What are some ascension symptoms I should look for on my spiritual path?

Hi there! The following are some ascension symptoms everyone can look for as they grow and get more in touch with their best self! Might you feel some tingling at your crown chakra or notice that you are feeling things more intensely? Sure, but those things do not make anyone a better person in and of themselves, and they could also be signs of medical issues that need to be evaluated. Instead of listing vague and impractical physical experiences that could be related to almost anything, here are some more useful ways to recognize that you are becoming a better human.

1. You have greater compassion for others. You don't hide behind The Law of Attraction or Law of One rhetoric to avoid your personal responsibility in actively creating a better world. You don't believe taking problems seriously is falling back into the matrix. In other words, you truly care and act in practical ways to help others be in a good place.

2. You care about social issues, because they affect everyone. That means you're doing your anti-racist, anti-misogyny, and anti-bigotry work. You walk the talk and invest in marginalized communities. If you have a spiritual platform, you make sure it's clear that this work is necessary to your followers. (Even if you know that you do not have the proper experiences/intersections to educate people about these topics in their entirety, you can still point to/uplift Black women, queer people, and other marginalized content creators who do have the insights and skill sets to educate others.) You are clear and do not dance around this form of education just because you would rather talk about starseed topics. No excuses. (Also, friendly reminder that a lot of starseed and e.t. rhetoric in the West is rooted in white supremacy and eugenics.)

A few Black women I have learned a lot from on TikTok have been White Woman Whisperer, Gene Lee, and Portia (who goes by Portia Noir).

3. You do not think or act like you are better than anyone else. You probably weren't Artemis in a past life. What matters is who you are choosing to be now.

4. You can live a normal human life and still feel connected to spirit/higher self/deeper wisdom. Aka you can eat a French fry and drink a soda without believing you're lowering your vibration. If a soda messes you up that badly, go get checked. It might be IBS.

5. If you are all about manifestation work, you manifest for communities, not for yourself. And offering courses, services, or classes to show other people "how you beat capitalism" or "manifested a million dollar salary in a year" for a price doesn't count. Manifestation work was always meant to be a collective act, so everyone is taken care of and no one is struggling. It doesn't mean people pay you for basic financial/energy advice that may or may not help them while you stuff your bank account. Asking people to pay you to get advice about how to uphold the current capitalist system is not “a gift” or an act of true service. If you are not putting the tools of liberation into other people’s hands by decolonizing your coaching methods, you are not in a position to be calling yourself a leader. (And if you're thinking almost no one is actually doing this in the western world, you are right. Many Black women are providing anti-racism and pro-liberation education on TikTok though, so they would be some obvious exceptions.)

6. You stop acting like you have special information no one else does. Blue avians are cool, but honestly, they aren't that important when it comes to finding practical ways to be a good person. Most channeling advice is just repackaged indigenous wisdom anyhow. Seek that out instead.

7. You stop swinging from extreme to extreme. A popular new age dichotomy is purity culture/modesty culture versus hyper-sexuality. It's big in Sedona, especially. Maturity is learning to find the balance without policing other people's bodies or acting like the amount of clothing someone has on has anything to do with morality. Swinging from compulsory sexuality all the way to purity culture (which is r*pe culture) is not acceptable or discerning behavior. This is just one example.

8. You do not let it make you arrogant, but you call it out when the proverbial emperor doesn't have clothes on. (See what I did there haha? To all the purity culture people who want to talk about modesty culture: I think we can put a new spin on an old, misunderstood story and be productive.) Basically, you create accountability in your community. If someone still publicly supports Russell Brand or Andrew Tate after everything we know about them, you address it. If someone is spouting far-right conspiracy theories (which often have anti-human impacts), you stop the flow of misinformation. You stop r*pe culture and other harmful movements in their tracks. You stop letting people call themselves "evolved sensitives" when they are mentally ill and need to be supported into a therapy program. You can’t control what everyone says, but you an invite them into healing spaces that will help them. You help people find those healthier pathways instead of enabling destructive patterns. It is understandable that you will remain in community on some level with people at different stages in their development, but you do not actively support people who are resorting to outdated methodologies to compensate for their lack of creativity or wisdom.

