the part of essence that incarnates and is synonymous with soul.
Atavism: The positive pole of the goal of reevaluation, when a lifetime is focused on what is simple, natural, and essential, removing the complexities added by the opposite goal, growth.
Atomic: The positive pole of the instinctive center, in which one’s instincts arise from the deepest level without distortion.
Attitude: One of the overleaves. The attitude is a person’s primary slant on life. The seven attitudes are stoic, spiritualist, skeptic, idealist, cynic, realist, and pragmatist.
Audacity: The positive pole of the obstacle of impatience, in which one is disrespectful while pushing oneself ahead of others.
Aura: A band of etheric substance surrounding the physical body that reflects the seven levels of self. It consists of seven layers of middle-physical-plane substance vibrating a little more quickly than the physical body itself.
Authority: The positive pole of power mode. It amplifies one’s expression, making one come on strong.
Aversion: The negative pole of the infant soul age, in which one feels unequipped to deal with life’s stresses, like a screaming infant. Yarbro uses the term apathy.
Baby soul: Someone in the second of the five main physical-plane soul ages. The baby-soul cycle emphasizes lessons about working with the structure of civilization.
Balance: The negative pole of the number two. In the positive pole, stability, one creates a working whole. Balance refers to a more limited experience, which can lead to an unstable see-saw effect.
Belligerence: The negative pole of aggression mode, in which one flies off the handle.
Bleedthrough: The qualities of a person’s essence twin that blend with her own, especially when of a different role. Your essence twin is your closest soul bond, and that soul’s energies combine with yours to some degree, especially when discarnate (not physical). So a scholar with a discarnate priest essence twin looks somewhat like a priest, since scholar energy is neutral. A sage with a discarnate king essence twin has strong secondary king traits.
Body type: Physical and psychological traits resulting from the influence of the celestial bodies upon a person’s physical body. Everyone has a primary body type, and from one to three other body-type influences. The seven main body types are lunar, saturnian, jovial, mercurial, venusian, martial, and solar. A person can also have minor uranian, neptunian, and plutonian influences.
Bondage: The negative pole of the role of server, referring to feeling obligated and unappreciated, rather than serving out of love and choice.
Buddhaic plane: The highest plane of creation. Its medium is abstract kinetic energy. Essences experience the buddhaic plane just before refocusing their awareness fully in the Tao. The infinite soul who incarnated as Buddha taught from this plane.
Cadence: A permanent group of seven essences. A primary cadence consists of seven essences of the same role; it is the smallest building block of the entity. An essence’s numerical position within its cadence, and its cadence’s position within its greater cadence, significantly influence how it directs its energies. These are part of its casting.
Cadre: A grouping consisting of seven entities.
Cardinal: Relating to the large or general picture; catalytic and influential. Its positive pole is lucid; its negative pole is active. It is the opposite of ordinal.
Casting: The Tao’s expression into the dimensional universe, as in “fragments cast from the Tao,” and the order of it, as in “first-cast warrior in the entity.” A person’s casting is his position within his consecutively larger groupings of souls, or commonly, just his primary cadence position, as in “sage-cast scholar” for a scholar in the fifth position of his primary cadence.
Causal plane: The third plane of creation. Its medium is concrete intellectual energy. It is Michael’s plane of existence.
Caution: The second most common of the seven modes. Its positive pole is deliberation; its negative pole is phobia. In caution mode, one releases one’s energy carefully.
Center: One of the overleaves. There are seven centers that each process and store a different aspect of experience: emotional, higher emotional, intellectual, higher intellectual, physical, moving, and instinctive. The primary center is the part of self from which one responds to stimuli. The part of center is where one’s secondary responses originate.
Cetaceans: Generally refers to an order of marine mammals. In the Michael teachings, it refers exclusively to dolphins and whales, who comprise the other main sentient species on Earth. Common porpoises are also cetaceans but are not sentient.
Channeling: The act of allowing an intelligence not in human form to express through oneself.
Chakra: An energy center in the body. There are seven main chakras.
Chaotic destruction: The negative pole of female energy, in which creative forces are uncontrolled.
Chief feature: The original term (via Yarbro) for chief obstacle.
Chief obstacle: One of the overleaves, commonly called chief feature by other Michael channels. The chief obstacle is the focus of a person’s fears and illusions. A person can also have a secondary and even tertiary obstacle, and most people encounter all the obstacles occasionally. The seven are self-deprecation, arrogance, self-destruction, greed, martyrdom, impatience, and stubbornness.
Clarity: The positive pole of the most common mode, observation, in which one functions by observing neutrally, without an agenda.
Cluster: A group of five lifetimes lasting more than twenty years, each on one theme, such as in a particular country or religious order.
Coalescence: The positive pole of the attitude of idealist, in which one pulls together what is needed in order to effect constructive change.
Coercion: The negative pole of the role of warrior, in which one obtains results through forcing the unwilling.
