Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
The Impossibility of Advanced Spiritual Practice

The Impossibility of Advanced Spiritual Practice

Last updated on: March 22, 2022 at 3:00 am by John Beckett

The Impossibility of Advanced Spiritual Practice 2022-03-21T08:39:17-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The first public class I ever taught was Daily Spiritual Practice for Pagans, at the North Texas Pagan Pride Day in 2010. I’ve taught variations on this class many times, and I’m sure I will again. Regular spiritual practice is the foundation of any good religion. The practices vary, but whatever it is you do that makes you a Pagan or a witch or whatever you call yourself, it needs to be done on a regular basis.

Good religion is about what we do, not what we believe. Regular spiritual practice keeps us connected to our highest values, maintains our sacred relationships, and reminds us who and what we are. There is no substitute for regular spiritual practice.

Last year I taught an on-line course called Introduction to Pagan Spiritual Practice – A Polytheist Approach. It was an eleven-week class that covered prayer, meditation, offerings, and other spiritual practices – what we do and how we do it. That class is on-demand – if you’re interested you can take it now.

I just finished teaching Intermediate Spiritual Practice. It covered journeying, the Otherworld, and what to do when people bring their spiritual emergencies to you (if you have skills in this, they’ll find you, one way or another). That course is also on-demand, but you have to take the Introduction course before you can take the Intermediate course.

I haven’t done the follow-up survey for the Intermediate class, but I’ve already had some people asking if I’m going to teach an Advanced Spiritual Practice class. I try to never say never, but I don’t think I can teach a class in Advanced Spiritual Practice. I don’t think anyone can, at least not in the way I understand it.

And I think that’s worth exploring in more depth.

You never outgrow the basics

Our education system tells us we learn the first grade material, then we leave it behind and move on to the second grade material. That’s not really how it works, but our experiences in school leave us with the expectation that we learn something once, and then we don’t have to learn it again.

That’s not the case with spiritual practice. It’s not facts to be memorized or even techniques to be mastered. It’s something we do because it keeps us connected to who and what we are. A class can introduce you to these practices, but then you have to practice them – over and over and over again.

You learn to cook, and then you keep cooking. Over time your skills may improve, but the main thing is that you keep cooking – because you need to eat every day.

Prayer, meditation, offerings, and other spiritual practices are things we do every day, every week, every month, every season. We never outgrow them.

Depth, not breadth

How much instruction do you really need on prayer? Many Pagans need some instruction, because they have inaccurate and unhelpful ideas about prayer – mostly rooted in bad experiences in other religions.

But once you learn the basics of prayer (from a teacher or a book or just from observing healthy examples of prayer) all that’s left is to pray – every day. By saying the same scripted prayers over and over again, the power of their words sink into our souls. By saying extemporaneous prayers over and over again, the sacred desires of our hearts become more and more obvious to us.

Learning from good teachers is wonderful. But to truly learn something – and to learn it in depth – we need to do it regularly for years. We become experts in these few practices – we develop spiritual depth.

Advanced practice is mostly solitary work

What do we mean by Advanced Spiritual Practice, anyway? Are we talking about the kind of depth described in the previous section? Or are we talking about more specialized and more obscure practices?

There is value in arcane practices. They’re no substitute for the basics, but once you’ve built a foundation – and are committed to maintaining it – they can increase your knowledge and skills of spiritual, Otherworldly, and magical matters.

The problem is that most people – including most Pagans – aren’t interested in deep knowledge of spiritual, Otherworldly, and magical matters. Or they think they are, but when they get into it they find that it’s more work than they counted on. Or they find it’s scarier than they imagine.

So you end up doing a lot of this work alone. And much of what you learn comes through your own first-hand experiences, which are always at least slightly different from other people’s experiences.

It’s great when you have someone to do this work with you. I have a very, very few people I do this work with. I’m grateful for their support and companionship. But we’ve struggled teaching it in person – I can’t imagine trying to teach it on-line. If you want to do it, you pretty much just have to do it.

