From Soviet Poverty to Spiritual Prosperity

The Six Pillars That Unlocked My Abundant Life

By Katerina Satori

There's a black-and-white photograph I found recently. Soviet Union. Year of the Snake. Twenty-four years ago.

Three children are standing in the snow in the city's main square. Rides. Ice skating. A huge wooden snake statue welcomes the new year. A Christmas tree.

Nobody's smiling except our little cousin.

That somber girl on the left? That was me, maybe eight or ten years old. It's hard to remember now.

 

But I remember the question that lived in my heart every single day of my childhood:

What did I do to deserve this life?

What did I do to be born in this country—so gray, so cold, so depressing? What did I do to be in this family that had moments of normalcy, yes, but was also... really crazy?

A single mom. Five different stepdads, each one a little crazier than the last. Growing up wondering: What's wrong with me that I'm in this scenario? Will it ever get better?

My mom worked as a dishwasher in a meat factory. It was very labor-intensive work, and it barely covered what we needed. So on weekends, my sister and I would help her clean the offices.

I actually enjoyed that part—I was a curious, observant child. I loved seeing how different people decorated their desks, what they kept on them, and the small details of their lives.

But growing up with the constant message that whatever you want, there are no resources for that—what's the point of asking when the answer will always be no?

I wanted to take dance classes. My best friend, Christina, had what I thought was the ideal family. Her mom was a dance teacher—elegant, feminine, stylish, floating on air. Her dad was a real artist with gallery exhibits. They had family dinners. A grandmother is involved in their lives. Everything looked normal.

I so wished for a family like that. Completely opposite of what I had.

Christina's mom invited me to dance classes. "You can just come, you can dance here with us." She knew my family couldn't pay for it.

But if I wanted to take my passion for dance to a professional level? We never had money for that.

If I wanted a second pair of shoes? There was only one pair for each season.

I was so passionate about the English language. At twelve, I asked my mom: "Did you know? If you could give me a tutor, I could learn English faster. I could travel anywhere in the world."

The answer was always the same. Not because my mom didn't want to give me what I asked for, but because she was stretched beyond her means.

 

The Discovery That Changed Everything

Growing up in that reality—with the constant scarcity, the darkness, the limitation—I don't know how I knew this. Probably past-life wisdom.

But I had this natural way of moving my attention from that dark, depressing external reality.

I found that I could move my attention to my inner reality.

And I could make it colorful. I could make it filled with possibilities. I could make it filled with ideas.

I could go inside and literally create a reality of my own choosing.

Nobody taught me that. It was an inner discovery that helped me get through that intense childhood of mine. It taught me that no matter what I was going through—in my early adult life, my later adult life—I always have that choice.

I always have a choice to turn my attention to my inner world. To dive into the world of ideas, of imagination. To nourish myself from within.

I didn't yet have the language that there's a well of inspiration inside every soul. I didn't know any of that.

But through experience, I became this young little diver into my inner world.

 

Why Prosperity Matters Now

I wanted to share this with you because, in this time of great transformation, it's very easy to get lost in the gloom, sadness, darkness, and grayness. In the scarcity programming and the fear.

If you just let yourself, you will begin to slide right there. And it's not that difficult to go there.

What takes a creative mind is to orient yourself into a different reality. To focus on the world that is being born, where you and I can be midwives, agents of change, creative agents of change.

Where you and I can see a new world being born—a world where everybody knows there is plenty. Where everybody believes in the value of their talents and gifts. Where everybody knows their inherent worth and inherent value.

This is the world that begins with each of us connecting to it on a level of energy, consciousness, and vision.

 

The Inspiration Behind This Framework

This exploration of prosperity consciousness and the Six Pillars of Prosperity was inspired by Richard Rudd, the mystical poet who brought us the phenomenal manual of consciousness called the Gene Keys.

Richard Rudd is really good at naming frameworks. He dropped this name—Six Pillars of Prosperity—named them, and that's it. He didn't say anything else.

Almost as if inviting all of us to contemplate on these pillars. To attune to them. To see if we can find a connection to them in our own lives.

