Initiate Yourself: Recipes for Evolution in November 2020
Theme for November – Matter and Materialize
In the midst of a global pandemic that only shows signs of exponentiating and what may be one of the most contested elections in history, the future we have been putting off is fast approaching. You will need all your skills as we literally fight for our rights to exist, to speak out, and to save the world before it enters irreparable environmental catastrophes.
But, you are not alone. Your two hands are not enough to stem the flow out of this wound, but you have communities willing to lend labor, time, processing, and love to you and your shared objectives. You are not the only one standing for what is right; you have all your fellow spaceholders, activists, priestesses, and witches behind you pooling magic to save what deserves to thrive.
We must recognize the network we are as conscious, self-aware human beings and shine into the future and its threatening darkness. The future of consciousness itself depends on your ability to lend yourself to the causes of the collective. Opting out is not an option.
Experiments for November
1. Gears Run the Machine – We exist in a number of damaging, harmful systems, including white-body supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism, that successfully chew people up and spit them out as more docile, compliant gears in a machine that only creates unhappiness and despair. Recognize that the part you play in these systems is not insignificant. Where do you support systems you don’t believe in? Don’t let the system grind down the teeth of your gears. Practice mutual aid, build non-hierarchical communities, boycott organizations that practice injustice, but most of all, challenge the systems themselves to change rather than putting the impetus on individuals. Make the system responsible for what it has done.
Challenge Mode: Go to a public area and find some litter. Identify the brands and write letters to those companies to demand that they make biodegradable packaging. Send pictures. Tag them on social media. Attract attention. Make bad press. Name the companies that have not implemented anti-racist policies. Remind yourself that businesses are entities, not people, and are never immune to criticism.
2. Communities as Forms of Value – When success is measured by money, we often lose sight of the value of human connection, labor, autonomy, and relationship. How are the communities you have been cultivating during this pandemic valuable in ways you have only begun to explore? What would it take to add new members to your communities? What shared values make it possible for your community to remain resilient? How do you maintain your individuality in that group space?
Challenge Mode: If there were one value, philosophy, interest, or goal that would immediately create confidence in your compatibility with a stranger, what would it be? How can you seek out more people involved in those arenas? Join Facebook groups, follow new people on Instagram, and seek out virtual meetups that align with your interests to further build your community. And if you want to help us crochet to the moon, join here.
3. Consent to Represent – Based on Dunbar’s number, the largest group in which an individual can have a social understanding of each other individual and the ways they relate to each other is 150 people. So many of our representatives, politically and socially (think celebrities) represent far more people than that, and there are some places where that is necessary. Where do you opt into representation? Where do you want to opt out?
Challenge Mode: The media and the news cycle are forms of representation. Journalists gather information and manipulate it to cause an emotion response in their constituency. How do you want to play this game? Balance the amount of global and national news you consume with a focus on local news. How might you deliver and share information in a way that creates bonds within your communities? What standards do you want the press held to?
4. Find Your Building Block – You can’t do this alone. Any of it. But, you can seek out your personal calling and identify the smallest building block in the process of your passion. Think about your hobbies, your desires, your urgencies and what they look like on an atomic level. What is the most basic element of your purpose? Think individual crochet stitches, zeros and ones in code, punctuation, memes. What is the smallest unit of your pleasure? How is everything you do made up of it?
Challenge Mode: Once you know what your passion and pleasure is made of, you can build intentional structures with that material. How does making analogies with your passion change the perspective on the tasks you do daily? What urgency do you feel around engaging others, increasing complexity, or other growth as it relates to your passion? Take one step this month to get closer to living what urges you into life and satisfaction.
Please tell us how these experiments are working for you! We would love to hear from you at r/highpriestesses.
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Andra’s Recap of October’s Experiments
The offerings for October included full-throttle transparency, the idea that nothing is created or destroyed, healing ancestors through meditation, and settling your nervous system in ways that gently impacts others in group settings.
Transparency was incredibly valuable for me this month. I took risks in demanding higher pay, speaking to friends about ways in which I thought our friendship could improve, and seeking reassurance in a way that put me in a vulnerable position. Whenever I chose transparency rather than obfuscation this month, the reward was almost always immediate. And while it did cause some tension, I learned am more than willing to allow for the discomfort that comes from telling the hard truth than to hold space long term for what is not quite a lie.
Regarding quantum immortality, this came up for me most in relationships. I had two long-standing relationships crumble and transform in ways I really did not expect this month. However, in both cases, I am still in a good place with each person, and I have faith that we can redirect the energy of what we had into places that are more beneficial for everyone involved.
In thinking about my ancestors, I spent a lot of time thinking and talking about intergenerational trauma and the ways in which I refuse to perpetuate those cycles. While I thought that I would, in part, do this by refusing to have children, I took time this month to really dig in and evaluate why I am scared and uncomfortable with being a parent. Because my girlfriend now wants to have a child, I am seriously evaluating whether my hang ups around that idea are rational and if there are barriers I can remove. To be honest, I discovered that a lot of my discomfort evaporated when I thought about having a child with another person capable of giving birth rather than giving birth myself. It has been a very beautiful and poignant process to look at my “no” and piece apart what adaptations are possible.
Settling my nervous system continues to be an important practice that I use daily. Though I didn’t have many opportunities to practice this in new ways this month, I thought back to some of my favorite moments when I was able to offer some peace to others in group settings simply by managing my own fight or flight responses and preparing myself for doing similar in the future.
That concludes this month’s recap. I know the future looks bleak right now, but hang in there. I believe in you. Together, we can do this. We can do anything.