Not the kind we've been sold. Not the kind that keeps us small and endlessly waiting to be chosen, waiting to find our other half to be whole.

A different kind. The kind that breaks your heart and opens your eyes.

Welcome to Waking Up In Dark Places.

This has been my path. A practical way through the tangled overlap of grief, climates of abuse, personal development, and spirituality, told through the esoteric heroine's fairytale journey. The full story lives at https://wakingupindarkplaces.com.

This is an audiobook-style podcast. No roundtables. No interviews. No hot takes. No ads if I can help it.

What you'll find here are layered pieces, essays, myths, and meditations, meant to be taken in slowly, the way any real initiation unfolds.

This work draws on esoteric wisdom, lived experience, and a ruthless commitment to telling the truth about what consciousness actually costs.

Some of the language here may be unfamiliar. That's intentional. You'll find a working glossary at https://wakingupindarkplaces.com/what-words-mean/ - worth a visit before going too deep.

We begin with orientation, then story, then the journey itself. Like any serious diver knows, you don't just drop into the deep. You learn the world you're entering first.

Whether you're navigating loss, burnout, awakening, trauma, or simply the ache of no longer fitting in the life you once built, if you're in the between, you're not alone.

I write for myself. I write for the younger version of me. I write for anyone who's lost themselves and wondered if the way back or forward is even possible.

More than all of this, I write for liberation. In honor of the known sages and unknown initiates who paved the way, to the ancestors whose ceiling became our floor, we continue on. In earnest. In effort. In the reach to lift each other toward a more authentic expression of spirit.

This isn't a space for easy answers or borrowed light. It's a space for the real work.

If you're looking for the language of the darkness you've found yourself navigating, to call it by name and reclaim your power, your light, your misplaced sparks of divinity from the bottomless hunger of this world, this is the place.

You're not alone here. This is where we remind ourselves not only what's possible but what we're here to become, no matter how long the journey.

If you're ready, the first step is yours to take.