(no subject)
from a comment I made in a locked post:
I've made the mistake of trying to achieve some kind of nebulous spiritual thing by Buying Shit before. I spend a lot of my life turning my energy (time) into money, so hey, maybe I can work the conversion back the other way: the more of _____ I buy, the more thought I am directing towards it.
Unfortunately that doesn't exactly work, especially when we are talking about initially opening up a current, whether that's to a line of practice or to a specific being. You have to spend the time directly first. You cannot lead off with material gifts. Think how you would feel if someone just randomly approached you and gave you something, even if they had done research to find out what you liked. You'd probably wonder what their motive was, wouldn't you? It would seem a little creepy. You would not be all that inclined to just say hey, sure, we're buds now. After you've spent some time and exchanged some thought and energy, then you can start buying gifts if you like, and it will seem much more sincere.
I've tripped over this multiple times in the past *mumble* years and I think it's only sunk in very recently. I've tried buying "stuff" for various spirit contacts, sometimes as gifts, sometimes as anchors. Doesn't work. Has that same hollow feeling. Gotta sit and have a bunch of rap sessions first, pal. Or in the case of a body of practice, work with its techniques.
It's a funny cycle -- you should start out without too much stuff. Then you can start accumulating stuff as useful tools. Then eventually you start dropping a lot of the stuff again, maybe even all of it, because hey, you and your spirit buddy (/god/tradition/whatever) have spent all this time together now, you no longer need the accoutrements, the venue; you have each other.
I've made the mistake of trying to achieve some kind of nebulous spiritual thing by Buying Shit before. I spend a lot of my life turning my energy (time) into money, so hey, maybe I can work the conversion back the other way: the more of _____ I buy, the more thought I am directing towards it.
Unfortunately that doesn't exactly work, especially when we are talking about initially opening up a current, whether that's to a line of practice or to a specific being. You have to spend the time directly first. You cannot lead off with material gifts. Think how you would feel if someone just randomly approached you and gave you something, even if they had done research to find out what you liked. You'd probably wonder what their motive was, wouldn't you? It would seem a little creepy. You would not be all that inclined to just say hey, sure, we're buds now. After you've spent some time and exchanged some thought and energy, then you can start buying gifts if you like, and it will seem much more sincere.
I've tripped over this multiple times in the past *mumble* years and I think it's only sunk in very recently. I've tried buying "stuff" for various spirit contacts, sometimes as gifts, sometimes as anchors. Doesn't work. Has that same hollow feeling. Gotta sit and have a bunch of rap sessions first, pal. Or in the case of a body of practice, work with its techniques.
It's a funny cycle -- you should start out without too much stuff. Then you can start accumulating stuff as useful tools. Then eventually you start dropping a lot of the stuff again, maybe even all of it, because hey, you and your spirit buddy (/god/tradition/whatever) have spent all this time together now, you no longer need the accoutrements, the venue; you have each other.