Compassion: The positive pole of the role of priest, in which one serves the higher good through empathetic love.
Comprehension: The positive pole of the goal of growth, in which one harvests increased understanding from new experiences.
Confusion: The negative pole of the goal of growth, in which one is overwhelmed by new experiences that one does not integrate.
Connection: The negative pole of the number six, in which one merely links parts rather than forming a pleasing and consistent whole.
Consolidation: The positive pole of the number four, in which one combines elements into a single coherent unit.
Contradiction: The positive pole of the attitude of cynic, in which one tests the soundness of an idea or thing.
Cording: The act of establishing a cord of connection with another person that draws energy from him. Cording is designed primarily so that parents can support their young children. It is negative when independent adults cord others.
Creation: The positive pole of the role of artisan, characterized by genuine and effective invention.
Cycle: Commonly short for grand cycle or previous cycle. It also refers to shorter cycles such as the old-soul cycle—all of one’s old-soul lifetimes.
Cycle off: To finish incarnating on the physical plane for this grand cycle.
Cynic: One of the seven attitudes. Its positive pole is contradiction; its negative pole is denigration. Cynics view the world in terms of what isn’t, or what won’t work.
Deliberation: The positive pole of caution mode, in which one moves forward with intellectual alertness and care.
Denigration: The negative pole of the attitude of cynic, in which one disparages what one hasn’t fairly tested.
Determination: The positive pole of the obstacle of stubbornness, in which one is unwilling to allow change.
Devas: Nature spirits or elementals who take care of the Earth behind the scenes. They work with the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, as well as with larger elements such as the oceans, clouds, and mountains.
Devotion: The positive pole of the goal of submission, in which one is actively committed to a leader and/or cause.
Dictatorship: The negative pole of the goal of dominance, in which one imposes solutions rather than catalyzing them.
Discarnate: Not incarnate; not in a physical body.
Discrimination: One of the least common of the seven goals. Its positive pole is sophistication; its negative pole is prejudice. It is used for lifetimes emphasizing critical faculties and saying no. The original term (via Yarbro) was rejection.
Dogma: The negative pole of the attitude of pragmatist, in which what once seemed most practical is made into a rigid practice that is applied even when it is not appropriate or the best solution.
Dominance: One of the seven goals. Its positive pole is leadership; its negative pole is dictatorship. It is used for lifetimes that emphasize winning and helping others win.
Dynamism: The positive pole of aggression mode, in which one successfully accomplishes several things in a vigorous, upbeat manner.
Eclecticism: The negative pole of the number seven, in which one is a “jack of all trades, master of none.”
Egotism: The positive pole of the obstacle of greed, in which one puts one’s appetites above the needs of others.
Emotional center: One of the seven centers. Its positive pole is sensibility; its negative pole is sentimentality.
Empathy: The positive pole of the higher emotional center. Its most exalted manifestation is a feeling of oneness with all things.
Enduring: The positive pole of the moving center, in which one experiences being “in the zone.”
Energetic: The negative pole of the moving center, in which one’s body is temporarily stimulated to act.
Energy: The fundamental substance of the universe. Energy is characterized by vibration and the impulse to move. The word often describes the nonphysical factors of life, although matter is also energy, vibrating at a level we perceive as being solid. Pure energy is another term for beauty, which along with love and truth are the three building blocks of existence.
Enterprise: The positive pole of the number three, in which one is resourceful in undertaking difficult tasks.
Entity: In this book, usually refers to a “spiritual family” of about one thousand souls. Michael is the name of one entity. Entity is also used as in “channeled entity,” meaning a channeled consciousness of any kind. In the field of spiritual healing, an entity is an invasive, parasitic being, usually of low intelligence, which needs to be removed for one’s well-being.
Erotic: The negative pole of the physical center. It does not necessarily refer to sexual arousal but to any limited, localized stimulation of the body that is not integrated with the whole.
Essence: Higher self, as opposed to personality, or lower self. It especially refers to the levels of self that resonate with the three highest (abstract) planes. It is sometimes synonymous with soul.
Essence contact: Occurs when the personality makes a direct connection with either its own essence or the essence of another person. Essence contact is necessary in order for spiritual growth to occur. It can be powerful and life-changing, or relatively mild.
Essence mate: An essence who was your essence twin during a previous grand cycle.
Essence role: Full term for role.
Essence twin: Another essence one teams up with in the beginning of a grand cycle to reflect oneself; also known as twin soul or twin flame. It is the closest bond an essence can have. Ninety-five percent of us have one.
Ethereal: The negative pole of the solar body type, in which one is fragile and lacks earthy groundedness.
Expansion: The positive pole of the number five, which results in an enlargement of consciousness, often through making unconventional or risky choices.
Expression: The positive pole of the role of sage, in which one authentically communicates one’s uniqueness.
