HDxLiberation: A Human Design Podcast

Season 2, Ep. 7: Building Community Is An Act of Resistance

• Courtney Napier, Andrea Ward Berg • Season 2 • Episode 7

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In this episode of the Human Design and Liberation Podcast, hosts Andrea and Courtney explore the intersection of human design, liberation theology, and community building as an act of resistance. They delve deep into the importance of community in combating the influence of the top 0.1% of society. They discuss the resilience of small communities and the significant role individual authenticity plays in collective liberation. Throughout, the conversation highlights the powerful impact of collective support networks, the essential nature of embracing one's inner self, and the importance of interconnectedness in fostering a truly supportive and liberated community.

Resources:

1. Greg Jarrell’s website

2. Community Defense Network SubStack

3. Dr. Joy Degruy on Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

4. MaryBeth Bonfiglio and Understanding Your Ancestry 


This episode is brought to you by the Pursuing Liberation HD fundamentals course. Click the link to learn more about our upcoming cohort! (LINK)

Contact and Support:

For more insights and to join the conversation, follow the HDxLiberation podcast on social media at @hdxliberation on Instagram, subscribe to their YouTube channel, and join the Liberation Lab on Substack for exclusive content and community benefits.

Andrea Ward Berg:

Hi, I'm Andrea.

Courtney Napier:

Hey y'all, this is Courtney and welcome to the Human Design and Liberation podcast.

Andrea Ward Berg:

This is a space where we explore how human design and liberation theology intersect with the past, present, and future.

Courtney Napier:

With the intent of sharing the beauty and pain of the human experience to encourage you in your liberation journey.

Andrea:

Hi,

Courtney:

Hey,

Andrea:

how are you?

Courtney:

I am doing, I'm doing all right. I'm feeling a little under the weather today, but otherwise I'm good. How about you?

Andrea:

Same. been fighting a cold for the last few days, which is, annoying. But we're here, and I'm excited about this topic because Feel something that's been really present for me and you the last

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

several months, and I feel like it's something that. Can really shift some perspective for everybody tuning in. So

Courtney:

Yes,

Andrea:

With that in mind, we are gonna talk about community building as an active resistance.

Courtney:

So yesterday I was talking about the fact that, like bottom line, the 99% is still the 99%.

Andrea:

mean, it's like the 99.9%, friend!

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

It's not just 99 Like literally is the 0.1% that

Courtney:

yeah.

Andrea:

that is driving disaster

Courtney:

Yeah. Yes. And so my, one of my good friends the incredible, Reverend Greg Gerald, who is an incredible writer and minister and housing activist, he says, we have to move from a place of abundance and we have people, lots of people. And so if we can move from that place Yes, That we have all these people that this, the 0.001% or 0.1% could never, they could, they cannot compete against, that's when things are gonna shift. And so I'm so glad we're talking about community building as an act of resistance because it is literally like the most potent tool that we have.

Andrea:

It really is. And I think when you think about just the sheer number of people, when you say we have people, we have so the first thing I think of as a projector we have a lot of generators.

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

Like we have a lot of defined sacrals that are really fucking powerful. Like if those defined sacrals are empowered and actually like in true self, honestly, the things that

Courtney:

Mm,

Andrea:

get done are absolutely mindblowing. Like

Courtney:

true.

Andrea:

so mindblowing.

Courtney:

True story. Lemme flip my imaginary Cher hair right now. It's true.

Andrea:

It really is.

Courtney:

It is true.

Andrea:

It really is. It really is. So I'm excited to explore this topic today. I'm excited for everybody who's tuning in, whether you have a defined sacral or don't, because ultimately you being on your journey to be in true self is fuel for the movement. Like it is the potent, most important fuel for the movement, And it has ripple it's you. It's not just being in your true self. When you're in true self, you have space for others to be in true self, and you reflect back to them what you see. I mean, it just creates this massive beautiful, seismic shift.

Courtney:

It's so true. It's true. We yeah, we are interconnected and so you moving towards your own liberation is moving your home towards liberation. It's moving your neighborhood towards liberation. It's moving, all of it. We bring everyone with us. We are, as Martin Luther King said, we are a interwoven fabric of interdependence. So we are all like, we moved together. It's so funny'cause I was just listening to a previous podcast where you talk about this and like, hearing you, I'm I'm hearing you talk about it again in my mind. It's like, yeah. Well, welcome to HD and Liberation podcast, everyone where we will talk about this every episode. This is what you came for.

Andrea:

Yes, Because it's so vital. is so so, vital. So, the topic of community building is really present for me right now because well first of all, can I just name the fact that it's wild that we chose this topic because Aries is my 11th house

Courtney:

Oh, wow. wow

Andrea:

and we've got the Venus retrograde in Aries, the Mercury retrograde Neptune is about to move into Aries at the end of this month, like in two weeks. And then Saturn into Aries in May. So like all the aries

Courtney:

Wow.

