Balancing the Occult with the Mundane

[IllusiveOwl]

We're all sharing the same world - hopefully - so we all know that we have to make a certain level of income, maintain a social life, and study perspective-shifting occult materials in some kind of healthy equilibrium with one another. Living and upkeeping a life on its own is too much for many people to even do successfully, yet the one thing we all have in common is that we're all - to some degree - trying to understand and manipulate things beyond our government-standardized-educational understanding of reality while also navigating this forest of Samsara.

How do you all do it? I had to learn how to survive on my own and have been managing pretty well so far, so well that I have been given responsibility over the well-being of others most places I go (I cant wrap my head around why) but the occult had nothing to do with that and the more you learn, the more seductive and difficult it becomes to resist total immersion in the occul at the expense of everything else. It's like the more you wake up, the sleepier everyone else around you suddenly becomes; the more you realize how precious life and time is, the more aware you become of your grueling time positioned at a reguster. How do yinz cope?

Do any of you have any advice you would like to share for this community of intrepid students of the occult? Perhaps too how you've managed to take what you've learned and made a successful life - or escape route - for yourselves? Surely knowing Astral Projection and Magic must make working at minimum wage jobs even more grey and bland, how have you all managed to handle the mechanical, dull logic of mundane life with your own magical aspirations?

 

[Shade]

You’re asking the big questions, You kind of said it yourself though… “find balance” my advice would be, Align your hobbies with your goals and goals with your dream. You make time for what’s important to you. We all have different yet, like minded interests here and we can all make it work by having the passion and discipline to do whatever is required to work towards what we are seeking. Sometimes responsibilities get in the way but they should never block your way. There’s a way around anything if you find the path.
That was a Very good question. The occult sometimes merges with the mundane especially when it comes to spirituality.

 

[Xenophon]

James Jones in From Here to Eternity has his 1SGT Milt Warden say, "The only sin is to waste time." That, rather than fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom. When it comes to jobs, always always always pick the one that leaves you some free time. Early on I found I could make two years' teaching income in four or so months crabbing. That latter was not a career, but it established me in a principle. Work seasonal if you can save money. Managing a small hotel in the Far North, I had seven months off a year. Around age forty, I got into teaching Business English in Asia. Arguably overpaid, but 20 hours or less a week. The point is to ask yourself how much time your income is costing you.

 

[Asteriskos]

James Jones in From Here to Eternity has his 1SGT Milt Warden say, "The only sin is to waste time." That, rather than fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom. When it comes to jobs, always always always pick the one that leaves you some free time. Early on I found I could make two years' teaching income in four or so months crabbing. That latter was not a career, but it established me in a principle. Work seasonal if you can save money. Managing a small hotel in the Far North, I had seven months off a year. Around age forty, I got into teaching Business English in Asia. Arguably overpaid, but 20 hours or less a week. The point is to ask yourself how much time your income is costing you.

That is: Well said!

Post automatically merged: Aug 10, 2024

Get Drafted (See the World), use G.I. Bill for college, get job in engineering, when the student is Ready, Magic finds You!

Post automatically merged: Aug 10, 2024

Let me add this bit of Wit and Wisdom, I have suggested meditation on this to a few folks as a surefire method to restore "Perspective" when you might otherwise "think" you've Failed, at "Anything"!


"PRESS ON":

The slogan 'Press On' by Calvin Coolidge the 30th President of the United States of America has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

"Nothing in this world can take the place of Persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and Determination Alone are Omnipotent."

 

[Konsciencia]

By the grace of Lucifer. I collect and have all the free time in the world. However, I'm about to start my own business, because I can rely on these people forever.

 

[Asteriskos]

By the grace of Lucifer. I collect and have all the free time in the world. However, I'm about to start my own business, because I can rely on these people forever.

Peter Carroll made a statement about the fact that "many of us (magicians)" have our own businesses, because of our independent natures! You will be in Good Company!

