To find your life's purpose, you also need to examine your beliefs and what guides you through life. What do you believe? Do you practice a specific faith, or do you adhere to basic spiritual principles? If you were asked to explain to someone else exactly what your belief structure is, could you do it? Would you be comfortable explaining it, or do you feel awkward or unable to reply? It's all right not to have the exact answer. In fact, some people think they know what they believe in, but it may turn out that it's not the right concept for either themselves or others.

You may have had a situation in your past where you had great faith in something that never worked out. Did your faith or what you believed in fail you, or did you fail it? It could be that the failure itself was really a success. Perhaps this failure was an opportunity to get in touch again with your inner guidance system. It could be that the outcome you were looking for was not the outcome that was a part of your life map.

Rituals of Belief

Man's belief in the power of communication with the Divine did not begin with the Christian doctrine. It has been part of human society since the earliest of times. Man has worshiped the heavens and the sea. He has created mystical figures and animals and built idols.

Mankind has celebrated the changing seasons and prayed for bountiful harvests. He has built temples over sacred earth energies and pyramids aligned with the stars. He has even created living gods on earth and endowed them with absolute and supreme power — emperors, high priests, pharaohs, and dictators.

Man has even killed his own kind in hopes of evoking great miracles through his gods. Human sacrifice is known to have taken place in many cultures in not only ancient but also recent history. It was the belief of self-sacrifice and great rewards in the afterlife that motivated the kamikaze pilots of World War II and the terrorists of today to give their own lives while hoping to kill many others at the same time. Do you think these people are following their life map? Or were they led astray, off their life paths?