Emerald

Fascism didn't break through in 2020... likely for a variety of different factors. But it's been very close to breaking through for nearly a decade, all over the world. But I think the issue is mostly an economic one as that is what tends to lead to Fascism.... and authoritarianism of any stripe really. But because there is no left wing options that are widely known, the authoritarianism that was chosen was a Fascist authoritarianism. And so many people associate Republicans with a better economy, even though job growth is historically significantly better under Democrats by a large margin. The issue really is that Democrats don't have effective messaging, while Republics (especially Trump) do. Democrats might have better policies that will lead to slight but genuine improvements in people finances. But they lack a compelling narrative. So, the average person is unaware of their policies despite (in recent polls) Kamala's policies being ranked as far more popular than Trump's policies by 80% of American people when people were polled but not told whose policies were whose. So, it isn't policies but the narrative. And Trump's narrative is, "Everything is economically terrible. But I'm going to fix it and Make America Great Again. It's all the leftists, immigrants, and trans people's fault because they are poisoning the blood of our nation. I'll make them pay for the problems they have caused you, and you will get your revenge. And I will get rid of them and fix it." While Kamala's narrative is, "We're not going back!" And this is a promise to protect social freedoms, which is a winning message for those who are already aware enough of history and collective human patterns to understand that Trump's narrative is Fascist and historically leads to worse conditions for 99% of people. But for the majority of Americans, they don't get that. They don't realize that they will be on the chopping block... not just the people they feel 'deserve' the crackdown. But they do understand, "You're being treated unfairly, and immigrants are getting all the benefits that you would have otherwise gotten. If I'm elected, I'll make them pay."

Sure, that's true. I've noticed that just being who we are and sharing our perspectives tends to trigger insecurities in them. And this seems to cause them to go into spiteful, petty, catty competition mode with us. And it all is very reminiscent of adolescent mean girls stuff. And perhaps other men don't get to see that side of them. That said, it's genuinely difficult to imagine that these guys come across as particularly Masculine, even in the eyes of men because they are so sensitive about basic things and have tons of petty grievances that they lack the resolve and stoicism to weather the storm of.

I was raised in a very rural, blue collar, white working class environment in Central Florida where 80% of people are conservative. And in my teen years, I lived in trailer parks and trailer neighborhoods where the values were very centered around toughness and grit. I know there are many great "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" values that I've learned from growing up in a place like this. And going to college with a bunch of sheltered wealthy progressives was a bit of culture shock because I was so used to the rough and rugged, worldly but unworldly redneck values. And the college kids were in some ways more conscious and worldly than me and in some ways less conscious and worldly than me. And when I tried to bond with them through talking about conspiracy theories like I did in my hometown with so many people, they just looked at me like I was crazy because they were better educated than me. So, it was difficult to fit in because I was so used to the redneck mores and ethos. And the Wilkins's (my dad's side of the family) are out of rural Georgia. And spending a lot of my time there during Summers. And there's a lot of great working class values that I've picked up from them. The Wilkins's genuinely are a great example of these values. And I still value that idea of self-sufficiency, toughness, and grit. I really wouldn't be anywhere without it, and my heroes as a teenager were always men of a high work ethic which was a huge influence on my personality. But the dehumanizing tendencies you associate with these people and these values are just very maladaptive in the current era. And anyone who was worthy of being looked up in my family and hometown, did NOT have these bigoted tendencies. Sure, the bigoted people would talk about good game about work ethic and standards of moral behavior and talk how black people and Mexicans were lazy animals. But these were the people who were the most likely to behave like lazy animals with low standards of moral behavior. And they were the least likely people to live up to these values because they'd much rather whine and blame minorities for all their problems. For example, I was hanging out with my then-boyfriend and his coworker Tim (who was about 40 at the time). And Tim was alright. My bf and Tim worked at Golden Corral together. Then, Tim had invited us over to his house to hang out for a bit one evening. And he brought a plate of Golden Corral food home for his brother, who I hadn't met before. And when I met his brother that evening, he was one of the most neurotically racist people that I've encountered in my entire life. He reminded me of the character Seth from American History X because he was a really big guy who was SUPER obsessed with hating black people. Like, this guy ONLY ever wanted to talk about black people. And Tim gave him the plate of Golden Corral food which was fried chicken and mashed potatoes. And the guy is ranting about black people and calling them monkeys, while he talking with his mouth full of food and is using his bare hands to shovel mashed potatoes into him mouth and getting them all over his face and shirt. And he's literally eating like an animal as he's comparing black people to animals. It was the most ironic and clear instances of projection that I'd ever seen... a man who eats like a monkey calling black people monkeys. So, don't try to school me on working class values. That's the environment I was raised in. And I know all the highlights and shadows. And I will tell you that the most admirable people who held those values did not spend all their time bitching and whining about things and blaming minorities for their problems. The just did the work and would give anyone the shirts off their back if they needed it. It was only the local yokels with low intelligence and low standards of moral behavior that engaged in scapegoating the other.

