Politics & Fractures in the World of Healing & the Rising Feminine Movement!
Renaming, repackaging, lack of integrity, jealousy, ownership and control. Symptoms of the Trinity Wounds (mother, witch, sister).
Stop the politics. Stop the trademark. Keep our language free.
This post is for teachers, therapists, practitioners and students involved in the work!
Warning! Some comments may be triggering.
It's not my intention to hurt or offend anyone.
I need to speak my truth.
Integrity for me is about the love, intention and honesty with which I share my offerings.
But the politics around it is tiring, disrespectful and short-sighted. I freak out when I see, even well respected experienced teachers and therapists, who mean well, claiming proprietorship and using trademarks to own a healing modality, a concept or simply combinations of words which are commonly used in our everyday descriptive language. And all they have done is simply repackaging a number of approaches, tools and modalities learnt from teachers who never made any claim.
Using intention, touch, energy, journeys, oils, crystals, herbs, sound, breathwork, movement, tools, shamanic portals, elements, totem animals, etc. is nothing new. All of it can be blended together, applied with different intentions and packaged in different ways to target specific groups of people or for teaching purposes.
Weaving your style
We might use new ways to describe something, we might have our own style and ways of weaving things together, we might move a therapy from the floor to the table or vice versa, mix aspects and elements. Every each one of us has a style or way to weave in wisdom, intuition, skills and techniques in our offerings. Weaving is a way of packaging which can be rooted in love and good intentions. That weaving makes us all creative and unique.
But a style and a package do not make anyone creatrix of a new therapy that requires or entitles them to own words, titles and descriptions, which are commonly used to describe what we do. Very soon we will not be able to talk anymore and describe what we offer using simple words. One could argue that we are all creatrix, but this word is so overused in the sense of being the unique creatrix and therefore the 'owner' of whatever therapy or modality one claims to have created.
We might go a step further and turn our style into a course that we can sell, because we feel the call to teach and spread the healing and the teachings, or for some it is because they have realized there is more money in teaching than in 1-1 with clients. Voila here is a new package! And with a brand new name! Now that gets tricky!
How do we call it? Do we really need a new name? Why? Not to upset a teacher? Do we need approval from every single teacher who has taught an aspect included in the course? Is anyone going to think we have copied them? Why should we register the name? Are we respectful to our teachers and those before them? How to price it fairly? If we don't register the name, is anyone going to use and register it? If so, why would that be a problem? Will a trademark really protect the work? And protect from what exactly? Aren't copyrights enough? To have a recognizable brand do we need a trademark? Do we register the name of the business/school or the name of the therapy? Or both and every single course title we create?
THIS IS ALL UTTERLY CRAZY. Yet the noise is getting louder!
Repeat after me, 'I do not own any therapy'
It’s like me creating a yoga sequence, calling it ovary-yoga for marketing purposes, market it as a sequence specific for egg quality, putting a trademark on it and go around telling people not to use my sequence or the name I use. It’s ok to create a sequence, to call it that and market it with a specific intention, but to trademark and ‘own’ it would be unethical. Why? Because every single pose or movement or energy work in the sequence would have been taught to me, yes I could come up (hardly) with a couple new revolutionary techniques! But I have not invented the elements of it and the concept of using yoga for reproductive health is not mine either. For centuries before me, women have used yoga for womb health, for fertility, for menstrual issues and so on. I do not own the therapy, I do not own the healing.
Healing is our birthright. It belongs to all of us and so are the various tools and approaches.
Anyone should feel free to use the same name, the same sequence and spread it, or modify my sequence in a way they feel works better. This is what making space for growth and sharing is. This is true heartfelt offering.
I could combine modalities together, like Hawaiian massage, pulsing, yoni egg, yoni massage, reiki, rituals and hypnosis, market it for orgasmic health and say I have created my signature course/therapy for heightened pleasure. But none of it is something I have invented. It’s a style and a package of elements, a way to blend things together, with a specific intention and to attract a specific niche. I might teach it, and with that I will have copyrights on the written course, but again I would have invented nothing of it. The tools are not mine. My style to weave the elements together is mine and we all have a unique style. Will I need a registered name? Sure not!
