Understand the two paths of human experience — and how to break free from the cycles that keep you stuck.
⚖️ THE 18 CIRCLES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
A quick overview of each dual state — one shadow, one light.
| Shadow (Descent) | Description (Shadow) | Light (Ascent) | Description (Light) |
|---|---|---|---|
| LIMBO | Feeling lost or numb, just surviving. | AWAKENING | A spark of awareness — the sense that there’s more to life. |
| LUST | Chasing fulfillment through others or external pleasure. | PASSION | Purpose-driven energy that flows from within. |
| GLUTTONY | Overconsuming to fill emotional or spiritual emptiness. | BALANCE | Knowing when enough is enough — creating space and calm. |
| GREED | Constant desire for more — money, control, validation. | GRATITUDE | Feeling full by honoring what you already have. |
| WRATH | Rage, resentment, or emotional chaos. | PEACE | Calm presence and inner strength, even under pressure. |
| DISCONNECTION | Feeling isolated from self, others, or purpose. | CLARITY | Realignment of thought and feeling — the fog begins to clear. |
| VIOLENCE | Lashing out from pain — destructive force inward or outward. | CREATIVE POWER | Channeling emotion into something that builds and transforms. |
| FRAUD | Living behind a mask — hiding your truth. | AUTHENTICITY | Being fully yourself, even when it’s uncomfortable. |
| TREACHERY | Betrayal of trust — in self or others. | TRUST | Rebuilding connection through honesty and consistency. |
SECTION 1: THE DUAL MIND
The Psychology Behind the Circles
“These circles aren’t places. They’re mental loops we fall into — and rise out of. The way out starts by seeing the pattern.”
🔻 CIRCLE Set 1: LIMBO → 🔺 AWAKENING
The Shadow Loop (Limbo):
You feel like you’re drifting. No real joy, no deep pain — just numb. Every day blends into the next. You’re alive, but not living.
Why It Sticks:
The brain gets used to survival mode. If nothing is terrible, it convinces you there’s no need to change. But deep down, there’s a hunger for more.
The Shift (Awakening):
Ask: “What if this isn’t all there is?”
Even the smallest crack of curiosity can shatter the fog. Triggers: vision casting, future pacing, “what if” questions.
Visual Cue:
Like walking through fog and suddenly seeing a distant light flicker. It doesn’t guide you yet — but now you know it’s there.
🔻 CIRCLE Set 2: LUST → 🔺 PASSION
The Shadow Loop (Lust):
You chase moments — people, pleasures, highs. But every hit fades. You feel empty again. So you chase harder.
Why It Sticks:
Your mind ties love or worth to getting something outside yourself. Dopamine loops form, keeping the hunger alive.
The Shift (Passion):
Reframe: “What can I create instead of crave?”
NLP tip: Anchor to internal desire — not for attention, but for expression. Move from needing to sharing.
Visual Cue:
A fire that once burned wild and scattered is now focused — like a torch lighting your path, not burning it down.
🔻 CIRCLE Set 3: GLUTTONY → 🔺 BALANCE
The Shadow Loop (Gluttony):
You consume — food, info, drama, noise — but you’re still unsatisfied. You feel heavy, foggy, and overstimulated.
Why It Sticks:
The brain uses consumption to avoid discomfort. Each hit of “more” delays facing what’s missing underneath.
The Shift (Balance):
Reframe: “What am I filling, and what do I actually need?”
NLP tool: Pattern interrupt + conscious pause = return to center.
Visual Cue:
A cup overflowing, spilling everywhere… until you stop pouring and simply sip what you need.
🔻 CIRCLE Set 4: GREED → 🔺 GRATITUDE
The Shadow Loop (Greed):
You feel like there’s never enough. Every win feels hollow. You constantly compare, always reaching, never arriving.
Why It Sticks:
The mind confuses safety with accumulation. It forgets to feel. It just wants “more.”
The Shift (Gratitude):
Ask: “What do I already have that I haven’t honored?”
Stack micro-moments of appreciation to reset focus.
