Becoming a Spiritual Teacher: Ethics, Leadership & Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Artwork for podcast Spirit Sherpa ~ Spiritual Growth for Spiritual Entrepreneurs

Episode 281 • 28th November 2022 • Spirit Sherpa ~ Spiritual Growth for Spiritual Entrepreneurs • Kelle Sparta | Spiritual Coach and Business Coach

Hey, y'all. I'm Jules. Welcome back to another episode of Spirit Sherpa, the show that helps and encourages you on your journey to unlock your magic mojo. With me, as always, is the spirit doctor, Kelle Sparta. Hello, Kelle. Hello, Jules. I'm in my low voice. Yes. How are you today? Well, I'm in my low voice- I heard it's hot

because my, my housekeepers come through, and she used the oil to clean the, the mold off of the, uh, the cabinets. And now all of my, all of my sinuses are draining down into my throat and lowering my voice. Hey. Yeah. So I'm a bit- So you have that sexy telephone operator voice ... that sexy telephone op- So funny story.

Years ago, when I was in college, I worked at an accountancy firm called Spurgeon and Martin, or S&M for those of us on the inside. And- Ba-dum-sh ... ba-dum-bum. Yes. And, uh, they fired or let go, or the assistant, the, the front desk receptionist quit, and they just were taking their sweet time about finding another one, and they kept dragging me.

I was working in the payroll department, and they kept dragging me out of the payroll department in the middle of payroll and year-end and quarter-end to answer the damn phone. And so the more irritated I got, the more sultry my voice became. And one of the other payroll clerks worked with, who worked with me was an aspiring anime artist, and he gave me, which I swear to God I'm so sad I can't find this, it's disappeared somewhere.

But, uh, he gave me a sticky note that had me in full dominatrix outfit saying, "S&M whips and chains department, how may I help you?"

I'd be like, "Spurgeon and Martin, how may I help you?" That is awesome. You could ga- you could gauge my frustration level by how sexy my voice was. So how long did it take 'em t- to get a, to get another front desk person? It took a while, but, you know, they got a few comments about how sultry my voice was before that happened.

And I'm like, "Well, I'm irritated because I'm supposed to be doing this job, and you've got me doing this other job and that job at the same time, and they're interrupting my process. So you can either get me irritated, or you can have that voice. Choose. Or hire somebody for the damn job." They're like- That is phenomenal.

Yeah. All right. That is great. I love that story. Yeah. Um, let's see. So today we are talking about becoming a spiritual teacher. Yes. Now, is that in the low, sultry voice? Generally not. Okay. Well, you know, I'll- Generally not. Yeah. I mean, the low, sultry voice- It could depend on the subject sex teacher are generally not correlated.

Although, if you are a tantra instructor, it could be. Yes. There you go. There you go. Yeah. Or, you know, doing, doing yoni egg work or, you know, any of that stuff. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Or sometimes maybe in a sound healing, depending on what you're doing. Yes. Because you have hit some low notes. Oh, yes. It like, I'm like, "What?"

Yes. Yes, I hit those notes. Yeah, you've hit serious- seriously low notes. Yes. Um, so what is... Now, when you're talking about becoming a spiritual teacher, to me, that covers a lot of ground, so I, uh... What's your definition? So my definition of a spiritual teacher is anyone who is teaching in the spiritual realm, and the, the primary work that they're doing is education-based, right?

Not to say that, that you're not doing other things 'cause, I mean, I do sound healings and healing work and energy scans and stuff like that. So, you know, I mean, all of that, psychic work, blah, blah, blah, right? But what you're selling is spiritual education, right? So you are primarily a teacher in the spiritual community, and the spiritual community is a broad swath of stuff, right?

Uh, but I'm going to talk a- a- about it from a generally spirituality not religion-based aspect. And so the spirituality could be, as we said before, anything from a tantra instructor to somebody doing the type of stuff that I do to somebody who's doing... Mindset coaching is also a form of spiritual teacherness, right?

