Winter is for website updates and I am hip deep in them.

    The installation of the new member management system pulled me back to a task that was started a couple of years ago: updating the preview pages of FST.  The public pages that introduce the course.  I have to redo the registration process to incorporate the new system so I'm redoing the whole site at the same time.

   I am getting kind of tangled in the content, and I need some inspiration.  Excuse the meandering ramble but I am trying to untangle myself.

  The preview pages were first written before the course opened.  I wrote about myself because I could not write about the students; there weren't any yet, except those I had worked with directly, some of whom helped me create it. Most of the current testimonials are from them, actually.... my Tribe.

   The course came *through* me, but it is not *about* me.   It is about the experience of the students who walk the path.  It is about you, and your experience of growing a deeper connection to your own Divine Self, lesson by lesson.

   So I feel, the preview should not be about me, either. Only the teacher page should be about me. I can only write about myself; others have to write about themelves... so I am asking for that. Let me explain my intentions.

  I don't know if you noticed (- it is a discipline that has become instinct for me, but I especially noticed it when training the lineage)   I do not "sell" my work... meaning, I do not use persuasive sales techniques to try to control what someone will do or choose.  No hero trip, no promises.  Free Will is Goddess law and students must choose for themselves, from their own heart.  (There is a little bit of sales sort of stuff on the preview pages, a result of bowing to some pressure from my old biz partner's expectations.  Outdated noise being deleted and replaced with the proper attitude. )

  My attitude is simply: "here it is, this is what it is, want some?" People email me asking "should I take your tantra course?"  I tell them that is not for me to decide.  I don't want people to take the course unless it is at their own heart's urging. 

  I will sometimes tell people that I have a tantra course online, and offer the link  but there are no promises and no persuasion. Their own heart must decide, and they must decide to surrender to that... or not.

  It is a discipline, to be always giving people their power back and it has to be in full alignment to work, and it starts before people sign up!  If I used persuasion, I would get students who want to give their power away to a Guru and that is not my gig.

  I scorn the sales pitch noise I see some places, how we all must become enlightened or wear a merkaba or channel reiki to save the world bla bla bla... I honestly refuse to stoop to that. ugh. Peddling fear to sell spirituality by putting people on a hero trip pedestal may be tried and true sales method but no way will I go there.  No coercion of any type= no karmic feedback from disrespecting free will. You are all Gods of your own lives. 

  I think of it like a road sign: "Joe's diner, 5 miles ahead."  If you are hungry, it might be useful information and if you are not you probably won't notice the sign.  No promises that Joe is the best cook you ever met, or that it is better than any other diner.  If you stop by you may meet people who tell you "Joe's diner changed my life, I used to live on Kraft dinner and hot dogs" or you may decide it just doesn't smell right.


   There is also... you cannot sell, what is priceless. There is no need to try.

  When I was a hairstylist in the 80's, I had a strange friendship with a Japanese man who sold Mercedes Benz and BMW.  He had sold all kinds of stuff, and knew a lot about human behavior and mysticism. He told me, the thing about selling a Mercedes is, you just ask what colour they want. Leather seats? There is no sales pitch, don't even bother to waste time with that, you will only offend the buyer.  They are there because they want it. 


    Want it, with a hunger that made me shy as a teenager, strangers in the mall coming up and making some small talk about my clothes or my hair while trying to look intently into my eyes with a hunger of *wanting* ...  I did not know what they wanted or why people approached me like this and it made me very uncomfortable. Friends found it amusing to watch the bow wave ripple of heads turning as I passed while I tried to do an ostrich routine in embarrassment at being freakish.

  Keeping my eyes on the ground because if I looked up there would be many trying to catch my eye and if they succeeded zoom they would be in my face with their small talk and mysterious uncomfortable wanting!  I learned a trick of looking *through* people. Giving the impression I was focused on something behind them, or too lost in thought to be seeing at all.  Aloof control strategy refined trying to create boundaries against the wanting...
 
  Wanting with a hunger that is making some folks barf up their karma a little too quickly for comfort... so it is with the starving. They overeat, make themselves sick. One cannot blame them, they are starving...

  At least I know what they want, now... what a difference that made!!   I created a path for people to find That... Her, within themselves.  The love of the Mother.  I cannot be Mother though... Source for other people.   I can share Her love, be a vessel of that, an icon... water them so they grow deeper roots but I cannot be That, for another.

   There is a price, for feeding the hungry... you must teach them to fish for themselves or they will be forever dependent.

  There is a price for granting Shaktipat too... karma triggered in the recipient, flows to the sender and that is the Guru gig. 

   If you send energy to someone and it triggers their karma, the stuff flows to you as the one responsible for triggering it.  This is why empaths who "spread love and light" become hermits who hate the world. It is a cosmic law, and also why Gurus go insane with control games and die of kidney or liver disease. 
   It is mutually disempowering.

