Eclipses, both solar and lunar. Timelines accelerating.

August has been a powerful mix of mystical playfulness and practical witnessing, multidimensional presence and earth-based decisions.

From Merlin honoring the forest trolls of the Pacific Northwest to revealing my connection with Francis of Assisi to The Collective’s powerful message in SHIFTING GROUND, there’s been no shortage of unfolding mysteries or journeys to write about and film along the path.

I feel stretched, yet centered. Pulled, yet grounded. In many ways spent, yet fulfilled and excited for what lies ahead.

Many Paths

Lee Harris, an acclaimed channeler and energy intuitive, recently shared that there are many ways to ground yourself. It’s not always about rooting to the Earth. Connection can be galactic, with soul family, or with supportive friends, through Divine Source or even through your guides.

My interpretation of Lee’s words is this: Grounding arrives when your vibrational frequency feels most stable, where your higher self and its energy field are supported, nurtured, and allowed to simply be in their knowing.

Staying the course, holding presence, and shifting ground are callings I’ve written about extensively. The Collective has also brought forward these directives, not in a way that tells us what to do, but in ways that help us navigate the new landscape the entire world finds itself in.

September asks us to embrace this new reality.

To develop resilience by trusting ourselves. To become more discerning about what—or who—we allow into our energetic field.

And to open further to truth, even when that truth challenges structures and paradigms we have held close or relied upon for a very long time.

That includes religion.

And this is where Francis of Assisi enters the story. Not as a soul tied to any religion, but one who transcended it.

If you missed it, I recently shared Francis of Assisi & Me: Why He Is Coming Forward Now, a personal conversation about my unexpected relationship with Francis and how it has taken a surprising turn.

Francis is not replacing The Collective. Something else is happening, something I can’t entirely explain.

But for September, I am making room.

A Different Rhythm

There will be no September Transmission from The Collective.

That is intentional.

These gracious beings aren’t going anywhere. The October Transmission will mark their return.

More than a year ago, Francis of Assisi came forward. After many recorded conversations and private meditations together, I’ve decided to give him room to share his messages.

In the meantime, September belongs to Francis.

I don’t know how many messages there will be, or where this expression will ultimately lead. We’ve been together thousands of years, so we have each other’s trust in whatever unfolds.

I also know that something feels ready to be birthed.

Perhaps that is part of September’s invitation: to find our roots while remaining open. To hold our center without becoming rigid. To practice energetic hygiene without closing ourselves off.

To allow outdated paradigms to crumble when they no longer carry truth.

I’m curious about what will unfold.

Aren’t you?

I hope you’ll join me.

In joy and unity, always.

👉🏻 If you’d like to learn more about me or my work, take some time at my website Mark of the Soul or on Substack MANY PATHS Connected.

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I didn’t seek him out. In fact, it was only when my partner at the time introduced me to Franco Zeffirelli’s 1972 film, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, that I felt an immediate connection to the saint, or so-called saint by the Catholic Church.

I watched that film for the next 20 nights, tears racing down my face like a wild waterfall. I began reading about Francis’ life, the medieval hilltop town of Assisi, and how he evolved in consciousness beyond all religion.

Eventually, my relationship with him became much more personal. Others attuned to auras also shared their experience of his energy hovering around me.

And now, something new is unfolding.

On Saturday, I shared a video about my relationship with Francis, why his presence in my life has become more pronounced, and why I believe he’s coming forward now.

Watch Francis of Assisi & Me: Why He Is Coming Forward Now
or the short announcement Francis of Assisi? Why Me?

What continues to fascinate me about Francis is not simply the historical figure. It’s the people and beings he had around him, the teachers, the ones who listened (that’s me!), the others who chided him or pressed him to compromise his experience of awakening. Through it all, he continued to walk the path, often confused, frustrated, or lost, and wondering if he was the right mentor for others discovering their own mysticism.

After a great inner struggle, he turned inward more deeply, away from the community of voices pestering him, to discover a universal consciousness.

He came to embody a reverence for the Earth.

A profound compassion for those who had been pushed aside by society…and the Church.

A willingness to question the structures and hierarchies of his time.

Francis recognized that the sacred was not somewhere separate from ordinary life, but richly embedded in it. Present in the creatures around him, the soil beneath his bare feet, his relationships with other people, other cosmic beings, and his own soul.

There is something deeply mystical about that. It is very much the energy of August 2026, and I suspect it will extend well beyond this month.

And perhaps that is why Francis feels particularly relevant now.

We are living through a period when many of the structures we have relied upon for identity, security, and meaning are being questioned as they disintegrate before our eyes. The August Transmission from The Collective, SHIFTING GROUND, explored this shift as well, through another lens, inviting us to discover what remains steady within us when the ground beneath us rattles and changes.

Francis brings a different quality to that same territory.

Playfulness. Compassion. Reverence. Connection.

He reminds us that spirituality does not require leaving the world behind, however tempting it may seem. It can mean becoming more fully present to the world we have all come to be part of during this unprecedented Great Shift.

Be present to the earth, her creatures, and other beings.

To one another.

To the divine spark we all share.

And most importantly, stay present to the responsibility that comes with recognizing that connection.

The latter piece is harder for me because it asks me to be increasingly open and vulnerable. Not in a way that violates my boundaries, but in ways that stretch me beyond a self-designed buffer zone.

For more context and a deeper look at my relationship with Francis, watch yesterday’s video:

I don’t know exactly where this relationship will lead or how many messages Francis may want to share. But he clearly has some things to add to the conversation.

I do know there’s already a trust between us, and that this relationship feels both intimate and joyful. Ancient, even. I also know that something about sharing this moment feels right.

Maybe the timing is just another piece of the mystery we’ll come to understand later.

For now, I’m willing to listen. And when it feels true to do so, channel his frequency and share my experience of it.

This is really part of what everyday mysticism asks of us: to be present to the relationships, intuitions, and unexpected invitations that keep showing up, and to stay curious enough to follow them—without fear or favor, as some have said.

Don’t ask me where Francis and I are going next. You’ll find out when I do.

And I’m glad you’re here to find out with me.

In joy and unity, always.

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On August 15, I shared a short glimpse of an experience that has been quietly unfolding in my life and work. For now, I’ll simply say this: sometimes the ground shifts because something new is emerging.

There is a particular kind of mysticism that asks us to leave the world behind.

To rise above it. To retreat from the noise. To find that still place where nothing can disturb us.

But perhaps August is asking something different.

Perhaps the invitation is not to escape the shifting ground, but to become more deeply rooted within ourselves while it shifts.

In this month’s Transmission, The Collective speaks of a world in transition—old structures receding, familiar ground becoming less certain, and the sensation of falling into a void. But they offer a different way of understanding that void.

It is not empty.

It’s where something new can be received. Embodied.

That feels important to me because mysticism, at its heart, isn’t about becoming less engaged with life. It is about becoming more deeply present to it.

When we remember who we are beneath the roles, fears, expectations, and structures we’ve inherited, something changes. We begin to recognize that we have more within us than we ever imagined. More wisdom. More capacity. More love. More power.

And then comes the harder question:

What will we do with it? What can we do with it?

The Collective describes this as rebuilding—not simply imagining a different world, but beginning to participate in its creation. To draw our attention toward what we want to reshape rather than endlessly feeding what we want to see disappear.

That isn’t passive spirituality.

It is sacred responsibility.

We cannot control the shifting ground around us. We can’t determine how quickly old structures change or what yet will emerge in their place. But we can choose what we bring to the party.

We can bring compassion.

We can bring courage.

We can bring the wisdom we’ve gathered through everything we’ve lived, from the ancient past to the present moment.

We can bring the particular fire that belongs to us—not a fire that consumes, but one that illuminates and supports.

And perhaps this is where mystical reaches back for practical.

Because everyday mysticism asks something of us.

See clearly. Remember deeply. Choose consciously. Participate fully.

The world does not need to be rubble, or need us to have everything figured out, before we begin.

It needs us to know that what we carry matters.

