Do you think those influencers who dramatically switch from very left wing Marxist alternative etc to very trad Christians (specifically in homophobic/transphobic way) have ketu influence?
You were talking about ketuvians and their struggle to find a sense of self and it made me think of these types of people. I know someone with ketu 1H and magha moon who did this to an extent. She used to identify as non binary and was constantly shifting through different names and pronouns but then one day she just kind of stopped and started saying how she thinks pride is pointless and a waste of time or whatever😭 it wasn’t *that* extreme but I still thought it was a significant shift in belief in such a short time.
I think a lot of people have this dramatic shifts not only out of a need to identify with something due to a lack of sense of self, but also because they like going back to what their parents believe for comfort. I guess those two are interlinked but it’s interesting how my friend is a magha moon and magha is associated with ancestors and whatnot.
I guess mula is somewhat similar as “the root”? Idk about ashwini though
Sorry I haven’t actually had the chance to look into examples since it’s hard to find birth data for influencers and I don’t know that many examples irl 😶🌫️ so this is me just going on a tangent and hoping you get what I’m trying to say LMAO
I’m also not sure if anyone else is familiar with this phenomena or if I’m just too engrossed in niche internet drama.
In terms of influencers I guess a somewhat prominent example is Freckle Zelda on tiktok? I never followed her but she went from making cutesy safe space liberal type content in like 2021 and now she’s a Christian and is using it be to super controversial. But like I said I’ve never followed her so idk if this is dramatic enough of a switch to count as what I’m saying.
I also feel like this a rahu trait to switch between extremes🤔 idk lmk what you think
I feel like the capitalist commodification of identity has most adversely affected Nodal people.
If you think about it, spirituality's aim is to transcend the "self" entirely, you stop identifying with labels and attaching yourself to this or that thing. I'm not saying you cease to be a person but you stop trying to "accumulate" identities to hold on to.
9/10 times the reason we identify with something is to feel a sense of belonging but searching outwards for it will only lead to disappointment, when we search within and feel at home within ourselves, we lose the need to externally confined ourselves to rigid "identities"
Yk how people dye their hair, get piercings/tattoos etc to mark a new chapter or the end of an old one or whatever??? It is an attempt to claim something as "yourself" and "solidify yourself". Everything changes all the time, everybody changes yet there are many people who will never dye their hair or change their name or join a cult or whatever (not that all these things are the same) its just that if you're at peace with yourself and truly grounded, you will no longer be shopping for different identities or things to associate with.
Yk those people who have IG bios that read like "Mother, Pluviophile, ESFJ, Petrolhead, UJC'22, Missourian, Ancient Spirit, 1/4th Cherokee, Bitcoin Enthusiast, EDM Lover"
like what do any of those terms say about them?? how on earth is any of this central to your identity? all of these are external ??? is loving rain and being a petrolhead central to your sense of self?? im not trying to demean anybody's interests, im only trying to point out that what we choose to make the focal point of ourselves is up to us and its possible to not be defined by anything?? i think a truly ugly consequence of capitalism is how people try to define themselves by things outside them (their interests, hobbies, job, income level, marital status etc etc) because there is more to a person than all that.
when we retreat within, we base our sense of self on our qualities like kindness, compassion, creativity (this becomes the essence of who we are) so we don't feel the need to claim 87373 other things to describe ourselves
some people overly identify with others like their partners, friends or even strangers and kind of become them. this is also the root of stan culture, by being obsessed with someone to that extent and giving them all your time and energy, you are losing your own qi and harming your Sun (the same way criticizing the appearance of others ruins your Venus)
Rahu is prone to taking things to extremes and Ketu is prone to trying on different identities and losing interest in all of them one after the other. so your observations are right.
i dont really use social media so i dont know any influencers that i can quote as examples ;-; but im thinking of certain celebrities who have had drastic style changes in the past and all of them have nodal influence lol
in the 2000s, the Olsen twins were known for their boho chic hippie style and over the last decade or so they have become known for their "quiet luxury" style. They are Magha Moon
Julia Fox is Ardra Rising and she went from basic to avant garde
Jared Leto, Mula Sun, Ashwini Moon & Rising , he's also the leader of a cult allegedly so👀i guess it all adds up
Adele, Mula Moon & Ardra Rising
im not just talking about her weight loss, just her overall change in style. she got married young and had a baby and in a couple of years she got a divorce and revamped her look to that of an ig baddie
Kylie Jenner, Swati Moon she's changed her style/demeanour every other year since the early 2010s lol
Taylor Swift, Ardra Moon has also had many diff lewkzz throughout the years
before anybody says dont celebs change their styles often?? no they dont, not everybody for sure. look at Jennifer Lopez or Sarah Jessica Parker, theyve been dressing the same since the 90s. constantly evolving style/looks/personality is a Nodal thing. its also a big part of the reason why Nodal people succeed in the entertainment industry and in the material realm (a lot of rich people including Bezos have Nodal placements) because entertainment = illusion, pretending to be someone you're not and for Nodal people, this is pretty much second nature.
