Where do the Akashic Records come from?

Where do the Akashic Records come from? and Who first discovered the Akashic Records? are questions I often hear from students.

In this blog post, I’ll take you on a deep dive into the history, definition, and origin of the Akashic Records as a tool of spiritual evolution and healing.

The Akashic Records as a Cosmic Hub of Information

In the article “The Akashic Records: Origins and Relation to Western Concepts,” scholar Alex Nash describes the Records as a “cosmic hub of information” (p. 115 – full reference to article is at bottom of this blog post). This definition captures the essence of the Records as a vast storehouse or archive where all deeds, thoughts, words, actions, and choices are recorded.

You can also think of the Records as the “cloud” – an unseen, non-localized storage space that is continually updated as you live and create your life. Every time you make a choice, whether small or big, your individual Record is updated to reflect the new paths and doorways that have opened up in front of you – as well as the paths and doorways that have closed behind you.

Every time you make a choice, you align yourself with a specific timeline of events and experiences, which closes down other potential timelines that you will no longer experience.

Let’s look at a simple example of this with two choices and potential timelines:

Choice A: Timeline of Self-Sacrifice

Let’s say a major holiday is coming up. Every year, you’ve made the choice to go back to your hometown and spend this holiday with your family. However, since there’s unresolved family trauma, drama, or tension, this choice has often resulted in you feeling drained, overwhelmed, or exhausted by the end of the trip. And you swear you’ll never put yourself through this again, but then next year comes around and you find yourself making the same choice.

So let’s say you make the same choice once again. You go back to your hometown. You stay with your parents, or siblings, or other family members. And you end up betraying yourself in a number of ways while you’re there. For example, you don’t speak about what really matters to you, you make small talk even though it’s excruciating, you walk on eggshells around certain family members or topics of conversation, you eat food that you don’t normally eat which makes you feel heavy and drains your energy.

This choice – to stick with “tradition” and spend this holiday with your family – activates a specific timeline. This is a timeline of self-abandonment, self-betrayal, giving your power away to others, and sacrificing yourself to keep the peace. So, ultimately, it’s a timeline of self-sacrifice.

If you continue making choices on this path of self-sacrifice, you’ll end up sick, burned out, totally drained, probably even depressed and dissatisfied with your life.

And, in continuing to make the choice to abandon yourself, you’re closing down other potential timelines that could be much more supportive and aligned for you – such as Timeline B below.

Choice B: Timeline of Self-Integrity

Let’s say that this holiday is coming around again, but this year you take the time to really sit with your choice. Will you go again and put yourself through that same old misery… or will you speak up for yourself and honor your needs?

This is a key choice point.

You can choose to sacrifice yourself again and stay stuck on Timeline A, or you can choose consciously to create a new timeline for yourself. A timeline of unconditional love for yourself, self-respect, self-integrity, and taking your power back from others.

Of course, making this choice – to not go – might not be easy. It might require courage, inner strength, and standing your ground. It might also require you to practice saying “no” to your family with a therapist or friend ahead of time.

So, making this choice would require some inner work on your part. Which means that you’d be choosing from a much more conscious, awake, clear place within yourself – rather than following the same old automatic patterns of behavior as in Choice A.

If you stick to your guns and make the choice to not go to your family gathering this year, you’d be opening up a new timeline. This timeline of self-respect and self-integrity would then lead you down a path of greater alignment and inner peace.

The important point here is: nothing is predetermined or pre-written in the Akashic Records. YOU get to choose. 

The more you choose from a place of love, self-compassion, awareness, and integrity, the more expansive timelines will open up to you… as you close down old and outdated timelines that no longer serve you.

The Theosophical Society

We can’t explore the origin of the concept Akashic Records without mentioning the Theosophical Society, which was founded in 1875 in New York with the purpose of bringing Indian ideas and concepts to the West.

The Society is still active today, and it has contributed significantly to the study of religions and spiritual traditions across the world. The word theosophy can be roughly translated into “wisdom of the gods” or “Divine Wisdom.” The Society’s initial objective, in the words of its founders, was to “study and elucidate Occultism, the Cabala, etc.”

The Society’s founders included occultist and mystic Helena Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, who saw themselves as an “unsectarian body of seekers after Truth.”

Olcott and Blavatsky eventually moved to India and established the Society’s International Headquarters there.