   When the Guru processes your karma for you, you get an easier ride but you pay a high price for it.  You give up to the Guru, the priceless jewels of self knowledge that is the silver lining of your karma stuff.   You do not get to know your patterns, to spot them when they come up again and so if you have a fall from grace you cannot easily find your way back to balance.  Lean on a Guru, and if that crutch is taken from you, or you quit being a disciple, you fall down.     
 
   But if you walk the path on your own feet, facing your stuff with the guidance of the inner Guru then you build a strong foundation of self knowledge to stabilize your enlightenment.  "Know Thyself" is the spiritual imperative.  By working through your karmic stuff yourself, you empower yourself with self knowledge and true spiritual strength of experience.  The inner Guru is always there for you, once you find it.

   It takes a bit of a tricky dance, for me to be a Shaktipat Master but not a Guru. It took me years to find a loophole in the Cosmic law.  The loophole is that karma follows power and responsibility and so long as I keep reflecting your power and responsibility for being God of your own life back to you, your karma follows that.  Teacher not Guru.

   What it comes down to is I won't take your power or your karma.  I hand it all back.  I duck the karmic feedback of the course Shaktipat by an extremely strict discipline of being humble and passing the buck, redirecting the the power and the responsibility and the karma that follows - right back to your inner Guru, where it belongs.  Goddess within you.  Your Divine Beloved.  "Goddess has it handled."  Not me, don't shoot the messenger... 
 
  Angel means messenger. I guess Angelique means "like a messenger" but it is the Pope or Sai Baba's gig to be the voice of God for people, not me!  I teach discernment right away and ask you to verify my every word with your inner Guru.  "Like a messenger for the Fire Serpent." That is my label. In that context, Mystress is like a disclaimer - it means I dunno what the hell I am, it is a Mystery in a fem Dom bod...  but the effect of me seems like some kind of contagious carrier/courier of  Kundalini. 

  I do not own the course in a spiritual sense, anymore than I can own the Goddess... I give the course to Her in a ritual every year, and twice a year if I feel myself getting burnt out, which is a sure sign I am taking too much responsibility for my students progress. Caretaker of the temple.  Mopping the floors....  I belong to the Goddess not the other way around. Slave to the Muse. People's reactions to the art, are their own.

   Might sound like I am very irresponsible... but I am responsible to Goddess within myself, and that is plenty!  The thing about being a Shaman, is the shadow side is a guide with plenty of sarcasm to tell me exactly what my ego is up to, and what he thinks of it.  Sort of hard to grow an ego with the Portal Guardian pruning it to death daily... I cannot get away with anything.



  Your own inner Guru and DB already know all about this agreement; my role to empower not disempower by reflecting back responsibility and the karma that follows.  They know everything.  The redirection trick probably would not even work without their co-operation.  You learn of it from the preview pages and again from tea room conversations. 
   
  You will notice that most of the questions to the tea room come from people who are still working through the first 1/3 of the course.  Then there are questions about the Shadow sections in the middle because that stuff can be difficult, slippery ego tricks show up.  Owning  your shadow is not an easy thing.

   Beyond that, there are fewer questions and more simple sharing.  Goddess within the student is responding to questions and no need to ask another.  They have grown their wings, their inner strength and self knowledge... and it is their own strength, not borrowed. Bravo!! 

   I used to wrestle with taking pride in my students accomplishments.  It is a natural feeling but it also felt too much like taking responsibility. As if I am taking responsibility for their success. Finally I realized, it is like taking pride in my country's Olympic team.  I am not the one who got up early to train 7 days a week for many years in order to stand on a pedestal wearing a medal for the world to see.  We are kinfolk in the sense of national unity, and I celebrate the success of my kin and their success reflects well upon us all. Yay team Snakey!

   Seeing that... watching someone grow from hunger and need into strength and fulfillment, is my reward. Goddess makes the flowers grow.  A gardeners reward, to watch them growing and and appreciate the beauty of the flowering.   Your beauty dazzles my eyes!   

   Of course, some students take a few years to get through the first 30 lessons... and so it is the memberships do not expire because it is not my place to force a faster pace than Goddess chooses for someone.  It would go against the whole intention of the course. 

  (Then there are the submissive students who don't graduate because they want to continue having a Mystress... you know who you are.   Hands off the students, that is the rules, no matter how much you smell like Serpent food.  So graduate, then ask me...   Duh!!! LOL!  )

  So, the preview pages are not about sales, they are more of a manual explaining the product to people who already want it because Goddess brought them and now their ego needs to get filled in about what the deal is so it can all be conscious free will decision to enter the agreement.

