The world as mirror

Does the world reflect you? Do you reflect the world? Is there any difference?

In years past, the world and I were in a mirror dance of congruence.

Yes, there was much I saw about Earthly life that I didn't like or agree with ... war, violence, inequality, exploitation, discrimination and greed, for example. But for the most part I was relatively content accepting the main story the mirror of the Western world presented:

The importance of a life focused on getting ahead.

Success and "being somebody" loomed large in the mirror. So, I developed the need to be successful and important. The world reflected the need to be financially and socially responsible, so I became financially and socially responsible. The need to look good in others' eyes and be better than others in certain ways was also important. And then there was the desire to be famous.

The mirror of the world told me most people wanted these things. Or said they wanted them. So, I wanted those things too.

In the process of attaining these things, I became an accurate reflection of the world, cementing its validity with my life’s blood.

An image dancing with itself.

Clueless

For decades, I thought this was "normal." I even believed I was living a life aligned with my nation's stated values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I didn't have a clue I was not actually free. Nor did I realize that, instead of happiness, I was in pursuit of all sorts of programs leading me on a not-so-merry merry-go-round going nowhere.

I couldn't see it even when I caught myself—after one too many martinis on a Monday night—morosely agreeing with other stressed-out, unhappy people unwinding at the sports bar that the only things in life one could actually count on were "death and taxes."

Death and taxes? Ha ha!

We would laugh, thinking it was a joke. But it wasn't a joke. It was a flat-out honest commentary on life on planet Earth, whether in Mesopotamia in Babylon and Kish in 4,500 BC, in ancient Memphis in Egypt, in Rome and Londinium in 1000 AD, or in the United States of America in 1980, 1990, 2010. And now.

It revealed the slave mentality we embodied, and the slave economy we worked within ... bought and sold, owned, rented, and profited upon by the ruling Powers That Be across millennia. An ancient control system we worked within but couldn't see because we were hypnotized by the mirror called "the world," telling us who we were and how we should be: hardworking, compliant, ambitious, competitive, and—in a manageable fashion—successful. Dressing better, eating better, living better than others.

Believing we were better than others.

And all the while the message underpinning the message to work hard and be successful—the deeper image reflected in the mirror—the deeper image we were fed was:

You are weak and corrupt, confused and duplicitous ... base animals that can't be trusted. You need strong leadership and harsh rules. You require control and inspiration to become better people, and thus worthy of God's love and life itself.

The mirror called the world told us all these things.

Which is why, thousands of years ago, we became willing slaves. Which is why, lifetimes and civilizations later, we are still willing workers joking about death and taxes, constantly checking the mirror of the outside world, looking for approval and confirmation that we've "made it."

Thinking we're getting somewhere new.

Ramifications

The consequence of constantly looking in the mirror to see who we are, to see if we fit in, to see if we measure up, to see where we should be going, is the world we inhabit today.

A backwards world, filled with disempowered, hypnotized people living from the outside in.

Even when we reject the world and what it reflects to us, we're still entranced. For example, I once prided myself on my social positioning against war, violence, inequality, exploitation, discrimination and greed. These were things I couldn't stand about my world. Things I refused to become and mirror back.

And yet ... I engaged in war every morning looking in the bathroom mirror. Against myself. Gossip about a friend or criticism of a co-worker were subtle, but unmistakable, forms of violence.

Exploiting somebody's weakness, I got a promotion. I avoided people speaking and writing in ways that indicated a poor education and upbringing. Hearing about an amazing investment opportunity triggered a flicker of greed.

I wasn't immune to the dynamics I abhorred. I thought I was. But I was not.

I didn't throw a car bomb. But I could hurl a mean meme. I didn't rape a nation's natural resources. But I subdivided a pristine piece of pasture land I owned. I didn't assassinate some global leader. But nasty thoughts can be deadly in their own way.

Perception

Whether we see things we love and desire or hate and deny in the mirror, we're still looking outside ourselves and defining ourselves by what we see "out there." To a certain extent, the old spiritual adage about "What you see is what you are" holds true because I'm the one in power doing the seeing, creating and projecting the assessment of what I see.

But there's a difference between seeing a projection originating from inside oneself, and seeing what's really there. For example, my mentally unbalanced stepfather used to rage about how selfish I was as a kid. Not to say I was never selfish, but looking back, I now know, for certain, he was never really seeing me at all, only a projection of himself.

That said, seeing a rapist doesn't mean I'm a rapist. Seeing somebody advance with a knife in hand doesn't mean I'm a potential killer. I'm simply perceiving what's there in the mirror called "external reality."

And the reality we've accepted, embodied, and are living definitely contains both rapists and killers.

The quest

Perhaps the question we should be asking ourselves at this point is, "Is this the mirror I want? Is this the kind of reality I want to be seeing and embodying?"

