Sovereign Path Series: Part 5. Discernment Is the Gateway to Sovereignty
Not everything that appears whole is rooted in truth.
Some circles shine with light on the surface - while decay spreads quietly underneath.
Discernment is the skill of seeing what’s behind the reflection.
It’s the soul’s way of saying: “I no longer choose beauty over integrity.”
There’s a moment on the healing path - one that feels less like liberation and more like psychic surgery - where you realize:
Not everything that glitters is gold.
Not everyone who holds space is clean.
And not every woman in your circle is your sister.
Discernment is the fire that rises when the soul says:
No more pretending not to see.
Discernment Isn’t Judgement. It’s Protection.
Let’s clear something up:
We’ve been conditioned - especially as spiritual women - to blur the lines between discernment and judgement.
Having a boundary is being called “closed”, “pushy”, or “b$tchy”.
To notice and call out a distortion is seen as “projecting”.
To walk away from someone misusing power is labeled as “unhealed”.
But here is the truth:
Discernment is your body knowing before your mind does.
It’s the quiet voice inside you saying “this doesn’t feel right” before the betrayal fully reveals itself.
It is your innate gift - and the most underdeveloped tool in many spiritual circles because of groupthink, sisterhood glamours, childhood conditioning & conservative stereotypes, and bypass culture, that teach us to override it.
How I Lost & Reclaimed My Discernment
I once sat in circle with women I loved - women I learned, shared, and felt community with.
I felt the power. I felt the connection.
But somewhere along the way, I started to doubt what I felt in my gut.
I overrode the red flags in favor of spiritual ideals, community belonging, and a sense of being “relatable” and “kind”.
I called it “giving grace”, giving the “benefit of the doubt”, being “nonjudgemental”. I called it “unconditional sisterly love”.
I called it many things.
But deep down? I was really just abandoning myself.
And when the veil dropped - when I saw the manipulation, the subtle power plays, the very real maliciousness that lie underneath the sweet exterior and smile, and the cloaked control -
I realized I wasn’t crazy.
I was trained to suppress and dismiss my discernment in order to belong.
That is not sisterhood. It is not community. That’s spiritual submission.
And, like it or not, some people exploit and prey upon this sisterhood wound, because it is far more common than you’d like to think.
5 Discernment Keys for the Sovereign Path
If you are building sovereignty for yourself - a path for yourself rooted in truth, clarity, and sacred leadership - you need to hear this.
Here are the five keys I’ve learned through the fire:
Watch the Energy, Not the Words
Spiritual distortion is often dressed in poetic language and polished “light”.
It tells you want you want to hear - but leaves your body feeling tight, drained, or confused.
Discernment isn’t about doubting what is said - it’s about reading what’s underneath.
The energy never lies. Learn to trust what you feel.
Your Body is the Oracle
Tension in your gut? Heart constriction? Throat tingling or tightening? Head fog around someone?
That sudden headache after a Zoom circle?
The nervous system spike when they compliment you?
The subtle withdrawal that you feel when they enter a room?
These are just a few of the somatic signals your body may send you to pay attention to a dissonance in energy.
It is not your trauma speaking. It is not paranoia.
It’s perception.
Or in other words, it is your discernment radar lighting up. And it is screaming for your attention.
Your body is the most accurate lie detector you will ever meet - if you’re willing to stop overriding it.
You may hear this a thousand times, but it’s worth bears hearing again - the more you yield to listening to your body - taking that sacred pause to get really present with yourself and attune to it’s message - to really learn to trust yourself - the more this gift will strengthen and surprise you. It is like a muscle - the more you use it and learn to rely upon it, the stronger and more reliable it becomes.
What Happens When You Say No?
Healthy people honor boundaries. Distorted ones punish them.
If someone shifts when you say no - pouts, withdraws, criticizes, or reframes your truth as a “shadow”. Or, in any other way violates or tries to push back a strong boundary you hold in your life - you’re being shown something.
