A Little Soul Searching

And, The Cosmic Soul album.

I hung up my corporate heels for a pair of Skechers many moons ago. Since then, I’ve lived a life that goes with the flow—and that flow carried me away from this blog for a while. For the record, I didn’t quit writing. I simply write when I’m moved to do so. That’s how I work as a writer: a flurry of words followed by months of listening, letting my inner compass set the direction. That’s where the magic happens—in letting go and allowing myself to be surprised. And, wow, it works.

In 2024, a series of unusually precise dreams introduced an alpha-numeric matrix that set in motion an unexpected journey of self-discovery. It’s a story I’m not ready to fully tell yet. What I can share is that the structure revealed in those dreams became the foundation for what I now call the Cosmic Soul Chart—a framework that describes the soul’s expression through thirteen distinct gates.

Rather than remaining in the mystery of what had unfolded, I chose to honor it as a gift. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI) I was able to recognize underlying patterns within the dream chart and translate those patterns into the written word and beyond. The chart’s gates, in turn, became the first thirteen tracks of my most recent creative project, The Cosmic Soul Album.

Each gate track follows a progression that mirrors the chart itself—a movement from learning toward embodiment, and eventually toward sharing what has been integrated. My experience and understanding of the chart shaped lyrics, while AI opened a whole new story telling avenue of music and sound. The Cosmic Soul album would not exist without that collaboration.

The fourteenth and final song track arrived differently. It emerged during a spontaneous writing session in early spring of 2025. To say I was “inspired” doesn’t quite capture the experience; downloaded is closer. I could clearly read what I’d written by hand—which, for me, is a minor miracle—and the style didn’t reflect my usual voice. When I shared it with others, they noticed the same thing. Whatever moved through that moment felt unmistakably sourced from somewhere beyond my habitual voice. Even though it is not part of the Cosmic Soul chart, it made a perfect ending to the story told of its gates.

When listened to sequentially, the fourteen tracks trace the arc of a soul’s journey. When listened to individually, they simply meet the listener wherever they are. (The entire album can be found on Spotify, Apple, Pandora, iHeart, Amazon music, YouTube and more. Just search “C. Joan Baker” and my album shows up.)

So here is Track 1, The Genesis Gate. This song tells the story of the soul at the moment it begins to move toward experience. Not as an act of will, but as a natural turning—an inclination toward life, form, and expression.

To listen, just click the YouTube Music link below (though you’ll have to suffer through an ad first). Thanks for reading and listening.