Investing in Your Mystical Future
A Few Practical Ways to Move Ourselves and the Collective Forward
Notes: I’ve been taking a break from writing/publishing for the past few months which has allowed me the space for some new things to emerge, and I’ll be sharing with greater frequency soon. Also, I use the word “mystical” quite a bit in this piece. Click here if a primer on that word might be helpful.
We All Need Guides
Mysticism is funny, in that it’s hidden just beyond a narrow gate that most folks never find. A gate that only appeared to me after a lifetime of searching, before suddenly inviting me in. But once discovered, it often opens up into a vast, almost never ending landscape that can span many traditions across millenia and geography.
It could take lifetimes to master any single mystical tradition, and if you’re like me and many of my friends, you may want to gain at least a broad understanding of multiple traditions, which can be truly overwhelming.
There are the mystical versions of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, along with the often default-mystical traditions of the Sufis and the teachings of India; not to forget the shamanic, tracing back before recorded time, as well as the wealth of material that’s emerged in the last 150 years via channelled, New Age, and maybe even extra terrestrial sources.
Whether you resonate with one or two of these traditions, or with slices of several of them, it can be helpful to have someone to keep you grounded. A wise guide to keep things in check. In fact it’s actually critical to have one or more people like this in our lives, lest we become lost in the forests of spirituality and unable to use it to help anyone other than ourselves. And for all the good within the many emerging spiritual podcasts, retreats, shows, books, etc. there’s also plenty of junk.
What makes this extra difficult is there are many resources out there that are a jumble of good and bad information. Too many documentaries that mingle truth with nonsense.
Discernment is not only critical, it can also be hard to come by.
When the Student is Ready…
For the first year of my mystical journey I was desperate to find a guide or teacher. A true mystic who could do mystical things, and maybe help me learn to do the same.
The first one who showed up was amazing. She had me in tears within 45 seconds of our first meeting. She saw me in a way that no one had before.
That’s become my criteria I suppose. The real mystics can see you in ways that almost no one else can. Depending on how you relate to the world this can be wonderful or terrifying.
Over the last year I’ve been blessed with a number of mystical individuals entering my life. I work with one primary guide, who I may share more about at some point, and then there are a few others who I work with as needed for specific purposes.
Our family has a monthly mystical budget that we allocate towards working with these individuals. It’s an investment; the best money we spend, and our lives have been transformed.
Anam Cara
One of these mystics is River Kenna.
I first became aware of River about 18 months ago as part of Tom Morgan’s Accelerating Wisdom series. To be honest, River intimidated the heck out of me for a while for reasons I still can’t really articulate. I knew almost instantly that I could learn a lot from him, but it took me over six months to work up the courage to take action.1
In hindsight it was probably my ego that knew it wouldn’t be able to b.s. it’s way through a session with River. And at the same time my soul knew this was exactly what I needed.
I would describe River as more or less a wandering mystic. In the year or so that I’ve known him he’s been in more places than I can recall. He has a deep knowledge and wisdom across many mystical traditions and can hang with any subject matter that arises. He’s also a relatively young guy. We’re about 18 years apart and when I was his age he was in high school, and when I was in high school he wasn’t even born yet; and I find this not only hilarious but also part of my deep respect for him.
If I had to guess, he’s a very old soul. (My label, not his.)
And so 12 months into working with River I can say I love him very much. First, because he’s become my friend. But also because he’s quite unlike anyone I’ve ever known.
Simply by being in his presence he serves as a sort of Anam Cara (again my label, not his) for me. A spiritual friend, helping to pressure test my beliefs and opinions, keeping me grounded. Beliefs and opinions not only about mystical things, but also about life itself; meaning the ways in which I live. How I show up in daily life for my family, for my friends, and for my work. He’s unafraid to challenge and push back.
River spends a lot of time with the Eastern traditions, which to date haven’t particularly called to me, but which is part of the reason why he’s been so helpful. I want to ensure my mystical views and understanding are as balanced across time and space as possible.
(Even typing this I’m smiling because I can imagine hearing River perhaps telling me there’s occasional wisdom in being unbalanced, of going super deep into a single tradition.)
Not that I agree with him on everything. I don’t agree with anyone on everything. But I respect him tremendously. And he reminds me to be wary of relying on certainty regarding anything in my journey of spiritual exploration.