Discernment asks: Is this dynamic safe and honoring for my no? In my gut, am I truly okay with this?
If not - it’s not sovereign.
Look for Emotional Transactionalism
Does support only come when you’re useful?
Do you feel obligated to offer energy just to be seen or stay “in” the group?
Are you giving more than you’re receiving - energetically or emotionally; or even in your time, services, and generosity - but gaslit into calling it “service”?
Is generosity always repaid in visibility, loyalty, or gossip protection?
That’s not love. That’s energetic debt disguised as “community”.
Check the scales - and don’t dismiss them. Truth and true healthy relationship are balanced and reciprocal.
Sovereign bonds don’t require emotional payments to stay valid.
If It Can’t Withstand Truth, It Wasn’t Real
Can you ask hard questions without being shamed or dismissed?
Can you name what you feel without being flipped into the role of the wounded one?
Can you speak your truth without someone rushing to silence you in the name of “unity” or some other covert cause?
Are criticism or questions met with victimhood or truth?
If a bond only works when you stay small, silent, or continue to self-sacrifice -
you’re not in sacred space - you’re in a controlled one.
Discernment reveals the difference between true sisterhood and community - and energetic submission.
And while you may think this is radically obvious - it can often be much more subtle on the surface than you might think.
Discernment will help you spot this no matter how small the dissonant frequency is.
Discernment isn’t a weapon.
It is the boundary your soul sets to protect your becoming.
If someone calls that a threat,
they were never aligned with your truth -
only your compliance.
Let this be a gift you protect, honor, and stay highly attuned with. How others receive you and honor this part of you back, speaks volumes energetically.
Inner Reflection:
Take a breath and ask yourself:
Where am I still betraying my body’s knowing in exchange for connection?
What truths am I avoiding because I’m afraid of what they’ll cost me?
Where do I rely on my intellect and logic instead of my own inner knowing?
Where do I let my ego hold me back or override my intuition and discernment? Am I okay with acknowledging I may be wrong? If not, what lies underneath that?
What would it mean - what would it really look like - to let discernment lead in my life?
How can I better honor more pause, presence, and discernment in my life and allow this gift to strengthen?
These aren’t easy questions - but they are the ones that will set you free.
How To Rewire Your System To Feel Truth Again After Spiritual Betrayal
Most people teach discernment like it’s a checklist or a mental muscle.
But if you’ve ever said, “I knew something was off - but I stayed anyway.”
then you’ve already discovered the truth no one tells you:
Your ability to discern truth has nothing to do with your mind.
It isn’t intellectual - It’s energetic. Its cellular.
And it lives in your nervous system, your trauma imprints, your ancestral memory, your fascia, and your subtle body.
And, when you’ve been glamoured, gaslit, or groomed in a spiritual space, your frequency gets hijacked. Your field gets crosswired. Your body begins to associate control with safety…and sometimes, safety with love.
Here are 5 steps that will help heal your instrument so that you can get your signal back - so you can feel what’s true again and learn to trust yourself.
Not in theory. Not intellectually. But, in your body - your gut, your breath, and your bones.
Step 1: Understand How Energetic Hijacking Works
When you join a group or teacher with manipulative structures, several things often happen:
You get slowly conditioned to override your instincts: you abandon your no to stay included, you confuse intensity with intimacy, you mistake nervous system regulation for truth.
You disconnect from gut-level knowing (HPA axis and vagus nerve dysregulation)
You begin deferring to external cues (mirroring the group, fawning, over-attuning)
Your energy field contracts or expands incoherently (a key insight of glamour or charisma abuse)
Your subtle body becomes confused. Your energetic body starts mistaking nervous system regulation for safety- and safety for love. But these are not interchangeable. This confusion is how illusion enters. In other words, when trauma patterns are reinforced, your system may confuse calm for truth, control for safety, and approval for love.
Your discernment didn’t vanish. It was just overwritten.