Expression axis: One of the four axes or universal qualities upon which the roles and overleaves lie. The expression axis relates to bringing the inner world into the outer.
Extraterrestrial: A sentient soul based on a planet other than Earth who is visiting Earth either physically or astrally, usually in order to study it and/or assist in the changes occurring here.
Extravagant: The negative pole of the jovial body type, in which one dissipates one’s energies. The original term (via Yarbro) was elephantine.
Faith: The negative pole of the attitude of spiritualist, in which one blindly follows an inspiring view without validating it.
False personality: False ego; the part of self motivated by fear. It is the sum of one’s negative poles, obstacles, and contrary imprinting.
Feminine (body types): Each body type is either masculine, feminine, or androgynous. Feminine types receive energy and appear more feminine. Lunars absorb strength, venusians soak up sensual stimulation, and mercurials take in energy (and can become wound up).
Fluid role: One of the four higher-frequency roles: server, priest, artisan, and sage. If priest and artisan are defined as airy rather than fluid, server and sage are the fluid roles.
Flow: One of the seven goals. Its positive pole is suspension; its negative pole is inertia. It is used for lifetimes of rest or learning to let go. The original term (via Yarbro) was stagnation. It is also called relaxation and equilibrium.
Formation: The positive pole of the baby soul age, in which one focuses on lessons about community, such as following simple rules and procedures. Yarbro uses the term acculturation.
Fragment: Generally synonymous with soul and essence, although there are distinctions among them. The term conveys that each person is a fragment of the whole, and particularly, a fragment of his entity, with which he will recombine when he has completed all his lifetimes on the physical plane. In this book I mainly use the term to refer to members of the Michael entity.
Frenetic: The negative pole of the mercurial body type, in which one is prone to being wound-up and nervous.
Frequency: Rate of vibration of the soul on a scale of one to one hundred. It gives essence its consistency. Slow frequencies feel solid, medium frequencies feel fluid, and fast frequencies feel airy. Each role also has an innate frequency.
Gaunt: The negative pole of the saturnian body type, in which one is characterized by an excessively prominent bone structure.
Generation: The positive pole of female energy. It brings new life.
Goal: One of the overleaves. The goal is a person’s primary motivator. The seven goals are reevaluation, growth, discrimination, acceptance, submission, dominance, and flow.
Grand: The positive pole of the jovial body type, in which one tends to be large and round.
Grand cycle: An experience that begins when one’s essence is cast from the Tao. It includes physical-plane incarnations and subsequent progression through the higher planes. It is complete when essence is fully reabsorbed back into the Tao.
Greater cadence: A unit of seven primary cadences.
Greater cluster: A unit of five clusters, or twenty-five lifetimes lasting more than twenty years each, on one theme. An example is religious orders, with each cluster in a different one.
Greed: One of the seven obstacles. Its positive pole is egotism; its negative pole is voracity. It is a fear of lack or want, usually fixated on something such as money, food, sex, or attention.
Growth: The most common of the seven goals. Its positive pole is comprehension; its negative pole is confusion. It is used for lifetimes emphasizing learning new things. People in growth seek stimulation.
Harmony: The positive pole of the number six. It forms a pleasing and consistent whole in which each part is in its fitting place.
Heart link: A bond formed through life experience that does not end when the lifetime is completed. It can be forged regardless of cadre by any intense sharing, such as being an exemplary parent or child, or saving someone’s life.
Higher centers: The higher intellectual, higher emotional, and moving centers. These are inner pathways to truth, love, and beauty, respectively, accessed most potently during moments of great intensity, bringing transcendent, revelatory experiences. However, we also use them more routinely for overarching concepts, inspirations, and energies.
Higher emotional center: One of the seven centers. Its positive pole is empathy; its negative pole is intuition. It is the inner pathway to love.
Higher intellectual center: One of the seven centers. Its positive pole is integration; its negative pole is telepathy. It is the inner pathway to truth.
Hive soul: The soul type that most animals have, versus the more complex sentient soul for humans and cetaceans (dolphins and whales). Hive souls have consciousness and feeling but are not capable of purely intellectual function, such as making and following a budget.
Honorary role: When people’s two secondary role influences, essence twin and primary casting, are of the same role (but different from their own), they reinforce each other and therefore are particularly significant. For example, a scholar with a warrior essence twin and warrior primary casting is an “honorary warrior.”
Humility: The positive pole of the obstacle of self-deprecation, in which one has an overly modest view of one’s abilities.
Idealist: One of the seven attitudes. Its positive pole is coalescence; its negative pole is abstraction. Idealists view the world in terms of how it could be changed for the better.
Identification: The negative pole of passion mode, in which one loses boundaries and identifies with the object of one’s passion.
Immolation: The negative pole of the obstacle of self-destruction, in which one destroys oneself.
Immutability: The negative pole of perseverance mode, in which one refuses to let go of something unproductive.
