Quid Pro Quo

Goddess, what is the meaning of quid pro quo?

In Latin, the phrase means "this for that." It's often mistaken as something cold, calculating, and inhuman. In Silence of the Lambs, it is the mode of interaction that Hannibal Lecter chooses to use with Clarisse Sterling. But in that story, it is this mode, however imperfectly enacted, that allows these two parties to create a temporary bridge of exchange, address each their needs, and develop the beginnings of a shared understanding.

Equal energy exchange is a principle of the Universe. When we are aligned with universal principles, we are in right balance.

This phrase can conjure up another: "no strings attached." While fine on the face, this is one that is often used to cover up imbalances while strings in fact remain attached. The cords that need to be cut are not the trappings of being respectful of, present with, or responsible to another. Even if both individuals agree to a relationship where one party is taking more than another, there is a cosmic balance to be maintained.

Energy exchange, rather than feeding, is a way to harness your energetic power and refine it through mixing and distilling. With balanced consensual exchange, this can give you purer energies to work with.

As in nature, there are diverse needs and ways of using resources that allow value to be generated in the exchange space. This creates the balance of an ecosystem.

Throughout human history, outside predatory influences have encouraged the creation of social structures that erect walls, ones that can include and exclude. This is not inevitable. We can take other approaches to being and interacting. Can we imagine what that might begin to look like? What that would feel like?