What Is ”Woke”? | Commentary

The following is a revised excerpt from a larger Patreon publication: Pillars of Light, Part V: What is “Woke”. Please subscribe to my Patreon page to support me and to access this and other materials not otherwise available on this site.

Currents of Consciousness

For the purposes of elaborating on this topic I’ll explain what I understand as, and observe in, the concept of “woke”. This matter is sometimes surrounded with some charge and controversy, and as such I’ll ask you to bring your discernment to bear when it comes to my commentary below. If you’re new to this website please know this is spiritually-themed content, so keep this in mind. Source: myself. I’ve been performing readings of the Akashic Records professionally for over 10 years and on my spiritual path for much longer.

I want to begin by observing that, in terms of collective and individual awareness, things have been evolving significantly in some ways ever since I’ve been on Earth to observe it. There was a point when spirituality outside religion was “the occult”. A woman marrying while not being a virgin was a secret to be kept, at least for appearance’s sake. Divorces came with social stigma. There was a time when tattoos meant extremism, banditry, and gang membership; now something’s off if your barber doesn’t have them. I could go on.

These aren’t proof or justification of what I’m saying, just a few standalone examples that illustrate my point. Which is that awareness of the collective has been changing and evolving, doing so for some time now. This is a progress that, while hardly immaculate and operating amidst a stream of resistance and sometimes upheaval, has nonetheless been steadily taking place as time goes on.

At some point along the way, there was now something called woke.

I’m unable to pinpoint what woke stands for in specific terms: what ideology it consists in, what aims or measures it represents the support of, and so on. There’s certainly a body of ideas and general intentions one can associate with wokeness, or the “movement” that can be referred to as “woke”. This movement generally favors and represents progressive thought, inclusion, and accountability. It tends to favors diversity of all kinds, mutual respect and kindness, and individual wellness. It is generally associated to North American culture, however it nonetheless has its own place as part of the zeitgeist at large, I think.

But beyond being able to tell it originated from the U.S., woke is an emergent movement that does not have an established or well-defined set of ideas. There certainly isn’t (to my knowledge) anything in the way of a specific figure who founded or trademarked wokeness, an official program or definition of what it means, or an organization to establish and maintain these things. On the contrary: you may often find the concept to be less of an ideology and a little bit more like a “nebulous cloud” of a sort; something difficult to define, and that can somewhat vary in shape and meaning depending on who’s looking.

“Woke” is less on ideology with an easily-identifiable set of principles, and more of a collectively shared and emerging representation of certain values pointing in a general direction – typically, as stated, of a progressive nature.

So to start, I’d like to say I find the term “woke” in some ways reflects the gradual process by which the consciousness on the planet and of the human collective is inexorably evolving. The concept of wokeness is inherently general, intangible, variable, challenging to nail down. It is held in a collectively shared manner, with no single person seen as responsible for maintaining or gatekeeping what it stands for. It’s often also involved in degrees of controversy, dispute, strife, and an attempts to figure out whether it’s good, bad, or anywhere in-between. Whatever it is, the movements of energy beneath this reflect a complex and non-linear process of evolution the collective is going through.

Metaphysically, spiritually, Earth is being bombarded with Light. This has to do with the mythical concepts, prophecies, calendars, etc. transmitting the idea we’re now going through times of change, processing, upheaval, choice, etc. But, in short, this increasing Light is causing an effect of expansion of awareness throughout the collective, and doing so in a somewhat “indiscriminate” fashion – as in, “hitting everyone and everything at once”.

This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is spiritually awakening. It doesn’t mean everyone will be going through the same realizations, experiencing the same things, or do so at the same time. It just means Light is bathing the planet regardless of what any one individual might believe in, feel, have opinion of, or agree with – or can do anything about it for that matter. This makes the process by which awareness expands inexorable and unavoidable, regardless of the paths said process might or might not lead to.