Andrea:

Which is all my 11th House. So its like, you know, you can't make it up

Courtney:

Perfect

Andrea:

We didn't choose it because of that, but of course this is, you know, jumping out. And I'm sure that is a major reason why. So, All that to say since the inauguration of Chucky 47

Courtney:

Ugh, ugh!

Andrea:

Ah, you can't see Courtney's face, but it's amazing. I have been really just trying to figure out how to be more of a solution bringer and like what are the deeper layers within myself that And how can I show up for that? And within that process, I. Had been reading a lot and researching and I came across a substack post that was basically kind of breaking down what didn't work about activism, you know, especially like in 2016, 2017, 2018 and what can we do better? And this theme around thinking that demonstrations were the activism or like thinking that protests

Courtney:

Oh yeah.

Andrea:

were the activism versus

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

Actual disruption, right? Like, the protest is what you do on the way to disrupt. So that pulled forward. And I was reading this substack and she was basically saying, okay, well if we know that protests don't really move the needle. It's not that we shouldn't do them, like they're very meaningful for solidarity. They're meaningful for visibility, they're meaningful for a lot of different reasons, but they are not actually like the meat of

Courtney:

Right.

Andrea:

what changes things. And so this person advocated for, like, if you want to be in work that really changes things, the very first thing she said was start a community defense network, which I had never heard that term before. But made a lot of sense to me and kind of ties in with everything that we talk about all the time. And so I started kind of going down a rabbit hole on what that might look like. And for those of you who don't know, well this is what I learned through article. yeah, my further research is it's essentially putting together a group of people that have some shared experience and starting to form community together. So, Starting to talk about the things that are impacting your community, figuring out how can support the more vulnerable members of your and just even the sheer act of witnessing what other people are going through and being a part of the most like mundane, ridiculous solutions actually builds the resiliency for each of the members within that community. So, I think when I tell you the example of how I came to this, make sense, but

Courtney:

yeah,

Andrea:

basically that led me down a whole rabbit hole of like, what does it actually look like to rebuild community? A lot about, this pod about how communities has been happening throughout millennia. It's such an old trick of systems of oppression. And so, yeah, I think, I wanna get into kind of the practical side eventually, but first I kind of

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

wanted you to help me set up like, how do we get here? Like, what's going on? Like, why is this relevant? Because I think it's important for people to know, like, this is, this seems like a very kind of nice to have or like, from, capitalistic perspective, Unproductive

Courtney:

yeah.

Andrea:

Thing to spend your time on. Like unpack that for why it's spend your time on it.

Courtney:

Yes. I mean, oh, that's such a good setup. Because you're right. I wanna start from human design and please go and listen to the episode about what's the big deal, about 2027. I really feel like. This is, it does two things. It sets up how we got here really well. But it also sets up like, why the fuck things feel so weird right now.

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

And so transitional, so,

Andrea:

uncertain.

Courtney:

Unsettled and uncertain. Yes.

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

And so one thing that we were just discussing is that we are coming out of a tribal or communal frequency into an individual frequency. So we're moving from the cross of planning, if I'm not mistaken, to the cross of the sleeping phoenix, which is like that, that previous. That previous frequency was about, survival and enlightenment. And so we clumped, we're clumping. That was kind of, that was how we were gonna get here. I think that's another thing is just reconciling not everything that happened during that time, a lot of what happened during that time was not quote unquote good. It was not, it was very destructive, especially to the human soul,

Andrea:

yeah.

Courtney:

And it was, we are here now. Yeah. So just kind of like we are all here. Yeah. There is a massive population. Boom. And we are here. The numbers that we were talking about that support the movement, the resistance that we're trying to build, those numbers partly are possible because of where we came from. That's just. The reality of it. But because we are still an evolving species, thank the universe, we but we have learned that there are, there's, it's one thing to survive, it's another thing to be able to express and commune. And that is what we're moving into now. We have this universal support to begin to express our individuality and to learn how to commune with each other and build with each other out of that expression. So that's what we're moving toward. But like the breaking that's happening. That's the shredding that's happening in our institutions. That's resistance. That we are seeing, especially from that top 0.1% Is that this new frequency does not support how they came into power and it does not support them like maintaining power over, so.

Andrea:

Right! I mean, so let's talk about that. It's the way that 0.1, and literally for those listening, there's some recent studies out that the difference in like the billionaire realm between

Courtney:

mm-hmm.

Andrea:

and everyone else is what's driving this dysfunction, right? 0.1% of the population. And that not self hoarding of resources.So when we look at the energies in human design, we all have access to every energy in human design.

Courtney:

Right?

Andrea:

But there are certain energies that you have consistent access to and others that you have inconsistent access to. And there is, there is an energy within the chart that has kind of this communal leadership role. And there's like specific gates associated with it. I'm not gonna get into that now. Maybe we can do that in another episode. When I look at Donald Trump's chart, he has that gate.

