This is a subject/problem I think that every occultist comes across at some point in their progression. How do you find the motivation to do anything mundane when there are countless other things you could be doing to help your ascension? Compared to the work that is done as an occultist, everything else seems useless. Where does the drive come from to push you through mundane tasks? Share how you have coped with this problem below.
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Belial told me once that there is no difference between the material and the spiritual, they are one and the same. In other words, nothing is really “mundane.”
If you approach regular life with the same mindset as you do ascension, then you will learn this for yourself. You are God so everything you do has the potential to be magical.
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I agree with the view of everything having potential to be magickal, however that view feels quite hard to apply to the heavy stacks of paper I have to go through for work.
Yes, it can be hard to change your point of view when you’re slogging through paperwork, but that’s only because of your habitual way of looking at things, not because of the actual task you are doing.
It’s easy to feel magical when you’re standing in a circle of candles, bellowing out incantations, while figures form in the swirling incense, but it’s much harder to feel magical when an asshole cuts you off in traffic. However, it only takes a moment to shift your mind.
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The shift seems hard to do especially when it comes to looking at the end goal. The mundane tasks are done out of necessity and don’t serve my purposes for ascension so it’s hard to view them in a positive light.
How do you know that? Has it ever occurred to you to try looking at every task as serving your ascension?
Here’s the thing: You get to decide how you view anything and everything, even the most menial of tasks so if you decide doing paperwork serves your ascension, then it does. It’s really as simple as that.
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Ah I’m so conflicted. On one hand, I understand what you mean about making anything serve my ascension. But on the other, I don’t know if my mind can flex that much to believe that menial paperwork is helpful. I work under the system provided by John Kreiter in the Magnum Opus trilogy, so the things that I view as helpful are almost exclusively mind/energy exercises. Fitting random useless paperwork into it is tough, especially since John promotes using logic and I can’t logically find a reason for its use.
Mundane is relaxing, it could be a lot worse. Mundane means you have time to learn and not worrying about living day to day.
Zen
If the paperwork doesn’t require you to concentrate too deeply, then use the time to exercise your mind by chanting an enn, or a mantra, or moving energy around your body. You could also use it to manifest intentions, like intending to make the time doing the task to go faster, or using the shuffling of the paper as a type of sigil, telling yourself that every time you shuffle paper a certain intention will come to pass.
You can tie an intention to any action, so use the paperwork as a way to manifest your magick.
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Keyword there is concentration, something I am very bad at if the task is something I don’t care for. So multitasking while doing paperwork is hard for me because I naturally will want to focus on the task that isn’t the paperwork. The only time I was ever able to successfully mix paperwork and magick is when I had a servitor who would help me do it. She actually worked quite well in a weird way, as she made me feel insane. This insanity led me to completing the task by messing with my mind so much it got rid of my hatred of the task. Unfortunately it has been a long time since I have used her, and even though I’ve always remembered her, I haven’t fed energy towards her directly in a long time. I fear she may be almost completely faded, so I haven’t considered using her again.
Practice chanting a mantra in your mind, for example, while you’re doing a task. It will help with both concentration and whatever you’re doing.
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By using the occult to smooth things along so that you eventually transition into better position in life that allows you to focus more on your “hobbies”.
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The mundane is magical. Take a step back from it and consider the wonder and even absurdity of it.
It is my personal belief that this world was meant as a playground but we’ve allowed others to turn it into a prison. We each build our own cages using someone else’s blueprint. The big secret though is that there are no locks on the doors. Like the elephant that has been chained since infancy and this never tries to escape the chains he could easily break, we keep ourselves imprisoned simply because we don’t know that we can walk out any time we wish.
That said, boredom is usually caused by being engaged in an activity that doesn’t really serve our true will. I know that’s how I feel about my job. A person, however, has to eat. We also have to poop and clean up after ourselves around the house and a million other things that we may not be particularly interested in doing. Nevertheless, they either serve our true wills or they don’t need to be done. If they don’t need to be done, don’t do them. If they do, then find your true will in them or at least find a way to make them more interesting and productive.
Maybe play a game with them. See how many things you can do today and then beat your high score tomorrow. Maybe even set aside some money or buy or do something nice for yourself when you accomplish a certain milestone. You can also use that time in which you’re engaged in some boring task to listen to a podcast that’s relevant to your path. You can also just listen to anything else. Fun is a higher purpose unto itself.
Never forget that this is a game we’re playing. All of it. Everything. We invented it because the challenges we faced as godlike spiritual beings weren’t exactly challenges and so we got bored. That level of our higher selves is also a game, just at a different level. These games go all the way up to the top where there really is only one thing and it’s playing all these games by itself in order to experience things… anything at all.
We are the universe playing with itself.
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This is a great idea, and DK has a post on Angelic Mantras. Im going to physically write them down and take them to work with me. I might as we’ll hum an angel mantra while I cut potatoes.
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Yeah, I have a special hatred of paperwork and appointments for mundane things. Sometimes I think about doing a ritual to get rid of it, but then i worry about negative consequences.
I remember a time long ago when I worked in factory. It was a place I had kind of swore I would never work in and strangely enough I found myself there employed after a time of need. I didn’t want that job but I did need it.
I was young and working alongside an old man who was approaching retirement and he told me something important enough to still remember it now thirty years later.
He said “You must find enjoyment and purpose in your work, it doesn’t matter what your work is, it can be anything
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