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5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

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    5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

    So I thought I'd post this here. Seemed like a good spot for it. It's sort of a vent of my overall frustrations with the spiritual community as a collective - that is, across all the forums and groups and little covens and churches and conventions and just people you meet from time to time, and whatever else. As a whole, I just wanted to let off some steam about it and somehow ended up churning out this entry below. Enjoy, discuss, fling rotten tomatoes and four letter words in my direction - you know, whatever. Here it is.

    Five Things the Spiritual Community
    Needs to Stop Doing


    So I've started doing my witchy work for people again recently. It's been a long time since I hoisted my little bag of spiritual tools and reached out to help people in need. I've felt a call to resume my work, and frankly, I needed the practice. It's just good to stretch your muscles once in a while and stay sharp. Soon I hope to start a business with my fiance, but for the time being, I decided to warm up by handing out a few freebies in what little spare time I have lately, for those who were interested.

    It seems I had forgotten how exasperating this job is. Not anymore, I assure you! I am well and truly frustrated.

    After a particularly annoying conversation today with someone who has latched onto me seeking all the answers about life, eyes aglow with awe at the work I've done and feeling entitled to tug at my sleeves (and by that I mean text me) like I am their new free psychic hot line - I cut off the conversation abruptly with a heavy sigh, and started to ponder quietly.

    It's funny. As angry as I am, I don't really hold it against them. I just feel like I'd be flapping my jaws until I'm blue in the face, to a set of ears that are too filled with other things to hear me anyway - running a treadmill of repetitive work for someone who doesn't appreciate it. (Don't worry: I'm going to be setting some boundaries there. I know better than to let it go.) Somehow, it brings to mind the countless times I've been here before - the many people just like this person, all over the place. Below are all the things I have wanted so badly to say and wish so much that more people understood. These are some things the spiritual community needs to stop doing!


    1. Your love doesn't have to be special.

    How many times have you heard, "I think _____ and I were connected in a past life" or, "I think _____ is my twin flame", or any number of other things? Everyone wants a love written in the stars. Everyone wants their Prince Charming and Princess Buttercup. Love must last a thousand years, or it is not love at all. Everybody wants to believe that their love is supernatural.

    Isn't love itself supernatural enough for you?

    You have fallen in love with someone. Sparks fly as your hands touch. Maybe you're long distance, and your hearts skip a few beats every time you dream of the day you will meet up. Your life explodes into song and poetry and roses and candy and all things awesome. You want to give the world for them, your life for them, do everything for them. In this world full of madness and hatred, you have found someone who just gets you! In a dark world, you have found light and warmth. Isn't that enough for you? Why do you have to add something on top of that?

    Love is beautiful! Love is two souls, singing to one another in harmony across the fabric of the universe. Love is cool water in a desert, love is intoxicating, love is wild and unruly and primal. Love is all the passion and pleasure of sex, and all the inspiration and comradery of the human connection. Stop asking me if your love is special - I can tell you, it is special. I refuse to answer your questions about past lives and soul connections. My only answer will be, from now on: Be still, and bask in the beauty of your love. Stop asking for more! Embrace these moments while they last, and be happy for them. You will remember these moments your whole life.

    At the risk of sounding like a total idiot, I'll say this just once:

    Love really is all you need.


    2. Don't nit-pick.

    "No, I'm not a witch, I'm a mage."
    "It's not magic, it's magick."
    "That's not a ghost. It's a spirit."
    "That's not a demon, it's a malevolent spirit."
    "Which definition of 'darkness' do you mean?"
    "Chi points, not chakras!"
    "Are we talking about a soul connection, twin flame, or soul mate?"

    I'm going to be very, very blunt with this point: Shut the f*** up.

    Seriously, stop it. Why do I even need to say that you're missing the point entirely by sitting there nitpicking for hours about terms and definitions and little bitty details? What in the hell are you trying to accomplish? Why are we even doing this? Why the hell do we even care? Oh my god just stop.

    Aside from the occasional, "Wait, I'm not certain what you mean, can you clarify please so I can better respond?" which is of course necessary for the purposes of communication - there is absolutely no need to get swamped in terminology, and there is certainly no need to get your panties all up in a wad because you like one descriptor/term more than another. You are not showing off your intelligence by your knowledge of the spiritual thesaurus. You're just making an ass out of yourself. It's an utter and complete waste of time, and it's mind-numbingly retarded.

