The Biggest Lightworker Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them

Hello dear readers,

This is the re-share of a blog from 2011 from my former “Blogger” page. I’m sure many of you reading this piece are familiar with the term “Lightworker,” but for those who are not, here is a definition: A person driven and motivated to do work which makes the world a better place, improves peoples’ lives, and/or elevates people to a higher level of consciousness. ~ Wikipedia

Lightworkers are also often skilled in teaching, writing, intuitive development and/or healing and energy work. Other popular terms are “Starseed,” which is someone that has soul origin from planets or galaxies not on Earth and also “Indigo Children.” Indigos primarily began incarnating here in the late 60?s, though there are Indigos throughout history in all age groups. Adult Indigos are also here to create change, transmute negativity (often starting in their own birth families,) and bring healing and light to the planet. For more information about Indigo children and adults, you may do a google search and also check out the work of spiritual teacher and writer Celia Fenn.

I have been involved in the holistic healing, Lightworker and Starseed communities both in-person and online for many years now and have certainly seen my share of the good, the bad and the just plain bizarre. I have also often felt sad, frustrated and disappointed at times too. I am hoping that with any great movement of consciousness and change there will need to be “baby steps” taken in the beginning. I offer a guideline here of sorts, to help keep us all together and on track.

These are some of the primary pitfalls I have seen out there and they seem to have gathered steam starting last year. I am hoping that through love, patience with each other and awareness we can overcome these hurdles and create a unifed force of love, light and healing for the planet and ourselves.

1) The Lightworker & Adult Indigo “chip on your shoulder” club and support group:

Many Adult Indigos had a rough go with their family of origin. For the Pluto in Virgo generation (those that are in their early to late 40?s now,) part of our generational karma is healing family “stuff” and wounding around being “not good enough.” Many of us took on the shame, sexism and abuse that was handed down through our ancestry and it was painful and debilitating indeed. It is our responsibility to find a way to heal this, transmute it and get past it once and for all. This is the commitment we made before our incarnation to Source/Spirit, the planet and ourselves. While it is healing and beneficial to connect with others of our kind so to speak, we must be careful that we don’t turn it into a pity party or do what the great Caroline Myss calls “Leading with our wound.”

For Lightworkers even if they do not identify as Indigos had to contend with being labeled a “freak” and/or a “wierdo” for most of their lives, which can also be deeply painful and create a fundamental distrust of the world and of most of the people in it. It is tempting to crawl into a safe little shell and trust no one, but like Indigos, Lightworkers also have a job to do, and in most cases it involves other people. To hide away from life and our true emotions keeps us stuck in our woundedness, in a shell of denial that may feel safe, but in reality there are other dangers to deal with there that can cause further harm.

2) Making it a “religion,” with exclusivity and judgment:

Many Light workers, Indigos and the like have a deep-seated dislike or even an hatred of organized religion, and for good reason. Some of these souls may have even had religion forced on them as children; or even had to survive what could be called “religious abuse,” involving fear, manipulation and coercion. Surprisingly I have seen a lot of behavior in the spiritual and New Age communities that resembles religion in many ways. For one, the “Us vs. Them” mentality that is so prevalent in many of the world’s religions and has certainly caused much damage for thousands of years of our history and also the “our way is the ONLY way” type of thing. One explanation for this is that religion for many of us has been part of our conditioning and a type of default setting, and that we need to become of aware of any behavior that is exclusionary of ANY people, for any reason. We are entering into the powerful “Ninth Wave” of the Mayan Calendar which signifies “Unity Consciousness.” It is time for any divisions based on belief systems to fall away, and never return. It makes the little ego feel good to be part of anything that feels “special” and not ordinary, but it is the ordinary, non-sexy things that we do every day that make up the reality of our lives. We always need to remember that we are in this boat together, and as Sting so aptly wrote, “We can all sink, or we’ll all float.”

3) Ego based judgment and in-fighting:

I actually saw a post some months ago by someone that is a prominent teacher and leader in the Starseed community. She quite vocally and aggressively called everyone out as a bunch of “new age wimps” and chided them for their passivity. Many of the people in the group identified as Empathic and/or Highly Sensitive People and were greatly disturbed by her message. I personally found it offensive and totally off-the-mark. Who are we to judge the path or karma of another? Needless to say I quietly removed myself from that group. I can understand that person’s opinion and even their frustration, but also we need to remember that we are part of a great WHOLE and also trust that the Universe is intelligent and knows what its doing. Second guessing is not productive, and can even make us miss our mark spiritually.