So it's, it's a broad swath. But there are a lot of things that are really common across those, those, uh, genres, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. So if you are not someone who is trying to be a spiritual teacher, you're welcome to stick around. You might learn some stuff about the people that you might wanna think about working with.

Um- That's what I was gonna- Yeah, there- I was gonna wonder if- Yeah ... you were gonna cover like, here's what a teacher should be d- not should be doing, but the knowledge kind of thing, um, versus a wannabe, couldbe, but not actually there. You know, or they have some other agenda. I wanna be clear that I'm talking about a teacher and not a charismatic leader as well.

So a charismatic leader is someone who brings people to them through the force of their personality. It's a cult of personality, right? And I say cult on purpose because charismatic leaders typically form cults. And so if you are curious, you know, there's a whole shebang. If you, if you look up the definition, the clinical definition of a cult, that is actually very educational.

And if you're stepping into the spiritual world, knowing what the definition is, is useful because, you know, there are some places that are... You know, there are some people doing programs out there that, that do have more cultish aspects than others. And, you know, so... And, and then there are other com- other places that get called cults that aren't.

Right? So for instance, the Human Awareness Institute, there's a lot of stuff online saying, "Oh, it's a cult." It's not. There's no charismatic leader. You cannot have a cult without a charismatic leader. It's by definition not a cult, right? You, you, you know, you're free to come and go. There's no, you know, uh, attempts to try and control you in your physicality or in your finances or anything like that.

There's, th- there's a lot of things that require it to be a cult, and it's nothing in, in alignment with that. But they get called a cult because everybody loves it, right? So they, they, because it's that sort of sense of, there's a, a s- such a strong sense of community that people on the outside feel like it might be a cult, but it's...

Right? Because it's such a strong sense of community. So, you know, these are the things that you have to understand when you're looking at this stuff because yeah, sense of community, great, fantastic, wonderful, right? But doesn't make it a cult, right? So, and you don't wanna be a cult leader. Let me be clear.

If you're thinking about going out and doing this shit, you do not want... Well, unless you are a, a malignant narcissist, because that's usually what cult leaders are. If you're a malignant narcissist, then you're gonna wanna be a cult leader, right? But you know, you're probably not on this, you know, listening to this podcast because, you know, that is not what malignant narcissists do.

So, but yes. So the, the, the key here is we're not talking about that. So what we are talking about is a healthy spiritual teacher, okay? So a healthy spiritual teacher is someone who is with the intent, you know, and yes, within a business context you want clients to come back over and over again. Yes, okay, great.

But your end goal when they finish with you should be that they don't need you anymore. So, so you're not making this lifetime students kind of thing. Okay. Now, could they come back for the occasional odd retreat or, you know, refresher program or whatever, you know, where they don't wanna feel abandoned at the end?

Yes, you could have that. But they don't need it That's number one. Number two, you need to not be basing your self-worth on how many people are working with you and how much of their power they have turned over to you. If you are utilizing the power that has been handed to you to use for other things, that is also not stewardship.

That is energy vampirism. It's a, it's a higher form of energy vampirism. I was gonna say, 'cause that, now you're feeding, right, keep on with, with vampire, right? You're feeding off of your students' energy and off of their power. Correct. So then how could they ever advance in their own- They can't. Okay. Yeah.

And when they go to take their power back, those types of teachers will attack and tell, and tear them down and tell them they're not ready and, you know, because they're using the power. So how could you, how could you do that to me? How could you leave me? You need me. You need me. Exactly. So therefore, they keep their fangs still in you going- And, and feeding off of you Yes.

Yeah All right. Bad teacher, no biscuit Bad teacher, no biscuit. Yeah. So, you know, uh, and I'm giving you the negatives first because these are the ones that I see that are most damaging to people, right? The other thing that I see is people promising mastery in a weekend Oh, I saw so much of this whenever I was looking for the Reiki stuff, and it was online, and it was free, and I was gonna become a Reiki master in three easy steps literally within four hours Please don't do those programs because as much as Reiki is training wheels for energy users, it is some serious-ass shit, and if you go from zero to Reiki master in four hours, I swear to God your life will fall apart.