Courtney:

Oh,

Andrea:

Putin also has that gate.

Courtney:

Wow.

Andrea:

And so when you look at the not self of communal leadership, what you get is oligarchy. What you get is control. What you get is resource extraction. And it has been propped up by communal, communal is the word that was used in my training. If you in, like, if you look up circuitry in the red book or like some of the traditional human design resources, it's gonna say tribal. But I, one of the co-teachers in my training is Lakota and was like, I don't think this should be called tribal, so we didn't call it that. So when you look at this communal energy, that not self is pervasive What is plaguing our societies. And the new frequency that we're moving into in two years, I can't believe it's only two years. Like bananas is not gonna have for that anymore. Like Zero space for that. And

Courtney:

yeah,

Andrea:

those who have been depending on that extraction, whether they're in that 0.1% or not I believe they are terrified for what is to come.

Courtney:

Yeah. Oh yeah.

Andrea:

They're terrified. Oh yeah.

Courtney:

Because I mean, yeah. They staked their entire everything on this. Yeah. On this way of being, yeah. And they've kind of broken or undermined their access to so much else.

Andrea:

Absolutely. They've undermined to their own humanity.

Courtney:

Yes. They stake their own humanity on it.

Andrea:

Yeah. they've lost their own And so that is that's a journey that they are gonna have to be on. And you and I have looked at this before, like there are people in who have done an about face.

Courtney:

True

Andrea:

there are powerful authoritarian actors who have done an about face in the past. And so I'm really that for all of them their own humanity depends on it. Like at the end of the day. Well, the time we're here is a blip, but we carry that frequency for eternity. And so It's really up to them work that shit out, so, what I think is interesting is one of the tools that's being used and we can really rally against is this dismantling of communities

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

And specifically going after culture in the black community with the attack on DEI, right? Specifically going after the community built around refugees and immigrants, right? These are groups who have really survived through being in community. And so we're seeing

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

primary tools and propaganda really targeted towards those groups to try and annihilate

Courtney:

Yes,

Andrea:

their communities.

Courtney:

Yes. Also, young people. Young people are also often still quite clumpy and yeah. Like I think of like college campuses and the affinity groups. Yeah, for sure And the ways that you're and I, which I think is a really good point, and maybe a transition, because I just wanna answer a little space that we've created. It's like, well, what do you mean community building? If the frequency is changing to this individual frequency, like why are we Gonna still try and build community? And the remember like this next frequency is you know, individuality, but it's also communing. It's self-expression, but it's communing and it's coming. What it is as we step into our differentiated selves, right? Yeah. As we are deconditioning and being our full selves, then what happens and you, it doesn't, you just don't see this in human design. You see this in all the things

Andrea:

Across the board. Yeah.

Courtney:

across the board. The more you understand yourself, the more integrated you are. Self-aware, self-accepting, radical self-trust and self love. Your heart opens up to the realities of the people around you. You become more comfortable to embrace the uniqueness of others when you're accepting of your own uniqueness. That's what we're experiencing. We're experiencing the opposite in this point zero 1%. We are experiencing people who are rejecting the parts of themselves that in all honesty, mirror the very people that they're rejecting. Yeah. So that's just how that works, y'all. Yeah. This is how you build real community. You have to start with your inner self. You have to start with your, with the parts, your inner community.

Andrea:

Yes. Yes. I love that. Your inner community. Which is your inner child.

Courtney:

Mm-hmm.

Andrea:

You're inner being. Your awareness, all the things we talked about in a couple episodes ago. So the other piece that I think is really helpful to understand about community conversation. So while the background changing from a communal cross individual cross We still contain all of the communal substructure. Like All of the gates and channels that are communal energy are still a part of humanity, right? Like, so it's, and by shifting the background frequency, we're actually gonna see a purification of all of the different aspects of are collective, right? So I have collective circuitry and individual circuitry. You have all three individual, collective, and communal. But when a certain circuitry gets emphasized, like this has been for the last 425 years you really start to see the downside, right? The challenges

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

That come with that. And I, I think particularly with the communal energy because of the supremacy delusion wheels that were already in motion.

Courtney:

Mm-hmm.

Andrea:

So, so much of the not self that's been exacerbated for the last 425 years, it was set in motion well before, right? when we look at the like hyper individualism, really hyper individualism that started before the 1600s, right? That was starting in Europe as they were coming out of the dark ages. When you look at, the demolishing of communities and turning relationships into transactional, that was also very much a product of the dark ages or the Middle Ages in, in Europe, right? It's feudalism. And so, what the last 400 years did was take that and just really run with it. Like"how can we

Courtney:

Right.

Andrea:

Weave this into everything that we think is what it means to be alive?" And there's always been an undercurrent of resistance to that.

Courtney:

Yes!

