Light in the Darkness Newsletter

July 28, 2026 #2

If you cast your eyes back to two years ago, the catastrophic levels of destruction we now face with this regime would have been unimaginable. So how the heck did we get here so fast?

Beneath and above the evils we now face, the entire universe is going through what the Inca shamans call a Pachakuti. We can translate this as a "world reversal." Among the Andean and Mesoamerican shamans, this chaotic time is known as a period that takes place every 26,000 years and involves a quantum evolutionary leap. 

This moment of transformation is not slow and linear, as evolution usually is. While we did not get here all of sudden and we can track down the events that lead to this political crisis--according to the law of cause and effect; the moment of the Pachakuti itself responds to a different phenomena: a death and rebirth. As such, it escapes the slow evolutionary timeline and instead it is a time of accelerated, paradoxical and quantum creative evolution. 

Different cultures have different names for this type of chaotic times. The Greek call it Kairos. And this has a double meaning, as it also reveals the power of this tumultuous time. Kairos also means "the right, critical, or opportune moment for decisive action."

The paradoxical, mysterious and chaotic nature of this time of death and rebirth is why questions such as "how can so many things be so wrong at the same time?" can only lead to a version of reality that seems fantastical. The reason it seems so alien is because at this moment a time/space reality is dying. It is being dismantled right before our eyes! And simultaneously a new time/space reality is being birthed --with our co-creative collaboration-- by the way. If we look at it the way we look at ordinary reality, it simply seems too bizarre. With our domesticated perception we cannot see what is being born. All we see is chaos and destruction.

At this bizarre time, it is empowering to see our situation with the Eyes of the Shaman. So today I'm going to lend you my shaman's perspective to make sense of the nonsensical chaos of our time. I will attempt to integrate the political destruction we are facing with the way in which the shaman sees and transforms reality and with the transformation going on now.

Hopefully this will help you shake off some of the mental fog and perceptual obfuscations that are adding layers of confusion to the chaos of our political crisis and the enormous upheavals going on in the world. 

For more information on the Pachakuti, I include a link to a video in  my Artchemy Atelier YT channel in the post-data.

Weapons of Mass Confusion

Let's start with the Destroyer in the White House and his by now obvious pattern of deception.

Republicans have used two weapons that have won them the White House: lies and repetition. They have not only lied outrageously. They repeat these lies at nauseam. The repetition has the effect of embedding the lie into the culture until it is perceived as part of reality. This is a tactic of indoctrination.

But from a shamanic perspective, it's not their lies that won. It's our perceptual co-dependence that have us, The People, at a loss.

What do I mean?

If someone lies and you don't fact-check what they say and as a result believe it, who's responsible when you take the wrong decision?

If someone keeps repeating a lie and you start believing it because you'd rather not fact-check or because you start doubting your own eyes, who's "making you" fail?

I'm not blaming us. Blaming is a weapon of mass destruction. Blaming others gives away our power to change because we are the only ones that can change our perception. What helps us solve our problems is looking at our steps in their creation and at the patterns that generated them. So let's give this a try.

Connecting the Dots

What I invite us to do is not about shaming ourselves or others or about self-incrimination. Instead I'm calling upon us to connect the dots on how the culture, once permeated with these lies and obfuscations, alienates us from our own truth, self-authority, perception and from both our personal and people power.

I'm calling us to connect the role of influencers, media, leaders, educators and parents in the socialization of children and how this then leads to how citizens respond to demagogues.

In the 2024 elections many people were shocked that so many voters believed the outrageous lies of the psycho now in residence in the White House. While I was appalled, I was not shocked.

It does not shock me that so many people believed the Destroyer in the White House in spite the fact that:

• He incited an insurrection.
• Was convicted of 34 felonies.
• Was convicted of sexual assault.
• Was responsible for thousands of deaths during COVID.
• Promised contradictory things and never explained how he would accomplish them.
• Has a history of lying and cheating as long as a criminal's rap sheet.
• It's obviously an extreme narcissist opportunist who says anything to manipulate people.
• It's a millionaire funded by billionaires, yet sold himself as a pro-worker's leader-- in spite of having no record to prove this, and
• Has a long track record of refusing to pay people who work for him, but promised to work to reduce our burden with the cost of living.

