When approaching spirituality from the perspective of a shamanic witch, it's necessary for us to set aside our preconceived ideas and create a path that is uniquely our own. Unlike many other spiritual paths, shamanic witchcraft holds to the concept that, since each of us are unique individuals, then our spiritual paths should as be diverse and personalized as we are. The lessons and challenges that each of us face over the course of our lives are personalized to who we are and where we are in life. It stands to reason that the tools we employ to meet and learn from those challenges should be those that work for us as individuals - and for that reason won't necessarily be applicable to someone else's path.
In the previous article (Finding the Path Before Us), we answered a number of questions to help us focus our path and determine where we would like our spiritual journey to take us. The last step in the process before we begin to actually build our spiritual path is to create a litmus test that we'll use to determine what we will adopt into our personal Tradition and what we will set aside. Those experiences, techniques and philosophies that we choose to adopt will become the core that we will build our path around. The insight that we choose not to integrate into our beliefs will be set aside, either for future consideration or simply as an interesting experience.
What is key is that our interaction with the world around us is not a one-way street. It represents a continual exchange of energy between ourselves and the rest of reality, regardless of whether that exchange comes in a ritual, the care of our own physical body, or simply our interaction with a friend, family member, or co-worker.
It's a concept that is easiest to understand for those of us with some experience on a magickal path by starting with the idea of energy exchange during ritual work. The vast majority of us will agree that ritual involves the raising of energy and directing it for a specific end. Typically, we use our intent and the energy we raise to affect change, either through spellwork or a blessing, attempting a healing that ends an illness, the honoring and sealing of a transition or milestone, or through the creation of a specific ritual tool.
What we fail to consider is that this same type of energy exchange occurs in what we would consider to be much more mundane pursuits. Every time we interact with a family member, friend or co-worker, we are either reinforcing or changing the energy we interact with. We are either pushing them away, drawing them closer, or maintaining the status quo. The energy we invest in the ritual of our interaction creates changes as surely as if we were engaged in more magickal pursuits. In a similar manner, we change our physical bodies through what we choose to eat, the substances we choose to imbibe or abstain from, and the amount of exercise, sleep, and stress management we engage in.
The idea isn't that we all need to become hard-bodied adepts who are friends and ambassadors to the entire world and beloved by all who know us. What I'm trying to impress is the need to set a standard for our own lives that, while we will adjust it as we grow and our understanding of ourselves and the world around us changes, is one that allow us to take responsibility for our lives and live in a conscious and intentional manner.
Because shamanic witchcraft is such an experiential journey, we need a litmus test to sort through what we experience and which will also allow us to set ethical standards for ourselves and our interaction with the world around us.
For example, I've made the decision while answering the four questions presented in the previous article, that my spiritual path should help me grow in each area of my life - spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and physically. The litmus test that I established for my own path is that anything that I choose to integrate into my life or my practice has to benefit at least two of those areas. Let's say that I've been presented with a new piece of magickal theory that simply doesn't mesh with my world view. While it could be argued that the theory would benefit me spiritually as it increases the number of tools that I have to draw from, I don't connect with it (emotional), it doesn't effect my body or mundane reality (physical), and I can't work it into my intellectual understanding of life and the spirit world. Because it only benefits only one of the four areas that I established, I would discard the theory - or at least set it aside until such time as my intellectual understanding increases that the theory could be added to my path. I once had a brand new student ask me a question about raising energy and sheepishly shared the method with me that they had been using. Not only was it a beautiful approach (which I connected with emotionally), but it benefited me spiritually as it increased the tools I had access to, improved my understanding of my interaction with the spirit world (intellectual), and presented a physical technique for interacting with the energy of the rite. Because it benefit at least two of my areas of criteria, I adopted it into my own work.
Our personal standards and their accompanying litmus test should be as diverse and unique as all of us are as individuals. It is no more correct or commendable that one of us who follows a warrior's path develops an athlete's body through hard work,dedication and self-denial than it is for a kitchen witch who has decided to enjoy her trade to be pleasantly plump and curvy. What's is truly important is that we understand the implications of our actions and intent and use them to craft a life that is lived intentionally. This intentional life will be the base in all that we do and will give us a strong foundation when we begin working with the spirit world, raising magickal energy, and learn to journey and experience other facets of reality.