Andrea:

We about this in every episode, right? Like, they may not be the ones who are written into history books, but their history cannot die. Like the Gnostics from France or some of these just very transformative groups. Even like, the Order of St. Francis from Spain, like there's so many examples within the same, region

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

That show that the oppressors might have gotten all the press, but they were not the only ones who were alive and thriving, right? And in the end they weren't thriving because they were, making others' lives miserable and dying really horribly, brutally.

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

as a result of their own actions.

Courtney:

That's true. It's true. I mean, and then also on side those groups grew, right?

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

They grew and they transformed and their influence lived on,

Andrea:

yeah

Courtney:

Even with oppression. I mean, I think about the early Christians for instance. It survived because of this countercultural community-based structure that it was born out of. And I think also i. something, again, kind of bridging this like kind of communal frequency into this more individual frequency is this idea of like, just because it's like the values begin to spill out of the container.

Andrea:

For sure.

Courtney:

For sure. And that's a really important. That's a really important step.

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

Is that there are people, like, one thing I love to see when start like claiming, not claiming, but being drawn to the person of Jesus. Not because they're trying to be a Christian, but because they're learning about this person's life.

Andrea:

Yeah. Like this. Yeah. Not because they're people Yeah. Or save them, right?

Courtney:

Or buddha, or, like these different figures or like, you don't have, or being drawn to, Angela Davis as a white person. You're not trying to be a black panther, but this person's life has something to say, has something to communicate. Angela Davis's self-expression has something to communicate to my self-expression.

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

It's not about me being her. It's not about following her; being a disciple of her. Yeah. That's the former frequency. This frequency is how do I, as my differentiated self see this person's differentiated self and see like, okay, we, we share a value here.

Andrea:

yeah,

Courtney:

I have something to learn from this person. That doesn't mean I have to become person or worship this person.

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

It means that we're, I believe in freedom. Like, this person believes in freedom,

Andrea:

I really love, there's this connection that just came clear for me as you're describing this. I love that you mentioned the early Christians because they were seen as such a threat because community was so tight and that was, the early Christians, we think of early Christians. I mean, at least most of us think of like, well, I learned about the Gnostics who were in the south of France, right? Cathars where another group but the truth is most early Christians were brown, Early Christians in Ethiopia, early Christians in Syria, right. Our friend Azi. She shares a lot about her faith, which is like predates Greek Orthodox and Catholic. Catholic, right. It is like literal, pre like early Christian. And it just reminds me of like why it is seen as such a threat because it is such a resilient organism, this like group of humans. And the other thing that I think is worth mentioning here is that the reason why these groups were so resilient, and this ties into communal substructure, communal circuitry in human design, is that these groups honor the individual. When you look at like indigenous tribes and how resilient they were for. Like tens of thousands of years, they honor the individual in so many ways. And so the not self of communal circuitry is you cannot be yourself because it doesn't keep the tribe safe, right? And that's really like our current experience of like tribal circuitry. But the true essence of tribal circuitry is our communities are robust enough to hold us all, for all to thrive within this organization. And it is meant to be organic and everyone is meant to have different skills. And everybody's ha meant to have different things to contribute and all, everything that you contribute is worthy.

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

and that is what was so transformative about Jesus

Courtney:

everything that you are.

Andrea:

And what he created and the communities that followed him. And that was what was so transformative about indigenous tribes. I mean, that's the reason why like when you look at where some of the like foundational elements of our government came from, they came from agreements that Native tribes had within their own leadership. And then again, when women are trying to get rights, they went and they studied What did the Seneca and the Iroquois women do to be a part of the leadership?'cause they had always been a part of the leadership, right? They were always voting members. And so, really a remembering, right? It's really a remembering of like, this is what we have always done and how we have always been yet. And also I. We're having to contend with deep healing that is required to be able to get back to it because it's been violently prevented, been violently destroyed for so many hundreds of years.

Courtney:

Yes. so true. I keep thinking about language, like as you're talking, I'm thinking about language. And in many indigenous communities, they have so many different types of words to describe different types of people, In, in their, like as with dignity attached, like dignified words and ways of recognizing all the ways that people show

Andrea:

twin spirit who are non-binary or trans, right? Like twin Spirit beautiful expression of someone who holds both archetypes.

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

Like, what a more powerful way to, yeah.

Courtney:

Yeah. As opposed to and we're contrasting that now where we're literally like, like this administration is publishing lists of words that cannot be used cannot be said, yeah. And absurdity,

Andrea:

It's so funny like straight from the playbook of 500 ad. It's like it's like

Courtney:

yes.

Andrea:

what on Earth? Like why on earth would you think that would function? Like

Courtney:

right. What books are you reading?

Andrea:

When you taking us back, like where the hell are you trying to take us back Because like,

Courtney:

Listen,

Andrea:

because I'm not going back there, okay?

Courtney:

Can we define Great, please? Can we just pause real quick and define Great before we any more of this? Because America, America being great again. I need to know what you mean by great first. I already know what mean by great. That's the problem. But what I'm saying is Yeah. America being white again, so, which never was so. it, first of all never was. Second of all,

Andrea:

never was.