Impatience: One of the seven obstacles. Its positive pole is audacity; its negative pole is intolerance. It is a fear of missing out.
Imprinting: Conditioning by outer influences such as parents, education, or society in general.
Incarnate: Living in a physical body, as in “incarnate soul.”
Inclusiveness: The positive pole of the old-soul age, in which one sees the place and value of all things. Yarbro uses the term substantiation.
Inculcation: The positive pole of the number seven, in which experience is completed and its lessons are ingrained.
Inertia: The negative pole of the goal of flow, in which one is stuck.
Infant soul: Someone in the first of the five main physical-plane soul ages. The infant soul cycle emphasizes lessons about survival.
Infinite soul: An incarnate representative of a reunited cadre who brings the Tao to bear through one of the three high planes, e.g., Jesus, who manifested the infinite soul from the messianic plane during the last thirty days of his life. The infinite soul is a catalyst for the spiritual transformation of humanity.
Ingratiation: The negative pole of the goal of acceptance, in which one tries too hard to be accepted rather than focusing on accepting others.
Inhibition: The negative pole of reserve mode, in which one is repressed rather than elegantly contained.
Innocence: The positive pole of the infant soul age, in which one approaches life with wonder. Yarbro uses the term experience.
Inspiration axis: One of the four axes or universal qualities upon which the roles and overleaves lie. The inspiration axis relates to the inner world.
Instinctive center: One of the seven centers. Its positive pole is atomic; its negative pole is anatomic.
Integration: The positive pole of the higher intellectual center, in which one experiences an all-encompassing, profound consciousness of truth.
Intellectual center: One of the seven centers. Its positive pole is thought; its negative pole is reason.
Internal monads: Seven milestones that can be completed within a lifetime: birth, the “terrible twos,” adolescence, midlife crisis, life review, dying, and death.
Intolerance: The negative pole of the obstacle of impatience, in which one is testy or rude when feeling delayed or inconvenienced.
Intrusion: The negative pole of male energy, in which one violates boundaries.
Intuition: The negative pole of the higher emotional center, in which one transfers emotional knowledge without resonance.
Investigation: The positive pole of the attitude of skeptic, in which one objectively explores a situation.
Jovial: One of the seven primary body types. Its positive pole is grand; its negative pole is extravagant. Jovial types tend to be full-bodied and extroverted. It is the most developed body type.
Karma: A major violation of another person that limits his or her choices, resulting in a compelling debt.
King: One of the seven essence roles. Its positive pole is mastery, which kings seek; its negative pole is tyranny.
Knowledge: The positive pole of the role of scholar. It is also the second position of the life quadrate.
Leadership: The positive pole of the goal of dominance, in which one helps facilitate solutions.
Level: Usually refers to one of seven soul-age levels. It can also refer to one of seven levels of each plane of creation.
Life plan: The overall blueprint for one’s life. The soul designs its life plan before incarnating. It includes life task, overleaves, and agreements with other souls to be guides, parents, children, etc., in order to help complete monads, karmas, and to otherwise support each other.
Life quadrant: A position in the life quadrate.
Life quadrate: The four positions that together result in effective teamwork. In each lifetime, people specialize in one of four possible primary contributions to each group of which they are part: the love position initiates; the knowledge position provides information; the power position moves the group to act; and the support position holds the group together.
Life task: The centerpiece of one’s life plan, the most important thing the soul wants to accomplish. There can be more than one, with each having many aspects.
Lucid: The positive pole of cardinal, which implies consciousness while having an influence; its negative pole is merely active.
Luminous: The positive pole of the lunar body type, in which one gives off a healthy cool glow, like a full moon.
Lunar: One of the seven primary body types. Its positive pole is luminous; its negative pole is pallid. Lunar types tend to have pale skin, round faces, and “baby fat.” They tend to be slow to react and to excel at abstract thought. It is the least physically developed body type.
Male/female energy ratio: The ratio between male (focused) and female (creative) energy in a particular person. For example, a person may have a ratio of thirty-five percent male energy/sixty-five percent female. Male energy emphasizes doing; it moves into the outer world in a linear way toward goals. Its positive pole is penetration; its negative pole is intrusion. Female energy emphasizes being; it moves inward in a diffuse way, creating atmosphere. Its positive pole is generation; its negative pole is chaotic destruction.
Manifested soul age: The soul-age focus of a person’s day-to-day life. About two-thirds of people don’t fully manifest their actual soul age. For example, a mature soul might manifest young, either across the board or just in her career. That can occur simply because the person is young and hasn’t yet retraced all the steps leading up to his current age, which needs to happen in each lifetime in order to fully manifest one’s soul age. It can also be that the soul is deliberately reviewing an earlier stage. Or the person may be stuck at an earlier level because of a failure to deal with issues that are in the way.
Martial: One of the seven primary body types. Its positive pole is wiry; its negative pole is muscle-bound. Martial types are feisty and active. They tend to have reddish skin and/or hair, and muscular bodies.
