Beyond the Veil of Performative Depth

(pic: Death to stock 'Identity' collection)

There’s definitely been an undercurrent of optimism and expansive possibilities that has accompanied the start of this New Year, it reminds me of the start of 2020 which had the energy of strong possibility about it.

Something that I think we got wrong back then which we can turn a corner on now is recognising that world events don’t have to dictate the possibility of our lives.

Of course there are certain things that are impossible to ignore, and I am well aware in writing this from a privileged position. I’m not having to worry about the latest in military tech ordinance raining down above my head, but it is what it is.

Looking back at those early moments of 2020, I know everything changed, I remember at the time I sunk into a low state of being for about two weeks, before I was snapped out of it by a moment of focus from the ancestral channel.

I wouldn’t go so far to say that we would be looking at a Repeat this year, I know certain corners are worried about various restrictions, an escalations, which is fine, but recently having adopted a position of not having to have an opinion or a stance on absolutely everything, I’m going with my guts on this one and following those threads.

Because a lot of doom saying prediction doesn’t indeed come from inside a house that is on fire, which having said this previously, I’ll say it again, maybe the doomer prediction is about those houses burning down rather than the planet itself and maybe that’s where the attention needs to be focused.

I’m calling it as it is, I think this is going to be a good year for a lot of people, I think it’s going to be the start of a lot of good years for a lot of people and specifically those are people who have been frozen out by the system and left to fend for themselves in the margins.

These are the people who have known that the only certainty comes from what we make for ourselves and surviving through challenges relies on having a strong connection and sense of community with others.

We’ve already been doing the work that is going to be thrust on the collective in the years to come, so if anything gives us an edge and license to start building openly now.

One of the issues with anything related to personal development, well-being, healing and spiritual development over the past few years is it arguably has been about a sparkly pat on the head. Validating delusion as fate, marketed as depth by those who would drown in a puddle.

We have a serious issue that a lot of healing, personal development, spiritual support an well-being services are not fit for purpose.

The fact of it is - they never were.

They were vessels for the ego of the person offering the service and nothing more.

We need to move beyond the veil of performative depth now more than ever.

We need to leave behind coaches and mentors who offer only bluster, boldness and bullying when things don’t work.

We need to move beyond spiritual practitioners who are so book-bound in knowledge, and utterly controlling of their environments they lack wisdom and their healing is just militant sparkly avoidance.

We need to move beyond well-being services that only offer a release valve at best, and those that drop you down into your own mud to dust you off then call it progress at worst.

These fields of human interaction have been a lawless unregulated wasteland for some time, we deserve better.

It’s okay to want better.

It’s okay to ask for better

It’s okay to embody an example for what better is supposed to look, feel and be like.

As we move from this waterlogged Neptune in Pisces era, the endless sea of those who wish to be seen but not to see, the incoming Neptune in Aries era will demand more efficiency.

It will also throw the spotlight on practices, ideas, ideologies and practitioners who are only there to serve themselves, not others.

One of the issues with the veil of performative depth is people using their supposed journey, experiences, and said monetisation (without healing/integration) to appear more interesting online.

This does not mean they are competent or qualified to facilitate others on their journey.

Neptune in Pisces has allowed a lot of those seeking escape from their lives in the analogue world a haven in th digital world. They become your new woo bestie on screen but their life is a trash fire offscreen.

That energetic imbalance cannot be sustained as much as we shouldn’t be tolerating it.

There needs to be a basic level of self awareness, integration and mastery of self before you are truly in the zone with capacity to hold and steward others.

Those who have chosen not to honour that are a danger to themselves and those they claim to serve.

The perfect example here is when many seek accountability from an online coach or practitioner for something that work for them. But any request is met with nonchalant brush off from the ‘coach’ with their cult-like following of flying monkeys ready to bully the person off the internet.

Neptune & Saturn in Aries will not tolerate this kind of disconnect between claiming to help others and actually just being a loud arsehole with a cult to protect you.

Which I guess is half of the western world being put on notice, but screw it we deserve so much better regardless.

I invite you to listen to the quiet voice for a moment.

The uncomfortable questions asked by the ‘boring’ work

The phrase “Listen to the quiet voice” comes from Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategy Cards’, which for those of you outside of the experimental leaning musician community were a set of handwritten cards developed with the purpose of sending the creative process in a different direction in the recording studio.

The problem that we have now is our world is in a Polycrisis, there are so many different factors going into the stew pot of challenges that we’re all being forced Fed from, it’s very difficult to see this is having one specific solution.

Arguably anyone marketing themselves on having the singular specific solution is not going to do very well in this incoming era because people are becoming more savvy let alone the energetic conditions just won’t support it.

So much of the work of personal development, awakening, spiritual realisation and stepping into an embodied state of personal resonance is based on the foundation of emotional work.

Dare we say nervous system regulation, which people seem to be getting tired of already, but as an EFT and belief coding practitioner, this is part of what we deal with on a daily basis.