You didn't even read my last post did you? I'm saying that Trump didn't win because of lefties shaming people. That's not what wins and loses elections. And when I say that Fascism is rising all over the world, it's not me pointing the finger at the Fascist other. And I'm not shaming anyone as that's not productive. I'm being almost clinical in my labelling of Fascism because I see that any and all human beings (without exception) can fall into and be weaponized into Fascism and authoritarian thinking more generally. What I'm saying is that Fascism is part of who we are as a nation and as a species when certain conditions are in place. We're incredibly vulnerable to falling into Fascistic patterns, just like ants can end up in a death spiral in certain conditions. And until we recognize this about ourselves as individuals and as a collective, Fascism will always re-arise and we'll repeat the same patterns again and again. And a big part of this is that most people don't want to face with their own Fascist impulses. We want to think "Only the bad people become Fascists. But I'm a good person, so of course I'm not a Fascist." So, we deny it to ourselves and hyper-identify with goodness because we would feel ashamed of ourselves if we saw our own Fascism. And then, when a demagogue comes and lights a spark to the repressed dormant kerosene of Fascism in us all... people just find themselves magnetized to him because he's giving permission for those repressed Fascistic impulses to come up. Trump is very aware of this. So, he knows that Fascist rhetoric is a winning message. That's why he brought out all the Fascist rhetoric so close to Election Day. That's why he had that rally with all the anti-immigrant sentiments so close to election day. Trump knows that Fascism is a winner. And people who are on the left are generally clueless about this deep seated Fascist impulse in humanity. And so, they keep trying to say "Don't vote for Trump. He's a Fascist." But it's important to recognize that deep down, everyone already knows that. And that's an advertisement for Trump for so many people... not a warning. It's a hard pill to swallow about so many in humanity. But the sooner we realize that and the vulnerabilities that Fascism comes from, the sooner we can truly grow past our Fascistic patterns to ones that are more reflective of species-unity.

Let's not let the Commanders in Chief off the hook for their military actions. That means Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, etc. Trump is 100% responsible for the military actions taken under his administration... because it was HIS administration and he appointed those neocons. And he had plenty of his own ideas in the mix. And there were plenty of instances that Trump wanted to be even more militaristic that his generals had to talk him out of. And when neocons are talking you out of militaristic actions, you know you messed up. For example, he wanted to go to war with North Korea (nuclear war). And one of his generals had to talk him out of it by appealing to his ego and giving him the idea like (paraphrased) 'wouldn't it be so cool and special of you to have diplomatic relations with North Korea.' And Trump liked that idea. So, he went with it. It's why he was all buddy-buddy with Kim Jung Un. But if not, we could have had nuclear war with North Korea.

"no wars where started while Trump was in office" I was rebutting your quote that I copy-pasted above. I was just informing you and others that are under the misconception that Trump is a dove that he's very much NOT. Lots of people think he's a dove (because that's what he claims), but he did 432% the amount of drone strikes in his first 2 years than Obama did in 8. So he is just as militaristic as other presidents, if not more. Of course, lots of presidents take military actions. But Trump is claiming that he's not and that his administration was and would be more peace loving, and most people are buying it because people are unaware. So, I'm just shining the flashlight in case you or others are under the false perception that Trump was less of a war monger than other presidents.