Your signal became scrambled.
Step 2: Regulate to Reconnect; Regulation is the Portal, Not The Proof
You can’t discern truth in a dysregulated state. Your body has to feel safe enough to access truth.
Most people are trying to “tune in” while dissociated, anxious, or over-attuned to predators.
But here’s the catch: you can feel calm and still be in danger.
It’s possible to feel held and harmed at the same time. Many systems offer a sense of regulation - but if it’s paired with disempowerment or distortion, that “peace” is a performance:
Trauma bonded dynamics often regulate your nervous system just enough to keep you hooked - while bypassing the deeper dissonance in your soul. It feels calm, but it costs you clarity.
Some spiritual spaces soothe the parts of you that crave belonging….while subtly asking you to betray the parts of you that carry truth. That betrayal isn’t loud - its slow erosion.
Some spaces offer you comfort - but only if you abandon your core self to receive it. The nervous system calms while the soul withers. That’s not safety. That’s seduction. That’s often how cultic spaces work.
Real discernment begins when your nervous system no longer needs to belong in order to survive.
Step 3. Detox the Energetic Bond That’s Not Yours
Even after leaving a spiritual group, remnants often linger:
Cord entanglements
Thoughtforms looping in your head
Guilt tied to breaking silent contracts
Chakra distortion or entanglement (especially crown, solar plexus, and sacral)
Somatic patterning of fawning or compliance
Ground yourself daily. Call back your energy. Cord cut - as often as needed.
Step 4: Rebuild Self-Trust (Your Inner Oracle) with Pattern Recognition
Betrayal often installs shame: How did I not see it?
Most people understand the need to “trust themselves” again after betrayal and try to do so - but trust isn’t a decision. It is a pattern recognition system.
The antidote isn’t hypervigilance - it’s pattern tracking over time. So that next time you understand what to look for and help prep your body to wire to the clues.
Tool: The Pattern Map Journal
Track the moments when you:
Overrode your gut (that constriction you felt) and said yes….and why
Betrayed your knowing to stay included
Silenced yourself to be “spiritual”
Ignored body signals in favor of approval
Places where you confused resonance with recognition of an old wound
And then, write the reversal:
Next time I feel ______ I will ______.
You’re not shaming yourself - you’re updating your system.
You’re training your field to follow truth instead of trauma.
Step 5: Energetic Discernment Is Devotion - Not Division
One of the most damaging distortions is the idea of discernment becoming weaponized in some spiritual spaces:
You’re projecting.
You’re not trusting.
You’re in ego.
That’s just your trauma talking.
This is spiritual gaslighting.
Because here’s the truth:
Judgement divides. Discernment refines. And refinement is a sacred act of devotion to truth.
And truth is the goal. The real medicine is learning that discernment is sacred.
It’s the root of spiritual maturity.
It’s not about deciding who is “bad”.
It’s about tending to the truth within you like a holy fire. And learning to tune and protect your field and body so that you are not able to be glamoured again.
It’s about never ever again self-abandoning.
You don’t need to judge others.
You need to become the clearest frequency in the room. Boldy yet humbly confident and certain of yourself.
You were never meant to follow.
You were meant to feel.
And once you trust your own frequency again, you become unglamourable.
Every time you choose truth over performance, clarity over charisma, soul over any tether to belonging - you reclaim your inner temple.
The teacher you were seeking? The one you thought abandoned you?
She has always been there. Curled up inside your chest and waiting for you to return.
The Gift Of Aligning With Discernment
Discernment is sacred. It is not cold. It is not cruel. It is not too pushy.
It is a flame.
And the more you feed it, the more your field
becomes a temple
that only truth may enter.
And if you choose to align your life - your deepest inner self - with truth,
you will see abundance, joy, and fulfillment in levels. you could only dream of for yourself.
If you’ve ever doubted yourself - I see you.
If you’ve been gaslit in the name of spiritual “hierarchy” - I believe you.