The effect the Light may or may not have on the individual level will vary greatly from one person to the next. This is because each individual is their own world; and also because the collective on Earth is very heterogeneous in terms of spiritual advancement, personal lessons, biases and perspectives, and so on. Not everyone is on the same page. Earth is akin to having all degrees of seniority in a country’s educational system having classes together in the same room, of the same school, at the same time. People on Earth they may look all human – but some are spiritually quite advanced, others relatively little, and with everything else in between, each person being in their own stage of spiritual progress. This reflects Earth’s spiritual nature: a melting pot of incarnating entities from all corners of the Cosmic neighborhood, at various different spiritual stages and with different backgrounds and arrays of lessons to learn.

This spiritual heterogeneity allows for the learning and integration of many different types of lessons on Earth, and doing so relatively rapidly due to exposure to all of these different elements. But by the same token it’s also a very intense and “messy” environment. It can be difficult for individuals and groups to clearly agree on things, or for a certain type of awareness to cope, deal, and face with all the others. But this to show how and why there can be a large variance in how each individual ends up processing the Light, and the timing at which they do.

As a result of the increasing levels of Light, some individuals might, at some point, indeed go through spiritual awakening, and proceed from there to focus on topics of a spiritual and metaphysical nature. Others might not necessarily go through awakening per se, but they might become interested and open to exploring such matters as mythology, secrets, conspiracies, aliens, etc. Many more will become interested in issues of inequality, unfairness, etc. in the social fabric, for example. Your process of individual discovery might lead you to explore some of these matters, perhaps all of them, or maybe just focus on one in particular. In short, each and every person will necessarily be their own case and follow their own timings.

Nevertheless, the Light is having an effect of expansion of awareness on the planet in a collective and widespread sense, with a portion of the process being “indiscriminate”, in the sense the planet at being “hit” all at once with “broadsides” of Light, if you will. This by and large makes the process as a whole unavoidable as well as unaffectable by anything that may or may not happen from within the human reality.

Awareness is Everything

As the planet is bathed with Light, its effects can be said to be predominantly of enabling the raising of the consciousness of the collective, in average. When you lit a light in a room, you’ll be able to see more of what’s in it. This is an analogy to what Light does: it naturally enables consciousness to see more. But this is not necessarily a sudden, instant process. If you were in the dark in that room for a very long time and now brightness is increasing, you’ll need some time to let your eyes adjust, and also to be able to process and make sense of the new things you may now be seeing in the room around you. You’ll also won’t immediately see ascertain all of the room at once, but rather you’ll likely do so gradually. This to say that consciousness expanding on the planet is a gradual process – and as with anything, it can come with challenge and distress.

What does “expansion of awareness” mean, and what does it affect? I’ll illustrate this by using a topic that, perhaps, might be far less spiritually relevant compared with those mentioned above, but that in my mind can illustrate this. Please bear with me.

If you go back in time, maybe to the 80s or even earlier, there was, and still is, an industry called “professional wrestling”, largely a North American product.

At this time I’m referring to, this industry was touted as a legitimate sport; however there was always a degree of doubt over whether the fighting was competitive and to be taken at face value, or if it was scripted i.e. “fake”.

The nature of the fighting and events was something that was always apparent for all to see: two people in the ring engaging each other, in front of a crowd and televised audience, with no special effects of note. But the sport would always raise suspicions that could never truly be shaken off. If an interview, promotion, etc. involved someone from the outside of wrestling interviewing someone from within it, there was always the chance the interviewer would at some point ask the taboo question, “now tell me (leans and whispers): is it fake?”, “Are you really fighting or is it all a show?”; which would usually draw an outraged, if not aggressive response from those being interviewed.

It was only around the 90s and 2000s that the main player, now WWE, slowly and gradually began warming up to allowing the perception of the scripted nature of the industry. In between the lines WWE slowly started admitting, or at least not rejecting, that there were storylines at play, good and bad guys were established, and decisions made creatively rather than in the ring, all involving the currency at stake, which was engagement with the audience. Granted, it was far from a peaceful change, as it often came as a result of pressure pushing them against a wall. But it was also something the company and industry did decide to adjust to. Today, if you see media outlets, theirs or otherwise, you can see a fair few interviews with wrestlers and figures openly speaking out of character, addressing how fights/matches go, what personal processes and skills go into them, what are their experiences, their challenges, and so on, shared not quite from within the act portion of the show but as someone taking a part in it, and all without censorship.

