How to be successful in spiritual studies
This course is designed to address the purpose and mission of a spiritual study program. Most people who are engaged in spirituality can at least relate to something; the desire to gain; whether your gain is in knowledge, experience, spirituality, understanding, prestige, image, title or in any other area. All students who stick it out in a spiritual training program will gain something from the experience.
It is important to know what you want to accomplish with a degree program otherwise you are not allowing yourself the opportunity to set on the road to achieve those goals without confusion.
- What are your goals in enrolling in the degree training?
- What do you feel you need in order to accomplish those goals?
Key techniques that will enhance your spiritual studies:
A working system: Setting up a working system of how you will do your studies can be a useful tool. Designating certain time, days or settings in which you will routinely do your assignments can be essential. In addition, keeping a planner or calendar of assignments due, rituals, meetings and lessons will come in handy. You will find that the more you become immersed in the world of the craft, the more things add to your calendar.
Communication: Communication with your mentor will be one of the most important parts of your growth. This will open the door to meaningful discussions that reveal information about yourself and your path. In beginning a new path that leads to intense lessons it may feel like it is inappropriate to share personal information. It is quite the opposite in a spiritual program; there is no way to get the full benefit without it.
In addition, working on a program where the work starts to develop on the inside (unlike a new hair cut), it is even more important to communicate in ways that your mentors and family coven members can see your growth.
Setting goals: Set completion goals and hold yourself accountable to put your best foot forward in achieving them. Setting goals for assignments can give you parameters to work within and help to avoid becoming complacent in your studies.
Building connection: For those who are close with family members, we understand what a connection is with our children, spouse/mate, etc. A training coven has the same base and starts with that same connection, stretching the boundaries by learning to open that connection and add someone into the circle of love and trust. Essentially we are saying that we trust and care enough about you to bring you into the inner circle on energy and magical connection. e A connection to the group mind of those we love, worship and train with give us a direct connection to the ideals of the tradition we are learning and the Gods in which we worship. This same concept of family is evident from the understanding that the Goddess is my mother and the God my father.
In order to teach we have to learn and we learn energy best by experiencing it. Being a High Priest or High Priestess is about assisting to bridge the gap between others and the divine. This commitment is a large one and not something any of us should take lightly. With this in mind, each person in a study program has to ask his or herself if they are giving what they should give to support a healthy magical energetic exchange. This is how we learn to create, build and maintain relationships in a healthy and supportive spiritual setting.
Are you responsive, accessible, supportive, concerned, accountable, responsible and extending of yourself to those in your training program? How is a connection built and maintained without your consistent exchange? How a connection is affected without others consistency?
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Asking for help or support: Your mentor and the elders of a tradition are there to help you, that is what they are trained to do. It is not a hindrance to ask for support and it is not a marker of your intelligence. Learning to ask for help or support can save you the heartache of not knowing something later. In addition, if you learn the value of asking for help or support, you might be able to teach that to your student in the future.
Don’t procrastinate: It is common to put your studies on the back burner. “I can do it next week”; “There is no rush”. Correct, there is no rush on your studies but don’t allow that to assist in loosing momentum on your growth. Consistency in engaging in spiritual studies helps to establish a system that will ultimately connect to your foundation. Spiritual growth can be compared to any system of learning that is based on a continuum, if you are putting off parts of the system; you are unable to go to the next phase smoothly.
Accountability: Taking responsibility for the outcome of your studies is crucial. If you put half your energy into your growth, you will only grow half as much. When people refer to getting out of it what you put in, this defiantly applies here. Being accountable in your studies means accepting responsibility for your growth and giving yourself permission to grow by putting your all in your exercises and assignments.
Follow thru: There are many different aspects of the degree system that you will be working through while studying. While some assignments will address personal development, others will address energy. It is important to follow through with assignments, knowing that they have desired outcomes and therefore it is important to complete. Learning to “do what you say and say what you mean” is a lesson of any degree system that works towards leadership. Commitments are extremely important in anyone’s training for High Priest or Priestess.
Patience: Spiritual growth happens on its own terms and we are on the path of the God and Goddess. Patience becomes a true value in our ability to work an honest program that leads to true spiritual growth. Instead of dictating how we feel our path should go, patience allows us to put our path in the hands of the Gods while we do the footwork.
Practice: You cannot learn the craft without hands on experience and practice. Reading gives you the information on an intellectual level but the Craft is a mystery based practice. There are parts of the path that cannot be explained and will not be in any book. These mysteries are given to you by the God and Goddess when you are ready and through the practice. By skipping the hands on work, you are preventing yourself from gaining the needed knowledge to be a skilled High Priest or Priestess.
Honesty: Being honest with your mentor gives him or her opportunity to work towards meeting your needs as well as their own. Not all situations fit everyone, not every mentor is meant for every student, not every teaching style will work and not every concept makes sense the first time. Without the honest information and feedback from the student, the mentor is unable to determine what is working and what is not. Without an open dialog with their mentor the student has a higher chance of not getting his or her needs met.
Concerns presenting themselves during the training process is normal and gives the student and the mentor opportunities to seek the best solution among a wide array of solutions.. Open and honest communication allows the possibility for solutions that promote growth.
Exercise:
- Which of the previous techniques and suggestions stuck out as ones that you need the most support in developing? In what areas do you feel these suggestions will help you the most?
- Which of the following suggestions do you feel are within your strengths currently and how do you use them to be successful in areas of your life?
- What are some of your goals for the first degree within your tradition? Short term and long term goal for training?
copyright 2009 – Crystal Blanton
