“One of the primary issues in our current culture is that we actively support and worship inflated egos. We are in an epidemic of narcissism, which ties into what Krishnamurti said about pathology becoming normalized.

It also ties into a book written in 1979 called The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch, where he argued that America was shifting away from a culture built on genuine achievement and community toward one increasingly defined by self-absorption and a desperate need for external validation.

He also talked about how our culture has lost its shared moral framework, meaning its connection to history and a sense of genuine community, which has left people starving for meaning. Modern cults promise relief and offer an escape from the slow, painful work of being with your wounds and limitations.

Carl Jung also pointed this out in his own way, talking about how an absence of relationship with God, the transcendental, has led people into worshiping the world or themselves as substitutes for God.

Now, in spiritual terms, you can receive a download, get a DNA upgrade, or dissolve into oneness and bypass all of it. The idea of transformation gets sold instead of the real thing.”

-Bernhard Guenther

Episode 177 – Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual Psychosis?

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2026/06/27/spiritual-awakening-or-spiritual-psychosis-tcm-177-part-1

@timeoftransition

“To understand the spiritual war, you first have to understand yourself. Benevolent and malevolent beings are constantly influencing us, higher forces and lower forces, and what you are influenced by all depends on your level of consciousness and being. The more unconscious you are, either through trauma, wounding, taking drugs regularly, consuming violent media, or simply being identified with a false self, the more you are influenced by evil forces. The more you do psychological inner work to clear out what is in the way of your connection to God and have a consistent spiritual practice with prayer, the more you can align with benevolent forces and be more discerning when the malevolent ones try to infect you. Spiritual warriors have done the work to be in connection with the true self and anchor its connection with the higher self.

In a spiritual war, our greatest warriors are conscious individuals with self-awareness and a connection to God.”

-Laura Matuse

Enrollment is now OPEN for Mastering Spiritual Warfare, a 10-week spiritual warrior training in discernment, protection, and divine alignment. Click here to learn more and apply, https://www.masteringspiritualwarfare.com

Episode 119, Part 2 - Beginner’s Guide to Occult Forces

To listen to this exclusive podcast, check the link below to sign up for our private membership section, where you will have access to over 175+ hours of *uncensored* podcasts where we dive much deeper and speak about topics that we can’t speak about on social media anymore.

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@timeoftransition

The most dangerous forms of tyranny rarely announce themselves as tyranny.

They arrive dressed as fairness, compassion, equality, sharing, and “social responsibility.”

My latest article addresses one of the most common arguments I keep hearing: that socialism is really just about fairness, sharing, and people being responsible for each other.

Read the full article here:
https://bernhardguenther.substack.com/p/the-shadow-behind-social-responsibility

“If you look around our culture, it’s extremely common to see positive projections turn into negative ones. ​This happens whenever we put ​someone ​on ​a ​pedestal ​and ​then ​discover ​that ​they're ​actually ​a ​flawed ​human, ​or ​that ​they ​have ​traits ​that ​don't ​match ​up ​to ​the ​projected ​idea ​of ​who ​we ​thought they were.

The ​positive ​projections ​tend ​to ​turn ​to ​completely ​negative at that point, and​ we feel a desire to take that person ​down. ​They are ​the best in the world one moment, ​and ​they're the worst thing in the world the next.

It’s ​a ​disorientating ​experience when ​the ​reversal ​happens in a relationship, ​whether ​you're ​on ​the ​receiving ​end ​or ​you ​are ​the ​one​ projecting, ​because ​someone ​you ​loved ​and ​you ​felt ​was ​the ​most ​amazing ​thing ​in ​the ​world, ​suddenly becomes ​someone ​you ​despise.

This happens when the person carrying your inner ​gold ​has ​disappointed ​or ​hurt ​you ​in ​some ​way, ​or maybe they're simply too human to live up to this idealized person you expected them to be.

When the ​projection ​falls, ​the ​gold, which is ​emotionally charged ​with ​all ​of ​your ​deepest ​longings ​and ​unlived ​life, ​turns ​into ​resentment.

As Robert ​Johnson ​said, “If ​someone ​has ​your ​gold, ​or even if you just think they have taken your gold, and ​then ​they ​displease ​you, ​you might become furious.” This ​happens ​all ​the ​time.

It’s important to catch ourselves at this point and realize it’s the end of the projection falling, because if we don’t, we often fall into a power struggle.”

-Laura Matsue

Episode 173 – Why We Put People on Pedestals: The Golden Shadow

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2026/04/18/why-we-put-people-on-pedestals-the-golden-shadow-tcm-173-part-1

@timeoftransition

“If you still believe that “waking up” is just about exposing conspiracies and arresting all the “bad guys,” or eliminating evil externally, you are severely mistaken. Nor is it about ignoring evil, taking the philosophical “non-duality” bypass, and focusing only on “love and light."