I often work with people at crossroads. A relationship changes. A career ends. An old identity no longer fits. The familiar ground shifts, and with it comes the uncomfortable question: Who am I now?

These moments are not problems to solve. They’re invitations to discover a deeper source of strength, wisdom, and possibility.

The ground is shifting.

So what will you bring to what comes next?

In joy and unity, always.

💞 Finding yourself at a crossroads…

This is much of the territory I explore with people in my work. If you’re navigating a significant transition and would like to learn more about working together, you can find me at markofthesoul.com.

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I remember sitting in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous listening to people talk about Step 8:

Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

“I put myself at the top of the list,” some shared about this step.

I cringed. Every time.

And still do.

Because putting themselves first on this really important and profound list often meant they were finding ways to continue engaging with their ego while ignoring the cracks in their reasoning.

In fact, leave the mind out of it. When it comes to this work, toss aside reasoning and intelligence. These probably got you into the rooms of recovery in the first place.

Making things right with yourself doesn’t involve pedicures, a degree, a new relationship, a healthier diet, a gym membership, or that second slice of chocolate cake, though I’m in favor of that all on its own.

Amends to others requires a great deal of contemplation and a full understanding of why amends are needed. The act of making amends may soothe, bring closure, or open old wounds for the other person, business, or institution.

We aren’t making amends for their benefit, for better or worse. We make amends because it’s time to own our behavior and evolve our soul. Today, I might say, it’s time to raise our frequency.

This, too, may sound selfish to some. But the spiritual depth 12-step programs offer is a continuation of looking within yourself. The more we engage with the practices of taking personal inventory, questioning our motives, seeing clearly how we may have harmed another, or turned our backs on our own light, the more we understand that this process is actually the amends toward ourselves we’re seeking.

My own journey of making amends was an experience I’ll always remember, a real threshold moment on the spiritual path I had already begun to embrace.

Many didn’t even remember the circumstances about which I was making amends, and many others accepted my amends with thanks. Some were especially gracious when they had no obligation to be.

I remember one particular amends.

In my later years of high school, I was an arrogant student. Imagine that! I thought I could do things my way and get away with it. I’d already begun drinking whiskey. A little here, a little there.

Mostly, I was just scared all the time.

Years later, when the time arrived to make amends to a teacher, I walked up to their home and rang the bell. When they answered, I explained who I was, thinking they might not remember me.

They didn’t wait for me to finish. They told me they knew who I was and asked why I was there.

I took in a breath, a deep one, and made amends for my behavior and the problems it created.

In no uncertain terms, and in a fiery ball of angry words, they let me know the hurt my actions had caused, and that my amends was neither welcome nor received.

I didn’t try to make myself feel better by explaining further. I just thanked them for their time and left.

I share this because it places something important in perspective. It certainly doesn’t place me in some kind of benevolent light. That would still be arrogance.

What I discovered in that moment was a deeper gratitude.

While I’m grateful for each of the individuals who received my amends, some became carriers for the biggest lessons I’ve learned in this incarnation.

There’s nothing external about this work.

One of the unexpected byproducts of making amends is discovering just how much love you already carry within you. As the layers of guilt, shame, defensiveness, and self-protection begin to fall away, something else becomes easier to see.

Love was there all along—within you, for you, for others. Maybe even for the earth and all her inhabitants.

And there’s nothing external required to remember how to love yourself.

Sure, it’s okay to receive love from another. Or enjoy the unconditional love of an animal. Or feel the warm love that arrives when sunshine bathes your skin.

Yes, find ways to be kinder to yourself. Engage with self-judgment by allowing a little more compassion. Begin to turn your thoughts toward the positive. Ask yourself: what’s the best that can happen?

But are you giving your love as freely?

Are you able to feel love for your body, your mind, your energy field? Are you open to the flow of love found in your heart? Your soul? The whole arc of your life? Are you letting people close to you know you love them?

Making amends makes us right-sized. And it can also open the spiritual floodgates, leaving you feeling whole, connected, and at peace.

Putting yourself first on the amends list is about something much deeper than what you can do to pamper yourself, soften accountability, or avoid a reckoning.

The experience of making amends to others, with all that goes into it before and after the moment, is how you make amends to yourself.

When you’re able to feel yourself expand, connect to your own divinity, or be a witness for someone else’s growth, you’ll experience a love for yourself that has no substitute in person, place, or thing.

Because it’s the love that is at your core.

That is of your heart.

That is your very essence.

When enough people truly understand they are made of love and light, compassion and joy, and cultivate their connection to one another and to what animates their being, this will be the moment the tide turns upon the earth.

The moment a New Earth is born.

Remember who you are.

In joy and unity, always.

ICYMI

SHIFTING GROUND | The Collective’s August Transmission

You Are More Than You’ve Been | A 13-second Short

Learn more about 1:1 Private Sessions with Mark & The Collective

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If you scan the imagery I’ve selected or crafted for these weekly musings, or the posts I’ve shared across social media, you’ll see the evidence. I wish I could tell you that using these gorgeous colors was deliberate. It was not. When I became aware they were showing up with fierce regularity, some part of me began asking why, but it never occurred to me to go deeper.

Then, during Thursday morning’s meditation, a vision arrived.

I was standing before a corn field bathed in lime and yellow. The stalks and their feathery leaves swayed in a summer breeze as far as I could see. Gentle rustling filled my ears.

Words followed:

When the husks fall away, the kernels pop with sweetness.

The message stayed with me all day, and I felt called to share the experience in Substack Notes and with a group of souls I belong to. We call ourselves Northwest Light…for all the reasons you might suspect.

What came back from the group was real gold.

In a moment, I realized why these colors had been so persistent. It wasn’t simply because they represent the summer season. It’s because of what this summer, particularly the month of July, has been for me—an unexpected period of rest, recalibration, and preparation.

I sensed it, but I hadn’t bothered to put words to it. Intuitively, I felt it was important to let the season unfold from the heart and leave my head out of the mix.

Besides incorporating these colors, you’ll find my words have leaned into reclaiming personal power, cultivating love for yourself and others, and learning to trust yourself in this new age of resonance.

Throughout it all, I’ve been inside two energy centers: the solar plexus (yellow) and the heart (green). New growth was taking shape, and that included a strong pull to understand what home really means for me.

The fire of the solar plexus needs the oxygen, or air, of the heart to authentically transmute what powerfully stirs there.

And the rustling of the field isn’t restlessness. It’s an invitation to return to the sacred.

Writers often share lived experience, but what has become clear is that I was offering my own experiences in real time without fully realizing what was unfolding.

August arrives with mystical energy. A renewed sense of playfulness and discovery.

Despite the quiet of last month, I’ve felt this return to mysticism. You may have noticed it in my most recent articles and posts, or in a short video released just yesterday, Not Practical. Mystical.

You’ll also find this wave of new energy woven through The Collective’s August Transmission, SHIFTING GROUND, rounding out the first year of channeling their messages.

Sometimes prompts arrive, and it’s clear they deserve a closer look. Other times, a nudge is just a moment for noticing.

If I had gone against my instinct and dug deeper into the energy moving through me last month in search of answers, I might have missed the gold that is now emerging.

I’m feeling giddy about August. Maybe you are, too.

Because it’s time to remember who we are.

In joy and unity, always.

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In my field, those who offer intuitive guidance, energy healing, grid work, channeling, coaching, readings, and other modalities often talk about vibration and resonance. Purpose and blueprint. Authenticity and sovereignty.

Much of this work revolves around energetic frequency, and rightly so. Our frequency, even our home frequency, ideally expands, elevates, and shifts as we evolve in our spiritual awareness.

Some might say we each have a baseline frequency. That may be true. I experience it differently. For me, it’s more about feeling where we are in the present moment and recognizing how our perspective has changed or our heart has opened through an extended period of growth.

If we’ve done the inner work, we often feel lighter and calmer. More grounded and less scattered. A few more shadows have dissolved into the mist. We’ve strengthened our energy field.

