Thread by @TheClaudiaBlack

This is worth a read. After the head-spinning 24 hour learning curve from who and what is Andrew Tate to #pizzatate I am reminded of a few wisdoms my spiritual teacher shares. 1) He believes there are only two main types of power: Power from Control and Power from Presence /1

https://twitter.com/joshuaphilll/status/1608914185756487682

If we can be present with all that one is—acknowledge, own & work on our positive traits & our shadow aspects, then we will be grounded and powerful individuals. If we carry undigested shame and cannot face it we will not be present nor powerful and will try to control others./2

2) A binary gender construct limits self-improvement. Viewing masculine & feminine the way eastern philosophy of yin-yang does, we all have masculine and feminine energetics within us regardless of birth-assigned genders & through this frame, we can attend to how they express/3

both within us and out in the world. Eg Healthy masculine energy is productive, it is the dept of gets shit done. Unhealthy masculine becomes explosive, destructive & wants to break and blow shit up. Feminine when healthy is the mystery. When unhealthy it engulfs & suffocates /4

like a blackhole. In my teacher’s classes we are required regardless of gender, to work on our individual masculine and feminine energetics. We are trained to be responsible for our anger and our unmet needs that could harm and repel others respectively. We are given tools to /5

process our deep shame and welcome back into the fold— with the witnessing of supportive community—our fragmented, rejected parts of self so that we can express and connect with others from a place of wholeness. As a woman coming back into her power through this process I asked/6

my teacher how we help the masculine in our culture to receive the healthy feminine in all her wisdom and power from new-found presence, without it getting terrified. His response-“I don’t know.” The class laughed nervously. This response from him was rare to non-existent. /7

This I believe is the core spiritual dilemma of our times. The unhealthy masculine if un-adressed in us all, rages outwardly or latently against the tyranny of patriarchy making us ill & the abused, oppressed misunderstood & therefore feared feminine rising in us all is /8

ravenous, yet yearning for safety. We cannot create a new healthier way without a foundation of relative safety. There is no safety without accountability. We cannot own our mistakes in a shame- perpetuating, punitive culture. If we punish — and unequally so in a racist unjust /9

system, we will never transmute our shame into healthy action. We will continue to deflect, project, lie and cheat. The myth of white superiority generates shame yet refuses to take responsibility for it. It requires deflection of accountability in order to survive. All the /10

numbing out; the drinking, drugs, shopping, porn etc in the world seeks to fill the internal spaces where our loneliness and shame lurk so that we never have to embody our own shame. Instead we try to entomb it. With the right tools, healing environment. and with free will /11

we can exhume that shame & unburden ourselves. With that new space within, we have far greater capacity to help change the world around us. Not just for ourselves but for others. May 2022 be the place we leave many burdens. May 2023 be a year of healing, transformation & change.