Martyrdom: One of the seven obstacles. Its positive pole is selflessness; its negative pole is mortification. It is a fear of being unworthy.
Masculine (body types): Each body type is either masculine, feminine, or androgynous. Masculine types emit energy and appear more masculine. Saturnians exude leadership, martials discharge power (and can be explosive), and jovials release energy (sometimes dissipatively).
Mastery: The positive pole of the role of king, in which one seeks self-control and excellence.
Mature soul: Someone in the fourth of the five main physical-plane soul ages. The mature-soul cycle emphasizes lessons about relationships, emotions, and the inner world.
Maya: Fear-driven illusion or false belief, particularly on the essence level (as opposed to false personality). It is a Hindu (Sanskrit) term referring to the transitory, illusory appearance of the physical world that obscures the spiritual reality from which it originates.
Medium: A channel who specializes in communication with people who have died, as opposed to one who works with higher or more abstract sources.
Mental plane: The fifth plane of creation. Its medium is abstract intellectual energy, emphasizing truth. The infinite soul who incarnated as Lao Tzu taught from this plane.
Mercurial: One of the seven primary body types. Its positive pole is agile; its negative pole is frenetic. Mercurial types are energetic and good communicators. They tend to have dark hair and eyes, and compact bodies.
Messianic plane: The sixth plane of creation. Its medium is abstract emotional energy, emphasizing love. The infinite soul who incarnated as Jesus taught from this plane.
Michael: A group of 1,050 souls who individually completed a series of lifetimes on the physical plane, progressed through the astral plane, and now work together and teach from the causal plane, partly through channels.
Midlife monad: Midlife crisis; an approximately two-year period around the age of thirty-five (although it can occur anywhere from ages twenty-five to forty-five, or even later) in which a person’s genuine role, overleaves, and life path emerge wherever they were obscured by what he or she was conditioned to be. Those who do not successfully complete their midlife monad tend to remain stuck in their restrictive imprinting.
Mode: One of the overleaves. The mode is one’s primary way of operating and achieving one’s goal. The seven modes are reserve, passion, caution, power, perseverance, aggression, and observation.
Monad: An essential physical-plane experience. External monads are completed with another soul, usually in two different lifetimes. An example is the teacher/student monad, in which one intensively explores being a teacher and student. There are seven internal monads in a lifetime that is successfully completed.
Mortification: The negative pole of the obstacle of martyrdom, in which one practices extreme self-denial.
Moving center: One of the seven centers. Its positive pole is enduring; its negative pole is energetic. It is the inner pathway to universal beauty.
Muscle-bound: The negative pole of the martial body type, in which one’s muscles are developed at the expense of flexibility.
Needs: These are nine qualities of life experience that provide satisfaction: security, adventure, freedom, expansion, power, expression, acceptance, communion, and exchange. For each person, three are primary and are listed in priority order on a Michael chart. For example, one person’s primary needs might be exchange, power, and freedom.
Negative (body types): Each body type has either a positive or negative charge, like the two sides of a magnet. The negative types are more like the night: darker, more sensitive and pessimistic, emphasizing the inner, and tending to notice what needs correction. Lunars are sensitive and cool, mercurials can be sarcastic, and martials can be ill-tempered.
Negative pole: A fear-based manifestation of a Michael teachings trait, resulting in destructiveness or limitation.
Obese: The negative pole of the venusian body type, resulting from overindulgence.
Observation: The most common of the seven modes. Its positive pole is clarity; its negative pole is surveillance. In observation mode, one releases one’s energy neutrally.
Obstacle: One of the overleaves. The chief obstacle is the focus of one’s fears and illusions. One can also have a secondary and tertiary obstacle, and most people encounter all the obstacles occasionally. The seven are self-deprecation, arrogance, self-destruction, greed, martyrdom, impatience, and stubbornness.
Obstinacy: The negative pole of the obstacle of stubbornness. It is an unyielding resistance to change despite the pleas of others or extreme consequences.
Old soul: Someone in the fifth of the five main physical-plane soul ages. The old-soul cycle emphasizes lessons about perspective.
Oppression: The negative pole of power mode, in which throwing one’s weight around bears down uncomfortably on others.
Oration: The negative pole of the role of sage, in which one’s expression is on automatic pilot, not anchored in essence.
Ordinal: Relating to the small or specific picture; receptive. Its positive pole is responsive; its negative pole is passive. It is the opposite of cardinal.
Orientation: There are three universal forces: love, truth, and beauty (or pure energy). These correspond with emotions, intellect, and body, or the inspiration, expression, and action axes. Each soul orients in one of them, or works with balancing two of these qualities. Someone with a truth orientation is more likely to be blunt about the truth she perceives, whereas someone oriented in love is more likely to forgive and let go of the trespasses of others. Someone with a beauty orientation is more likely to cultivate his body and enjoy nature; it aligns with the action-axis affinity for physicality and energy.
