The Karmic File — The Seven Folders of the Soul

Scars Without a Memory

The first folder is unusually heavy. Inside you find yellowed maps, old photographs, ship tickets, pages torn from travel diaries and a few letters written in unfamiliar languages. Among the documents there is a photograph of a narrow cobbled square surrounded by old houses. A bell tower rises in the distance, and by a stone well a woman in a dark dress waits with a basket in her hand. You look at the picture and for a moment you have the strange feeling that you know the place.

Have you ever arrived in an unfamiliar city and felt an inexplicable closeness to it from the very first minutes? You walk the streets, look at the buildings and suddenly it seems to you that you know what will appear around the next corner. It might be an old harbour, a medieval square, a monastery, a mountain village or a house whose windows you feel you saw long ago.

A similar feeling can arise when you meet a particular culture. One person feels an inexplicable pull towards Ancient Egypt, another is enchanted by Japan, a third dreams of Italy without knowing where that love came from. And there are people who hear the melody of an old instrument for the first time and their eyes fill with tears, as if the music reminded them of something personal.

Let us travel for a moment to a port town in the seventeenth century. A young woman lives in a small house near the sea. Every morning she opens the window and looks at the arriving ships, because she is waiting for the return of a man who promised to come back before winter. The years pass, the harbour changes, the ships keep coming and going, and she still recognises every footstep in the street, hoping that at last she will hear the familiar voice.

Imagine that a picture like this appears in a symbolic regression experience. Perhaps you will smell the salt air, hear the creak of wooden boats or see the silhouette of a person standing on the shore. The most interesting part will be the feeling this scene awakens in you. Waiting, longing, belonging, sadness or a wish to set off somewhere?

Our memory, imagination and emotions can create astonishingly vivid experiences. And even when we take such images as symbols, they can lead us towards something essential. Perhaps the person who keeps dreaming of the sea is really longing for freedom. Another, enchanted by ancient libraries, may be searching for knowledge, and a third, drawn to a particular country, may be discovering in its culture qualities they want to develop in themselves.

Unexplained fears are just as curious. Why does one person feel uneasy about deep water, another feel uncomfortable in tall buildings, and a third feel strong anxiety at every parting? The possible reasons vary and often belong to the present life, but the images we connect our fears with can help us understand our own reactions better.

The first folder reveals something interesting: even when we do not know where a feeling comes from, we can explore what it means for us today. Perhaps the most important clue is hidden in whatever our thoughts keep returning to without anyone inviting them.

If you want to continue this exploration, in the room Karma of the Game of the Soul you can look for the symbolic links between old stories and what you are living now. Ask yourself which place, era or culture you feel a special pull towards and what you would like to discover there.

As you look through the rest of the documents, you notice that one of the photographs is folded in two. You open it and see two people facing each other. Their faces are unfamiliar, but the way they look at each other reminds you of someone.

It is time for the second folder.

The People from the Old File

The second folder is tied with a faded silk ribbon. Between the pages you find a letter that was never sent. The handwriting is beautiful, but in places the ink is smudged. Whoever wrote it clearly started over several times, crossed out words and tried again to explain their feelings. The last sentence reads: “If fate brings us together again, I hope that this time we will have more courage.”

How familiar that sounds, doesn’t it?

Imagine Vienna in the nineteenth century. A young woman from a wealthy family falls in love with a musician who lacks a suitable social position. They meet in secret after the concerts, walk along the river and dream of a life together. Her family, however, has already decided whom she must marry. One day she is given the chance to leave with her beloved, but she is afraid of losing everything familiar. She chooses duty, and he leaves the city. Years later she still keeps the programme of the last concert where she heard him play.

Now imagine another story, from our own time. A woman meets a man she feels strongly drawn to from their very first conversation. Closeness grows quickly between them, but the circumstances are complicated. One of them is already committed, the other is afraid of change, or the two of them live in different countries. Promises begin, then waiting, partings and new meetings, until the relationship slowly comes to resemble a story that nobody manages to bring to a happy ending.

In spiritual ideas about karmic connections, relationships like these can be seen as repeated meetings between souls who carry an unfinished shared story. The idea is romantic and very appealing, especially when a person has feelings they find hard to explain.

Yet there is one question that deserves more attention than all the tales of fated meetings: what does this person really awaken in us?

Love, trust and a wish for closeness? Fear, jealousy and constant insecurity? Or the familiar wish to finally receive attention from someone who gives it with difficulty?

