The Dark Web

Matrix-style.

This one’s gonna get weird, so buckle up Buttercup…

At the end of every year I have started to host a foundations course for learning the skill of shamanic journeying using just a drum. This is a technique that is our birthright, in my ever humble opinion, and it is part of the inherent technology of our human body. In that course we learn to do things like build relationships with our spirit helpers, lay the foundation for the “home” of our lived experience, and explore the various realms and their inhabitants of the Unseen worlds(Upper, Lower, and Middle).

Autumn of 2025 was the second year for teaching this course in this way, and it felt right to delve a little deeper with some added support through the darkest part of the year. This course also coincides with election season, speaking of dark parts of the year, and as we moved through the course material, I sat with the question of how to use my magical training in service to the life on this planet I so deeply revere. It wasn’t until just before the cross quarter day of Imbolc and the official official closing of our class container that the answer came through.

Now, it has been my observation that all magic comes at a cost. It doesn’t matter if it is light magic, dark magic, blood magic, sex magic, earth magic, love magic, intention magic, or any other kind of magic. It doesn’t matter if your intentions are good and pure, or if they are dark and sinister. The bill comes due. Whenever we make a wish, or a prayer, or a hex on someone else, we are also casting that about for ourselves. Lord knows, I do not want any of what I wish upon these current cretins to be called into my own life.

So, what to do. What to do?

Over the years, my studies have led me to the belief that there are forces, beings let’s say, who feed on human suffering. If you have heard the parable of the two coyotes then we can conceptualize this as the coyote who has been fed all the Yuck. If that is true, the thought follows that there must be beings who thrive on joy. Instead of focusing on how to take these bastards down, and incurring a possible boomerang effect with the energy cast out(on top of bolstering the Bad Guys with my continued attention), why not feed the other coyote.

The group was invited to go on a shamanic journey to meet these beings who are nourished by our delight, and to inquire about ways to combat the darkness of our times.

I was shocked by what I discovered.

The skill of shamanic journeying can be achieved in a multitude of ways. Some of the most notable these days seem to be via plant medicines or psychotropic critters. Others include dancing, fasting, and the steady rhythmic beat of the drum or rattle. I focus on that last one.

In this particular journey, I put on my drumming track and covered my eyes in the prescribed manner. Everything started out as usual, but as we tried to go deeper, I kept getting distracted. The thoughts were adjacent to my intention, but not in direct service, and I was getting frustrated. I decided to ask my guide what the heck was happening and restated that I wanted to meet these beings who thrived on human joy.

Clear as day, I received the answer: they cannot be reached at this time.

There is a black grid over the planet that is keeping us trapped here, and for the moment escape is very difficult.

Well, that’s encouraging. *le sigh*

This concept is not completely out of left field for me. Michael Harner’s book, The Way of the Shaman, introduces a similar concept. He shares of an impactful journey he had in the Amazon where he met ancient whale/serpent beings who feast on human pain, and who are considered our true masters.

Don Juan in the Carlos Castaneda books describes some of these beings called Flyers. Supposedly we gave our consent millenia ago to be feasted upon energetically and our goal in this lane of training is to come to inner peace and avoid their Dementor-like soul-sucking gaze.

Barbara Hand Clow talks about the 4th dimension in her book, Alchemy of the Nine Dimensions, being a realm of sticky, staticky transmission that keeps us stuck and separated where nefarious entities in the know are capable of controlling us.

Robert Morning Sky, a Hopi elder, shares a creation story in his Terra Papers pamphlet. In that myth he talks of humans being created as beasts of burden for the gods to mine precious minerals, and that there is an energetic lock on this planet to keep our souls trapped in the cycle of samsara—trapped by a web of dark energy.

In the lectures for his mystery school, Michael Tsarion talks of beings who exist in the lower astral realms and feed off intense human emotion.

Barbara Marciniak mentions these beings as well in her book, Bringers of the Dawn.

…to name a few.

As the flood of all these pieces came into my awareness, I stifled my collapse and asked the obvious question. How do we break outta here? How do we break through the grid? Or, are we simply destined to live out the worst, or almost worst, case scenario on every timeline of Earth through every incarnation for all time? Just to be continuously harvested for our juicy fear?

That answer was a little more open-ended.

This is still a Free Will Zone, so breaking free of our prison is kind of up to us.

Very Matrix-y, huh?

The antidote to this veil of darkness(in simplified terms) seems to be first recognizing it(the Darkness), and then to choose something else(claim sovereignty, exercise free will). That’s it. That easy. Just choose something else.

Will we—can we, even—focus on our joy as an act of revolution? Can we eke out the time in our schedules to cultivate beauty just for beauty’s sake? Can we take it even further and join forces collectively in a Care Bear Stare of Love and Creation to burn a hole right through that dark grid?

It’s up to us. No one is coming to save us, but it is possible to save ourselves. At least, that’s what I have to believe.

Each of these authors has a different take on how to accomplish this quest for freedom, but they all essentially come down to this, stand in your power, lead from your heart, and stay centered in your peace.

Easy peasy lemon squeezie. lol.

Standing in your power means knowing your worth and your boundaries, and stating them clearly. Leading from your heart means being in touch with your desire, as well as your compassion. Staying centered in one’s peace is self-explanatory.

Stay in your lane. Feel your Self. Shine your light.

And do it all with some friends.

Love will set us free.

This article was originally published on Substack. You can read the original here.