Wetiko ~ A contagious psycho-spiritual disease of the soul, a parasite of the mind, that is currently being acted out en masse on the world stage via a collective psychosis of titanic proportions. This mind-virus, which the Native Americans have termed Wetiko, covertly operates through the unconscious blind spots in the human psyche, rendering people oblivious to their own madness, and compelling them to act against their own best interests.
-Paul Levy, Dispelling Wetiko
A disease of this titanic psycho-spiritual nature calls for the response of the human soul. Through opening a direct dialogue to soul and spirit, we begin the profound process that is asked for now, outside these systems of indoctrination and control which support the proliferation of the Wetiko experience. The deeper work must be done for all of us to liberate ourselves from the structures of our own bondage.
Your soul, beautiful, wild and wise, contains all the answers that are needed now.
We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.
This is the fifth and last essay in my series on Systems of Indoctrination.
In the first essays, I explored the ways that our culture has upheld a reality that is based upon systems of domination and subjugation, rather than communion and co-creation. The continued severing of ourselves from nature, the most sacred aspects of the self, and the soul, is reinforced through our institutions of education, medicine and media. This reinforcement succeeds in breaking the human spirit down into an inversion of itself, a subversion of reality in which we easily forget our own true nature and potentiality. We identify only with those aspects of the self which are wounded, fearful, traumatized and therefore are completely unable to actualize any true sense of sovereignty and the embodiment of our own spirit.
I see the embodiment of spirit as one of the most important aspirations of our fleeting lives, and yet within the world that has been constructed for us here and now, there is very little place and space for this great aspiration. As I spoke to in my last essay, we can think of the system that we are all born into much like the Matrix. This is the case for every time in history.
But this Matrix is intensified now by the media that infuses all aspects of our life, whose projections are controlled by an elite few. It is a simulation of a very particular and dark reality, that is not the only reality, though many human beings seem to believe that it is. We are held captive in this reality through our own deep conditioning and ongoing traumas, reinforced by soul loss. We are being drowned in a lifeless simulation, gasping for the air of the spirit, never understanding fully that the world could be entirely different. We are indoctrinated into our own subservience and victimhood by a culture whose values are not based upon principles of the living, but rather upon principles of the machine, and principles of fear and principles of death.
The machine has no creative potential in of itself.
The machine has no soul.
When a human being is completely unable to imagine the pure potential of another phenomenal reality or paradigm, another system of education, another system of medicine or media, as so many are today, this is a clear sign of Wetiko.
Within the state of this virus of the mind, there are no creative solutions, because, like the machine, Wetiko is not a creative force. It is a parasite that feeds off our own fear, conditioning, and reignited trauma. It is a projection of our own worst nightmares, the horrors of the human psyche, broadcasted out into the world. It is a road to absolutely nowhere, it is a road into the wasteland, and it is the road into transhumanism, the mergence of man and machine.
This is the road that the dominant culture is on right now, though many do not fully comprehend this strange reality. This is part of the Wetiko.
This Wetiko projection is fueled by the foundational premise that there are no other solutions to our current crisis’s other than the continued propagation of paradigms of domination and subordination over nature, the earth, the virus, each other, our bodies, and over the human soul (if you even believe the soul exists). This is the foundation of the mind state that, steeped in Wetiko, can see no other way.
To question the paradigms and the path that this culture is on now is pure blasphemy, and cause for exile.
But exile from this world could be the road back to the human soul, if we allow ourselves to take it. For this culture is not well. This reality reflects an illness of the soul.
Many may never see another road.
But another road does exist.
In order to be able to imagine another reality, we must begin to engage in the deeper healing and shadow work that is asked for. This is the very first step, I believe, in exiting the simulation, the Matrix, the deep conditionings and traumas that each of us has been born into through multiple systems.
When we engage in the powerful transmutation of the inner forces within the self, when we begin to become creative masters of our own being, we see the infinite potentiality that exists in the here and now. We are no longer limited to the programming that has been set up for us, generation after generation. We are no longer limited by the systems of control which have been imprinted upon us through the structures of this extremely limited reality. With each breath that we draw, with each sacred wound that we address, we begin the process of full integration and healing. We begin the movement into wholeness that Carl Jung spoke so eloquently about through his incredibly body of work.
It was Carl Jung who created The Red Book. Within The Red Book, he documented his own deep shadow work, his beautiful visions, his profound dreams, and the incredible movement of his imagination. He documented the archetypes that he encountered in the interior landscape of his being. He understood these archetypes as forces of his own soul that needed to be seen, witnessed, and integrated into the larger constellation of his nature. He understood that as long as he remained fractured, as long as he separated himself from his own shadow side, he would never fully know the exquisite nature of his own true self. He understood that if the shadow aspects live on in exile, we as human beings remain vulnerable to our own deepest delusions, adolescents in a half-life. This is a Wetiko of our own making.
Carl Jung also understood that many would not fully comprehend the depth of his work. He understood that many would call him crazy, and that his book would be seen as a collection of notes by a madman. And so, the release of The Red Book was delayed till well after his death. I had the privilege of seeing this incredible book at The Ruben Museum, upon its release in 2009, Fifty years after his passing.
When we are not readily given tools of healing, creation and transmutation, when the very culture that we are born into knows nothing of this work, we cannot blame ourselves for not seeking it out. And yet, it is the most important work of our lives. And especially now, as we face a future that many cannot even fathom, because of their own deep programming and indoctrination into a paradigm that cares not for the life of the human soul.
This paradigm wants you to merge with a machine.
That is the dark truth, when you have the courage to look.
Many are unable to see the darkness outside of themselves, because they have not yet been able to ingest and transmute the darkness within their own being, as Carl Jung so bravely pioneered in our western world. This is not a judgement. This is a fact. This the power of Wetiko.
