Cancer: A Spiritual Journey

In Loving Memory

The word cancer rings a lot of bells for me—none too pleasant. For those who have walked beside a loved one through that particular shadowland, you know: it reshapes everything.

During my husband’s illness, I found myself asking a question that felt like it came from somewhere beyond myself: What would cancer be like if everyone fell in love with it? I mean, instead of fearing or resisting it? The question disturbed me. How could I possibly embrace something that had brought so much pain and suffering?

But grief, when met with spiritual inquiry, can open a doorway. I wasn't seeking only comfort—I was seeking truth. I needed to understand not just what cancer does to the body, but what it means on a soul level, what it symbolizes. What it might be pointing us toward.

In the midst of my research, I came across the word atavism. It was unfamiliar, so I looked it up—and at that moment, I received a download: visual images of cancer cells, ancestral echoes, and something old and hidden rising up from within. These intuitive flashes are often how Spirit invites me deeper. So I followed the trail and searched for “atavism and cancer.”

That’s when I found a 2017 Newsweek article titled A New Theory on Cancer: What We Know About How It Starts Could All Be Wrong. The article introduced a controversial idea: that cancer might not be a forward-moving mutation, but a genetic throwback—a reversion to ancient cellular behaviors buried in the gene pool, like a survival mechanism from a billion years ago. Primitive. Self-focused. Single-celled.

The science was compelling—but what struck me more deeply was the spiritual metaphor it opened. Cancer, as a breakdown of cooperative function, echoes the spiritual condition of forgetting our wholeness. It is the shadow of separation.

I remembered reading that cancer cells in bioluminescent sea creatures block the natural transmission of light (Ho, 1997). And in esoteric traditions, light transmission is everything. A well-ordered system—whether a body, a society, or a soul—radiates light. It shines. But cancer—creates dissonance. It obstructs the flow of illumination.

And suddenly I saw it: cancer as metaphor. Not just disease, but a reflection of what happens when we fall out of alignment with Divine Order. Autocratic leaders. Cultural suppression. The silencing of truth. These too are cancers of a sort. Anything that blocks truth, beauty, goodness, creativity, equanimity—anything that halts the flow of Love—is a distortion of the Light.

Alice Bailey once wrote on the manifestation of collective imbalances—national selfishness, pride, spiritual forgetfulness, even distorted sexuality. To heal these patterns, she said, we must overcome our tendencies toward atavism—that ancient regression to separateness. We must remember that we are whole. That we are One.

And yet—when you’re walking through grief, or illness, or loss, it’s easy to lose hope. I’ve been there. After my husband passed on October 28, 2019, hope felt so distant I wasn’t sure I’d find it again.

But hope is not always loud. Sometimes it returns in a whisper. In a line from A Course in Miracles. In the soft nudge to write or pray or walk outside and breathe. That line still moves me:

“Let us be glad that we can walk the world, and find so many chances to perceive another situation where God’s gift can once again be recognized as ours.”

Even in grief—even in illness—we are given chances to remember, to recognize God’s gift as ours. Hope is not naive. It is resilient. It survives the fire.

If cancer were my teacher, it taught me this: We are never without the Light. We may forget, but we are never alone.

Jennifer Lasell is a seasoned Psychic Medium and Meditation Practitioner with over 30 years of experience. As a dedicated student of Alice Bailey's teachings through the Lucis Trust Publishing Company (www.lucistrust.com), she integrates profound spiritual wisdom into her practice. Jennifer sees clients in her one-on-one practice—book online at www.jenniferlasell.com. She is also a Co-Teacher of the One-Year Psychic Development Program at Age of Aquarius in Paradise, California (www.ageofaquariuschico.com), where she guides others on their journey of spiritual awakening and self-discovery.