A strong attraction can be the beginning of a beautiful relationship, but it can also lead us back into relationships where we are constantly trying to earn someone’s love. The sense of a fated bond by itself places no obligation on us to stay beside a person who hurts us.

The idea of a “karmic meeting” takes on a more interesting meaning when we use it as a question to ourselves. What do I recognise in this relationship? Which of my fears wakes up? What is hard for me to say? What do I expect the other person to do in my place?

This person may remind us of an old love story, and it is just as possible that they awaken feelings we know from childhood, from earlier relationships or from family life. Exploring these connections can help us understand why certain people have such a strong influence on us.

And the most curious part is that such meetings reach far beyond love. We may feel an inexplicable closeness to a friend, a colleague or a stranger with whom conversation begins so naturally, as if it were the continuation of a meeting from many years ago. We may also feel a strong dislike for someone without knowing why.

In the rooms Love and Compatibility on FatedWays you can explore your relationship with a particular person, the mutual attraction, the difficulties and the possibilities ahead of the bond. And in Karma you can turn your attention to the repeating roles and the lessons you symbolically link with such meetings.

At the end of the second folder you find a small note: “The names change. The story goes on.”

Beneath it three different dates are written, more than a century apart.

Why would the same plot appear again and again?

The Story That Repeats Itself

The third folder looks like a real case file. It gathers accounts of different people who lived in distant eras. The first document tells of a court official who sacrificed his own position to save a friend. The second describes a woman who devoted her life to caring for her family. The third is the story of a merchant who gave money to his relatives again and again and in the end was left without the means for his own needs.

Different people, different times and one remarkable similarity. Each of them put other people’s wishes before their own, until their own possibilities slowly ran out.

We can find a similar plot in modern life too. Someone tries hard to be a good partner, always understands, forgives and compromises. After yet another disappointment they decide they will never again allow such a relationship. They meet someone new who seems completely different, and little by little they start neglecting their own wishes once more.

Another person changes several jobs because they are always loaded with other people’s duties. At each new job they promise themselves to set boundaries, but after a few months their colleagues once again know they can count on them for everything. If they were handed the keys to the building as well, they would probably start unlocking it in the morning so as not to trouble the security guard.

In karmic teachings, repetitions like these are seen as life lessons the soul keeps returning to until it finds a new way to respond. Psychology explains many of them through learned beliefs, habits and familiar patterns of relationship. Whichever reading feels closer to us, repetition deserves attention, because it reveals the link between our expectations and our choices.

Let us imagine a woman who grew up believing that love is earned through constant care for others. As an adult she may go on measuring her own worth by how useful she is. She may even feel guilty when she refuses to help or chooses to do something pleasant for herself.

At some point this woman may realise that her relationships develop in a similar way because she herself steps into the familiar role again and again. The discovery may be unpleasant, and at the same time it may give her the chance to change her behaviour.

Of course, not every repetition is the result of our own choices. Circumstances, other people and chance also take part in our lives. But when we notice a lasting pattern, we can explore what depends on us.

That is exactly why I would like you to look at your own stories. Have several of your relationships ended in a similar way? Do you keep turning out to be the person who rescues everyone? Perhaps you find it hard to ask for the reward you have earned, or you put off important decisions because you are afraid of disappointing someone.

In the room The Lineage you can explore whether such patterns are linked to family beliefs and inherited ideas about love, duty and success. The Crossroads will help you look at the choice in front of you now, and Letting Go can be useful when you are ready to part with a behaviour that no longer serves you.

In the last document of the third folder you find a strange detail. Next to every story the same word is written: “Promise”.

Who made it, to whom, and why does it go on having such an influence for so long?

The Vow That Still Binds Me

The fourth folder is sealed with dark red wax. Under the seal you find an old parchment with a few words on it: “I swear never again to abandon the person I love.”

Imagine a small mountain settlement a few centuries ago. A young woman has to leave her home to marry a man from a distant town. Her younger sister cries and begs her to stay. The woman leaves, but soon afterwards she learns that her sister has died after a serious illness. Although she could not have foreseen what happened, she spends the rest of her life feeling that she betrayed the person closest to her.

In a symbolic karmic investigation, a story like this can be linked to a vow never again to leave the people who need us. Imagine what life would look like for someone who carries such a belief. They may stay in relationships out of a sense of duty, be afraid to move to another town or turn down opportunities that would take them away from their family.