As we engage the shadow work that is necessary to integrate different aspects of the being, we see the darkness within. When we meet our shadow, when we meet the stranger, when we meet the journeyer, we also come closer to the divinity of the soul. We experience, firsthand that in this world, there is no shadow without great light. It is part of the cycle. As we cease to send different aspects of ourselves into ongoing exile, we begin to feel the profound creative beauty, and the exquisite flowering of the human soul. We reclaim our soul nature and our soul power. This beauty, beyond our wildest imagination, we can experience through plummeting the depths of our own being.
It is a gift beyond comprehension to those who wish to remain only in the walls of our current dominant Matrix of reality. For this reality has buried truth in its entirety. It has buried all of the darkness, and along with it, the wildflower of the soul. This darkness now rises up in front of us, and humans still are unable to witness the depths of its existence, because the shadow work has not been done. The shadow work has been buried and forgetten, like everything else of true value.
The awakening process often looks like illness, a nervous breakdown, a health crisis, or some other experience that our culture at large cannot fully fathom. Because the simulation does not understand that when a human being is expanding, growing beyond the borders of the current self, it is both painful, and ecstatic. The old paradigms held within all aspects of the being, including body mind and soul, cannot hold their shape and form. The old systems must be shed, like a snake losing its skin. The shedding process to an onlooker appears insane, horrifying, without order. And yet it is a miraculous process of human transformation, a larva becoming a butterfly.
In these tender moments and episodes of transmutation, the human being needs incredible love and support. Instead, the dominant culture anesthetizes the being, often disrupting and aborting this incredible and natural process, so that we never know our own full potential. We never know the shadow, and we never know the light.
Because too few have been allowed and supported to move through such processes, many souls are lost in the awakening experience. This is a great failure of our times, and of a society who has not supported the true movement into eldership that gives life to a robust circle of wisdom keepers. Our wisdom keepers are few and far between. In order to become a true holder of the flame, one must entirely exit the Matrix of this world that is held to so tightly. One must have the capability to see the pure potentiality of an entirely different paradigm of existence.
There are many practices that facilitate the awakening process and the inevitable movement into meeting the shadow, alongside the ecstatic layers of the self. These include dream and journey work, writing, drawing, dancing, or singing, or any deep intuitive and creative act that brings us into greater communion and dialogue with different aspects of the soul. Many of our creative systems today, steeped in Wetiko, overly intellectualize the creative experience, and therefore are unable to shepherd this process as the institutions and teachers lack the intuitive understandings that give birth to true transformation.
Another powerful tool in coming into greater knowledge of the interior landscape of the self is plant medicine. Communion with plant allies has been used for thousands of years towards this end, and to facilitate initiatory rites of passage. But, again, these experiences must be contained by a human who is able to hold that sacred and safe space. This has become an issue in our society, where many are flocking to plant medicine seeking expansion but there are very few true keepers of that knowledge. Working with plant medicine brings forth the shadow work, and there are techniques to support the delicate experiences contained within the ceremonial circle. The medicine circle is a sacred hall that should be held in the highest respect and regard. But because the Wetiko Matrix does not understand this, the sacred practice of plant medicine has often been abused, becoming just another way to attempt to dull the pain of a meaningless life.
Through becoming acquainted with our own shadow nature, through knowing the ways that we have exiled ourselves, we grow greater ability to witness the darkness in our world. We have the power to see it, where before we saw absolutely nothing. Because before, we were unwilling to excavate the psyche, unwilling to meet the stranger, unwilling to dance with the darkness, and unwilling to call ourselves home to our own sacred sovereignty and profound divinity.
When we call ourselves home, we become responsible for the self.
We become the keepers of our own soul. We do not give the soul away so easily, and especially to a government that knows nothing of it’s true makeup and composition.
When we call ourselves home, we also become the co-creator.
We become more than we could have ever possibly imagined. We become everything that we wished that we were, and nothing like the experience of what we thought.
We become the fool, the alchemist, the hangman, the queen and the emperor all in one. And we begin to harness our divine co-creative nature, which is our sacred birthright, and the potential of every single human being upon this planet.
You are not weak. You are more powerful than you could ever imagine.
The divine and intuitive creative nature that our culture has completely lost touch with, reflects
this profound Wetiko, this illness of the soul, this virus of the mind.
Wetiko is the machine, with no creative ability of its own.
It is the parasite. It has become the Matrix.
And when we are unaware of it, it works through us, it co-opts us, and we become its minions, dutiful soldiers of the Wetiko state.
We were never meant to be cogs in a machine.
We were never meant to merge with the machine.
We were never meant to be controlled by the machine.
We were meant to co-create our reality.
We were meant to be visionary.
We were meant to evolve.
And we were meant to ascend.
This is the inborn innate sacred technology that lies dormant within every human body.
This is the technology that is spoken of in all esoteric mystery wisdom teachings.
This is the gift of what it is to be human, in all our most perfect imperfections.
This is the beauty, the profound reflection of natural law, spiritual law that pulses through our veins whether we know it, or not.
As within, so without. As above, so below.
You are the Alpha and the Omega, when you take responsibility for your own soul.
You were never not that, but the illusions of this profoundly inverted reality have made so many of us all believe that we are nothing.
My greatest hope for humanity now is that as many human souls move into this profound awakening process as are ready, and exit the dark reality that is being cast for us in this incredible moment in time. This is a process, and in no way am I meaning to transmit that I know the way fully.
But what I do know is that our first step, that is - to know thyself - is the most important that we can take to move each of us out of our own imprisonment, and into a limitless land of creative potential and self liberation.
It is a step into a landscape of the incredible unknown, a landscape that is not predetermined, but that is being fashioned moment by moment through the pure expression of the wild beauty of each flowering soul, coming to know itself in its own making.