The issue with this is this work does not seem magical, it does not seem mystical and therefore for the past 14 years as we’ve lived under these Neptune in Pisces skies, the people who need this work most have conveniently and continually diverted themselves from it because it seems beneath them.

We noticed when people have not done this vital work because they are unable to address anything that is contrasting to their own personal stance, or anything that challenges their self proclaimed absolute authority.

Which sometimes can be a very simple question that triggers an almighty crash out backed up by legions of flying monkeys trying to distract from the fact this person doesn’t have a clue.

Over the years I’ve seen this countless times, and as we go further into this new era, those who haven’t done this level of the personal work, it’s very clear that they don’t have a foundation to anchor themselves with their work. If they don’t have a foundation to anchor themselves in, they cannot be of any meaningful use to anyone else.

This is gonna be a hard lesson for some, but for many it levels the playing field and allows us to see that the route to solutions all start with the strong inner awareness.

All of it built on clearing the pathways occupied by emotional reactions and triggers that are the messengers of beliefs to be re-coded, transcended and integrated.

Sounds straight forward? Because it is.

I won’t lie, I’m glad I can support people in this as after the past few years offering other kinds of support, I never felt like we were truly getting over the line.

The point is meaningful and lasting transformation, change the takes, awakenings that stick, and empowering yourself are all planted in the same stuff.

The foundation of your journey, like the foundation of any building doesn’t have to be flashy doesn’t have to be something that is made out to be overly special or mystical, just needs to be something that works and makes sense and it’s easy to get into.

The incoming error will ask of us to make things more straightforward, to create a language of accessibility around concepts and ideas.

Making things seem deliberately difficult to understand, intentionally obtuse all for the sake of sounding more including I’m not going to fly.

It’s like when people use words on their résumé/CV that they would never use in their daily lives, they stick out like a sore thumb, don’t make any sense and ultimately leave you more confused.

This is a time for clarity, it is a time for a deeper focus, it’s a time for actually getting shit done rather than going around and around in endless loop of healing and self examination with a pat on the head at regular intervals from whoever it is you’ve decided is going to guide you through that process.

I can’t see my frustration at any of this is anything new, I’ve been a trained teacher for almost 10 years at the time of writing and worked in education for a further four years before that. And the thing that I found the most frustrating was how so many people claimed to be educators but were completely ineffective in this responsibility.

While I will be offering more commentary on aspects of the education system and ideas on how we can improve things in other posts, at this stage it was confusing to me to see, particularly with Music education if someone was not able to get the student over the line, they would either pass them on to another tutor that could or they would hang onto the student because they saw that as part of their weekly income.

When training in teaching, the very first lesson told us that is the teacher’s job to facilitate learning.

It is the teacher‘s job to aid the student on their journey towards self realisation within the subject knowledge.

It is essentially the teachers role to be that which the student grows beyond.

I took these words to heart in their own teaching practice as it made sense, even there’s a quote from a Star Wars movie where Yoda is essentially saying the same thing and who am I to argue with such a Jedi master?

So as one of the veils of performative depth falls away, it might be wise to recognise when we know our journey of self expansion, development, healing, awakening, transformation and the rest of it is being helped or hindered.

I will give you one quick example as to how to tell in the moment and that’s when you share any of your own insights and reflections. How are they received? Are they received with openness and encouragement, does your practitioner/facilitator ask you further questions? Do they encourage you to follow the thread of your insights?

Are they fundamentally happy for you?

Because if it’s any of this stuff, then I’m happy to report you are working with the right person.

As a Tru teacher, facilitator, guide, coach and mentor of any kind will happily assist you in your becoming and the unfolding realisation that accompany it.

If you experience the opposite, will they respond like you insights are somehow beneath them, or even a threat, then you are definitely working with the wrong kind of person.

Seasons and Reasons

They say everyone comes into your life for a reason, and I think we can acknowledge that many of these reasons are outgoing with the passing season for the collective.

We need to be thankful to even the craziest dysfunctional weirdos out there trading on these vibes because they show us where not to go, they show us who not to be.

By learning from their example, we are not led by their example, and that is a great gift because now it is time to pass the baton back to you.

Before we finish up, there is an important nuance here in the hours sense of personal accountability and responsibility that is developed through this foundational and root cause healing it’s about guiding us towards taking a more meaningful place in the collective. The idea of individual resilience and everything being built on the shoulders of the individual is a way that structural and systemic failing, the failings of the outgoing era, and the failings of those who shouldn’t be upfront leading are passed on to us as individuals.

We can definitely leave that behind, so we have to recognise that some of it falls to us, but we can definitely definitely return those responsibilities to where they belong when it comes to the transference of the energy of responsibility.

Because that transference of energy is how the veil of performative depth has been put in front of all of our eyes at some point or another.

It is time to see clearly my friends.