Starseed Supremacy?

 As an educator, I often approach my spiritual practices through the lens of academia. I also tend to run in - or at least exist on the fringes of - several aspects of the occult community. This includes pockets of social media where practitioners congregate online. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, I run across a lot of misinformation in those pockets. Often matter-of-factly presented in spite of a lack of, even an apathy for, fact-checking. This disinterest in verifying the legitimacy of things can have devastating consequences, including misaligning persons, institutions, and/or concepts under false pretenses, with all of the socio-economic fallout that may follow. Case in point: I worry after how many spiritual practitioners may be affected by the notion that the concept of Starseeds has White supremacist origins, per, say, TikTok videos casually 'canceling' anyone who claims (authentically or otherwise) to be a Starseed themselves. Ergo, this post will focus on what Starseeds both are and are not, and the importance of taking the time to parse such matters for oneself.

'Starseed' 101

The term 'Starseed' first appeared in print as the title of a 1973 book by psychologist and writer Dr. Timothy Leary, who developed the "Psi Phy Comet Tale" while incarcerated at Folsom Prison on marijuana possession charges. Leary, who was "known for advocating the exploration of the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs under controlled conditions" (KCRA-TV, 1975), was frequently quoted during the heyday of the "sixties zeitgeist" (Belonsky, 2018) as encouraging others to "'Turn on, tune in, and drop out!'" Leary practices what he preaches, writing in Starseed that he was "expelled from Harvard, from Mexico, Dominica, Antigua. No crimes alleged or committed. Just too much energy transmitted. Blew out the local fuses" (p. 8). The impetus for writing Starseed appears to have been an attempt to break up the tedium of prison aka "the Black Hole of American Society" (p. 5), eventually leading Leary to "visit … the Folsom Prison Library," where he first "picked up [Sir Bernard] Lovell's book on outer space" (p. 10). Here, Leary refers to a 1962 text called The Exploration of Outer Space, a compilation of Lovell's "Gregynog Lectures" on space research at the University of Wales at Aberystwyth in October 1961, as well an additional "essay on 'Ethics and the Cosmos' that Lovell says he penned upon becoming "increasingly obsessed with the dangers of certain developments in space research" ("Preface," p. v).

Leary does the heavy lifting of connecting Lovell's work to his own: The "last chapter [of Lovell's book] presents a drawing of the remnant of a living organism found on a meteorite. A nucleic acid molecule. The first signal from extra-terrestrial life. Help is on the way. Prisoners began to etch the design on silver pins and leatherwork handicrafted in the hobby shop. We called it STARSEED. The symbol of Psi-Phy" (p. 9-10). Leary also notes a New York Times article "about a newly discovered comet entering the solar system" that "would be visible during the fall of 1973 with a brilliance greater than the full moon." Calling it "the greatest astronomical event in recorded history appearing right on schedule," Leary and his fellow incarcerated sky gazers call it "Starseed, new light, new life, bright reminder of our extraterrestrial origin and future. Symbol of freedom." In spite of their excitement, however, there was 'curiously' "no more publicity about … the greatest light in the sky," though a national fervor quickly exploded around the Watergate scandal scant days later. "And nobody said anything about the comet," Leary intones again, underscoring both the "glum stagnation," "damp nostalgia," and "frivolous melancholia" of prison, and the United States apparently sleeping on "the most hopeful eschatology ever specified" as it emanated, ignored, from "the dim light of solitary confinement … New light from the Black Hole" (p. 11-12). From there, Leary applied Lovell's work to his own philosophy that, per Belonsky (2018), "some cosmic womb launched celestial semen across the universe, seeds from which grew diverse consciousnesses, including life on earth." Leary's "future futurist work" can be condensed into the "very cheery, very of-that-era acronym, SMI2LE, which stands for Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, and Life Extension," a process which can be activated via psychedelic drugs such as ketamine aka "the key to the ultimate circuit … of consciousness." Belonsky aptly sums up Leary's work thusly: "[T]he future is a k-hole."