So this is an exploration together with you—to see how you see these pillars, these trees of prosperity in the Garden of Life.

Because one of my fundamental views of reality is this:

Life is inherently prosperous.

There's a big difference between prosperity and what we as a society consider wealthy or rich or financially hugely abundant.

If we look at life as a role model of prosperity—and to me, life is very feminine in essence—we see that:

Life is infinitely creative. Life is flexible. Life constantly invites us on an adventure. Life teaches us that resources, all the resources we require for our physical life, reveal themselves to us.

And most of the time, they reveal themselves on the inside—as a flash of an idea, an insight, a download, a dream, a breakthrough in conversation, a synchronicity, a book, a teacher, a course. Inside and outside, opportunity comes to us.

I love contemplating the inherent prosperity of life as a vibration, something we can attune to.

Choosing Your Frequency

With everything happening in the world, you might wonder: Is it selfish to talk about prosperity? Is it a waste of time? Maybe we should talk about other topics.

But prosperity is a radio station we can attune to—just as creative thinking is a radio station, just as love is an energetic station we can attune to.

There's this element of sovereign choice. What do we choose to attune to?

We can see the world as chaos, collapse, density, and sadness. Or we can see the world as it's collapsing and being born at the same time. It's dying and being born simultaneously.

It's not only dying. It's not only collapsing. It's the dying and collapsing of the old, and at the same time, from the ashes, something new is being born.

The amount of density is balanced by an amount of light. The amount of darkness is balanced by the amount of light.

I was inspired to hold the thread of light. To hold the thread of prosperity.

Because there's so much fear in the collective. So much attention to what's missing, the lack, the scarcity. This feeling that we have to hold on to resources and not share, hold on to talents and not share—who cares who is listening, right?

But to me, prosperity is a vibration that can spread through all areas of our life.

Prosperity of our talents—there's so much talent. Prosperity of our creativity. Prosperity in really knowing that we always have enough.

We always have enough to take the next step. We always have enough to share. We always have enough to feel joy and gratitude and appreciation.

Prosperity is this radiance, the energy that begins to beam from your energy field when your heart is open. When every day you decide to keep that heart open, and when it begins to close, you know how to open it back up.

 

The First Pillar: Learning to Love

You unlock prosperity in your life when you learn to love and to learn.

Learning to love is the first key that unlocks lasting, sustainable prosperity in your life.

Learning to love in a deep way. In a mature way. In a profound way.

Learning to love even when you've had so many wounds to your heart in the past. When your trust has been betrayed. When you've experienced disappointment. When you've had all logical reason to never trust love again.

And you dare to love again.

You dare to learn to love yourself, and love the world, and more than anything, love your life exactly as it is.

The Wisdom of the Zen Teacher

I remember one of my earliest spiritual teachers—a Zen monk. This was at the very beginning, when I was remembering who I was on a level of spirit.

I had this block in my heart. I shut down my ability to feel. I couldn't cry for two years after my divorce, which was very challenging to go through. In order to survive that experience, I just shut down all capacity to feel. I cut off from here all the way down—there was cement.

I tried to be agnostic. I tried not to have any spiritual life because I wanted nothing to do with religion or any dogma.

But I found these classes on Buddhism. Buddhism doesn't tell you what to believe or what to think or to adopt their belief system. They just say: We share what works for us. We share the science of peace. And if it works for you, keep it. If it doesn't work for you, it's not for you.

It's a very welcoming path. Very spacious. It welcomes you as you are.

I specifically liked Zen Buddhism because it's very simple, to the point, just dealing with what is. Opening your heart to what is.

The Zen monk's teaching really moved me. He said:

"You don't have to like everything about your life. You simply get to learn to love it."

This was a profound distinction for me—that liking and loving are different vibrations.

Liking everything about your life is a very mood-based experience. Some days you like your life, some days you don't. That's alright. Welcome to the ride of being human.

But loving your life? That's having this heart of gratitude that you have a life. That every day you wake up and can breathe is a gift.

