Child Trafficking: The Shadow We Share

How we're ALL responsible — not just the "elites"

Apr 05, 2024

“Saturn Devouring His Son” by Peter Paul Rubens, edited by me. Given the Saturnian nature of our world and how, both mythically and literally, Saturn (the limiter/the Grim Reaper) kills children (pure potential/Free Energy), I thought this image would be fitting for the discussion to follow.

There’s no nice way to say what I’m about to say.

We’re all responsible for child trafficking.

And no, I don’t mean in the sense that we all overtly abuse children, or even in the sense that we all tacitly allow it to happen every time we don’t rally together to publicly guillotine “the elites.”

I mean in the sense that we all, collectively, share a belief with the same “elite child traffickers” we evidently love to rail against online, and that belief is this:

“Children exist to be used.”

Before I go any further, I’ll acknowledge my bias (and my stake) in this conversation: My singing was exploited for money as a girl. I’ve been very open about that. Long story short, my childhood church forced me to sing under threat of hellfire and made money off it (which I never saw a penny of), but whatever, I’m healing.

And what this healing process has taught me, is that the impetus to exploit children — not only sexually, but emotionally and mentally — is actually common.

SO common, in fact, that this impetus remains largely undetected by the very same people who expend impressive amounts of energy documenting, analyzing and exposing celebrity traffickers specifically, as we’re seeing now with the proliferation of headlines about P. Diddy, and the scandalous popularity of Quiet on Set.

From my vantage point (where it’s clear that the misuse of children is common), I see all the conspiratorial hype around elite child trafficking as a classic case of Projection.

Projection, meaning, we’re having a real easy time seeing in others what we refuse to see in ourselves. That’s usually how the Shadow works.

We tend to judge, rebel against, and criticize the things that “hit too close to home,” because it’s too painful to admit that we are like the thing we hate. (The phrase “Thou doth protest too much” comes to mind.)

So when ~Truthers~ say that the exposure of elite or celebrity child trafficking (#Pizzagate, et al) is the beginning of global justice, they’re partially correct.

This is the beginning, for sure — but not the beginning of justice for those awful others who do things we normal righteous people would NeVeR do!

No.

This is the beginning of our awakening… to ourselves.

This is the beginning of us becoming-Conscious… of our collective Shadow.

This is the beginning of a global justice that will require ALL OF US to face consequences for how we contribute, how we co-create, and how we, too, vampirize the energy of children for our own benefit and pleasure.

If Only Vampires Could See Themselves in the Mirror

So how do we collectively uphold the sentiment that “children exist to be used?”

Let’s start with the common refrain that us childfree people are exhausted of hearing: “But if you don’t have kids, who’s going to take care of you when you’re older?”

When people say this, they’re telling on themselves. They’re admitting that they think their children exist to provide them with lifeforce when they, themselves, are running dry on it in their old age.

Like a vampire, basically. They want that young blood 😛

“But I provided everything for them! Clothing, shelter, love! They owe me!”

No, they don’t. It is vampiric to bring a human being into this world with the ulterior motive of taking their energy when you don’t feel like generating any of your own.

And that’s just one example.

Think of how commonplace it is for parents to act as though they’re owed “help around the house” by their kids… as if those parents didn’t voluntarily take on the responsibility of managing a household full of children. Uh, the kid didn’t choose to be here — you chose that for them.
Do your own work, vampire.
Think of how many parents expect — nay, force — their older kids to babysit their younger siblings, as if those older kids were only born to “help” their parents parent.
Again: parent your own kids, vampire. You chose to have them.
Think of how upset some people act when a child doesn’t want to hug them.
You’re not entitled to their affection, vampire.
Think of how many parents “live vicariously through” their children by pushing them towards activities they wouldn’t choose for themselves — sports, acting, whatever.
How about live your own life, vampire?

(Sidequest: It’s funny how Quiet On Set mainly addresses predators in the entertainment industry, like Dan Schneider, but I’m asking WHY WE USE CHILDREN AS ENTERTAINERS AT ALL?! Is Dan Schneider really the issue, or is it our collective desire to put children in the spotlight for our own amusement, regardless of whether that’s what they want for themselves? In Utopia, I don’t think “professional child entertainers” would even be conceivable. But maybe that’s just my own childhood trauma talking 🤷🏽‍♀️🤸🏽.)

It’s one thing to teach a child what it means to be responsible, by showing them how to do “chores” and care for others. It’s another thing — entirely — to feel as if a child exists for the purpose of fulfilling your desires, regardless of how practical or trivial those desires may seem to be.

To expect children to be the givers of life, is a grave inversion.

Speaking of which: Another “grave inversion” is the widespread belief that “immortality” requires one to drink youngblood to remain “forever young.” THIS COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. True Immortality — the kind I gno and love — is the exact opposite of vampirism. It is total self-sustaining sovereignty — becoming one’s own source of energy, and never taking energy from anyone else — not from a plant, not from an animal, and certainly not from a child.

Fish, Meet Water

My real point is that to see children as a source of energy — no matter how trivial the context — is fundamentally vampiric. Whether we’re talking about something catastrophic like child trafficking, or something covert like posting embarrassing photos of your kid on social media to supply yourself with a quick dopamine-hit from the “likes,” either way it comes from the same mentality that “children exist to be used.” They are merely different degrees of the same destructive fire.

