Question about balance and not overdoing occult studies

[cherryaqua]

Hey everyone!

After finding out more about which spiritual and magical systems align with me I have spent a lot of time on this everyday. To the point where I'm realizing I truly need to focus a lot more on my career and mundane passions. When I was mostly doing damon brand style practical magick and the first year of BOTA, it was all practical enough that it seemed to greatly benefit my mundane life. But while I found damon brands books great for what they are, I really knew theres more and it can go much deeper, I love math and qaballah and the theory and long term development found in more "serious" occult books and systems. Recently I've been reading the book list for Argentum Astrum and going to pursue initiation in that. Its an absolutely beautiful spiritual and magical attainment system, but again now I'm finding myself obsessed a bit. I'm watching too much lon milo on youtube, I'm practice and studying tarot and qaballah too much, and its an impressive amount of books I've read in the last year, but I wonder how much is worth it. In comparison BOTA only really requires 30 minutes a day if that, the coloring of the cards does take more time though.

I've only been doing this stuff for about a year and a half. So hopefully its just the honeymoon phase, and A.A doesn't necessarily require nearly as much time as I'm putting in now. I'm glad I was mindful enough to realize it was happening and spend extra time tonight focusing on music and career related things. I think part of this is I just need to budget my time better, and use a journal everyday(other than my occult study journals haha).

Sorry if this is kind of a rant, but I felt like I really need to ask how everyone finds the balance in their daily life, and occult studies. I would hate to wake up one day 10 years from now and realize that while I got into this to improve my life, it actually left me worse off in my main life goals.

 

[Morell]

Uneasy to answer. You know, every person is unique not as persona, but also with their life situation, even day to day differs. The fact that you sense yourself that you need to do less occult means that you can navigate yourself to find balanced approach for yourself.

With some organizing you should be fine. What you can do:
sort out what you need to do daily, weekly, monthly, occasionally/randomly.
Daily routine shouldn't take more than hour in total, at least in my opinion. But half hour might be your max if you have a lot to do in mundane life.

 

[IllusiveOwl]

There's a certain amount of social interaction we need as human beings, it varies for everyone. If you're getting too much or too little, you'll be able to tell because you'll be desiring to have less or more naturally, if you listen to yourself deeply and give yourself what your psyche asks for, you'll be balanced.

Really though in your off time, once your socialization requirements are met, and your work requirements are met, what else is there to do? R & R is necessary, but again there's no prescribed amount, it depends on the individual and their stage of development, this is where a 3rd party master is useful because they'll know you and be able to tell you if you're slipping into laziness and inactivity with an overindulgence of pleasure / passtime.

I wouldn't recommend watching any television or useless media, especially not short-form content like TikTok or reels, that will gut your attention span. Casual listening to music too can be manipulative to your emotional state in unhealthy ways, I would recommend indulging in R&R with passive but involving hobbies like gardening, hiking, painting, etc, instead of just sitting around watching youtube to relax, unless of course you're somehow pursuing education in a field or facet that interests you and stimulates your mind.

The amount of time you spend with the Work should steadily grow the more you advance, but this could take years or decades before you know what you're doing well enough to spend all day doing it without sinking into a psychosis or delusion. It depends on your goals in the end, too, that typically shifts the more wisdom a serious a practitioner gains and how they progress in their Work. With success in the practice comes a paradigm shift and a new perspective. There are many people, myself included, who don't see mundane success as a worthy goal. What is fame and wealth? Recognition and luxury? There are plenty of people who have those things that are unhappy and unhealthy, because chasing the carrot was more enjoyable than finally catching it. I can't see a more pitiful waste of a human potential than someone becoming an athlete celebrity, but that's just my perspective.

In the end it comes down to priorities, what motivates you right now should get your attention, if the Occult is a hobby or something to help your career, treat it as that, don't make it the priority, but if your career is just a vehicle to sustain you while you pursue the occult, than naturally the intention and energy should go into there more.

Journal, figure yourself out, figure your priorities out, and mindfully use your time / energy, then you'll never find yourself struggling to answer this question.

 

[Amadeus]

It depends on the person, I guess. One man's madness is another man's sanity/lifestyle or something.
I have been following an approach where spirituality takes hours every day.

There are people with all kinds of hobbies. What are you willing to sacrifice? What is it that you truly enjoy, want and desire to do? What are your priorities? Does it work in the long run, do you function properly?

There can be an unhealthy obsessions or something that suits you well. It's very different for everybody.

For example for me there haven't been almost any interests outside of the spiritual for as far as I can remember. I don't have a family and I never really wanted it. Almost all hobbies are connected to spirituality except a little bit of gaming.

 

[Morell]

Almost all hobbies are connected to spirituality except a little bit of gaming.