And if the answer is "No," then how can this reflected reality—how can this mirror that imprisons us—be changed?

So far, I've explored several methods that definitely don't work. For example, the New Age proclivity for seeing bad things (rapists, murderers, genocide, etc.) as "illusions," not really real and thus not worthy of attention and focus or even acknowledgement lest one become “negative” in the viewing.

You know, for sure, that doesn’t work when you're about to be raped and then murdered by a squad of goons bearing down on your village with assault rifles.

Then the illusion becomes very real indeed.

Viewing rapists, murderers, genocide, war, plagues, famine, you name it as "karma," doesn't change things either. It just excuses everything and prolongs the agony.

Then there's another spiritual approach manipulating our perception of the mirror called, "The God in me sees the God in you."

If it weren't based in what is essentially a game of "Pretend," this method of dealing with the mirror and the people in it doing the awful things they do is actually quite advanced. It means taking the position of the Divine, seeing and acknowledging only the divinity in the other, completely ignoring whatever heinous actions are being perpetrated.

The trouble with this method of dealing with the mirror is, of course, unless you're Jesus Christ or his equivalent, it's just a game. A valiant one perhaps and well meaning. But still a game.

But ... here's where things get interesting. We don't have to play Pretend to come face to face with the Divine. There's another path we can choose that actually works.

Digging deep

Doing really deep shadow work on myself, unearthing and healing childhood wounds, past-life wounds, programs, mistaken identities, assumptions, misperceptions and downright bullshit notions I've carried about myself for 50+ years—not to mention kicking negative interdimensional influences and energies to the curb— I'm coming to a more genuinely compassionate place where people and their BS doesn't bother me as much any more.

It's definitely a work in progress. But it's a revelation and an exciting one when somebody goes off on me or some lunatic pulls some stupid stunt on the world stage and I don't get triggered. I don't react.

Instead, I see their wound.

The more I authentically deal with my wounding—which, like everybody else on this planet, is vast and deep—the more clearly I can see the unhealed programs/defense mechanisms/stories running the show in another. And the more I can see what's triggering them, driving them to say and do the things they do, the less whatever they say and do triggers me.

And the less it triggers me, all I'm left with is a clear view of the actual man or woman or child behind the drama ... and I see their purity.

Seeing through my own crapola, I see Who They Really Are behind all their crapola. And then ...

The mirror shatters.

All the programming and stories, defenses and protections, barricades and excuses, protestations and attack energies just go away. And everybody is left naked and authentic, present and real and humble in a really good way.

Peaceful. Safe. Supported. Unburdened.

Heart meeting heart in welcome at last.

R-evolution

How can this reflected reality of ours be changed? How can we step free of the imprisonment of the mirror? This is how.

It doesn't get more basic than "Know thyself," which is what meditation, contemplation, therapy, and shadow work are all designed to help one do. But to truly know oneself, one has to want to know what's really going on. We've got to want to drop the internal and external image and see the truth. Which is easier said than done.

I once belonged to a spiritual school where, for months on end, we weren't allowed to look in a mirror. In order to unhook from the image, our teacher encouraged us to throw a sheet or towel over every reflective surface. Unfortunately, he neglected to point out the world itself is the biggest, most seductive mirror of all.

There's no throwing a sheet over it. There's no making it go away. There's no changing it. Trying to change the world, messing with externals, is the biggest game of all.

But if we go inside, quietly, and shut the door. If we sincerely and humbly do the work, diligently unearthing all the accumulated lies within—the lies we've been taught, looking in the mirror—the mirror disappears and all we are left with is ourselves.

And life. And love.

When that happens, internal and external become one. And the dance becomes what we’ve always hoped and dreamed it could be.

Much love and aloha ~

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Check out the book:

Cracking the Matrix explores the astounding history and nature of what humanity has erroneously labeled "evil" on this planet, helping people finally see the very real, negative, interdimensional influence that exists behind historic and current global events and our social decline.

The book outlines how to break free of this Force's ancient controlling agenda and how people can stand up in the power of their true spiritual nature, ready to create the New Heaven and the New Earth that have so long been prophesied.

About Cate Montana

I’m a professional journalist specializing in alternative medicine and health, and the author of several books, including Unearthing Venus: My Search for the Woman Within [Watkins 2013], The E Word, Ego Enlightenment & Other Essentials [Atria 2017], and a spiritual novel titled Apollo & Me. After Cracking the Matrix: 14 Keys to Individual & Global Freedom, my latest book is Gender, Patriarchy & Sexual Mind Control: Breaking Free. I have a master’s degree in psychology, am gently owned by two fast-growing cats named Leo and Scout, and am extremely blessed to have been called to Maui to live. I’m grateful every day I awaken here!

For more information you can reach me at www.catemontana.com and info@catemontana.com