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My wife and I have made profound changes in our lives through green Paganism and simple, ecological living, which have resulted in unforeseen, yet very positive opportunities for peace, joy, laughter, and success. In fact, these opportunities have been so powerful, that I was stirred to share them with others, and not keep all these amazing discoveries to ourselves. We 'unplugged from the matrix' that is the cause of so much distraction and busyness in our lives and created a magickal Pagan homestead. I will share some of these discoveries of how, as a Pagan, you can simplify your life, while living more in sync with your purpose, nature and open up an incredible world of opportunity and possibility.

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Living It As One

In my quest to bring my Paganism into my daily life, there are many challenges. I'm sure if you've tried it, you've also experienced some interesting obstacles that you never considered when you first started out. I think I've found the best "trick" to actually make it work, although it's taken a lot of reflection to actually figure out that I did it, and it that it also worked.

 

When I decided that this was something I wanted to do, I wrote a list of all the things I thought I was missing by not including my spiritual/magickal path in my daily life, and how to address them. It wasn't really a pro/con list, it was more of a problem/solution list. I didn't even see any "cons" to doing this...at the time.

After trying to do all this things, implementing all these "clever solutions" to the perceived problems, I stumbled across the actual solution by accident, and things started falling into place rapidly after I implemented this "trick". So what's the trick? It's so simple it cracks me up to this day that I didn't discover it sooner or read about it in even a "101" book.

I realized one day that the key is to stop believing that the spiritual path you walk and your mundane life are two separate things. This is way easier than it sounds at first because so many of us have been conditioned to compartmentalize various aspects of ourselves. Our culture is all about doing that, even our language fosters it. Have you heard these terms?:

  • Work/life balance
  • Work spouse
  • Work friends
  • Sunday Christian

Have you felt uncomfortable or uneasy meeting a coworker at a social event you thought was only going to have your "friends" at?

All of these things point to a segregation of different aspects of our lives. By the by, that "Sunday Christian" one applies in meaning just as well to many Pagans; uberPagan around the Sabbats, especially Samhain, but almost completely silent/disinterested/disengaged at other times of the year.

The lesson I learned is that there is no such thing as my mundane life in comparison to walking my spiritual path. Every moment I'm alive, I choose whether to live it walking my path or standing still on it, the path is always there. So that means that by not taking advantage of every opportunity I can to celebrate, explore, and walk my path is one lost and never recoverable. Once I came to this understanding, I understood there is no such thing as work/life balance, I must choose work which enhances my life in meaningful ways. I must walk my spiritual path with every step I physically take or I'm not only missing out on something, but I'm taking that next step for granted, as though it's guaranteed to be there when I next choose to take it. How arrogant of me to assume the gods will wait on me and my whims!

So, get off your ass, go do something spiritual/magickal right now, and then do another one or make a conscious effort to discover the spiritual/magickal aspect in what you're doing. Then never stop doing spiritual/magickal...ever.

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Peter is an American of British and German ancestry who lives in Missouri with his wife Mary, where he is (re)discovering his connections with nature and the Gods. When he's not tending to their homestead, which feeds his family and provides an expression of gratitude and work in veneration to the Gods, he writes for several blogs, and works as a freelance artist/graphic designer. Having many years of experience in various forms of occult systems, including Asatru, Celtic, and Dragon Hollow Wicca, and Witchcraft, Peter finally found what he had been looking for all his life in a blend of Traditional Witchcraft (the nameless art), Heathenry and personal gnosis/exploration (vision/mystic).

Comments

  • James M Taddeo
    James M Taddeo Friday, 06 June 2014

    We are creating the "path" as we go no matter where we go. The idea that our spirituality is separate from our emotionality is separate from our intellect and ego's IS evidence of the confusion. They are simply facets of the same thing. it just so happens that the ego talks too much and encourages ignoring or suppression of the other "voices".

    Great post!
    Peace, Love, and Light amongst the Unrest, Hatred, and Darkness

  • Lizann Bassham
    Lizann Bassham Tuesday, 17 June 2014

    Yes indeed!!!

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