Courtney:

How'd that work out? Y'all brought us here, bitch on all front. So how to work out Jamestown was real white and y'all were like, this ain't working. We don't like this. And then you brought us here. So obviously this is not what we want. I think that's just like, and I'm not even like, trying to be facetious. It's

Andrea:

No, it's the reality.

Courtney:

Humans are created to be diverse. Biodiversity is how nature works. And so the reality is y'all try to do it by yourselves. Y'all white people, old, back in the day. Just bear with me for a minute I let myself fully express. Y'all tried it by yourselves and it didn't work.

Andrea:

No, got we try to quote unquote by like really dark stories. Well, this is, I mean, I think that the reason why it's so helpful to. Remember this is because by and large, those of us with Indi, with indigenous Europe ancestors, it has been literally violently extracted out of us how to be in community. Like the reason why those settlements didn't work, those people were not in community. They were trying from each other. They were not, they, were not

Courtney:

the women, children, everybody,

Andrea:

like women, the children. And there was no honoring of each individual contribution, right? Like the only pe, the only people's contribution who mattered were the powerful white men. And so really everybody else was just trying to survive and not get killed, and not get and not get injured and not have their children killed, right? And so they really like went out against each other. And the, that is the tool book that he is employing and trying to utilize again. And the honest truth is a lot of us are falling for it.

Courtney:

Right.

Andrea:

We're falling for it because we are, alienating our family members because of the way right? We are typecasting people. We are, not gonna socialize with certain people. And I have to check myself because when you look at some of the biggest problems within white communities, it's because those of us with an awareness have not built up the tools and the skills to be able to have the humanizing conversations with our families, with

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

the people that we are blood related to. So yeah, I think that unwinding so many years of, especially for those of us who are female identifying, like we were the first ones to get attacked and every single wave conquest, it was always because the women were the wisdom keepers. The women were the ones, women were the healers, women were the midwives, right? And so. We were the ones who were really keeping the communities together. And that's why like weaponizing white women against each other is such an effective tool. Even today.

Courtney:

It is. Oh yes. It's deep.

Andrea:

So, one of the things we wanted to do is like, how do we be on this healing journey? How do we learn to be in community as an act of resistance? And really like weaving in these concepts of, okay, the true self using human design, speak of community is the safety of all involved, the survival of all involved because community circuitry is really about survival and safety and support. Yes. And so really that. Survival and safety and support as it relates to everybody being able to uniquely express. And we obviously need some support in learning how to uniquely express which this frequency is going to bring us

Courtney:

It is. Yeah.

Andrea:

is already bringing us.

Courtney:

Is already bringing us And it's, I mean, and how beautiful, like I, I am I just read a really beautiful story. I mentioned it to to you before, but it was about this beautiful queer couple who went to renew their, like license information and they sat down and they were sitting across from a, an elderly white woman with a gold cross necklace on. And so. Anybody who's not residing under a rock can understand how that could be a really tense moment for both parties just names scary. Kind of yeah. moment. At least on the outside. And what ends up happening is this woman kind of reveals her own marginalized identity, I wanna say as a lightworker, as a white woman who's a Christian, but also believes in mysticism. And she named that like a lot of her Christian friends don't understand this part of her. She doesn't talk about it. So she has this marginalized identity that she's holding. then the couple in front of her they're, their defense is lower'cause they understand that we're s we are together marginalized, maybe if I create a little bit of space for this person to self-express, then they'll create a little bit of space for me to self-express. That's what created the safety Vulnerability to express oneself and then the empathy, which I think is really interesting how that is currently in the conversation right now. Especially with white Christian men saying that empathy is in any way dangerous. I mean it is, but you know, it's dangerous to white supremacy very much. But that shared moment was able, created a space for this person to be able to get their. To feel like they had choice, to feel like they had the safety to choose what was best for them in the moment. Yeah. And not only that, but it was a choice that they didn't want to make, but understand that they needed to make, because the government is what it is right now. Right. were able to have someone to grieve with them, to see that was not what they wanted, but what they needed. Honor that and grieve with them in that moment. And that, people, friends, everyone who's listening, that is real safety, that is real community. And it was small and it was, and the only reason anybody knows about it is because this person decided to tell their personal story. Yeah. There's not be a plaque to this woman probably.

Andrea:

No,

Courtney:

there's not gonna be,

Andrea:

not gonna be a headline.

Courtney:

A headline, yeah This is the small, intimate moments in your neighborhood, in your city. That's how this is built. And so I just, that was just, I feel like that was such an incredible illustration of exactly what we're trying to communicate here.

