Spells for Collective Liberation and Healing
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Blog Posts
Latest blog posts.
Love Journaling
A small but impactful adjustment to my gratitude journaling practice.
janLearning about Cancel Culture
Trying to understand punitive tendencies in ourselves and our movements.
piajanMy Current Morning Routine
An experiment to start the day with calm and energy.
janBuilding for Transparency
Making our learning process and sources of inspiration more visible.
piajanMeditation Break
When the current practice loses its effect.
janConflict Update June 2025
How I want to take responsibility in conflicts.
janConcepts
Ideas and topics that help us understand our world.
Future
How much time do we spend thinking about the future, how much of it is based on fear and anxiety, how much of it is based on hope? Here are a few light work methods to help imagine a better future:
Imagination
Growing our capacity to imagine how life and the world could be is a light work technique that cultivates hope. - Visualization techniques, e.g utopianism
Utopianism
Utopianism is a light work technique with the goal to envision a better future where humans live together in a healthy, sustainable way. It stretches our muscles of imagination and allows us to step outside of our current systems and thought patterns.
Punishment
A society that reponds to failures in the form of blame and punishment leads to a high amount of fear of punishment and thus denying mistakes instead of taking responsibility. "It does not surprise me to hear that there is considerably less violence in cultures where people think in terms of human needs than in cultures where people label one another as 'good' or 'bad' and believe that the 'bad' ones deserve to be punished."
Love
"The word 'love' is most often defined as a noun, yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb." – bell hooks in All About Love
Violence
Many societal problems are based on disagreement about what counts as violence. Physical violence is easier to recognize than psychological violence.
Judgment
Judging ourselves and others is often related to binary thinking of right or wrong, good or bad. As long as we judge ourselves for our mistakes, we also judge others.
Compassion
Compassion is an important ingredient in conflict resolution because it allows us to take things less personally.
Safe Space
A Safe Space is a space where the goal is for people to feel safe, respected, and free from fear of violence or judgment. It provides a protected environment that fosters openness, vulnerability, and mutual understanding. It is also often referred to as a Safer Space to emphasize that no space is completely free from violence and to show the intention to make spaces progressively safer over time.
Tools
Exercises and practices that help us shape our world.
Gratitude Journaling
Gratitude journaling is a type of journaling that focuses on regularly writing down things we’re thankful for. By noticing and recording even small moments of joy, connection, or beauty, we train our attention toward what’s working rather than what’s lacking. Over time, this light work practice can shift our perception and deepen appreciation for everyday life.
Stream of Consciousness Writing
The technique stream of consciousness writing helps tap into the unconscious by writing down whatever comes to mind, ideally circumventing the conscious mind. The goal is to focus on just writing without questioning the content that is coming out. This technique can be beneficial for many things, including:
Low Dopamine Morning
A Low Dopamine Morning is a morning routine that aims to minimize exposure to external stimuli and distractions. This practice is based on the insight that the amount of dopamine released immediately after waking up influences how much dopamine our brain will seek throughout the day.
Idle Mode
Idle Mode can be a helpful practice when other forms of meditation feel a bit forced and structured. It can help take the pressure off. This practice helps you give yourself permission to do nothing and let your thoughts wander freely. A notebook can assist by allowing you to write down your thoughts and process whatever arises during the experience. In this way, the method is also a form of stream of consciousness writing.
Affirmations
Affirmations are short, positive statements that help reframe thoughts and reinforce desired beliefs and intentions. By repeating them regularly, we can affect how our consciousness perceives ourselves and the world around us. Since affirmations are typically used to shift thoughts and perceptions toward positive outcomes, they can be seen as a light work technique.
Deepest Fear Inventory
Deepest Fear Inventory is a stream of consciousness writing exercise popularized by Carolyn Lovewell in her book Existential Kink. The goal of this exercise is to:
Resources
Books and other resources that we recommend.
Book: Everyday Utopia
Everyday Utopia: In Praise of Radical Alternatives to the Traditional Family Home is a book on Utopianism by Kristen Ghodsee. "By studying the history of social dreams, we can reject the bad bits and keep the good: challenging ourselves to explore alternatives for how we live, love, own our things, choose our families, and raise children."
Book: Nonviolent Communication - A Language of Life
This book by Marshall B. Rosenberg describes Nonviolent Communication (NVC) as philosophy and method. Nonviolent Communication is a process with the goal to focus our attention on four pieces of information:
Article Series: Because We Need Each Other
"Because We Need Each Other: Conversations on Cancel Culture" is an article series by Erika Sasson, Celia Kutz, Kazu Haga, and Shilpa Jain that was published on The Forge and Convergence. You can access the full series here.
Article: Damien Echols on Spiritual Ego
On his Patreon, Damien Echols published an article called The Shadow Fed by Light: How Magick Can Inflate the Ego. This phenomenon is often called spiritual ego.
Article: Damien Echols on the Philosopher's Stone
On his Patreon, Damien Echols published an article called What is the Philosopher's Stone?. It is about how The Philosopher’s Stone, a legendary symbol in Western esotericism, is not a physical object. It is presence itself: a crystallized state of conscious awareness in the present moment.
Book: Polysecure
Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy by Jessica Fern is "the first book to explicitly translate the principles of attachment theory to nonmonogamous relationships." "Again and again, I have experienced the power of love to heal, to bridge, to connect and to awaken, as well as the trauma that ensues in its absence."