Loving your life means knowing that there are so many people who wish to trade spots with you at any point of your life experience. So many people going through so much more intensity and war circumstances than you. If they had a chance, they would trade spots with you.

Learning to love your life means cultivating a profound appreciation for simply winning the lottery of being alive.

It was a huge breakthrough for me. I contemplated this teaching for ten years. It never left me. It's so simple, it pierced my heart.

The Practice That Opens the Heart

The teacher would say: If you want to open your heart, sit every day and ask your heart to open.

That was another Zen teaching that felt really simple.

Sit and ask your heart to open.

I remember thinking: This is stupid. I have other things to do. I want advanced teaching. What are you giving me? (The ego voice.)

But there was a moment where I said: Well, let me just give it a try.

So I sat, and I asked my heart to open, and I heard something. I heard the psychic energy of my heart move.

That was my first discovery—that when you ask something in your inner world to open, it will.

It was a big realization. I said: Wow, thank you.

I kept with the practice. I wasn't consistent, but the times I remembered...

 

The Chapter of Waiting

For the next ten years, my main search was: What was my purpose?

I had a deep, deep sense of unease and anxiety that I would never find it.

A lot of people are surprised when they learn this about me—that's why I keep sharing it—but for ten years, a huge chapter of my life, I did not know what was my path. What was my creative path? What was my mission in life? What was my work?

I knew I was born to do something meaningful, and I knew it was my job to find it.

Every day I would wake up and say: Universe, please show me what it is. I'm ready to hear.

And the universe would just not answer. Would just be quiet.

The answer I would get was: You will know when it's time.

The process of loving the chapter of waiting—loving the chapter of waiting for ten years—was profound.

It was the same process of waiting for the right romantic match. A journey of ten years.

Yes, I dated. Yes, I'd been in relationships. I'd also been solo and without any relationships, very happy to be by myself. Very self-sufficient, to the point that I was like: I don't need relationships. I'm good. I'll just take occasional lovers. I don't need to deal with relationships.

My spirit guides showed me: Well, you know, don't go to this extreme because you'll miss out on a huge part of your curriculum. Human physical incarnation is all about relationships.

I was like: Okay, fine. I'm willing to take this curriculum.

 

The Truth About Prosperity

So the first pillar of prosperity: If we learn how to love our life, we attune to prosperity. We become a prosperous being.

But if we have all the financial and professional success on paper, but deep inside we hate our life—we are not prosperous.

We're actually very, very poor in spirit. We're poor in energy.

Because if we hate our life, the energy doesn't just stay benign. It goes into addictions. It goes into overspending. It goes into emotional blocks.

We can never get away with hating our life and not paying the price for it.

Learning to love our life is part of our daily curriculum.

Can I open my heart to the intensity of the world? Intense transformation. Intense beauty. Intense collapse. Intense rebirth.

Everything is happening so fast. I'm looking at it, and I'm like: Whoa! It just doesn't stop. Every day, something new comes to light. Every day is a new story that can really rattle me.

How can I learn to love my life and open my heart to it?

 

The Second Pillar: To Be Human

The second pillar of prosperity connects to the first. First pillar: to love and learn. Second: to be human.

Basically, embrace the human experience.

For so many of us who identify as lightworkers—people on the path of the heart, here to serve the light—we're more at home in the stars than we are here.

Oftentimes, especially when we begin to open up our spiritual gifts, our desire to serve, our mystical gifts, it's easier to just hover above the body, above the ground, above the planet.

Sometimes it's much more challenging to come back to the body. To feel the fullness of human experience. To open our heart and embrace the journey of embodiment—which means embracing the journey of feeling.

To be human is to dare to feel.

To dare to feel the full range. Because you won't always feel confident about your life. There will be chapters where you feel deeply insecure.

That's the first wisdom of human experience—the pendulum.

Oh, I am the master of my reality! I got this! I control my destiny!

And then one force of destiny knocks you off your feet, and you're humbled by the realization of how deeply insecure this human journey is.

Whether it's loss of your health, loss of a loved one, loss of your job, loss of your business, loss of your sight, loss of your hearing.

Boom. You feel this profound vulnerability of human experience.

