I've always tried to live my life in a certain way.
Be kind to others. Help when you can. Give if you are able. Focus on your soul purpose. Share your medicine with the world. Be fair. But the truth of the matter is life isn't always fair.
2020 has been a gut punch for so many reasons. Covid19 wreaking havoc on the world. Isolation and social distancing becoming the normal way we live our lives. Travel restrictions stretching far into the future. People suffering all over the globe. Personally, having a book offer shelved due to the economy tanking was pretty disheartening. My work climate was changing drastically and that was very hard to deal with. Health considerations were coming into focus that I needed to pay attention to. And I was being plagiarized by a predominant online spiritual wellness company who were selling my work as their own.
When I was notified by one of my followers that my work was being sold by someone else packaged in an online Moon energy course, I was furious when I saw I was being copied almost word for word.
Imitation is supposed to be the highest form of flattery but all I felt was angry betrayal. This wasn't a sentence or two, it was an entire eBook I'd written. When you envision an evil villain in your story, they are some dark entity, not a company wearing the guise of spiritual wellness. It was almost an exact replica of my New & Full Moon eBook. How dare they? Who the hell did they think they were?! How could they be making money off MY work?! Was it the organization itself willfully taking my work or someone submitting to them?
The warrior in me raged. This was in January and I wasn't sure how to proceed, but I knew I needed to do something. I am not the kind of person to sit idly by when an injustice is trespassed upon me. I connected with a loyal copyright lawyer and began the journey to avenge my pilfered pages and get them to stop sharing them as their own. Sword raised high, I would have justice, dammit!
Fast forward 4 months and I have very little to show for it. The Center in question ignored my emails and my Canadian lawyers summons. Now its thousands more if I want to go with a UK lawyer and hundreds of thousands to go to court to defend what is rightfully mine. Doesn't seem fair when they stole from me, does it? Companies know this when they steal your work. They know that to fight them to get it back will take more money that you will have. They count on this. It's their modus operandi.
My heart aches. The little girl in me sits sullen and despondent.
All I've ever wanted to do is to share my medicine with the world.
It never even occurred to me that someone else might come along, steal my work and sell it as their own work. Naive, I know. I've always been the doe-eyed innocent that thought the world was somehow fair. For the last few months it's been a struggle to share my voice. It doesn't exactly inspire one to write the next great novel to think when you imagine it being snatched away and stolen by others. Soul level betrayal has a way of bottling up once bubbling creativity.
I want to believe in karma and in cosmic retribution, but this is one of those times that makes that difficult. I want to trust that good things come to good people and all the old tropes we cut our teeth on to make us believe in better things than the world sometimes provides. But the truth is that isn't always the case. Sometimes bad people masked under the guise of the good, the spiritual or the wellness centered will take your souls work and there is nothing you can do but watch and ache. Sometimes there is no justice. Sometimes life isn't fair.
This is a good reminder to all those who put their medicine out into the world to protect it, as best you can.
Because there are those who would love nothing better than to take the lazy way out and profit off your purpose or passion. To those out there that see injustice occurring, never forget the power in your voice. Speak out. We need to have each others backs. In the end I revert back to my modus operandi, sharing these words with all of you. Because even if they steal my words, they will never steal my voice.
To the ones who did this, I hope Karma bites you in the ass. Hard. And may you reap exactly what you have sown.
C. Ara Campbell is a visionary writer, soul guide, cosmic channel, teacher, artist, empath, womb keeper and the founder of The Goddess Circle. She is dedicated to the awakening feminine, living embodied truth and aiding others in connecting with their medicine. She is an old soul that has been writing and channeling guidance from the unseen world since she was young, intuitively soul coaching and empowering using spiritual and natural energies.