  Mercedes is a household name. Fire Serpent Tantra is not, so some explanation or definition is required and that is no easy trick! It is different things to different people.

  When I ask for testimonials people always write a long sales pitch... lovely kind and complimentary and I appreciate it but not suitable.  No sales, just truth of information. 

  So lets use a different word:  Experiences.  Benefits.  Synchronicities. 

  Not written to persuade the world, or as a testament to anything, but in an intimate tone of sharing feedback with me, a casual comment about something you experience, enjoy, appreciate or find useful. Whatever you want to share, really... but, in short form.

    I know what I think about the course, and what I intended (though expectations all get surrendered) but I feel I really cannot speak for the students, for you and your experience of FST.  I think that is what matters, to the people who are, where you were at, before you joined.

  If you were to time travel back, to when you were first looking at the preview pages and deciding whether to join... if you could leave graffiti on that web page for your past self to see, what would it say? What would you like to say to that person?  Say it to me, and allow me to post it for the world.

  So, if you want to:  share your thoughts about FST in a single short paragraph that I can allow others to read, please post here.  Let me know how you would like to be credited as author, first name and location is good but anonymous is OK too... or whatever you like.  Please be brief and specific.  Sound bytes. More than one if you want. There are many different pages I need comments for.

  Free will is Goddess law. I need all agreements to be consensual - so I try to be very clear about what folks are getting themselves into, when they sign up.  Everybody's experience is different so presenting a variety of impressions from current and grad students is the best way for me to do that, I think?   

  What do you think?
   Thanks for listening.  Blessings...
   

Great stuff. I must say that i think it’s all there if you have the guts and persistence to follow through. It’s really about you doing the work and you get as far as you want to get. I’ve read a lot of books but this course is really about doing the work and it might surprise you that it actually is harder to “chop wood & carry water” than to read about it

Chris, Europe

Having abnegated my divinity to others (my dad, the church, a swami, a tantrik guru, martial teachers, and others) periodically throughout my life, this course is actively and deeply helping me come to terms with who I am.  I naively thought that I was coming here to FST to work on knowing myself in a limited sense of the word self.  As the seemingly external world bends and warps, changing nearly instantaneously in response to surrendered karma, I am constantly floored to see myself where I thought that I was not.  It is hard to quantify the results of the course work to date in a single experience.  Experiences are ephemeral.  However, the real work began when I was introduced to Goddess Shakti.  She is not separate from me.  She is loving, unyielding, and real.  I have never had a lover so adamant about my growth.

Pete, Virginia, USA

I love this.
I love this work, that Mystress Angelique Serpent has put up.
I love it more from day to day.
I love this Goddess feeling, getting in touch with it, becoming happier, stronger; unhappiness, aggression, negativity fading away.
I could also say, I love Mystress, but it's not meant as a flattery to a "Guru" or a "Mistress"; it's love felt countless times, when awarifying Her teachings and how it is built on love; and gratitude for learning about Divine Love and what it's about.
FST is a rare occasion for learning to deal with one's issues, and I'm also tiny bit of proud to having found this "needle in the haystack".
Consider to not let it pass you by!

Juergen, Germany

I have never experienced a place like this or a course like this.  It offers Truth, authentic connection and oneness with self/goddess and a vocabulary for the intelect to hold on to in order to understand the inward journey.  A place of growth, healing and love. Tammy

Yes, this is a wonderful place, a respectful and encouraging place and non judgemental place, a safe place and a growing space.....thank you very much.

Hollyberry

"If you were to time travel back, to when you were first looking at the preview pages and deciding whether to join... if you could leave graffiti on that web page for your past self to see, what would it say? What would you like to say to that person?"
Then I would like to say to my past self:

Enter at your own risk. Following the course will most certainly change your life.
But it will be you yourself, who will change it. Freely.
Because Mystress will guide you but she will not lead you.
She will show you how to find your path and how to avoid the pitfalls.
But you will have to walk your path yourself. And it will not always be an easy going.
She gives you a guiding light. It shines like a lantern in the dark, fueled by her profound wisdom and knowledge and vast experience, showing you where it is safe to put your steps. Mystress will help you out there, she will be your teacher.
And in the end you may come to really know the One who is looking through your eyes and be in perfect peace. Then meet"the Teacher of the Ancients, not limited by time", within You, Your Self, and beyond.
See you on the road maybe, because you are All One, but you are not alone.
Have trust, the magic works. Love and Light will be with You.
namaste
johannes 

Mistress, you sure have put a lot thought into it, so that is done.
now its time to have some fun with it.

I think when i joined this class i was looking for something and trying to figure out who
i am, what others thought of me

Right now i think ill take my own advise and have some fun with it, be helpfull when i can and try not to offend others and respect there beliefs and thoughts

Love, ant

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