Maybe Masculinity is something that men are intellectually defining differently than women tend to intuitively/emotionally pick up on. And women perhaps don't sense a greater Masculinity in right wing men compared to any other guy... while men tend to have a clearer distinction because of the ways men are collectively conditioned to conceptualize of Masculinity. Maybe men index more on stereotypically Masculine acts that they can check off of a list, as opposed to indexing on Masculinity as an energetic vibe like women intuitively sense... especially in dating dynamics. And the right wing worldview itself is more polarized to the Masculine principle to the exclusion the Feminine principle. That just doesn't (to my perception) increase or amplify a man's Masculine energy or mannerisms... neither in toxic nor healthy ways. If anything, a lot of right wing guys tend to come across as catty and petty... like mean girls. Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh particularly have somewhat of a catty vibe that comes through in their speech and mannerisms. But I find this cattiness a lot online from right wing commentators... especially with Red Pill and Incel guys. Interacting with them online with them throwing their arrows at women feels quite a bit like it felt to be bullied by the petty bitchy girls in middle school. It's like, when guys don't integrate their Feminine side, it comes through in negative ways. Like @Etherial Cat said. They come across like a bunch of spicy cats. And I just can't sense the Masculine vibes. But really, look around on this forum and you'll find tons of right wing guys. Do you really feel like they're more Masculine (toxic or otherwise) than the next guy?

This is a very reductive take. People on the right are always shaming people on the left. But that's not the reason why Biden won in 2020. And even if people on the left are shaming people on the right, that's not why Trump won. Fascism is just rising everywhere in developed nations... not just the United States. And there are deeper macrocosmic dynamics that have so much more to do with economics and new technology giving so many people access to far right propaganda that promises to solve their economic issues by kicking out immigrants and sticking it to ____ group.

The last formal declaration of war that the United States made was when we joined World War II. So, no modern president has technically started any wars... though plenty of presidents (including Trump) have been involved in military attacks. For example, during his time in office Trump was responsible for... Doing 432% more drone strikes than Obama's 8 years as president in just the first 2 years of his term alone (then he slapped down the mandatory reporting requirement to hid the records of his military actions, so he very likely did even more in the latter 2 years of his term.) He kept us in Iraq and Afganistan Had a 330% increase in CIVILIAN deaths in Afghanistan under Trump's presidency He bombed Syria twice He bombed Somalia He wanted to occupy a 1/3 of Syria to "take the oil" He let Israel illegally annex the Gollon Heights He illegally assassinated the top Iranian Commander Sulemani (who was fighting against ISIS). This led to retaliatory strikes on American soldiers that led to many of them getting traumatic brain injuries. He tried to coup Venezuela He armed Saudi Arabia as they did a genocide in Yemen... and vetoed cutting off our weapons to Saudi Arabia. (Trump has business ties to Saudi) Trump has said that he wants a war with Mexico in his second term He wants to do airstrikes against drug cartels He has received millions of dollars in political donations from Miriam Adelson who he has promised to annex the entire West Bank for in exchange for that money He dropped the MOAB on Afganistan He let Neo-Cons (like John Bolton) run his foreign policy His first military raid as president killed a small American girl He signed a pro-torture executive order

I totally agree with this. There are many men who have internalized the message that they aren't Masculine enough. And so, they look for guys who they think 'fit the bill' of Masculinity. And the guys who uptalk the value of "becoming more Masculine" tend to attract a lot of these guys who feel like they need to look to external role models to "increase" their Masculinity.

Personally, I don't even think they're more stereotypically Masculine than the average leftist guy. I think that's just a stereotype that's widely believed. Think of Sam Seder, David Pakman, Cenk Ugyer, David Doel, Destiny, Hasan Piker, Vaush, etc. All of these guys are either equally Masculine or more Masculine compared to Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Nick Fuentes, Dennis Prager, Dave Rubin, Andrew Tate, etc. I don't sense any difference in the average level of Masculinity between these two groups of guys. They're all kind of medium level of Masculinity... except Cenk Ugyer, Hasan Piker, and Stephen Crowder who are a bit more Masculine than average. And if they weren't directly vocalizing their ideologies and talking about politics and everyone went in blind and you had these two groups of guys to observe and you could observe the way they speak and act, I don't think most people would rank the right wing group as more Masculine than the left wing group. The Masculinity of right wing guys is kind of like the emperor's new clothes in that way. Unless you've specifically been taught to associate Masculinity with right wing ideologies, you wouldn't read them as more Masculine than the next guy.