Andrea:

Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think when we think about, okay, like. How do we learn to be in community? Again, remembering that like we are the ones who have always kept us safe. Really we are the ones, right? Like there's this myth that protects us and sure, like the government creates systems and structures that allow things to scale, right? That allow services to happen on a wider scale. But in the end it has always been us who each other safe. It has never been a foreign entity outside of the community. And I think that one of the things that's challenging to remember in the digital age is just how important like the physical community is. Like even if like. My job, everything I do is online. And so easy to like get really wrapped up in that digital space without recognizing we need to be in aura with each other. Like we need to have this interaction. And even like being on a Zoom call, you are sharing auras. It's different because it's not physical, right? But even being on a telephone, like there are so many different ways to be in Aura with each other that help kind of move the energy and help with just the cycle of the cycle of creation that we're all a part of at all times, right? Like we're all our energies are going into, whether that's like creation of, new solutions for problems in your neighborhood. Or like for us, like we have a cycle of creation around the different services and offerings that we're bringing around human design and astrology. Right? Each of these areas of our life are going through a creative process and our auras are a big part of that.

Courtney:

Yes. I love that. I I just finished reading Bell Hooks All About Love, which, i, now I know why people, I have some good friends who read it every year, and I think I'm gonna make that a practice too. But one thing she was talking about and a message from the Working Families Party said something similar. Is that, like, something about being in small towns and small communities. I happen to live in a smaller town in North Carolina, and it's the care that people have for each other that really informs our local government. So it's like a closeness, it's a sense of like, how I treat you, whether it's politeness or just, it's waving at the kids as they to school. Of responsibility. Respect kindness and responsibility. That's what actually informs. What our government is and working party said, like the government's ours. This us and them idea concept around government is actually quite new, especially federal government. It's very much a Reagan era construct. Yeah. Yeah. Like government is foreign entity. Our government is not a foreign entity. Yeah. like our government is us. And

Andrea:

And we know this because it's made up of our neighbors. Like, I have several neighbor neighbors work for the CDC. I have other neighbors who work for the Fed, like it's made up of the people within our community.

Courtney:

It is And so when we. And things like, citizens United

Andrea:

And the infusion just incredible amounts of money that we don't have access to. Yeah.

Courtney:

not the top 1% that has, fueled the forgetting of this.

Andrea:

Yeah yeah. And of course they're rigging the elections and everything like that to be dependent on money so that they can to control.

Courtney:

exactly. Because they know that the government is us. And

Andrea:

And that's what they're most afraid of is we realize that the government is us.

Courtney:

Exactly. Exactly.

Andrea:

You I love this because I've been, so to get back to what you can do, like what are the things you can do right to strength start community. If you don't have you might need to start one. Strengthen your community if you have one. And also just really start to build resistance and resilience within your community. So, one of the things is recognizing that we're each gonna show up uniquely within community.

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

because of our human design. Like some of us are more. Some of us have more communion, communal circuitry, and so we're gonna be bringing small groups of people together. We're gonna be entertaining, we're gonna have you having people over others have pure individual circuitry. And so you're gonna be just waving your freak flag and in whatever newness needs to come into the world, right? You bring interest, you bring creativity, you bring

Courtney:

New perspective

Andrea:

new perspective, so many things that individual expression brings in. And then others of us, like you and me, have the more collective circuitry. And so we're seeing, okay, what's happening in other community groups and what can we learn from them? What's working, what's not working? Can we be a part of like a bigger movement because of how strong our community is? Things like that. Yeah. So like remembering that. And then also we really do have to get to the work of healing. Like

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

You mentioned, embracing your uniqueness. Like without each of us being our true selves, we actually can't create a true self community. It's not possible.

Courtney:

It's true. It's yes. Yes. A prerequisite of having true self community is us doing the individual work of being our true selves. It's true.

Andrea:

So you have follow your strategy and authority. You really have to follow your strategy and authority and you can't force it. But at the same time, we also have to like really work on our ability to receive. I like that is a major block for those of us who've been indoctrinated by white supremacy illusion and specifically I think it's, I think it hits everyone because we all absorb that conditioning force. But those of us with, hundreds of years of European ancestry, like was dangerous to receive. Like it really actually was, you were targeted and potentially harmed or, shipped away or, all of these things like if you didn't fit that conformity. And so really like honoring, I work with Mary Beth Bonfilio and she talks a lot about our ancestry from like a European ancestry healing lens. And honoring the resiliency of those ancestors and honoring.

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

The people who did suffer and the people who made it work anyway, and the things that they did that were maybe uncouth or like looked bad, like, children had outta wedlock or, all kinds of things happened because we were human

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

point blank, and the more that we can normalize whatever they suffered and transmute it, then we can start to remember what it feels like to be vulnerable in those spaces. Because it's really what it gets down to, right? Like

Courtney:

That's so true.

Andrea:

The trauma response prevents you from being able to receive, because you are constantly giving to try to secure your place within the community. But then that feels gross. It's like, I don't want you to always be giving to me because then we're not in reciprocity. We're not, there's not like actual communing happening here, right?

