Creating a Spiritual Practice may seem daunting, but it is something that anyone can do for themselves. Paganism is currently referred to as a “religion of converts”, because many of us who make our way here have meandered away from other religious paths ( there are those, especially now, who were raised pagan, but the majority of us were not). With this, we may be familiar with someone handing us literature, study material and showing us ways to pray. Our previous path may have had rituals and rites that we participated in as children, sometimes without understanding the symbolism behind it. For whatever reason, this didn’t fulfill us and we went searching for our own answers and ways of doing things. Unlike our predecessors who had to hunt diligently and relentlessly, in secretive manners, today, there is a plethora of literature to draw from, which can pose its own problems.
As we begin our walk down the witch path, we may be overcome by the multitude of information. In some instances we may also think (as we were conditioned by our previous path to believe) that those who have written books and explored their own paths are the “experts” and things must be done their way. While, yes there is some expertise in practicing for a longer period of time, this path has no absolute truth, except what rings true to you within your very soul. I, like many adventurers years ago set out on this path, I gathered books and tools and had elaborate rituals that came from books with words someone else wrote that were difficult to remember. I found myself bombarded by the conflicting information between traditions and in some cases felt discouraged because I did not have the experiences my favorite authors described. This is a common experience on our path, you have not done anything wrong, and you haven’t failed.
As I grew and continued to study everything I could get my hands on, I began to notice commonalities in some things and divergence in others. I also found that my understanding of the world and my lived experience didn’t match up with what I was reading about. My favorite example for this is the many different meditations that have you imagine standing next to an ocean. They ask you to make it as real as possible and to draw on times when you might have been on the beach. Being a mountain girl who grew up in the land locked Rockies of Colorado, never having had the chance to travel early in my life, I had n o frame of reference. While I have traveled some, I still haven’t had the opportunity to see the ocean in person yet and I turn 40 on Saturday! So I have no way to tie in my other senses, I do not know what the ocean smells like, what air filled with humidity drawn from salt water feels like against my skin. Thanks to modern media I have an idea of what it looks and sounds like but that is the limit of my ability to imagine an ocean and make it real: It is a picture on a screen to me. This meant I had to find other ways of getting in touch with the element of Water. I had to reframe this into images I could recreate. But then this brings up another difficulty that I still have to this day: I have difficulty visualizing; without my contacts I am very close to being legally blind and I have been since I was around 10 years old. Sight was something I expected to loose at a very young age and so I never really paid attention to visual things (despite being an avid reader) To this day, no matter how much I try, when I meditate there is not a picture. I had to learn how my brain interpreted things. For me there are feelings, sounds and energies. I used to jokingly say that my third eye was a blind man (recently I have had some progress with this with the help of the God Mimir) but for most of my 20 plus years of practice I have had to adapt and find what works for me in this instance.
While I had no problem admitting it was okay to adapt meditations due to a lack of a frame of reference or an inability to visualize, for some reason I didn’t think that it was okay to put other things in my language. We are lucky to have so many authors, teachers, organizers etc. that have shared their experience and knowledge with us, and their shared knowledge is a great place to look for inspiration but we don’t have to mimic them. One of the tings that we, as witches, must learn is that we each have our own languages, techniques and methodologies that work for us. For some people it is quite natural to find a system that is set in place and they can jump right in and use the rites and rituals that someone else has created (trust me I firmly believe that a good liturgist can and should create a ritual that will move as many people as possible) however, those methods may not work for everyone. AND THAT IS OKAY!
When we begin to find our own way through spiritual practice we need to start paying attention to our reactions, when we read, when we are in groups or even when we attempt rituals and exercises out of our books, blogs and other resource material. What made us feel like we were connected to the Divine? What made us feel calmer and more at peace? What made us feel empowered? The things that do this, those are the things that speak to our soul. I encourage everyone to always question their response to things. Have you ever read a book that suggested a magical ritual or exercise and your stomach flipped, or you just didn’t feel comfortable with the thought of doing something? This is a reaction that you need to listen to as well; our gut, our instincts and our spirit will tell us what is right for us, we just have to learn to listen.
Sometimes, something isn’t right “AT THAT TIME”, it may something that you come back to later and feel much more comfortable with, but your spirit is telling you that you are not ready to take that action yet. Cultivating the skill of listening to yourself and your own authority, allowing yourself to make decisions based on what you know and how you feel at that moment is the beginning of stepping into Frith with your God Soul. Our Divine Selves have been talking to us all along, more than likely it was your God Soul who guided to leave your religion of origin and go seeking in the first place. The Divine that lives within us, the spirits and energies that exist around us, they are connected, and more timeless then our egoic selves could ever imagine; they will lead you in right action, they will not hurt you. Their goal is to help you grow and flourish in all areas of life, however, many times we fight them, rationalize them away or ignore them, which leads us to repeat lessons and experience hardship, doubt, fear and confusion.
Open the door to your God Soul, listen to the messages it is sending you. Pay attention to your reactions, emotions, sensations. These will show you the way, and help you to begin following and developing your intuition. This is one of the first steps to creating your own meaningful spiritual traditions and practice, as well as creating magic in your world. This is the first step on the path of FrithCraft.
The Frith Wytch 