Promises have enormous power, especially when they are tied to love, loss or guilt. Some we say out loud, others we adopt as inner rules after a painful experience. “I will never again let anyone hurt me.” “I will always take care of my loved ones.” “I will be strong and never ask for help.” “I will not trust easily.”

Beliefs like these can help us through a difficult period. Over time, though, life changes, and the old rule may begin to limit our possibilities.

Promises connected with money are especially interesting. Imagine a merchant who loses everything he owns after a failed deal. In his despair he decides never to take a risk again. Years later he has enough means, yet he goes on living with a constant fear of loss. If we look at this story as a karmic symbol, it can lead us to the question of why financial security never seems enough for some people.

Another vow may be connected with love. Someone who has lived through a painful betrayal decides never again to let anyone come close. When they meet a partner capable of sincere closeness, the old fear rises again and starts dictating their behaviour.

Karmic debt is often presented as an obligation that has to be paid off through suffering. A spiritual story, however, takes on a much more human meaning when we use it to ask ourselves whether we are still punishing ourselves for something that ended long ago.

Perhaps the vow that holds you back today was made at a very real moment of your present life. Perhaps it is connected with a family story, a loss or a disappointment. Or perhaps, in a symbolic regression, an image from a distant era will appear and help you understand your own feelings.

If you recognise limits like these, you can continue with the rooms Karma, Letting Go and Money in the Game of the Soul. Each will offer you a different view of the beliefs that shape your decisions.

Before you close the fourth folder, you notice a small note on the back of the parchment. Someone has written: “What else has it brought with it?”

After so many promises and debts, you start hoping that at least the next folder holds something pleasant.

The Forgotten Inheritance

The fifth folder is different from the others. In it you find beautiful drawings, sheets of music, descriptions of old instruments, recipes for healing brews and sketches of buildings that were never built. A small letter is tucked between the pages: “What you can do is part of your story too.”

Imagine Italy in the Renaissance. A young painter spends his days in a workshop, studying colour, proportion and the human body. He has no studio of his own and often works on commissions for other masters, but he gives every free minute to drawing. One day he is given the chance to create a work of his own. He dies fairly young, and many of his plans are never realised.

Now imagine a person of our own time who has loved drawing since childhood but never studied art. They work in a completely different profession, have a family, obligations and plenty of reasons to put the wish off. When they finally pick up the brush, they feel a joy they can hardly explain.

Spiritual ideas about past lives allow that the soul may carry over gathered abilities and talents. From the point of view of present-day knowledge, skills develop through individual aptitude, learning, practice and the environment we live in. Yet the symbolic idea of a forgotten inheritance is beautiful, because it turns us towards the question of which possibilities we have not used yet.

Perhaps you feel a natural pull towards music, languages, dance, history or writing. Perhaps you are good at understanding people, organising complex tasks, creating beautiful spaces or finding solutions when everyone else has already given up.

It is also interesting when an ability shows itself fairly late. A person may discover a love for the piano after fifty, start painting after retiring or learn a new language because they suddenly felt the wish to travel. Age often turns out to be far less of an obstacle than the belief that we have already missed the right moment.

If we see our gifts as a symbolic inheritance, we can ask ourselves what an imaginary journey into the past would show us. Would a library appear, a musical instrument, a garden of healing plants, a stage, a laboratory or a small workshop? And which of these images would awaken our curiosity most strongly?

The most important thing is to connect what we experience with our present life. If the image of an old musical instrument moves you, perhaps you have long dreamed of making music. If you see a person writing books, you may carry a story you want to tell. And if a traveller appears, perhaps the time has come to give more room to your wish to get to know the world.

In the room Gifts on FatedWays you can explore your abilities and potential, and The Crossroads can help you look at the possibilities for developing them.

The fifth folder brings a pleasant surprise: the karmic file can hold inspiration too. One question remains — what will you do with the gifts you feel so strongly drawn to?

As you put the documents away, a small key falls from the bottom of the folder. The note attached to it reads: “For what you still cannot forgive yourself.”

The Secret I Have Not Yet Forgiven Myself

The sixth folder is locked. The key turns with difficulty, and when you lift the lid you find only a few documents. Among them is an old letter written by someone who clearly wanted to explain a decision but never found the courage to send it.