Someone might buy my course, repackage, rename and trademark it. How would I feel? I don’t know because I have not been in that situation. But I hope I will be compassionate for their weakness (yes, I do view it as a weakness) and have the strength to have an open conversation with them, to let them know how I feel. They might not be very receptive but at least I would have voiced my hurt and planted a seed. Just to be clear, the problem for me would not be their intention to spread the work or to repackage what they learnt from me and other teachers, but the intention to ‘possess’ something that does not belong to them, nor to me.
False perception
We seem to believe that we can find everything on internet and what is not there, then does not exist, so we can take it and claim it as ours. But that's not true. Not everyone likes or wants to be loud. Not all traditions have the same type of access to technology that we have.
What gives anyone the right to register a trademark for womb reiki, womb blessing, womb light, Karuna reiki, fertility therapy, abdominal massage, shamanic womb healing? These words and healing approaches existed before they were registered or packaged in a course. All the imposed variations because of the desire to own a trademark, or imposed because of an existing trademark, or because a teacher wants to be seen as doing something different, are tiring, useless and pretentious!
To me that would be like putting a trademark on Thai massage, Lomi Lomi, Hatha Yoga. Will that deter me from using them if I want to? NO.
Is anyone now going to register heart reiki, yoni reiki, oocyte reiki, embryo reiki, IVF reiki? Are words like shamanic womb massage, womb healing, shamanic womb medicine, womb medicine wheel, quantum yoni healing, abdominal-womb massage, womb-hara massage, rebozo wrapping also at risk? What is the true intention behind a TM? All you are doing is making it hard for someone else to share the work, to call it and to describe it. How does that come from love and integrity? You are acting in ways which are not aligned with the values of the movement you claim to support. How is that respectful to those who taught you those healing modalities? How is it respectful to those who have used those titles, names and tools before you? Why do you believe that your work is unique?
Hungry ego
These people, motivated by a desire to control and own, have a lot of healing to do, I feel compassion for them because they act from an inflated, wounded and greedy ego, they are confused, they are influenced by the false masculine energy of ‘I want, I want. It’s mine’. Or is it the sister wound?
Right now, I am guilty of judging someone I don’t even know. Yes, I am a wounded individual too. Please forgive me, you will have probably had your own good reasons for doing so, or maybe nobody has ever challenged the integrity of your choice. Or maybe I need to change my views and embrace the world we live in and start applying for trademarks before anyone else does? NO, keep them. Or I should just shut up and quietly do my work. I hear you!
Blessed to spread the work
There is a new trend of stating “I have been blessed to spread the work”. I have seen it so many times that I do not always believe it anymore, and making such a claim does not mean they are respectful to the teachings they have received or that their intentions are appraisable.
Let me ask you something. If you share the work as in you teach and charge money for the course, and you have spent years training, healing and evolving with the support of many teachers, some of which you don’t even remember the name anymore, and let’s also say that you have enriched yourself with the knowledge that nowadays is available to us through the internet, are you really sure that you have received the blessings of every single teacher and person who has given you the tools or inspired you with some aspects of the work you offer, for all the writings, the words, the ideas, the descriptions you have used?
Among the several trainings received, I have trained in person in different forms of abdominal massage from various traditions six times at least! The first well over fifteen years ago. Some included massage over the womb, some didn't. Some included shamanic journeys blended in and some didn't. I have done trainings where I was not interested in learning a new technique or some secret, because in that respect I already had plenty. I joined because I wanted to breathe in the qualities and energy of my teacher, her approach, because I wanted to nurture myself for a few days with like minded people, because there is always something new to learn and experience, because healing happens again and again on a deeper level, and yes I loved her course! I am never tired of experiencing the same teachings again because the experience is always different.
