Earth Honouring Circles

17/02/2026

I have to confess something.

For many years I walked onto stages at spiritual conferences and retreats and spoke about presence, awareness, the joys of spiritual awakening. I travelled the world as the “non-dual teacher”. The one with the inspiring language. The one with the “answers”. (Well, at least in the eyes of some!)

Then life broke me. In its strange and ruthless compassion, it brought me to my knees.

I got sick. Sicker than I had ever been. Sicker than I thought possible.

I was crushed by Lyme disease. Humbled beyond anything I could have imagined.

There were moments I believed I would never walk again, let alone teach again.

Day by day, I focused only on surviving. On healing. On putting one foot in front of the other. I know many of you can relate.

Thankfully I eventually found the right diagnosis and treatment. I am eternally grateful to all the angels who came to my side and helped me survive and heal.

Then something else happened.

I fell completely in love. I got married. I became a devoted husband, and then a father.

Family life became my absolute priority. Showing up and standing up for my wife and daughter. Washing up, too. Paying bills. Nappy changes. Sleepless nights. Tears. Laughter. Learning each day how to be a better dad and partner. Surprised and humbled, challenged and renewed, over and over again.

Ordinary, relentless responsibility.

The deepest joy of my life was not on a stage. It was not in a beautifully crafted paragraph about awareness. Not in a podcast or a retreat. Not in the approval of others.

Not in some brilliant spiritual realisation.

Not in “transcendence” itself.

It was here. Right here. In the kitchen. In the mess. In the fierce commitment of family life.

The “spiritual teacher” in me died. Thank goodness.

And what has been born in his place is something far more grounded and far more human.

What I taught in the past was not false. It was simply incomplete, for it had not yet been fully tested by fire. Everything I spoke and wrote about back then was deeply sincere. It was the best truth I could express at the time.

I now live deeply rooted in a spirituality that does not escape the body. That does not deny anger, grief, confusion, doubt. That does not pretend to be beyond need, beyond love, beyond attachment, beyond humanity, beyond responsibility.

I do not stand above life. I am IN life. Fully in it. I no longer care about being spiritual or special. I no longer want to be the wise one. I would rather, a million times over, be a husband who shows up. A father who protects and supports his daughter. A man who stays present when it is uncomfortable.

Ordinary life is not a distraction from awakening. It is the furnace that forges it. It is the fruit of it. The alpha and the omega of it.

Yes, I went through hell to get here. I lost the last shreds of my spiritual persona. I lost the certainty. I lost my image. I lost any interest in being right. Or being admired. Or being a “teacher” at all.

That whole identity fell away.

What remains is simpler, stranger, stronger, and more joyful than anything I have ever known.

I bow to this ordinary life. I bow to the extraordinary transcendent mud of it. To the sacredness and the profanity of it all. To the wild and hilarious and outrageous tenderness of being fully human.

I bow each sacred day to the love that broke me open and remade me.

Now, at last, I can truly “teach”.

Precisely because I no longer need to.

- Jeff Foster

[Photo of me taken by our daughter!❤️]

16/02/2026

Throughout the whole of February we are saying thank you to all of the people who are helping to make this day happen. Today we are saying thank you to Christina from .we.rise.33 who will be leading a Sacred Fire Ceremony.

Christina is a sacred space-holder and guide devoted to awakening the heart and embodying the deep wisdom of the soul. As the founder of Together We Rise, she weaves Sacred Fire, Voice, Movement, Ceremonial Cacao, and Soul Retrieval into Circles that open portals of remembrance and connection. Her gatherings are beautiful, transformative experiences that invite people home to themselves.

11/02/2026

The other day I mentioned the Epstein files. A few people questioned why, as a so called “spiritual teacher,” for want of a better phrase, I was speaking about world events at all. I was told to stay in my lane. To stick to uplifting posts about love and awakening. To remain positive. To focus only on the good. To stop being so “judgemental.”

Some even suggested we should try to see the “good” in Epstein himself.

Bleurgh.

Double bleurgh.

🤮🤮

It is very simple to me. I am a husband and a father and a son.

We are raising a young daughter.

True spirituality does not and never will cancel or transcend my duty to protect her. If anything, it deepens that duty, not only to her but to all of humanity.

Beautiful philosophy is not enough.