And, if you’re walking away from a situation or community that is tough to say goodbye to, to honor your own discernment - know, that I see and honor your self-love and courage.
Let this be your line in the sand.
This Is the Sovereign Path
To walk the Sovereign Path is to choose truth over comfort.
It is to stop outsourcing your own inner knowing to teachers, lovers, friends, or groups.
It is to reclaim the original oath you made with your own soul - that you would never abandon her again.
Sovereignty means you are the final authority in your own field.
It means your no is sacred, your yes is embodied, and your silence is never for someone else’s comfort.
This post is part of my Sovereign Path Series - a collection of posts to support those waking up from distortion and stepping into clean power.
If you have ever doubted your intuition or stayed too long in a space that drained you - this is your permission to burn the script and begin again.
More empowered. More Attuned.
More in alignment than ever before to claim the path before you that was always yours, waiting and ready for you to finally walk away from all the distractions and wounds that held you back- and embrace your future ahead with clarity, courage, and sovereignty.
With So Much Love,
Seraph
The Sovereign Path - Part 2: Beyond the Glamour - Naming the Other Faces of Energetic Manipulation
You rise not just from pain, but from clarity. Truth is the flame that sets you free.
Seeing the Unseen and Naming What Tried To Own You
There comes a moment on the path of spiritual manipulation discovery when something inside of you whispers:
This isn’t truth anymore.
At first, it may be quiet.
A low hum of uneasiness. A tug in your gut. A tension in your throat or chest. A flicker of dissonance you can’t quite name.
A sense that something just…doesn’t feel clean.
You try to override it.
You tell yourself you’re being too sensitive.
Too reactive. Too paranoid. Too ungrateful.
Too….much.
You silence your own knowing in the name of spiritual maturity. Or perhaps, just simply, to fit in or accept and “go with the flow”.
But your body knows. Your dreams know. Your soul knows.
And your body remembers what your mind has learned to rationalize.
And eventually - if you’re brave enough to listen - you can’t unknow it.
That moment?
It’s sacred.
Because its the beginning of your return.
When the Teacher Becomes the Test
We don’t talk enough about what happens when the very people or spaces that we go to heal or learn from - who perhaps helped to awaken us… become the very thing we must awaken from.
There’s a particular kind of grief that comes with realizing that someone you once trusted with your soul growth has been distorting your truth.
When the veil is finally torn and what once felt confusing, distorted, or “off” comes sharply into focus.
And what you thought was love, healing, or leadership…is suddenly revealed as something else entirely.
There are some wounds we don’t realize we carry until someone touches them.
There are also moments when the illusion shatters.
When the spell breaks.
When the truth pierces through the fog.
And in that moment, the betrayal hits.
The shock lands.
The grief arrives.
And, if you’re anything like me, you didn’t want to see it.
Because seeing it meant everything had to change.
But as painful as it is - the truth is also the medicine.
What Pluto in Aquarius Is Demanding of Us
This isn’t just personal. And it isn’t just my story.
Pluto in Aquarius is pulling back the curtain on every illusion baked into our collective systems - especially those that cloak control as community and ego as enlightenment.
As he begins his long journey through Aquarius, we are all entering a collective spiritual detox.
We’re being asked to shed the spiritual hierarchies that teach us to give our power away.
To name where we’ve outsourced our clarity in the name of harmony.
To stop confusing loyalty with silence.
The age of false teachers, polished personas, performative stature, and blind devotion is crumbling.
As the planet of death and rebirth moves through the sign of collective systems, higher vision, and future truth, it is burning through the glamour of spiritual elitism. It’s unraveling the teacher-student dynamic where power was hoarded, not shared. Where charisma was mistaken for wisdom. Where obedience was rewarded, and sovereignty was diminished. Where the spiritual gurus instead of community are celebrated.
Because Pluto could care less about appearances.