Visual Cue:
A hand always grabbing becomes a hand open to receive — and in that openness, it finds peace.
🔻 CIRCLE Set 5: WRATH → 🔺 PEACE
The Shadow Loop (Wrath):
You hold tight to anger. It feels powerful, maybe even righteous — but it burns you more than anyone else.
Why It Sticks:
Anger protects vulnerability. It masks hurt. The brain chooses rage over pain because it feels safer.
The Shift (Peace):
Ask: “What’s beneath this?”
Use anchoring: connect to calm, resourceful emotional states. Dissociate from the trigger, then respond.
Visual Cue:
A storming sea that eventually stills — revealing your reflection in its calm surface.
🔻 CIRCLE Set 6: DISCONNECTION → 🔺 CLARITY
The Shadow Loop (Disconnection):
You feel detached — from others, from yourself, from life’s meaning. You’re floating without a compass.
Why It Sticks:
Disconnection is often a trauma response. The mind shuts out the world to protect itself. But healing never starts that way.
The Shift (Clarity):
Reframe: “What’s one truth I know right now?”
Small reconnections lead to bigger clarity. Sensory awareness + present-state activation.
Visual Cue:
Like fog on glass being wiped away — slowly revealing what’s always been behind it.
🔻 CIRCLE Set 7: VIOLENCE → 🔺 CREATIVE POWER
The Shadow Loop (Violence):
You lash out. Maybe at others. Maybe at yourself. It feels like you’re constantly at war.
Why It Sticks:
Pain unexpressed becomes destruction. The brain directs chaos somewhere — if not transmuted, it erupts.
The Shift (Creative Power):
Ask: “How can I express this without harm?”
Use NLP reframing: turn tension into fuel for art, movement, building, speaking.
Visual Cue:
Like converting raw fire into electricity — from destruction to direction.
🔻 CIRCLE Set 8: FRAUD → 🔺 AUTHENTICITY
The Shadow Loop (Fraud):
You wear masks. Pretend. Say what’s expected. It keeps you safe — but exhausted and unseen.
Why It Sticks:
The fear of rejection teaches the mind to perform. But the cost is connection — with others and with self.
The Shift (Authenticity):
Reframe: “What would I say if I weren’t afraid?”
Future-pace identity — act from the self you’re becoming, not the self others expect.
Visual Cue:
Like taking off heavy armor — scary at first, but suddenly, you can breathe.
🔻 CIRCLE Set 9: TREACHERY → 🔺 TRUST
The Shadow Loop (Treachery):
You expect betrayal — or become the one who betrays first. Trust feels dangerous. So does letting others in.
Why It Sticks:
The mind avoids what hurt before. It builds walls, even when it longs for bridges.
The Shift (Trust):
Ask: “What would happen if I let go just a little?”
NLP suggestion: Use layered trust-building — with yourself first. Micro-promises lead to macro healing.
Visual Cue:
A wall slowly crumbling… until it becomes a doorway.
SECTION 2: How the Ancients Escaped the Inner Hells
What if the wisdom we need has always been here — hidden in plain sight?
The journey through the 18 Circles isn’t new. Long before psychology and neuroscience gave us language for patterns and loops, ancient people understood them through symbols, rituals, and inner work.
Let’s look at how the ancients — across different cultures — escaped their own inner hells and climbed toward the light.
🌀 THE TAO – FLOW OVER FORCE
The Tao Te Ching teaches us that imbalance comes from pushing against the flow of life. It doesn’t call it gluttony or wrath — but the same message runs deep:
“The more rules and prohibitions, the more thieves and robbers.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 57)
Instead of fighting pain, the Tao teaches us to observe, align, and let go.
A person trapped in Wrath finds peace not by suppressing anger, but by understanding its movement — and letting it pass without clinging.
Modern Echo: This is emotional regulation. Acceptance. Conscious breathing.
Ancient Message: “Be like water.”
🔺 HERMETICISM – AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
The Hermetic teachings were all about correspondence: that what happens within is reflected without.