If one day I was to teach this or any other modality or therapy, will I need to come up with a brand new name not to upset any teacher. Will I need to share my material with them just to prove I am not copying? Who is going to get upset because yet another course has been created? Why so much fear?
The Trinity Wounds run deep in all of us. In those who lack integrity, in those who feel betrayed, in those who fear they are not enough, in those who keep small despite having abundance to offer, in those who show off but know little, in those who are jealous but have it all, in those who undermine others, in those who feel righteous, in those who need but don't ask, in those who can give but keep, in those who give but don't take, in those who demand hierarchy but set themselves free, in those who blame others when they are guilty, in those who promise but don't uphold.
Teaching comes in many forms
Sometimes I find myself writing down notes about something I heard or something that comes to me as an enlightenment moment based on reflections after reading, watching or listening to something, but I don’t remember where or from whom, it could be something that I then embed in my work, writings or in a course if I was teaching. So how could I possibly say that I have received their blessings to spread and charge for it? Teaching comes in so many forms.
The statement "I have received my teachers’ blessings" is starting to lose value, it almost seems to justify that it is ok to act in certain ways, or that their work is more genuine than others, or it is virtue signalling to those who do not make such a claim, or it is an answer to something that has triggered that comment and it is a way to avoid the open conversation.
Actions rooted in wounds and shadows, creating more fractures among us.
My teachers
I do not respect any less my teachers or colleagues who use trademarks, have claimed to have created something of their own, or have entered in social post fights about who is to receive recognition for some work. I am not perfect and they are not either. We learn, evolve and learn constantly. And also this is my opinion and they would have had their own values for doing so, like they might feel that it’s their way to protect their work and brand. I get it, but ... please leave our descriptive language free!
When I choose my teachers and courses is because I am called to them for their offerings and their qualities. I am always curious about where they learnt from but I see how they also struggle to find best practices to operate in this competitive, techy and materialistic world.
Schools & traditions
There are different schools and we are so blessed nowadays to be able to learn, experience and enrich ourselves with so many modalities either in person or online. These schools might have learnt from different masters or healing traditions, or come from the same tradition. They might be very similar and even use the same words to describe a therapy or modality they share though with some differences. One tradition or school is not necessarily better than another. Or if you see someone offering something similar to what you offer, and you don’t know where they learnt if from, it does not mean they have copied from you or that what your offer is superior, or they stole your name.
Don't make assumptions about other teachers and schools if you have not studied with them.
Some schools have become very expensive because they rely on their experience, their name and their thousands of social followers, repeating the same online course year after year with no new input. Experience and huge number of social followers are not a sign of integrity either.
Not everyone can afford the courses you studied.
Why would it be so wrong for someone to honestly say "I love what you do can you teach me some of it. I cannot afford the courses you did." Is your immediate response based on integrity, love and desire to share the work? Or is it based on fear? Fear of what? What is the root cause of your fear?
Origins & respect
Another trend I see is this idea that everything that we are re-discovering comes from indigenous cultures from countries other than the Western world, and we need to acknowledge that or we are guilty of cultural appropriation. Yes, but it’s also true that a lot of these traditions existed in the Western world too, we have simply forgotten them. Dig deep and if you are still lucky to have great grandmothers, ask for their old ways.
It's a blessing that these traditions are alive in other cultures passed from generations to generations, from families to families, from various healing traditions, transmitted generously, with no claim, trademark or ask for recognition. Many did bless some teachers to go and spread the work in the Western world but not to be greedy about it or trademark it as their own.
Many gave their blessings but they did not know that in our world we would have taken their tradition and mix it with the tradition of a culture from the other side of the world or with what we call 'my style'. If they knew, would they still give their blessings?
By weaving in our style and mixing different aspects together are we not diluting the essence of a tradition and lack respect? We all do it. None of us is innocent.
