We’ve probably all been chided with this phrase at some point in our lives.
You should know better.
Or, perhaps we’ve whispered to ourselves in tones of regret, damn, I shoulda known better.
But if we look at that phrase a little differently, take the shame out of it, we see an opportunity, a birthright.
In the same way that you might say, I gotta sleep better, or a I want to eat better, what if you wanted to Know better?
(I’m going to capitalize Know for the rest of this essay.)
To Know is to have confidence in your wisdom and intuition.
Knowing is the thing that kicks in when you need to make a decision, explore a connection, strike out on an adventure, or make a change.
Sometimes Knowing is lightning fast.
But not always.
Knowing can also take time, so we wait, walk, pray, meditate, do art, or talk it through until the Knowing is solid.
So, what would it mean to Know better?
Well, what does it mean to eat better or sleep better?
It means that you’re eating or sleeping in such a way that it optimizes you, supporting and nourishing your general being.
When you eat better and sleep better, you are a resourced rockstar, ready to take on the world.
So then to Know better is to utilize your wisdom in such a way that it optimizes you…supports and nourishes your general being…so that you are a resourced rockstar ready to take on the world.
Knowing better means that your intuition is toned and clear, and you hear it like it’s coming through fully charged earbuds.
It means that you’re used to taking action based on your intuition and wisdom with excellent results, spending way less time wondering, being on the fence, feeling wishy washy, or repeating toxic patterns.
The Wisdom Keeper is the archetype (the aspect of your own psyche) that Knows better.
She is the facet of your intelligence where intuition lives.
The Wisdom Keeper Knows, and she knows how to Know better.
This is a favorite quote from a favorite author, Elizabeth Cunningham. It’s from her novel, The Red Robed Priestess.
“they found messages everywhere: the pattern of birds’ wings, the way a stick fell or a leaf rode the current of a stream. They gazed into wells and skies. And because they were paying attention, the earth, the water, and skies, animals and birds yielded secrets.”
I like it for a million reasons.
But for this essay, I like how it describes Knowing better.
To learn to read nature, to engage it in conversation, is Knowing better; a way to resource and support yourself.
Learning how to pay attention (I call it “sacred noticing”) as a discipline, a study in effort to Know better.
All of this is wisdom-building.
Wisdom is your birthright.
And so is wisdom-building.
Wisdom-building gives you confidence in your own ability to discern.
It helps you maintain sovereignty and stave off brain washing, following the proverbial lemmings off the cliff.
Knowing better is grounding, steadying, and just the absolute-most-empowering-thing you could do for yourself and the whole friggin world.
Mystery Schools are essentially gyms for wisdom-building and knowing better.
You wanna beef up your intuition, shed some wishy washiness, improve your wisdom recovery time?
Mystery School, baby.
In Mystery School, you’re not learning what to Know, but rather how to Know.
But let’s say you already Know a lot, you’ve been around the block and this ain’t your first rodeo.
Is it possible that you could maybe Know…even better?
Yes. Of course.
Besides, there’s no knowing-it-all.
And Knowing better isn’t, like, competitive as in Knowing “better than anyone else”.
The Wisdom Keeper isn’t trying to know better than others, anymore than I’m trying to “sleep better” than you.
That’s nuts.
We just want to sleep, eat, and Know better to enjoy life, not to best anyone.
After walking with The Wisdom Keeper archetype all year, I’m clear that she does not do “superiority”.
The closer we get to wisdom, the more time we spend on our knees in gratitude, awe, and wonder, not higher up on the horse.
In Mystery School, we Know enough to Know that some things are unknowable, and as we learn to Know better we increase our proximity to the unknowable.
Which is to say we build a sense of closeness and intimacy with The Mystery itself.
Anyone can walk under a tree full of crows and name it as such.
But only the folks paying attention will hear a pattern in their chatter.
It’s the wisdom-builders who Know to make meaning of that, following it right down to the root of intuition and wisdom.
Then act accordingly.
And that’s what I’d call knowing better.
love and knowing better,
xo
kv