Courtney:

right. It's so true. I love that you said that having babies outta wedlock because it's like. The babies came first and idea wedlock came second Right? I mean, baby is always celebration. Like, creating a new life, I be

Andrea:

until colonization! and and

Courtney:

we until colonization. But what I'm saying is we overlaid oppression and we overlaid shame and we overlaid ostracization on top of something that was always supposed to be a positive celebratory and a beautiful miracle. Children are miracles, and found a way to drain the miraculous out of this with the desire control and I think it's just reminding ourselves that these realities over and over again. I think education is really important part all of this too when it comes to building community is like the remembering feel keeps coming up over and again, course,'cause I have the channel that makes me wanna remember re you know, and

Andrea:

I know, I have it too.

Courtney:

like, right. Yeah, exactly We both have that so it's the remembering is so important to remember that like, human, we are older than these systems.

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

Our existence older than the systems and so we get to decide what's working and what's not.

Andrea:

Yeah, we do! And we that. And we we have the responsibility to remember the joyful pieces and also remember the hard pieces. And in some ways, like you mentioned. The birth of a baby is always a celebration, but in many cases, like the birth of a baby led to violence. The birth of a baby led to harm, led to a lot of problems. And so, led to babies being taken away. I mean, there were so many ways that the birth of a baby was then weaponized. And so just like honoring our ancestors and being honest and being like, yeah, you're right. That was really crappy, like, and scary. And I am now like bringing this DNA imprint forward to today where I can re-embrace that the birth of a baby is sacred and maybe some of, yes, Maybe some of that control mechanism is why the zealots, I'm not even gonna call it the Republican party'cause I don't think it's the whole party, but there's a certain group within our country who is, and not just our country, but you know, in each of these countries who is like trying to control babies being born again. And it's like, sorry dude. That ship sailed. Like babies being celebrated is back and it's never going away again. Okay. And decide when and how that's gonna happen so that we can actually provide a loving and caring existence for them. So anyway,

Courtney:

yeah. Yeah.

Andrea:

I do think that like learning to receive help really doing the healing work to feel safe receiving help and then also learning how to repair.

Courtney:

Yes. Yeah. I oh man, that was perfect segue. One thing I really want to, you've mentioned a lot about European ancestry and something that helped me a lot in healing my black identity and reconciling. The painful, the more painful parts of my heritage is Dr. Joy Dere.

Andrea:

Yes.

Courtney:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Post-Traumatic slave syndrome. That book is really important. It's a very important resource I suggest for every single, especially black person with ancestry that was enslaved. But if you aren't, because you are still having an American black experience, even if you're not black American, you know what I mean? If you're not like descendant slaves, you're still. You're gonna have that experience here of being treated such. And so I think important thing to look into, but

Andrea:

yeah, and I think anybody who's in community with

Courtney:

Absolutely.

Andrea:

who have experienced that oppression, right? Because it gets back to, again, what you're talking about, gets back to the epigenetics, gets back to yes. The the trauma that was carried out over 400 years. Like it was intentional and targeted and it created these neural nervous system pathways within

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

bodies, right? That uphold a oppressive systems, those neural pathways,

Courtney:

Yes. Like you, why we do some of things we do, why we experience anxiety in certain situations. Why we avoid certain spaces. Things that our bodies our brains do. That's why strategy and authority so important because there that our brains do and say that are disembodied in sense that like we might not understand exactly where that came from. But resources like post-traumatic slave syndrome and others, there's other things especially for white identifying folks that Andrea, you've shared throughout a lot the podcasts we both have. Help you become more aware of the ways that our minds have absorbed the conditioning

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

generations, not just of our own singular lifetime. And how our strategy and authority can really help us to overcome that and to create new neural pathways and connections to heal and repair Those harms.

Andrea:

Yeah. And I think what is really important about understanding each of these different types of ways that we've been conditioned is, so, for example, this post-traumatic slave syndrome is so important to understand in our current communities so that we can get to that point of full expression. Because again it is just ways that not self survival mechanisms were woven into who you thought you were.

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

And when you bring awareness to, oh, this is actually a normal response. To awful violence and oppression, then you can give yourself freedom to say, okay, well I don't wanna be in that response and this is how I can know through my strategy and authority that I'm not in that response anymore. Right. And it's an unlayering like I've had the privilege of witnessing this unlayering for you of like, really what is natural for me? And listening to your sacral and just understanding, oh, like this way that I thought was me is not me. Right. And I can be safe. And myself, again, getting back to like that inner child, inner being safety that we talked about a couple episodes to really like stand up to the source of those patterns in my life. Like the work that you have done with your parents, right. And with other ancestors of like, I understand why you did what you did and I don't agree with it and I'm not gonna do it.

Courtney:

Yeah.

Andrea:

And that is actually the most life altering work within community. Right? Because then the community gets the benefit of your full self.

Courtney:

Yes. Yes. And that contains the most benefit for everyone.

