thinking about religion and spirituality

[leejooheon]

I've been having a lot of thoughts about spirituality. Things like witchcraft have always seemed appealing to me, and there's a part of me that does believe there's something out there.

At the same time though, I wonder if it's even worth pursuing. After all, it's impossible to prove any spirituality is real outside of people's imaginations, so in the chance there's nothing out there, what's the point, right?

I don't know. I find myself thinking about stuff like this. On the one hand, the universe seems so magical to me, in a way that makes me think it can't possibly be a coincidence. On the other, the idea of gods seems so specific to me that I struggle to believe in it. I guess it's one of those things that it just isn't easy to wrap your head around.

But the point is, I would love to explore spirituality more, but I just don't know where I would even look or what I believe. I'm too agnostic to really commit myself to any practices.

Comments

[adore]

i'm spiritual, and for me it's worth it not to ever know if it's real. the unknown is part of the magic for me; i think if i knew it all and how it all works it wouldn't feel magical. and not knowing keeps me learning, seeking, and wondering. i'd be pretty bored and jaded with the world and with life if i couldn't be enchanted with existence, and if parts of it weren't a delicious mystery to me.

i didn't believe in gods either, but that was other people's definitions of gods. i have my own experience of deity now. i don't believe gods control everything (that's the part i struggled with, cause i was like, gods aren't good people if this is what they do with that power). i think people ascribe control over everything to gods so that there's someone to blame, when most of what gets blamed on gods is done by people.

there's that quote i've seen go around where a human stands in front of god and asks, 'how could you allow this?' and god asks back, 'how could you allow this?' the way i read that quote is that god is omniscient but can't control everything. i believe deity has some influence, but it's the same way humans have some influence. my goddess, like my tarot deck, is more like a friend to me, someone i can talk to and be guided by because she knows things i don't, not because she is almighty. nobody is almighty imo.

this is just a suggestion, but tarot might be a good place to start. it's a versatile tool that's used in a secular way too, not only spiritual. it's through reading with tarot and wondering how the cards were spot on each time that i developed a sense of spirituality in the first place, but plenty of people who read cards don't go the spiritual route at all, and see it as a tool for self-reflection.

[leejooheon]

thanks for the insight! i've been meaning to get a tarot deck for a while now, but i just haven't gotten around to it yet. i think part of the reason i struggle to wrap my head around these beliefs is because i've never had a connection to the spiritual or had any sort of spiritual experience, so it's difficult for me to understand how exactly it feels to believe in something like that, but i've always been drawn to it and wanted to explore. perhaps i'll never believe in it, but i do think it's worth the experience. i would love to form my own personal gnosis some day, but for now it just remains something i ponder sometimes.

[adore]

it's possible to explore both tarot and witchcraft from a secular point of view; athiestic and agnostic witches abound. thinking of the craft as working with your own energy, and beginning by learning energy work could be a good place to start. you may or may not develop spiritual viewpoints further down the road from there. there's plenty of time to form your personal gnosis, and i think spirituality is something that constantly evolves anyway; my personal knowing might look different a decade from now.

let me know if you want recs for guides/books on energy work, or recs for tarot decks. or want to discuss any of this.

[leejooheon]

I would really appreciate the reference points, thank you!

[adore]

for a tarot book that holds space for you to form your own ideas about how tarot works and how you want to work with it, tarot 101 by kim huggens is a great book for beginners. it's both a reference book and workbook, with detailed card meanings and many exercises to help you practice reading and developing a relationship with your cards.

for beginner decks, any deck that follows the waite-smith system is ideal. some examples are the pulp girls tarot and the heavenly bloom tarot. lmk what art styles/aesthetic you tend to like and i'll see if i can think of decks you might like. i recommend getting a deck before beginning your study.

for energy work, here are some books that are good to start with:

energy essentials for witches and spellcasters & the un-spell book (both by mya om)
miracle mastery by david debold

these books do have their authors' own personal beliefs about how magic works, but you can do the exercises that they describe independently of those beliefs. you don't have to believe anything particular for energy work exercises to work. it's like yoga, you can do it for wellness or you can do it spirituality, it'll work either way. i can send you these books in your preferred format if you have trouble finding yo-ho-ho-and-a-bottle-of-rum copies of them.

[leejooheon]

thank you so much! i'll look into these.