“I am pure consciousness.”
“Everything is a dream.”
“All is One.”
“Everything is love.”
“The body is an illusion.”

These ideas can be luminous, yes. They can open the heart. (And God knows, I have written these kinds of inspiring things in my time. Guilty as charged!)

But if our spirituality does not move through our hands, our voices, our choices, our ordinary days, then it remains a concept. Air. Fluff.

**If our spirituality does not make us braver in the face of real abuse, more protective of the vulnerable, more willing to confront power when it shields harm and tells lies, then what is it for, exactly?**

This is not about left or right. Not about woke or anti woke. Fighting over labels is just a distraction, and I am tired of it.

This is about being a human being, plain and simple.

And for me, it is about what it really means to be a man.

Men, brothers, leaders, teachers, sons and fathers, we can do better! Patriarchal systems have protected powerful men for generations. Money. Influence. Legal manoeuvres. Intimidation of those who speak up.

When men mindlessly protect other men, women and children pay the price. Epstein and his fellow predators are just one horrific example.

I am not interested in abstract spiritual truth that floats above the mess of the world. That is too easy. Anyone can speak about transcendence and pure awareness and make a living from promising a perfect state devoid of suffering.

I am much more interested in a living, embodied truth. A raw, inconvenient, somatic truth. The kind of truth that is sometimes painful. The kind that breaks your heart some days. The kind that demands you say NO when it would be easier to stay silent or distract yourself… or be “nice” and fake.

Real nonduality is not an escape from the body or the world. It is the actual meeting of spirit and flesh. It is the place where awareness and action are not separate at all, where compassion is no longer a concept, where love actually stands up instead of dissociating or detaching.

It is a nonduality that says no to violence.
That refuses to excuse abuse.
That protects children.
That stands alongside women and the vulnerable and the oppressed, not arrogantly above them.

That is why I speak. Not from hatred. Not from self righteousness. But from deep love. From responsibility to my loved ones and to loved ones all over the world. From the understanding that spirituality without accountability is empty, and our shadows will always destructively leak into the world if we refuse to confront them.

We cannot close our eyes to darkness, especially when our women and children are in danger.

The real work is not floating above the world on some narcissistic spiritual “high.” (I have been on some blissful spiritual highs in my time. Guilty as charged!)

The real work is here. Right here. In the body. In the blood. In the bones and the sinew. In our trembling and confused hearts. In our schools. Our religious institutions. Our workplaces.

In this messy, imperfect, human willingness to stand up for what is precious and kind and good and right and innocent.

That is the kind of truth I care about. I will never apologise for it.

Men, brothers, sons, I say this with love:

We can do much better.

❤️

- Jeff Foster

20/01/2026

Women's Circle in Christchurch
The Medicine of Self Care
On 17/3/26 7-9pm
I'm holding a small Gathering at my home.
Only 4 spaces left.
PM me if you want to book a space
Link to website in comments

08/01/2026

I love that Dr Chatterjee has this programme on prime-time TV. I truly believe it will help people start to think outside the box.

Back in 2010, I was on heavy medication after being diagnosed with bipolar II and was told I would never recover—that I would need to be on medication for life. The medication made me feel like a zombie.

Thankfully, I have been deeply blessed to learn how to care for myself in many ways: walking in nature, cold-water swimming, dancing, drumming, singing, soul retrieval, therapy, cacao, good sleep, healthy food—so many things contribute to our mental health and it’s different for everyone.

I feel it’s incredibly important to give people hope. A diagnosis does not have to be a life sentence. ❤️

05/01/2026

turning towards our own pain and suffering and taking action to alleviate that suffering. That was the definition I read in a book once sometimes compassion is just simply being with ourselves and each other as we are ….sometimes it’s taking action… sometimes it’s doing nothing but always it’s a willingness to be with what’s present as it is, it’s natural for us to want to run away from pain and suffering but it isn’t helpful, what we resist persists what we open to can unfold and change. We can open to new beliefs new possibilities to magic to miracles to changing the habits of a lifetime. wishing you a day filled with compassion and courage, much love.

04/01/2026

For me it’s Time in Nature just to Be and listen 🕊️🩷🌕

01/01/2026

Magic in the challenge magic in the gift 🩷welcome 2026 seeing the Magic in it all ☀️

31/12/2025

I wish you ❤️ love, A love that has the capacity to hold it all

30/12/2025