As that work integrates, we find ourselves standing in a new home frequency.

But what if the frequency of home could be understood more broadly?

In the joy of creativity. The comfort of shelter. The laughter shared with our tribe. The familiarity of our soul group, for those who experience that connection.

Recently, I was a guest on The Ember Table, a podcast hosted by Dawna Kreis. We explored many of these themes, but what struck me most was the space she creates for conversation to unfold naturally. It feels like sitting beside a hearth, tending the fire of curiosity while weaving together lived experience and the new mysteries of multidimensional life.

In a word, Dawna made it feel like home.

Can home be found in sharing, caring, silence, love, or safety?

I believe home is all around us when we realize home is where our heart is.

Simple truth or ancient wisdom?

Does it matter?

Perhaps we’re remembering both because they’ve been here all along.

Can home be found in nature or relationships? In the spiritual and the practical?

Yes.

To all of it.

I recently jotted down a few poignant reflections while writing about the relationship Roger and I share as we consider our next chapter together.

At first, these emerging ideas caught me off guard. Then a new perspective opened, and I felt something unexpected.

Freedom.

When I shared these thoughts, I felt like I’d come home to myself. And perhaps, in a different way, we had come home once again to each other.

🌀There’s still time to watch THE REVEALING, The Collective’s July Transmission, before the next Transmission arrives on August 1.

Its message echoes much of what I’ve shared here. It’s not about what is disclosed in the external world, including the galactic realms. It’s about what is revealed within you as your awareness expands beyond the worlds you’ve known. The deepest disclosure is always personal.

Find home within yourself, right where you are.

August

Speaking for myself, July has been a month of breathing and recalibration. A season of preparation.

Preparing for what, you ask?

I’m not entirely sure. But I sense August—and the months beyond—will carry a very different energy. Many of us may find ourselves integrating a new home frequency. True liberation may find humanity, leading us to live more intentionally, authentically, and powerfully.

July felt practical.

August feels mystical.

A time for the Fire Horse to resume her ride. A thinning of the veil between dimensions. A shifting of the ground beneath old structures, institutions, and governments. A clarion call for the everyday mystic to embody their powers with balance, wisdom, and courage.

Stay awake.

Be aware.

Trust yourself.

In joy and unity, always.

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Last week’s piece, When Hearts Don’t Align With Yours, was received with such warmth. Thank you to everyone who read it, shared it, and took the time to write to me. Your reflections reminded me that many of us are learning the same lesson in our own unique ways.

Earlier this week, I also had the privilege of contributing a guest article, When Intention Becomes Magic, to the wonderful Substack publication Modern Mysticism. It’s right up my alley, and I’m deeply grateful for the invitation…and for the generous welcome their readers extended. Then, yesterday, a new YouTube Short, How to Boost Your Intention, became another expression of the very same theme.

Finally, I introduced the last archetype in my initial series. The Emerging Mystic feels especially close to my heart because it reminds me that spiritual growth isn’t an invitation to leave the world behind. It’s an invitation to bring more of who we truly are into it—with awareness, intention, presence, and yes, a little magic.

Whenever the same message arrives through different forms, I pay attention.

As I’ve sat with all of this, I’ve begun to see a thread connecting these pieces that I hadn’t fully recognized while I was writing them.

Last week, I said:

Freedom begins when we stop handing our power to [other people’s] perceptions.

At the time, I believed I was writing about sovereignty.

In the guest essay, I wrote:

An intention embraced by the whole being becomes a living force.

I thought I was writing about intentional magic and manifestation.

Now I’m wondering if these were always pointing toward the same truth: that authenticity, intention, and sovereignty are not separate practices. They are different ways of returning home to ourselves.

I’ve noticed how quickly my own energy can wander.

A difficult conversation.

An unexpected disappointment.

A fear I thought I’d already moved beyond.

Before I know it, my attention has drifted away from what my heart actually intends. My energy is no longer supporting the life I want to create. It’s supporting the story I’m telling myself instead. And it could be just for that moment.

One thing I’ve noticed is that while old stories may lose their grip, new ones patiently wait for an opening. They often sound more believable because they arrive wearing different clothes.

Lately, one simple question has become part of my daily practice:

Where is my energy?

That question has changed more than I expected.

When my energy follows fear, fear grows stronger.

When it follows someone else’s opinion, I slowly hand them authority over my peace.

When it follows an intention rooted in love, presence, creativity, or service, something within me begins to settle. My thoughts become clearer. My choices become simpler. Life feels less like something I have to force and more like something I can participate in with openness.

Authenticity invites me to know what’s true.
Intention invites me to live in alignment with that truth.
Sovereignty invites me to remain there, even when life offers countless reasons to leave it.

Perhaps that is what coherence really feels like.

Not perfection.

Not certainty.

Just the gentle experience of my heart, soul, mind, body, and energy finally moving in the same direction.

I’m still learning what that looks—and feels—like.

Some days I notice my energy wandering several times before lunch. Other days it feels almost effortless to be at home with myself, agenda or not.

Maybe home isn’t a destination after all.

Maybe it’s the place we return to each time we realign our energy with our deepest truth.

Again and again, each return reminds me that home was never somewhere I needed to find.

It was something I was always meant to remember.

Journal Reflection

Where has your energy been flowing lately? What would change if, today, you gently invited it home?

In joy and unity, always.

Related:

Something in You | The Emerging Mystic

Why Intention Isn’t Enough

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It has everything to do with learning how to remain rooted in my own truth when someone else’s perception of me doesn’t match my intentions.

I wish I could tell you that this becomes easy with practice.

It doesn’t.

When we’re misunderstood, criticized, or reduced to a story that feels incomplete, something inside us wants to restore the record. We want to explain ourselves. We want to offer context. We want the other person to see what we know to be true about our own heart.

Sometimes they do.

Sometimes they don’t.

July’s energy feels especially relevant here. I’ve sensed a deeper invitation emerging beneath the surface of everyday life: freedom is not found by attempting to control how others perceive us.

Freedom begins when we stop handing our power to those perceptions.

That doesn’t mean becoming indifferent or dismissing another person’s experience.

Compassion makes room for someone else’s reality. Sovereignty allows us to remain connected to our own. I don’t believe these qualities compete with one another. In fact, they need each other.

Recently, I found myself sitting with the aftermath of a difficult interaction with a new client. What stayed with me was realizing someone had reached conclusions about my character that didn’t reflect my intentions, the care I bring to my work, or the person I know myself to be. Years ago, I would have believed those conclusions more readily than I believed myself. Today, I still feel the sting—but I no longer mistake it for the truth.

As I sat with the experience, I also noticed an old pattern beginning to surface. I wanted to explain more than once. To defend myself. To justify my actions. If I’m honest, part of me wanted to prove I was right.

Instead, I recognized I had walked directly into the lesson.

How often do we allow someone else’s opinion to carry more authority than our own lived experience?

How often does one difficult conversation outweigh years of integrity, growth, sincere effort, and love?

Most of us have been there.

I know I have.

This is where I think many people find themselves on the journey of The Seeker, the first of several archetypes I’ve been exploring. We often imagine the seeker as someone searching for spiritual wisdom, purpose, or a deeper understanding of life. But beneath those outward searches is something even more fundamental.

The Seeker is looking for home.

At first, that search often leads outward. We look for the teacher who will validate us, the relationship that will complete us, the community that will finally understand us, or the approval that tells us we’ve arrived.

Eventually, however, the soul begins nudging something different.

“Come home to yourself,” it says.

That homecoming asks us to release some very old agreements. Perhaps you’ve carried a few of them yourself, like:

• If someone rejects me, I’ve failed.

• If someone misunderstands me, I must convince them.

• If someone is unhappy with me, I am responsible for fixing their feelings.

• If someone criticizes me, my worth has somehow diminished.

Many of us have lived by these flawed agreements for decades without ever realizing they were there. They disguise themselves as kindness, responsibility, or humility, while quietly asking us to abandon ourselves in exchange for not rocking the boat…in other words, tossing our worthiness overboard at the first sign of trouble.