im sorry that my response is kind of all over the place. your question provoked some thoughts within me lol and i just had to shareee
i cant think of celebs who have drastically changed their life paths like the example u cited ;-; EXCEPT Bridget Mendler who is an actor, singer, and entrepreneur, has a PhD and went to Harvard Law and now runs a satellite company?? she also adopted a kid during all this? She has Mula Sun
anywayyys thats it for now
tysm for sending this ask!!! its a very thought provoking and interesting question<33hope u have a good day<33
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No where in this article do they refer to the gestational carrier as a birth mother
PUBLISHED FRI, JUN 23 20239:54 AM EDTUPDATED FRI, JUN 23 20231:18 PM EDT by Courtney Reagan@COURTREAGANWATCH LIVEKEY POINTS
Almost two-thirds, 63%, of LGBTQ+ people plan to use assisted reproductive technology, foster care, or adoption to become parents, according to a survey by Family Equality. Gay male couples typically face a more expensive journey, as surrogacy or adoption are their primary choices. While more employers are offering fertility benefits, many of these packages are limited when it comes to covering surrogacy. Gay men face more challenges and higher costs to start family.
Bret Shuford and Stephen Hanna knew from early on in their relationship they wanted to raise a child together. But the married couple didn’t think a biological child was a possibility. As freelancers in the creative arts, Shuford and Hanna don’t always see steady income, even when working on Broadway. The Houston-based couple, known as the “Broadway Husbands,” thought having a child with a donor egg and gestational carrier “seemed like it was something that was only available to people who were very wealthy,” said Shuford, 44.
It’s a safe assumption that having a child with a surrogate, now most often called a gestational carrier, is cost-prohibitive. While expenses vary widely due to a number of medical and legal factors, “the average cost of surrogacy in America has gone from $75,000 five years ago, to anywhere between $150,000 and $250,000 today,” according to Dr. Brian Levine, a reproductive endocrinologist who founded surrogacy matching platform Nodal.
In the U.S., there are only about 5,000 successful surrogacy journeys per year, Nodal estimates.“That’s only about 8% of met need,” Levine said. “In plain English, 92% of the people that dream of starting or growing or completing a family with surrogacy will not be able to do so in America due to the sheer time and cost constraints that are there today.”
Why gay male couples face higher costs
Alon Rivel always wanted to be a father. “As I grew up, I realized I was gay,” said Rivel, 34. “So I thought, this will never happen for me. I don’t have the money, but I wanted it desperately.” "We were shocked when we started to look into [having a biological child] and realized nothing is covered by insurance unless you can prove that you’re infertile,” said Rivel, who lives in Arlington, Massachusetts. He and his husband believed that “this is complete discrimination on the insurance company’s part because we are gay men.” “It is not a choice,” Rivel added. “We were born this way and, thus, we are actually infertile.” Experts say the demand for surrogacy relationships has grown since same-sex marriage became legal in the U.S. in 2015. Gay male couples typically face a more expensive journey, as surrogacy or adoption are their primary choices. In contrast, same-sex female couples are often able to carry pregnancies to term on their own, though they may possibly have to pay for donor sperm and fertilization.
"Sadly, we do see in some states that there are laws that discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community". Betsy Campbell CHIEF ENGAGEMENT OFFICER FOR RESOLVE: THE NATIONAL INFERTILITY ASSOCIATION
Donor eggs are exponentially more expensive than donor sperm largely because the egg retrieval process is more invasive and complicated. While costs, again, vary wildly, donor eggs and the associated costs can range between $20,000 and $60,000, according to fertility marketplace GoStork, while donor sperm can be from as little as several hundred dollars to around $1,000. Donor eggs, meanwhile, are only one of many expenses.
Shuford and Hanna’s health insurance covered only the tests done on their sperm samples. Their remaining expenses, they estimate, ran between $150,000 and $180,000. That included around $40,000 for donor eggs, the medical costs to create, store, test and freeze embryos, medical insurance and out-of-pocket medical costs for their gestational carrier, her compensation, and other expenses. The couple used savings, credit cards and high-interest loans to cover that tab. Rivel and his husband’s journey to parenthood ultimately cost $220,000.
“We’re taking money away from our child’s college fund,” he said. “We’re taking money away from our mortgage.”
“Compared to [many of] our friends, our baseline is $200,000 below where they started,” Rivel added.
Employer fertility benefits offer limited help
More employers are starting to offer fertility benefits, often through a specialized fertility benefits manager such as Kindbody, Carrot, Progyny or Maven. In 2022, 40% of U.S. employers offered some type of fertility coverage, up from 30% in 2020, according to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Fertility IQ, which keeps a workplace index of employer fertility benefits, found the average amount of fertility coverage in 2021 was $36,000 per lifetime, flat from the year before. But while more companies are offering fertility benefits, many of these packages are limited when it comes to covering what’s needed to build families using non-traditional methods. Almost two-thirds, 63%, of LGBTQ+ people plan to use assisted reproductive technology, foster care or adoption to become parents, according to a survey by Family Equality. Yet fewer than half of employers offering fertility benefits provided any benefits for adoption, and only about 10% provided benefits related to surrogacy, according to a 2021 survey from Resolve: The National Infertility Association and health-care consultancy Mercer. And state laws requiring employers of a certain size to offer fertility benefits often leave out coverage for third-party reproduction such as a gestational carrier or the purchase of donor eggs or donor sperm.
