I've read so many posts online of wannabe cultural appropriators like Claire Nakti and the others who boldly claim that you do not need a guru and it is the lunar path that needs a Guru. Whatever horse opinion and a made-up story that is. it is far from true spirituality. One absolutely needs a mentor if they want to learn any skill in life. Let me enlighten you.
Category 1: You want to cook your favorite dish; you youtube the recipe and learn it from a video that coaches you step by step with the ingredients including the oven setting. Such a person is called an Adhyapak in Sanskrit. Someone who gives you information. Like all your youtube "Make-up guru" whom I absolutely love and adore belong to Adhyapak category.
Category 2: Your average dance, piano teacher, a tennis coach who helps you learn any skill is an Acharya. Very few of us are born prodigy.
Category 3: Your average college professor helps you pick out your career , helps you hone your best skills be it writing, singing, acting, and directs your career. so someone who guides you , gives you knowledge and information is called an Upadhyaya. (Knowledge+Information)
Category 4: When you are coding and you're unable to move forward in your logic. You need a subject matter expert to help you navigate your problem. Someone who knows the language thoroughly, understands the problem at hand. You need a deep insight into the subject , like an SME ( subject matter expert)that person who enlightens you at that point is a Pundit.
Category 5: So I was following this person who is a self-made millionaire and helps people become a millionaire. His name is Derek Moneyberg. He charges a bomb of 60k USD for his basic course. He helps build a personality, makes sure one is serious, and has an outlook which helps one be a millionaire. He encourages people not waste their youth in partying, drinking etc. He helps people improve their best skill, monetize it, learn investment and makes sure your frame of mind is in the right direction. Such a Teacher is called a Drishta. He is a visionary and coaches you to think in that manner. So If you want to be a millionaire and you don't come from money you might need a financial coach like him.
Category 6 : Guru the only one who can lead you from darkness to light is a Guru. Darkness means tamas /IGNORANCE. And if you are living in the material world without any spiritual quest you are in a state of tamas. And a Guru will initiate you by giving you a "Deeksha- Initiation" into a system of study and helps you open your mind. This is knowledge beyond the material world. It is mastering yourself to become Godlike. None of the categories above can give you that benefit and secure you for multiple lifetimes. A Deeksha protects you with the divine power of God's and Goddesses and helps you connect you with them. And the most important thing is you just do not have the access to that God or mantra without a Guru. It is only through the power and permission of Guru, that you have the access to the energy of this divinity. A part of their grace and their years of spiritual practice is opening a portal of energy to you. Enabling you to access it and ascend to a higher plane through constant practice or sadhana.
So we've established on every stage of life whether you are making a lasagne or you're planning to open or activate your mind to learn about your true nature and God ; you need a teacher , a different variant of Guru.
I agree there are many fake Guru's out there. Many of them in the west culturally appropriate Indian philosophy and create cults and defame Hindu Sanatan Siddha Dharma and Gods. I encourage you to not pay heed to them. Ignore the fake spiritual people who say you don't need Guru because all they have learnt is from a book[ that is a category 1 variant of Guru ] and haven't performed any spiritual practices themselves [sadhana] and so do not have any experiences.
To learn something as advance a knowledge system like transcending your consciousness state, activating all parts of your brain, learning about God, learning spirituality, raising your kundalini to become Godlike; wouldn't one need real GURU?
A true GURU is someone who has a lineage of GURU's to back Him/Her, that predates till Adi Guru SHIVA himself. Such a Guru with a heavy lineage behind him is the only Guru worth following. Kaulantak Nath - Ishaputra is the only Guru who is all the 6 categories into 1. He is the only Guru backed by Gurumandal from the Himalayas.
She doesn’t say you don’t need a guru, but that eventually you will have to learn to walk on your own, and there are ways to be in contact with the “guru“ through the astral realm without having to rely on a physical teacher. It’s funny that you call her a “wannabe social appropriator“ when perhaps she’s one of the very few modern teachers who has been able to actually understand the mysteries of jyotish and share them in an accessible way instead of doing what basically every other astrologer I have seen do: repeat the same basic nonsense they read somewhere in a book over and over and over.