Overleaves: Seven types of personality traits that “overlay” the essence, chosen to facilitate the purposes of the lifetime. From innermost to outermost, they are: goal, attitude, mode, center, obstacle, body type, and soul age. There are seven of each. The goal influences what we do; the attitude, why we do it; the mode, how we do it; the center, the part of self from which we do it; and the obstacle(s), what tends to block or distort our doing. Body type embodies our doing, and soul age is its perspective, based on the current focus of our development. More generally, overleaves refer to any Michael teachings trait, including role, but technically they refer to those that can change from lifetime to lifetime.
Pallid: The negative pole of the lunar body type, in which one looks anemic and pasty.
Parallel universe: An alternate reality similar to this one in which people make different critical choices and go in different directions as a result.
Passion: One of the seven modes. Its positive pole is self-actualization; its negative pole is identification. In passion mode, one releases one’s energy boundlessly, downward and outward.
Passive: The negative pole of ordinal, as opposed to the positive, responsive. Responsiveness implies engagement. Passive also refers to traits of three body types—lunar, venusian, and jovial—in which their tendency is to remain still rather than move.
Penetration: The positive pole of male energy. It shapes the outer world.
Perception: The positive pole of the attitude of realist, in which one sees facts accurately and evenhandedly.
Perseverance: One of the seven modes. Its positive pole is persistence; its negative pole is immutability. In perseverance, one releases one’s energy steadfastly.
Persistence: The positive pole of perseverance mode, in which one stays with a task worth doing, even when it’s difficult, until it is completed.
Persuasion: The positive pole of the role of warrior, in which one gets others on the “same page” in order to help social structures function more effectively.
Phobia: The negative pole of caution mode, in which one is paralyzed because of a fear of taking the wrong action rather than simply proceeding with care.
Physical center: One of the seven centers. Its positive pole is amoral; its negative pole is erotic.
Physical plane: The densest of the seven planes, where we presently reside.
Planes of creation: Physical, astral, causal, akashic, mental, messianic, and buddhaic. Just as there are seven colors in the rainbow and seven tones in a musical scale, each with a different vibratory rate, there are seven levels of being on the spectrum of creation. The slowest speed of vibration occurs on the physical plane; the fastest, on the buddhaic plane. From the buddhaic plane, energy returns to its source, the Tao.
Planetary sentient: A sentient soul who incarnates as a “creature of reason” on the physical plane of a particular planet. It then ascends through the higher planes of that planet until fully reuniting with the Tao.
Poles: Two aspects of an energy. The positive pole is an energy’s true or love-based manifestation. The negative pole is the distortion or constriction of that energy by fear.
Positive (body types): Each body type has either a positive or negative charge, like the two sides of a magnet. The positive types are more like the day: brighter, less sensitive, more optimistic, emphasizing the outer, and tending to overlook flaws. Solars are sunny, jovials are mirthful, venusians are warm, and saturnians have a can-do attitude.
Positive pole: A love-based manifestation of a Michael teachings trait, resulting in constructiveness and clarity.
Power: One of the seven modes. Its positive pole is authority; its negative pole is oppression. In power mode, one releases one’s energy strongly.
Practicality: The positive pole of the attitude of pragmatist, in which one finds the most workable approach for a particular situation.
Pragmatist: One of the seven attitudes. Its positive pole is practicality; its negative pole is dogmatism. Pragmatists see the world in terms of what works best or most efficiently.
Prejudice: The negative pole of the goal of discrimination, in which one forms an opinion without engaging with and intellectually processing the facts.
Previous cycle: A grand cycle completed by an individual spark before its present one on Earth.
Pride: The positive pole of the obstacle of arrogance, in which one has an inflated sense of self.
Priest: One of the seven essence roles. Its positive pole is compassion; its negative pole is zeal. Priests seek the higher good.
Probabilities: The range of potential future events. At any given moment, a possible future event can be described as having a certain percentage probability, e.g., thirty-seven percent. As people continue to exercise their free will and make choices, that percentage can change.
Purpose: The positive pole of the number one, which brings a directed, constructive intention to any activity.
Quadrate: A configuration of four souls who work together over many lifetimes; also known as quadrant, although technically, a quadrant is one quarter of a quadrate. The positions of a quadrate are love, knowledge, power, and support (or compassion). The first and third positions are strongest.
Radiant: The positive pole of the solar body type, characterized by illuminated, refined beauty.
Realist: One of the seven attitudes. Its positive pole is perception; its negative pole is supposition. Realists view the world in terms of what is; they focus on a situation’s objective facts.
Reason: The negative pole of the intellectual center. It is mechanical, whereas the positive pole, thought, is alive.
Reevaluation: The least common of the seven goals. Its positive pole is atavism or simplicity; its negative pole is withdrawal. It is used for lifetimes spent processing past experiences and integrating previous growth. The original term (via Yarbro) was retardation.