So holding that tension—as a divine soul, you are eternal, you cannot die, you are connected to all, you have never been separated from all.

But as a human, you are deeply vulnerable.

Finding the opening to that. Finding the beauty in that. Finding the inner prosperity, that ability to radiate light even when you don't feel confident about your place in the world. Even when you go through a time of confusion or constriction.

Will you dim your light? Will you adopt a scarcity and lack mindset because you feel insecure?

Or will you dare to be human and feel insecure but still radiate your inner prosperity, your inner sun, your inner joy?

Richard Rudd says to be human is to be the battleground—a full range of emotions and feelings.

Wow, what an image!

I would say to be the stage where all the energies are dancing. Here's the profound joy and profound grief. You feel like you're in bliss, and at the same time, deep sadness. Imagination, confusion, connection, isolation.

To be human is to allow yourself to feel it all and to experience it all—not just on the surface, but at its depth.

 

 

The Third Pillar: To Dance

Oh, the next one is to dance!

If we forget to dance, we forget the key medicine for human life.

The Peruvian Elder's Wisdom

This reminds me of when I was in Sacred Valley, Peru. I was blessed to go there several times and bring three groups of twenty-plus people on this mystical pilgrimage.

On the very first journey, I asked our host: Will you please see if we can invite an elder so we can learn about how you see the world? How does the Indian cosmovision work? How do you see the elements, the place?

The next day, our host said: Katerina, I'm so happy! We found the most amazing experience. This elder woman will come with two more elders. They're going to build the altar and share with your group how we see the world.

Our group gathered at this big indoor yoga center. Everybody was excited. We didn't know what to expect. We were all dedicated students with notebooks, thinking we were going to take lots of notes and learn about this amazing ancient culture.

This elder woman came. They all sat down and looked at us.

She said: Get up.

Get up, everybody, get up. We're like: What? What?

She says: Let's walk. Walk around the circle. Now let's hop and skip. Now let's dance and twirl and move and dance.

She asked us to dance for ten minutes.

She would say: Come on, bring your energy up! Dance! Show me that your heart is in it!

We were all breaking a sweat, actually enjoying it, skipping. After ten minutes, she says: Now you can sit down.

And she says: In our culture, before you're able to receive wisdom, you need to ignite the spirit of celebration.

This is why we dance. Before we learn anything, we dance.

This is a memory I will treasure in my heart forever. That elder taught me so much through this one experience.

In order to receive wisdom, you get to move from your head, your intellect, into your body, into your heart. And the dance is the way we make that journey.

When you dance, can you really feel poor? Can you feel like you don't have enough when you dance?

Of course not.

When you allow yourself to really enjoy the dance, you feel like the richest person in the world. Because the energy is moving, and you feel like you are the abundance. You are the prosperity.

You have so much—you can move, you can dance. Isn't that the prosperous experience?

When We Stop Dancing

The third pillar of prosperity is to dance.

And when we become so busy—because in our Western culture there's this message that it's never enough, you always have to go for more, you need to double your business, triple your business, every month raise the bar—we're just too busy to dance.

There's so much Netflix to watch, this season and that season. Who has time to dance?

That's how we lose our prosperous spirit. When we stop dancing, we lose our prosperous spirit.

 

 

The Fourth Pillar: To Share

The fourth pillar: Share.

Because when we dance and our heart is open, of course we want to share that energy with others. Of course, we want to smile at strangers. Of cours,e we will stop and ask: How are you? And really mean it.

You know, here in America we have this thing we're known for—and I'm originally from Russia, so it took some adjustment for me to realize—when people ask you "How are you?" they don't expect your real answer. It's just a passing greeting.

At first, I was shocked by that. Because in Russia, you wouldn't ask if you weren't ready to hear an answer. You just wouldn't ask. Maybe you'd just look.

When I moved here, immigrated here, my first year was really hilarious. I would be like: Well, you know, on one level I am good. On another level, this has been going on...

And I'm seeing this person who asked me "How are you?" and their eyes are glazing over because they did not expect to hear a real, in-depth answer.

