i almost joined a pyramid scheme thinking it was a women's empowerment circle

on yearning to be part of something bigger

I reunited with someone a little while ago. We hit it off better than I ever could have imagined. Very quickly, she had become a close friend. We both hadn’t talked much at all throughout middle and high school, and somehow still developed into the crystal collecting, horoscope heeding, yoga yielding people we now are. I am exaggerating here to paint a picture, but we both do subscribe to new age spirituality in our own individual ways, which allows for the kind of depth in connection my artistic heart has always dreamed of.

… and also made us the perfect target.

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One night, having stayed at her place for a few days, she told me of this women’s support circle she’d joined. They meet on a zoom call every week, she explained, to give one another support, to heal old wounds, and work towards their dreams together. Immediately, that in and of itself sounded like a dream. I had this urge to join and was curious to learn more.
There was some system behind it she wasn’t quite able to explain, but each woman represented a specific element that needs to work on a number of tasks. The fire elements — her being one of eight women that are recruited by four air elements — are asked to confront their fears, their limiting beliefs, to record their whole life story to share with the rest of the group, as well as to offer a gift to the one woman, who is the one water element of the group, supported by two earth element, in form of a hefty 1305€.
The number felt strange and, well, strangely high. But the friend assured me each person that would join the group would leave with eight times that amount. 10440€, to be exact. It could take anywhere from a few months, to a few years to receive the gift back.
Now, if for you alarm bells are ringing, or maybe they’ve already been ringing for a few sentences, good. You have a good sense of self-preservation, and your wallet is likely happy and full. At some point, I do remember thinking it all sounded too good to be true. I, however, was so enamoured with the idea of being part of something bigger, of getting to be in constant exchange with women across the world, all working to heal and become their truest, most authentic selves, living the lives of their wildest dreams, I was ready and willing to join my friend and this women’s circle almost right then and there. Only, she could not recruit me, an air element would have to. So the person who asked her to join got in contact with me, shared a bit about her story. She’d been part of the group for two years, having already changed her life substantially, now working as a freelancer, something she barely even dared to dream of a little while ago. How promising, I thought.
A few days ago, I told my partner about this crazy idea I had to join. Bless them, they immediately caught on to it.
“That sounds like a pyramid scheme,” they laughed — alarm bell number 21 should have rung right there — though supportive once I asked them to take this dream I had of joining seriously.
What synchronous sequence of events had led to me to be let into this secret society of sorts. I felt special, chosen.
That’s how they getcha.
“Just make sure you are at peace with possibly losing all that money in case it does end up being a scam,” they advised. How could something so wholesome ever be a scam?

I asked my friend about if she’d had any concerns about joining. Apparently, she had had them, but trusted her intuition.
Spiritual buzzword. Me likey.
I liked the thought of letting go of the nagging part of my brain that tried to warn me. The part that has kept me broke in the past, and always told me “We don’t have the money to pay for *insert nice thing I could experience here*”. I felt freed in faith, in that blind trust that these surely well-meaning women have my back, and really do just want to help raise me up. How sad, I thought… had I already become so cynical, at my soft age of 24?
Assured of working on myself and my lack mindset — as you may have heard it called in the self-development sphere — I decided to ask for what they called a “sparkle”, an opportunity to get to know everyone in the group, and to then decide whether to join their circle.
Fast forward to yesterday, the day of the sparkle. I was excited to return home and basically determined to join, sure nothing could sway me otherwise. I opened substack, swiped through the notes, and saw this:

@originalwholeness

Age 42.
What the fuck. No way.

Googled “pyramid scheme women’s empowerment circle”, and was confronted with articles upon articles of people warning about this exact thing. This group that tried to recruit me wasn’t even subtle. The elements and their tasks are the same.

I did not want to believe my eyes.

Turn it to the side by 90° and BOOM!
Literally a pyramid.

I immediately called my friend.
“Thank you for the warning, but I trust my intuition,” she said.
I did not like that word this time around. While I understood wanting to put faith into something one believes in, and maybe not wanting to come to terms with the fact that one was fooled, when confronted with this sort of warning and evidence, I saw it as willing ignorance. Amoral, even. After all, several dozens of people are being scammed out of more than a thousand Euros. To think that even if I were to have made it through the process unscathed, I would have fallen for scamming all these new and excited women into losing all that money… I wasn’t sure whether to hope both her and her recruiter make it through without it falling apart, or whether to hope it would fall apart as soon as possible.

At first, I felt embarrassed, unsure of how I could have been so naive as to believe this. This then made way for anger and sadness. I was robbed of this dream of being part of a community. Now, there was a pyramid shaped hole in my heart where this scheme would have so perfectly fit. I kid. But that is indeed how they getcha. Both the promise of money, of course, and on top of that, they prey on people with the promise of being able to be part of something bigger, of something exciting and exclusive.
Please, do not fall for these types of offers.
I am sure these circles are supportive, and full of well-meaning people, but sadly, no matter how lovely and aligned and thoughtful everything feels, sadly, their collapse is inevitable, as is customary for what they are:

pyramid schemes.

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I will channel my anger and sadness into joining clubs, I’ve decided. I’ve been eyeballing yoga and dance classes for a while, and see this as a sign for how truly I am ready to be a member of a community. Or maybe creating my own thing. If anyone reading this would be interested in creating a women’s empowerment circle without the exploitation and hidden pyramid shapes, do DM me. I’d love that.

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This is not at all what I usually write about, but it was so utterly unusual an experience, I couldn’t not share, in hopes other people who may be in my situation will find this the same way I found

Kelly Thompson TNWWY

, my savior, my angel. Thank you.

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Love,
Dorion 🏹🤎