It's probably an expedient business decision for him, because he's a very Masculine guy who probably has a mostly male audience. Plus, for a Spiral Dynamics perspective... Most men who tend to strongly value Masculinity who have some Stage Yellow qualities tend to resist Stage Green. So, in significant ways these guys end up stuck partially or mostly in Stage Orange because they are still valuing Orange values, even if they do have some Yellow perspectives. And Trump is the definition of Stage Orange.

I think it has to do with lacking an understanding of the archetypal distinction between the Masculine and Feminine... and seeing the Feminine as antithetical to the Masculine as opposed to a necessary component of what makes an attractive and well adjusted man. The esoteric Masculine without the esoteric Feminine makes someone a "brain-in-a-jar". (aka a robotic hyper-nerd) The esoteric Feminine without the esoteric Masculine makes someone a "blob-on-the-ground." (aka a lazy couch-potato) And of course, neither of these polarizations into the Masculine and Feminine make a person attractive. So, there is a misconception that a man need to be only Masculine, and that the more Masculine a guy is that the more attractive he will be. But the Feminine is what enables us to have emotional intelligence, social acuity, connection to the body and instincts, etc. as all things of the body, emotions, and social connection are in the Feminine principle. And this is what makes a man come across as Masculine and attractive in the eyes of the world. But because there is a distinction between the cultural associations with Masculinity (which includes A LOT of archetypal Feminine qualities) AND the esoteric Masculine (which is pure raw Masculinity), so many men keep doubling down on pure Masculinity and becoming more and more socially maladjusted, nerdy, and weird because they have repressed their Feminine sides, which is what makes us more down to Earth and human. So, these guys who seek to be Masculine and to repress their Feminine sides become total "brain-in-a-jar" robotic hyper-nerds that come across as a bit disconnected, lofty, and alien. And of course, women don't like that. And these hyper-Masculine nerdy guys believe women don't like them because they're not Masculine enough, when the problem is that they're hyper-Masculine and not integrated with their Feminine side enough. And they keep doubling down on Masculine polarization and making themselves more and more nerdy and less and less socially and emotionally attuned. And then, what's the solution? Clearly they're not Masculine enough... so they keep trying to subtract the Feminine and add the Masculine. And that doesn't work. And then, what's the solution? Clearly they're not Masculine enough... so they keep trying to subtract the Feminine and add the Masculine. And that doesn't work. And then, what's the solution? Clearly they're not Masculine enough... so they keep trying to subtract the Feminine and add the Masculine. And that doesn't work. And then, what's the solution? Clearly they're not Masculine enough... so they keep trying to subtract the Feminine and add the Masculine. And that doesn't work. And then, what's the solution? Clearly they're not Masculine enough... so they keep trying to subtract the Feminine and add the Masculine. And that doesn't work. etc.

Of course. I didn't mean that guys wouldn't want to be Masculine and value those things. What I meant by "Are you sure?" is "Are you sure that these right wing guys are ACTUALLY Masculine?" They don't come across as any more Masculine than the average guy in Walmart.

Are you sure about that? On average, these right wing guys don't come across as any more Masculine than the next guy. The only one I can think of that's Masculine is Joe Rogan... and he's not even the most ideologically right wing guy. Most right wing male figures are just ideologically fetishizing their views on Masculinity. But that doesn't actually translate to them coming across as more Masculine. Like, I can't even think of a right wing guy other than Joe Rogan... or maybe Steven Crowder that come across as more Masculine than the average guy. It's just like a if there's a woman who ideologically fetishized Femininity... it wouldn't make her more Feminine. You can see a slight example of this with trad wives that have an ideological attachment to the idea of traditional Femininity. Unless they're influencers that play trad wives on TikTok, most of them are not paragons of Femininity just because they subscribe to that ideology. Some are truly the opposite and use their beliefs in trad Fem ideology to try to gain male validation, which doesn't actually translate to more Feminine allure in these men's eyes. Masculinity and Femininity are not things people can add to themselves just by believing an ideology that puts Masculinity or Femininity up on a pedestal. Think about Ben Shapiro, Nick Fuentes, Charlie Kirk, Matt Walsh, Andrew Tate, etc. Matt Walsh and Andrew Tate are in the 50th percentile of Masculine vibes where they're dead on average... while Ben Shapiro, Nick Fuentes, and Charlie Kirk are slightly less Masculine than the majority of men.

It really depends on if you're good at active listening, asking questions, and holding space for people's answers... and reflecting their answers back to them in your own words. The better questions you can ask, the better coach you will be. And the more you're aware of yourself, the more you'll be able to pick the best questions to ask.