The fighting itself didn’t change. The medium didn’t change. All of it was always plain to see. So what happened?

The perception of the audience happened.

The audience’s perception gradually changed over time – arguably it improved, or became more refined, or educated, if you will. I’m of course not saying the wrestling audience became “spiritually awakened”; and you can argue what factors were involved in this improvement: social media, a more connected society, a more educated population, and so on. Still, at the end of the day the result was that the awareness of the audience became refined enough that they were gradually better able to ascertain the nature of what was happening. The fighting was scripted and dramatized much like a live theater play. This had been something that had been right in front of them all along – but what happens is that consciousness is only ever able to perceive that which is ready to perceive from its current level of awareness. So while the fighting was always scripted, for an earlier perception of the public that wasn’t completely, evidently clear: it was suspected but in a “soft”, non-conclusive way; it wasn’t yet evident beyond question. Then, the combination of the lack of ability of said awareness to perceive it as evident, along with the source’s intentions in keeping it that way, managed to sustain the partial illusion the sport was real and was to be taken at face value. But it happened that the cumulative awareness of the audience grew over time, which took place by no effort of the industry, and it started to be able to see these things as increasingly evident. The audience began being more “in the know” of things.

Arguably it was always “evident” – but you needed the audience’s perception to rise to a point where it could recognize it as such.

In this example, it was not so much the case that the WWE was pressured by an avalanche of criticism that forcedd to them permit the truth out – although a bit of this was involved. But the essence of what happened was a gradual, slow, and steady process by which the WWE had to keep up with the evolution of the audience’s awareness for the sake of staying relevant. Granted, at some points they were were pushed and forced; but being the smart players they are, they decided to adjust to the growing awareness of their audience to stay at the top of their business. Otherwise, it would have gotten to the point where the King was appearing naked at the festival, trying to have the audience go along with something they could see as evidently bogus.

This example is meant to illustrate two things. First: awareness is everything. Consciousness can only perceive what it can or is ready to perceive, and will be totally unable to do so if it doesn’t match its level of vibration. An item can be right in front of you, and you will not be able to see (or acknowledge) if your awareness can’t match it. As a side note, this in fact in line with the same reasons as to why we can’t physically see beings from other (above) Densities, should they not choose to.

Second: power ultimately lies not in the agent obscuring the truth but in the awareness of the audience who perceive it.

Any obfuscation by a third party of what is true will only ever work to the exact extent the awareness of the observer is vulnerable to that obfuscation. The moment said awareness rises past the point where what’s observed is effectively evident, the agent performing the obfuscation loses the ability to do so next said consciousness – or they’ll falls back in relevancy attempting otherwise. Again: awareness is everything. This is also why the root of all spiritual teaching and service, in which I vehemently I’ll include my own, is ultimately that of informing and expanding the awareness of others.

It might be strange to associate bring up wokeness and wrestling under the same breath, but I had a reason. The effect of the perception of the audience shifting and changing, seen in this particular situation, directly and indirectly resulted, was influenced by, and belonged to the same context of, the same broader metaphysical processes taking place on the planet.

Symptoms of an Evolving but Complex Society

Woke in my mind is a variation, or maybe a “cousin”, of being awakened. It’s not quite the same as spiritual awakening, but there are some parallels (I’m unaware if this could be traced in nomenclature, but it’s how I perceive it in energy).

Being woke – again, at its core – shares some elements with being spiritually awakened, except it doesn’t necessarily involve dealing with spiritual/esoteric/metaphysical concepts specifically. Rather, it tends to represent more of a focus on aspects of life and its social structure and fabric in a general way, without the spiritual part.

Woke stands for the idea of being cognizant and aware, typically in terms of societal systems and structures. It represents a focus on social fairness, social improvement, the state of specific collective issues, and so on. It also carries the sense of being “in the know” of those issues and their nature beyond the version the main actors and/or governmental institutions would prefer to audience i.e. the general public to be aware of. So woke sometimes carries the meaning of being cognizant of what’s truthful and “actually happening”, compared to the version that might be relayed or portrayed by state heads, news outlets, acquaintances and subjective opinions, sides and biased polarities, and the like. Seeing oneself as woke, if not in a derogatory manner, tends to mean being aware of things one’s able to see with their own eyes, as opposed to buying into what the agents around me would have spoon-fed me if they had the choice to do so.

