Responsibility in Spirituality
Taking the Time to Build your Foundation
This is a topic that is incredibly important and it is something that we take very seriously. As such, Eilana, Ysabeau, and I have each contributed our thoughts and understanding to this topic. Spirituality is something that is to be taken seriously. While there is a lot of fun, pleasure, and joy that can come from connecting and working with spirits. There are also dangers, and like anything, there are certain foundational elements that should be practiced before you begin divining into the depth.
The spiritual foundation that we have spoken of and taught since the founding of Satan and Sons in 2012 is…
~Shielding, to keep you safe
~ Warding, to keep your space safe
~ Cleansing, to keep unwanted energies and entities our of your aura and physical being
~ Grounding, to release and remove what is unwanted and to return you to the physical world from spiritual journeys and experiences.
~ Focusing, to have a sharp mind to be able to handle anything the spiritual world throws at you
~ Mental Mastery, to be able to access your spiritual tools and control yourself during challenges
The combination of these skills creates within you a foundation that allows you to control your experience within the spiritual world. This is something that is incredibly important. Without a foundation, it is easy to be swept away by the wonder and joy and at times people get swept away into situations that are incredibly dangerous and can be damaging. We all have heard stories of people who have suffered from hauntings and possessions. It is something that is common. Most hauntings are blamed on demons, though on our path we have committed our journey to categorizing dark entities and not just blindly labeling everything dark as demonic and have discovered that most of the hauntings that you read about are committed by sludge entities and not demons, but the effects are just as damaging and certain precautions need to be taken to ensure that you can protect yourself and your space from these nefarious and terrible creatures.
Taking the time in the beginning to build a spiritual foundation and making sure that you are not venturing to far until you are ready, ensures that you will have protection against these entities and if they manage to invade your space, you have the tools to deal with them. It is important that you know yourself and know how far you can and should venture. Never venture into the spiritual world to prove your darkness or your toughness, and always respect your boundaries and your limitations. If you find yourself in a situations where you have been targeted or infected by a sludge/nefarious entity it is important to take a step back and begin the steps to reclaim your power.
We all have spiritual authority here. This is one thing that we are gifted with, we have the authority to define who and what comes into our space. Sludge likes to use manipulation and will try to convince you that you are weak and unable to defeat it. It likes to use illusions and deceptions to puff itself up and make it appear larger and more influential than it is. Do not be fooled by this, the sludge uses these illusions to gain the upper hand and convince you that you are weaker than you are. Part of walking a spiritual path is taking responsibility for the energies and entities that are around you and taking the actions to preserve, your body, mind, energies, and space. It is part of being responsible with the power and skills that awaken when walking a spiritual path. It can be dangerous out there. It is not something to take lightly, especially if you begin to journey into the darker regions of the spiritual world.
If you find yourself tormented by hauntings and struggling daily to manage what is around you, it is time to take a step back. Take a step back and return to developing your spiritual foundation. Refocusing on your spiritual foundation will give you the skills and the confidence to clear and remove what is haunting you. Sometimes these things take time. Depending on the severity of the haunting or how long this entity has been connected to you it can take time to cleanse the energies and change the vibrations that are around you so that it cannot get in and gain the upper hand. Developing your foundation and a solid defense for you and your space can take time. It is imperative though, it is essential for walking in the spiritual world. You want to enjoy the wonder that is out there, not spend every day fighting with entities who only seek your destruction.
This is taking responsibility for your spiritual path and taking responsibility for your powers and your abilities. You are stronger than you think you are, and you have the power to define your space and decide what is allowed within it. You need to commit to developing these skills and develop the confidence and ability to manage what is around you. Once you have a strong foundation and a clear understanding of your boundaries and what you want in your space it will be easy to have fun and enjoyable spiritual experiences. Yes, your companions can offer protection and they will help you and aid you, however, it is the responsible thing to do to also develop your own spiritual foundation. You are your last line of defense, and though your companions can help you and shield you, the responsible thing to do when walking a spiritual path is to develop your skills and abilities and work with your companions to secure your space and protect yourself and your energies.
I have seen too many people fighting with sludge entities that destroy them and their lives and many end up feeling hopeless with no end in sight. The truth is though you are not defenseless, you have great power, and developing your foundation is the way to awaken this power. Practice daily, and commit yourself to your spiritual practice. It is important and it is the responsible way to walk within the spiritual world.
