Soul Contracts: Karmic, Dharmic, Recognition & Resolution
Photo by M. Harmony Studios
Have you ever had that type of connection with someone that feels as though it was incredibly significant, like there was a Divine purpose behind it? The first time you met, there was a ‘charge’ of energy between you, that was clearly recognizable and deep? Do you feel that this connection with this person helped you to grow as a soul, find a new direction in life, heal some old wounds, or even triggered you in a way that no one else in your life has? Chances are, just by the sheer fact you’re here reading about this, you have probably experienced a soul-level connection and may have some soul contracts at play in your current life.
Soul contracts are agreements we make with other souls before incarnation in order to help us fulfill our present-life’s intent. They come in a variety of circumstances, but mainly the intention of creating soul contracts are: to help us grow individually as a soul; to resolve karma; or to assist in another’s dharma. Soul contracts are typically created with souls with whom we have shared other lifetimes with, those that are in what we know as our “soul group” or “soul family”. Think of it like your homeroom in grade school - these souls are the ones you learn with as you evolve your individual souls through incarnations of different lifetimes. They know you the best, they are aware of where you need to learn and grow as a soul, and you offer the same for them. The purpose of having soul contracts is that we have accountability to each other when we incarnate into a lifetime to carry out and complete our pre-birth intentions - these intentions help us to graduate through the higher levels of consciousness.
For the purpose of this blog, I’ll focus on two main types of soul contracts: karmic vs. dharmic contracts. Karma = the balancing and resolving soul missteps (abandonment, betrayal, harm, trauma, etc.) that we as souls make along our path of evolution. Karma is usually accrued ‘accidentally’, meaning that we were never destined to make these missteps but rather they offered an opportunity to evolve. They were simply choices a soul made that were out of alignment with their highest integrity, resulting in life lessons or karma. Karma always needs to be balanced and resolved, whether it was created from past lifetimes on Earth or other planets. This is known as the Law of Karma, and it is a Universal Law - one that cannot be bent or broken. We evolve our soul’s consciousness through life lessons and challenges that push us to acquire virtues and elevate our soul frequency.
When it comes to karmic contracts with relationships, often one’s first ‘true love’ or first meaningful relationships are for clearing karma. These soulmate connections are often triggering, unpredictable, challenging & deeply felt, typically with lots of drama. These souls come into our lives to show us our fracture points, the places where we do not feel ‘whole’, and activate us to heal them. Sometimes these karmic contracts have a lot of layers to release and resolve, and can take even decades to complete, depending on the extensiveness of the connection throughout lifetimes. Depending on your pre-birth intentions for your life, you may want to clear most of your karma early in your life so you can get to your dharma, but many souls who are still younger in their evolution incarnate primarily to resolve karma and learn as a soul. It is mostly more evolved souls who move on to live dharmic lives using their increased knowledge and developed gifts, and they typically have little karma left to clear.
Dharmic contracts are, in essence, more pleasant. Dharma is thought to be any lesson or blessing that is above and beyond this present lifetime’s intended soul lessons and karma. One’s dharma is seen as their gift to the world. It is less focused on individual soul growth and more directed towards elevating the frequency of the planet as a whole - though it does wonders to increase the soul’s potential and consciousness. When it comes to dharmic contracts, they are ‘looser’ meaning it’s more of an agreement or invitation than a bound-contract that will be resolved one way or another, in one lifetime or another. In soulmate/intimate relationships, these connections are of a very high vibration and what I call “Divine Life Partners”. If you are graduated enough to be at the calibre of incarnating with your Divine Life Partner, this also means that your present lifetime is less focused on karma clearing (as your soul is likely much more evolved), or you’ve already passed the tests and cleared out old karmic contracts in this lifetime. This is often the person you end up with after several karmic relationships. These types of soulmates arrive in your life to assist you with carrying out your dharma. By nature, these connections are typically more easeful, yet still very much encourage growth & soul evolution through occasional and necessary challenges.
To recognize with whom you may share a dharmic contract with, the very first indication is that you feel them to be a soul-family member, meaning they are a soul with whom you have shared many lifetimes together and they originate from the same Universal place you do as a soul (I don’t mean Earthly geographic location but rather planetary location). You’ll feel a soul connection that is recognizable and fairly uncomplicated, yet they still encourage your growth and challenge you to be the best version of yourself. This does not have to mean you have an intimate relationship with them, either. They can be close friends, family members, intimate partners, mentors, bosses, coaches, or anyone with whom you share a kinship with on a soul-level. Dharmic soul contract relationships always show up in Divine Timing and alignment with important, often pivotal, times in your life. They show up at these critical junctures with special tools, resources, advice, or guidance that is extremely helpful for your success. My father has always offered the phrase, “A reason, a season or a lifetime - everyone comes into your life for a reason, some may only last a season, but their influence can last a lifetime.” For dharmic soul contracts, there isn’t really an “end”. Even if you lose touch, their positive influence on your life remains constant, because they helped to direct you towards your soul’s highest learning and desires, encouraged you to offer your gifts to the world, and are endlessly supportive of your goals even when they are discarnate and offering a supportive role from the spirit realm instead of on Earth.
By this point you may have a few different people in mind that fit both of these categories. Let’s break down how to know when a karmic contract is complete, or if there is still more karma to clear.