“I honestly believe that employers don’t realize there is a gap in their benefits. And they often don’t know this until an employee points that out,” said Betsy Campbell, chief engagement officer for Resolve.
She said many employers she speaks to have “the best intentions” but don’t understand how gestational surrogacy works or how family building benefits fall short.
Will Porteous, 39, became a father through gestational surrogacy before joining Maven as its chief growth officer. He and his husband tabulated their parenthood path cost at close to $175,000. “No employer in the entire country that I’m aware of offers anything greater than $75,000 a year, and so that only covers a portion.”
But Porteous, who lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, said full coverage isn’t necessarily what LGBTQ+ couples want to see. “The expectation is to have equitable support to your other co-workers and seeing that your employer cares about that journey,” he said.
That employer support, Porteous said, “really means a lot and it shows that you as an employer care about your employee, regardless of how they’re going to build their family.”
Fertility benefits can help recruit, retain talent
While fertility benefits manager Progyny’s first clients were largely West Coast “Silicon Valley-type” businesses, according to CEO Pete Anevski, it now works with employers in 40 industries.
“There’s a flywheel effect happening,” he said, with more companies realizing benefits need to include family-building coverage “to be competitive, to attract and retain talent in what is still a tight labor market, an inflationary economy, even with concerns around a looming recession.”
Fertility benefits manager Carrot said it has around 800 corporate clients and 80% of those offer their employees a benefit for surrogacy. “We have seen an increase in surrogacy claims year over year at about 250%,” said CEO Tammy Sun.
Offering these types of benefits can be key factors for a company when job candidates are making decisions about employment, said Taryn Branca, chief revenue officer at Kindbody.
“I can’t tell you how many of our clients will call us, we will get on the phone with potential candidates that they’re recruiting, or we will provide information to support that recruit coming there because they are asking for very specific information before they’ll accept the offer: if they have surrogacy benefits, if they have donor benefits,” she said.
More than half of respondents in a new Progyny survey of LGBTQ+ community members said they are actively looking to build their families. Of that population, 79% would consider leaving their current job for one that offers better fertility and family-building benefits, and 80% would consider taking a second job to receive those benefits.
“This is not a ‘nice to have,’ this is a ‘need to have’ benefit,” Anevski said.
Rivel’s husband is an early employee at Massachusetts-based Beam Therapeutics. At Rivel’s insistence, he asked his human resources department to look into including surrogacy benefits. Eventually, the company added a surrogacy reimbursement benefit, which at the time Rivel and his husband used it was worth $10,000.
While $10,000 was a small dent in the couple’s $220,000 surrogacy journey, Rivel said it’s better than nothing. “It’s really admirable that they have it,” he said. “I think it’s a really smart benefit for recruiting more people.”
Adoption also comes with high costs, risks
Adoption is certainly another family-building option. “It’s not for everyone ... it’s not without its costs, and the laws vary by state,” Resolve’s Campbell said. “Sadly, we do see in some states that there are laws that discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, so that’s definitely a consideration.”
The average nonfoster-system adoption costs between $25,000 and $60,000, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway. As with surrogacy relationships, the adopting parents cover related expenses for all parties, from medical to legal, plus living expenses if a match is made in advance of a birth. And, of course, there are no guarantees.
Shuford and Hanna decided adoption wasn’t a path for them. “There’s a lot of risks involved that we weren’t willing to take,” Hanna said. “We had heard of stories involving birth mothers changing their minds, and children having birth defects that without [genetic embryo testing] weren’t known.”
Like many gestational carrier stories, Shuford and Hanna’s was far from easy or straightforward.
Their first carrier dropped out of the process shortly before the embryo transfer was scheduled to take place but well after contracts had been signed and medical assessments and travel had occurred. The Covid-19 pandemic delayed the process with their second gestational carrier; then, after the first embryo transfer, the pregnancy ended in a devastating miscarriage. The second embryo transfer worked, and their surrogate gave birth to their son, Maverick, in 2022.
“So many times, we felt very excluded,” Shuford said. “We want to be able to have a family and raise our child and have that child be biologically related to us, and we have a right to do that, and we have a right to feel seen and validated in that process.”
But for Shuford, “in the end, it was totally worth it.”
“I mean, Maverick is amazing,” he added. “And we’re so lucky to have a healthy baby and also having someone like Crystal, our surrogate who carried our child.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced that kind of love in my life,” Shuford said. “So it’s really a powerful experience.”
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