On Addiction, Wetiko, and the sneaky spirit of “rationality”
I’m circling back on the energy and spirit of addiction lately. Or, perhaps, it is circling back around me. Or up from within me. I don’t align with the 12 step ethos of “always an addict”, but I do understand viruses- how they burrow and bury themselves into a system, invisibly stealing life force over time. I have been sober for 10 years and I am still uncovering hidden viral load in my field. I feel like I know the spirit of addiction intimately… a worthy adversary, and a real sneaky fucker.
Wetiko is an Algonquin concept for a cannabalistic spirit that hunts and consumes endlessly through the bodies and psyches of those infected. Emphasis on infected- a mind virus. There are similar words and concepts for this same kind of spirit across many North American indigenous cultures, as well as in various Asian traditions through the concept of “hungry ghosts”. It was wetiko that explained the mindless destruction and violence that the Europeans brought with them as they colonized the Americas. An illness. An infection. Incredibly contagious, yet separate from the essential self of the individuals. The colonizers were spiritually colonized themselves, and wetiko always leaves more hunger after it is fed.
I understand addiction as its own Spirit now. Addiction- if not exactly aligned- is a close cousin or sibling to wetiko. It comes dressed as comfort- and it provides a little of that- but it always leaves taking more than it offered. It hijacks attention and focus. It is a jealous partner and lover. It throws poison on the landscape of our inner being so that we are always left needing more, and more, and more. Always eating, never full. It is so ceaselessly conniving in its machinations to guide our actions toward its renewal and replication.
With this recent review of the spirit of addiction I’ve been unveiling the near-invisible pathways of replication that happen in the things not seen and not shunned. The hooks of its spirit that show up in socially acceptable (or at least tolerable) behavior. The negotiation of boundaries that lead us to believe we are in control, when we are actually a foolishly compliant host. This spirit has gotten so sophisticated that it knows now that it can’t sustain on obvious addiction alone.
There are the obvious-not-obvious ways that we know our world is under the hooks of addiction: social media, technology in general, plastic, fossil fuels, extractive labor practices, “acceptable” but compulsive sexuality, food, booze, status, money, disassociation in general.
Then there are near-invisible internal landscapes… the thought, feeling, and somatic pathways that we know are taking more than they are giving. One I’ve identified recently is an addiction to the “rational mind”.
In a class recently a participant said something to the effect of “sometimes we need to give the rational mind something to grab onto” and for the first time I heard that as complicity rather than truth. Even just a few months ago I would have fervently agreed- my students and clients, over the years, have often heard me use the phrase “give the mind a chew toy”. But this time- perhaps simply because of my recent underworld spelunking- I heard it as an addiction that I’ve been feeding, rather than a mechanism of moving energy and consciousness forward.
We have been entrained in a field of addictive rationality. And rationality (as we’ve known it) is a jealous partner.
Through the lens of wetiko, I see it as the sneakiest of sneaky-fucking-shapeshifter moves. One that I could almost be impressed by if I wasn’t so enraged. The mind virus of endless consumption cannot exist in a landscape that is in relationship with the Mystical. With Spirit. With the non-rational.
The numinous, the spiritual, the intuitive… the felt… these are realms that are abundant, patient, forgiving, and unfaltering in the presence of our human urgency and illness. A being- many beings- in relationship to Spirit becomes an inhospitable landscape for the virus to root and replicate in.
And wetiko can’t have that. So it creates the illusion of safety in the rational mind. Only the mental facts and data are to be trusted. Only that which can be “proven” can be welcomed in. Wetiko builds a labyrinth of “information” within the tiny realm of the human mind, cutting off access to everything else. It can replicate there. It can hide inside “rational” understanding. It can even begin to morph and rewrite what “rational” means. Through our complicity it builds a prison in our minds that looks a whole lot like a shelter, and it traps us- Soul and Spirit- within.
When I say the spirit of addiction- and wetiko at large- is a sneaky fucker I mean it. It always uses something “real” to create illusion. The rational mind is a meaningful and vital part of us… which is why it’s a great form for the virus to take on. Alcohol is an “important” part of social life. Technology is a “necessary” tool for moving into the future. Cheap (or free) labor is just the cost of doing business, keeping “important” economies afloat.
Wetiko uses what’s real, and then turns it into a field of distortion.
In another recent class a participant- tasked with journeying to receive a teaching from a spirit guide- came back and said “My teacher refused to teach me! She didn’t say anything… she just stood there stirring her soup”.
As is often the case when we do magical practice in community, the rest of the class laughed- because the teaching is so clear when we are not inside of it. In the spirit realms, the helping teachers and guides we meet refuse to lower themselves to any vibration we are walking in with that needs to be transformed. That Spirit Teacher in the journey did not care that the student felt urgent to “get” something… she held her energy and stirred her soup. She will keep holding her energy and stirring her soup until the student is ready to settle and meet her in her frequency- and then the work can begin.
Our non-rational ways are like the Teacher stirring the soup: she will wait endlessly until we are ready to meet her there. She is not “throwing us a bone”. She is not feeding the addiction of urgency and extraction that we are walking in with. She stirs. She waits. And when we are ready, she will feed us the soup that will rid our body of the virus that we’ve been carrying for so long.
We do Energy Work so that we can reweave the web of connection with Spirit that makes for an inhospitable environment for addiction and wetiko to hook into. We do sacred practice not to “get ahead” inside a sick culture, but to begin the process of flushing our hidden places of the virus that takes more than it gives.
Our rational minds are infected. And we cannot feed their addiction into wellness.
Luckily, there are infinite realms of uninfected terrain that we can receive from at any time.
xo
Julia
PS: This Thursday 6/26 we have a quarterly ritual and frequency activation opening up the practice and medicine of Journey Work: learn to travel between realms and dimensions and meet helping teachers and guides (like the story above) that can feed us good soup. Register here.