They understood the idea of “loops” long ago — they just called them vibrations, mentalism, and polarity.
If you lived in the circle of Greed, it wasn’t just about money — it meant your inner world was dominated by lack. The fix wasn’t more gain… it was inner transmutation.
“To change your reality, change your mind.”
Modern Echo: Cognitive reframing. Inner narrative shifts.
Ancient Message: “All is mental. Master the mind, master the world.”
GNOSTICISM – THE FORGETTING AND THE REMEMBERING
Gnostics believed the soul was trapped in a world of illusion — a sort of prison of layers. Their journey wasn’t to become something new, but to remember who they really were beneath the distortion.
Each circle of hell could be seen as a veil — a layer of forgetting.
Each light-side circle was a step in remembering the self as divine.
“The kingdom is within you and all around you, but you do not see it.”
This mirrors the Limbo → Awakening transition more than anything. We’ve just forgotten. And awakening is the first flash of truth through the veil.
Modern Echo: Shadow work, identity recovery, inner child healing.
Ancient Message: “You are not broken. You are buried.”
🔮 EGYPT – THE WEIGHING OF THE HEART
In ancient Egypt, the soul’s worth wasn’t judged by sin — it was weighed against the feather of Ma’at, the principle of truth and balance.
If your heart was heavy — with guilt, wrath, betrayal — you couldn’t ascend.
But this wasn’t a fear-based punishment system. It was a metaphor for emotional purification. A soul had to be light enough to rise.
“I have not caused pain. I have not lied. I have not betrayed.”
Every circle of shadow adds weight to the heart.
Every ascent into light brings it closer to that feather.
Modern Echo: Releasing shame. Healing relationships. Forgiveness.
Ancient Message: “To rise, unburden your heart.”
🕯️ PSALMS (AND SONGS OF CODE)
As we’ve uncovered in The Frequency of the River series, even texts carry encoded instructions.
Psalms often begin in shadow — fear, despair, betrayal — but rise toward trust, clarity, and unity. These aren’t religious poems. They’re maps in disguise.
Take Song 1 (our decoded Psalm 1):
It starts with “what not to do” — the descent. Then it gives us the law, the structure, the key to growth.
“He is like a tree planted by the waters…”
Rooted. Balanced. Fed by truth.
Modern Echo: Mental programming, foundational values, discipline.
Ancient Message: “Structure heals what chaos damages.”
🔐 FINAL THREAD
What all these ancient systems knew — in their own way — is this:
You don’t escape hell by running.
You escape by remembering who you are.
They used myths, symbols, rituals, and poetry to transmit what we’re now mapping in psychology.
It’s not one or the other. It’s both.
And now, we see it clearly.
SECTION 3: The Inner Map Remembered
This isn’t a map you learn. It’s a map you remember.
You’ve just walked through the duality of shadow and light — 18 circles of consciousness that shape how we think, act, and feel.
Each one is real.
Each one can trap you.
Each one can free you.
But this isn’t just a guide. It’s a mirror. And if you’ve made it this far, you’re already doing something most people never do:
You’re looking inside.
Now, here’s the deeper message — a decode and code hidden in the design.
THE MESSAGE WITHIN THE CIRCLES
You were never lost.
Only buried in layers.
One for every fear.
One for every lie you were told.
One for every time you chose silence over truth.The descent was never punishment.
It was a map.A spiral.
And now you’ve seen it — not just the fall,
But the climb.You’ve seen that anger is pain with armor.
That need is love with a wound.
That masks don’t protect — they disconnect.You’ve seen that peace isn’t passive.
That gratitude is power.
That clarity is what happens when you stop running.You are not broken.
You are layered.And when you walk the circles,
You don’t escape hell —You outgrow it.
🔥 For Those Who Understand:
The quiet echo of wisdom that now holds weight.
“Some climb. Some fall.
But some — some learn to be centered.
These are the creators. The magicians.
The ones who form the world around them.”
“Am I one of them?”
If you felt something in this message — something real — pass it on.
Someone out there is still walking through the fire, looking for a light.
Let them find it through you.