Ascension is an amazing phenomenon that is well worth understanding. When you are clear about what it is, your ability to align with it can set you on a powerful course of accelerated evolution and spiritual development. Yet ascension is a term that is sometimes difficult to grasp because its many definitions lack sufficient context. I find that the easiest way to understand ascension is to define it in the simplest, broadest context possible.

From the day we are born, we are tracked by our age. Throughout childhood, our viability as human beings is measured by what we do and when we do it. This measuring stick follows us through our entire lives, as some sort of ominous dictator that shadows our every move.

At the beginning of my work with Telstar, I was offered this one simple piece of advice: “The best thing you can do for yourself is to forget how old you are.” I immediately saw the wisdom in this simple suggestion, and it worked incredibly well until I had two children. It starts at conception with questions from perfect strangers like, “How far along are you?” and “When is your baby due?”

It’s like we can’t figure out how to place the child without knowing its age, even before it leaves the womb!

There are so many questions inherent to our life on planet Earth. The greatest mystery we face is how to resolve the daily dilemma of duality. How do we reconcile the ever-present conflict between good and bad, right and wrong, love and hate, etc.?

But the question goes even deeper than this. If God is love, then why is there suffering? If God represents unconditional, divine love for every human being, then why do some people struggle in the most dire of circumstances while others seem to be gifted with unrelenting good luck?

The explanations for these quandaries are many. Some say it’s a matter of karma, where people suffer the consequences of their actions in future lifetimes. Others say that planet Earth is really a school where we are sent to learn important lessons about right from wrong. And then there are the religions that purport that God is testing us to see if we can follow certain rules that will lead to our reward or punishment, depending on how well we do.

Some people believe that it is important to experience terrible circumstances so that we will learn to appreciate the positive and seek it out. These are the people that often believe that we choose our circumstances, no matter how bad, in order to evolve.

But what if all of these explanations are wrong? What if there is something else that we haven’t even thought of?

Angels are one of the most profound and beautiful gifts that are provided for each of us, as a sign of God’s divine love. We each have what are referred to as guardian angels. I like to think of them as guiding angels or angelic friends. Their relationship to each of us is deeply personal, and a product of the fact that divine, omnipresent love is always with us.

Sometimes people don’t believe that such guiding forces of light and love exist around them personally. This is generally the result of a false sense of unworthiness, or the belief that there is no visible sign of such infinite benevolence in a person’s life. Let’s address these two misconceptions.

The first misconception, that one is unworthy, is factually false. If you are alive, then you are absolutely considered worthy to be here. In spite of any person’s perceived mistakes, God’s love still shines with infinite brightness upon every living soul, and help is always available to a sincere heart. For those who don’t believe that they have special angels supporting them, because they see no visible sign of such a thing, let me offer you a few tips to help you understand how to work with your angels effectively

All too often, we tend to approach our personal evolution as though it is only about our seemingly separate selves. But what if our individual evolution affects the entire planet?  You already know that when people suffer, it contributes the energy of that suffering to the planetary whole. So if we each make the effort to evolve towards peace and happiness in our individual lives, then clearly that contributes a positive, uplifting energy into the same planetary whole.

Why not think of our world as holding an ecological balance of consciousness and energy? This would certainly suggest that collectively we are vastly out of balance, since the consciousness and energy of pain and suffering far outweighs that of harmony and peace. Do you realize that we can each become a significant player in Earth’s evolution by contributing a joyful, happy energy into this out-of-balance larger whole? The only way to do this authentically is to strive to improve our individual lives to become lives that bring us joy.

Let’s use a simple image to illustrate this point. Imagine that the color grey represents the energy of pain, suffering, and human depression. Now imagine that the color yellow represents happiness. If we could draw a global map of Earth’s atmosphere of human consciousness using these two colors, what would that map look like?