It is what they call a healing crisis. Please, please do not do this Yeah. Oh, and it was a total, total bullshit course. Total bullshit course, you know? It's like, you know, you have the whole, you know, power, you know, um, uh, uh, gifts bestowed upon the Reiki student and all that, and it was like, "Oh, no, just watch these videos and poof, it'll happen."

What? In four hours, master? I d- what? Oh, God. It was so s- silly. Very silly So, uh, these are the things that we have to worry about, right? So when you are a spiritual teacher, if you want to be a healthy spiritual teacher, the first thing, the very first thing that should be primary in your intentions is the safety of your students.

And that means that you set a solid container when you do work with them, meaning you have an energetic space that you're holding for them. It means that you are fr- first and foremost working not to traumatize anyone. So it's more important not to traumatize someone than to get them to get it, okay?

'Cause sometimes people will be in resistance, and they will not be able to be functional through the, the work, and if you push them, they will re-traumatize themselves. And so you need to be more attached to their safety than to them getting through the process because- You know, this, this happens with spiritual teachers when they're in their beginning stages.

They're like, "Oh, well, you know, I've gotta get them to get it because that's how I establish my value." Your value cannot be based on your students getting it, or else you will not keep them safe. You will push them when they shouldn't be pushed, okay? So that's, that's number one. First and foremost, safety of your students needs to be the primary concern.

Even if it means that you look like you don't know what the hell you're doing, if they're safe, you did your job, okay? Number two, the second thing is you have to deliver value, okay? And I wanna ... And well, okay, so my guides are coming in with this one, which means that this one's really important for you guys who are list- who are listening right now.

Don't steal other people's shit. Don't take somebody else's stuff and pass it off as your own. You may use other people's stuff, but always credit the person who put it together. If, if I ever do something that is somebody else's, I promise you it is not because I tried to steal it. It is because I forgot that that's where I got it from, okay?

And if somebody comes up to me and says, "That's so and so's," I will immediately start crediting them Okay? This is not a competition as to who came up with the best and brightest thing first. You know, this is acknowledging your elders and where you got stuff from, and that does not make you look like you don't know what you're doing.

It makes you look like you honor the people who came before you. Yeah, it's pay- paying respect. Yeah. And, and even if everything you're doing is somebody else's and you've cobbled it together, as long as it works, nobody gives a shit, right? If it works, it's okay, but credit people where the credit is due because otherwise you're stealing their stuff, and that energy will come into your business, and it will poison the well of your business.

And basically, aren't you kinda being a hypocrite too? Because you're being a charlatan. You're presenting this as yours when it's really not. Watch your, watch yourself on that thing, okay? I feel like this is a... I feel like we're back in ep- in the first season, where we're like spiritual don'ts, right? Yeah.

How not to blow yourself up. How not to blow yourself up. This is how not to fuck up as a spiritual teacher, right? Yes. Yes. I really do feel like we're in here. Yeah. So the oth- the other thing is to recognize that whether somebody is in love with you or whether they hate you, it doesn't matter because, you know, the first person to say something to someone is an asshole, because they've challenged their worldview, and they don't wanna be challenged.

The 10th person to say it to you is, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard that for- before, whatever," right? And the 20th person to say it to them is, "Oh my God, you're a miracle worker. That's amazing," because they're finally ready to hear it, right? Some days you get to be the asshole, some days you get to be the yeah, yeah, yeah, and some days you get to be the, the miracle worker.

None of it has anything to do with you. Let it go. Let the ego step aside. Yeah. It's got nothing to do with you. You just happen to be the one who said it at, you know, whatever num- number time it was, right? So, the, it's another big one. So- And e- and everyone who's married understands this concept because you know as well as I do whenever your spouse tells you something or you tell your spouse something, it's because it's coming from you, they go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever."

Have someone else outside tell them the exact flipping thing, and all of a sudden, "You know, they had this wonderful idea, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." I'm like, "Uh, yeah, I kinda told you that two months ago. Mm." And they go, "Really? I, I don't think you said it like that." No, actually, I did. I, I had a roommate years ago who did exactly that, and I just stared at her.