When the soul eventually grows tired of that bargain—and it will—it begins showing us truth instead.

Truth isn’t about being right all the time. It isn’t polished or perfect. It is simply the willingness to remain aligned with what we know in our hearts while allowing others the freedom to see us differently.

That kind of freedom is deeply rooted in self-respect but honors another:
I can honor your experience without abandoning my own; or, I can hear your disappointment without accepting every conclusion you’ve drawn about me.

It reminds us that compassion and healthy boundaries are not opposites. They are companions.

As we enter the second half of 2026, I continue feeling into the invitation, both in my own life and in the messages coming through from The Collective. We are being asked to stand more fully in our own experience—not by becoming louder, harder, or more defensive, but by becoming more deeply anchored in who we are.

There is a profound difference between defending ourselves and holding our presence.

One searches for validation.

The other embodies sovereign awareness.

And freedom from believing that these experiences have the authority to define who we are is a precious freedom, indeed.

My responsibility is to live in alignment with my own heart and purpose. To act with integrity. To continue showing up. To continue serving. To continue growing.

And to remember that my worth has never belonged to someone else’s opinion.

It never did.

It never will again.

Journal Reflection

Where have I allowed another person’s perception of me to carry more authority than my own inner knowing? And what would become possible if I gently reclaimed that authority today?

In joy and unity always,

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This one feels different.

July has me wondering what my soul has been trying to say all along—beneath the striving, beneath the noise, beneath the last old stories that continue to shape how I move through this world.

I don’t hear the soul shout.

I believe it patiently waits until we’re willing to become still enough to listen.

When we do, what comes forward isn’t always a detailed plan. Sometimes it’s simply a deeper knowing. A new sense of direction. A vision that feels too alive to ignore. A clear invitation to become more fully ourselves.

I’ve realized that one of the loudest stories I’ve carried is the belief that I somehow had to become more before I was enough. More accomplished. More polished. More certain. More aligned.

That realization landed at the heart of my recent Soul Talk, Breaking Up with ‘Never Enough.’ It wasn’t simply about self-worth. It marked another turning point for me—a conscious decision to stop measuring my life against impossible standards and start trusting that my presence has value today, exactly as it is.

Perhaps that’s one of the most courageous things any of us can do.

To break up with the tired story of “not enough.”

To stop waiting for permission.

To stop postponing our voice, our radiance, or the gifts we’ve come here to share.

I’ve begun to notice that once we truly listen to the soul, something else naturally follows. We become more intentional—not because we have another goal to achieve, but because our lives begin organizing themselves around what matters most. We follow the energy of what feels deeply true, allowing each choice, encounter, and step forward to reveal a little more of who we are becoming.

Maybe that’s what sovereignty really feels like.

Not standing above anyone else.

Standing fully within ourselves.

As July unfolds, I wonder what part of you has been patiently waiting to emerge. What old agreement is ready to be liberated? What deeper knowing has been asking for your attention?

Whatever it is, I hope you trust yourself enough to take one small step toward it.

Sometimes that’s all the soul has ever been asking of us.

In joy and unity, always.

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To notice it. To embody it. To trust that our presence matters, even when the world feels noisy, uncertain, or in transition.

As the month comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on what happened when so many of us accepted that invitation.

The response to HOLDING PRESENCE, The Collective’s June Transmission, became the most-watched monthly Transmission to date, reaching nearly as many viewers in its first two days as previous Transmissions reached over the course of an entire month. And those who need to hear the message are still finding it.

At the same time, my personal video inside the enchanted Saint Edward Park, Breaking Up with “Never Enough,” found a wider audience, as did the short video Why Being Yourself Isn’t So Terrifying.

Here on Substack, PRESENCE: What Does It Actually Mean? sparked thoughtful conversations, comments, and restacks. Subscriber growth accelerated on both Substack and YouTube. And June became the busiest month yet for channeling sessions and other offerings with new and returning clients.

I don’t share these things as a scorecard.

I share them because they seem to be pointing toward something larger.

Common threads are beginning to emerge.

People are asking deeper questions. They are seeking authentic connection. They are becoming more curious about their inner lives, their intuition, their purpose, and their place within a rapidly changing world, a world many no longer recognize.

July invites us to open to what our presence has been preparing us for. In short, something is revealing itself.

The Collective’s July Transmission, THE REVEALING, explores this very theme. After a month focused on presence, we are now asked to notice what becomes visible when we stop running from ourselves. Despite references to the galactic spheres—or perhaps because of them—their message ultimately finds its roots deep within your soul.

What comes online when we stop minimizing our gifts?

What comes into awareness when we allow our voice, sovereignty, and radiance?

Who emerges through our newly empowered presence?

For many, the answers may not arrive as a dramatic awakening.

It may arrive as a subtle knowing.

A creative impulse that won’t go away.

A truth that is ready to be spoken.

A deeper trust in one’s own power.

A recognition that parts of yourself may no longer feel familiar, and who you are becoming has been underneath all along.

WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER

✨ Channeled Sessions with Mark & The Collective
Wednesday—Sunday

💛 Consultations for Mentorship or Coaching
Tuesday & Friday

Curious whether this work is right for you? Learn more at markofthesoul.com.

AFFIRMATIONS FOR JULY

I trust what is awakening within me.

My light, my voice, and my purpose shine with courage and grace.

As we move into July and toward the Independence Day holiday here in the United States, I find myself feeling grateful. Independence is really about liberation, and humanity has already begun to demonstrate its liberation from old structures and systems that want to keep us small, exhausted, unconscious, and addicted.

As I do my part in this Great Shift—and you do yours—I feel grateful for every view, comment, conversation, session, restack, share, email, and act of acknowledgment or encouragement.

Grateful for those who continue showing up for their most authentic selves.

Grateful for the extraordinary community forming here on Substack, YouTube, and elsewhere, where thoughtful engagement and support continue to feel refreshingly genuine in a noisy, digital world.

And grateful for the opportunity to bring my own true presence to these times.

The world does not always stop to celebrate our growth. Sometimes we must pause long enough to recognize it ourselves.

Not because we are above anyone else.

But because every soul is worthy of being seen.

Every soul is worthy of remembering the light it came here to express.

Acknowledging how far you’ve come—in this lifetime or across many—is an act of self-love. When that acknowledgment arrives from others, receive it fully.

Thank you for bringing your presence to this field.

I look forward to discovering what reveals itself next.

In joy and unity, always.

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The presence of your being. The presence of your magic, the presence of your awakening, the presence of your divinity. It is where you can begin to grasp the very nature of your being—that you are of a spiritual nature, of the highest vibration.
— The Collective

Your being is your greatest contribution.
— Richard Rudd

Transformation is not about becoming someone else. It is about revealing the deeper self that has always been present.
— David Clements (paraphrased)

For weeks I’ve been sitting with the word Presence.

The more I sit with it, the more another word begins to emerge.

Being.

Awareness of your presence can lead to simply being—in stillness, in the moment, in your own skin. And being can lead to an elevated awareness of your presence as you move through your days.

The two are in constant conversation.

Presence invites being.
Being deepens presence.

What we are revealing is what has always been there.

Being with your being.

That simple phrase has become a practice for me.

My spiritual path stopped being about acquiring more—more wisdom, more understanding, more practices, more connection. For some time now, it has been about uncovering.

Layer after layer has fallen away until what remains feels undeniably familiar.

There is no surprise in the familiarity, though there are many experiences that still surprise me. This is part of the magic of being.

Being is not inactivity. It asks for willingness, consciousness, awareness, and the courage to witness what is unfolding within and around us. It asks us to stop measuring ourselves by what we produce and begin recognizing ourselves by what we embody.

This week’s new Soul Talk with Mark, Breaking Up with “Never Enough,” explores another facet of this same journey. When we begin acknowledging our being instead of proving our worth, the story of never enough starts to lose its grip.

Becoming is not about adding anything at all. It is about revealing the being that has been patiently waiting beneath every role, every fear, every achievement, and every expectation.