He’s asking us to learn to listen for truth not in the voice of a polished guide, but in the resonance within our own body.
He wants to help us unearth the real, gritty truth. To drop the mask and align with our most authentic self. And he will always find it, and strip us - bare to the root - to help get us there.
And while not always pleasant, he does so with the sole intention of helping to align us with our highest purpose and path.
Pluto in Aquarius is burning through:
Toxic teacher-student dynamics
Hierarchies disguised as healing
Communities that spiritualize silence and shame
Top-down hierarchal leadership and approach (as it builds on, and transitions us, from Capricorn)
Practices that police your truth instead of holding it
Spiritual containers where performance is valued over presence
And what’s rising in its place is embodied, reciprocal connection.
Not rejection of the sacred.
But, a reclamation of the real thing.
We are being invited to step into greater authenticity and learn to trust and lead ourselves.
To unlearn the pattern to bowing to those who only bless us when we obey or elevate them.
Energetic Manipulation Doesn’t Always Look Like You Think
When we think of spiritual manipulation, we tend to imagine dramatic cults or overtly abusive leaders.
But in reality?
It’s often far more subtle.
More seductive.
More confusing.
And in spiritual spaces, manipulation tends to wear a prettier face.
It can look like:
Being love-bombed with affirmations right after expressing discomfort or doubt.
Being told your resistance is a sign you’re not “in alignment”
Watching a leader subtly pit followers against one another to maintain control
Hearing that leaving the group means you’re abandoning your “highest path”
Feeling your clarity eroded by feedback disguised as “mirroring” or “mentoring”
These aren’t just red flags.
They’re energetic bindings.
And if you’ve walked through them - especially if you’re only now unraveling from them - I want you to hear me.
You are not crazy. You are not broken.
You are not wrong.
You are waking up.
What I Didn’t Know To Name Until I Lived It
I was forced to face and deal with a kind of manipulation that I wasn’t even aware existed - because it wasn’t loud. It was subtle. Spiritual. Polished. It didn’t scream or demand. It came softly. Wrapped in praise. Dressed as “sisterhood”. Hidden in healing circles, Reiki containers, private DMs, mentoring sessions, or those seemingly innocent “check-ins” that left me questioning myself instead of feeling genuinely empowered and supported.
This post is for those of you who - like me - might not have had language for this. Who brushed off your intuition. Who dismissed or explained away the pings in your gut as insecurity, coincidence, fear, or confusion. Who kept giving the benefit of the doubt while your soul quietly begged you to pay attention.
It’s for those of you who have had their light seen - but not honored.
Their voice praised - but only when it served someone else’s narrative.
Their gifts used - but never truly received.
This is not a post to blame. It is a post to name.
Because if we can’t name what happened, we can’t reclaim our own power.
This is about healing what has been hidden in plain sight - so that we can walk forward in truth.
So let’s talk about the different energetic manipulation tactics that I mentioned in my last post. These are a few that I discovered were being used in a community I was once a part of.
Glamour Magick - The Mask of “Perfection”
What it is: Glamour magic is a technique that has been used for centuries to enhance beauty. It is a spell of perception - used consciously or unconsciously to cast an illusion. It alters how others see the caster. But, in its shadow form, it becomes a mask of perfection, power, or mirror of other idealism, that hides the true motives that lie underneath. It is the deliberate manipulation of perception to create an image so potent it draws people in like a moth to flame. The danger is that you don’t see the casting person clearly. You see the projection. The illusion. The mask that they want you to see.
How it was used: I watched a spiritual teacher present themselves as the exact embodiment of what other’s desired - a truth-speaker, a radiant muse of idealized love, a healer, a spiritual “authority”. But that image was carefully crafted and did not match the shadow behind the scenes. They used glamour to appear as a devoted spiritual authority, while behaving manipulatively. They masked envy, insecurity, greed, and competition behind performative support. And, they were able to maintain admiration and loyalty, even while intentionally harming and weakening others in the group.