I didn't say a word. I just stared at her. And I w- and, and she's like, "But, but it was amazing." And I'm like, just staring at her. And she's like, "I know you said it, but I couldn't hear it from you." I'm like, "Fair enough, so long as you acknowledge that it's what I said. Like, I don't, I don't need you to have heard it from me.

It's okay, but goddammit, I said it." You know, we could've saved ours- each other a whole lot of grief and heartaches. Yes. Oh my God. Yeah. So yeah. It's, it's, it's like that a lot. So all right. So as a spiritual teacher, right? So the other thing as a spiritual teacher is you're gonna be standing in front of a lot of, lot of rooms.

You're gonna be standing in front of a lot of people. You need to learn how to manage your energy. Because if you are doing an empath thing and you're putting everybody inside your energy field to read them and, and do this, you're gonna be exhausted at the end of all your presentations. You need to learn how to manage your energy differently.

You need to learn how to read the room without having everybody inside your energy field so that you can come off stage being energized to engage with the people in front of you instead of, like, feeling like you're gonna fall flat on your face. So that's another huge factor that you need to pay attention to, is shifting the way that you hold your energy in an audience.

And that also includes learning how to speak well. So learning how to remove the ums from your language, which a friend of mine used to say, "Clutch engaged. Um, clutch engaged." Right? And so you have to learn how to pull that out of your, your language. What you have to recognize is every time you say the word um, it's you going I don't know what I'm gonna say next.

And so instead, just be silent for a second. Silence is powerful. Use the silence. If you ever walk on stage and don't say a word when you come out on stage, and just stay silent, you're gonna watch an, a room get very quiet and then very uncomfortable, because people are not okay with silence. But you will have them...

You will have all of their attention, right? So use it well. And this is the other piece, right? Is that if you're not doing your work, you have no right to be standing on stage, because you are not Walking the talk Okay. Can, uh, can you go into that one a little bit more? If you are someone who's like, "Oh, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm there.

I'm enlightened. It's all good. I, I know it all," that, by the way, is an ego statement. Yeah, isn't that quite opposite of spiritual teacher? That is the opposite, yes. But if you're sitting there saying, "I know it. I'm- I've mastered it. I'm good. I don't need to do any more. I'm just gonna teach this," I promise you that will come back and bite you in the ass.

I promise you. Or that my way is the best, quote-unquote. I, I don't know if there's, like, a competition, like, "Well," I'm just gonna make this up, "here's how we read tarot, and, but my method is the best way to read tarot. Hers, it's okay, but it's old school. This is, my way is the best." And I'm totally making that up 'cause I don't know what I'm doing, but just using that as an example.

So, uh, I'll, I'll, I'll tweak that slightly and say, "Don't badmouth other teachers." If you badmouth other teachers, it only reflects badly on you, okay? So you know, it, it's one thing to say, "This is what I like about this. This is what I don't like about this." That's okay. You can say, "This is..." You know, like, "This is what I like about," you know, like Landmark, right?

I love that Landmark is all about integrity, and it's got a lot of s- uh, technology for taking your power and whatever else. What I don't like about Landmark is, is there's not a lot of heart in it. In fact, there's no heart in it, right? It's not... It's all head-based. It's not heart-based. And so I, I really, for me, it's not a good fit because I really wanna balance with the heart.

That's not badmouthing. That's saying, "This is what works. This is what doesn't work for me." And if you like a really head-based approach, Landmark is awesome. If you like a head-based approach with a whole lot of structure to it, and that really floats your boat, and that's for you because you're an engineer brain, and that's how it works, fantastic.

Go, go do some Landmark work, right? But if you're somebody who really likes heart-based work, it's probably not a good fit. And we're all, we're all different individuals, so there's variety. Exactly. So that's not badmouthing. That's giving an honest, uh, assessment of what, what is a strength and a weakness of something you've been through, right?

So it... That's different than saying, "Ugh, this person sucks." And it may be true that they suck. Let me be clear, okay? It, it may be true, okay? But you don't say it, okay? You don't say it. If somebody's thinking about going doing the work with that person, what you say is, "I might choose somebody else. I think this other thing over here might be better.