In that revealing comes remembering.

Remembering that your presence matters.
Remembering that your energy communicates before your words do.
Remembering that your very existence contributes something unique to the world around you.

The spiritual path, as I have come to know it, is less about accumulation than uncovering. What remains is not something new being created, but something ancient being recognized.

As though it has been waiting all along. Because it has.

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Lao Tzu wrote, “At the center of your being you have the answer.”

The Zs, as channeled through Lee Harris, often remind us—in essence—that our embodied frequency speaks more clearly than our striving ever could. These are paraphrased reflections rather than exact wording, but the essence remains: what we are being communicates more powerfully than what we are doing.

Separated by centuries and expressed through different languages, these teachings point toward the same ancient truth. Wisdom does not belong to the past or the present. It resides within us, waiting for attention.

Being is allowing that wisdom to surface once again.

Being is remembering who you are.

🌻 In reverence for the Solstice, an invocation known as The Deer’s Cry, probably of druidic origin:

I arise today through the strength of the heavens—
Light of Sun,
Radiance of Moon,
Splendor of Fire,
Speed of Lightning,
Swiftness of Wind,
Depth of Sea,
Stability of Earth,
Firmness of Rock.

In joy and unity, always.

🌀 Channeled Sessions with The Collective
Wednesday through Sunday

💚 Coaching & Mentorship Consultations
Tuesday and Friday

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The word presence seems to be everywhere.

I hear it in conversations. I see it in advertising copy. I read it in books and newsletters. Heart-centered communities are speaking about it. Business leaders are even mentioning about it.

It’s as though a word that once belonged mostly to contemplative circles is unabashedly making its way into everyday awareness.

Presence is becoming mainstream.

When The Collective delivered this month’s transmission, Holding Presence, it felt perfectly timed.

But afterward, I found myself asking a more personal question:

What does presence actually mean to me?

The answer continues to unfold.

For years, I thought presence was about stillness or mindfulness. A practice of paying attention to the moment. While those are certainly part of it, I’ve come to realize that presence asks much more of me.

Presence is becoming willing to stand fully inside who I am.

Claiming Space

That sounds simple until you begin living it.

For me, it has meant coming to terms with my capacity—not only as a human being but also as a spiritual and mystical one. It has meant accepting that my life has unfolded in ways I never could have predicted and that my purpose continues to reveal itself as I move through it.

Presence feels expansive. And it takes practice.

There are moments when I sense a depth of power and connection that is difficult to describe. Not power over anything or anyone, but an inner cohesiveness. A roundedness. A feeling that all the scattered pieces of myself are learning to work together.

It is also an invitation to claim space.

To use my voice.

To stop apologizing for the way I experience the world…or myself in it.

That doesn’t mean certainty replaces vulnerability.

Quite the opposite.

Every meaningful threshold in my life has asked me to trust before I was ready.

Sharing publicly about channeling. Speaking about Merlin energy or dragon energy. Describing my first past-life experience. Even getting sober thirty-six years ago and eventually talking openly about the shame, guilt, and self-loathing I once carried.

Each step felt—and feels—like another form of coming out.

Each one asked the same question:

Will you trust yourself enough to let more of yourself be seen?

Becoming a Midlife Alchemist

And lately, another realization has been surfacing.

I see myself as a Midlife Alchemist.

Because I’ve arrived somewhere extraordinary, and only through transformative inner work. Taking wounds and allowing them to become wisdom. Turning old shadows into unexpected strengths. Refining beliefs that no longer fit. Dismissing those old stories. Discovering where I belong as the path opens beneath my feet instead of waiting until I can see the entire road.

It’s an ongoing process of re(fire)ment as much as refinement.

Perhaps that is presence too.

Not perfection.

Participation.

There is another quality I’ve noticed that is harder to explain.

Despite the intensity of the world, despite uncertainty or physical fatigue or moments where I question my own worthiness, there is often a perceived steadiness underneath it all.

I think of an ancient tree. Storms bend its branches but cannot uproot it because its roots disappear deep into the earth where unseen strength lives.

That is increasingly how presence feels to me.

Not a shield against emotion or difficulty.

Not bypassing betrayal or fear.

But a stable center that remains accessible regardless of the weather.

From that place, I find myself more interested in exploring a deeper mysticism and even more interested in embodying it. Less interested in having all the answers and more interested in allowing life to reveal itself as I stay awake to it.

That discernment even found its way into a short video I shared yesterday from Carkeek Park called “Stop Releasing. Start Dismissing.” Sometimes the most powerful spiritual movement isn’t trying to force something out of our lives. Sometimes it’s simply recognizing that an old story, fear, or belief no longer deserves our attention and allowing it to truly leave your field.

Follow the Energy

And sometimes that means following the energy.

It has led me to Glastonbury. To forests and towns. To Paris many times.

And perhaps someday to Egypt or Scotland.

I no longer feel compelled to explain every invitation. I simply try to notice where my higher self is asking me to pay attention.

Maybe that’s another way of describing presence.

Just listening.

As June unfolds its power, I wonder if presence is becoming mainstream because humanity is being invited into a deeper relationship with itself.

A deliberate one.

A truer one.

Maybe it’s about allowing the person you’ve always wanted to become to finally step into the light.

In joy and unity, always.

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Some felt inspired. Some felt exhausted. Some experienced both in the same afternoon.

I know I did.

Beneath the surface, however, I noticed a common thread appearing in conversations, dreams, creative projects, and moments of stillness: something new is trying to stabilize within us.

That theme emerged from The Collective’s June Transmission, Holding Presence.

If you’d like to experience the full channeled message, you’ll find it on YouTube. What follows are a few reflections that stayed with me after listening again.

The transmission begins where last month’s message, Stay the Course, left off. Rather than urging dramatic changes or sudden pivots, the emphasis is on connecting to your center while life continues to move around you.

I find that not only reassuring…but essential now.

There is a great deal unfolding in the world. There is also a great shift unfolding within each of us. Creative callings are emerging. Relationships are changing. Long-held beliefs are being questioned. New levels of awareness seem to be arriving faster than many of us can comfortably integrate.

One phrase from the transmission stayed with me:
More comes, and you stabilize. More comes, and you stabilize.

The invitation is not to rush ahead.

The invitation is to stabilize.

That feels like a useful description of spiritual grounding—and growth—in our current moment.

Life does not pause while we catch up. New insights arrive. New opportunities appear. Old stories surface asking for attention. The practice is not to control the process but to meet each wave with enough presence that it can be integrated before the next one arrives.

The transmission also touched on something I have been contemplating personally: spiritual worth.

How worthy do we feel of our own awakening?
How worthy do we feel of our creativity?
How worthy do we feel of taking our inner life seriously?

These questions are not always comfortable, yet they reveal much about the places where we still hesitate to claim our own power.

Two Practices for Holding Presence

Meditation Through Sound

As daily meditation has returned to my life, I’ve found that practice doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s a simple exercise that helps bring me back to center.

1. Download the Mindfulness Bell app.

2. Find a quiet place and set aside two minutes.

3. Adjust your phone’s volume and tap the bowl.

4. Close your eyes and listen to the tone until you can no longer hear it.

5. Tap the bowl again.

6. This time, listen with your whole body. Notice the vibration as it moves through your awareness. Continue listening until not only your ears can no longer detect the sound, but your body senses the vibration has completely settled.

This simple practice focuses attention, quiets mental chatter, and reconnects awareness to the present moment.

Personal Energy Clearing

I use this brief affirmation regularly, either spoken aloud or silently.

I close my energy field to all except my higher self and those beings of the highest consciousness who are meant to accompany me on my evolutionary path.

I claim my energy field as whole and complete.

I am a powerful energetic being.

I am sovereign.

It is done.

What I carried away from this month’s transmission was not a prediction or a warning. It was a reminder…a remembrance.

Presence is not something we achieve once and then possess forever. It is something we return to again and again.

As conditions shift, as new energies arrive, as old structures continue to fall away, the question becomes less about what is happening out there and more about how we are meeting it.

