is the modern occult community getting too soft?

[Ombriel]

Honest question for the older folks here because something has been bothering me lately.

it feels like the definition of being awakened or spiritually aware has completely changed over the last few years. everywhere i look people are talking about high vibrations, ascending, and living in pure light. but when you actually talk to them their physical lives are a mess. they cannot hold down a normal job, they are terrified of leaving the house because they feel negative energy everywhere, and they cry if someone looks at them the wrong way at the grocery store. that is not an awakening. that is just a nervous system breakdown wrapped in fancy words.

where i come from we were taught the exact opposite. if your magic makes you weaker in the physical world you are doing it wrong. period. if you cannot handle a stressful conversation at work without panicking about bad vibes then your energy work is just a coping mechanism for unhealed trauma. if you cannot walk into a crowded room without feeling completely drained your wards are useless. true power is supposed to make you boring. it makes you grounded. it makes you quiet because you no longer react to every little thing.

but maybe i am just stuck in an old school mindset that does not apply anymore maybe the goal really is just to float around and feel good all day.

what do you guys think? am i being too harsh or has the spiritual community completely lost its teeth? how do you balance the unseen work with functioning like a normal adult in the real world?

 

[akenu]

Don't pretend that we didn't go through the fuzzy bunny stage with lots of geisting here and there. Someone who is beginning with the occult is usually beginning with the real world, as well, being in early twenties with a shit job and weird ezo beliefs is okay.

Being the same at thirties is a bit worse

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Maybe I've just been lucky enough not to encounter the kind of people you describe...

 

[Kepler]

self-aggrandizing strawman of someone trying to control the behavior of others.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Me or the OP?

self-aggrandizing strawman of someone trying to control the behavior of others.

 

[Kepler]

Me or the OP?

Op, those people don't exist.

 

[ahathoor]

Eh, well. Sure, but it's nothing new. From what i gather, these people do exist, and did exist way back during Crowley's time as well. They sure did when I was a teenager.

We've all met the eclectic witch whose tarot deck was touched by someone so now she has to seek absolution in the living waters of Mandalore before she can be whole again, or the psychic who never shuts up about how seeing everyone's diseases on public transport is so exhausting they can't make it to your birthday party. Yes, as long as entitled, fragile little asshats exist, there will be a portion of them doing magic and acting like being a whiny, fragile little muppet is somehow proof of their oversensitive telepathic abilities and magical development.

I have also met some great, serious and severe mages who allegedly had their daily thoughts under stricter control than a tibetan monk, but had weird messy lives and a fraught relationship with alcohol and tobacco.

So yea, human vice exists in occult circles. Always has, always will.

 

[ewiz]

I think it's always been this way. The whole fluffy-bunny new-age scene has always seemed to be the most popular occult path, and people with messy lives and unstable personalities are often drawn into it like flies. That said, I don't believe that anyone can truly be free from the frailty of the human condition. Anxiety, weakness, vice, etc. We all must face these things and try our best to respond in a healthy way. Sometimes that's easier said than done. Serious practitioners are few and far between when you look at the community as a whole, and I don't know if that can change. It sounds like you've got your head on straight with the way you'd want your practice to ideally work. Just know it doesn't always work out that way; you must always be prepared to adapt to new and unexpected challenges that life throws your way.