Ensuing "Psi Phy" authors like Brad Steiger adapted the concept of Starseeds in his 1976 book, Gods of Aquarius: UFOs and the Transformation of Man, which argues that "Star people (sometimes called indigo children) are a variant of the belief in alien-human hybrids in New Age belief and fringe theory" wherein "certain people originated as extraterrestrials and arrived on Earth through birth or as a walk-in to an existing human body" (Wikipedia). Later, Brad Steiger's 1987 text, The Star People promises to reveal "The startling truth about the thousands of 'aliens' now living among us" who were "sent from another world to lead the Earth into a new golden age," many of whom "are unaware of their true nature."

Going Deeper

To wit, expounding upon concepts like Starseeds almost certainly began as a desperate attempt by Leary to stave off the bleak effects of solitary confinement while at Folsom Prison by allowing the extreme alienation to "sen[d] his and his friends' minds into the future" (Belonsky, 2018) as both an academic and spiritual practice. However, even further backpedaling is required to fully appreciate the broad scope of Leary and his contemporaries' futuristic forays. To start, the concept of Star Peoples appear across several variations of ancient "reports … of personal contact between extraterrestrials and American Indians." For instance, "The Hopi believe their ancestors came from the Pleiades, the place, or people they call Chuhukon ['those who cling together'], a reference to the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. Also known as the Seven Sisters, the cluster in question is also referenced in a Lakota legend about "seven maidens being chased by a bear. On their knees, they prayed for divine intervention, the result being that the ground beneath them erupted, high into the air, lifting them out of harm's way, as the bear clawed at the risen ground" (Lewis, 2015). Indeed, that obvious parallels can be drawn about the same celestial structures by different groups underscores the legitimacy of their shared claims.

Likewise, parallels can also be drawn between Star Peoples and similar concepts across a number of belief systems. For instance, there is a potential connection between Star Peoples and the Biblical notion of the 12 Tribes [founders] of Israel, named for the 12 sons of Jacob, each of whom were said to contribute 12,000 members to "accompany 'the Lamb' (Jesus Christ) atop Mount Zion" to serve as "'firstfruits for God and the Lamb' following the prophesied Second Coming of Christ." As TheAlienAnthropologist.io posits, "It is plausible that the 12 tribes of Israel have storied, even extraterrestrial histories … for instance, … each seems to align with one of the 12 'Starseed' / star families 'who had previously lived their past lives in distant planets, galaxies, or solar systems at various points of time and who has now reincarnated on Earth to accomplish its mission' (Jones) of global cosmic consciousness." Furthermore, each Tribe's attributes aligns neatly with the characteristics of the respective star family with which they are aligned, e.g.: Pleiadian Starseeds, known for maintaining their "'spiritual integrity' in spite of Earthly corruption," are aligned with the 'Tribe of Joseph ("'The Sufferer'").

Per TheAlienAnthropologist.io, "Indigo/Star Children" are one of the "7 'sub races'" of the 5th (of 7; aka "Aryan") "Root Race," a group of three-dimensional beings preceded by 2-D "'semi-astral'" peoples known as the Hyperborean (2nd) Root Race who existed on Earth as "complex ocean life forms … 560 to 360 million years ago"; and, between 4.6 and 3.5 billion years ago, preceded by the "'Astral/Etheric'" Polarian Root Race, "an evolutionary 'step [before] Mineral.'" In theory, the 5th Root Race will eventually evolve into the 4-D (6th; "Time") Seal Root Race, whose populace "'will 'possess certain psychic powers'' aka 'cognizing astral emotions in the ordinary waking consciousness' via the pineal gland[/third eye]" before humanity "'fuse[s] mind and intuition with Atma, the inner spiritual self,'" upon which it will "'be able to function consciously as the Higher Self'" (Ramsey; via TheAlienAnthropologist.io). Before mankind becomes a 5-D+ "Soul"-based civilization, however, it must unpack its Holocene-era hang-ups within modern members of the "Aryan" Root Race.