The younger Indigo and Crystal folks at times have a more in-your-face approach and this is also reflected in their astrology. For many of them their mission involves tearing down old societal structures that are no longer working; especially in the areas of education and the environment. It becomes harmful when these folks have a lack of discipline and turn their energies against those of their own kind or just people in general. Healthy exchange of ideas and spiritual discourse is beneficial, ego-based attacks and fighting are not. Ego is very subtle and will use anything and everything to attain its ends, including spirituality. I feel the antidote for this is a regular and grounded spiritual practice that includes meditation and mind-training. If we do not have any idea how our own minds work, then we are susceptible to its distortions and illusions. As the great Lama Yeshe would say, we really need to “Check up!” on this.

4) “Energy Junkies” and other forms of spiritual addiction:

This has also become quite problematic with all of the classes, attunements and other experiences offered on the internet, and sometimes for no charge. It’s easy to get “hooked” into spiritual energy because it FEELS GOOD. It also can be an excellent way to deny reality, push away others and get into one’s own little spiritual fantasy world. In my work as a energy healing practitioner and teacher I’ve seen it often. I’ve even seen people run to so many classes, attunements and teachers that they ended up in a full-on mental/emotional breakdown. I also feel this is to due to self-taught nature of spirituality these days. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, but many people could use to have someone or a few people to serve as “BS detectors.” It’s easy to take ourselves too seriously and get high off the power and light that this work can bring. Remember loves, we have a physical body for a REASON. We agreed to become embodied to experience life and get some things done here. Energy addiction can be just as harmful and insidious as a drug, alcohol or any other type of addiction. Unfortunately, sometimes the signs are overlooked until things get out of control. Energy addiction needs to be treated like any other addiction with counseling and behavior modification techniques at the forefront of the treatment protocols.

5) Denial of darkness, evil and negativity:

This is a biggie and has become so pervasive that it is starting to create some real harm in certain communities. Unless one is living under a rock, it’s pretty hard to deny the existence of evil and negativity, especially with the resent shootings in the US. Just because we deny something it doesn’t mean it’s NOT there. We can’t wish it away to the cornfield; but we can confront it, face it and WORK with it. For folks in my generation especially (Pluto in Virgo,) that is one of the big things that we are here to do. This also doesn’t mean we dwell on it, glamorize or dramatize it. It is a fine line.

Q: What is the deal with spiritual teachers, channels, etc. who deny the existence of darkness/negativity and somehow imply that others are defective for discussing or exploring these topics? There seems to be a growing “light addiction” in the spiritual community. What can you tell us about this?

A: There are several layers, aspects going on with this and we will explore them individually. Firstly, there is an aversion to darkness, negativity and so forth and a view that it is an “illusion” and that you are “giving energy” to it by discussing it. For now, on a 3D level one would literally have to be blind to not witness negativity in its various forms in the world. Of course the amount of it that one experiences in their own life has to do with karmic and other factors and also one’s personal “view,” which we have discussed previously. To deny darkness is to deny 1/2 of existence (Yin/Yang,) and it is also to fear it. What you resist persists, and there is no exception in this case. To deny negativity if one has not worked with its causes is ineffective. We enjoy the analogy by your great wisdom Keeper Chogyam Rinpoche that one can grow tomato plants with the “manure” of their experience/existence. This is a far more effective and skillful way to work with one’s negativity or Shenpa (i.e. areas where you get “caught” emotionally, neurosis.) Of course this takes considerable consciousness and work, there is no easy way to get around this. For those that want the “fast track” to enlightenment, there is a tendency and temptation to compartmentalize, but this is always ill-advised. This seems to be very popular in these times and we have made some observations on that. – The Akashic Wisdom Keepers, 11.19.11

I’m sure this subject will be continued in the future. The amount of pettiness and bickering I have seen in the online communities since 2010 has been off-scale and that certainly doesn’t create a very good example, not only for our own community, but the rest of the world too. I truly hope we can get it together and soon, especially for this powerful year of 2012. Love and Light will soon rule the day and the world. It’s up to us to live up to the great potential that we have to effectively serve others, and to bring about a new world that we can all be happy to call Home.

Wishing you all the brightest of blessings,

Rev. Irma Kaye Sawyer