I have been writing about persecution on my Instagram posts over the last week – following the death of Alexei Navalny in a Siberian prison. I have explored persecution on a more general and energetic level beyond political persecution – how it operates internally and externally. How experiences of persecution can be passed down through generations and present as ‘internalised persecution’ in us today.

This can look like being afraid to express: to use our authentic voice, to take up space, to share our truth. Or it can look like being afraid to express ourselves – who we truly are, for fear of that not being accepted or even triggering others and being subjected to their aggression – whether it be physical, verbal or emotional.

Internalised persecution can look like struggling to feel worthy for who we are and what we have to offer. It’s that conspicuous impulse to try and fit in with the dominant expressions of worth in our society. It’s that quiet discounting of our attributes, skills and gifts – of our uniqueness that makes us stand apart.

“That’s nothing special or useful”

“That’s not real, you’re being delusional”

“You should be more [X], do more [Y] and be less [Z]”

…internalised persecution might tell us in the form of thoughts.

If we feel into the core emotion of fear that underlies the internalised persecution – if we let feelings and images arise – we can feel the ancestral roots of this fear. When a fear doesn’t quite make sense in the context of our life experience – more likely than not it has been passed down to us through energetic osmosis from our parents, grandparents and so on. To illustrate this with an example - you can just think of a nervous or a fearful parent you have come across and how their disposition impacts their child.

So – we are not separate from the persecution that our ancestors have experienced or witnessed in their time. That is, assuming that experience hasn’t been healed in our family system.

Today I was thinking about consciousness and how those who are on a path of awakening and rising consciousness may come into contact with the edges of persecution energy in that process.

If you are reading this, I imagine that you do have some impulse towards expanding your consciousness. I imagine you are on a path of personal growth (which of course, isn’t just ‘personal’ but part of the interconnected web of life and consciousness).

 So – maybe the steps you are taking along this path – whatever they are - are bringing up challenges, resistance, doubts, lack of confidence. Maybe as part of them there is anxiety and fear coming up – manifesting in myriad and clever ways.

Maybe as part of our ascension (or descent, depending on how you look at it) we need to heal the grip of the persecution that historically has been inflicted upon Consciousness. Until we do – we are going to hold onto  the fears that are blocking us from stepping onto that next level of consciousness, whatever it is for us.

What do I mean by ‘persecution of consciousness’?

One good example is the persecution of witches. I am fascinated to see how the ‘witch brand’ has evolved over the last 20 years. I feel it has become destigmatised over the course of my generation. Of course, there are still pockets that hold onto negative associations – but I think many more people these days would feel comfortable describing themselves as ‘witchy’ or a ‘witch’. Of course, like with any ‘trends’, there are expressions of this that we perceive as ‘cringey’ or superficial – but I do feel a real shift beneath that as well.

That real shift is towards appreciating things like herbalism and alternative medicine. It shows up as the rise of interest in tarot, astrology and mysticism. It is expressed in the desire to live in a more harmonious relationship with nature. It’s also expressed in women reconnecting with their bodies, menstrual cycles and honouring the feminine in an authentic way, which again I see as having numerous iterations.

Men, too, I believe, are exploring their relationship with the feminine. Both inside themselves – their own connection to feeling, connection and expressing emotion – as well as their evolving relationship to the evolving woman. There is a danger I will get carried away by this topic as it is another one I find endlessly fascinating. Let’s conclude on that that we are all exploring how to heal and integrate our inner feminine and masculine energies – from the wounded expressions that many of us have grown up with on some level. 

People talk about healing the ‘witch wound’. I’m thinking – maybe we need to think about healing ‘the consciousness wound’.

Maybe we need to understand all the ways in which consciousness has been persecuted in history.

Witchcraft is a great starting point. If you’re like me – you see the persecution of witches as the ‘establishment’ being threatened by wise, magical women. Thus they vilified its expressions and created a demonised narrative around witches – that narrative only now beginning to change in a significant way.

Essentially, there were those who were threatened by this expression of consciousness that was connected to magic, to nature, to energy and the mysteries of the Universe.

Could it be that the same ‘threat’ was experienced by colonisers arriving in different parts of the world where they came into contact with indigenous peoples?

Could it be that the same ‘threat’ was experienced by those who persecuted Jesus?

Could it be that this ‘threat’ was experienced by white people coming into contact with people of colour?

Could it be that this is what is experienced by people who feel threatened by gender fluidity or different sexual orientations? I am fascinated by the myth of Hermaphroditus and it’s image as an image of the experience of being whole. A symbol of the potential integration of opposites within the personality – which is what I believe true wholeness requires and why doing things like Shadow Work is so important in this journey.

Sensitivity could be seen as having been persecuted also. Partly this goes together with the ‘witch wound’ as sensitivity is required to work with spirit, plants, energy and intuition. Sensitivity is a threat to the dominant narrative because sensitivity puts us in touch with our truth. It puts us in touch with the Universe and our understanding from a felt, intuitive sense about what is ‘good’ (i.e. expansion) and what is not (contraction, fear etc). It threatens the power of the dominant narrative to be the authority on that for us – which is dangerous from it’s perspective, because it represents a ‘slippery slope’ that could lead to revolution.

Consciousness by nature will challenge oppression, fear and contraction. So any system that is built upon those energies is going to be challenged. So – the ‘fear of the dominant narrative’ is, in fact, valid. Of course – fear doesn’t understand what is possible in expansion, so it will just operate from this narrow point of view. It doesn’t understand that consciousness is in fact not the enemy, but the liberator even of Fear – expressed in the ‘Dominant Narrative’ (call it patriarchy, post-industrial capitalism, globalisation, colonialism, modernity…)

 So – consciousness is a legitimate threat to that ‘status quo’ and thus the ‘status quo’ has persecuted consciousness whenever it has come into contact with it across time and space.

Today, those of us who are committed to the cause of expansion and consciousness – we are faced with the task of healing the impact of that persecution. They are like energetic bullets that need to be located within our spirit, removed and the tissue around the wounds allowed to heal. We are needed in our fullest expression and power. We need to evoke our inner sacred warrior to challenge the vibration of Fear that persecution has imprinted us with – in the past and in the present.