Ty Andrews, recently re-posted an anonymous micro-article entitled, “Beware of the Fake Light Workers.” It took a derisive stance on metaphysical standbys such as crystals, yoga and vegan diets – all of which I practice. The article went on: “Light comes when you do the work of transmuting that darkness within yourself first, understanding and coming to terms with it.” I had to agree. Then I realized the real problem is that we are often clueless what “doing the work” means.
Preying On Our Impatience
When we are dissatisfied, discontented or unfulfilled, and we expect someone (or something) outside of us to make us whole – whether they are a light worker or a licensed therapist – we are bound to be disappointed. As the article points out, the only healing any of us can expect happens inside ourselves – and I would add, in cooperation with whatever it is we call “the Divine”.
But we have not been taught very well how to be patient with our discomfort. We want whatever ails us to be gone, and the lessons it holds for us can just be damned. Fake light workers include anyone – marketer, minister, therapist or thought leader who promise instant healing. Healing is a process, and one only we can do.
The Secret Happy Pill
If there is a pill (or an essential oil) to ease our stress, sleeplessness, depression, inability to focus, or anxiety, we are willing to pay a high price to fix it – including the price of never identifying its source. If we only medicate the symptom, the underlying cause remains.
That’s not to say that meditation, crystals and essential oils have no place. In fact, they can give us ease and comfort when our emotions or bodies reach a crisis point. Through the harmonizing effect of these remedies we can, if we choose, begin to shift our own patterns at their source. We can begin to actually heal instead of slapping a feel-good Band-Aid on the problem.
Crystals, vegan diet, oils, yoga, symbols and Kirtan music are all just energetic tools, and each of them can create a healing vibration to balance us when we are out of alignment. They also reinforce us when we are healthy and centered.
So the secret happy pill is us. We shift, and our experience shifts. The problem remains, however, we don’t know how to shift. So we keep asking someone to slap on the Band-Aid, and we blame the bearer if the Band-Aid eventually falls off.
How to Spot a Fake
Fake light workers tell us their remedies are all we need. A little oil, Reiki, and some sage should do the trick. That’s the lie we are all too ready to believe, and it is no different that the quick weight loss cures or instant 6-figure business program for $149. Every one of these are taking a tool, and making it the answer.
True light workers will actually often publish motivational memes (heaven forbid!), and speak about crystals (what???) as much as the fake light workers do. The difference is they don’t promise those remedies are the answer. Instead, they speak about them as tools of transformation, and as the result of transformation – because transformation must be experienced to be understood.
Few of us are elated at the idea of wrestling with our own darkness. That sounds painful and time-consuming, and we are usually already in pain when we start looking for a cure. Therefore, we don’t go on a quest for a new darkness to wrestle with.
What we are searching for is a guide. We are looking for someone who appears to have gone before us, and can show us the way. We all need guides, and we need tribes. Those are the true light workers.
They will support us when we cannot support ourselves, holding up the light of hope, not just the flashing neon sign of suffering. They will not flinch, either, in the presence of your pain, but welcome you in, and say, “Yes, beloved. We’ve been there too. There’s a way out of this. Shall we go there together? I think we know the way.”