When you put all of this together, it looks absurd. Because it is absurd. That's why so many people are shocked. Does this mean that a majority of Americans are trapped in an absurd mindset?

 How did people elect such a person for President? Did absurdity go viral?

I'm not shocked because in my work as a shaman I've seen the large percentage of people who have lived most of their lives under the tyranny of abusive fathers, narcissistic parents, alcoholic or addictive family dynamics and religious fanatic cultures. I've helped a few of them to free themselves from the perceptual shackles that this upbringing generates.

And I've witnessed how so many of us are taught to believe lies... or else. And that "or else" is lethal to a child that is completely dependent on the adults around them for survival. That "or else" overwhelms the very core and nature of a new human being-- whether it means rejection, punishment, physical assault or abandonment.

As a child I was a radar for lies. I would tell my mom "why are you sad? (or angry)" And she would rant and scream and ferociously scold me while repeatedly negating the reality I was seeing with my own eyes. "I'm not sad (or angry)," she would rage, her lips in a bitter moue (or her hands on the belt). "What makes you think that? Never say things like that!" That denial of the reality I was witnessing was embedded in my body with each slash of the belt. Had I not been born a Truth-Speaker, I would have complies. And so do many people.

That's how it starts, with the denial of our own perception and the repeated punishment for us using our senses to perceive what the adults are trying to hide. Once in that trance, we are ripe for a school system that often perceives creativity and truth as misbehavior and punishes them accordingly; while rewarding zombie obedience and the suppression of one's voice.

I've also seen how women are taught to be "good girls" and led to distrust our own instincts... with the tragic consequences that so many women cannot spot danger until it hits them on the head or that women under assault cannot raise their voices to scream for help and that many women become victims of violence because their instincts and power have been crippled.

I've heard the old saying: "children should be seen and not heard."

And I've investigated how Patriarchal dominance has indoctrinated us through centuries into believing that power is about control and domination. This leads to giving away our power to bullies and to believing that we cannot defeat those with guns.

Finally, I've been a shaman now for more than 30 years. Here's what I've learned:

Perception shapes how you see reality. Social domestication hijacks our perception early on, distorting how we see the world. In fact, it generates a consensus world that draws us into the limitations of our oppression-- be it race, gender, class or addictive dysfunctions.

Not only that, but this domestication disconnects us from our perceptual faculties, so that we consistently doubt our own perception and give our power away to others, allowing them to "steal our eyes."

This means that about 58% of adults live in a consensus trance where their capacity to see the truth is obfuscated. This, in turn, prevents us from seeing new possibilities and therefore from generating the change we need to evolve or to free ourselves from our oppression.

This theft of perception is so bad that for most of us our very identity is a patchwork of labels dumped on us as we grew up and more than 50% of us will never reclaim our true self, disbelieving its brilliance. This is the constrain of the old humans, the so called homo sapiens.

According to Mesoamerican and Andean shamans, in this Pachakuti we are leaping from the homo sapiens species to a new human species that these shamans called "homo luminous." My name for this new species is "creator being." And that is why we need to reclaim our perception as a tool for liberation.

I invite you to explore this understanding right now. And here's a powerful place to do this exploration: right now. I invite us to examine the role of perception in creating this political crisis and to then learn to shift our perception to change our political reality.

Tricks of Perception

Let's start by contemplating the language that the Republican Party has used to convince us that democracy is a far-left, communist idea.

For decades now they have been calling moderate, pro-status-quo Democrats names like: leftist, radical, extremist, socialist and communist.

This has masked the fact that it is the Republican Party itself that has moved to the far-right. Finally, now they've openly become a Neo-fascist Party, though they don't really promote it to the general public. That's still too risky. However, they use coded language that other fascist and supremacist recognize.

By contrast, the Democratic Party has moved to the right, becoming right-centrist in relation to the expressed needs and will of the people. Their move right has been influenced by BIG$ in politics, as the oligarchy funds the leading sector of the party, now called the Corporate Democrats.

In contrast the democratic and independent people who have been voting for that party have in fact move a bit to the left due to their frustration on the ever-widening wealth gap and their needs not been met. They are now seeing the need of New Deal type reforms and even voted for candidates who are openly Democratic Socialist-- though not necessarily for the DSA agenda. These voters are responding to their needs and are recognizing the shift to the right in the political position continuum. They are recognizing that we need to save our democracy. Therefore, staying in the center by embracing the status quo is complying with the system. To fight the system, we must practice non-compliance. This is reflected in the move towards the left, seeking radical solutions to safeguard democracy.

