I'm requesting your help.

An out-of-the-ordinary post

Hello, lovelings. This won’t be my usual essay.

I’ll cut to the point: I lost a major source of income recently, and now I have a very limited amount of time to figure out how I’m going to make ends meet in the coming weeks.

The timing is especially frustrating, considering I just signed a lease, just adopted a cat, aaannnddd my birthday is in 5 days.

Sigh.

life with Jupiter Hypersthene Impetus Grey

I’ve never been in this situation before, and I’ve historically been terrible at asking for help. But that is precisely, I think, what God (or the Universe, or whatever) seems to be urging me to do.

So I’m asking for your help.

The part of me that finds it difficult to ask for help, is the part of me that wants to explain how I got to where I am now, financially. The short version is this: in November of 2022, my longstanding, decently-paying corporate editing job decided to fully “automate” my department (read: employ robots instead of humans).

Editing was what I’d poured my life into. I’d been building my career in that direction for over a decade. But seemingly overnight, after all that diligent refinement of my skill set, nobody “needed” editors anymore.

Suddenly unemployed after 7 faithful years, I searched desperately for more editing work… but only found job openings for “A.I. trainers” instead. The companies that had previously hired editors were now using Grammarly, ChatGPT, and other mindless drones to do their bidding.

Sure, these programs can proofread sentences, and suggest changes, and patch together a formulaic, structured wall of words.

But can A.I. guide an author through the harrowing process of overcoming their fears in order to express themselves from the heart? — from the soul?

Of course not — because it has neither of those things.

That’s what I did, with my oh-so-human hands and mind and heart and soul, for over a decade of my life.

And now I find myself having to start all over.

Reset.

Maybe I’ve been in denial, since then. Maybe I was holding out hope that this A.I. hype would die out — that these companies would come to their senses and realize they do need human editors after all. Because who wants their content to sound robotic and mass-produced, anyway?

A lot of people, apparently. You might even say the Collective.

The Collective seems to have chosen the timeline of exalting counterfeit consciousness. This is a spiritual war, after all, and Creators/Creatives are among the greatest casualties.

So while I have been lucky to find the occasional freelance client who still believes in hiring humans, and odd jobs here and there, these have simply not been enough to cover my life’s expenses for the past year-ish since my safety net fell out from under me.

Somewhere in this heap of bones that was my old life, I dare myself to find the hidden blessing.
Because let’s be honest: Though I’m an excellent editor and enjoy that kind of work, I can hardly say it’s my Calling.

So what’s Calling me now? What gifts can I offer?

The answers are still unfolding, but here are some of my ideas:

1.

If you’ve been reading and appreciating my work, I urge you to become a paid subscriber:

Paid subscribers have the ability to comment on posts, plus access to my secret publication, Alicen’s Magickal Diary.

Would you like to see me offer anything else as a perk of paid subscribership? Monthly Zoom calls, maybe? A chat room? Let me know!

2.

I’ve got an event coming up next Saturday, July 13th — my first online event ever!!!

3.

I have an online shop currently featuring courses, books, and a guided meditation. Soon, I’ll be transferring apparel from my old shop as well, so keep your eyes out for that!

4.

As you may know, I’m a musician by the name When Humans Had Wings. I recently made my music available for purchase directly from my website, so all the profits go to me instead of to a third-party like BandCamp or CDBaby.

I also do “toplining” for producers and DJs (that’s a fancy way of saying I sing on other people’s songs), so if you need a soprano for your music project, message me!

5.

If you feel inspired to just donate any amount, you have my boundless gratitude:

Ko-Fi • Stripe • Venmo

6.

If you’re not in a position to support me with money, you can still help with a signal boost. If you like anything I’ve written here on Substack, just take a few moments to share it.

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This has been such a strange time of constant upheavals. I’ve never had so many things in my life radically shift, one thing after another, quite like this.

Am I overwhelmed and confused? Honestly, yes.

But I choose to believe that this is an opportunity for me to deepen my commitment to sharing my gifts with the world, rather than handing off my financial future to employers and clients.

The Artist’s life is not for the faint of heart, y’all.

So thank you, from the depths of my heart, for offering me some rest and encouragement along this challenging path. I really, really appreciate any and all help you can give. 🙏🏾