Glamour doesn’t steal your energy directly - it seduces it. It makes you question your instincts. You know that something is off, but it appears so alluring on the surface that you dismiss your gut instincts and gaslight yourself into ignoring the deeper, not-quite-so-pleasant truth. And so ultimately, your discernment - the clearest expression of your intuitive voice - becomes foggy and silenced. Please see Part 1 where we go into more detail about how this cycle works.
Signs that might indicate you are under someone’s glamour:
You feel confused around them and find yourself doubting your gut instincts and intuition
You place them on a pedestal - they may appear like they can do no wrong or are the greatest X,Y,Z - without really knowing why
You excuse behaviors in them that you would not tolerate in others
Others around them appear overly loyal without solid reason
Energy Manipulation through Healing Arts, Such as Reiki
What it is: Energy healing is sacred. But, like any tool or practice, it can be misused. Duality is always present in life; just as there is light, there is dark, just as there is a highest potential of sign, placement, or healing art, there is a low potential or shadow that can equally exist if chosen. When someone connects to your energy field without consent, attaches to your aura during sessions or meditations, or decides to embed their own thought forms, programming, or energetic agenda while you are open and vulnerable during a healing session, it becomes invasive and misused. Energy healing without clear boundaries is, more accurately, psychic invasion. And lets be very clear, this is spiritual abuse.
How It was used: I trusted someone who worked with Reiki and spiritual energy. But I realized they were accessing my field (and others) without permission, trying to pull cords and influence my thoughts, destiny, timelines, and actions, and monitoring my inner world strategically. This wasn’t support. It was a way to stay tethered to my field and attempt to manipulate me. It was used to try to silence me and make me energetically disoriented. Others, had thought forms embedded which altered their energetic perceptions, reactions, and internal reality.
Signs that you might be experiencing energetic manipulation through Reiki or another healing art:
You feel watched or emotionally influenced even when you are alone; you may feel this energetically, emotionally, or even somatically, but are unable to prove it
You may feel confused, like your intuition is “off”
You find yourself feeling drained after a conversation or session
You notice sudden anxiety, grief, or other emotions that aren’t your own; you may feel emotionally confused or scrambled
Your dreams change perhaps feeling hijacked or you notice your thought patterns subtly change
You notice an atypical energetic shift - perhaps you become suddenly agitated or angry with someone or you find yourself looking at someone in a totally new way, out of the blue
You may feel restless or ungrounded
You doubt yourself
Triangulation - The Silent Divide
What it is: Triangulation is the subtle art of splitting. A psychological and energetic tactic where someone pits people against each other or positions themselves as the “chosen” one in the middle. It intentionally keeps people divided, mistrusting, and dependent on a central figure or intended narrative. It is designed to create confusion, loyalty tests, and often targets your voice, preventing you and others involved from speaking directly. In spiritual communities, it can look like someone who appears to “hold the group together” but is actually controlling the flow of truth by manipulating communication. Triangulation isolates you from your authentic expression. You become afraid to speak openly. You begin “checking” yourself. You stop trusting others, and ultimately even yourself. Your voice dims because you no longer know clearly who is safe. You were praised for silence and punished passively for honesty. You are afraid of being misquoted or gossiped about. It is akin to an energetic muzzle.
How it was used: I was encouraged to confide in private sessions, then subtly isolated from others in the group. Some of my, and other’s, most vulnerable shares, wounds, and trauma were used and exploited. Compliments were used as currency. Secrets and gossip were weaponized. In other cases they may have shared what others had said about a person - sometimes to flatter, sometimes to “warn” - but ultimately to manipulate loyalties and a sense of intimate, or “special” connection. In at least one conversation she simply made up past life stories to build a sense of connection that was never there organically, but when “glamoured” was an easier sell than it would have been normally. Very tactical things were said and done to keep each person orbiting the creator, and ultimately out of connection with each other. Severing or altering connections strategically to achieve a set agenda but meanwhile sacrificing connections that I valued. I noticed shifts in my friendships and unexplained tensions out of the blue. But to others, she always knew just the right thing to say to everyone to keep things under control. But here is the key, everyone thought she was only loyal to them.