To know that a karmic contract is complete, the first awareness is about how you feel about the connection. Simply, on a soul level you feel honestly and authentically complete. You don’t have a feeling that there is anything left to do, no stone left unturned. You’re left with a pure feeling of resolution. Maybe this resolution came from within you and your own spiritual work, or maybe there was an opportunity that actually signed off on this contract and you both moved on respectively. When you think of this other person, you truly desire good things for them and wish them well; you are not clouded by any feelings of resentment, rejection, or regret and instead feel acceptance and understanding of lessons they offered to you in your life. That’s not to say that you can’t still have curiosity about them & their whereabouts, but it doesn’t cross the line into obsessiveness; rather, it feels like a light curiosity versus a dire “need to know”. You may desire to have contact or may have absolutely none at all, but either way, it is rooted in a foundational feeling of true acceptance for whatever happened, not looking to get anything else out of the connection. You’ll feel this way because you have full confidence that you have completely spoken your Truth and allowed yourself to be fully seen in your emotions and perspectives; you feel seen, heard, understood and received. That way, if there is communication, it is typically easy, light, compassionate, and transparent.
There are many ways to identify if there is still more karma left to clear and resolve in terms of this karmic contract. Straightforwardly, you lack a feeling of resolve; you play out conversations in your head or fantasize about communicating with them in some way, or even come up with excuses why you want to engage them and sometimes even actively do. You’ll find that it is hard to move on to other relationships or just forward in life in general, due to intense triggers of irrational fears from residual energy of that past relationship (fear of betrayal, fear of loss, fear of abandonment, fear of failure, or having negative behaviors such as hypervigilance, control, lying, shutting down, etc.). Because the energy is unresolved, you think about them often, have dreams about them, check their social media/keep up with what they’re doing even if there isn’t contact. You probably even feel triggered when you think of the situation or hear recent news about them. Uncontrollable feelings of jealousy, anger, grief, loss, anxiety or depression arise quickly when these triggers appear. These emotions are telling you that you are withholding your Truth in some way - like you are keeping a secret, and there’s an elephant in the room. It’s an uncomfortable and unsettled feeling. If you are in communication with them, it feels strained, awkward, uncomfortable or emotionally-charged on a consistent basis - you don’t truly feel seen, heard, or understood and though you keep trying and keep trying, you just don’t make any breakthroughs.
The most important piece to remember about karmic contracts is that they are solely dependent on the Law of Free Will. You cannot ever force someone to complete this contract, such as offer an apology when it is inauthentic or have justice when it is up to them to do the right thing. However, you can work the contract on your end to find release and resolve, so you can be free to move on with your life. Karmic contracts are binding - they will be complete at some point, whether that’s in this lifetime or the next. It’s not up to you to force the other parties’ hand, but rather to create a pathway for this resolution to happen for all. The first thing to do if you are looking to finally release an outdated karmic contract is to listen to your intuition and desire - what do you need to tell this person, or hear from them? Ask yourself, is it your own ego that needs this to move on or is it truly a piece of your soul evolution? Would a resolution of this situation offer growth for both of you as people, or is it really for yourself? Get clear with yourself and feel into what it would feel like to finally find a conclusion with this person/situation. Would you feel relieved, sad, joyful? A powerful tool for this inner line of questioning I offer my clients is to muscle-test themselves. Start with, “Is this contract complete?” If your answer is no, then follow up with questions such as, “I am forgiven by this person” or “I need to forgive this person in order to clear this karmic contract.” Begin inquiring within to see what action you can do, while aligned with your highest integrity, would resolve and release the karmic contract on your end. Your answers may surprise you.
If you come up against a wall of which you have no control over what the other person does and it turns into a waiting game for Divine Timing to finally happen, in the meantime you can engage in conscious practices such as cord-cutting ceremonies and align yourself with the frequency of resolution and acceptance by utilizing prayer, energy-healing, journaling, or any other self-care rituals. To reiterate, it ultimately comes down to Divine Timing when both of you are ready to uplevel and leave the past behind. That doesn’t mean you have to be stuck in their waiting room forever, though. However, it provides a great opportunity to take some time to get very clear with yourself about why you might be hanging around waiting for a resolution that is out of your control. Often we hang on to these situations because it requires a sense of grieving and letting go officially - if we aren’t ready, we will subconsciously find a way to drag it out until we eventually find that threshold. If you feel authentically ready to release the karmic contract on your end, the most surefire way to find peace with yourself and the situation is to have the courage to forgive. Forgiveness is one of the most powerful vibrations you can cultivate within yourself. By anchoring the vibration of forgiveness, it does not release the wrongdoings of karma, but rather resolves the energy to put it to rest and create a space for new things to emerge. It does not absolve the other of their mistakes, nor does it negate the emotional/mental/physical/spiritual trauma that it caused you, or even release them from their karma, but rather allows for the energy to flow once again and open you up to other possibilities, relationships, and opportunities for your highest benefit.
Written By: Jaelyn Kohl
If you have found yourself with more questions than answers after reading this, I offer Soulmate/Relationship Intuitive Readings that are guaranteed to help you find understanding, unlock key past-life soul lessons, resolve old karmic energy, and gain specific, detailed information to be able to recognize whom are your soulmates and what roles they are playing for you in your present life.
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For similar articles on Soulmate Relationships, check out my other pieces - “How To Recognize A Twin Flame Relationship”, “Everything You Need To Know About The Twin Flame Journey”, and “Being Soulmates Doesn’t Mean You’re Destined To Be Together”.