The rules for social calibration depends on the context. And the "Overton window" of social calibration arises organically as an emergent property of the context. It isn't something decided consciously by any given person, though individuals can influence this Overton Window. It's just that (in every social context, from workplaces to countries to nightclubs, etc.) a culture intuitively arises based on a myriad of different factors that are so multifaceted that it would be very difficult to parse out.

Why is it inconceivable to you that people (including myself) actually think he's a Fascist that will rule as a Fascist? Have you never opened up a history book? Do you not know the warning signs of Fascism? Do you believe that it's impossible to happen in the contemporary first world? Do you not realize that the systems of checks on his power has already been significantly eroded since the last time he was in office? Let's just be honest and call his rhetoric what it is... Fascist authoritarian rhetoric. And when people tell you who they are, it's unwise not to read the writing on the wall. When he says things like immigrants are "poisoning the blood of the nation" (Hitler quote) and that he wants to do a mass deportation... and engages in all sorts of rhetoric to sew fear in the "other".... what makes you think he won't act on that if it's politically possible and expedient for him? And he himself isn't necessarily a Fascist ideologue... but he need not be to rule as a Fascist. Fascism is the way to rile up the populace because a LOT of people crave and clamor for authoritarian Fascism so that they have an all-powerful father figure to obey and a big group of scapegoats to take their anger out on. Trump himself only cares about power and unquestioning fealty to him. And one way that he can get more power and fealty is by ruling as a dictator. And given that his powerful influential compatriots are people who are on the far right, it isn't an unfounded fear to believe that he will rule as a Fascist dictator. And currently, the Supreme Court has ruled for presidential immunity. And the plans in Project 2025 are geared towards Unitary Executive Theory and having Trump stack the government with Trump loyalists, so that he doesn't have as many checks and balances on his power.. And look around the world. You will find Fascism rising everywhere. It's honestly silly that you don't believe people when they tell you they're concerned about Fascism. I can believe that you don't think he's a Fascist, because people always doubt Fascism until it's too late because they think "It can't happen here". But I can't believe that you don't believe others think he's a Fascist.

In the recent election, a majority of Americans chose the Fascist candidate. And Fascism is winning out over Neoliberalism all over the developed world. So, we cannot look at the recent American turn towards Fascism outside of the global context of rising Fascist sentiment. And some of this can be chalked up to worsening economic conditions, and the tendency for people who feel scarcity to revert back to ethno-nationaism and tribalism and to demonize the "other" in hopes of monopolizing the resources for themselves and their families and communities. And demagogues and stories of the unfair treatment that the "other" is supposedly getting adds a spark to the kerosene that is scarcity. And it provides a simple scapegoat to a more complex problem... or a problem that involves power structures that our out of the control of the peasants. For example, if a boy is getting beaten by his dad... rather than trying to stand up to his dad, he finds it much easier to beat up his baby brother because this is where the boy feels most powerful. It is in relation to someone less powerful than him. Thus, Fascism tends to give the illusion of empowerment to the most powerful (though still disempowered) peasants against the least powerful peasants. And it is a divide and conquer tactic where you get the powerless peasants to demonize their neighbor and feel powerful by pushing others down from them in the hierarchy. So, this is one element that is responsible for why the majority of voters in America decided to choose a candidate who openly talks about mass deportation and how the immigrants are "poisoning the blood of the nation", etc. But another element that I think is a deeper fundamental pattern within humanity is that there are feedback loops of expansion and contraction. And when we contract too much, the forces of expansion come in to balance things out. And when we expand too much, the forces of contraction come in to balance things out. And currently, the world has expanded so much in such a short period of time. And we carry all the knowledge in the world in our pockets. And we're so much more free than we have ever been. And now, the forces of contraction are coming in to limit us again for a time. And this top-down authoritarianism is placed their in lieu of us consciously choosing our limitations with our own sense of sovereignty. But there is also trajectory that moves us constantly in the direction of more love and expansion. And the contraction is meant to help with that. It's a bit like being in labor. The baby is able to be pushed out when the cervix contracts and then dilates. And the experience of labor is that there is a time of intense painful contraction that leads to greater and greater levels of dilation of the cervix until the birth can happen. And it is not possible to dilate the cervix without first having and intense contraction. Nothing can be birthed if we don't contract, and the "baby" will be stillborn without the contraction. So, I think of this time as a very painful contraction that will ready us for deeper levels of expansion one day... and that this may be what is necessary to move past the macrocosmic sticking point we're in with regard to the much needed progression of our development as a human species. If we are going to solve climate change and avoid extinction, people need to be shaken awake. And anything that keeps the status quo level of expansion won't be able to shake anything loose. But now, we're about to go through a very painful time of contraction. And it is best to coalesce together and plan for the greater expansion that may come in some years or decades to come.