In this regard, the concept of “woke” is somewhat related to the mechanisms by which consciousness starts to being better able to discern ‘what is’ in a more direct manner, in contrast with believing or adopting a version that might be in the interests of a third party to maintain. As you might detect, this in turn is an effect largely derived from the aforementioned metaphysical context of Earth’s collective being bathed by Light, inducing a gradual expansion of consciousness. This is why wokeness, from my perspective, isn’t a movement, philosophy, or even a set of ideals. It is first and foremost a symptom of a slowly evolving collective awareness, on a planet that is highly heterogeneous in terms of the individual consciousness and stage of spiritual development, and where life can be, and always has been, extremely complex and difficult.

Light bathing the planet doesn’t mean individuals are instantly owners of all Truth. Light is an invitation for growth and evolution, but growth can be messy and difficult. Being able to ascertain more of ‘what is’ may not involve- or not involve right away – spiritual awakening “proper”; and even when it does it can take years of growth and challenge until Truth becomes coated in wisdom, if it ever does. What this means, is that the mind and heart who become more conscious and sensitive towards unfairness and lack of accountability, might nevertheless still be engrossed in values of drama and tension, participating to some extent in the same duality where the old challenges linger.

The one who becomes sensitive towards lack of accountability might also become prone and eager to now demand that accountability with urgency, impatience, and intolerance. The same with the principles of inclusiveness, wellness, equality, justice, commonly associated with this term. Bigotry, exclusion, separation, oppression, and anything perceived as such, may start receive a crescendo of backlash.

This, all things considered, is understandable.

Collective consciousness on Earth has been subjected to widespread, systemic, unacknowledged, abhorrent levels of bigotry and control, and as it slowly realizes so it will demand accountability in an equally eager measure. And it will want to have things being better, feeling better, working better. It’s unavoidable for it to be so, because abject unfairness had been prevalent and normalized. But in its eagerness to bring equality and accountability, this tendency in collective awareness is sometimes still very much hurt from being subject to constant abuse. And as it gradually gains some awareness of the depth of that darkness, it can and will fall into extremes when reacting to it.

Let me put forth an hypothetical example to illustrate.

Imagine a female who at one point becomes sensitive towards the unbalanced masculine/patriarchal bias of society. Perhaps this individual had several past-lives of being mistreated by males, others she was owned as a slave, and others she otherwise went through suffering out of being submissive to patriarchal figures. Then in this life they’ve had enough and decide “no more”; in the process she becomes a feminist, advocating for females and their importance in society. But as she’s now operating from “fresh wounds” from the experiences that led to where she is now, she’s also leaning towards stances that privilege the feminine over the masculine, and tend to see the masculine as adversarial. In an unpoken manner, she adopts somewhat of a stance of war against males, maybe because this is how she feels balance is restored, or because she’s still reeling from past injustices and this is a way of “getting back”. The original unfairness was very real, and so is the existence of her trauma. But this led this figure to veer to the other end of the spectrum: by prioritizing females over males and holding hostility towards the latter she’s endorsing an ideological unfairness similar to what she herself suffered, rather than supporting a society with integrated values of justice and fairness across the board.

The energy that aspires for equality and justice, even if well-meaning, may sometimes do so with an eagerness to has them continue in states of imbalance.

The movements of energy from which “wokeness” arises in collective consciousness can also, at points and inadvertently, create states of over-sensitivity – natural for trauma – and fall into the over-zealousness of pointing out every single social mistake and faux-pas, in the process chastising the bearer. In the name of righteousness, wellness, and systemic improvement, the energy of promoting improvement can ironically foster an walking-on-eggshells environment, where you may find yourself having to heavily self-curate, not just out of the effort to remain in integrity, but also to avoid being “cancelled”.