Andrea:

Yes

Courtney:

Something Tricia Hershe said really recently which it stopped me in my tracks, so much her work does. But she says I don't pour from my cup. I fill my own cup, the overflow's for everyone else. I was like, excuse me. That flies against everything I've been taught to this point. That I'm supposed to just be pouring pour. Then I fill, fill. And then I pour, pour, and then fill it up again and back and forth. And and I'm like, wait a Like, yeah that definitely works too. Works a little better for me, honestly. Right. If you think about it, like, what if the cup never has to be empty? I'm not saying it won't ever be empty, sure. Sure But the fact that my cup doesn't even have to get close to empty? I don't like. Or half?. Like I don't think that's, I can really allow the overflow and that's the most beneficial thing. Like being your differentiated self, it's not just beneficial. It the most beneficial. There's so much waiting to be offered.

Andrea:

Yeah.

Courtney:

In us that first has to be embraced. Yeah. Like, it can't be offered until it's embraced. And so like, I feel that in my head like, that's what a half, full or half empty looks like. It's a half embraced self. Working with like half a deck of cards, you're working half pallet of paint. You're ha you're working like half of the musical scale, you can create some beautiful stuff there, but it's not nearly what

Andrea:

not gonna be.

Courtney:

Yeah. And like, but you have to embrace it first. And that,

Andrea:

I love that

Courtney:

is the work. That's the work.

Andrea:

Yeah. And I feel like that is really what has been so empowering for me, just circling back to this community defense network or support network of just like recognizing, okay, we have a bunch of vulnerable people in our neighborhood. Particularly for me, it's within my son's school. And I think because I am like wanting for us to humanize this experience of like we're all going through this trauma together. I'm not interested in like creating something that's gonna homogenize or incite fear or anything like that, But we can really, I. We can be a huge help for each other. We can do very mundane things like pick up each other's kids. or, take a kid to the park while their parent has an interview or, so, so many people are affected in our community, whether or not they work for the federal government. I mentioned a few of the places that people work or like their work is federally funded. A couple of people lost their jobs Within Our community who their work was federally funded at Georgia State and other universities in the area, Emory. And then we have a huge refugee population, a huge immigrant population. They're obviously under attack. And then we also have a very large black and brown community who are constantly over policed, who are constantly dealing with strife within, the way their communities are being attacked. And so, I was really grateful to, read about this community support network and then be able to come at it from this lens of like, everybody's gonna be contributing different things, and the most like, mundane things are the things that people are most in need of. And so,

Courtney:

right.

Andrea:

We will share the, I'm gonna find the substack and we'll share it in the show notes. But I just wanna encourage everybody to go through the process they need to go through, which we've been, describing on this podcast, that individual process of healing, being able to receive, understanding the background of things, but then also take action and start really trying to strengthen the communities that you're in or start new ones if you see a gap, because that's really the act of resistance that's going to help us weather this apocalypse we're living in. Which apocalypse by the way, just means"unveiling" in Greek. That's the root of the word, and we are going through a massive unveiling of like,

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

these are the intentions that were there the whole time. These are the intentions that were there the whole time.

Courtney:

Absolutely. One of my favorite quotes, Assata Shakur quote, revolution is about change. And the first place change begins is in yourself. She would know, I love

Andrea:

Individualized circuitry. Yeah.

Courtney:

Individualized. So, yes, exactly. It, it begins in ourselves that, and there's no community without vulnerability. So we're all, we all need and we all have something give. And a matter of us trusting, falling in love with and trusting that reality and embracing it. So.

Andrea:

Yeah. And valuing what that thing is that you have to give. From a humanist perspective versus a capitalistic perspective.

Courtney:

Yes.

Andrea:

I really think valuing each of the aspects of the human experience is a big part of our healing right now, because that's the only way we're gonna make time for it. That's the only way that we're gonna see it as something that we should be doing is if we can reshuffle those values. Very Venus retrograde.

Courtney:

Yes, it is. it is. Oh my goodness. So good. And very Aries season

Andrea:

So good.

Courtney:

Which is a couple days away.

Andrea:

Yes, we're in it. So good. Are oh, all as usual. good one. Leave us your notes and your comments and please be in community with us because that's why we're here. We love you guys so much,

Courtney:

All right. Have beautiful one. Until next time.

Andrea:

until next time.

Courtney Napier:

Thank you so much for tuning in to HD and Liberation podcast. We hope you've gained valuable insights into human design and its role in building a life of peace, success, satisfaction, and wonder. If you've enjoyed this episode, please show your support by liking, following, and sharing our podcast. on YouTube, or your favorite podcast platform. Your engagement helps us reach more people who can benefit from this wisdom. For exclusive content and to join our thriving community, consider becoming a Patreon member. Your support allows us to continue exploring the depths of human design and its potential for life and community transformation. Stay tuned for more fun, thoughtful, and impacting discussions. Together, we're unlocking the path to a more liberated and authentic life. Thank you for being a part of HD and Liberation Podcast. This is the end of the video.

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Andrea Ward Berg

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Courtney Napier

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