All of these assumptions reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of evil, particularly its cosmic function as a force of ignorance, and what is truly required to eliminate it for good. You cannot move toward a higher consciousness until you have sincerely faced the darkness, both within yourself and in the world.

Anything less is avoidance. Anything less becomes a spiritual persona, a mask made of beautiful words, quotes, and ideas about what you think it means to be “spiritual.”

This is one of the core problems in New Age and pop-spirituality today. It also mirrors the deeper corruption of religion and the loss of esoteric truth in modern spirituality. God is peace. But God is also war.

No one escapes the Law of Ascent and Descent, not the individual, and not the collective. I’ve explored this before in my work, and its effects are becoming more apparent and intense in our current time.

It requires a descent into darkness before there can be a real ascent into embodied higher consciousness. The nature of true transformation is a battle, but its successful outcome is glorious, magnificent, and beyond what the mind can comprehend.

That’s why the spiritual warrior who serves the Divine with sincerity, humility, and courage, without blame or complaint, and who is rooted in the true Self and aligned with purpose through sincere psycho-spiritual work, does more to uplift humanity and the collective consciousness than millions who fight shadows on the wall, unaware of the deeper forces.”

-Bernhard Guenther

Enrollment is now OPEN for Mastering Spiritual Warfare, a 10-week spiritual warrior training in discernment, protection, and divine alignment. Click here to learn more and apply, https://www.masteringspiritualwarfare.com

@timeoftransition

I just published an article on earthbound spirits, distorted beliefs about the afterlife, the growing “don’t go into the light” narrative, and the spiritual crisis of our time.

It also connects to my re-uploaded conversation with Thomas Mayer on The Cosmic Matrix Podcast, where we explore the afterlife, the “excarnation jam,” transhumanism, and why spiritual orientation during life is essential.

https://bernhardguenther.substack.com/p/what-if-death-does-not-automatically

“The best way to have chronically low self-esteem is to tie your worth to external things - how you look, how much money you make, how many likes or followers you get on social media, or what others think of you.

These are all unstable, ever-changing, and fragile anchors to place your self-worth upon. It makes your self-worth dependent on things outside of you, which is not where true self-worth comes from.

Your true worth is intrinsic. It's the essence of who you are when you're connected to your authentic self. It doesn't need validation from the outside world to prove itself. It simply is.

When you realize that, your self-worth becomes stable. Decouple your self-worth from external things, and you will realize how precious you really are.”

-Laura Matsue

Episode 163 – A Guide to the Path of Individuation

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2025/10/15/a-guide-to-the-path-of-individuation-tcm-163-part-1

@timeoftransition

“We're at the very beginning, the seed moment of the Saturn-Neptune cycle, the start of a much longer 36-year cycle, which is unique because it occurs at 0 degrees Aries, the beginning of the zodiac. Which is why many astrologers view this as a profound reset point, not just another Saturn-Neptune conjunction.

These Saturn-Neptune transits can be a big reality check because they confront us with mortality, the illusions we've been holding, the ways we've been lying to ourselves, or an old dream that can no longer sustain us has to die.

I've noticed this process can get distorted in either direction; we can go too far with Saturn and become cynical, depressed, pessimistic, or black-pilled, a very negative, nihilistic, hopeless worldview. Or we can go too far into Neptune and become increasingly detached from reality, lost in fantasy, ideologies, wishful thinking, or delusions.

The challenge with the Saturn-Neptune conjunction, which we're still working on, is finding integration between the two. Saturn gives the form, and Neptune gives the vision.

Saturn and Neptune can help us ground dreams in reality, which means we have to be willing to face reality. Many of us are being presented with an opportunity for a new beginning, a new version of ourselves, or a new relationship with our purpose.

So the question with the Saturn-Neptune conjunction is: who are we when this old dream falls apart, or this old order collapses? What remains when the identities we once relied on dissolve? And how can we become more aligned with this new self that is trying to emerge?”

-Laura Matsue

Episode 178 – The Astrology Of Civilization’s Next Turning Point: The Basket Formation

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2026/07/12/the-astrology-of-civilizations-next-turning-point-the-basket-formation-tcm-178-part-1

@timeoftransition

“Anyone who irritates or annoys you, who keeps “living rent-free” in your head, who you keep talking shit about, gossiping about, calling all kinds of names, especially through oversimplified “all bad” perceptions and over-generalized labels, who you talk smack about on social media and can’t let go of, is a mirror of your own shadow.