~Akelta
The Responsibility of the Student and the Teacher
Spirituality is a very broad topic, one that encompasses many facets of belief. There are a few foundational standards and ethos that overlap from one spiritual practice to another, even including those from religious practices. One of those things is responsibility. Another broad term, but in this post, we will be breaking down that term into various explanations of what responsibility means to us within spirituality as well as personally to our own practices.
The Responsibility of the Student
Every person that walks into a religious or spiritual practice is faced with the newness of it all. Everything is different and it is odd or scary in many ways. When we step into this newness, we are faced with having to learn many beliefs, information, and specific rules that are to be adhered by in some way – whether it is officially or unofficially. Every practice will be different but there is a point in which you lose the newness (and the blunders that come with it) and become a student. A student is one that has stepped fully into the belief and practice that they’ve chosen to explore further. One of the biggest foundational standards that goes across all beliefs and practices, even religious ones, is that the student is asked to hold themselves responsible and accountable.
Responsibility in these spiritual practices comes in the form of understanding what that actually means for being a student and then enacting upon them. It is the responsibility of the student to learn what foundational practices are for those specific practices and use those. We are all students, even those that have been within their practice for decades, and that will never change. It is the student who must know when they should begin to branch out onto their own and begin learning. After a newness time, one cannot rely upon others to hand feed information and instead search out the truth of what works for their beliefs and practices.
Being a student means that you take responsibility for yourself and the actions that you take. This is in all ways of life, but especially for those that step into spiritual practices like occult practices. After understanding what that occult practice is about, you then learn the foundational skills to begin observing that occult practice in day to day life. Specifically, this means that you take on the responsibility to enact the foundational skills such as shielding, warding, cleansing, and banishing on a frequent basis. This grows your skills as a practitioner as well as learning to incorporate essential skills into your daily life.
It is also the student’s responsibility to understand that spiritual practices are often time lifelong commitments to those practices or beliefs. There is no such thing as instant gratification within spiritual practices and those that say there is are those that you should be wary of. You have to learn discernment of not just yourself but also those that are teachers in some form. Some will want to genuinely provide guidance and information while others will try to steal your socks with the amount of ego-driven ‘advice’ they hand out like candy. It’s the responsibility of the student to check their sources and understand the background of those sources when incorporating them into their practices. Discernment is a responsibility of the student to enact upon when it comes to source material; as well as the fact that it is their responsibility to make discernment checks upon themselves for Ego and for the Shadow.
The Responsibility of the Teacher
As we go through the years of our experiences within our chosen spiritual practices, there are some that feel a need to give back to the community by the way of teaching. This can come in many forms such as: blogging informational posts, running a podcast, teaching courses, and all other manners of media platforms. Just as the student is asked to take responsibility, a teacher is held to those standards as well or even more so. A teacher is one that must take into account their own actions and words for their practice but is also impressed upon responsible teaching. This means that they are held accountable for the words and the practices that they are teaching to those that are new or students themselves. Those that hold or teach to others must understand that their words hold influence in some form and that can impact how a student will practice for the foreseeable future.
A teacher must be aware of their conduct when teaching, as those habits and misinformation practices are spread to those that may not understand or discern what the truth is. It’s the teacher’s responsibility to make sure that what they teach or offer is something that is standard in some form, even if it is different to those within the practice. Satan and Sons is an example of this. We teach about demons and Demonosphy which is standard in that they are demons and practicing working with demons in some form. The difference is that we are not working with a model that is practiced by most other demon workers but instead are forging a new model of practice that others may resonate better with. This does not make it wrong, despite what some believe, it makes it different. It is then the student’s responsibility to discern for themselves if that model fits their own model of practicing. It is perfectly valid when a student’s model doesn’t line up directly with the teacher’s model. So, long as they are finding what fits their model (both student and teacher) then it is valid on all fronts.
There are of course many aspects of Spiritual Responsibility that can be continued to discuss, but in my opinion these are the two important ones – the roles of the Student and the role of the Teacher. Having both of these as aspects of my own practice and path, I find that it’s important to adhere to many of these ideas on what is a responsible student and what makes a responsible teacher.