Gaming is connected to spirituality too.

 

[Amadeus]

Yes @Morell . Gaming can be also quite meditative. Depending on what. I remember grinding my brains out playing RuneScape. Those memories... It was really meditative though. Strange states caused by endless repetitive skills. Especially agility and mining in that game. Following the same madness forever.

 

[Morell]

Yes @Morell . Gaming can be also quite meditative. Depending on what. I remember grinding my brains out playing RuneScape. Those memories... It was really meditative though. Strange states caused by endless repetitive skills. Especially agility and mining in that game. Following the same madness forever.

I find Moral Combat styled games great for meditative states. The less I think about the fighting, the faster and better my reactions become. Fascinating experience.

 

[Amadeus]

@Morell I remember those games. When I was a kid somebody gifted me a console. It had yellow cassettes and one of them had Mortal Kombat on it. Maybe it was SEGA, Amiga, no idea.
I think...
The crazy grind games though offer better ways to meditate. Somewhere where you get a looping effect with only a little bit of randomness. Perhaps an MMO game, something old. Close to a town or the respawn point/general store. Slay monsters and take the items to a store or storage. Perhaps something else, a skill of some kind.
This way you keep repeating the same cycle over and over again. Supplies or experience keep stacking. People think you're a bot but no, just somebody in a special mode. Such games were very important part of my life before I got into spiritual practices such as the mantra readings. Monotonous activities. Almost as if they prepared me for the practices. I united both activities, read some noetic prayers while playing. It was quite interesting.

I can't remember that much about Mortal Kombat except some character's name, SubZero. There was another game on the PC, similar, there was a character with a large 2 handed sword called Lictor or Hector, maybe Lector? Can't remember.

I'm not that much into gaming anymore, only a bit. Whenever I play something I want to be in a very meditative state, something monotonous that doesn't steal the focus. No quests, no storyline, just grind, well something repetitive.

Post automatically merged: Sep 17, 2025

Now connected to this post. I suppose a few good words here can be: you can unite such activities, to prevent from overdoing the spiritual practices, although for sure it's not for everyone. Once again something highly specific that can suit some people.

 

[Keldan]

If you pour all your time into one area and neglect the others, it’s not good. I do practice daily, but I reserve a certain amount of time for it, so I have time for self care.

I also see mundane success as a valid goal because spiritual work is meant to support your everyday life. If you grow in the occult side but later realize you haven’t built savings, stability, or used your practice to improve your real world circumstances, at that point it’ll be too late.

I aim for success in both mundane and spiritual life. Although they don’t go hand in hand, they’re connected, and they can enrich your life. So one should strike for a balance between the two.

 

[dzb10035]

Personally, embracing the mundane and the occult in balance is a form of grounding to me. One of the biggest actual dangers in the occult is obsession. It can be obsession with spirits, with practice, with theory, or something else, but obsession with the occult can truly be insidious. In my experiences, I use practical magick as an enhancement to my mundane life and I keep the more spiritual / theoretical pursuits to a side-line project because of the risk of obsession. At the very minimum, if you focus too much on the occult, then the obvious parts of your mundane life will degrade to your detriment. This is a sentiment that many others already echoed and I agree with them. The penniless occultist is a stereotype for this very reason, since they got consumed by their obsession not only with studying the occult, but with everything in that world while forgetting that they had a whole life to take care of. The consequences of this are things you have already stated to know, so this stuff is a given.

One thing that is not touched upon is the psychological danger of unbalanced occult study. Depending on how far you take your studies, this could also include practice and communion with spirits / the astral world. Take a look online and in many occult facebook groups and you will find certain individuals who have become unbalanced psychologically due to their forays into occultism. Many times, these individuals already had pre-existing issues which were magnified by their obsessions. In other cases, it is the growing imbalance in their time investment in the occult that led to them closing off from the mundane world and developing obsession. The common issues that stem from isolation, lack of social contact, and more can lead to the development of psychological problems in previously balanced people. This is common for focuses outside of the occult too, but the occult has a special allure that crosses between imagination and reality which makes it particularly powerful in causing imbalance.

So when I talk about grounding in this sense, it means engaging with the physical sides of your life more so that you can pull your head back to earth. I do not doubt the reality of the occult aspects of the world, but the subtle aspects of occultism carry this risk. To go on a date, watch a movie, go on a walk or spend time with your friends is to ensure that you remember that you exist here just as you exist in the subtle realms. That balance is necessary to ensure you remain a functional magician and a functional person. The same consideration obviously applies to finances, career and material stability. Unless if you plan on retiring to a monastery or living a completely ascetic lifestyle, then the balance of studying the occult and tending to your mundane life is perhaps your most important defence against one of the actual dangers of the occult.