Not sure that's a fit for you." And that's not saying they suck, that's saying, "I'm not sure it's a fit for you." Because the person who sucks in your definition may be fantastic for someone else. And even if they're actively doing damage to people, some people need to be damaged in order to get better. Ooh, that's a bad...

That's... Okay, now you just flipped my wig on that one. But I, I have talked to many a person who has been through a program that damaged them, who came out the other side saying, "I'm so grateful I did that because I really needed to see it in my face that hard before I was gonna get it." You know, I'm giving you these assessments because this is my belief in what a good spiritual teacher is, and this is where I have found the most healthy, uh, evolution for myself is in environments where they would he- were held like this.

And I've also gotten damaged by things along the way, and that was part of my journey, right? It was... You know, it got me there, right? So, and, and everybody else I know has gotten damaged along the way, and that's part of it, right? It's just, you know, sometimes you... Spirit puts you where you need to get your ass kicked because you're in so much resistance, you're not gonna listen, right?

And okay. So and if you want to be a good spiritual teacher, if you wanna be a healthy spiritual teacher, these are the things to aspire to, right? That's what I'm saying. And give yourself... Be kind to yourself if you screw up, because it probably was Spirit talking through you and giving the person what they needed.

Yep. 'Cause Spirit's like, "Okay, you're being difficult. You're being h- resistant and all that, so..." And be careful whenever you tell universe, like I have in the past, and I went, "Oh, I won't do that again." Okay, if I'm just being stubborn, just hit me upside the head, because they hit hard. They do. Three by four to the forehead, man.

Just whack. Dude, I'm like- Dude ... "Okay, I did not miss that one. I won't miss it again." Yeah. Let's, let's not repeat that. Yes. Oh my God. Yeah. So, you know, there's a lot, right? And then there's other things, like learn to master the skills of working with a group on Zoom, because you're almost guaranteed in this day and age to be doing it.

So I've seen some really bad Zoom facilitation. I mean, like horrifyingly bad Zoom facilitation. Okay? So let me, let me start with never play a video of yourself when you are live on a Zoom call. Nobody came on the Zoom call to listen to you on a video. They came on the Zoom call to listen to you. Say the damn thing over again.

Okay? Let's start with that. You can't make this up. Okay, okay. So, so how, how not to blow yourself up on Zoom. This is awesome. Okay, what, what's the next one? So make sure that you have a good microphone and that you are not, like, so quiet that no one can hear you. Because when other people talk, they're going to get blasted, the sound's gonna get blasted.

Know how to use your microphone and know how to make your microphone louder and softer, and get somebody else on the call beforehand to test the mic levels if you're, if you've got a new setup, right? Because, damn, nothing's worse than having multiple people at different volume levels and you're just trying to, like, volume up, volume down, volume up, volume down.

I'm s- pulling your earbuds out and throwing them across the room 'cause they've just blasted your ears out, you know? Yeah. And then it becomes about the pain of the experience of the, the, the platform, not about what you're teaching. Not about learning, 'cause everybody forgot that because you just made a idiot out of yourself on Zoom.

Don't do the things that people do on large calls on small calls. So, like, if you've got three people in the room or five people in the room, don't say, "Type one into the chat if you think this." That is a large group process, not a small group process, and it's, it's offensive to the people who are sitting there who could simply just say, "Oh yeah, I've, I've had that experience," in a small group environment, okay?

It is counterproductive. It is clunk- clunky. We do it in a large group environment because it's necessary, but you do not wanna put anything between you and interactivity in a small group environment, okay? And that's, that's one of the big things, is you have to recognize that the size of the group makes a difference as to how you facilitate.

There's a lot more than this. I mean, I literally, I was gonna teach a... I was gonna do a workshop in this at one point, and I was gonna do a certification actually, and I have an eight-page outline on just how to do Zoom calls. So when I say there's a lot, there's a lot. A lot. Yes. Be mindful of your background.