It is the part of yourself you deny, avoid, and only see in the person who irritates you. It is unconscious, and by its very nature, your ego personality will justify, rationalize, and defend the projections.

These projections will often be supported by others who carry the same shadow and engage in the loosh feast, making you feel better and justified in this shadow dance. This is the basis of mob cancel culture and, on occult levels, what entities feed off.

Retrieving projections is difficult because it feels so much better and more justified to project, especially for the wounded inner child that was never seen or given the love it needed. Unconscious envy and jealousy are also the basis for most negative shadow projections.

Retrieving projections can be painful, yet also deeply humbling. You begin to realize, on an embodied, visceral level, that what irritated and annoyed you, and what you disliked the most in the other person, is you staring back at yourself, begging to be integrated.

Shadow integration leads you to your true Self and frees your daimon, your creative spirit, talents, and gifts you never realized you had. Without it, there is no individuation, no love, and no awakening.”

-Bernhard Guenther

Episode 95, Part 2 - Learn How to Do Shadow Work on Social Media

To listen to this exclusive podcast, check the link below to sign up for our private membership section, where you will have access to over 175+ hours of *uncensored* podcasts where we dive much deeper and speak about topics that we can’t speak about on social media anymore.

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@timeoftransition

In my recent interview on the Wild Sovereign Soul podcast, I talk about the essence of Spiritual Warfare, the necessity of inner differentiation, and why it is the most important part of psychospiritual work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIhokymeTmM

“One ​of the themes I find most important, ​and exemplary of Neptune-Pluto, is the integration of the psychological and spiritual. Psychospiritual ​is ​the ​perfect ​word ​for ​Neptune ​and ​Pluto. ​Pluto: ​psycho and Neptune: ​spiritual.

I feel this is the opportunity with this Neptune-Pluto sextile, because without psychological work, spirituality and religion can easily become ways of suppressing what is unconscious and wounded within us.

We can use our spiritual beliefs to avoid our pain, deny our shadow, and project what's disowned within ourselves onto someone out there. This dynamic has fueled countless religious conflicts throughout history. ​We can see this today in the rise of dogmatic religion and the potential for religious or holy wars that could arise from this.

If we focus only on psychology without spirituality, we explore the depths without connecting to the heights. We look at our wounds, traumas, and unconscious, but we never connect them to a larger sense of meaning or relationship to God. Most of us and humanity need both.

We're also going to witness an unconscious expression of this aspect. We're going to see the collective unconscious, the collective shadow, become fuel for more mass delusions and collective hysteria.

But it is an opportunity for a transformation of consciousness, and that's what will change the world. But if we're unwilling to look within, face our depths, confront our shadows, the doors of perception, Neptune, will remain clouded by unconscious material, to borrow the phrase popularized by Huxley.

So this opportunity before us is not technological, political, or social; it's really psychological and spiritual. We're entering a period of profound potential psychospiritual transformation.

This is not going to be the dominant story of the masses; we have this splitting in consciousness. There will be people who become more lost and disconnected from themselves, especially as technology takes over, but it will be an underlying theme for those actively engaged in their own evolution of consciousness.”

-Laura Matsue

Episode 178 – The Astrology Of Civilization’s Next Turning Point: The Basket Formation

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2026/07/12/the-astrology-of-civilizations-next-turning-point-the-basket-formation-tcm-178-part-1

@timeoftransition

“From an occult and esoteric perspective, thinking you’re awake while lost in delusion is more dangerous than being asleep without pretending to be awake. Overestimating your level of consciousness and inflating your identity through labels like starseed, gridworker, lightworker, or indigo creates a false sense of specialness.

This blocks the humility needed for sincere, grounded psycho-spiritual work, which is the foundation of real awakening. Your true soul-being is not identified with any labels; only the ego is.

The spiritual ego is harder to break than the ego of someone still asleep in the matrix. This is the root of spiritual narcissism, which is becoming increasingly common.

The illusion of being special or chosen becomes a mask for unresolved childhood wounds, insecurity, and unhealed trauma.

Whether it’s claiming to be an ambassador for ET races, a chosen contactee for the Galactic Federation, a starseed on a special mission, or a self-righteous reborn Christian convinced they have special access to God, it all feeds the same inflation.

Any identity that reinforces specialness and attachment to spiritual labels becomes a trap. It also opens the door to hostile forces. This is the Luciferian temptation.”

-Bernhard Guenther

Related to Episode 177, Part 2 – Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual Psychosis?

To listen to this exclusive podcast, check the link below to sign up for our private membership section, where you will have access to over 175+ hours of *uncensored* podcasts where we dive much deeper and speak about topics that we can’t speak about on social media anymore.

