What are Spiritual Parts?

I'm sure you've heard yourself say "A part of me wants this, but another part of me wants that." Or you've felt two conflicting urges - to go out with your friends, or to stay home and rest. To be bold or to be shy. To be safe or to be free.

In Spiritual Parts Work, we see the world as brimming with spiritual life. These voices and urges, these "parts", are seen as living spirits. Thoughts, feelings, urges, beliefs, inner voices, habits, emotions. Ancestors, guides, angels, elementals, deities, archetypes. They're all spirits living in our personal ecosystems, and we can build healing relationships with them. They're not just "inner voices", and they don't just live "in our heads". They are living entities that choose to be involved with us. These spirits are very active in our lives: some are protectors, some are managers, some are guides, some hold our pain. They are very interested in us, and we should be interested in them, too.

From our bodies, to our minds, to our souls, we are a kaleidoscope of interconnected living parts. We are not single individuals, but ecosystems of spiritual beings.

Why Use the Word "Parts"?

In English, "part" is the way we naturally speak about ourselves: "A part of me wants to say sorry, but another part of me is too proud."

We could just as easily say, "I hear a spirit telling me to apologize, but I hear another spirit telling me to be proud."

I have chosen to use the word "part" for ease of communication, but I am using it in an expanded, spiritual sense. Parts are spirits - they are real, alive, and have agency.

You and I are "parts" of the ecosystem of earth.

Your guides and protectors are "parts" of the spiritual ecosystem of you.

In the Egyptian myth of Osiris, we see a powerful allegory to Spiritual Parts Work. Osiris underwent great trauma at the hands of a family member. His brother Set attacked him, dismembered him, and scattered Osiris's parts across Egypt. In this scattered form, Osiris was powerless. But with the help of Isis, the goddess of magic, Osiris was reassembled and brought back to life. He became the great god of life, death, rebirth, fertility, and vegetation.

After the shattering of trauma, we can become scattered and powerless. Our parts can become weighed down, polarized by pain and conflict. With a little magic, we can bring our parts back together into harmony and create miracles.

Many human cultures have recognized that we are not single individuals - that each of us is a collection of many voices, spirits, and beings. The Egyptians believed we have nine souls. The Greeks believed Socrates was born with a guardian spirit who whispered advice into his ear. Early Christians believed we were divided into body, spirit, and soul. Across time, across geography, across culture, the human experience has been an experience of multiplicity.

I call this animism: the belief that the universe, inner and outer, is populated by conscious living beings. The stones, rivers, and clouds are people. The trees, deer, and fish are people. The dead are people and the living are people. Spirits are people. Sickness is a spirit, health is a spirit. Anger, joy, and sadness are all spirits. The whole universe is an interconnected web of spirits and living beings.

This recognition of multiplicity never disappeared - it has survived even into the world's modern religions. Buddhists believe that we have six different consciousnesses. In Islam, every soul is born alongside four guardian angels. Christian Evangelicals invite Jesus to live in their hearts. Multiplicity of soul and spirit are everywhere. We aren't just solitary stars, shining alone in the darkness. We are constellations of spiritual beings.