DISCIPLINE: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

I remember someone came for a reading with me years back. They wanted help with connecting better with their ancestors, as they felt a disconnection. When I looked, sure enough, they were correct. There was disconnection. Most of it was not their fault. We don’t know what we don’t know. But the problem came when, on their behalf, as I was communicating with their ancestors, those spirits had what I thought was a relatively simple message. In short, they wanted that person to sit and connect with them. Not even any complicated ritual. Just come sit with us and connect.

You would have thought I told them they needed to do a live-action Dungeons and Dragons campaign! They complained. They cussed me out. They said that I had to do their work for them. Needless to say, I didn’t.

I am finding, increasingly, that many people think they want indigenous medicines. But they don’t want to do the work. They don’t want to hear that it’s way way more then lighting candles. That the MAJORITY of an indigenous practitioner’s work is personal development of self. That’s literally the majority of spirit work we do. It’s not very sexy. But it IS powerful. If you want to be powerful in indigenous practices, you do the work on yourself.

But there’s another issue lingering with this. It is discipline. By discipline I mean being consistent. Not necessarily consistent in terms of doing things the same way on the same day every time. But consistency in the sense of making your practice a priority in your life. We all have competing priorities, I know this. But I ALSO know that we also have a degree of choice as to how to order those priorities. Your spirits see this and watch how you do it. They look to see if you have a real heart for them.

What I am talking about challenges some of you because there are occultist paths that eschew things like discipline. I like some of these paths for their intrepid, experimental basis. But I am glad it is not where I started. It would have caused issues with the way my ATR practices slap. I am not being critical of them for their nature. But I am pointing out that the lack of discipline can be a problem for people whose camino/spirituality is one where they need to be consistent with their spirits. I have watched people struggle because they lack discipline. I have yet to work with someone who’s spirituality suffers because they are too disciplined! The former wonder why their magic and their spirits don’t work. When I look on their behalf, most times its because the connection between their spirits and them is weak. It’s a bit like being in a committed relationship where reciprocity is lacking and then getting pissed at your partner when you ask for help and they ignore you.

Discipline is inconvenient because it places a claim on us. Discipline is also a continual reminder that your life is not completely your own. This is why spirit work, especially indigenous spirit work, is not for everyone. And that’s okay too. Not everyone is meant to do everything. We are meant to figure out our path and walk it to the best of our ability. And for me, discipline is key to walking it well.