👉 Sign up to tune into the full episode here:
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@timeoftransition

“This basket formation may be a period where we're forced to redefine what it means to be human in this age of rapidly accelerating technology. It may correspond with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and increasing debates around freedom, privacy, and the relationship between human beings and technology.

The higher expression of this basket is: how can we use technology in the service of our humanity? Or with Neptune-Pluto, can we keep our spirituality grounded in psychological maturity?

The shadow expression is going to be fragmentation and increased technological acceleration while we lose our connection to what makes us human.

You can see this in the collective shadow material that leads to ideological possession and collective delusions. And through replacing authentic human experiences with synthetic substitutes like AI friendships and relationships.

It's a very interesting period we're in, because it's not just about which technologies will emerge, but about what kind of human consciousness is going to meet and use them.

The most important development of these times is not necessarily just political, social, or technological, but rather what we do to transform consciousness itself and how that reflects the new era we're entering.”

-Laura Matsue

Episode 178 – The Astrology Of Civilization’s Next Turning Point: The Basket Formation

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2026/07/12/the-astrology-of-civilizations-next-turning-point-the-basket-formation-tcm-178-part-1

@timeoftransition

The rare 2026 planetary basket may mark a major turning point in civilization, but no astrological configuration can do the work for us. In this new article, I explore the “astrology bypass,” the difference between opportunity and guarantee, and why the Great Shift still requires the Great Work.
Read the article here: https://bernhardguenther.substack.com/p/the-astrology-bypass-the-great-shift

“When someone comes back from a ceremony announcing they are “chosen,” that they have received “special downloads,” that they have a new name and a mission to save humanity, they’re selling the same narcissism as someone showing off money, cars, and status, dressed up in a new costume.

They’re bypassing what humans actually need right now: the thing that would truly change their lives and relationships at a grounded, fundamental level, that helps humanity: a healthier ego (not an inflated one).

A healthier ego, not in the popular sense of arrogance, self-importance, or the need for attention, but healthy ego strength in the psychological sense: the foundation of a functional, healthy self.

A healthy ego is grounded in reality. It means being able to look at yourself clearly and honestly, not through the lens of how special you are.

A lot of people have asked me, “What's wrong with being special?” And my response is, “Well, what within you needs to be special? Yes, we are all unique expressions of God, but what is the need to be seen as special by others? Where is that coming from?”

-Bernhard Guenther

Episode 177 – Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual Psychosis?

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2026/06/27/spiritual-awakening-or-spiritual-psychosis-tcm-177-part-1

@timeoftransition

“Holding the tension of opposites is what Carl Jung said was necessary when working with polarization. To not identify with either side or the opposites will create friction and then offer a third path.

Yet, so many people literally just flip flop between extreme forms of ego identification these days. You’re either a woke leftist or you’re a conservative Christian. You’re either on my side or against it.

But there’s a distinct group that is arising who don’t identify with any group, -ism, or movement right now. You don’t have to fall into another group identification once you’ve lost your connection to one side.

You don’t need to be one way or another. You don’t need to fall into another tribal identity once you’ve been exiled from the one you were in. Instead, you can instead use this feeling of not belonging to the current culture to discover the truth of who you really are.

By discovering a third way, you break free of tribalism and offer a different path than the extreme opposites.

You bring back unique gifts from discovering who you really are, which you can pour into the world to disrupt the current culture. A truly individuated soul is a tribe of one.”

-Laura Matsue

Related to Episode 130, Part 2 – How Can We Heal This Polarized World?

To listen to this exclusive podcast, check the link below to sign up for our private membership section, where you will have access to over 175+ hours of *uncensored* podcasts where we dive much deeper and speak about topics that we can’t speak about on social media anymore.

👉 Sign up to tune into the full episode here:
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@timeoftransition

“Whatever happens in your life, the question is, what is it trying to tell you? If there's a breakdown, if there is destruction, there's a bigger process unfolding that works in your favor if you can surrender to it.

When you see how it is reflected in your psyche, you begin to understand that there is a deeper call that cannot be answered or resolved through rational thinking or problem solving by saying, “Oh, I just need to get rid of this. I just want to feel better.”

This process requires an internal transformation, and that is what shadow work and individuation are all about. It's coming into alignment with something deeper and truer within yourself and your soul.

The crisis we experience is like a dismemberment or destruction of the false ego personality, and with it goes the false life that many people have been living.

It may not feel like it works in your favor. Speaking out of my own experience, it sucks. But if you stick with it and don't fall into the victim/blame trap or escapism or try to distract yourself and avoid the whole process, it’s a rite of passage and a transformation where a connection to the true self is being born.”

