I started this train of thought with the question:
Whats the best place to start on your spiritual journey?
If you’re looking for occult texts the best place to start your spiritual journey I think is studying a philosophy. One of my favorite is the Kybalion by Hermes Trismegistus a deity whose the combination of the Greek God Hermes and the Egyptian God Thoth. It’s one of those texts that is simple to grasp and doesn’t have very much dogma at all. It explains the world in a way that is conceptually easy to understand. I’m a very intuitive person so I prefer things that feel good to me. What I feel from just mentioning the text is light and a sense of grounding and peace. The Kybalion describes the world from the point of view of Hermeticism or Gnosticism. It covers simple to grasp occult concepts of ones own relationship to the physical world and divinity. I prefer starting from a place like this because there’s a lot of confusion which can arise or conflicting ideas if you start from a place like reading the Bible with no reference for example.
The Bible is like a portal to a state of being that tethers your consciousness to a realm that is interconnected with all those whom have read it before. It truly is one of those texts that has the power to make or break an individual. You don’t want to end up one of those people with a microphone shouting outside quoting revelations that the end times are coming. But at the same time there is a thing that happens when you read the Bible that feels like charging your connection to a lineage of the spirits of humans and past lives. A journey that transcends individuality and awakens a bond to your fellow humans and their struggle for survival by connecting to the divine during their most dire of times. Just writing about it makes my fingers feel like they are being enveloped in a golden energy. I like to think of the flood story, where Noah built an ark. He knew what was coming because he followed his intuition. He received divine messages whether that be through God or through his spiritual guides. We’re all on the same boat. We may not have the same outlook or have been dealt the same cards. But we are on the same boat and that thought is something that makes it easier to get by during those tough times. Thinking about the story connects me to the presence of the spirits who have referenced it during their trials. But it also grounds and connects me to the people around me going through the same struggles.
That’s one of the benefits of reading the Bible or any story in general. You connect to the journey and presence of the characters within the text. You could read Lord of the Rings and experience a similar transcendent effect. But remember that a lot those stories are based on mythology which originated as a divine origin story too. Its something that I noticed when playing video games like World of Warcraft or Skyrim. The designers like to make easter egg references to pop culture and mythology. So the feeling that you get when playing these games can be very familiar to studying spirituality.
Why is this important?
Well during the fight against darkness all of your faculties must be employed. You empower yourself by acknowledging that playing a video game, watching a movie, or reading a book is a pastime that can be a transcendent experience. This is your connection to the divine and to the spirit world. Spirits notice when you awaken within you the energy that they are familiar with. If there are people who let’s say are put off by you liking something like playing a video game or that you like Elves, Gnomes, Dungeon and Dragons well thats a sign. You trigger them and the spirits that walk with them. In a mundane sense you would think that your interests don’t match and by default that would be true. But if you’re a being of light and they aren’t as evolved or are a person that purposefully doesn’t have your best interests in mind, then you will notice individuals being triggered more often in general. It gets to the point where you don’t even have to directly interact with them. You’ll just feel it and that gut feeling comes from the connection to your good spirits. Your spiritual court which gets fed by doing things like being a productive person, making good choice that balance what and who you invest your energy into. If an engagement is counter-productive it will be met by resistance from your good spirits. But just like a connection can be made to good spirits a connection can also be made to not so good spirits. This is where spiritism comes into play. Some spirits are elevated because they were worked previously by your lineage; they are inherited. Sometimes you will pick up a good spirit from a place as you are traveling. They may be interested in your vibration while walking through the woods for example. These beneficial spirits become elevated when you do things like leave them food offerings, offer prayers, light candles which you dedicate to them, buy statues, or anything that you may be intuitively drawn to. If you like something at a shop like a crystal ball or tarot cards they can use these things to give you messages or blessings. It might be something that isn’t related to your religion like the Torah or Koran etc. Make sure you don’t show some type of negative emotional reaction or bias against it because that can be counter productive. I like to petition saints for connection to elevated beings. Saints are declared by the Catholic church as people who are recognized as being in heaven. Praying to them and aligning with their morals can cause supernatural experiences to occur such as prophecy, synchronicity, healing, and introduce divine presence which can be felt by you and others.
Good and evil are subjective, malevolent spirits exist but in general the types of spirits that are most numerous of a nuisance are what Alan Kardec calls the obsessors. These spirits are jealous spirits. When a person wishes ill on you or has some type of bias against you like racism, sexism, classism etc, it can cause misfortunes in your life which are facilitated by those envious spirits. This is where acknowledging your spiritual court is beneficial. Your ancestors, guides, and messengers will intercept these spirits and possibly turn them in your favor by elevating them. This is why you’ll see people around you start to hit obstacles, roadblocks, lose their positions of authority, suddenly become afflicted by illness etc. It’s because they become abandoned by their own spirits and are dealt karma. There are certain virtues and an order of operations which if followed will make a person less susceptible to the influence of harmful spirits carnate and incarnate. Like attracts like, so if you fall into the habit of committing the seven deadly sins; greed, lust, envy, wrath, gluttony and sloth then those are the spirits that you will be aligned with. The seven cardinal virtues which are chastity, temperance, diligence, patience, kindness and humility are opposite ends of the spectrum. Knowing when to balance all 14 of these is important because being too polarized is also unwise. Your intuition will guide you best with trial and error.