~Ysabeau
Responsibility in Spirituality – Tips to Avoid and Handle Common Mistakes
Taking responsibility in one’s spiritual path can be interpreted many ways and approached from many different angles. I’ve been walking this path for awhile now and unfortunately seen too many people fall into the same situations over and over, which could easily be prevented if one took responsibility for themselves and their actions.
I’ll be writing primarily about the responsibility of the person who is learning or seeking knowledge. I think that will be the majority of people reading this, so that approach would be most useful. The only person you can fully control at the end of the day is yourself. You can’t control the actions of other people you come into contact with, whether these are people who are learning or those who call themselves practitioners. It’s my personal belief that even if you are a practitioner, you’ll forever be a student and continually learning. Not doing so leads to stagnancy. Change is a constant. It’s unavoidable and so I think learning as things shift, goes hand-in-hand with this.
-Trust your gut-
One of the most important things for anyone, at any level, is to trust yourself and your gut first. You know what is best for you, you know what feels right and what resonates with you. This is so extremely important, whether you are just beginning or a seasoned pro. Those who have been walking a spiritual path for longer have likely made mistakes and know what red flags to look for, just based on their own past experience. Those newer to a spiritual path though can get themselves into some trouble.
If you are not 100% sure about something, trust your gut. It doesn’t mean abandoning the idea entirely, but possibly doing more research before jumping in. You yourself know when it is time to jump in and only you can decide.
-Recognize Ego and adjust accordingly-
When finding a teacher or mentor, be VERY aware of and avoid people who tell you ‘it’s my way or the highway’.
If someone tells you there is only one way to do something, while I won’t say leave immediately you can certainly listen to them, just be aware that this is a person with a lot of ego and this could lead to trouble down the line. Avoid getting too close to people like this or just leave them alone entirely.
If you do decide to work with someone like this, don’t let them steamroll you or your beliefs. You don’t have to openly disagree with them, but don’t let them crush you or change things that you strongly believe in. Because of taking this approach, you may end up walking your path alone at times, but I can assure you speaking from experience, it’s better to have standards and walk away from people like this. Trust me, I’ve listened to people and tried to make peace with them and it always ended badly. It impacted my ability to connect with different spirits or entities that I had a connection with because I put other people’s supposed ‘expertise’ above my own experience. I thought since the person had been doing it longer than I had, they must know more than me and it created a lot of problems. I lost connections I had and had to work to undo the damage done. Part of taking responsibility was realizing my own part in this, not just outright blaming the people who did this. Some people do it from a place of ego and others genuinely think they are helping.
If you find yourself in a situation where you have fallen to this, my best advice is to take a step back and set boundaries. Stop talking to these people. Stop sharing intimate details with them and focus on your own practice. Come at things from a place of understanding the following:
What is best for other people is not always necessarily best for me. There is no ‘one size fits all’ for a spiritual or metaphysical path.
It’s important to be respectful to others, people who have more experience and others just starting out, but to also acknowledge and know what is best for you. This comes with time as you get to know yourself and make mistakes. We all make mistakes and that’s part of the learning process.
If you cross paths with a ‘practitioner’ who tells you their way is the only way and other people’s work is ‘fake’, that is ego. I’d again advise you to steer clear of these people, but as always, do what feels right to you. If you do want to engage with someone like this, then do what you think is best.
-Making Mistakes-
I would highly recommend treating this as an adventure. If you make a mistake, don’t get stuck on it or think you have failed and everything is doomed or ruined. Mistakes are part of life. Handling them is not something we’re often taught. Take any perceived ‘failures’ as opportunities to make changes or try something new, not as the end of the world.
“I tried this and it didn’t work how I thought it would”, or “I did this and I shouldn’t have done that”. I’ve had many of both of those moments. Follow them with “now what can I do to correct this or get the results that I want?”
When you view things from a place of openness, not of judgment and harsh criticism, you’ll find it easier to fix things and get back on track more quickly. If the people around you are judgmental, find better people. One’s spiritual and/or magickal path is a sacred thing. The last thing you need is people around you cutting you down, judging you, making you feel stupid or inferior or even outright attacking you. There is healthy discussion and debate, people can agree to disagree and we must accept that people have different beliefs and views, this is more than ok. What is not ok is someone attacking and bullying others or trying to make them conform.
A lot of times, people come from a place of not only ego, but fear. Some people really are well-intentioned but fearful and that fear can spread.
Take responsibility for yourself, your actions and be aware of what is going on around you but also within you.
~Eilana