I was hesitant to share this with anyone before Election Day, as I believe it's important to speak into existence the outcome that you want. And I didn't want to manifest another Trump presidency... in case there's something to making predictions and speaking predictions into existence. I can be a bit superstitious that way. But I had toyed around with idea that Trump may again be president because of an experience that I had in my most recent medicine journey from March of 2024... and the general theme of it. The theme of my medicine journey was limitation and embracing the contracted nature of human existence. So, it's very wrapped up in connection to the Earthy and the Feminine, which means embracing the finite life... which are always a big part of my journeys. And I had to many times affirm that "I'm choosing to be limited" as there is a pattern in me that is always obsessively moving towards expansion of knowledge. And my biggest neurosis is my appetite for infinite knowledge, which stemmed from a God Complex that I developed at the age of 3... and feeling like I can't trust God or my parents... and that I have to be the one that's perfect and in control. And in all of these insights about the value of limitation, there was a visual that arose that transmitted to me as a clear intuition the function of dictatorship within the context of human societal evolution. It was a multi-colored neon contour line image of the contiguous United States on a black background. And all the states were outlined as well as the outside barrier of the country. And standing in front of the contour line image of the US, there was an image of a contour line drawing of a man (in the same neon colors) who was very powerful and larger than the country itself. The man looked a little bit like if you mixed Vladimir Putin with Elon Musk. And upon seeing this image, I knew he was supposed to represent a dictator that rules over a country. And the intuition that was transmitted was that the function of a dictatorship is to limit people when they don't have connection to their own sovereignty enough to consciously choose to limit themselves in the ways they truly wish to be limited in their heart of hearts. There are so many archetypally patriarchal societal values that amount to the idea that contraction=bad and expansion=good... as we are very Masculine principled that way. Expansion is the Masculine side of the polarity, while contraction is the Feminine side of the polarity. And societally, we love the idea of expansion and hate the idea of contraction. And in the rejection of Feminine principled values like contraction, limitation, and finiteness.... and in the inability to value and choose our limitations that we prefer from a place of Feminine empowerment and sovereignty... a tyrannical un-integrated Masculine force comes in and forces everyone into a powerless lesser Shadow Feminine position of abject limitation where we are disconnected from sovereignty. So, it was clear in the journey that I had to choose to be Feminine and choose to limited in order to continue exercising my own sovereignty. And I kept saying "I'm choosing to be limited." and "I'm choosing to be Feminine." to cut away from the infinite knowledge I was exposed to on the journey because I really didn't want the burden of infinite knowledge I had always been seeking to gain more and more certainty... for the sake of safety. And without this sovereignly chosen limitation and contraction, the forces of nature coalesce and give us a dictator to do the dirty job of limiting and constricting us... albeit with plenty of damage and tyranny along with it... and in a way that strips us of our sovereignty. And it has popped into my head from time to time during the election cycle that the Ayahuasca may have shown me a dictator to indicate that Trump would become president and rule as a dictator. So, if you guys could consciously choose to integrate the Feminine value of contraction and consciously limit yourself in the ways you really want to be limited, this may be quite valuable in the prevention of big destructive macrocosmic problems that dictatorship causes. And really... what is the underlying principle of our economic system but infinite Masculine expansion on a finite Feminine planet? So, if you find yourself hyper-valuing expansion and maximizing knowledge, strength, talent, responsibility, power, doing, achieving, earning, etc. to the exclusion of mystery, weakness, ordinariness, surrender, and being... then you may want to consciously integrate these values to let yourself off the hook so that external forces don't need to do it instead.

Marcus (aka story-Leo) is even wearing the uniform, eh?

What used to motivate you to go towards your life's purpose, back when you were motivated?