Reincarnation: The idea that the soul lives multiple lifetimes, gaining experience through them.
Reincarnational self: A past-life, simultaneous, or potential-future self; another personality spawned by one’s essence. Each reincarnational self is activated by a discrete aspect of one’s soul.
Rejection: The original term (via Yarbro) for the goal of discrimination.
Repression: The original term (via Yarbro) for reserve mode.
Reserve: One of the seven modes. Its positive pole is restraint; its negative pole is inhibition. In reserve mode, one draws one’s energy inward and upward, in a contained manner. The original term (via Yarbro) was repression.
Resignation: The negative pole of the attitude of stoic. Rather than being at peace with a situation and drawing tranquility from within, one gives up with a feeling of helplessness.
Resonance: The positive pole of the mature soul age, in which one senses the deeper levels of life. Yarbro uses the term cognizance.
Responsive: The positive pole of ordinal, which suggests engagement; its negative pole is passive.
Restraint: The positive pole of reserve mode, in which one contains one’s energy in a gracious, elegant manner.
Retardation: The original term (via Yarbro) for the goal of reevaluation.
Rigidity: The negative pole of the baby soul age, in which rules and procedures are followed blindly. Yarbro uses the term subsumation.
Role: One of the seven types of essences: server, priest, artisan, sage, warrior, king, and scholar. Everyone has a particular role. It defines one’s way of being or fundamental style, not one’s worldly position.
Rugged: The positive pole of the saturnian body type, imparting strength and leadership.
Sacrifice: The positive pole of the obstacle of self-destruction, in which one takes needless risks.
Sage: One of the seven essence roles. Its positive pole is expression; its negative pole is oration. Sages seek insight.
Saturnian: One of the seven primary body types. Its positive pole is rugged; its negative pole is gaunt. Saturnian types tend to have a prominent bone structure and be tall (or at least seem taller than they are). Psychologically, they tend to be steady, enduring, and paternal.
Scholar: One of the seven essence roles. Its positive pole is knowledge, which scholars seek; its negative pole is theory.
Segment: Seven greater clusters, or 175 lifetimes on the same overarching theme, like a college major. For example, a soul might do a segment on animals.
Self-actualization: The positive pole of passion mode, in which one pours oneself out fully, taking complete advantage of a potential.
Self-centeredness: The negative pole of the young soul age, in which individuality is defined in terms of apparent short-term advantage to self. Yarbro uses the term judgmentalization.
Self-deprecation: One of the seven obstacles. Its positive pole is humility; its negative pole is abasement. It is a fear of being inadequate.
Self-destruction: One of the seven obstacles. Its positive pole is sacrifice; its negative pole is immolation. It is a fear of losing control.
Selflessness: The positive pole of the obstacle of martyrdom, in which one suffers needlessly in an attempt to earn worth.
Sensibility: The positive pole of the emotional center, in which one’s ability to feel is fully developed.
Sentience: Consciousness that is self-aware and choice-making. Humans and cetaceans (dolphins and whales) are the two primary sentient species on Earth.
Sentimentality: The negative pole of the emotional center, in which feeling is cloying and open to manipulation.
Server: One of the seven essence roles. Its positive pole is service; its negative pole is bondage. Servers seek the common good. The original term (via Yarbro) was slave.
Service: The positive pole of the role of server, in which one finds joy in helping others in concrete ways.
Sextant: A configuration of six souls who work together over many lifetimes. The positions of a sextant are love, knowledge, power, support (or compassion), eccentric, and integrator. The first and fourth positions are strongest.
Simplicity: The negative pole of the number one, referring to oversimplification. Also, it is an alternate term for the positive pole of the goal of reevaluation.
Skeptic: One of the seven attitudes. Its positive pole is investigation; its negative pole is suspicion. Skeptics view the world with doubt.
Slave: The original term for server, used primarily in the Michael books by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
Sliding: Temporarily moving to another overleaf. Neutral (assimilation axis) overleaves can slide to all others. Overleaves on the three other axes can slide only to their partners on the axis. For example, dominance can slide to submission, and vice versa. Dominance cannot slide to growth, which is on a different axis.
Solar: One of the seven primary body types. Its positive pole is radiant; its negative pole is ethereal. Solar types tend to have slight, delicate bodies and be charismatic, childlike, and cheerful.
Solid role: One of the three low-frequency roles: warrior, king, and scholar.
Sophistication: The positive pole of the goal of discrimination, in which one has done the work of sifting through perceptions, arriving at well-developed taste.
Soul: The part of essence that incarnates and carries past-life memories; lower astral self.
Soul age: The soul’s stage of development, especially relative to the physical plane. The five main physical-plane soul ages are infant, baby, young, mature, and old. Each soul age is divided into seven levels. Transcendental and infinite soul ages occur after completing the physical plane and rarely manifest on it.