The move of the Republican Party, however, is way much more radical. In fact, it is extreme because the small extremists MAGA groups were able to take control of the party. Project 2025 was an Authoritarian Playbook for a fascist takeover with White Supremacist and Christian Nationalist flavor. The party purged most pro-democracy leaders who stood against the insurrection or opposed authoritarianism. Therefore the current leadership is now facilitating the fascist coup.

A number of Republican voters also moved right to join MAGA-- at least for a while. However, many Republican voters stayed where they were and it has taken about a year for them to start realizing that their party is now fascist. That was the intended goal of this perceptual trick. It allowed them to speed dial the steps in the authoritarian playbook without being detected by the typical non-MAGA Republican.

In the illustration below, notice how the left has moved very little, mostly to embrace some democratic socialist concepts. The right, however, has gone off the boundaries of democracy and fallen into white supremacy, fascism and even into the so-called Nazbol measures, so labeled for their National Bolshevism tendencies that blend extreme Russian/German nationalism and traditional social values with communist state control of the economy. 

By pushing the perception that it is the Democratic Party that has moved left, they actually blind-sighted us to the fact that it's them who moved to the extreme right, out of reach of democracy and into the fascist field.

By falling into this perceptual trick, many of us have been perceiving anyone who stands for things as basic as free health care (which exists in most of the developed countries) and a living wage as having "extreme" or "radical" ideas. And this was part of the reason so many people voted against their own interests.

Meanwhile, the true extremism has been the Republican Party's move towards authoritarianism.

We had to touch rock-bottom, as we are doing now, so that many of us would wake up and reclaim our eyes to see the obvious, simple truths that:

• Both parties have neglected their constituents due to the hyper-influence of BIG$ in politics.
• The Republican Party has purged all true conservatives and is now a fascist party orchestrating a coup against our democracy. Whereas before the 2024 elections, supremacist, Neonazis and other Far-right positions were seen by most as out there in the fringes, the continuum of political positions has in fact move to that far-right, and the fringe is now in power. The Republican Party is now a fascist coup in progress. All those Republican voters that believed in democracy, but were conservatives are left in a vacuum. Some are still denying the changes. Others are up on the air. And a small but significant group is participating in the NO KINGS protests, though it remains to be seen how they will vote.
• The Democratic Party was split into two factions. On one side are the Corporate Democrats who refuse to take action against the coup and have just mobilize now for the Primaries to pay their dues to the oligarchs by retaking votes. The Corporate Democrats have been embracing the status quo for decades. But the status quo now has no meaning. It is no longer "staying in the same place" because everything has moved out into the fringes, into fascism. In these conditions not doing anything is complying with fascism. Therefore, they are actually moving to the right. In fact, at the end of the Primaries, they seem to be courting a small percentage of voters that may be Republicans looking for a home that is not fascism. And that is very telling. It says that maybe they will become the next Republican Party that house Conservatives.
• Those who called themselves "Moderate Democrats" seem slow to realize that center is now to the right, becoming an ally to the fascist coup. Status Quo, centrists and moderate are fast becoming euphemisms for those who are in denial or avoidance, attached to the comfort of status quo and scared to change or trapped in the perceptual tricks that the Republicans have embedded in our culture with the misuse of all these terms.
• And on the other side of the Democratic Party we find the Progressive Democrats. The Progressive Democratic Caucus in congress are the only democratic leaders who have been doing their congressional job and have been listening to the people and fighting oligarchy. The voters who are progressive have more very little. Maybe some have embraced democratic socialism because it seems to be the only way to come close to the new New Deal we need to clear this mess and restore a governance that serve the people. But if you look at the place in the continuum, they are pretty much in the same place. Everything else around them has moved to the right, so they seem farther to the left. In fact, the Democratic voters in general have become progressive in order to save our democracy. This means that the gap between the democratic voters and the leadership of the Democratic Party is not much wider than ever.
• The Pro-democracy Nonviolent Resistance Movement and the grassroots organizations and community organizations that have coalesce to form it are peopled mainly (not exclusively) by Democrats. Whether they were moderates who are now progressive or they were always progressive is pretty irrelevant at the moment. The problem is that they cannot save democracy unless the majority of We, the People participate in resistance to the fascist coup. As a result, they have responded to the passivity of the Corporate Democrats and the complicity of the GOP in congress by infusing new democratic candidates into the primaries that respond to the working and middle class and pledge to take BIG$ out of politics, abolish ICE, serve the middle and working class and held the GOP accountable for the fascist coup. 
• At this point, in mid-August right after the Primaries, it seems that more and more people are joining the resistance. But not only MAGA is attacking it. The Corporate Democrats have joined the attacks, and this is tragic because it can weaken the popular force needed to defeat this fascist coup.
• For this reason, the best place in which we can position ourselves is with the Pro-democracy Nonviolent Resistance Movement (aka NO KINGS Alliance). Join the resistance. Refuse to comply with the regime. Get into action to organize community, educate the people, protect people against ICE and defend the vote... and forget about the old terms and political positions because they don't apply. They are in flux. What matters is to save our democracy.