Side note: A previously semi-popular platformer in the new age has come out stating that she has switched to a new religion and completely denounced her previous work. While I completely disagree that the new path she is on is a healthy one, something I truly do commend her for is the fact that she is being honest about who she was in the new age movement. She states that she was teaching abundance philosophy, while she was living paycheck to paycheck. She says that she was teaching Law of Attraction rhetoric and acting like ignoring problems meant they disappeared, while she had a major medical issue going on herself that needed to be addressed (and that she was scared to address for fear of looking bad to her fellow spiritual platformers). Most of the people who are on spiritual YouTube or who posit themselves as leaders in the new-age do not have their lives together at all. I’m not referring to money struggles under capitalism when I say this… I am referring to the fact that many of these influencers lie about who they are and what they are experiencing to seem more evolved. Be aware of this and do not allow harmful people to continue on their trajectory without calling them into accountability. You cannot force people to change, but you can use your voice to keep other people safe when you need to. You can also learn how to be called out yourself on legitimate issues and accept good criticism with grace and a desire to be a better person.

9. You find joy and fun in life! You don't compete with others or let the negativity in the world stop you from fulfilling your responsibilities. You can find your center AND make friends with the dark. (Take care of your mental health first. Know your limitations and seek support during shadow work, which is usually just another word for trauma work.)

10. You are self-honest about all your flaws, shortcomings, and general humanity. You do what is necessary to keep yourself in a good space. You go to therapy, take your medicine if you need it, and learn to choose silence more often than you teach. You recognize that you often need to listen rather than speak-- You are not always meant to be a leader—I am specifically talking to white people here. For example, you stop acting like a relationship expert when all of yours disintegrate. You do not talk about ego deconstruction to women in spirituality, when most women actually need ego reconstruction. You do not act like you are a therapist when you’ve sat in on a few sessions of FCT and think it makes you an expert. Take a step back and heal. Seek out wise counsel (not wacky gender role life coaches that are cropping up everywhere for example lol) and fully accept you do not know all the answers.

11. You stop using "sovereignty" as a smokescreen for being a little sociopath and doing whatever you think "spirit" tells you. This is egoic. Saving trees while you ignore trans genocide doesn't make you a hero. Pretending you cannot openly be pro-Palestine because of “the algorithm” or because the “energy is too dense” is cowardice. (And being pro-Palestine does not mean being anti-Semitic or anti-Israel.) Being an anti-vaxxer kills people. You will be humble enough to wear a mask in highly contagious places without acting like people who actually understand how disease works are brainwashed. Simply put, you take off the tinfoil hat and act like a respectable adult.

12. You keep judgment in balance. You practice discernment. (See my blog post here about that.) You no longer judge non-vegans, atheists, non-spiritual people, alternative people, poor people, mainstream people, disabled people, people who are sick, and people who are struggling, etc. They aren’t failing, but you are when you judge them. Almost all of those people are kinder and wiser than the average Sedona hippie, new age crystal collector, or spiritual YouTuber. You do better and stop hopping on ableist diatribes disguising themselves as care or concern.

In simple terms... You de-radicalize and de-cult yourself. Humble yourself. You stop acting like teaching other people how to be successful capitalists is your "gift" when all you're doing is keeping the system intact. You go to therapy if at all possible (Real therapy. Preferably with a therapist who is decolonizing their therapy approach. Not Jordan Peterson on YouTube lol). Listen to the marginalized. Stop supporting r*pe culture... The new age is really great at protecting that sphere. Find your passion... Have fun! Go to more concerts. (@nononsensespirituality on TikTok talks about why going to more concerts is important) Love your children without indoctrinating them into anti-human fundie systems. Target your solutions for problems toward the proper venues. (Ex: Don't teach children about purity culture instead of holding ped*philes accountable. Sedona people still don't get this.)

Take care of Earth. Care for yourself. Love others. Put food and resources directly into the hands of people who need them. Make reparations for your ancestors. Get back to your roots and connect with your culture(s). Learn how to be a real ally. Make peace by seeking justice and taking daily steps toward collective liberation. This is the path of ascension. It's all about being a decent human! No more, no less. You've got this! Thank you for such a practical and important question! <3 <3 <3