Soul-age level: One of seven subdivisions of a soul age, e.g., a person might be described as being third-level young.
Spirit guide: Nonphysical soul who supports a person’s growth, helps him complete his life tasks, and in general provides the spiritual assistance he needs. Many people are spirit guides to others when they are discarnate.
Spiritual path: A way of living that emphasizes the growth of conscious awareness, particularly relative to the expression of agape, or unconditional love.
Spiritualist: One of the seven attitudes. Its positive pole is verification; its negative pole is faith. Spiritualists view the world in terms of its possibilities.
Stability: The positive pole of the number two, in which a creation works well and withstands stresses.
Stagnation: The original term (via Yarbro) for the goal of flow.
Stoic: One of the seven attitudes. Its positive pole is tranquility; its negative pole is resignation. Stoics view the world with serenity, feeling that outer events aren’t of primary importance.
Stubbornness: One of the seven obstacles. Its positive pole is determination; its negative pole is obstinacy. It is a fear of change.
Subjectivity: The negative pole of the mature soul age, in which one’s views are temporal rather than being rooted in what is real. Yarbro uses the term ratiocination.
Submission: One of the seven goals. Its positive pole is devotion; its negative pole is subservience. It is used for lifetimes that emphasize supporting a larger cause.
Subservience: The negative pole of the goal of submission, in which one works for a leader and/or cause without a clear sense of self and one’s own choice in the matter.
Support circle: A configuration containing twelve positions that offer the various kinds of support that each individual needs, making one’s journey through life easier. The positions are love, knowledge, compassion, mentor, beauty, child, humor, discipline, anchor, healer, enlightenment, and muse.
Supposition: The negative pole of the attitude of realist, in which one supposes how things are rather than directly perceiving them. Therefore, one has difficulty determining which facts are most important.
Surveillance: The negative pole of observation mode, in which one minds other people’s business.
Suspension: The positive pole of the goal of flow, in which one is carried along by the deeper currents of life.
Suspicion: The negative pole of the attitude of skeptic, in which one doesn’t allow evidence to allay one’s doubts.
Tao: (Pronounced dow) The All That Is. The term usually refers to the dimensionless ground of being rather than to its expression in the manifest universe’s seven planes of creation.
Task companion: An essence one teams up with in the beginning of a grand cycle (or during the infant-soul cycle) to help with each lifetime’s life task, either by having the complement of one’s life task on the physical plane, or by being a spirit guide. It is the second-closest bond an essence can have, after that of essence twin. An essence-twin relationship is inward-looking, whereas a task companion relationship is outward-looking.
Task mate: An essence who was one’s task companion during a previous grand cycle.
Telepathy: The negative pole of the higher intellectual center, in which one receives thoughts without integrating with the total truth of a situation.
Theory: The negative pole of the role of scholar, in which one is separate from experience, projecting intellectual ideas about it rather than directly connecting with it.
Thought: The positive pole of the intellectual center, in which one considers information in an organic and alive manner rather than mechanically.
Tranquility: The positive pole of the attitude of stoic, in which inner peace buffers one from external stresses to some extent.
Transcendental soul: The incarnation of a representative of a reunited entity, e.g., Gandhi. The transcendental soul is a catalyst for social transformation.
Tyranny: The negative pole of the role of king, in which one feels entitled to have one’s own way and tell others what to do.
Undirectedness: The negative pole of the old-soul age, in which one goes to seed and loses the ability to accomplish. Yarbro uses the term self-envelopation.
Vanity: The negative pole of the obstacle of arrogance, in which one vastly overinflates one’s own value at the expense of seeing the value of others.
Venusian: One of the seven primary body types. Its positive pole is voluptuous; its negative pole is obese. Venusian types are sensuous, warm, and easygoing. They tend to have olive skin, dark hair, and rounded bodies.
Verification: The positive pole of the attitude of spiritualist, in which one not only perceives inspirational possibilities but determines the possibility of their being achieved.
Versatility: The negative pole of the number three. It is the potential of creating an effective enterprise without the accomplishment of it.
Voluptuous: The positive pole of the venusian body type, in which one is sensually well developed, able to enjoy life’s pleasures in a balanced way.
Voracity: The negative pole of the obstacle of greed, in which one has unbridled appetites.
Warrior: One of the seven essence roles. Its positive pole is persuasion; its negative pole is coercion. Warriors seek challenge.
Wiry: The positive pole of the martial body type, in which one is lean and tough, with good muscle tone.
Withdrawal: The negative pole of the goal of reevaluation, in which one becomes hermit-like and uncommunicative.
Young soul: Someone in the third of the five main physical-plane soul ages. The young-soul cycle emphasizes lessons about worldly success.
Zeal: The negative pole of the role of priest, in which one is carried away by one’s ideas about the higher good and perhaps forces them on others.