    This obsession over terminology halts discussion entirely and detracts from the entire conversation. It misses the forest not just for the trees, or even one tree, it's like one blade of grass that you just can't move away from. Everyone has to stop sharing and communicating and bonding and learning, just so you can backtrack and scrub over everything with your little toothbrush in an obsessive-compulsive frenzy. It's ridiculous.

    I would be unspeakably happy to just never, ever see this kind of thing happen again.


    3. You don't need to find your spirit guide, totem animal, or super spiritual guru master teacher.

    I know this is totally contrary to what you hear all over the place. Everyone seems to think that a spiritual seeker without a guide is some poor lost soul, or maybe too blind to see some lurking spirit that looms and watches over them. You're not part of the cool kids club if you don't have a guide to brag about. You're never going to reach enlightenment if some awesome spirit doesn't show you the way! What do you do? Where is this spirit? Where is your master? Everyone else has one - where is yours?

    Maybe you don't have one. And that's okay! You don't need one.

    You can learn anything you want to learn. You can study for your own self. Pick up a book - that is your guide. Take a stroll in nature, or just sit on a bench at the park and watch life teeming around you. That is your guide! The whole world is your guide. Life is your guide. Knowledge is hidden everywhere, if you will just seek it with dedication. Society tells you you have to be spoonfed your knowledge, but they are lying to you! Find your own way! Do your own work! You say I know so much - but that's what I did. Nobody did the work for me. I had guides and you know what they did? Got big smirks on their faces when I asked for knowledge, and said, "You'll find out." (Seriously, it was infuriating.)

    You want to know what I know? Do the work. You want to be like me? Get some dirt under those fingernails. Be better than me! Go farther than me! Ignore me completely if you want! Go to the library and rent stacks of books at a time, and read all of them. Ask questions - for the love of all that is holy, never stop asking questions. Ask WHY, and never stop asking it. Lie awake at night puzzling and pondering and turning things over and over again in your mind. Watch things going on around you, really watch them. Pay attention and learn the lessons stored all around you - trust me, they're there. Infer, deduce, reduce, verify, study. Listen to conversations going on around you - learn from other people. Start making little lists, in your head or on paper. Keep notes on life.

    This is what I did. I studied the world around me. I wandered around with childlike wonder and just found all this amazing stuff lying around. I will continue to do so until the day I die. I don't need a guide for that, and you don't either. Most of the stuff I know I just unimpressively stumbled across in that fashion - and trust me, if you're looking, you will too (hopefully more impressively than I have so far). Ignore the crowds saying you have to find your guide. Ignore spiritual fads and religious hype. These come and go, whether they last a hundred years or a millennium or two - but life is everlasting.

    If you're not willing to do the work, you don't deserve to know. If you want it handed to you, you will never understand it. If you trust a guru, a spirit, or even a book, to tell you everything, you will never understand. If you follow the path of other seekers around you, you will never carve your own. If you want a recipe for enlightenment, you will never be enlightened. If you want a list of do's and don'ts, you will never Be.

    If you don't think for yourself, you will never know.


    4. Don't be afraid of the dark.

    This is a really big one for me. As someone walking a decidedly grey path, I get serious flak for it - from the same people who will turn around and ask for my services, no less. Hypocrisy aside, there is a serious problem with lopsided spirituality that limits itself exclusively to the good side of things. I'm not very good at this, but I'll try to explain why.

    Life is not all good.

    If you are stuck trying to shine a light into every corner of your life, and bleach out every little smudge of sadness, and stitch a smile onto your face, and wrap the world in a blanket of love - what will you do when it fails? You see, I follow the grey path because life taught me a very grim lesson: it showed me its own terrible darkness. I could go on for hours telling you about the shocking and gruesome abuses I suffered, the times I feared for my life or stared Death right in his eye sockets, the nights spent in hospitals and days spent in varied states of hunger. But in summary, I have stared into the very abyss, and it stared right back at me. And it was surprisingly anticlimactic.