 

[Xenophon]

By the grace of Lucifer. I collect and have all the free time in the world. However, I'm about to start my own business, because I can rely on these people forever.

I wish you good results (luck is in there somewhere, but it's not alone.) Working for yourself will doubtless hone magickal skills which are akin to those needed in the wild.

 

[pixel_fortune]

The book "Escape Everything!" by Robert Wringham isn't magical, but it assumes that you'd much rather work the minimum amount of hours possible and spend the majority of your time in more personally fulfilling ways. It's both a manifesto and practical advice.

It's written pre-Covid, so it treats working from home as a tougher (but necessary) perk to wrench from your employer - that's now pretty easy to find in white collar jobs. (Working from home obviously saves you a couple hours a day in commute, and realistically much more if you can work efficiently and clock off early. Your average office worker does NOT work 8 hours a day)

But yeah, become a minimalist and working part-time are pretty key. At the very least, you should be able to get 4 days a week. The book has advice for how to pitch that to an employer as something that benefits them. You obviously say that you're using the extra time for something that a middle manager would respect, not for occult studies. Say you're getting an MBA or something idk.

I'd be hesitant to start a business - almost everyone who starts a business works way more than 40 hours a week. It's okay if you love the work and are passionate about your business, but if it's just meant to fuel your other activities, it's verrrry risky

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2024

(a big part of my answer is that i don't work a minimum wage job. Prior to my current job* i was a freelance editor and writer, who mostly worked for large companies and consultancies.

B2B pretty much always pays better than B2C. (Business to business vs business to customer). Think how much a business pays to get an Adobe licence for every computer in their office, compared to your much an individual is willing to pay for software.
It's the same principle.
Large business have procurement processes that are completely separate from the budgeting - so the person contracting you dgaf how much you charge, because it's not them paying for it, and it's not their job to worry about the budget. It means negotiating is less fraught, because again, the person you're negotiating with doesn't really care and it isn't personal for them.

So you want a white collar job within the B2B sector. Then you can get paid a good freelance rate and take long chunks of time off work

(Some of this may not apply if you're in the US and have to manage the health insurance thing ummm i guess my advice if that's you would be "leave the US if you can")

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2024

I guess i would also say: magic and the occult is only the only good thing in my life. Work is bullshit, no question, but there's lots of mundane things that are colourful and not grey. It's gonna be different for everyone, but for example: I enjoy spending a Saturday playing long strategy boardgames with friends. That's really fun and interesting for me. Don't get depressed if that sounds boring for you, that's just something I like!

Mundane crafts can be really worthwhile. I went to a silversmithing workshop and made a ring last week, that was fun, even though it took away time i could have spent on occult stuff.

Maybe having some balance in your interests outside of work would help it not to seem so binary (magic vs bullshit work).

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2024

*NOT the only good thing in my life, jfc

 

[Xenophon]

The book "Escape Everything!" by Robert Wringham isn't magical, but it assumes that you'd much rather work the minimum amount of hours possible and spend the majority of your time in more personally fulfilling ways. It's both a manifesto and practical advice.

It's written pre-Covid, so it treats working from home as a tougher (but necessary) perk to wrench from your employer - that's now pretty easy to find in white collar jobs. (Working from home obviously saves you a couple hours a day in commute, and realistically much more if you can work efficiently and clock off early. Your average office worker does NOT work 8 hours a day)

But yeah, become a minimalist and working part-time are pretty key. At the very least, you should be able to get 4 days a week. The book has advice for how to pitch that to an employer as something that benefits them. You obviously say that you're using the extra time for something that a middle manager would respect, not for occult studies. Say you're getting an MBA or something idk.

I'd be hesitant to start a business - almost everyone who starts a business works way more than 40 hours a week. It's okay if you love the work and are passionate about your business, but if it's just meant to fuel your other activities, it's verrrry risky

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2024

(a big part of my answer is that i don't work a minimum wage job. Prior to my current job* i was a freelance editor and writer, who mostly worked for large companies and consultancies.

