Awakened Paradigm

 In toxic community systems, if we want to understand why we may be experiencing, or have previously experienced, collective hostility, social exclusion, scapegoating, humiliation, or the recruitment of multiple people into treating us as though we are somehow the sole problem among an entire community of people within a system that is inherently dysfunctional at its core, where we are made to feel as if having healthy boundaries, maintaining our personal agency, or refusing to participate in unhealthy dynamics is somehow what makes us the problem, it might be due to group narcissism.   While narcissistic traits can exist within all of us to varying degrees and can express themselves differently from person to person, group narcissism can develop when a community, organization, or social group becomes so invested in its own image, superiority, righteousness, or special status—that protecting the group’s collective ego becomes more important than honest self-examination, being ...

 When a community system comes together to unfairly target someone as a group—to isolate them, intimidate them, or otherwise coordinate harmful actions against them—what they are participating in can cross the line from ordinary interpersonal conflict into a civil conspiracy against that person. A civil conspiracy, in the context of a community, institution, association, or organization, generally involves multiple people reaching an understanding or acting in concert to accomplish an unlawful objective, or to accomplish an otherwise lawful objective through unlawful means, resulting in harm to another person. It is therefore not simply about several people independently disliking the same individual. The deeper issue is coordination: people sharing information, reinforcing one another’s actions, recruiting others into the hostility, concealing what they are doing, or deliberately using their collective influence to bring about a harmful outcome that would be more difficult for any...

 If you grew up in a religious environment, experienced trauma at the hands of the people within it, and consequently rejected God, part of your shadow work may be to integrate your own belief in God and sense of spirituality into a genuine and embodied expression within your life—the part of you that was buried, disowned, or pushed into the unconscious because your experience of the Divine within that religious environment became entangled with fear, shame, control, and spiritual abuse. This does not mean returning to the same religious system that harmed you, excusing what was done to you, or forcing yourself to believe in God exactly as the people within that system did. It just means separating God from the distorted image of Him that those who harmed you imposed upon your mind, so that the people who wounded you are no longer allowed to remain the final authority over your spiritual life. This means that your healing from a harmful religious environment may involve reclaiming ...

 Christians are not called to dominate society in a way that is coercive, authoritarian, or contrary to the spirit of Christ. They are not called to impose their beliefs through political power, to use the machinery of the state to force religious conformity, or to sanctify worldly systems of domination and control in the name of God; they are called to undergo the inward transformation of their heart, soul, and mind. Even Jesus himself criticized rulers who lord their authority over others and made it clear that this was not to be the pattern among his followers, whose influence was meant to be expressed through the transformation of their own character. Things like the rejection of inner transformation in favor of external control, the corruption of faith into an instrument of worldly power, the subordination of Christian faith to nationalist ideology, and theocratic authoritarianism are all expressions of a reprobate mindset, and that is why it is so difficult for people to awak...

Never trust Christian communities that use “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” as though the mere presence of a group automatically proves that God approves of their attitudes, decisions, or treatment of others. People can gather in the name of Jesus while still being driven by underlying spirits, beliefs, and practices that are contrary to the inward transformation of the human heart, soul, and mind. For example, when Christian nationalists gather together, they may invoke the name of God while being driven by the pursuit of political power rather than by the transforming spirit of Christ. This means that their collective religious confidence does not automatically make their cause righteous, especially when their unity is being used to justify loyalty to worldly power, harm against those outside their group, and the dehumanization of people whose dignity, rights, freedom, and well-being they are willing to sacrifice in the pursui...

 It's okay to stand up to church leaders and the congregational members who are bullies. In many cases, they are distorting the very purpose of faith and are using religion to cultivate the appearance of godliness, goodness, and decency while believing they have a right to mistreat the people around them without ever being held to account. They especially like to mistreat those of us who refuse to constantly seek their approval, who refuse to submit to their demands without question, who embody a more open-hearted understanding of the Divine, who live in a way that's not legalistic, institutionalized, or rooted in rigid religious conformity, or who simply appear to be easy targets in their eyes. The people who treat others in this way don't actually have a genuine connection to the Divine themselves and have a deep need for spiritual healing. This is because they remain disconnected from the inward work of transformation that God desires to bring about within the human hear...

