A hero’s journey is one isolating and sends a hero into the wilderness of existence in search of the philosopher stone. It is a journey filled with misfortune, resentment, hatred, and being misunderstood. But it is a journey of discovery and utter self-love.

-Mr. Alkhem

Let’s read through a story of Lesedi (“Light”, Khwezi – in Zulu). Lesedi is born into a family of 3 children and she happens to be the middle child. Both parents were happily married and staying together. She loved arts, and outdoor adventures and did not fit into ladylike interests aka – “slaying traits”. However, she was a sounding board for advice to her friends and families.

During her upbringing she always felt out of tune with the rest of her siblings, she came across as unruly, opinionated, fierce, and having “presence“. Her parents used to tell her (jokingly) that she will not have a husband if she continues with that attitude.

When Lesedi was in her early 30s, she started to encounter mystical experiences. She started to feel tired when she was around people and felt the need to be alone. She felt the need to be in the wild, surrounded by nature and running streams of water(s).

Romance relationships hit the bottom rock. Work and business ventures became unsustainable to an extent that her parents called in high priests to pray for her but nothing materialized.

She started to want to know whom she was beyond being born by her parents. She started to want to understand why she prefers seclusion, and why she feels tired every time she is around people.

These questions became more prevalent until she started to dream of:

• Ancient places.
• Waters, mountains.
• Flying.
• Fires.
• Animals.
• Strange people wearing colourful clothes.
• Seeing herself in waters and places that look like she is in a sci-fi movie.
• Bathing in waterfalls and camping in the wild.

She started to experience the following:

• Seeing shadows and beams of light.
• The random scent of animal meat or mixed herbs, ocean.
• A feeling that you are watched.
• Voices in the head.
• Deja Vus.
• Inclined to a plant-based diet.
• Manifesting vision.

This seems like a Peter Parker experience.

Lesedi started researching all these phenomenal experiences. She came about some videos on TikTok and they suggested to her that she might have “Gifts” that require her to Thwasa (to be born again into the energy realm). As skeptical as she was, she decided to read further books. She read books that covered anthropology, astrology, astronomy, esotericism, egyptology, African spirituality, Christianity, Muslim, Oriental belief systems, and colonialism. Instead of finding light and answers, she found herself more confused and her belief system was shuttered. All external efforts she undertook to solve her internal problems were fruitless.

As Lao Tzu said – when the student is ready, the teacher appears. When Lesedi turned 33 years of age, she came across a WhatsApp group via a mutual acquittance, that discussed spirituality. She joined a group and she met someone who advised her to search for the answers within because within lies a fountain of ancient, present, and future knowledge. This teacher told her that with her blood, modern science can trace her bloodline to ancient days and that same principle applies to her spiritual lineage. She told her to seek and know both lineages and that it is where her truth lies.

The teacher offered Lesedi an ancient medicinal plant to consume and advised her on how to prepare it and how to consume it. The teacher strictly cautioned her to follow preparation steps, that if it is prepared accordingly, all that is within will come into the light and reveal itself….

The story to continue…