Investing In Your Mystical Future
One of my primary goals in life is to help as many people as possible experience the mystical realities that exist in our world. I want more people to encounter the magic that’s been hiding all around us.
And so I’ve realized that one way I can help is by connecting more people into the magic that River brings to the world, so here are a few ways to do that…
He writes two substacks, Inner Wilds, and In-Star, and his X/Twitter is a must-follow.
River’s thoughts will likely challenge your sentiments from time to time, which is probably a good and necessary thing. I often see him as a sort of court jester, allowed to poke fun at our most sacred beliefs, so that he can then open a path for us to go even deeper.
And for those of you who are curious and bold enough to further explore and invest in your own mystical path I recommend considering 1:1 work with River.
Maybe you’re early in the journey and you’d find some guidance helpful? Or perhaps you’re deep into your explorations and would just like someone to bounce a few ideas off of? Or someone to help you take a bunch of ideas and translate them into your everyday life through a sort of mystical integration. My pals and I even sought River’s guidance for our recent visit to two sacred sites in order to make the most of our trip.
Regardless, if you’ve been looking for a sign, or a guide, maybe this is it…
Investing In Our Mystical Future
There are many of you who read this substack who are working not only on your own spiritual development, but who also have a great desire to see a better world come into existence.
I asked the question a few months back of who do you know that’s currently excited about our future?
It’s a short list, and add in some sort of financial crisis and it gets much shorter.
My own response to that question was that the only folks I know with any real enthusiasm about the future are those who are focused on exploring higher consciousness and the mystical. I feel even more strongly about my answer today, and hence the reason I believe we should all be investing in this stuff.
I’ve worked with River a fair bit in 2025 for coaching/spiritual guidance, but I’ve also begun to invest in the broader work he’s building because 1) I trust him deeply to do it well and with deep integrity, and 2) investing in projects like his may be one of the few ways out of the collective societal nightmare we’ve created.
(Many are talking about the crisis we’re facing, but it’s exciting to find people who are taking practical actions to help us move beyond it.)
River and his friend Rosa Lewis have begun Renga, which is a fund to help support collective awakening. What I love about this is that I know River and Rosa can deploy $1000 or $10,000 outside the U.S. and likely exceed what could be done with five times that amount here in the states. These guys know how to stretch a dollar, and with maximum effect.
Their Renga fund is built on four pillars, but for now they’re focused on the first one, which is hosting more retreats to help train and expand the capabilities of emerging mystics from around the world.
Why is this important? I’ll let River’s co-collaborator Rosa explain in her own words…
Because the world needs people who can move from a deeper place of integrity in themselves and meet others from there. These retreats are an answer to that, a method of developing our capacity to be in wholehearted presence, both as people and as leaders. Each retreat is also an exploration in how we could share all this with the world more fully.
More people are getting interested in awakening and psychedelics, and there need to be trusted places where people can access some of the deepest ways of being in alignment with truth. This takes time, energy, and an enormous commitment to do well, or in a way that has a chance of scaling.
This isn’t well-paid work that fits neatly into a paradigm where you can focus on making money as a primary goal. And while we are happy to make it work financially between us, it’s a lot easier when we have support from people who see the value of what we are doing. It means we can focus more on doing the work and less on a lot of practical logistics around making the work possible.
What Rosa’s saying above is that this work is so important that she and River will fund it themselves if they have to, but it sure would be nice to have some help.
Love After Death
I had a mystical experience a few months back where I experienced death, and on the other side of it was nothing but love.
I didn’t encounter Jesus or the Buddha or any of the great Divine Avatars.
All I experienced was Love. Love in tangible form that could be seen and felt and experienced in ways beyond any normal comprehension. Love so abundant and beautiful and endless that I immediately had a new understanding of what a barren and difficult world we currently inhabit.
A love wanting to break through into the Earth in a transformative flood.
And to be clear, what I was experiencing wasn’t Death, for Death is just a veil separating us from a greater life. A life more abundant than I could’ve ever imagined.
And while I didn’t run into any of the gods this time, I did run into a few of my pals.
I saw how the work that they’re doing, work that has called them away from societal norms and safe careers, is helping more of that love break through into the world.
I saw history moving slowly like a massive glacier, with countless human lives appearing and disappearing and reappearing again at various places on the ice. Each life appearing for a moment then vanishing. Appearing again and then vanishing. Over and over, billions of times.
