Occult exhaustion

[Lightlindside]

I'm at a point in my life where I believe in certain things that have become central to my perception of the universe, but the process of seeking and doing the work has lost its meaning. This is largely due to a mental health crisis that took many of my symbols and re-branded them in particularly traumatic ways. I'm rebuilding a sense of self, but it seems to be from a place of feeling like all of the symbols or entities I've collaborated with have lost their vibrancy in my life. I used to have a quiet sense of confidence in my own process, and largely it's been proximity with unhealthy community and interpersonal dynamics that have stolen away that inner fire, and led to a personal collapse.

I know the work is worth doing, and yet I can't bring myself to do it. What has helped you all when you've felt bereft of meaning and drive to revive/explore your 'great work'?

 

[Durward]

HUMOR!
We take ourselves, and our ego, very seriously at times. We can give away our common senses and values to the cesspool that life is. If we allow life to blow us around like a leaf in the wind, and put value in what others think or how they feel, as if they have been in our skin or put in any of the work, then the slightest disruptions in this external structure tends to influence us... Because we let it, thinking this is what it means to care and be human.
People can become a burden, even if it is a burden of love.
I wish I could help you realize that you are all there is on your journey, and what matters to you should not be based on external factors that you can't control.
Usually, when you reach this stage, it means you have achieved something important, and the lock, block and filter systems are doing all they can to continue to contain you and stop you from reaching your goal.
When you laugh at those lock, block, and filter systems, you take their power over you away, and you stop taking yourself so seriously. Serious becomes morbid and dark. The only thing stopping you from a better community and better interpersonal dynamics is investment in them, giving them more power over you than they deserve. You may have reached the point of the "dark night of the soul" where the spirit, like a solitary sparrow on a roof, detaches from worldly things, which is a solitary journey. Be of the world, but detached from it.
I use this when I forget to stay aloof:

I have the strength to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference​

Then share a good fart joke in an elevator and remember that death is our best advisor, because very little makes any difference in the face of mortality, except that which survives.

 

[Treanty]

Go to the Roots , conect with the land and study for me, but I think we practices quite different kinds of traditions.

 

[Firetree]

I'm at a point in my life where I believe in certain things that have become central to my perception of the universe, but the process of seeking and doing the work has lost its meaning. This is largely due to a mental health crisis that took many of my symbols and re-branded them in particularly traumatic ways. I'm rebuilding a sense of self, but it seems to be from a place of feeling like all of the symbols or entities I've collaborated with have lost their vibrancy in my life. I used to have a quiet sense of confidence in my own process, and largely it's been proximity with unhealthy community and interpersonal dynamics that have stolen away that inner fire, and led to a personal collapse.

I know the work is worth doing, and yet I can't bring myself to do it. What has helped you all when you've felt bereft of meaning and drive to revive/explore your 'great work'?

Gardening .

 

[Hakon]

I'm at a point in my life where I believe in certain things that have become central to my perception of the universe, but the process of seeking and doing the work has lost its meaning. This is largely due to a mental health crisis that took many of my symbols and re-branded them in particularly traumatic ways. I'm rebuilding a sense of self, but it seems to be from a place of feeling like all of the symbols or entities I've collaborated with have lost their vibrancy in my life. I used to have a quiet sense of confidence in my own process, and largely it's been proximity with unhealthy community and interpersonal dynamics that have stolen away that inner fire, and led to a personal collapse.

I know the work is worth doing, and yet I can't bring myself to do it. What has helped you all when you've felt bereft of meaning and drive to revive/explore your 'great work'?

Sometimes the issue is not that the Work has lost its worth, but that part of you was wounded on the way to it. When symbols, practices, and even certain inner presences become tied to pain, confusion, or toxic environments, it makes sense that everything can start to feel drained of life. In a moment like that, the task may not be to immediately return to the Great Work, but to rebuild the inner ground that once made it meaningful.

What often helps is letting go of the pressure to recover everything as it was. The way back may begin in a much smaller, more human way: real rest, silence, distance from people and spaces that distort your perception, simple and safe practices, and permission not to produce anything spiritually for a while. In many cases, taking care of your mental health is not separate from the Work; it is part of it.

The flame may not be gone. It may simply be buried. And when that happens, the first act of fidelity to the path is not forcing intensity, but protecting your inner life until meaning can breathe again. Sometimes the Great Work begins again precisely when you stop trying to recover its old form and allow it to be born anew.