B2B pretty much always pays better than B2C. (Business to business vs business to customer). Think how much a business pays to get an Adobe licence for every computer in their office, compared to your much an individual is willing to pay for software.
It's the same principle.
Large business have procurement processes that are completely separate from the budgeting - so the person contracting you dgaf how much you charge, because it's not them paying for it, and it's not their job to worry about the budget. It means negotiating is less fraught, because again, the person you're negotiating with doesn't really care and it isn't personal for them.

So you want a white collar job within the B2B sector. Then you can get paid a good freelance rate and take long chunks of time off work

(Some of this may not apply if you're in the US and have to manage the health insurance thing ummm i guess my advice if that's you would be "leave the US if you can")

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2024

I guess i would also say: magic and the occult is only the only good thing in my life. Work is bullshit, no question, but there's lots of mundane things that are colourful and not grey. It's gonna be different for everyone, but for example: I enjoy spending a Saturday playing long strategy boardgames with friends. That's really fun and interesting for me. Don't get depressed if that sounds boring for you, that's just something I like!

Mundane crafts can be really worthwhile. I went to a silversmithing workshop and made a ring last week, that was fun, even though it took away time i could have spent on occult stuff.

Maybe having some balance in your interests outside of work would help it not to seem so binary (magic vs bullshit work).

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2024

*NOT the only good thing in my life, jfc

I like what you say about work. In Meditations on Hunting, Ortega y Gasset has a very interesting etymology that the Spanish for work, "trabajo" comes from the Latin "trepalitum," a word referring to torture. I've had a very bearable job the past quarter century, one where I even learn a good bit. Still I know in my bones that an hour there is an hour taken away from the writing or magick or just wandering the woods I prefer doing.

 

[David Wilson-Steer]

We're all sharing the same world - hopefully - so we all know that we have to make a certain level of income, maintain a social life, and study perspective-shifting occult materials in some kind of healthy equilibrium with one another. Living and upkeeping a life on its own is too much for many people to even do successfully, yet the one thing we all have in common is that we're all - to some degree - trying to understand and manipulate things beyond our government-standardized-educational understanding of reality while also navigating this forest of Samsara.

How do you all do it? I had to learn how to survive on my own and have been managing pretty well so far, so well that I have been given responsibility over the well-being of others most places I go (I cant wrap my head around why) but the occult had nothing to do with that and the more you learn, the more seductive and difficult it becomes to resist total immersion in the occul at the expense of everything else. It's like the more you wake up, the sleepier everyone else around you suddenly becomes; the more you realize how precious life and time is, the more aware you become of your grueling time positioned at a reguster. How do yinz cope?

Do any of you have any advice you would like to share for this community of intrepid students of the occult? Perhaps too how you've managed to take what you've learned and made a successful life - or escape route - for yourselves? Surely knowing Astral Projection and Magic must make working at minimum wage jobs even more grey and bland, how have you all managed to handle the mechanical, dull logic of mundane life with your own magical aspirations?

Working on your spirituality while living in the mundane world is the path - there is no other. I've had people tell me they just want to win enough in the lottery so they didn't have to work and can spend all their time on their spirituality. It don't work that way. Fining the spiritual in the mundane is the path to enlightenment. We came here to play this game. Keep playing,, but make sure you keep reminding yourself that it's all a game.

 

[Xenophon]

Working on your spirituality while living in the mundane world is the path - there is no other. I've had people tell me they just want to win enough in the lottery so they didn't have to work and can spend all their time on their spirituality. It don't work that way. Fining the spiritual in the mundane is the path to enlightenment. We came here to play this game. Keep playing,, but make sure you keep reminding yourself that it's all a game.

Good point. Besides, there are scads of articles online about lottery winners whose life was messed up by sudden wealth (taxes, impoverished "relatives" popping up, security issues...) Like Biggie Smalls said, "Mo' money, mo' grief."