Ground yourself in ordinary practice

My Baptist father used to complain about people who were “so heavenly minded they’re no earthly good.” I’m not sure what the Pagan equivalent of that would be, but if you’ve been doing this stuff for very long, you know people who fit the description. Try not to be one of them.

The best way to do that is to stay grounded in regular spiritual practice. Even better is to be a part of a Pagan group that does ordinary Pagan things: celebrating the seasons, running public rituals, spending time in Nature, and such. For me, this is Denton CUUPS. These people are my co-religionists, but they’re also my friends. They support me in my deeper work and they also keep me grounded in this world.

And no matter how far you go, make sure there is someone you respect enough to listen to their advice. Make sure there’s someone who can tell you “no, you shouldn’t do that.” Even if you become the most expert person in the world on a given topic or practice or tradition, find an elder or a peer in another tradition who can help you along when you need it – because you will need it sooner or later. As Thorn Coyle taught me years ago, beware of teachers who only have students. And don’t become one.

If you ground yourself in ordinary practice, you’ll be able to do deeper work without getting lost between the worlds – both metaphorically and literally.

Go off the map

Here’s the bottom line for authentically deep spiritual practice: there are no maps. There are maps that will get you started. There are maps that will help you go deeper – I wrote two of them. But at some point there are no more books, no more classes, no more teachers. There’s just the open sea and the stars and the wind.

There’s only learning by doing.

Don’t mistake this for “just do whatever feels good.” You have to learn what’s on the map before you can move off the map. Otherwise you’ll be out there on the open sea with no idea how to set a sail or a rudder or figure out where you are by the stars and the sun.

But once you’ve built that foundation of knowledge and skills, go where you’re called to go – even if no one (that you know of, anyway) has been there before.

Take good notes

Journaling is an important spiritual practice on its own. It’s especially important when you’re doing deep spiritual practice.

You won’t figure out everything the first time. Something you experience today may lie dormant inside you for months, and then unexpectedly you’ll suddenly understand its context and meaning. Don’t count on remembering it all, because you can’t. Write it down.

As you figure things out, share what you learn with others. Maybe this means writing a book. Maybe it means starting a blog, or a podcast, or a video series. Maybe it means just sharing your notes with a few close friends.

Increasing the amount of spiritual knowledge in the world is a very good thing to do.

Is there such a thing as Advanced Spiritual Practice?

Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced are loose descriptions. They’re not grades or degrees or any sort of formal hierarchy, and if your goal is simply to move from one level to another, I’m not sure you understand the point of spiritual practice yet.

On the other hand, there is a real difference in the knowledge, skills, and experiences of someone who’s just starting out and those of someone who’s been practicing diligently for years. Wanting to learn and grow is a good thing.

I can show you how to do the things I do. But then you have to go and do them yourself. Over and over again.

How far you go depends on your natural abilities and on your devotion to your practice. And, of course, on the participation of the Gods and spirits you work with, and who work with you.

I presented all the techniques I know in the Basic and Intermediate courses. Now, I’m still practicing. It’s possible I’ll learn or develop new techniques in the coming years. But I expect I’ll be doing what I’ve been doing, only deeper and better.

I love education. My mainstream education served as the foundation for my paying career, which has supported me throughout my adult life. My spiritual education helped me get out of fundamentalism and into this Pagan polytheism that means so much to me.

But at some point, class is over.

At some point, it’s time to go to work.

Blessings and good luck as you follow the path that calls to you, whether it’s well-marked or whether you’re exploring unmarked territory.

Previous Post

March 20, 2022

Mad Dogs and Englishmen: A Rant on Daylight Saving Time

Next Post

March 24, 2022 On Clownish Senators and States’ Rights

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the only daughter of Jacob mentioned by name in Genesis?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Dinah Sarah Judith Rahab