This is going to be a triggering topic to some so ask yourself if you have the ability to really hear this message, because I have zero emotional room to hold space for projection. Triggering to some because they can relate and maybe have felt forced to shove down their true emotional responses to having their work copied/stolen and maybe felt obligated to play nice or rise above in order to not seem un-spiritual or dare I say not very “Love and Light.” Triggering to others because maybe they look at this small spiritual community as a give and take and like promoting anything besides each other is proof that our human emotions to our art being plagiarized says more about us then them or whatever bypassing bullshit some spin. I am here to tell my story and why it is so painful to watch the work I create from the depths of my soul show up on someone else’s page – let alone someone who I thought was a friend or at least friendly with.
When I feel a deep creativity and talent in someone, but I can feel they lack the self-worth, self-belief or confidence to really claim that power I do everything I can in my power to show them how much the world needs their authenticity, and how much I connect to their work and feel equally supported and seen by all they share of themselves. For example: Pre Covid-19 I had events and readings in my home, while also travelling to crafts fairs. Both in my home & at craft fairs I had a beautiful display of work. Yes, I have my own work, but if you know me well you know I live to collaborate and support those I believe in. My end pieces are made by local artists who I believe in and promote and consider my artistic family, so it should be of no surprise to anyone that I would reach out to those who I believed in to have their art displayed in my home where clients could purchase after a reading. I never resonated with making gemstone bracelets nor do I feel the need to corner every market just because there is a demand. If I do not resonate with it I always promote another whose work I believe in, as I know it will be a beautiful more authentic fit. Anything you’re doing just to copy, corner, or make the most money on will never last – you have to feel it in your soul! Needless to say I had displays of other artists work in my home that sold very well! I never even took a single dollar or cut from this, that is not why I did it. I did it because I believed in these individuals and wanted my clients who I love so much to experience more than just my work. I provide this backstory so you can get a sense of whom I am. It is not to say I am some kind of saint, because god knows I am a hot-headed mess most days who makes a lot of mistakes. It is to show you that my true essence, the depths of my being is to lift and support the people of this world I believe in. It is who I am and who I have always been, and if I die tomorrow the people who know me and would speak at my funeral would absolutely say this about me in the first 3 sentences. Can you feel my passion about this? Good because shit is about to get real!
I am an authentic creator. I will starve before I put out something I don’t believe in just to make money. No shade to those who do what they have to do to support your family as you can still be authentic and create when you just don’t want to because you know you need to pay those bills. It is a privilege in itself to be able to do what I do that some don’t have and I want to acknowledge that. It is when you actively steal another person’s work, whether it is the words in their post to downright plagiarism that I have an issue. You know what I am talking about right? It is the infographics post that comes out one day after a smaller account already did it, and you follow both accounts yet the larger account gets the traction; it is the post where someone copy and pasted your words, but used a thesaurus yet you know it’s your work; lastly it is the actual straight up plagiarism that when you call out you get judged for your response, called out for not supporting other woman and gaslight. Can you guess where I am going with this?
We are in a 5-year numerological speaking, so what does this mean? It means this is a hierophant year, the year of the teacher. The year I knew new teachers would emerge to claim their throne and stand in their power. Needless to say I was excited. I love seeing people dive deep into their personal truth. People standing in their power, communicating what their values are and sending out silent signals that they are ready to help those who resonate with them and their work and what they stand for. Y’all I am here for it! So what is the downside of a 5-year? I hate to be that person who quotes the bible, but “beware of false prophets!” The downside of a 5-year is copycats and fake leaders who do more harm than good. Think cult leaders, and white spiritualists who steal from black, indigenous & people of colour and claim it to be their original ideas. Anyone authentic beware, you WILL be copied this year. Do you know how many copycat Instagram profiles I have seen this year of authentic creators whom I follow and respect in the first 3 months of this year? Too many!
People not doing anti-racism work and raised in privilege will show up to steal your ideas, then cry and tell you you’re not sharing when you have so much. I almost died to be who I am today; survived poverty, multiple suicide attempts, addiction that actually took my life (my first overdose and suicide attempt stopped my heart), gave up any kind of assets I had just to try my luck at my passion. I have created my business deeply from my struggle and it is a part of my identity, so when you steal from me you are actually stealing a piece of my soul, my journey, and the life I almost lost to get here. People who come from a blessed life rarely think it’s a big deal because they didn’t lose much to get to where they are today. I am not at all implying everyone doesn’t live with struggle, or doesn’t have their own battles they fought, but living without beds for everyone, or hoping this time you steal food won’t be the time you get caught and end up in jail is a very different kind of struggle. When you almost died just to do what you love you know what it is to see your work, your energetic blood, sweat and tears to be copy and pasted on someone else page that you have always supported, loved and tried to push to be the best they can be, not to take that as a sign of my kindness to exploit. So yes, my reaction is harsh, I am mad, I cried for 3 days because I thought we were friends only to be unfollowed by people who followed us both because my strong reaction outweighed the act of what was done. How fucked up is that? A friend stole my work, but this isn’t the first time my work has been stolen, it is just the time that made me stand up and scream “ENOUGH!” The worst part of all of this is, I can almost forgive the plagiarism, over what happened next. The honest conversation, her apology and promise to stop was immediately followed by memes about people who aren’t happy for you or don’t want you to succeed are just not happy for themselves, and posts filled with passive aggressive subtext about how she was the victim. This led to some unfollowing me. It also led to an amazing amount of supporters who saw through the bullshit (I love you – you know who you are). This is someone who I have supported form the very beginning, sold her products out of my home, and to this day sit here and wish she would just see how fucking talented she and believe in herself so we can all stop suffering for her lack of self worth.
That’s the saddest part of all of this; truthfully the people who steal usually have so much authentic talent, but no self worth so they would rather “borrow” what has already been proven to be successful so that should it fail the emotion attached to something that wasn’t initially yours doesn’t really affect you. It also says a lot about what you think of yourself. People who show true talent and opt to steal have zero self worth and truthfully as much as I can have empathy for that these are the people who usually present as outwardly cocky and arrogant and post empowerment memes that fall flat or speak directly to the same type of person who outwardly presents as confident but underneath have no self worth and feels only moments of vapid empowerment in external validation. When you share memes of people who I feel are fake and hiding I can feel how much you resonate not with that meme but with that person, and it makes me kind of sad. Then again I have been that person, all we can do is try to look deeper than we did the day before and hope we have the resilience to find out who we really are. Some never do…
I will never stop supporting those I believe in, because changing that would be changing who I am, but I will no longer be afraid to defend what is mine. If you decide to plagiarize, copy, or copy and paste my work in any way there will be legal repercussions. This is my intellectual property, but it is also my life. I did not work this hard just to have someone use their love and light bypassing to tell me I am not a supporter of woman or don’t want to see them succeed and turn it around on me that my reaction is the problem not the action. Steal from me and guess what? I can react anyway I like!
