sprinkle sprinkle: a career retrospective

the genesis of the internet's original dating coach

this post is extra special because it was requested by my lovely subscriber, ariana. i write for her, and all women who inspire me.

when you do you’re job as a writer

there’s something about art, in any form, that haunts you. as absence remains the highest form of presence, should a piece speak to you long after you’ve first engaged with it, then it’s done its job. there is also that old adage about the medium being the message. that the way we choose to communicate is just as important, if not more, than what we are communicating. my self-given job as a writer is to communicate my world and encourage those who find their home in it to stay a little while longer. so, when i received a dm from a subscriber asking for an in-depth expansion of a sentence i had left in as a joke, i was proud of myself for having done my job.

the sentence in question came from my essay on envy, where i wrote:

“there’s an essay to be written about how this woman is a better witch than she is a hypergamist and how her current mainstreaming is a gift from venus [shera deity worships] for her countless years of devotion to the venusian arts…”

a diouana woman.

the woman in question is none other than the youtuber known as sheraseven. i was first introduced to shera’s channel at 17. there are now hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of women who are tuning into the wisdom of a woman whose signature catchphrase “sprinkle sprinkle” has come to define the current generation of women determined to be wined and dined and ermined.

this essay will not be an investigation into the cultural phenomenon that is the advocacy of “the soft life” by women, both young and old. i will leave that to the professionals (historians and sociologists). besides, faithful readers of this publication will already know where i stand on the subject.

instead, i want to take you on a journey through the inner sanctum of goddesses and women who get what they want so you properly understand what i meant when i wrote, “this woman [shera] is a better witch than she is a hypergamist.”

a woman’s place in a man’s world

we’ve talked often about the term bitch on this substack. from the 1920s great american bitch to the 1990s chic bitch, a bitchy woman is always an inspiration to a diouana woman. the reason being is that a “bitch” is almost always a woman who has the conviction that she should receive what she wants in this life. no questions asked. to answer such questions would be to qualify herself, likely to satiate the worldview of those who do not believe in her convictions; thus, find her undeserving of the things she believes she deserves.

inherently bitchy, a diouana woman is not in the business of starting cults. so there’s no need to convert followers to her beliefs. a diouana woman is in the business of getting what she wants. and a woman who is well-rested, well-loved, well-luxuriated and well-watered with a thriving career and a blossoming investment portfolio is a woman who, sadly, exists outside of the societal paradigm given to women both in contemporary and historic times.

it may not seem like it, but it is a relatively new phenomenon for women to get what we want. that is why an understanding of feminist history is paramount. tracing the battles our foremothers fought on our behalf helps underscore just how fortunate we are as women to now have the legal opportunities to go after what we want in this life.

how this relates to the term “bitch” is that before it was a woman’s legal right to go after what she wanted, be it a career or whatever quotidian lifestyle she preferred, she had to turn to spiritual means to do so. and pray the gods were on her side. now, it’s a bit unserious to insert this as fact. after all, historians do not recognize “witch” as an official occupation that women have held throughout history (outside of being accused of being one and being hanged as a result). but, as i stated earlier, i am not a historian. merely a woman who reads. and from the litany of books i’ve read on the subject, my understanding of the mythology around women who have been labeled witches, either by their contemporaries or the archives, is that they were simply women with strong conviction about what they deserved and went after it. by any means necessary. societal expectations be damned.

it’s understood that a power source women always have when they have nothing else to leverage is their sexuality. indeed, when referring to a woman who is mesmerizing to the point of distraction, it is often said that she is “bewitching.” the linguists among us know that the definition of bewitch is “to cast a spell upon.” interestingly, seduce is defined as “to lead away from a usual or proper course.” thus, a bewitching woman is one who leads you by casting a spell upon you. a witch. a bitch is merely a woman with strong conviction who is not willing to back down from her beliefs. one can be a bitch without being a witch, but a witch is always a bitch.

both the witch and the bitch were born from the rib of the sacred whore. a sacred whore was one who worked in a sacred temple as a prostitute at the behest of a goddess for the purposes of religious worship in pre-abrahamic times. this religious prostitution was often associated with the goddess aphrodite, the greek goddess of love and beauty. her roman equivalent is venus. it is said that mortal women who identify with love, beauty, and finery are venusians. herein comes shera.

ambitious, not hypergamy is the nine letter word you’re looking for

shera is many things. a scholar of the occult. a harbinger of the fate that befall women who fall victim to men known as “dusties.” to me, a witch. and for many women, their crone.

in folklore and mythology, the archetype of the crone is an older women whose lived enough lives to speak about life to young maidens. in literature and cinema, she is often depicted as blind because her wisdom does not come from sight but spirit. in the ethos of 2 corinthians 5:7, “for we live by faith, not by sight.”

shera lives by one revelation. well two. the first being, “words are not action” and the second being “cash in hand.” it is these revelations that inform the advice she gives women in the arenas of dating, mating, and marriage.

as stated above, it remains a rarity for women to receive everything we want in this life, especially at the level in which we desire, so shera’s advice is poignant. especially to those struggling in love and beauty. amongst the dating gurus as we collectively understand them today, shera is a pioneer as the first video on her channel that anchors the narrative thread we associate with her today is dated the 4th of february 2014.