Yes. That wasn't even in there. I should add that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and then I can't make it up. I was on one, and apparently the person forgot that they just dressed business attire from the waist up, and literally had PJs on waist down, and literally got up- At least they had something on. Yeah, true that.

True that. True that. It c- yeah, yeah, it has been worse. Could be worse. And got up to go do something. I'm like, ooh, they got Smurfs on, boxers on. All right. Cool. Or the lady, or the lady... This was on the news. I forgot where it happened, but she forgot she was on Zoom and people could see her as she was in a school board meeting with a bottle of vodka.

No. They... She was taking shots. Or the person who forgets to turn their video off when they go to the bathroom. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. You can't, you can't make this up. All of these things. All of these things All the things, yes. So yeah, when, when I say to you that learning the platform, I know as a spiritual teacher there's a resistance All my spiritual peeps, they're like, "I hate technology."

I understand, but technology is necessary. We need to befriend it, and you need to, to understand how it works in order to do the work with it, right? So- Or if not, hire someone who does ... or, yeah, have somebody come on board who can run the technology for you if you're not good at it. I don't multitask well, so I hate chat rooms.

I hate the chat on the side because I'm fully present with the person in front of me, and the chat is basically in- invisible to me. And so if something important comes through chat, somebody has to tell me because I got nothing. Like, and just know that about yourself. Say, you know, tell people, "Hey, I'm not good at catching chat.

If you want something answered that you put in chat and I didn't pick it up, you need to say it out loud. It's not that I'm ignoring you. It's that I missed it." So yeah, know your limitations. In your experience, uh, I mean, you've been doing this many moons, um, and, and being a, a, a shaman and, and a teacher many moons.

What's like a... Is there a general rule when you, said person has enough experience to then start teaching if they're interested in that? Yeah, it's a great question. Uh, there are two times that we teach. We teach at stage three when we are teaching to prove to ourselves that we know something, and that's where the beginner, most of your binner- beginner classes are taught from that space.

Perfectly fine place to teach from, uh, but there's always, within that context, a chance that you're gonna be caught flat-footed, and you're gonna be like, "I don't know the answer." Right? It... And, and- Right ... I have been in that po- that position before, and I'm like, "I don't know the answer yet, but I will find out, and I'll follow up with you after class."

Yeah, so that's, that's one answer, and it's a great answer. Second answer is ask the room. Say, "Great an- great question. Does anyone know the answer?" Right? And sometimes somebody will, and then you don't have to... And e- even if they don't, the silence and, and the waiting for somebody to answer gives you time to think, and you may actually find that you do know the answer if you have a few minutes to think, right?

So, uh, that's always a good one, and, uh, I like to... Sometimes i- depending on the question, I may throw it back to the questioner, and I may ask them... Well, I, if they ask a question and there's any ambiguity in the question, I can say, "Can you define... C- can you tell me more about what you're asking?" Because sometimes people ask something and you're like, "I don't fucking know.

What is that? I don't know," you know? And, and then you ask for more information, and you find out that what they were asking was not at all what you thought they were asking. And then you're like, "Oh, okay, so you're asking this. Okay." I needed to understand it better in order to answer it, right? So sometimes that's the case.

Sometimes if they're asking a question about themselves, sometimes throwing it back, although I don't do this very often because it's really annoying, but on rare occasion, when you know somebody's asking a question that they already know the answer to and they're just not willing to accept that they know the answer, then throwing it back to them and, and making them own that answer is valid, valuable to them, right?

And so it's like, "Okay, you just asked me a ques- you just asked me to tell you how you feel. How about you answer that question?" 'Cause that- that's part of their, their journey, and you then now helping them and, and with their resistance. Right. So that's, that's a moment where you can throw it back to them because you're like, "I don't know how you feel.

How do you feel," right? "And I, I probably do know how you feel 'cause I'm a freaking empath and I don't have a choice, but, you know, you should know how you feel because it's your feelings. So how about you talk about them," right? This is the appropriate thing. So these are, you know, these are the moments where you do that.