Signs that you might be experiencing triangulation:
You’re constantly “checking” what’s safe to say, or you find yourself afraid or uncertain of sharing your truth
You feel closer to the manipulator than to others in the group; even if you hadn’t been that close to them previously and interpersonal dynamics with others you had been close to, and connected with, seem to subtly shift
You find tension in relationships with others that used to feel easy
You may learn others were told very different versions of events*
Private information may be freely shared even if your relationship with the manipulator doesn’t support that level of intimate exchange or casual dynamic
Your relationship with the manipulator, if in a position of authority, may change and become more casual or extend outside the lines of the professional rapport and exchange you once held
*This is a core tool often used. It keeps people disconnected from each other and makes it difficult to know who to trust. It is intended to confuse and create dependency. The manipulator controls the narrative and appears like a victim to one person and a hero to another, painting a target as“the problem” in a subtle, deniable way. When you realize someone else was told a different version of the same event it creates a cycle of self-doubt seeding confusion, shame, and silence and making the target easier to gaslight, discredit, and alienate. Ultimately, making it easier for the manipulator to appear “innocent” and control the narrative as you are encouraged to seek approval from them rather than tuning into your own truth. It discourages note checking, blocks healthy communication, and prevents unity between those who might otherwise see through the manipulator.
Energetic Vampirism - The Hidden Hunger Beneath
What it is: Energetic vampirism is when someone feeds on your light, love, ideas, presence, or attention to fuel themselves - without giving back in equal measure. It is one of the most misunderstood forms of manipulation in spiritual communities. Often they flatter or praise you to gain access to your energy, then slowly drain you. It can be conscious or unconscious. But the end result is the same: you feel emptied. They take your energy to maintain their own power, image, or sense of identity.
How it was used: In my experience, this kind of energetic entanglement didn’t look like overt manipulation at first - it was the most tricky to distinguish. It showed up as mirroring - my insights reflected back to me as if they had originated elsewhere. My content and ideas began showing up in other places, uncredited but unmistakably familiar. I saw this happen with others also. Certain people’s energy seemed to be used as a kind of energetic anchor - I saw this both in her energetically mimicking and also sometimes in the group dynamic, where it helped attract or hold attention. And, when I quietly left (for reasons I’ve shared elsewhere), there were very clear, unnecessary energetic manipulations and lies woven into a made-up narrative. It was disorienting and confusing at first - because the relationship had been framed as supportive and even sisterly. But the deeper I tuned in, the more I could feel: this wasn’t collaboration. It was extraction. Personal energy wasn’t being honored - it was being harvested for her personal benefit. If someone consistently takes more than they give, probes your field without permission, or relies on your gifts while subtly diminishing your voice - that is not mentorship. That is not healing. Even if it’s wrapped in spiritual language or cloaked in care. True support empowers your sovereignty. It doesn’t siphon your energy.
Signs you may be being siphoned energetically:
You feel tired, heavy, or “off” - without a known cause- after interactions
Your ideas are repackaged or claimed (subtle energy harvesting; offered as collaboration but feels like depletion)
You may sense someone “needs” you energetically in a way that feels sticky or unclear
You leave a conversation and feel empty, not seen
You begin to second guess the worth of your gifts
You begin to feel gaslit into thinking the other person “made you” or “helped you”
You may feel dependent upon them in a way you can’t directly explain
Conversely, you may be told something privately, like “the group felt weird after you spoke”, intended to make you feel “psychically punished” for speaking; this is vampirism through emotional suppression and psychic control of group energy
Trauma bond hooking; you are positioned as the only one who can help or “get them” and they siphon off your empathy. This may make you feel guilty or disloyal for pulling away or needing space
Community & Ritual Should be Safe. Not Silencing.
