Sound bites, memes and platitudes…
Lately, I’ve found that my own inner-peace has been disturbed by a growing concern about the superficial quality of spiritual messaging coming through the industry. Make no mistake, it is an industry and one of which I, as a teacher am a part. The problem is that as we progress deeper into the digital age and the ever growing tide of noise that is constantly coming at us, we as consumers, are also becoming incredibly saturated with information. Our attention span’s are waning and our personal bandwidth depleting. The solution has become a part of the problem… to “catch their attention with soundbites, memes and platitudes.”
The promise of a miracle…
The danger here is that those superficial statements are catchy. Obviously they’re designed to be. Catchy without context equals surface level spirituality. It looks all love and light at first glance but there is nothing supporting it. It promises some kind of miracle and there’s no mention of what it will cost. (I’m not talking about the price of working with the people who are posting the unfounded claims and statements either).
Watered down wisdom…
My concerns started to become really loud in my own consciousness a few months ago when I was asked to join a friend at a Mind, Body, Spirit fair. Pre-lockdown, this was a favourite leisure activity of mine, (busman’s holiday as that may seem). I loved to connect with other teachers and spiritual business owners, to have my students and clients gather there “en masse,” so they could feel part of something bigger and recognise that they were not an isolated few on the path. But my soul cried out for me to categorically decline the invitation. I recognised unconsciously that even before the pandemic separated us all, the quality of the lectures and the offerings was a watered version of what it once had been. A story that had been told, of a story that had been told, of a story that had been told. Like “Chinese Whispers,” each iteration being shortened, vital pieces deleted and the key message being lost to a commercial machine in which anybody can take to the stage and misinform the masses of hungry enthusiasts, declaring themselves competent influencers and gurus. Though I would like to add at this point, many are hungry enthusiasts themselves who are full of good intentions and little bit learning they’re eager to share. But a little bit of learning is a dangerous thing when applied.
The reason I’m so fired up…
“Prepare to manifest!” That’s the triggering statement that has shown up everywhere in the last week or so… not because it’s synchronicity that we’re seeing it everywhere, but because every Tom, Dick and Harriet that has even a slight interest in anything remotely woo, has posted it online in some form or other and to some varying degree. It’s an infuriatingly lazy representation of what the universe is offering right now. As I write this article we are a few days beyond the peak of The Lion’s Gate Portal. A cosmic alignment between us and what is termed our “Ascension Star,” Sirius. This alignment, lasting from late July right up until just before the new moon in Leo every year, is considered to be one of the most powerful transits of time (and astrology) in the spiritual ascension journey. It peaks on 8/8 (and obviously that in itself makes a great meme because “8/8 Lions Gate” rhymes). Eight is known in numerology as representing abundance, it is considered the luckiest number in eastern cultures, and as a digit, it is the shape of a lemniscate or infinity symbol. This symbol is often used to represent the idea that what we put out into the universe energetically, is being returned to us. Effectively the manifestation of an outcome. So yes, prepare to manifest… but recognise that you are manifesting in every single moment of every single day of the year, no matter what the date or Sirius are doing. You are a channel that is specifically designed to do so, in a universe that is specifically designed to respond.
New light-codes incoming…
The true nature of this transit is one of personal evolution and the transmission of new light-codes that we each contain. If this was a blog about tech rather than spirituality, I’d ask you to imagine you were receiving an update with new software or a new operating system. New paradigms are falling away and new possibilities opening up. How you manifest and what you manifest might shift in importance as your life, if you choose it, moves into it’s next spiral of evolution. Ideals, purpose, mission, desire – these things can all shift for you now, to something that might not even seem in character to those who assume they know you. I take my Grail Temple Member’s deeper into this journey if you are interested.
The risks of superficial spirituality…
The risks of superficial spirituality are caught up in the effect it has on the human psyche. Faith, trust and belief are tested, dashed even, when we find that the we aren’t achieving the results we think we are entitled to. Results that are measured in material terms, both because that’s what we’ve been led to believe, and the level of our understanding, created by the irresponsible use of social platforms and mass/viral pop culture or marketing.
Dark night of the soul…
So many people have had an awakening experience and gone in search of a teacher or guide that can help them to navigate the this new evolving consciousness, only to find themselves later diving head first into a dark night of the soul without proper support, because it isn’t the shiny land of unicorns and rainbows they were promised. Spirituality is a very human journey and it has just as many shadows as it has light. The higher you go, the more your personal demons will attempt to pull you back down.
It is a journey. It is a path. It is the lifelong decision to know yourself as a Divine Being having an embodied human experience with all that entails. Woo is not the way to circumnavigate the laws of the universe with some magic pill, it’s about coming to understand that you are the magic pill, how to effectively use that magic (and those universal laws) to live a fulfilled life, coloured and illuminated by deeper meaning, connection and awareness. (There’s your rainbow).
It’s ultimately rewarding, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost you. It costs you everything that isn’t worthy of who you are at your core (whether your fragile ego agrees or not).
Heaven can look a lot like hell…
Your soul decides if this is the right path for you and it also decides what the path will present you with. If you choose a guide that is filled with platitudes and has no concept of the deeper work and how to handle the shadows that you will inevitable face along that path, you will suffer deeply. If you’re choosing a spiritual path because you want to manifest some more shit, please choose another. Because the spiritual path will ask you first what you are willing to sacrifice (and expect you to prove it), before it will ever deliver you to your heaven on earth. Heaven can look and feel a lot like hell if it you find yourself “where you think it is,” at the expense of your soul’s true requirements. That is why many who have built a material empire but neglected their spiritual well-being, find that maintaining it costs them their peace. That’s the deal. You’re not supposed to choose a spiritual life over a material one or vice versa. You’re meant to learn that it’s all the same thing and not to attach to any of it, being present with the experience and the expansion it brings.
Choosing an appropriate guide…
What I’m trying to tell you is that if you are going to invest in your spiritual well-being by choosing a teacher or guide, do yourself a favour and choose one who has walked it long enough to understand the pitfalls. One who has gone deep enough to experience them and one who isn’t making you any promises other than to hold space for your powerful growth and share the wisdom of their own path as they walk it beside you. There a no new stories in the world. Spirituality and the search for divinity is as old as humankind. Just be sure you don’t choose the storytellers who only got around to reading the highlights on Insta posts.
It doesn’t matter how impressive somebody’s following on social looks, how stunning their visuals or how catchy their memes. Hearts, lives and souls are at stake. Choose wisely.
Love & blessings
Jo Jerodene – The Grail Priestess
Sacred Self-Care & Spiritual Wellbeing for Women who have mastered the material and are now seeking deeper meaning in the Mystical & Magical
Explore exclusive services from The Grail Priestess visit JoJerodene.com