So, so stage three, you're gonna be more concerned about these things, right? The, the what if I don't know everything. I gotta tell you, you don't know everything. I don't know everything, and I've been doing this for 48 years. I don't know everything, okay? Nobody knows everything. It's okay. You have carte blanche permission.

I have just, you know, given you the in nomine Patris et Spiritus Sancti. You know, you are officially allowed to not know everything and, and to be like, "Yeah, I got nothing." You know? The longer I am in this, the more I say, "Yeah, I got nothing. I don't know." You know? 'Cause people ask me shit I've never heard of, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. Even with you, you actually s- I think it's a couple podcasts ago, or maybe by the time y'all hear this, kids, it may have been a few back. But, um, where- They're recording out of order, so. Yeah, where someone emailed you on a topic that literally you had never heard of before, and you're like, "I've never...

Literally, straight up, I have never heard of this before. Let me go research it" So and now, by the way, I'm thinking about that, that particular thing, the, the, uh, I don't know, whatever it's, it's a mag- it's a magician's, uh, tome of how to do magic on this specific kind of magic. I don't remember what it was called now.

But, um, I'm actually looking at possibly doing a series on that where I'm gonna, like, break it down step by step as to what the magic is and translating it into modern-day English because it's really old English. Wherefore art thou Magickus? Yeah. Yeah. So if that sounds interesting to you and you're interested, then you should definitely go get on the mailing list because that's how you're gonna find out about it.

I'm not gonna promote it on the podcast. I'm not gonna, like, do a whole shebang about it. I'm just gonna put an email out saying, "Okay, we're doing this. If you wanna do it, you know, here, you can sign up. It's 20 bucks a class." So, you know, that's how we're gonna do it. I have no idea how long it's gonna take because it's gonna be however long it takes me to translate the different passages.

So yeah. Yeah. It's a long, it's a long tome. Several... It's like, it's over 100 pages, so. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it may take a while. And see, and that's interesting too from, from my perspective, uh, with you being a spiritual teacher, that even as a spiritual teacher, again, we- you're not expected to know everything, although, you know, right?

But you never stop learning yourself. Yes. I am constantly... I, I love when people ask me questions 'cause it gives me avenues to go down. The, the thing that, that always messes with people's brains is they're like, "Have you heard of so and so?" And I'm like, "No, haven't heard of them." If they've been on the scene in the last 10 years, I probably haven't heard of them because I've been doing my own work, and I've been, you know, evolving my own practice and, and I haven't been looking at other people's stuff.

'Cause there's a lot of beginners out there, and I don't... That's not where I'm at, right? And they're like, "Oh, but you just quoted them." And I'm like, "No. They quoted the same source material that I quoted. I didn't quote them." Right? Because, you know, I didn't get it myself. They didn't get it themselves. But I, you know, we both studied the same stuff way back when.

Yeah. So yeah. Um, but yeah, that's, that's the other piece, is that you'll get that told to you. And so the, so stage three, teachers, is where you're teaching to prove to yourself and others that you know, right? And then stage five is where you're on the other side. You've retreated to do your own work.

You've, you know, gone out and, you know, thrown your ass to the wind and trusted the universe and let it take care of you, and you've come into a relationship with your guides and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you come back to teaching, not because you're trying to prove to yourself, but because, generally because students keep bugging you.

Generally, people come back in at stage five to teaching because students are like, "Teach me. Teach me. Teach me. Teach me." And you say, "No, no, no, no, no, no. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. I'm doing my own work. Fu- fuck off." And then, you know, after 8 or 10 or 12 people in the course of two or three months are like, "Teach me," you're like, "Fine."

And you put them all in a room, and you're just like, "What do you wanna learn?" You know? It just, it is like, fuck it. I don't know. Right. I wanna learn everything. Right. Exactly. Or, you know, you get somebody who says, like they said to me, "I wanna learn how to cast magic missile," which is, you know, a spell in D&D.

I'm like, "This is not D&D. Get over it." I wanted to do fireballs, and you told me no when I started. Yeah. I'm like, "But they're so cool." Yeah. And you're like, "Yeah, no, not so much." Not so much. You know, by the time you can cast a fireball, you won't want to. So yeah. Yeah, and I so did not believe you. But I do now.

