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Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

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    Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

    For me, I wish I realised that you don't have to buy a load of things in order to be considered a *insert different paths here*. I read so many articles where it stated you MUST have these tools, these books, these blah blah blah's in order to properly do things. I don't even use half the stuff I bought now, and I've made most of my tools over the years!

    What about you?

    #2
    Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

    I wish I wasn't that naive like I was in the beginning of my journey.
    "Fair means that everybody gets what they need. And the only way to get that is to make it happen yourself."



    Since I adore cats, I might write something strange or unusual in my comment.Cats are awesome!!! ^_^

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      #3
      Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

      I was exactly that way when I began practicing Hinduism, which I have since left. I bought statues of the gods, ritual items, books, and gods know what else. All of that is packed in boxes waiting to go to some storage facility. I so regret having spent so much money. And all this was because I was influenced by so many other people and their opinions and pontifications, not to mention my own General Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. Now as an Asatruar I wear a bronze Mjolnir pendant, I bought a horn and offering bowl, my replica of the Eyrarland Statue of Thor, and a hammer, all for the altar, and some books. That's it, because I learned that you don't need any more than that.
      śivāya vishnu rūpaya śivaḥ rūpaya vishnave
      śivasya hridayam viṣṇur viṣṇoscha hridayam śivaḥ

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        #4
        Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

        I don't regret anything, or wish I had known something that I didn't know...and that includes spending money on things I may not have needed in the long run. I consider that all part of the journey--I am the sum of my experiences.
        Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
        sigpic

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          #5
          Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

          At first I felt very pressured to choose a path right away. I was almost scared of starting, because I was scared of choosing wrong and being stuck. It took me a long time to realise that it was ok to jump around it would have been nice to know sooner, but it's all part of where I am now.
          You remind me of the babe
          What babe?
          The babe with the power
          What power?
          The Power of voodoo
          Who do?
          You do!
          Do what?
          Remind me of the babe!

          Army of Darkness: Guardians of the Chat

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            #6
            Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

            I definitely feel the same way as you, Fire Nymph. I bought way too much when I began my path into Wicca (it seems a lot of people begin with Wicca and move into other religions later on, hm), and now the whole lot of it is useless since I'm no longer a Wiccan. Sometimes I really hate money. XD
            "Nearby is Valhalla, vast and gold-bright. And every day, Odin chooses slain men to join him. They arm themselves and fight in the courtyard. They kill one another; but every night they rise again, and ride back to the hall, and feast. The roof is made out of shields. The rafters are spears. Coats of mail litter the benches. A wolf stands at the Western door and an eagle hovers above it.
            It has five hundred and forty doors, and when Ragnarok comes, eight hundred warriors will march out of each door, shoulder to shoulder." ~ Floki, Vikings

            Pagan Blog: http://monolith-magick.blogspot.co.uk/

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              #7
              Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

              Yeah, I never liked the emphasis on tools, either. Beyond a handful of basics, it's all aesthetic and personal.

              One conclusion I wish I'd come to more quickly is that there really isn't a one size fits all way to do things, and that - risks and all - it's perfectly okay to be 100% solitary and only poke my head out now and then for a little extra information. There's not only a cultural suspicion of loners, but a lot of talk about how it just doesn't work.

              I had always heard that there were risks to practicing alone or that you need a human, in-person teacher to really make progress. Over the course of the past 15 years or so I've repeatedly tried to join communities and left so disillusioned and disappointed that I walked away from the topic entirely, despite wanting a more spiritual life. It was like a thick fog had fallen over me and I'd lost all sight of myself, my goals, and my joy. If it wasn't people just being people and sucking the joy out of the experience with petty arguments, power struggles, and the like, they were legitimate threats to honesty, safety, and independence - the type who are just straight-up power-hungry and want to wear the Enlightenment Pants.

              And maybe some people (normal people) can take that, but I can't. It's a needless burden and a distraction.

              At this point, I consider the risks a fair trade for being able to be left alone and do my work as I please. There are risks in all paths, as well as precautions that can be taken. I've made incredible progress without a teacher, my only official one having passed away almost a decade ago. I've seen what happens when you're not careful, and I'm more afraid of losing sight of my goals and losing my motivation due to entanglement with others than I am of any of the potential consequences of not getting second opinions from a real, live person. That, or just spending so much time in a bad mood that I can't focus. It's the same reason I don't purposefully keep company with other writers or join communities for writers, all benefits be damned.
              Last edited by Moth; 26 Nov 2014, 07:14.