Cultural adjustment. I've learned to adapt to this culture and say: Yeah, I'm good, how are you?

But when I really feel that somebody is truly asking me how I am—when in the energy there is a welcome, there is a connection in the eyes, there's a genuine invitation for me to share—isn't that an experience of prosperity? Where you are received?

The Prosperity of Connection

The prosperity of sharing. Sharing with each other our lessons, our pain, our difficulties, our celebrations. What are we carrying? What are we concerned about? What are we creating?

If we can share with each other about our human experience, if we can share with each other our gifts and talents, we become more prosperous.

 

 

The Fifth Pillar: To Feast on Life

The fifth pillar—I think this is my favorite because I am a sensorial being. I love celebrating the senses. There is a reason why we have the senses.

The fifth pillar of prosperity is to feast on life.

To feast on life. I really want to take this in.

To actually savor. Do you have a picnic in nature? Take that avocado toast or whatever you're eating—cheese, grapes—and create an experience that is a feast of life.

When I met my partner, he invited me for picnics quite a lot. I was so enthusiastic. I was like: I love picnics! I'm so happy! I met somebody who also genuinely loves picnics.

I had to share with him some picnic item upgrades. You know, I have a specific taste. If I eat goat cheese, there's a specific goat cheese I like. Gluten-free crackers that I like.

We upgraded the type of things we would share, but it was really amazing to share picnics together.

To feast on life. Like today, after this livestream, I am going to be on a date with my partner. We're going to nourish our senses. We're going to go to places of beautiful architecture, beautiful gardens, just a local park.

That's a feast of life—where you take the time to go and nourish your senses. Have soulful conversations with each other. Just be in the place of ecstatic aesthetic beauty.

 

The Brevity of Life

Because this life is so brief.

This morning, when I was meditating, contemplating on what this day is inviting me to share, I was thinking how fast this human life goes.

We don't have the capacity to really notice how fast it goes until it's gone.

It's a beautiful design—us timeless beings choosing a time-confined experience, a time-limited experience.

But this life is really fast.

And while we're here, like today—you will never be this age anymore. You're one day more mature. I don't like to call it older, but you're one day more mature in your experience of life.

Hopefully more mature if we grow in our awareness, if we mature in our awareness.

But you're one day closer to the end. Every single day, you're closer to the ending. Life is going toward a particular direction.

So if we don't learn to savor life, what's the point of chasing success and money and all the things if we are too busy or too stressed to enjoy it?

Radical Simplification

One of the things I did last year was radically simplify my life.

I climbed a particular mountain that I always wanted to be on top of. I was willing to do anything within the integrity of my soul. I was willing to push myself as hard as I needed to push. I was willing to work as hard as I needed to work. To dream, to visualize, to develop my talents, to hire the mentors.

To get to the top of that mountain. Because it was a pinnacle of what I wanted to experience.

And when I got there—after enjoying and celebrating and savoring that amazing gift of the experience—what was shocking was the realization:

I found the altitude diseasing.

I realized that to be on the top of that mountain is a particular elevation that I didn't want to remain on.

It took me by surprise to realize that to sustain that level of experience, I had to continue to exert the same amount of life force, drive, ambition, and vision.

Something shifted inside of me when I realized it was no longer the dream.

There have been so many moments in my life like this—where I would walk away from a stage, walk away from a mountain, walk away from an experience I always wanted.

After I experienced it, sampled it, lived it—what is the other dream?

It was this powerful realization that the next level of prosperity for me was in letting go. In this liberating simplicity. Letting go of complexity, of the life that used to be a dream.

Turning around and walking in another direction.

Because this is, by design, aan rchetypal design.

 

The Sixth Pillar: Letting Go

If we cannot find the strength and wisdom to let go of a chapter that no longer aligns, we will not unlock true prosperity.

We're holding on to something that no longer fits. We're grasping for it. We're so attached to it.

You know how uncomfortable it was for me to look into the nature of my attachment? To grieve that attachment and realize: Wow, I got really attached. I got really invested in this mountain. Emotionally, energetically, mentally. Really attached.