I saw that only love will persist. All else will vanish.
Some people are working on what the world considers big things, but these big things matter very little. Others are struggling mightily to bring new things into the world, new things that will help anchor more love in the world, and the world doesn’t care.
Some of these folks were friends who can barely make rent each month. But to see these individuals and their work from the other side was simply awe inspiring. To see energetically how their efforts and time were literally pulling more love into our world helped me clarify many things. These old souls working tirelessly and without thanks in service of Divine Love.
And River was one of those souls I saw.
“We’re just gonna feel our way through this,” he said to me in the vision, which if you know River is the most River thing ever to say.
And so my ask to anyone reading would be to consider investing in these retreats that he and Rosa are creating to help drive greater awakening and to help us bring more love into the world.
Even a few bucks goes a long way. And larger amounts such as $500 or $1000 will have a massive impact, likely beyond what we can perceive.
River has shared more than one story with me about how an investment of a few hundred dollars in an emerging mystic literally changed the trajectory of that individual’s life. It’s important to remember that many of these folks don’t inhabit the world in the ways we do. What’s easy for us might seem impossible for them; and what may seem out-of-this-world for us often comes second nature to them.
Why This Matters
Why is any of this important? Why should we invest in our spiritual development, especially in a world and a time when it often feels difficult to cover the basic expenses of life? And why should we consider investing in someone else’s spiritual development when many of us are worried about how to even take care of ourselves?
Beyond what I shared of my mystical vision above, I believe life for much of earth is entering a phase that feels a bit like “all against all.” Where every moment of every day feels like a competition for survival, real or imagined.
At work, at school, online, everywhere. Maybe even at home.
Most everyone I know is overwhelmed and exhausted by this. Even as you read this you may likely feel a deep longing for the world to be different.
Much of it is driven by economics; a sort of survival of the fittest taken to extremes, with many expecting a world of increasing scarcity ahead. Draw this out a few more years and it becomes increasingly grim. Maybe you feel it?
It’s a path to destruction.
We need love more than ever. We need the mystics more than ever. We need you, every single one of you reading this, involved and operating in your full potential, now more than ever.
How?
If you want something different, in your life, in the world, raise your hand to the Universe and say so. Say it right now, “I want something different. I choose something different.”
Whether it’s taking action to work with River or another practitioner, simply make the decision that as we move towards the New Year you’re going to prioritize your spiritual life in service of not only yourself, but also the collective.
And it doesn’t matter if it’s Renga or a local cause within your community, make the decision that you’re going to invest your time and your money into the collective good of the world. Move beyond the obligatory stuff and actually find something you care deeply about. Follow your bliss. Find something that’s fun that you care about and helps you build local community.
For nearly all of human history this was how societies not only survived, but progressed. If not you, then who? Ask yourself how you might get involved and contribute.
Resist the urge to wait for someone else to go first. People ask me regularly how they might advance in their journey along the spiritual path, and my answer is almost always the same as I gave above: raise your hand to the Universe and say you want to participate, you want something different.
Say it with me now, “I want to participate. I want something different.”
And when the Universe puts something in front of you, be ready to say “yes.”
We cannot give you proof, but the proof is waiting for you to find in your own evolution. Do not be content to listen to our words or to read the writings of the initiates and mystics and sages. Seek truth for yourselves and you will surely find the jewel, a treasure of great price.
God bless you. May you receive God’s blessing — now.
- White Eagle
Thank you for reading. This writing will always be free and the best way to provide support is to please leave a ❤️ so others will also find it.
Can I support your mystical journey? I’m working with more and more individuals as they explore their own spiritual path, regardless of background or tradition.
If you’d like to learn more about River and/or Renga you can do so here…
And I’d also like to highlight River’s collection of essays, We’re Here to Renew the Sacred.
It includes some of River’s favorite pieces, plus it’s affordable and makes for a great stocking stuffer just in time for Christmas.
Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead. I’ve missed writing, publishing, and interacting with you, and I’m excited to be doing all of that more regularly soon.
My approach is different these days. If I come across someone interesting I reach out almost immediately, but even a year ago my approach was a bit more timid.
Wonderful reading your words again, thank you.
I can’t express how deeply this moved me. Thanks for your presence, openness and commitment to make the world a better place to be in. Gracias Jeff ✨