Human beings have forever been concerned with ownership. One of the primary concerns of the ego (self-concept) is: what is mine vs. what is yours. The problem with the concept of ownership is that it has both a potential positive side and a potential negative side. To own something is to have that thing in that it belongs to and with you. It implies some form of responsibility towards that thing. This is actually the positive side of ownership. It is an inclusion-based concept. For example, in a state of love, you own all things as a part of yourself. To love something is to take it as part of yourself.  This means it automatically belongs with and to you and so you have it and have some measure of responsibility towards it’s wellbeing. Where the concept of ownership becomes negative is that people often take it to mean that you have complete power over that thing that you have. There is a refusal to acknowledge things like the autonomy, agency, desires or wellbeing of that thing, especially when they differ from your own.

I’m going to come right out the gate and hit you with a universal truth. Because all things in this universe (including you) are all part of the same universal energy, and because you are a fractal within the greater universe, you own everything in existence. You have everything within you, in that it belongs to and with you. It is a part of you, whether you recognize it or not. And at the exact same time, in another sense, you own nothing. It is impossible to own anything that you encounter. No place, no person, no thing. All things in this time space reality that you call physical life are separate, unique, autonomous and have differentiated will. 

Currently, people are very limited in terms of their understanding of existence. It is not understood that an inanimate object has a higher purpose for existing, has consciousness (even though its consciousness is different to the kind of consciousness humans experience) has its own autonomy and destiny and therefore, it even has its own preferences, needs and desires. You could look at an inanimate object as being like a very different species within collective consciousness. The same goes for places. Therefore, to be in a place of awareness and alignment, you must apply the same understanding that you have about the idea of owning people to the idea of owning places or owning things. Back when people were even more out of alignment relative to the idea of ownership, they thought slavery was a perfectly fine thing and in alignment because it was common practice to own people. To treat them as if they have no independent will, no autonomy, no agency and as if they do not have best interests that are separate from your own. Remember that so many human laws are designed specifically to establish and protect ownership. And at the time, even the law saw it as good and right for one person to own another person.

Parenthood, as it is in human society today is still a form of temporary negative ownership over another person. A child is at the mercy of the awareness and attunement of their parents, whom they are thought to belong to. In the future, you will see this shift in awareness about ownership extend to children and also to other species. Much of pet ownership today is a new form of slavery. It is inter-species slavery. An animal is at the mercy of the attunement of their owner. If you have any doubts about this, just watch a beta fish that is isolated in a clear fish bowl. Or watch a dog who spends its life trapped in a backyard kennel. Many of you who are becoming more and more conscious are already finding yourself in a kind of existential moral conundrum relative to the idea of pet ownership in general.

If you want to understand the positive form of ownership, watch my video titled: Own People. And apply what I say in that video to all people, places and things. But for the sake of expanding your awareness and really grasping this concept, you would benefit by accepting that you can’t really own anything. All things that you call ‘yours’ will be left behind here when you die. All you can do, is to be a steward for other people, places and things here for a time. Begin to think of yourself as a steward. All things belong to the universe at large. Part of your own destiny and best interests in your lifetime will be to look after, manage, be responsible for, serve and protect other specific people, places and things. We may serve as the sole steward of something, or we may share that function with others. Each and every one of us is a steward of the earth we call home. And to be honest, many of us are doing a terrible job at that. There is a beautiful kind of respect and care for all things in existence that originates from adopting this awareness about all things.

Not so long ago, I stayed in a house that belonged to a world traveler. Sleeping in his house was like sleeping in a condensed form of the entire world. So many ancient and new objects accrued from all over the world. And almost none of them wanted to be or should have been in that house. From their perspective, they had been kidnapped and imprisoned. From their perspective, sitting on those shelves and kept in those boxes, they had been denied their purpose for existing. Under the surface impressiveness of the place, was this undercurrent of ‘wrongness’ relative to what has been done and what was being done with the objects themselves. And whether the ‘owner’ of that house or the people who entered that house knew it or not, that energetic reality was greatly negatively affecting their own health and life experiences. We live in a reality based on the law of mirroring, also called the law of attraction. We live in a reality based on the law of cause and effect. You cannot partake in the negative expression of ownership without getting the same experience back. This world traveler was not conscious enough to see this mirroring of what he had been doing for years inherent the displacement and pain that was forced on him when his own children decided to take him away from his home, pick it apart to sell each part and put him in a nursing home against his will. Because it was in their best interests alone to do so with him; and with the things he was so attached to.

For this reason, it is critical whenever you are buying something or whenever you are taking something from a place, to have attunement relative to whether a place or a thing wants to be with you. And whether it is in that thing’s best interests to be with you. Most people simply decide to ‘own things’ because they, themselves want to. For the average person today, they take a crystal from the earth with no concern about whether it is in the best interests of that crystal to be pulled from the earth. When they buy an object, they do so because they want it and they like it. They have no attunement to whether that object wants to be with them or to whether it is in the best interest of that object to be with them. The average person keeps objects even though it would be in the object’s best interests to be with someone else. This is in fact the reason why I am not currently a steward of any indoor plants. I would love for my entire house to be filled with plants indoors. But, with my current lifestyle and life choices, it would not be in the best interests of any plant I have yet come across to be inside my home. 

There can be serious consequences for succumbing to the negative expression of ownership. Many of the people who have broken into ancient tombs in Egypt have discovered this the hard way. One such place that illustrates this point beautifully is Hawaii. Hawaii is unique in that it is so very rare that anything (shells, stones, sand, plants, etc.) wants to be taken off of any of those islands. It is so out of alignment to take most things from those islands specifically that people experience negative circumstances befalling them almost immediately when they take possession of something from there that does not want to be in their possession or away from the islands. This has gone so far on occasion, that I have instructed people to fly objects back to where they were found or to mail them to someone who can do so for them.

Any person, place or thing should be where it can fulfill its unique mission and purpose and reason for being.  And all things have a mission, purpose and reason for being. Many Native American tribes understood this, as well as understood that you cannot own the earth you walk upon. These tribes have a giveaway ceremony called a potlatch. It is a ritual practiced to offer or give away without attachment or regret.  In this ritual, things were not given because they were no longer needed or wanted.  Instead, it was common for a person to give away his or her most prized possession if he or she knew that the item would fulfill its purpose better elsewhere.  All things in existence were understood to play a role in creation and thus have a particular mission. To many Native Americans, to have something sitting in a box or in the attic or closet was to deny a thing of its mission and purpose. And also to deny other people, whose wellbeing would better be served by it. So, the thing someone else would value or the cherished thing whose mission of service would be better completed with someone else, was given to that person. To do otherwise was to dishonor the medicine of not only the item/tool itself but also the maker of the item, if the item did in fact have one.

To sum up today’s teaching, you cannot truly ever own anything you come into contact with. All you can do is to enjoy it and be with it for a time. All you can do, is to experience the great honor and rewards of being a steward for certain people, places and things here. All things in existence have agency, autonomy, independent will, desires, needs and best interests that may be different from your own. You are merely in a relationship with all things. And if you want a truly in-alignment and rich life experience, take it upon yourself to caretake and do your best relative to each of these relationships that you have with a person, a place or a thing. But I warn you, the minute you start to approach people, places and things in this way, people, places and things will literally come to you from everywhere, eager to be with you and eager to be in your possession.