For me, that is the deeper invitation of this season.

To stay the course.
To trust the unfolding.
And to practice presence.

In joy and unity, always.

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MANY PATHS Connected on Substack recently moved well beyond 200 subscribers, and YouTube is now approaching 100. I’m deeply grateful for every person who reads, watches, reflects, comments, listens, or simply travels alongside this unfolding work in quiet presence.

I know time and attention are sacred currencies.

Thank you for spending some of yours here.

At its core, MANY PATHS Connected exists to accompany people through awakening, creativity, mystery, and becoming—not by pretending to have all the answers, but by staying present to the unfolding together.

ICYMI, two recent YouTube Shorts seemed to capture the threshold energy of May in very different ways.

One was a quiet soul reset inside a labyrinth.

The other? Gothic mischief inside Suzzallo Library.

Honestly, both felt strangely perfect for this moment.

May carried enormous threshold energy for many of us—crossings, revelations, endings, beginnings, deepening awareness, and quiet reorientation. Some thresholds were dramatic. Others nearly invisible until suddenly…everything felt different.

Two Substack pieces you may have missed speak to patterns we often face as new energy finds us:

Are You Still Abandoning Yourself?
What the Threshold Revealed on Spiritual Worth and Becoming

These reflections may resonate if you find yourself standing at a threshold of your own.

As June begins, the energy feels more cohesive to me.

That cohesion may arrive as lightness, intensity, or somehow both at once.

But there is a growing sense of movement now. A recognition that the thresholds are no longer simply approaching. Many have already been crossed or consciously staked.

What comes next feels less about preparation and more about participation.

More choice.
More play (or more treats).
More experimentation.
More embodied relationship with power, creativity, and presence.

Early Saturday morning, The Collective’s June Transmission, HOLDING PRESENCE, arrived. If you feel called, you can experience the full transmission here.

Or, if you’d prefer a simple doorway into the energy first, a 14,000-year-old glacial boulder held her own inside Not Fitting In. Claiming Space.

Until then, may June meet you with openness, curiosity, grounded power, and perhaps even a little sacred mischief.

In joy and unity, always.

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This week I spent three glorious days on retreat in the Kitsap Peninsula.

No agenda. No to-do list. Nowhere to be.

Known for its beauty, the water-woven peninsula did not disappoint with forests, parks, and peace—which is what I thought I was after.

The month of May has been loaded with threshold energy. Standing at a threshold, crossing one…even recognizing you’re approaching one is enough.

My threshold arrived in the space created by stepping away from routine. I was called into listening. Toward even greater stillness.

What first felt like liminality or unknowing guided me to entirely new realms of discovery.

None of it was planned, though I had a sense that something wanted to reveal itself during this time.

Along the way, I laid out crystals (smokey quartz, selenite, jade, and black merlinite loaned to me) and other spiritually significant pieces. I also drew, and intuitively placed, a tarot card from my Merlin Oracle deck—one to begin, and three more for each day of the retreat.

Here are the four cards, drawn in order:

Innovation | Think Outside of the Box

Value | Spiritual Worth

Discernment | Judge Wisely

Coalescence | Bring It Together

The beauty—and the depth—of oracle readings is there are as many interpretations as there are souls.

But when I drew Value, I knew this was the headline.

My self-worth has risen magnificently in recent years, but understanding my value within the spiritual work I do has sometimes been stickier.

When Value: Spiritual Worth landed, the message arrived with it.

It’s not about the spiritual work you do. It’s about the spiritual being you are.
Because how can any soul made of divine essence be anything other than worthy beyond any worldly measure?

There was more, but I can’t ignore the implication:
I am worthy of this journey whatever I choose to do, wherever I choose to go, or whichever realm I choose to explore.

And whoever I choose to become.

I don’t need permission. Credentials. Or even a plan.

I am worthy now. Have always been. Will always be.

No apologies. No explanations.

So I settled in. Allowed the quiet of the peninsula (photos below) to envelop me. Then I followed the energy.

And my field opened to extraordinary bands of information. Sometimes I was in the frequency as subject or witness, other times mystic or seer—with a fair level of magic woven alongside careful words about galactic systems.

The content doesn’t matter here. If you, devoted reader, would like to know more, I am willing to share it on request.

What matters most is this

I experienced another shift, a deeper, more expansive awareness of spiritual worth.

I realized how worthy I am of any exploration I choose simply because I am a conscious, awakened being.

Curiosity shapes trajectory, but embodying your value—truly feeling your spiritual worth—can catapult you forward. It becomes its own kind of current, difficult to describe in ordinary language.

The retreat suddenly seemed less oriented around “diving into higher realms” and more around embodied participation in a changing consciousness.

My consciousness.

By the end of day three, the grid read like a symbolic map of integration, identity reorganization, and emerging coherence around a deeper calling already underway within me.

I ask you…how much better can it get?

More from this retreat:

The Next Right Action

Crossing Before You Understand Why

In joy and unity, always.

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or have we become attached to curated noise?

Not just social media noise. Not just headlines or outrage or endless talking head commentary. But the addiction to urgency, emotional static, identity loops, and constant stimulation that can so easily masquerade as aliveness.

We say we want stillness, but often reach for distraction the moment life becomes quiet enough to actually hear ourselves.

I’ve been noticing this a lot lately.

Without judgment…but as recognition. And because I’m increasingly aware of the noise all around us.

Curated noise is a type of energy that pulls us outward in every direction. It fragments attention. It feeds reaction. It creates the illusion of movement while quietly—or not so quietly—draining coherence, clarity, and presence.

But there is another kind of energy entirely.

It doesn’t scream or demand attention. It doesn’t perform.

It pulses from within.

And strangely enough, we often encounter it through stillness.

Not passivity. Not disengagement.

Stillness.

A grounded, living presence beneath the static.

And perhaps choosing that stillness—especially in a world addicted to performance, urgency, and reaction—is its own act of courage.

Reminding us that we are imbued with divine sovereignty.

I think many people fear this kind of quiet presence because eventually it asks us to meet ourselves without the buffering. Without the noise. Without the endless emotional movement—or entanglement—that keeps us distracted from our own deeper knowing.

But when we stay still long enough, something remarkable begins to happen.

A different rhythm emerges.

Something ancient. Dormant. Powerful.

Not aggressive power, nor look-at-me power. Not the exhausting push to dominate, convince, or prove.

Something far more honest.

A reclamation of wholeness.
A return of instinct.
A remembering of what stirs beneath the mask.

Sometimes I wonder if what we’re truly seeking isn’t peace at all.

Maybe what we’re seeking is permission to stop scattering ourselves long enough to feel our own soul again.

And perhaps that’s why genuine stillness can feel uncomfortable at first. Because beneath the silence, there is often grief. Fear. Vulnerability. Old stories. Restlessness.

But beneath all of that?

There is immense life.

A steady pulse. A deeper intelligence. An immutable force that does not need spectacle in order to create.

I think many of us are beginning to sense the difference between curated noise and true stillness—not as an thought exercise, but through lived experience, through stark contrast, through inner recognition.

Awakening asks us to stop consuming ourselves through noise and begin listening for what remains when the performance—daily life, work, relationship, even spirituality—falls away.

Not so we become smaller.

So we can become our fullest expression.

Grand. Eternal. And still.

A dynamic combination that will quell the noise around us.

In joy and unity, always.

Experience peaceful presence here:

🌿 30-second Soul Reset: A Flow of Peace

🌳 Eerie Forest Message: Stay the Course

or for something more robust:

🗞️ The Media Illusion

🏢 The Government Illusion

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A guided energetic experience to clear emotional residue, restore inner coherence, and reopen the full vertical channel of presence—from Root to Crown. This is not about fixing or forcing. It’s about stabilizing the body, softening the heart, and moving the energy.

✅ Learn more / Register

From time to time, I still want to run away from who I am and what I offer.

While my path has become unmistakably illumined over the last 18 months, and I’ve embraced every aspect I feel I have the capacity to, I hang onto an old story of abandonment.

