How to determine if the spiritual, magickal, and/or religious group you're in is bad for you.
1 - Do they put others down for being "fluffy" or not measuring up to their standards?
2 - Do they spend too much time being serious and taking each other perhaps a bit too seriously?
3 - Do they frown upon mistakes and come down on you if you make any? Are you made to feel uncomfortable for having made them?
4 - Do they look older than their ages? Are they generally stressed and unhappy with their lives?
5 - Do they enter into heated debates and competition with people that appears to be less than friendly?
6 - Do they seem to be "angry" all of the time and encourage doing a lot of Mars and Saturn style workings? Ie., "battling our enemies" and engaging in "magickal/spiritual warfare", that sort of thing?
7 - Do they scoff at people who want to try certain magicks or spiritual traditions and claim that it's not possible or it's too "stupid" or "a waste of time" to try?
8 - Do they encourage "not reading ahead" of your "level" and keep strict hierarchy in both social and business related settings?
9 - Do they seem to be filled with fear and/or anger at certain sorts of traditions, knowledge, and teachings that they disagree with or is different from their own?
10 - Do they tout certain "healing rituals/prayers" for major issues like world peace or hunger, but balk at doing the same amount of healing on themselves or their fellow members?
11 - Do they list a ton of titles in their emails and in their conversations with you? Do they brag about their certificates and accomplishments a great deal? Do they seem very self-absorbed as a whole?
If they meet with some, most, or all of those, RUN. Run while you still have your youth, your love of life, and your desire to grow and improve as a human being--not to mention your enjoyment of the spirituality, tradition, or religion you were a part of in the first place.
I will never join any group, online or otherwise, that falls in with such lines of thinking.
I'm with hoath_iaida: a magician who fails to laugh at himself is not really a magician.
2 - Do they spend too much time being serious and taking each other perhaps a bit too seriously?
3 - Do they frown upon mistakes and come down on you if you make any? Are you made to feel uncomfortable for having made them?
4 - Do they look older than their ages? Are they generally stressed and unhappy with their lives?
5 - Do they enter into heated debates and competition with people that appears to be less than friendly?
6 - Do they seem to be "angry" all of the time and encourage doing a lot of Mars and Saturn style workings? Ie., "battling our enemies" and engaging in "magickal/spiritual warfare", that sort of thing?
7 - Do they scoff at people who want to try certain magicks or spiritual traditions and claim that it's not possible or it's too "stupid" or "a waste of time" to try?
8 - Do they encourage "not reading ahead" of your "level" and keep strict hierarchy in both social and business related settings?
9 - Do they seem to be filled with fear and/or anger at certain sorts of traditions, knowledge, and teachings that they disagree with or is different from their own?
10 - Do they tout certain "healing rituals/prayers" for major issues like world peace or hunger, but balk at doing the same amount of healing on themselves or their fellow members?
11 - Do they list a ton of titles in their emails and in their conversations with you? Do they brag about their certificates and accomplishments a great deal? Do they seem very self-absorbed as a whole?
If they meet with some, most, or all of those, RUN. Run while you still have your youth, your love of life, and your desire to grow and improve as a human being--not to mention your enjoyment of the spirituality, tradition, or religion you were a part of in the first place.
I will never join any group, online or otherwise, that falls in with such lines of thinking.
I'm with hoath_iaida: a magician who fails to laugh at himself is not really a magician.