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                #8
                Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

                Start out by finding a teacher who can do what you want to do, knows what you want to know and lives how you want to live, then train under them and only under them - don't waste your time trying to make sense of things through hundreds of contradictory books until you have a solid grounding in the basics.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Aeran View Post
                  Start out by finding a teacher who can do what you want to do, knows what you want to know and lives how you want to live, then train under them and only under them - don't waste your time trying to make sense of things through hundreds of contradictory books until you have a solid grounding in the basics.
                  Haha good luck finding that person...
                  ThorSon's milkshake brings all the PF girls to the yard - Volcaniclastic

                  RIP

                  I have never been across the way
                  Seen the desert and the birds
                  You cut your hair short
                  Like a shush to an insult
                  The world had been yelling
                  Since the day you were born
                  Revolting with anger
                  While it smiled like it was cute
                  That everything was shit.

                  - J. Wylder

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                    #10
                    Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

                    I have And so have a lot of others, it isn't impossible. Although granted it would be rather harder for someone completely new to it all (although they'd be the better for it, not having previously confused themselves with contradictory information and training) but that's still always the first piece of advice I give to people when they say they want to get into spirituality/magic. My progress increased exponentially when I dropped the books and started training under a teacher. People think that such people are impossible to find, but they aren't, it just comes down to how much you're willing to put yourself out there and how seriously dedicated to learning you are. Maybe it will be as easy as reading an article on the system in question which immediately grabs you and contacting the author, or maybe it will be as difficult as trekking across Asia looking for a genuine master, but if you're serious about your path and that is what's required, then it's worth it.

                    Of course a teacher doesn't initially have to meet all of those criteria - nobody is perfect and no two people are identical in their aspirations and lifestyles, so maybe I set the bar a bit high - and of course sometimes you have to try several people before you find the right teacher for you, but just find a teacher you're compatible with. Even if it's just someone who can show you the basics and maybe point you in the right direction.

                    Books are nice, but trying to learn out of books has as many downsides as it does benefits, especially if you're one of those people who reads everything available trying to piece it all together and ends up with a bunch of practices and theories which are incompatible (guilty). Books can't answer questions, books can't pick up on subtle mistakes you're making or help you when something unexpected happens, books can't adjust your practice to your personal situation, books can't provide an outside opinion on your progress, books can't give you complementary training and, well, books can't give you a much needed swift kick in the ass when you're slacking off. I love books, but trying to learn a spiritual practice out of them is making things much harder for yourself than it needs to be.

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                      #11
                      Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

                      Originally posted by Aeran View Post
                      Start out by finding a teacher who can do what you want to do, knows what you want to know and lives how you want to live, then train under them and only under them - don't waste your time trying to make sense of things through hundreds of contradictory books until you have a solid grounding in the basics.
                      Good advice for some, impossible for others I for one didn't know what I wanted, which is why I've studied a bit of everything. And I think I would find it very hard to learn from just one person. But I'm sure for some it's the ideal way
                      You remind me of the babe
                      What babe?
                      The babe with the power
                      What power?
                      The Power of voodoo
                      Who do?
                      You do!
                      Do what?
                      Remind me of the babe!

                      Army of Darkness: Guardians of the Chat

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

                        Originally posted by iris View Post
                        Good advice for some, impossible for others I for one didn't know what I wanted, which is why I've studied a bit of everything. And I think I would find it very hard to learn from just one person. But I'm sure for some it's the ideal way
                        I don't think it's impossible for anyone, short of health issues which prevent work and travel (although these days with the internet even those are abated somewhat), it's just a question of whether someone's willing to put in the time and effort. Though yeah it's going to be harder if you're just starting out and don't know which system is right for you, but even then I'd say you'd be better off finding some kind of teacher to get you grounded in the basics, while you do a bit of research and see what's out there. This is also helps with networking - maybe the teacher isn't right for you, but they or one of their students know someone who is but doesn't maintain a public presence, or through talking to people with similar interests, you discover systems you didn't even know existed.

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                          #13
                          Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

                          We don't really sacrifice babees.
                          Bummer
                          Satan is my spirit animal

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                            #14
                            Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

                            Originally posted by Medusa View Post
                            We don't really sacrifice babees.
                            Bummer
                            We don't? Aaaaaw man :P
                            You remind me of the babe
                            What babe?
                            The babe with the power
                            What power?
                            The Power of voodoo
                            Who do?
                            You do!
                            Do what?
                            Remind me of the babe!

                            Army of Darkness: Guardians of the Chat

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?

                              Originally posted by Medusa View Post
                              We don't really sacrifice babees.
                              Bummer
                              We don't? Who don't... er, doesn't? Speak for yourself, my lovely...
                              I often wish that I had done drugs in the '70s. At least there'd be a reason for the flashbacks. - Rick the Runesinger

                              Blood and CountryTribe of my Tribe
                              Clan of my Clan
                              Kin of my Kin
                              Blood of my Blood



                              For the Yule was upon them, the Yule; and they quaffed from the skulls of the slain,
                              And shouted loud oaths in hoarse wit, and long quaffing swore laughing again.

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