This story, once gripping, has loosened its hold on me.

About this time last year, I realized I was being held hostage by the expectation that whatever employer, partner, creative expression, endeavor, or desire—all wrapped in temporary happiness—would eventually abandon or betray me. Leave me in the cold. Leave me doubting my choices, skills, and talents. Swallow up trust. Snatch my power.

Power freely given, by the way.

And it was never about if, but when it would all disappear. Again.

When this trigger—abandonment—appeared this week, ahead of my upcoming Chakra Activation Experience, it had shape-shifted. But I couldn’t quite tap into the energy of it. I thought the story was over. Caput. Released a year ago.

So, why was abandonment and betrayal rearing its head now?

Just asking the question allowed a sliver of light into the darkest corner, and I understood what the shape-shifting was really about: fear of being ignored, dismissed, embarrassed, exposed. Fear that no one would respond to the offering and I’d somehow be discredited by my own visibility.

The old knee-jerk instinct? Abandon myself before anyone else had the chance.

This goes way back. I mean way back. Early childhood back. I don’t need to unpack all the ways this manifested throughout my life, but I can assure you that fear of being myself nearly ate me alive.

And if I’m absolutely honest, it did eat—and swallow—parts of me that have taken years to reclaim.

It was time to face the final chapter of the outdated story.

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I regularly work with my guides, The Collective, on all manner of things. Creative expression. Events. Business ideas. Travel plans. I also allow my higher self to spend time with them deliberately in ways that are like a masterclass in my evolution.

Here’s what arrived:

It is quite understandable that you wish to run away from some of your responsibilities, but just keep in mind that this has become your work now, and you have agreed. Now, you can always be in retreat and respite, that is perfectly fine, but to run from something you have wanted for quite a long time might suggest that you take a look at how you will feel if you do not show up for yourself.

Abandoning myself is not unfamiliar territory either. It’s just another chapter of the story. Believing I’ve been—or will be—abandoned by others ultimately lands on not believing in myself enough to stay.

Over the decades, it became easier to tell a radically different story: that I’m simply a creative soul meant to bounce around from thing to thing, person to person, job to job, place to place. There is truth in this acknowledgment, certainly.

But I’ve learned to pay deep attention—to inspiration, nudges, and the joy that arrives through creativity; and also, to question the impulse to make more consequential shifts, leaving relationships, leaving my home, or trashing an event already on the books, even when the offering itself lights me up.

I’m learning wholeheartedly to follow the energy.

And sometimes, to sit with the energy.

Later in our back-and-forth, The Collective made clear:

No, this is not an admonishment. Of course not. You may do as you please. You are sovereign.

In other words, I can choose to cancel already scheduled events. I can continue down the path of self-abandonment. But now this choice was presented as deeply personal and impossible to ignore.

How will it make me feel?

Halt. Stop.

Feel? Damn.

Another enormous learning curve over these many months has been understanding heart coherence. Listening to my heart rather than my head. Allowing my heart to lead.

And that involves feelings. Energy. Intuitive knowing. Discernment.

Finally, this from my guides:

It’s really less about abandoning self and more about honoring and respecting yourself now, honoring and respecting the work you choose to embrace, and honoring and respecting those who share your path for a few moments, an hour, or for years at a time.

Abandoned and betrayed by others?
Nope. Done.

Abandoning myself?
Doesn’t fly. Not anymore.

The final chapter of the story got ripped out and replaced—reframed—with a more elevated perspective:

Reclaim my power.

Forget abandonment. Allow a new story. One rooted in honoring and respecting myself, the work I choose to bring forward now, and the souls who choose to walk beside me for however long our paths intersect.

This isn’t nuance. It’s an entire shift.

A letting go of every fragment of an old tale that has no place in these enormous times. And the embodiment of something far greater—a higher truth.

Bottom line: I couldn’t keep holding onto even the tiniest fragment of the old story that says I’m abandoned at every turn. Not even when I tried altering the plot to somehow make it more palatable: self-abandonment. Yes, that seems better, right?

Actually, it is entirely on me. It’s my choice to make. To allow a completely new perspective. One that is spacious. Loving. Compassionate. Joyful.

Honor myself.
Honor others.
Trust the process.
Trust myself.

Are you caught in sticky stories of abandonment or betrayal? I’d genuinely love to hear about them.

Because we are many paths connected, and together, we can reclaim our power.

In joy and unity, always.

ICYMI
The Collective’s May Transmission has been a hot watch.
If you feel the nudge, STAY THE COURSE is waiting here.

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That’s where many of us are standing right now.

April stirred things. It rattled structures, internally and externally, and asked more of us than we may have expected. Patterns that once felt reliable began to loosen. In the midst of that, something deeper started reorganizing within us. Not loudly. Not always clearly. But undeniably.

Now we are in May. The first real threshold of 2026.

If things have felt unclear or unsettled, this will land.
The May Transmission from The Collective: STAY THE COURSE:

This is not something we observe from a distance. It asks for our participation. It asks for movement. It asks for choice.

Because we are not just experiencing new energy. We are becoming someone who can hold it.

There is a phase in any expansion where things feel misty. We sense a shift. We may even feel aligned at times. Then clarity fades. Momentum pauses. It can feel as though something has gone off track.

It hasn’t.

We were in the mist.

The mist has a purpose. It slows the mind and softens the need to control every step. It invites a different way of navigating, one that is more intuitive, more coherent, more rooted in the heart.

But the mist is not where we are meant to stay.

It is where we recalibrate, and then move.

This is where May becomes important. This month is not about waiting for clarity to return on its own. It is about moving toward the clearing, even when we cannot yet see it.

We begin to choose.

We begin to place our energy into the structures, relationships, ideas, and rhythms that feel aligned with who we are becoming. Not who we were. Not who we thought we needed to be. Who we are becoming now.

That may require courage in quiet ways.

It might look like setting a boundary we’ve been avoiding.
Following through on something small but meaningful.
Choosing not to engage where we once would have.
Creating something without knowing where it leads.

This is how thresholds are crossed.

Not in a single moment, but through a series of steps.

Participation is still required here. The idea that new energy simply arrives and does the work for us can be appealing, but it is incomplete. The energy may come in, but we are the ones who embody it. We are the ones who give it form through our heart-led choices.

This is the work now.

Not forceful. Not overwhelming. But conscious and steady.

We are not alone in this. Many are moving through the same terrain, learning to trust something deeper than logic. There is a quiet co-creation unfolding, even if it isn’t always visible. People are finding one another. Support is forming in ways that feel more aligned, more real.

Still, no one can take our steps for us.

If we’ve been waiting for perfect clarity or a definitive signal, we may be waiting longer than necessary. The guidance now is subtle. It shows up as a small nudge. A quiet sense of direction. A feeling that something is ready to move.

We can greet that something with love, compassion. And yes, joy.

And if this moment feels especially personal for you, let it be.

Do one thing today that clears stuck energy.

Keep it simple.

Reach out to someone who has been on your mind.
Clear a space in your environment that feels heavy.
Take a walk and allow your system to reset.
Write down the next step you’ve been avoiding and take it.
Say something honestly that you’ve been holding back.

If a more intentional reset is needed, try this:

Stand still for a moment. Close your eyes. Bring attention to the heart. Breathe there and let the body settle.

Then ask, quietly: What wants to move today?

Listen.

Notice what arises first. It may be a word, a feeling, or a direction. Trust that initial response and act on it in the simplest way possible.

This is how we begin to embody the new frequency.

May will continue to bring opportunities to choose, to establish new boundaries, and to step into personal power in ways that feel grounded, real, and extraordinary. There may be moments when the mist returns. That does not mean we’ve gone backward. It means we are integrating at a deeper level.

So when that happens, remember:

🌳 We are still on the path.
✨ The clarity has not disappeared.
🌻 The horizon is still there.

Keep walking.

The clearing is closer than it seems.

And when we reach it, we won’t just see differently.

We will be different.

In joy and unity, always.