He didn't either. I told him the same thing, and he didn't believe me either. So yeah, it's like that. So yeah, so y- you know, this is the thing, is that y- typically at stage five, you're coming back w- at when people are dragging you back into teaching. And then you just hang out and stay because that's just what you do, 'cause people keep coming and you're just like, "Yeah, okay, whatever."

These are the, the stages that I've seen teachers in, and, you know, yes, they evolve past that, but those are the, those are the two primary places that you see them, right? Um, and so I'll say stage three and stage five and above is kind- the two categories, right? So when you're teaching in stage three, it's a really tough place to be.

It is, because you're constantly fighting with the not good enoughs and the imposter syndrome and the, you know, do I know enough? And all while you're trying to hold space for others and share this amazing, magical experience that you have discovered yourself and, and, and you're trying to just... You, you...

It's, it's really an extension of stage two, which is the proof and proselytizing stage, right? So if you, if you don't recognize these stages, I did an entire podcast on this. Uh, it was back in the first year of the podcast, so it's way back, but it's the stages of evolution. If you wanna go find it, you can look it up, and I did a whole podcast on it.

But it's an extension of the proof and proselytizing stage, which is, "Holy shit, this stuff works. I must tell everyone I know and drag them out to classes with me so that they don't think I'm crazy." Right? Uh, it's, it's an extension of that. You're just doing it as a teacher this time instead of as a, "Hey, come to this class with me as a student", right?

And so, you know, it's, it's helpful to have support when you're doing that level of... when you're teaching at that level. And, uh, you know, uh, I see a lot of stage three teachers out there who are doing big business. You know, they're doing a lot of beginners classes. They're usually doing the, you know, $199 classes things, and they're doing big business, and yet they still feel like they don't have all the skills that they need.

And so that's my liminality program, the one-on-one coaching that I do with people is perfect. If that's you, you're out there doing big business, but you are still needing to develop your own skills, but you can't go to classes where other, you m- where you might run into your students and look vulnerable in front of them, ah, you know?

Yeah, don't wanna do that. Yeah. That's, that, uh, trust me, I remember. So, uh, you know, this is a great way to do that. It's one-on-one coaching. You get half an hour a week. You get Voxer access. You are, uh, you know, you're getting a customized, uh, evolution process for yourself. I custom-design a learning pro- platform for you, learning process for you, and we do it all based off of the, uh, spiritual diagnostic intake that we do at the beginning and the goals that you say that you wanna do.

And it's a combination, um, of both personal and business coaching. So it is kick-ass. Yeah. And you meet them exactly where they are. Exactly where they are, yeah. So if that sounds like you, reach out, set up a discovery call. Uh, you know, send in a note on the website if you want. That'll work, too. Uh, and we will get you set up to have a conversation about it.

That's gonna help progress them on their individual journey to be an even better spiritual teacher. Yes. So it will, it will help you in your personal growth work, it will help you in your business growth work, and it will give you a whole host of, uh, techniques and tools to use with your clients moving forward.

Excellent. All three. The universe agreed- So- ... if you heard the bang in the background. Yes, I did. I have no idea what that was, but the universe agreed. But the universe agreed. The universe said, "Yeah, yes." Bang. Yes. Ka-bang. Yeah. Go bang. So for the Kelleism, I'm gonna twist you up a little bit today. Okay. What is the best lesson that you have learned being a spiritual teacher?

Pull yourself off the pedestal every freaking chance you get. Remind people that you are not perfect. Remind people that you stood where they stood not that long ago, and teach the people who are about five years behind you. That is, that is your market, people who are five years behind you. And remind them, because if you don't pull yourself off the pedestal, they will believe that you are perfect and that you could get there, but they couldn't.

Very good point. Very good point. That is excellent. Well, that's all that we have for this week, folks. Tune in next time when Kelle adds another chapter into your guide to energy, magic, and the spirit world. I'm Jules, here with Kelle Sparta, and you have been listening to Spirit Sherpa. So long, everyone.

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