Imagine a small European town in wartime. A man is given the chance to leave a dangerous area together with his family. A friend asks him to stay and help a group of people who have no way to leave. The man chooses to save his own loved ones. Years later he learns that his friend was killed, and he begins to blame himself for his decision.

We can look at this story in many ways. One person will see a hard moral choice in it, another will understand the father’s fear for his family, a third will wonder what they themselves would have done in such circumstances.

The most interesting thing is how a feeling of guilt can go on affecting a person long after the event itself. Memory keeps the painful moment, and imagination keeps offering different versions of what happened. “If I had stayed…” “If I had told the truth…” “If I had chosen the other path…”

Almost everyone carries questions like these. You may regret a relationship you ended, a friendship you lost, words spoken in anger or an opportunity you gave up. Even years later a person may go on judging an old decision with the experience they have today.

In a karmic reading, a feeling of guilt can be pictured through a story from a past life in which the soul did not manage to put right its mistake. Such a symbolic tale, however, gives us the chance to look at forgiveness and responsibility in the present.

Because there is an essential difference between admitting our mistake, repairing whatever consequences we can, and spending the rest of our lives punishing ourselves.

Imagine a woman who ended a long relationship years ago because she was unhappy. Her partner took the separation hard, and little by little she came to believe that she has no right to new happiness. When she meets the right person, she feels guilty, as if a good relationship would mean she had forgotten the pain she caused.

Another person may feel guilty for leaving their home town, for choosing a different profession from the one their family expected, or for refusing to fulfil someone else’s wishes.

Our old decisions deserve understanding in the context of the time when we made them. Back then we had certain knowledge, possibilities and circumstances. Today we can draw a lesson, take responsibility and make a different choice.

If the sixth folder has stirred a personal memory, in the rooms Letting Go, The Lineage and Karma you can continue reflecting on guilt, forgiveness and the beliefs that shape your relationships.

The most important document in this folder is the last one. On a small slip of paper someone has written: “The sentence has been served. Why are you still carrying it out?”

You read the words once more and feel that the next folder may turn out to be the most important of all.

The Last Page

The seventh folder has been set apart from the rest. It has no seal, no lock and no warning. You open it and find a few sheets that gather stories resembling the ones you have already read.

A woman who waited her whole life for her beloved to return. A person who sacrificed their own wishes to be useful to others. A man who never managed to forgive himself for an old decision. A painter who left his most important pictures unfinished. Every story looks different, yet in all of them there is one shared wish — to be given the chance of a new ending.

Imagine you could return to one of the important moments of your own life. Perhaps you would choose the day you kept your feelings to yourself, even though you wanted to express them. Or the moment you stayed in a relationship that no longer brought you joy. Perhaps you would go back to a decision that changed your professional path, or to the time you gave up a dream because someone convinced you that you would not succeed.

What would you do differently?

This question lies at the heart of the idea of completing a karmic cycle. Spiritual teachings speak of lessons the soul learns through different lives. In a symbolic reading we can see these lessons as a chance to become aware of repeating patterns and choose how to continue.

Perhaps you have spent a long time trying to earn the love of someone who was never ready to give it to you. Today you can turn your attention to relationships where you receive respect and mutual care. Perhaps you are used to putting everyone’s needs before your own, yet little by little you are beginning to understand that your wishes deserve a place in your life too.

You may have spent years waiting for the perfect moment to start writing, painting, travelling or changing your professional direction. Or perhaps you already realise that this moment will come only when you yourself decide to take the first step.

No single choice can change everything in one day. Old habits take time, and some circumstances of life depend on the people around us too. But every new decision gives us the chance to create a different story, little by little.

As you leaf through the last folder, you find a sheet that looks completely blank. You hold it up to the light and notice a few faint lines written at the bottom.

“All previous pages have been kept. The next one is waiting for its author.”

You think about how much time you have spent searching for the reasons behind your old experiences. You have tried to understand why certain people came into your life, why you went through certain losses and what you could have done differently. Some of these questions may never receive a final answer. Others will gradually find their place in your story.

And the blank page goes on waiting for you.

Perhaps that is the greatest discovery in the karmic file. The soul may carry many stories, but the person living today has the power to make a new choice.

And if you once made a promise that now limits you, perhaps it is time to look at it again. If you have lost a love, you can let your heart get to know a new one. If you gave up a gift of yours, you can give it a chance. If you carry guilt for an old decision, you can look for a way to make peace with yourself.

The end of one story may turn out to be the beginning of another, much closer to the person you have become.