Reminders:
Root to Crown: Chakra Activation Experience
Reconnect. Recalibrate. Remember.
May 13, 2026 | 6:30 PM PT

A guided energetic experience to clear emotional residue, restore inner coherence, and reopen the full vertical channel of presence—from Root to Crown. This is not about fixing or forcing. It’s about stabilizing the body, softening the heart, and moving the energy.

✅ Learn more / Register

Private 1:1 Sessions: Channeling with Mark and The Collective
Schedule varies.

✅ Learn more / Book with Mark

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Lately I’ve been reflecting on what it means to feel myself changing.

Sometimes the shift is subtle—a heightened sensitivity, a deeper need for rest, a stronger pull toward stillness, authenticity, or connection.

When something new begins to emerge within us, self-care is no longer optional. It becomes sacred.

Supporting ourselves in these moments—through rest, grounding, movement, breath, or spiritual practice—creates space for what is unfolding to take root.

If you’re feeling that kind of inner movement right now, my next Root to Crown: Chakra Activation Experience on May 13 is designed to support greater balance, awareness, and connection through the seven major energy centers.

You may also notice a few refreshed touches around this space, including a renewed email banner, updated profile, and refreshed home page—small shifts that reflect the continuing evolution of this work.

And if the recent message about becoming a different being resonated with you, I’ve shared two companion videos that continue that exploration in a deeper way.

8 Signs You Are Becoming a Different Being
(don’t miss the big one at #8)

3 Signs You Are Becoming a Different Being
(filmed in the lush spring green of Seattle’s Carkeek Park)

Wherever you find yourself in the process, trust what is unfolding.

Even the quietest shifts matter.

In joy and unity, always.

Final note: If you’re local, I’d love to invite you to a traveling production of The Detention Lottery, where I’ll be playing the role of a private attorney.

On May 3 from 4–6 PM at Center for Spiritual Living Ballard, this moving performance shines a compassionate light on the heartbreaking realities faced by those caught in our detention system against their will.

It’s a deeply human and eye-opening experience, and I’d be honored to share it with you.

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You may be sensing new feelings in your body, new perceptions in your awareness, or a deepening connection to intuition, nature, and spirit.

It can feel as if something within is being rewired.

Maybe that’s exactly what’s happening.

🌀Here are 10 signs you may be becoming a different kind of being, drawn from my own experiences—or from others—as we continue to navigate this unfolding era.

1. Synchronicity Multiplies

Meaningful “coincidences” begin appearing everywhere.

The right person contacts you at the right time. The answer arrives just as you ask for it. Doors open in ways that feel guided.

As you become more coherent—making decisions from the heart first, rather than the mind—life begins to reflect that coherence back to you. And when you use the whole of yourself—heart, mind, body, soul, and energy field—watch how quickly insight, opportunities, and meaningful experiences begin to materialize.

An invitation: When synchronicity appears, pause and breathe it into your heart. Recognition strengthens alignment.

2. Intuition Gets Louder

You may sense the energy of a person or place almost instantly. Inner knowing rises before logic has time to explain.

It might feel like sudden clarity, subtle guidance, or a knowing that arrives out of nowhere.

When I trust that first intuitive nudge, I’m often led exactly where I need to go.

An invitation: Notice the first quiet thought or gut feeling before the mind analyzes it. Check it inside your heart. Trust begins there. Then, trust yourself to explore or act.

3. High-Frequency Sensations Stop You

For some, this may show up as a ringing in the ears, tingling in the body, sudden waves of energy, or sensations that seem to come from nowhere.

I regularly hear a high pitch in one or both ears. I don’t claim to know exactly what it is, but it feels like an energetic download of some kind.

An invitation: Instead of resisting the sensation, feel into it—or hum to the pitch. Curiosity here might open the door to understanding.

4. Joy and Playfulness Awaken

I love this one. My curiosity is piqued, and playfulness is off the chart. It might be for you, too, because this is now a time for unapologetic joy.

Creativity feels charged. You may feel drawn to create, explore, experiment, and play for no reason other than the delight of it.

This lightness is not frivolous—it’s part of the expansion.

Say this out loud to yourself: I am a powerful energetic being. Use it. Play with the feelings it bolsters in you.

An invitation: Make room for one playful act today. Just for the fun of it. It’ll help ground the frequency of joy.

5. Nature and the Earth Begin Calling

You may feel drawn to forests, rivers, stones, birds, or sky in ways you never did before.

Nature starts to feel like medicine.

There is ancient wisdom in the natural world, and as consciousness expands, many of us begin to feel that relationship more deeply.

An invitation: Visit your nearest park and simply listen to the cacophony around you. Let all the elements of Mother Earth meet you there.

Share MANY PATHS Connected with Mark Jacobs

6. Dreams Become More Intense

Dreams may become vivid, symbolic, emotional, or deeply transporting—even transformational.

You may wake with the feeling that something meaningful happened while you slept.

For me, dreams often become astral travel—more vivid, vibrant, and expansive than typical dreaming. Sometimes when I get into bed, I ask my guides, The Collective, to take me on a little journey. They oblige, and it feels like sacred movement through new realms—an unfolding beyond anything ordinary.

An invitation: Keep a journal beside your bed—or nearby during meditation. Write down what lingers or appears. The meaning may reveal itself later.

7. Time Feels Different, Less Linear

Moments may stretch, compress, or bend in unusual ways.

You may feel briefly disoriented, as if reality just shifted around you.

When I returned from Glastonbury, England last month, I was walking with a group from the plane toward customs, moving together down the airport corridor. Suddenly, I found myself alone. I had passed a turn and stopped, confused that no one was around me. I looked down the hallway where the group should have been and saw no one still. Then I looked back, and there they were, walking toward me as if nothing had happened. I shook my head, rejoined them, and continued on my way.

But something happened in that moment that can’t be reduced to zoning out.

These experiences can feel both deeply real and impossible to explain, like time has folded in on itself for an instant.

An invitation: When time feels strange, ground yourself in the present moment. Breath. Touch something solid. Feel the Earth beneath your feet. Return to your body.

8. Inner Vision Expands

You may begin seeing colors, images, impressions, or energetic patterns—even auras.

It can feel like perception opening beyond what the physical eyes can see, and in fact, your eyes may be closed as these visions appear.

These third eye panoramas may feel symbolic, intuitive, or surprisingly vivid. And may be closely linked with astral travel.

An invitation: If images or colors appear, gently stay with it. Let it unfold before trying to interpret it.

9. Feeling Drawn to Ritual

You may suddenly feel called to create sacred pauses in your day—lighting a candle, blessing your water, speaking an intention, or honoring the changing season.

These rituals create space for presence—your presence that wants to align with the occasion.

They remind us that ordinary moments often carry sacred meaning and deserve reverence.

An invitation: Begin and end one part of your day with conscious breath. Three breaths in, three out. Maybe it’s a lunch break, or an entire work day. Maybe a few moments to acknowledge the sun each morning. Simple rituals can shift—and expand—your awareness.

10. Love and Oneness Nudge

The big one.

Perhaps the deepest sign is a growing sense of love, compassion, and interconnectedness.

You may begin to feel that separation is thinning, that life is far more connected than it once appeared.

This can show up as tenderness toward strangers, reverence for nature, compassion for yourself, or a profound sense that all life is woven together.

That you are one with that life.

This isn’t sentimentality.

It’s remembrance.

An invitation: Silently say I see you to someone (or something) today—a stranger, a tree, even your own reflection—and notice what shifts. It’s time we begin to recognize and acknowledge the field of oneness.

These are just a few signs your consciousness is expanding and your vibration is rising. There are many, many more.

The outer world may seem chaotic, but inwardly something luminous may be emerging.

I’d love to hear what resonates for you. What changes are you noticing in your own awareness, intuition, or connection to life?

Because whatever this unfolding becomes, we are in it together.

P.S. If you'd like to explore more ways to care for yourself during these changing times, I’ve gathered a few supportive resources here.

In joy and unity, always.

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