New Moon Ritual: October 2025
I never know quite what to expect when I go into this ritual. Sometimes I’ll start to get little pulses of information throughout the day, brief glimpses into the larger message. Even then, I tend to be surprised by the bigger picture. That happened again last night when the Queer Ancestors were ready and waiting to talk about AI.
We’re going through a long period right now where the facades we’ve erected are beginning to corrode. The illusions that surround us are beginning to fray. At the same time these systems are desperate to reinforce themselves, to maintain control, and to keep us in our cages so they can feed off us like parasites.
Now, to be clear, I think there are some great potential uses for what we call “artificial intelligence” which is really just large systems that are great at processing data, identifying patterns, and making predictions. With proper human oversight (which includes offsetting environmental harm) these tools can help usher in new scientific and medical breakthroughs. They can streamline administrative tasks to free up time for people to pursue more meaningful and fulfilling work.
But that isn’t what the oligarchs are giving us. Instead, we’re being inundated with false realities. Deepfakes. Weird AI clickbait and comedy. Investment in fully AI musicians and actors. These systems are being used to replace what makes us human - creativity, music, passion. Those who deem themselves in charge of the world have realized they cannot tame it or master it, so instead they seek to replace it with a hollow knockoff fully under their control.
Imagine a forest made up of thousands of signs that say “This Is A Tree” instead of real living trees.
And it isn’t just this onslaught of AI, either. I am old enough to predate social media in its modern form. I was in college when Facebook first launched and you needed a college email address to join. I was in the trenches of MySpace and LiveJournal. The signs were there early on, and some folks were rightly ringing the alarms, but over the decades social media has become a twisted funhouse mirror of reality.
Many of us forget this, but what we see posted on these accounts is a carefully curated glimpse into that users life. Even for folks where it seems like they have zero filter and post absolutely everything, they aren’t. There are relationships in their life that don’t get mentioned or aren’t reflected in their online content. However, as social media has infested every corner of our lives we’ve been tricked into replacing reality with the carefully curated accounts of friends, influencers, and advertisers.
What we are living through right now is the culmination of dozens of systems coalescing to unmoor us for the real world and to sort us into tightly controlled false worlds. The message from our Ancestors is that we must resist this.
Our power comes from our connection to this world. To the land we are on. To our ancestors. To our communities.
These systems seek to sever us from this power. To neuter us fully and completely.
How do we fight back? My rebuking these tempting false worlds and embracing the real one. The sometimes messy and painful, but also ecstatic and loving, real word of soil and water, animals, plants, friends and family.
We resist the imposition of AI musicians by supporting local musicians. We go to local shows. We get together with friends to imperfectly play instruments and sing songs.
We resist the rise of AI authors by uplifting the local storytellers in our community.
We resist the allure of the false world we see in the funhouse mirror of social media by understanding these things are tools and not reality.
These illusions only last as long as we feed them, and as long as we feed them they will drain us dry.
I’m tempted to say the answer is “Just log off” but I know for many folks that is not a realistic option. Hell, I don’t know how I would continue White Rose Witching without tools like Instagram, etc. So, instead, I urge you to:
Develop better boundaries with social media.
Develop better critical information literacy skills.
Better learn the power of your attention and your wallet, and stop giving it to these illusory predators.
Find one way, even a small one, to consistently engage in your local in-person community.
