Meet Katie Moon | Researcher, Teacher, & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katie Moon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I love this question! We tend to believe something is a risk because something is unknown. We take comfort in the known, and we doubt the UNknown could be good, beneficial or even work how we hope it’ll work. Thus, it largely feels unsafe to us. But I connect our fear of the unknown with the doubt we have surrounding who we are. We grow up in a world that teaches us who we are is limited and lacking. So, without really questioning, we go into agreement with what we’re taught. As a natural byproduct, we live limited and lacking. But what if we changed this narrative? What if we looked around us, at all the evidence stacked against this? More importantly, what if we looked *within* us and felt the deep knowing that this has never been the truth? How would this change our propensity to risk-take? I believe it would change it a lot. At the end of the day, we are the linchpin of our lives. More specifically, who we believe that “we” is, will unequivocally create the life we live. Believe we are our small-selves, our selves that see the world in fear, separation, limitation, and lack—guess what life we’ll create for ourselves? But believe we are something more? Something deeper, more whole, unlimited, and abundant—imagine what kind of life we’ll create for ourselves!

Now listen, this is not about positive thinking, this is about true thinking. Accurate thinking. Simply, these small-selves, as I call them, are not our truest selves. These are our selves that have gone into agreement with ideas that were never true of us, and which gave us a perception, or a lens through which to navigate life, that has only diminished or held down what is true. What is accurate. Why would we do this? First, because it’s what we were taught, and agreeing with those who taught us (who were also taught the same thing by those who taught them, btw) made life with them easier. Second, we *continue* in this way because we never got to know our deeper selves, and once again, that which is unknown scares us.

So, return to what has always been true of us, accurate of us, regardless of having ever believed it or not? And we become a new kind of linchpin for our lives. Suddenly our higher, deeper Self, who is connected to and part of God, our Source, who knows things from a higher realm, a higher vibration (in terms of quantum physics), and thus a higher love, begins to run the show for us. It cannot be overstated: this changes everything. Suddenly anything is possible. Suddenly everything is supported. Suddenly everything is safe.

So, to say risk is an important aspect of life is an understatement. It is absolutely vital if we want to see change of any kind come into our lives—whether personal or professional. I not only believe this is true, but have experienced this truth again and again in my life, on both levels.

Personally, as I began to question and dismantle my less-than-ideal thinking and habitual ways of showing up in the world, my small-self became terrified, feeding me thoughts like, “If I’m not her, if I don’t get a sense of identity here, or there… who even am I? Do I even have value anymore?” But as my awareness of the pain inherent in my small-self’s way of thinking grew, so did my desire to risk it all and find out what was on the other side. The result? Massive shifts in my personal peace, joy, self-worth, self-confidence, and desire to see and love others well.

Professionally, as I began to ask questions of the traditions and teachings I was handed surrounding my research subject (I’m a Biblical researcher)… As I began to search and dig for clarity and question everything in order to get to the bottom of every last thing… My small-self most certainly felt risk. “What if people don’t like what I’m discovering? Who in the world am I without these traditions anyway? What if all this causes people to reject me or even hate me? Who will I be without the affirmation of people I’ve loved being affirmed by?” Asking and facing questions like these has felt nothing short of harrowing at times, and has even tempted me to give up my work altogether. Yet! As my research surfaced new thing after new thing that blew my mind and began to change my life for the brilliant better, so did my desire to risk it all and bring what I’ve discovered to others. The result? I’ve now created multiple online courses (free and paid) along with other content that is not only spreading, it’s changing lives. Furthermore, all this has lead to external interest to now turn the basis of my research findings into a published book that will effect even more lives!

Bottom line? You are the linchpin of every aspect of your life. Risk stepping outside the stories you’ve been told about who you are. Risk, and do not shy away from this leap of faith. (And it WILL be a leap of faith you’ll have to take over and over again!) Then watch your life dramatically begin to shift—for the brilliant better!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As Marie Forleo coined, I think of myself as a multi-passionate entrepreneur. My Instagram handle says I’m a “Biblical Researcher, Teacher, and Artist.” Which is to say, I began my career as a professional illustrator (it was legit— I had an agent in NYC, top-tier clients, and even had my own illustration business in which I sold commissioned and non-commissioned artwork), and then pivoted into other work/passions from there. The story goes, after several years working as an illustrator, I accidentally started seminary. Truly, it was an accident. I thought I had signed up for a basic short-term Bible “study,” only to be served a syllabus outlining the tests, papers, and multi-hundred-page reading assignments that would be required of me that semester on the first day of class. Long story short, I fell in love with the depth of study, and the rest is basically history. Four and a half years later, I transitioned out of seminary/graduate school (before getting the originally-planned-upon initials behind my name) to start my own intense research work and non-prophet organization. Today, I’m a full-time researcher, course creator, to-be published author, with many long-term dreams including the desire to work on a new Bible translation, and one day, in some way, marry my illustration work with my research work.

What sets my work apart from others is, in many ways, the traditional research methods and models I’ve been able to adapt and advance. After many, many research hours, I began to recognize what I feel are some fairly major inadequacies in traditionally-taught Bible research methods. In other words, I’ve been able to identify ways we can study the Bible better, more meticulously, and gain sharper understanding of this ancient, foreign text. For example, I believe people who study the Bible must learn “the rule of location.” This interpretation principle asks, “What does this mean from the divine Author’s perspective?” It is common practice to ask what a Biblical concept meant in ancient Israel, but it is not common practice to understand that if this is a divinely inspired text (as most in this field believe it is), then the real author is God. The Bible says that God’s ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts. If God is in Heaven, and we’re here on Earth (again, as most would say), and if God, and thus Heaven, is entirely different than Earth, than what do these ancient words and sentences and paragraphs and books mean from that dramatically Higher plane? Not only do I take extra nuances like this into account in my research, I teach students how to as well. Additionally, these methods have played a major role in some of the discoveries I’ve been able to make.

This may all sound like really heady stuff, and maybe not even for the average person, but I believe that what I’ve discovered is so potentially pivotal to the world, and especially to the landscape and narrative around Christianity, that my desire is to make every thing I’ve learned accessible to everyone.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My story would not be possible without the ongoing, many-level championing of my husband, Garrett Moon, who has been here from the beginning. Raylenne Jensen Garrison was my primary sounding board, challenger of information, question asker, and confidant in an early time in my research journey when I was terrified of all the big content I was discovering. My friends Raylenne, Laurie Berge, and Christina Olson instigated my first class, and were my first students. Eve Albrecht, who asked me to teach a couple years later, and Dawn and Claire from Florida who suggested I teach online, were crucial to the creation of my 8-week, in-depth online course, which is changing the trajectory of my work. Lindsay Teague Moreno, who listened to the quiet whisper within telling her to take my course, who then finished it and then took it another time, and then another, has not only become a dear friend, but a significant and important champion and parter in spreading this work. Finally, the many who have gone before me, who labored and have labored years and years to develop meticulous tools like ancient-language dictionaries and even software to make this work possible… All because they foresaw people doing what I’m now doing… Their contribution to this line of work and our world, in my estimation, should never be forgotten. I’m perpetually grateful.

Website: https://www.inblackandlight.com

Instagram: @katieamoon

Other: For my in-depth course, ‘When God Created Light: Reconsidering the Beginning, What Really Happened, and How This Changes Everything”: https://www.inblackandlight.com

Image Credits
Hailey Jorris