Ultimately, the potential for 'Starseed''s exoneration from accusations of race supremacy hinges on investigating who is(n't) intended for inclusion within Earth's "Aryan" Root Race. A lengthy investigative piece salaciously titled "Starseeds: Nazis in Space?" by Jules Evans (2022) details the spiritual work of Madame Helena Blavatsky, the Russian founder of Theosophy, a movement which incorporates the concept of Root Races as a means of teaching its adherents that "human evolution is tied in with this planetary and wider cosmic evolution" (Wikipedia). Of Blavatsky's work, Evans writes that "There's an element of spiritual racism to [her] theory. Some races are spiritually lower and more primitive than others. Indeed, 'the sacred spark is missing in them.' Other races are higher, such as the Aryans (although Blavatsky was quite scornful of Anglo-Saxons and her Masters tended to be Indian [Asian]). Like Darwin, Blavatsky thought 'lower' races were destined to die out and be succeeded by 'higher' races." Of course, Evans' implication that Blavatsky considered the "Aryan" Root Race of a 'higher' evolutionary consciousness than, presumably, the "Indian" Masters (e.g.: Buddha) whom she held in notably higher regard than the Anglo-Saxons she was "quite scornful of" indicates a misunderstanding of the mixed bag of peoples who comprise the overall 5th Root Race stage of human evolution. Indeed, per TheAlienAnthropologist.io, besides the aforementioned "Indigo/Star Children," The 7 "Aryan" sub-races include "Hindus, Sumerians/Arabians, Egyptians/Persians, Hellenes {Greeks/Romans}/Celts, Europeans/Teutonic, [and] Nova Men/'Australo-American.'" In essence, Theosophy proposes that all of humanity is "destined to die out" as it evolves into more highly developed beings.

On the other hand, Evans implies that Theosophy being "taken up by various movements around the world" means that its ideals were unofficially adapted and reimagined as "different versions" of a "coming super-race," including several that, like Evans, "insisted the super-race were Aryans" / "Anglo-Saxons." A 2008 paper by Santucci on "The Notion of Race in Theosophy" argues that race in Theosophy is most accurately "understood as not being limited to physical characteristics; rather, the Theosophical Race as interpreted in [Blavatsky's book] The Secret Doctrine is not racist in intent, and the races are seen as having one thing in common, the divine spark that ultimately makes all races the same in essence." Furthermore, though the term 'Aryan' has race-based connotations in its modern usage, it was "derived from the Sanskrit arya (meaning 'noble' or 'distinguished') used by the ancient Indic people (also known as 'Indo-Aryan') to refer to themselves. Most of them are today native to the Indian subcontinent" (Wikipedia). Likewise, the concept of a "Great White Brotherhood" within Theosophy and other New Age movements refers not to skin color, but to those of the highest spiritual consciousness a la Blavatsky's concept of the Ascended Masters, "a group of 'high-vibrational, enlightened Beings of love and light' which includes Jesus Christ and Buddha." In short: Race supremacy and anti-Semitism have polluted the overall social consciousness surrounding the tenets of spiritual movements like Theosophy by way of said race supremacists subtly, yet intentionally misinterpreting texts and concepts that are "foreign, relatively obscure and decades old" (TheAlienAnthropologist.io, p. 12), none of which are taken into account in the average righteous smear campaign via social media.

Un-Canceling Critical Thinking

The importance of encouraging spiritual practitioners to engage in critical thinking while learning about unknown belief systems is hopefully apparent. An article published by the Theosophical Society pulls few punches about the dangers of slandering, unwittingly or otherwise, "'an innocent person,'" noting in Blavatsky's own words that "'whether a brother Theosophist or not … does not undertake his defense as he would undertake his own - is no Theosophist'" (Otto, 2019). Here, the role of compassionately correcting misinformation can thus be made clear; that is, per TheAlienAnthropologist.io, "it is not enough to claim the goal of 'suggest[ing] … solution[s]' to religious racism […] It is not enough to 'Imagine a World Without Hate' (ADL); hate must be actively sought out and addressed, its tenets clarified, corrected, and condemned across various practices and people if humanity hopes to ever live in a world with it" (27), to say nothing of evolving beyond the limits of our modern 3-D selves.

In short: "Neither Blavatsky nor Theosophy is above criticism. No one is. But they are entitled to an appraisal that is fair and honest. To call them racist is neither" (Smoley, 2015). Even shorter, TL;DR: Learning to discern fact from fiction, reality from rumor is a crucial step in humanity's evolutional and spiritual progression - no time like the present to practice turning our tendency towards casual hatred into a habit of giving complicated constructs the benefit of the doubt before confirming for ourselves whether something or someone deserves to be 'canceled' by the court of public opinion.

"A color-composite image of the Pleiades [star cluster] from the Digitized Sky Survey" (Wikipedia).