Of course one should also recognize that therapies and modalities do evolve just like human beings and needs also evolve. And yes there are some master teachers, healers and enlightened people who have been able to remember and channel something long forgotten or new to our way of understanding and supporting our journey. And these people have and continue to be generous with their sharing without getting lost in the control and trademark fights.
My wish
If someone was inspired or learnt from me anything that they want to use with loving intentions in their work, posts, articles or whatever way, I would be honoured. I wish for a world where there are women circles in every corner, for ancient wisdom, for sacred medicine, for natural therapies, for womb healing and a unified feminine-masculine to become embedded in our health practices and systems, in the way we live and act. And if I can spread any healing or wisdom that makes me grateful. I always welcome competition. It is a good sign meaning the work is being spread. We should not call it competition but collaboration!
But how do we protect innocent souls from those who are malevolent in their intentions? And how do we protect our sacred medicine?
By spreading more of the love and making it easier for those who have integrity to train, offer their work and teach it when ready for it.
If I was a teacher, I would want my students to grow, to feel free to spread the work, to adapt, to try new things, to weave it with their own magic, I would want to facilitate that journey for them, make space for them rather than putting obstacles, creating a rigid structure or using trademarks to signal 'this is mine'.
My best teachers in life have been those who did not keep their students chained in the nest but created space for them to spread their wings.
Claiming my ownership would only push so many to want to ‘own’ yet another sequence, yet another package, yet another trademark, yet another brand. My greed would feed the malicious and evil-minded forces.
STOP! This is not what the rising feminine movement ought to be!
Protecting the teachings and respecting the teachers is about acknowledging and offering the gifts transmitted to us from a place of pure love and service to those in need.
Protection and respect should not generate competition, control and fractures.
Rising feminine
The rising feminine is about surrender, harmony, oneness, intuition, empathy, nurturing, connection, creativity, compassion, collaboration, care, true listening, fluidity, enabling, transparency, sharing, equality, inclusivity, allowing, change, kindness, expansion and so on.
Taking or wanting ownership of a therapy or language, that belongs to everyone, is based on a distorted patriarchal system of competition, domination, hierarchy, power, control and separation.
How can we transform wounds into wisdom? Where do you want to focus your energy? There is no right or wrong answer. It's about your feelings, your values, your choice and where you are on your healing journey.
For many years I worked in a very competitive environment, when I jumped ship it was because I wanted to follow my true call and a path that contained higher vibration, yet I find myself in another world full of distortions. But I stand strong in my call!
My gratitude
As a student, a therapist, an evolving aging woman, an aspiring teacher, I lovingly thank all of my teachers for their wisdoms, for holding me with love on my healing journey and dark descent, for the transmissions received, for activating my energies, for their patience, for helping me to manifest my desires, for their generosity, for their relentless work in creating courses, for their honesty in saying they did not invent the work they offer, for being raw and showing their shadows, for inspiring me on so many levels.
I thank those teachers who expressed greed, pushed me down, aside or ignored me, because I learnt from you too. Now I know, you felt threatened by me. I am sorry.
I thank my soul sisters who work hard to share their offerings, for not giving up, for their love. I see you even if we have never met. Don't let the politics stop your amazing work. We need you. I thank those I can name and those I cannot because I never knew your name.
I thank my mum because she was gifted with incredibly warm hands and as a child she made me soon aware of what a healing touch was. I thank my paternal grandmother who, in the dark cold wintery evenings, would sit with us around the wood fire and tell us stories of ghosts and witches, stoking my fire for magic and the old ways. I thank the witch of the village where I grew up. She used to travel on her cart pulled by an old donkey. As she would go to visit her friend, who was my neighbour, she would stop by my gate, give me an open, old bag of puff crisps, which I happily ate sitting by her side on the cart. My grandmother believed that if our witch friend held me, then I would be protected by any malevolent force, so as a baby she forced me in her arms!
For years I buried all the magic I grew up with until I felt the drumbeat again. I now remember!
Sending you love & light - from my womb & my heart to yours!
Betty
