The understanding that the soul of Marguerite was in fact Stephen’s mother in his present incarnation actually came to me when driving one afternoon—processing the story so far. Stephen had seen how Marguerite’s child had been conceived and how she related to Dominique long before he realized that she was his mother—then and now. Once we had made the connection between Marguerite and his mother (present day), Stephen was then able to connect Richard to his father in this incarnation. When I shared my revelation with him, it was like the intuitive flood gates opened.
He knew he had been in the lifetime in France from both Tracy’s past life regression and from his own vision of himself as the Captain of the King’s Guard Unit. Other than that, we knew very little of the role he had played. It was clear now that he had been the child that Marguerite gave up. His father, Richard Collier had been a wealthy merchant, unwilling to divorce the woman who he passed off as the mother of his son. His wife’s family was connected to the royal family and as she was a relative of King Francis I, it would have been professional suicide for Richard to abandon his wife. Marguerite did indeed give the baby up and did not see him or Richard for many years as Richard’s business took him to a coastal town where his merchant ships docked.
The child, Henri, was sent to the palace to live at a very young age, essentially abandoned to nannies at the palace. Henri was lonely. He did not see his father often but was educated alongside the King’s children, Henry, Francis, Magdalene, Charles and Margaret. Much of Henri’s life was spent at Chateau d ‘Amboise where the royal family lived a good portion of the time. In fact, Henri was to become the Captain of the Guard attached to Henry and his wife, Catherine de ’Medici.
Henri’s “mother”, Isabelle, eventually died in the asylum and was buried in the cemetery in Loudun, bringing Henri back to the village where he was conceived and, unbeknownst to him, closer to his real mother, Marguerite.
When connecting with this part of the story, Stephen felt Henri’s loneliness on a very intimate level. As Henri, he had grown up and been educated in such opulent surroundings, but had never felt connected. It was reminiscent of his childhood in this incarnation. Stephen is the youngest of six children. Despite being surrounded by siblings, he had felt disconnected growing up and had experienced a similar feeling of loneliness.
Richard really did love Marguerite, but was too much of a coward to throw caution to the wind and marry her. He was unwilling to compromise what society expected of him to follow his heart and be with the woman he truly loved. Stephen found similarities in this aspect of the story to his dad. He chose in this incarnation to be with the woman he loved, Stephen’s mom, but was all too quick to compromise his authentic self in order to appease the expectations of his mother, his community and his Church.
It is also interesting to note the way in which Marguerite’s story was revealed to Stephen. Initially, he had seen in a vision, Marguerite crawling into bed with the young women at the convent. Our shared reaction had been one of judgment for what we considered to be sexual abuse. However, as more of Marguerite’s story was revealed and the deep pain she had suffered at the hands of Richard, we saw her with less judgment and more compassion.
This has proven to be a great lesson throughout this whole experience. Never judge another human being. Till you have walked through several lifetimes with them, you have no means of understanding another enough to judge. Even then it is impossible to comprehend the myriad of experiences that become the totality of our personalities. We are all on our own paths but we are all connected and we are one in the pursuit of evolution of our souls.