she also happens to be something of a prophet because the first video on her channel where she accurately predicts the resurgence of the “great whore” in the 21st century is dated the 30th of january 2014. the reason i am hyperbolically referring to her as a prophet is because in the video, aptly titled “whores whores whores” (i am not making this up, please watch the video), she talks about how women will begin to lean into their sexuality from a place of affirmation, if not exploitation, to get what they want. this sounds awfully familiar to those who followed the wave of the “divine femininity” movement shift from a fringe social media concept amongst those who speak in chakras to the mainstream where even the podcast bros had something to say about it; those who witnessed the rise of onlyfans; and those who have seen female rap become even more hypersexual as the years go on.

shera read the writing on the wall in 2014. seven years before divine femininity became a social media mainstay. six years before onlyfans took over the internet. nine years before sexyy red’s poundtown got enough attention to warrant a nicki collab.

in her early videos, shera often spoke of spirituality. mainly the themes of manifestation and witchcraft. but somewhere along the way she turned to strictly speaking on relationships on this channel and created a separate channel uniquely devoted to the esoteric. i do not believe the audience who faithfully follow her first channel know of the latter. if they did, they, too, would come to the conclusion that shera is a better witch than she is a hypergamist.

for those unaware, hypergamy is the act of marrying into a higher social class. it should be emphasized that class does not equal wealth. to understand this, one need only look to the turn of the 19th century where many american industrialist families married their daughters off to european aristocrats because in doing so they were able to enter a higher social class. yes, despite the americans having greater wealth, they were still considered of a lower station than their european counterparts because the europeans could trace their elite lineage back further. four to six generations versus one or two. traditionally, this is the understanding of hypergamy. in modern times, it means something different. like i stated above, i will leave that to the professionals (historians and sociologists) to dissect as i am merely a woman who reads. what do i know?

shera has recounted her courtship with her husband in several videos. the basic details go like this: shera knew she was a woman too beautiful to work (hard) and james (her husband) agreed. now, james was no rupert murdoch, prince harry, or george clooney. he was just james. and shera was just shera. she was not wendy dang, meghan markle, or amal clooney. her ambition to be what i term an apex predator is not her defining trait, which is what i believe separates her from the aforementioned women. an apex predator is a diouana woman’s slang for a woman whose accomplishments are of the 0.001% and thus speak for themselves. an example would be being harvard educated, internationally renowned for your work, sitting on several company boards, marrying a billionaire, and attending the met gala as a patron not a celebrity. aka dambisa moyo. ambition for aggressive, outsized achievement that necessitates years of grunt work to master your craft is what separates a dambisa from a shera. and economists are in collectively agreement that hypergamy is on the decline (if it’s not already dead) because assortative mating is the current law of the dating land. in this way, shera should not be looked at for inspiration for hypergamy because she is not hypergamous in the ambitious sense. she is simply a woman in the business of getting what she wants. in this way, she should be regarded as a wise elder because it is a relatively new phenomenon for women to get what we want.

shera’s rise was inevitable because venus keeps her promises

i’ve written before about my belief in inevitable ends. for me, an inevitable end is an outcome you create through sheer will. the only caveat is that it must be supported by the gods. if it’s not, it won’t happen. no matter how hard you try. it’s true what we christians say, god does indeed have the final say. but it is also true what neville goddard said, “the mouth of god is the mind of man.” if you’re confused, just take a classic shera truism, “always believe what you want when you want how you want” and call it a day.

a running joke among those closest to me is how pagan i can be. this is partly, if not fully, influenced by my african upbringing. and also my devout animism. the ancient romans and i share this in common. there’s a spirit, or energy if you will, behind everything. person, place, or thing. if you are woman who is devoted to a life built upon rest, beauty, love, and luxury, then you are a woman who worships venus. shera and i share this in common.

to worship something is to make it holy. to make it sacred. to place your full faith in its power, and trust that it is greater than yours. shera’s entire platform is built on the venusian arts. this is why millions of women have flocked to her message because women, mythologically, are venusians. we are at home within the el dorado of a life built upon rest, beauty, love, and luxury. at least, diouana women are.

if you remain faithful to something over a long duration, you will be rewarded for your efforts. given her knowledge of spirituality, symbolism, and her absolute refusal to not live a life centered on beauty, it is likely that shera has been a devotee of venus, the goddess of beauty and love, long before she published her first youtube video. which is date the 20th of june 2013.

there’s a television series i watched some moons ago called american gods. it depicts the fight between the old gods and the new. the old gods are manifestations of the pagan beliefs of earlier americans. examples of the old gods in the show are odin, thoth, the queen of sheba, and even a type of a jinn. the new gods are technology and its derivatives. the tension in the show is that people’s beliefs in the old gods have waned, replaced by their faith in the new gods. to that end, each time shera posts a video detailing her perspective on dating, mating, and marriage from the perspective of the venusian arts, she is spreading the gospel of venus and evangelizing those who agree to open their minds to the venusian arts and place their faith in the domain of beauty, among other things. in this way, shera’s entire platform is a virtual temple for venus. yes, it can be said that her mainstreaming was an inevitable end on an algorithm that has been trained by thousands of “level up”, “divine femininity” and “hypergamy” videos. or, it can be posited that venus keeps her promises to those most faithful to her.

so, there you have it. should you remain committed to that which you revere, you will be rewarded for your efforts. my question to you is, what do you worship? and if it’s not yourself, then why?

sweet dreams,

a diouana woman

p.s. truth or dare

you know how in your diary, you write something down then rip it out and place it in the tiny makeup bag you keep in your purse as a manifestation method? yeah, these p.s. truth or dares are the digital versions of my little ripped off notes.

truth: writing about women for women. at the request of a woman!

dare: letting a man interfere with your ambition. if he becomes a distraction, dump him!

disclaimer: the views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not reflect the views of any employer, past or current.