True sacred space doesn’t censor you.
It holds you.
It honors your unique voice.
It invites your full, embodied presence - even when that presence is trembling or messy.
Community should never demand your silence. Nor your conformity.
It should never require your self-erasure in the name of spiritual decorum.
We are in a collective reckoning.
A sacred breaking-open.
A rising tide of truth and reclamation.
And the false teacher archetype is being exposed - not only in my group, but elsewhere.
Many are awakening to how distorted systems of power-especially spiritual ones have manipulated doctrine, ritual, and truth for control.
But we are being invited to change. To break the silence and call out the distortions and abuse. And, to honor sacred leadership.
And, when you do so you are helping to midwife that change.
It’s okay to question what you were taught.
It’s okay to outgrow a “spiritual leader”.
You are allowed to listen to your inner oracle above all else.
Because a true spiritual leader doesn’t chain you to tradition - they help you open the sacred door within.
True spiritual connection never demands your silence, obedience, or sacrifice of self.
It recognizes you. Meets you. And liberates you.
If it asks you to shrink, it is not your mirror.
If You’re In The Rubble, You’re Not Alone
If you’re still untangling…
If your heart is broken and your voice is shaky…
If you’re afraid to speak because you still care for the people you are walking away from…
That is sacred, too.
This isn’t a call to burn it all down.
It’s a call to get honest about what is no longer true. To call out the distortions. And, most importantly to find and align with your inner truth - and honor it.
To stop gaslighting yourself for noticing what your body has been trying to say.
To reclaim your clarity - and begin again.
Because when you reclaim your voice,
You’re not just healing your story -
You’re helping someone else find the courage to start theirs.
Reclaiming Your Sovereignty - This Is The Work
I didn’t want to believe any of this was happening at first. I had ignored warning pings for months, and gaslit and dismissed my deeper intuition. This was my friend, I had invited this person and their family to my home for vacation. I told myself there was no way this could be true. But, my body and my intuition would not let go. And, finally I sat with it and realized there were deeper layers than met the eye. And this was the quiet, brutal moment when I realized I could either keep pretending I didn’t see….or walk away from a group I had grown to care for and risk being exiled for naming what was real.
The choice cracked me open. And I chose to walk away and speak my truth in my own way.
And while that hasn’t been easy, what I found on the other side of the silence was a deeper connection to myself.
Not a version molded, controlled, or limited by someone else’s system.
Not a seeker defined by someone else’s light.
But the wild, honest, messy, sovereign truth of my own becoming.
I’ve learned many valuable lessons in this experience. One of them, is the reminder that real healing includes the Sword of Truth. Radical honesty with yourself and the facts. The Swords (in Tarot) cut illusion - allowing us to more readily see the truth and bring back home all of the pieces. One important part of spiritual maturity is not bypassing the shadow - it’s naming it with love. And then choosing to step out of its grip. Even, when that choice is hard. Because choosing ourselves, choosing authenticity - it will always lead you to more wholeness.
If you are navigating a similar path, let this truth be your torch.
You were never meant to stay silent in a system that survives by your silence.
You were always meant to rise.
And you do this by stepping into alignment with yourself - your discernment and your own internal truth.
And as you do so, you are reclaiming yourself - piece by piece, truth by truth.
This journey isn’t about perfection. It’s about seeing clearly, choosing consciously, and rising with your integrity intact. You will emerge stronger, more confident, humbler, and more empowered than ever before.
Because you were never meant to stay asleep in someone else’s dream.
Your soul came here to remember, to rise, and to reclaim what was always yours.
Keep going - your truth is your liberation.
In Part 3 of the Sovereign Path, we’ll explore the red flags of false teachers - because naming the energy is only the beginning - next we learn to spot the ones who wield it so we never fall prey to this again.
Until next time.
With so much love and compassion as you continue on your journey,
Seraphina