It was an incredible curriculum to embrace this sixth pillar of prosperity, called letting go.

Letting go.

If we're not able to let go of what we outgrew, we will never unlock the true abundance of spirit.

But if we're able to cultivate this joyful experience of life where you welcome what comes to you, you welcome experience, and you enjoy it fully—and when you start hearing a deeper voice and deeper wisdom of your soul that says "It's time to let it go"—you have the wisdom to trust that voice.

To make that turn and begin to walk in a new direction.

Knowing that you radiate a prosperous spirit independently—whether you're on the mountain, whether you're on the river, whether you're in the jungle, whether you're in the cave.

The Inner Frequency

Prosperity is this inner experience that is an expression of an awakened heart. The heart within the heart, the spiritual heart. An illuminated mind.

Prosperity is also a frequency we can attune to in any circumstances, in any experience.

When we're attuned to that vibration of prosperity, we bring that vibration to everything we create—whether it's an oracle deck, a journal, a course, a conversation.

The vibration of prosperity accompanies everything you create, everything you share, and how you interact and show up in the moment of life.

And even if there will be times and moments where your personality, your personal self, gets frightened or insecure, afraid or constricted, and drops to the level of scarcity and survival, you're not going to stay there.

Because it's deeply uncomfortable.

You will know how to switch the station. How to open your heart. How to remember these six pillars and express them, embody them,and  anchor yourself in them.

 

A Message to My Younger Self

If I could only go back to that young girl standing in the snow—that ten-year-old in Soviet Russia asking "What did I do to deserve this life?"—here's what I would tell her:

You know what you're doing right now? Diving into your inner world? Discovering all these inner capacities to imagine a new future? To dream about a new life for yourself? To see yourself experiencing new lands and new places? Really making something out of this life?

You are moving in the right direction.

Keep going.

You are unlocking inner resourcefulness. You are unlocking inner prosperity. You're unlocking a prosperous spirit.

You're moving in the right direction, and one day—one day—you're going to publish books. You're going to be giving talks on this topic.

 

Two Parallel Earths

I wanted to share this with you because this year, 2026, is going to be a very contrasting year of two different Earths.

If you've heard about the Earth being split into two different dimensions, two different realities, parallel realities—it's going to become more and more obvious.

There is one version of the Earth where everybody is fighting for very limited resources. Everybody is competing with each other. Everybody's trying to go faster than their competition.

The distrust between others is growing and growing. That world exists—where there is no hope, there is no future, there is no possibility for creative, unique spirit of a human to thrive and to be prosperous.

That world exists.

And there is another world that exists.

Where every single human being who chooses that world is radiating their prosperous soul from within. Seeing themselves as artists, as dancers, as builders of the new world. As somebody who embodies the new earth consciousness from within.

By every single day making a choice—making a sovereign choice to thrive, to create, to express, to be. To choose joy no matter what's happening.

This world exists.

And every day of 2026, you will see this very clear distinction between the two.

And you, as a sovereign soul, can choose where you want to be. Where do you want to create? What world do you want to express? What world do you want to support as a midwife?

Death Doula and Birth Midwife

Because we are—as Marianne Williamson said this so beautifully—if you see yourself as a lightworker, as a weaver of the new world, your task is twofold.

You're at the same time a death doula for the old world and a birth midwife.

You've got to be trained in both tasks.

You're midwifing the birth of the new world by birthing a new self.

And you are a death doula of the old world. You're a death doula to your old egoic self that's going to be dying at an accelerated rate. The death of attachments. The death of old identity. The death of self-image. The death of attachments.

You are a death doula to your old self and a midwife to your new self. You are participating in the same simultaneous process. It's not one or another—it's both happening at the same time.

Now, if you can do it for yourself individually, you can participate in that process collectively.

This is an exciting time. It's an intense time. Intensely beautiful and intensely difficult to experience.

Thank goodness I enjoy extremes. I've always been an extremist, and I've been learning this middle path.

But these extremes of experience don't scare me. They kind of charge me up.

And I've learned to embrace the peaceful experiences. To be more in the beauty of the ordinary.