For a long time, I hesitated to write these newsletters.
To post quotes or share my spiritual practice online.
To be more open about the path I walk and the work I do.
Not because I didn’t have something meaningful to say, but because so much of what I was seeing out there didn’t resonate with me at all, and rather than deciding I would show a different way, I got stuck worrying that people would lump me in with everything I was trying to get away from.
What I saw out there often felt superficial.
So many people presenting spiritual or magical work as a tool for personal gain: more money, a new relationship, better health, getting whatever you want.
And while I absolutely believe in our power to shape our reality and manifest meaningful change in our lives (I actually do teach how to get more money, a new relationship, and better health), I also know that none of us will ever truly be happy if we’re not, in some way, also working toward the happiness and liberation of others.
There’s very little emphasis out there on our interconnectedness.
Very little about the collective.
Very little that acknowledges that our well-being is deeply tied to the well-being of the people around us, our communities, our ancestors, our descendants, this Earth.
I didn’t want to reduce magic to just another tool for consuming, for striving, for more individualism. That is already so deeply embedded in the culture we’re swimming in, particularly in the West. We don’t need more of that energy, and I certainly didn’t want to contribute to it.
But at the same time, I also didn’t want to suggest that spiritual life means we should only be self-sacrificing, constantly putting others first, denying ourselves joy and pleasure and the things that we genuinely desire. That’s not what I teach either.
I’ve always known that both personal desire and collective responsibility are essential, and not in opposition, but I was unsure how to speak to it in a culture that doesn’t know how to hold both. A culture that pushes us to simplify, to pick a side, to flatten truth into something more marketable.
We live in a world that is obsessed with clarity, simplicity, extremes.
All or nothing.
Black or white.
It makes us feel safer when things are clearly labeled, easily categorized, when we think we know which side we’re on.
But life doesn’t work that way.
Nature doesn’t work that way.
Magic doesn’t work that way.
Life is complex.
It is nuanced.
It contains paradox and mystery and contradiction.
And when we forget that—or worse, reject it—we lose something essential.
A big part of why we’re in the mess we’re in (politically, socially, economically) is because we’ve become so polarized. Polarization thrives when the people who can hold nuance, who can think deeply, who can speak to complexity - people like me, if I may say so myself - are staying quiet.
So I decided to stop staying quiet.
To share what I know.
To teach what I live.
To say things that might be misunderstood, but that I know in my bones are true.
Because I believe that what I have to share can make your life better, richer, more connected, more liberated, if you choose to apply it.
And I also believe that when people like you remember your power and choose to live in integrity with it, it makes things better for everyone around you too.
So that’s why I’m here.
That’s why I’m writing.
And I’m so glad you’re here with me.
Love Liberation Letters? Forward this to a friend so they can sign up too:
Courage, truth, and infinite love,
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I don’t believe in magic, but I know that it works!
Magic is not a belief system, it’s a practice that works. Don’t believe me? Come try it out. If it doesn’t work, you lose nothing. But if it does… your dream life is about to begin!
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“El poder está en la acción.”
— Maritza Schafer