OMG! That's hilarious! @Leo Gura Hey Marcus. Do you want to be a character in my special story?

A big part of the Feminine principle is sovereignty... with its Masculine principled counterpart being leadership. Leadership is the ability to lead and influence other people, while sovereignty is about self-governance and centering in ones own power and responsibility. And of course, you need both if you want to be a great leader... though dictators only have the leadership part without the sovereignty (and they suck of their followers' sovereignty like a hungry ghost because they lack their own). And there are three keys to sovereign power which is less about the power to dominate or lead others and much more about the power to go towards what is wanted and away from what is unwanted. Here are the three keys to sovereign power... Discover what you REALLY want in your heart of hearts. (This is 90% of the battle and the hardest part) Become aware of the levers of power you have at your disposal to bring about what you want as well as which levers of power are not at your disposal. Be bold enough to utilize the levers of power you discovered in step 2 which are at your disposal AND agree with your own ethical compass, so as to bring about your wanted outcome or to get away from what is unwanted. So, a big part of connecting to the Feminine is to develop enough sensitivity, intuition, and self-trust to discover what you truly want in your heart of hearts and to use your own inner subjective compass to navigate toward what is wanted (and away from what's unwanted.) And one thing that gets in the way of our ability to know what we want and what we don't want, is what our mind believes that we SHOULD want... or that we have to do in order to "earn" or "deserve" what we want. The concept of "earning" and "deserving" is antithetical to Feminine sovereign power because it relies on the illusion of an external authority figure who sets standards we have to measure up to. It makes us project reality onto the masks that our leaders and rule systems wear, when they're actually just the man behind the curtain. So, in relation to my post... there is this sense that many people share because of our Masculine-principled cultural values that "I SHOULD want expansion because expansion is better than contraction." or "If I'm going to be good enough to deserve _____, I have to expand and become more than what I am." But these are not a reflection of sovereignty, nor is anything with the sense of "have to" or "should" or "should not"... or a sense of needing to justify one's self relationally to external people, leaders, and systems of authority. These are a reflection of the illusion of an external standard that must be matched up to. It is believing that the man behind the curtain is truly a wizard, instead of following your own inner compass. And it is an abdication of personal sovereignty and responsibility onto external people, rule systems, deities, etc... which decanters us from our Feminine sovereign power. But when we discover what we truly want in our heart of hearts, we will find that there are naturally ways we want to expand and ways we want to contract. And when we find those ways we want to contract and act from it, this is part of the integration of the Feminine side of the Feminine value of sovereignty. And vice versa, when we find the ways we want to expand and act from it, this is part of the integration of the Masculine side of the Feminine value of sovereignty. So, with regard to this post... it is recognizing the boundaries and limitations you want to have (not that you SHOULD want to have) that enable you to connect to your sovereignty. In Thelema (Occultism), there is a quote that goes "Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." And this quote is antithetical to everything most religions teach as most religions see our sovereignty and will as inherently negative and bad... which is a reflection of patriarchal religious values that put humanity into opposition to our nature (which is our Feminine side... aka Mother Nature.) For example, the concept of original sin puts us into an inherently non-trustful state with our own sovereignty. And this has evoked in humanity a very combative domineering relationship with Mother Nature and the Feminine in general over the millennia. So, there is a lot of mistrust in our own nature and the statement "Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" because we have been conditioned through thousands of years of religion and philosophy to believe we are bad at our core and that our sovereignty is inherently devilish... and to see the Feminine sovereign nature as inherently evil (evil = Eve-like). But I have seen that this is just a result of our coping mechanisms, which doesn't reflect our true will. And I have seen in my journeys that our will is always 100% benevolent, though ignorance, traumas, and circumstances can cause our will to be mangled and disconnected from our deeply loving core. It is only when our will because twisted away from our truest deepest will that what starts out as benevolently-intended becomes harmful. So, a big part of Feminine sovereign integration is to work through all the barriers to discovering our truest deepest will and from expressing our truest deepest will. And a big part of that is to get rid of the sense of should, should not, have to, deserving, not deserving, earning, etc. AND instead becoming as conscious as possible of what you really want in your heart of hearts. And if you dig deep enough and become aware of your truest deepest will and get in touch fully with your Feminine sovereignty, you will find a deeply conscious and loving Masculine spirit rippling like a current through your nature. And only then can you be a truly conscious sovereign leader.