 For those who feel like they are being led beyond the boundaries of institutionalized forms of faith, overly controlling religious environments, and community systems that seem only to inhibit their spiritual growth, and who may still be trying to make sense of those experiences, I just want to reassure you that it's entirely possible to still have a relationship with God outside of the church, and also outside of any other environment that may have become spiritually suffocating rather than spiritually life-giving. In fact, it is a normal part of the spiritual maturation process for our level of consciousness to evolve beyond the collective mindset of entire congregations, their organizational structures, and the pastors and other religious authorities who oversee them, into a place where our own mental, emotional, and spiritual intelligence can flourish in a way that otherwise wouldn't have been possible if we had stayed yoked to those soul-stifling religious frameworks...

 In many esoteric traditions, magick is often simply understood as bringing about change in reality according to the will and intent that are expressed through a person's beliefs, thoughts, words, and actions. The type of magick that manifests then depends on the nature of that will and intent, the energy invested in advancing them, and the actions taken to give them expression in reality. So, if a community system has ill intentions toward us, puts focused energy into carrying out those intentions, and takes actions based on that ill will to bring about an intended harmful outcome in our lives, then what they are doing is practicing baneful magick against us. They may not view themselves as practicing magick, but if their collective intentions, energetic focus, and coordinated actions are directed toward producing harmful outcomes in our lives, then they are engaging in what many esoteric traditions would regard as baneful magick, whether they recognize it by that name or not...

Sometimes the most wicked-hearted people you will ever encounter in your life are groups of "nice" people who have learned to confuse social respectability with moral integrity, never realizing that it is entirely possible to be courteous, publicly respectable, and outwardly pleasant while participating in profound injustice toward others. These types of communities, social groups, and organizations, despite their outward appearance of decency and respectability, practice some of the most baneful magick by directing their collective will, focused communal energy, and coordinated actions toward the humiliation, exclusion, intimidation, or destruction of others, while convincing themselves that their outward politeness somehow absolves them of the harm that they are causing. I learned this lesson the hard way when a community of outwardly "nice" people made me their target. That's how I came to understand that a pleasant public image is not the same thing as havin...

 Unhealthy community systems need us to continually devalue ourselves and endure group-based humiliation tactics, coordinated social pressure, and repeated indignities at their hands in order to be "accepted." This is because the price of maintaining a place within the group is our willingness to continually diminish our value, self-respect, conscience, and personal integrity by subjecting ourselves to the community system's humiliation rituals, dysfunctional social dynamics, and unhealthy group expectations. They often confuse unquestioning submission with loyalty, enduring repeated humiliation at the hands of the group with proving ourselves, surrendering our personal integrity with being a team player, and continual self-abandonment with belonging. This creates the impression that tolerating this culture of humiliation, self-erasure, loss of conscience, and loss of dignity is simply the cost of remaining part of the group. These types of community systems do n...

 A commonly cited estimate is around 45,000 Christian denominations worldwide. When we consider this alongside Jesus' words, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13–14), it serves as a sobering reminder that simply identifying with Christianity, belonging to a denomination, or participating in a religious tradition does not, by itself, guarantee that a person is walking a path that leads to genuine spiritual life and inner transformation. This means to me that maybe following Christ, knowing God, or awakening to the Divine within has less to do with joining a particular denomination, theological system, or religious institution—all of which are external and many—and more to do with going within ourselves, coming to know God through direct inward experience, and not fe...

A nation can claim divine favor, but if its people become hard-hearted, oppressive, unjust, or spiritually stagnant, in the context of biblical narratives, it is repeatedly shown that God challenges such nations rather than automatically endorsing them. Even the prophets repeatedly warned that a perceived special status before God did not exempt nations or peoples from judgment, correction, or accountability when they became unjust, corrupt, or spiritually complacent. This means that even if a nation claims divine favor, such a claim should never be viewed as a guarantee of God’s approval, protection, or endorsement of everything that nation does. And eventually, if it persists in injustice, corruption, oppression, or spiritual decline, it may find itself facing the very correction, consequences, and accountability that it once assumed could never apply to it. So, if you are someone who has faith and takes pride in their nationality, be careful not to confuse appreciation for your nati...

  I am a blessing to people. That is why communities that are deeply psychospiritually stagnant have had such a hard time trying to snuff out my light. It’s because they were coming up against the calling over my life, and trying to stop me from being a blessing to the people around me, even if I didn’t fully understand the extent of that calling at the time they began their instrumental group aggressions against me. Looking back, I can see that what they were resisting was not merely me as an individual, but the growth, encouragement, insight, and positive influence that I was capable of bringing into the lives of others. And because of that, their efforts were never simply about silencing a person; they were attempts to obstruct a purpose that was intended to benefit people beyond myself. And going forward, I refuse to allow the resistance of psychospiritually stagnant community structures to determine the scope of my impact, to diminish my willingness to shine, or to discourage ...