While this reaction is benign at heart, human existence – spiritual or otherwise . is inherently messy and necessitates mistakes and awkwardness for growth. Thus a tendency for unequivocal rejection can ironically create an environment of rejection and divisiveness, rather than inclusion and acceptance, and that leads to propagation of trauma rather than its healing.

Then, because you have portions of collective consciousness exhibiting symptoms of a movement that is ultimately of forward and upward progression, but that can nonetheless still hold some degree of exaggeration, imbalance, lack of empathy, etc. it can easily be targeted and picked on by whomever wishes to resist that movement. Be it because they’re also themselves fighting against unfairness and separation, and preoccupied with what works in society, in their own ways; and/or because they’re actively resisting the societal benign progress the planet is going through. So you’ll have certain parties willing to refer to wokeness in derogatory terms, pointing its elements of impulsivity, disingenuous or impractical nature, intolerance, the mistakes it can make and the traps it can fall into, and so on.

Key Ingredient: Clarity

When 3rd Density consciousness is transitioning to the 4th Density, there can sometimes be a certain propensity for the newly “risen” 4D awareness to outright reject those values that it is deeming negative, inappropriate, or “evil”. Values such as those of violence, bigotry, segregation, subjugation, deceit, beliefs or primacy of one group, race, gender etc. and otherwise anything creating suffering or disharmony, in some form, in the collective and amongst its members.

But in its commitment to avoid separation and betterment of social values, this consciousness may inadvertently continue to operate in duality. It may have a tendency to see things as black-and-white, and be quick to judge, in the process neglecting the premises of compassion and inclusion it might be fighting for. I believe the movement of “wokeness” is a (perhaps of an early, subtle kind) symptom of this process of evolution of consciousness on the planet, consequently also aligning with the same type of tendencies and extremes.

In order for the world to advance, it is true you do have to “become intolerant to the intolerant”: it is of critical importance to unconditionally and unequivocally reject what is dark and malignant. But at the same time, there’s also necessity for allowing space for human error, the time of self-correction, and the “be and let be” of others if they’re not sustaining darkness or lack of integrity. An environment where you’re judged for anything you say and do isn’t one of acceptance but of bigotry. Some leeway must be given for difference and contrasting beliefs and perspectives, provided they aren’t malignant in intention. “Black-and-white” perspectives where A is right and B is wrong can easily become imbalanced, because sometimes polar opposites that at one point might be seen as right and wrong, might eventually be understood – by growing consciousness – as more nuanced and even valid and complementary, allowing them to be integrated and accepted. But by that point a more “eager” and righteous awareness might have already moved to reject them.

In short, I’d regard wokeness as a byproduct of the expansion of awareness and increasing sensitivity towards social matters, that is largely devoid of an equivalent expansion in terms of spiritual and metaphysical understanding i.e. clarity.

When you awaken spiritually your mind opens, and you’re now ready to start absorbing new information and seeking clarity, probably beyond what you could see and were told was truth. You wanted to know the truth without filters, both yours and of the reality around you. In this process you’ll integrate new information, and you’re taking your awareness beyond “regular” human-level perspectives and beliefs, and hopefully accruing some measure of wisdom and broader insight. By this effort you’re not just looking to see the truth: you’re also expanding also how you interpret that same truth, what it “means”, and how to navigate instances of disparity with wisdom.

When you’re “woke” – or you align with this type of movement in some way, to some extent – you’re largely becoming more aware of how things are, and more sensitive to forms of injustice; but the first impulse might be to operate more in fight-or-flight mindsets. This may actively delay inclusion, acceptance, etc. as well as the necessary acquisition of the wisdom to carefully manage and balance the subtleties and nuances of a complicated society, complicated human beings, and consciousness in general.

It is for these reasons I believe the spiritual understanding/clarity component, enabled by the advent of spiritual awakening, is key. The lack thereof will have you operate in comparatively closer proximity (in awareness/vibration) to duality and its divisions and extremes. Once more, the root of all spiritual teaching and service is expanding the awareness of others. Ever since I began on this path one of my primary focuses was integrating those elements that, while to human-level consciousness might appear to be opposite and separate, may just end up being true and valid at the same time, as perceived by a more expanded awareness.