Pachakuti as Awakening

This Pachakuti has shaken many of us off our domestication trance, so that we can free our perception and craft our liberation.

As we wake up from this trance, a majority of Americans are finally accepting the measures that we need to take in order to reclaim our democracy and bridge the enormous wealth gap that is drowning our democracy. This realization is why we are now electing the progressive democratic candidates who are fighting for these changes.

If you still feel that perception is kind of abstract and our political catastrophe cannot be a direct result of this, let's explore the impact of one tiny word in our current war against ICE's abuses.

In their campaign to steal our eyes, the Neo-fascist Republican Party invented two words that have no basis in reality: "woke" and "antifa."

And they have repeated these nonsensical terms to the point that the entire culture takes them as reality.

While we managed to claim the "woke" term by transforming it into the meaning that yes, we are awake and will not fall for the regime's obfuscation; the term "antifa" has not been fully reclaimed.

Now the regime is testing to see if we have bought into this fabrication deep enough to allow it to be used in order to incarcerate disobedient citizens and dissenters. Their testing ground is extremely dangerous, and it has succeeded... unless we step in right now.

Eight anti-ICE protesters were sentenced in June 2026 to decades in federal prison—including a 100-year term for attempted murder—following a July 4, 2025 demonstration at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where a police officer was shot.

Someone shot from somewhere close to the peaceful demonstration and without further investigation they accused a whole group as domestic terrorists.

As a baby-boomer, I am familiar with provocateurs and agents sent to incite violence.

That is why the pro-democracy resistance movement is clear and diligent in promoting nonviolence and trains its members in nonviolent resistance.

But that little made-up word-- Antifa-- has now become the rope where this regimen purports to hang our freedom.

This prosecution thus marks the first application of the executive disorder designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.

I hear no outrage.

The reality is that Antifa does not exist. When did it all of a sudden became an existing organization? Where is the proof of its existence? There is none. And yet, the protesters have been sentenced with decades in prison.

Antifa does not exist. I'm repeating this so that we use this repetition to erase the repetitions that may be inserted in our brains without our awareness and that are not allowing us to respond immediately and strongly to this injustice before it becomes the rule.

There is no organization by that name. Antifa is a word invented by MAGA. The term began as a peyorative word for anti-fascist people. This would mean that the majority of this country are antifa. But still, there is no organized entity by that name.

How did we end up with citizens being accused in a court of law of being part of a so-called Antifa domestic terrorism organization and jailed for what amounts to a life sentence?

How is this possible?

NEW

T’is We the People 

Invoking our People Power to Save our Democracy

This is a Ceremonial Poem to celebrate People Power, reveal who the enemies of the people are at this time, beyond party politics, and to promote Unity and activate each person as a citizen leader to save and evolve democracy.

• About 60min with interaction. 
• Optional: Soulful Conversation available afterwards. 
• Additional activity: Collective exploration of People Power using the People Power Triad illustration. (A more detailed illustration than the one used above.) Become aware of the tools for People Power and how we can use them and are using them strategically.
• Available locally in New York, New Jersey and Tristate area and via Zoom anywhere else.
• Mobility-friendly access appreciated.

Email Maria Mar at: storytellers.indivisible@gmail.com