-Bernhard Guenther

Episode 146 – Soul Purpose vs. Ego Desires: Finding Your True Path

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2025/01/17/soul-purpose-vs-ego-desires-finding-your-true-path-tcm-146-part-1

@timeoftransition

“The dark night of the soul is often precipitated by a crisis: a breakup, a death, a loss of some sort, a betrayal. This crisis eventually leads to a loss of meaning, where you can’t feel joy in the aspects of your life that used to fulfill you.

This is different from a typical grieving process or temporary experience of sadness. The dark night of the soul strikes something deeper and shakes the core of your existence.

The dark night of the soul relates to a process of “purification.” You are being purified in the fire of darkness. The loss of meaning that accompanies the dark night can eventually lead you to reexamine the way you have lived your life until now.

Although this loss of meaning can be extremely uncomfortable, if you stay with it, it can also lead you to a profound transformation.

The deep transformation that the dark night of the soul can offer is that it can liberate you from many of the false parts of yourself to live a more authentic life. You must lose the false self to find the true self. It can often take months or years for this process to complete itself.

If you are going through a dark night of the soul, you must have faith that the darkness has a purpose. We live in a world that aggressively tries to “fix” dark nights of the soul, and if you try and make the dark night go away prematurely and force yourself to be “happy” again, it can stall and prolong the process.

Instead, engage with your dark night fully and use it as an opportunity to explore your internal life. Be encouraged by the idea that on the other side of the dark night of the soul is a new, more authentic, deeper relationship to yourself, to others, and to life itself.

The dark night helps you let go of all your false selves so you can step into a more authentic version of yourself. It also helps us reconnect with God.”

-Laura Matsue

Episode 124, Part 2 – A Guide Through the Dark Night of the Soul

To listen to this exclusive podcast, check the link below to sign up for our private membership section, where you will have access to over 175+ hours of *uncensored* podcasts where we dive much deeper and speak about topics that we can’t speak about on social media anymore.

👉 Sign up to tune into the full episode here:
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@timeoftransition

“Memory is like a thread to our greater depth. Why do people not follow it? It’s like the way the occult is portrayed in horror films, vampires and evil magicians possessing people, rather than a genuine ritualized attempt to engage higher insight or higher power.

To follow the thread to the depth of the psyche, we must be prepared to encounter whatever we come across, including that which kept us away from depth or from truth.

Long-term memory holds all sorts of things, including psychic events of real intensity, including trauma, when something was so intense it knocked your centering completely offline.

That is a psychologically pragmatic definition of trauma: something that knocked you out, on whatever level. So long-term memory is going to hold these events of psychic intensity.

This is where we encounter the memories of what we could call trauma, the pain and the loss of what happened to us.

For a deeper holistic engagement, to journey through what Jung might have called the shadow, toward some greater depth, to find your way through the darkness to the inner teacher, you have to open to all the parts of yourself that turned away from reality because it was unbearable.

And that includes acknowledging both events in this life that have been deeply painful or shaped you, and the subtle resonances within past memory.”

-Mark Jones

Episode 174 – Uranus in Gemini: A Turning Point in Human Consciousness w/ Mark Jones

Listen to this podcast episode by clicking the link below or by searching Cosmic Matrix on iTunes, Spotify, or any other podcast streamer. https://veilofreality.com/2026/05/04/uranus-in-gemini-a-turning-point-in-human-consciousness-w-mark-jones-tcm-174-part-1

@timeoftransition

Are You Living as Your True Self?

Many people live with the unsettling feeling that they are not fully living as themselves.

Others are so identified with the False Self that they are not even aware that they have lost touch with who they truly are.

Outwardly, everything may appear normal or even successful, and they may project a “happy” image to others, especially on social media, while constantly seeking approval and validation.

Yet inwardly, they may feel disconnected, emotionally numb, or trapped in roles built around safety, other people’s expectations, and the need to be accepted.

In our newest podcast episode, Laura and I explore the difference between the True Self and the False Self, and how the False Self develops through childhood adaptation, attachment wounds, shame, and emotional neglect.

We also examine how it can eventually take over our identity, leading us to pursue aims and desires that are not aligned with who we truly are.

Finally, we explore how to begin recovering the True Self beneath those adaptations by grieving what was lost, reconnecting with the body and emotions, developing healthier boundaries, cultivating self-compassion, and gradually allowing the True Self to emerge through authenticity and safe relationships.

Listen here:
- The True Self, the False Self, and Finding Yourself Again
https://veilofreality.com/2026/07/24/the-true-self-the-false-self-and-finding-yourself-again-tcm-179-part-1/