If what I’m saying seems too radical or extreme, it’s only because I’m trying to describe water to a fish. The vampirism of children — or just vampirism, generally — is so deeply embedded in our way of living, that we mostly don’t see it. Like fish in a polluted sea, this murky, tainted water is all we’ve ever known.

So of course, clear water will seem “extreme.”

Given that our current world is founded on vampiric “principles” (for lack of a better word), I invite you to imagine the world from the opposite perspective — the perspective of a Free Energy Being — a True Immortal, who sustains life not by sucking the blood (or should I say, adrenochrome?) from others, but by becoming self-sourced:

As it pertains to giving someone “the gift of life,” would you still give that “gift” if you knew your child would never, ever thank you or attempt to “give back” to you? Would you give the gift of life with no strings attached at all?

Yes?

Congratulations — you’re on your way to experiencing Free Energy, an abundance so infinite that you lose nothing by giving, and expect nothing in return.

And as for those of us not planning to have children, we still need to address the many ways we unconsciously benefit from the abuse of children in our day to day lives.

For example, child labor isn’t explicitly legal here in the States anymore… but are we not, still, outsourcing our bloodthirst for child suffering to children in other countries, with our selfish, entitled, gluttonous demands for smart devices and fast-fashion made by children?

Are we not fucking stupid for content-mongering about OMG P.DIDDY THAT FUCKING MONSTER on the internet, when that internet is only available to us because child-slaves mined some coltan to make smartphones for our lazy, privileged, screen-addicted asses?

Very activism! Much wow!

A WILD Opportunity Appears!

Because this is, at its heart, a post about Shadow Work, I am calling myself out before anyone else.

I’ve been mentally planning to write this post for a few weeks, so the topic of child exploitation was in the back of my mind when, today, I went grocery shopping and decided, in the spur of the moment, to get some chocolate chips.

I love chocolate. I’ve proudly called myself a “chocoholic.” There have been phases where I couldn’t go a day without chocolate — or, actually, I could, but I didn’t see the point of denying myself of this obvious pleasure.

That changed today, as I appraised the roughly 20 kinds of chocolate chips on the shelf. The options included different brands with different labels (dark! white! gluten-free! dairy-free! sugar-free! — so many wonderful options to choose from!) The prices varied as well.

Truthfully, I was thinking of just buying the cheapest option, since inflation is crazy lately and I’m (supposedly) trying to save money.

But then I saw the label — on only one bag of chocolate chips — that said, “Fair Trade Certified.” Of all these chocolate options, only one brand could maybe-sort-of guarantee that children had not been enslaved and exploited to make it.

And that’s when it hit me: Though I’d been made aware a decade ago of how chocolate production can involve child slavery, I somehow conveniently managed to “forget” this whenever shopping to get my “fix.”

But now, here it was: the “Fair Trade” label, confronting me with the fact that children were abused to make the delicious chocolate I felt entitled to.

It cost $8 for a single bag of this fair-trade chocolate, compared to the much cheaper $3 and $4 bags that, I’m sure, could only be that cheap for one reason.

I stood there, “chocoholic” that I am, tempted to buy a cheaper bag “to save money,” and rationalizing my choice by telling myself “a single purchase doesn’t sway the economy, it’s just one bag, it’s already been made so I might as well buy it,” blah blah blah…

…until a different awareness broke through, like sunlight through clouds.
I could see that this choice wasn’t about the “economy,” or the smoke and mirrors of “supply and demand.”
Rather, this was about the metaphysics of the choice; the energy behind it; the way a choice can (and does) sort you into a parallel reality.

If I say I want a world where no child suffers for someone else’s pleasure…
and if I am given the choice to buy something that a child suffered to make, just so I can feel the temporary pleasure of tasting chocolate…
and if I choose to buy it…
then am I not a hypocrite? A bleeding fucking hypocrite?

So I thought to myself, “I am not entitled to chocolate.”
Then — with an ease unfathomable to an addict — I put the chocolate down, and moved on.
Just like that, my cravings dissipated.

“Cacao Earth Star” art by Andres Indio. In its higher octaves, cacao is a powerful soul medicine. What does it say about us, that we’ve mired its sacred essence in so much human and environmental suffering?

In that moment, I could see how my so-called “need” for chocolate was actually, on a soul-level, a form of bloodthirst — because I had long-ago been made aware of the relationship between chocolate and child slavery, so some part of me knew all that time (if only unconsciously) that I was consuming the suffering of children every time I ate chocolate… and still found it delicious anyway.

Thus, it wasn’t just the chocolate I was craving, but the suffering too — the loosh, if you will — that I was metaphysically feeding-on through the vehicle of the chocolate, which served as the perfect cover story for my subconscious vampiric motives.

I wasn’t conscious of this vampirism within myself, until that little “fair trade” label gave me the opportunity to reflect (REFLECT!!!!!!! 🪞) on what I really craved when I craved chocolate… whereupon it became my responsibility to make what was previously unconscious, conscious.

Like that little fair trade label,
I offer this essay to you as an opportunity to reflect
on the possibility
that some subconscious part of you
is just as vampiric and bloodthirsty
as the child-trafficking elites
it’s so easy to point fingers at…

…and then make that part of you, conscious.

It can be disturbing to see the vampirism within oneself. I know. I know.

But the first step to eradicating the vampires “in power” / “the elites” / whatever,
is to take a good, long look in the mirror.