    I'm not saying anyone should EVER go through what I did, but what I am saying is that the darkness is only terrifying when you hide trembling in the light. If you were to plunge headfirst into the depths of Hell right this second, and meet Satan himself - for one, you really could probably walk your happy little butt out of there and find your way back home if you were determined to do so (metaphorically speaking). For another, if you were to stop and ask him, he might just have a calm conversation with you. And you'd be surprised at how much it sounds a lot like what any shiny pretty angel might say - just laced with a little more fire. Thirdly, even the most terrifying evil has its end, and even in the face of death and horror, the soul is far more ironclad than you could possibly imagine. And fourth, you will not be somehow stained and tainted with sin or evil along the way.

    The darkness really is just the other side of light. It's an exact mirror replica. Actually, it's more of a spectrum, or a moot point to begin with, but I'll let others squabble over that; this is written for the dual-minded among us. It really does not matter which side you feel more comfortable with. It really is the same either way. Those of us who blast metal and throw up the horns and paint our nails black are just as kind hearted inside and just as valid as those of us who listen to Enya and tend gardens and bask in sunlight. We should compliment one another, as light and dark do in the world, sun and moon, color and shadow. Sometimes darkness is just a quiet still night, with nothing to distract you. It is the shadow that lends depth and breadth and mass. It is the anchor deep in the ocean to keep the ship up top from floating away. It is yang. It is the weeping and suffering and terror and rage that makes our happiness and contentment so very sweet.

    Don't be afraid of the dark. You are doing yourself - and anyone who embraces said darkness - a serious disservice. Rest in quiet shadow sometime, and you might find something surprisingly beautiful.


    5. Stop trying to be a special snowflake. You already are!

    I can't even begin to tell you how all-pervasive this problem is. This struggle, this fight for superiority all over the place. Witches want to be the witchiest witch. Self-proclaimed gurus clamber all over each other in a massive dogpile, peeing on everyone beneath just to make an extra point. Writers write books, speakers give speeches, channelers flood the airways with special channeled messages only they can hear. Seekers squabble and squawk and peck at each other like massive flocks of angry grackles, drowning out the skies in black, covering the streets in white (that's right, I went there), and filling the air with their noise.

    Just stop. Step away. Breathe.

    You are awesome. You don't need anything extra. Your soul is a shining jewel inside. You are living potential meandering through life, waiting to blossom. You are a work of art. A character. The star of your own show. Play your soundtrack, and dance your dance through life. You don't need labels. You don't need a pat on the back. You don't need to be the witchiest witch who can cast the most powerful spells. You don't need to be Superman. You don't need to know all the things. Chill out! Be still, and know that you are already awesome.

    Fly away, into a sky all your own, and be free. You will soar far above the squawking grackles and feel the wind rush past your feathers, wild and cool. It's scary at first. They'll hiss and bawk and chuckle at you for a while, for daring to carve your own path. But when your wings find their confidence, you will never look back again.

    You will never need to.



    #2
    Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

    Thank you.
    Satan is my spirit animal

    Comment


      #3
      Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

      More than one smile reading that.

      "No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical." -- Niels Bohr

      Comment


        #4
        Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

        Really, that was probably the most inspiring thing I've read in a while. It was uplifting in it's own way.

        You just got a million brownie points :P
        Kemetic Blog - http://www.inspiringrainbow.wordpress.com

        Bring your grains of Salt.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

          This, is the core of much rainbow and I talk about

          Comment


            #6
            Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

            200% agree.
            White and Red 'till I'm cold and dead.
            sigpic
            In Days of yore,
            From Britain's shore
            Wolfe the dauntless hero came
            And planted firm Britannia's flag
            On Canada's fair domain.
            Here may it wave,
            Our boast, our pride
            And joined in love together,
            The thistle, shamrock, rose entwined,
            The Maple Leaf Forever.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

              I enjoyed this.
              :^^: My Spiritual Journey blog: An Eclectic Wonderland :^^:

              Comment


                #8
                Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

                Very thought provoking!
                www.thewolfenhowlepress.com


                Phantom Turnips never die.... they just get stewed occasionally....

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

                  Wonderful read.It's the simplest things in life that makes one what they are.
                  silly old man

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

                    Thanks y'all! Glad everyone enjoyed.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: 5 Things the Spiritual Community Needs to Stop Doing

                      I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you! Love it

                      Comment

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