In their words, the three main objectives of the Theosophical Society are as follows:

1. To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
2. To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science.
3. To investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man.

(In our modern times the use of “brotherhood” and “man” seems archaic and exclusionary in terms of gender. The Society was founded in the late 19th century, so this language is representative of the ideas and mindset at the time.)

The Society also endeavored to function as a bridge between the East and West, and it is here that we can bring the Akashic Records into the conversation.

Helena Blavatsky and the Sanskrit Term Akasa

It was likely Helena Blavatsky – along with other Theosophical Society members – who originated the concept of the Akashic Records.

Of course, the Records themselves have existed since the beginning of time. In other words, the Records don’t need for us to name or label them in order to exist. In fact, there are references to what we believe are the Akashic Records in books as ancient as the Bible (where a so-called “Book of Life” is mentioned).

So, there isn’t a clear-cut answer to “who first discovered the Akashic Records?” since the idea of the Records – or something like the Records – is mentioned in many different spiritual traditions and ideas even before the term Akashic Records was ever coined.

It was Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society members who came across the Sanskrit concept Akasa in their research and eventually transformed that term into the Akashic Records.

In Alex Nash’s words, “The term Akasha comes from a transliteration of the Sanskrit word Akasa by early Western Indologists. At its core, Akasa can be translated as space, atmosphere or sky.” (p. 110)

In my Akashic Records training programs, we refer to the Records as an “unseen storage space,” which is in line with the original definition of Akasa.

In some ways, the concept of aether – first introduced by Plato and his student Aristotle – can serve as a Western equivalent to Akasha. Aether, or ether, means the fifth element or the essence from which God used to “delineate” the Universe.

The Root of Life

In her own words, Blavatsky referred to the Akashic Records as the “One Element” and the “Root of Life which, in its eternal, ceaseless motion, like the out-and-in breathing of one boundless ocean, evolves but to reabsorb all that lives and feels and thinks and has its being in it.” (p. 314 – full reference at the bottom of this post.)

I particularly like Blavatsky’s reference to this “eternal, ceaseless motion” and “out-and-in breathing.” The Akashic Records are a living, breathing energy – one that continues to contract, expand, change, and move in accordance with the natural flow of the Universe and with the choices that we make both as individuals and as a collective species.

As other Theosophical Society members continued to define the concept of the Akashic Records, it eventually came to describe “a place from which the universe was conceived, which also has an archival function for said universe.” (Nash, p. 114)

This is to say that the Records not only function as a passive archive or repository of information. They’re also a creative energy from which the entire Universe has been birthed, and continues to be birthed every moment.

The Akashic Field as a Living Organism

In more recent times, Hungarian philosopher and systems theorist Ervin László has researched the concept of the Akashic Records in depth.

In his work, László often talks about the Akashic field or the A-field, which he defines as an “integrated, coherent system, much like a living organism.” (p. 112 – full reference at bottom.)

He also says that the defining feature of the A-field is “information that is generated, conserved, and conveyed by and among all its parts.” (p. 112)

This is where you and I come in to the story, because if the function of the Records is to generate, conserve, and convey information… then we must ask: Who can access and retrieve that information? Who is that information for, and why is it there?

Essentially, we all have the Divine birthright to access the Akashic Records and retrieve the information that is most relevant for us; the information that can help us grow, heal, and evolve the most in our current lifetime.

This information is always available for the purpose of helping humanity’s evolution, both on individual and collective levels.

However, to be able to exercise your birthright to read the Records ethically and effectively, some work on your part is required.

This work includes becoming an active participant in your own healing, taking ownership of your life and choices, refining your intuition and ability to receive information, and clearing out any patterns or ego attachments that might cloud your inner clarity and stillness.

To begin doing this work – with some guidance and support along the way – you can:

• download my free guide to the Akashic Records
• explore my Akashic Records Level 1 Course or comprehensive Akashic Records Certification Program

And please reach out with any questions or thoughts! You can connect with me here.

The call to work with the Akashic Records is never accidental. Trust the timing.

With love,
Josephine

References

Blavatsky, Helena P. The Secret Doctrine vol. 3. London: Theosophical Publishing Co., 1888.

László, Ervin. Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything. Inner Traditions, 2007.

Nash, Alex. “The Akashic Records: Origins and Relation to Western Concepts.” Central European Journal of Contemporary Religion 2 (2019): 109-124.

The Theosophical Society website: https://theosophical.org