What is the Spiritual Path?
Episode 22 - What does it mean to follow this path? Where does it lead and why?
Greetings,
Come closer to the fire. The night is long. Dawn isn’t here yet.
If you’ve been watching the news, which is never a good idea, you’ve probably been feeling quite hopeless and afraid. There’s a quote from a song I really like: “Stop paying attention to the things that make you tired.”
If you’re new here, it’s my intention for this space to be one of calm and quiet contemplation. I talk about intense things, but always in the spirit of evolution and understanding. Still, I’d like you to feel at peace and at home here, and imagine a bright campfire in the middle of a dark clearing in a peaceful forest.
And though you may not see them, you are surrounded by bright, interesting souls. Some I’ve invited here personally, others have found their way across digital landscapes. But I trust that, if you’re here, you belong.
What is ‘Spirituality’?
Spirituality gets misunderstood almost as much as life itself gets misunderstood. Frankly, it all seems to be a big misunderstanding.
The word ‘spirit’ comes from Latin 'spiritus’ (breath, breathing). A spirit therefore is something that breathes. Interesting, right? How did it become synonymous with invisible things? Maybe because ‘breath’ is non-visible but indicates life?
Anyway,
The true spiritual path isn’t about finding aliens, going out of body, practicing yoga, chatting to spirits or Gods, acquiring superpowers or other questionable things.
It’s about what I like to call ‘the Widening of Perspective’.
About a deeper, more true connection to yourself and the world. About burning through the bullshit. It is, especially, about Understanding. I think this understanding has to occur both at the level of Mind and of Body and of Soul.
The widening of Perspective is akin to giving birth, as the vulva widens and stretches the flesh in the process of bringing forth new life and new possibility. Because what else life is, if not new possibility? Likewise the psyche stretches to the point of intense agony. But the pain is meaningful.
Of course it’s meaningful. How else would you be here?
Your birth is the result of intense pain. And also intense pleasure. This seems to be the cost of the future.
The Process
The Spiritual Path is about uncovering these deeper connections between things. It’s about blurring the boundary between inner and outer. This process, I notice, transforms life to the point of swallowing it completely, whereas the path becomes Life or Life is revealed to be the stage upon which the path unfolds. And therefore the path becomes You.
Or You are revealed to have always been a symbol for it.
Questions about Life and Death become… not only important but fundamental. And there is the awareness that answers lie beyond a door that, if crossed, there’s no going back. And yet the courage to cross it is also part of the process itself.
What is Life? What is Death? What do they mean?
Answers are found in philosophy, science, psychology, theology and mythology. It’s foolish to ignore one and favour others. But we do because it’s all so goddamn complex that we have to. Because we are bound by time. And maybe we have to be, otherwise this wouldn’t make any sense.
I’m always fascinated by these deeper mysteries, questions and possibilities. To widen your perspective is to widen the universe itself and question the assumptions you’ve held your entire life: physicality, life, time, space, boundaries and much more.
What’s the point? Why would you even do this?
I think the answer to this question is always ‘suffering’. Not pain. The two are different and shouldn’t be confused. While pain, like pleasure, comes and goes, suffering tends to stretch itself both into the past and into the future.
The Buddha defined suffering as ‘dhukka’ which is a result of, basically, ignorance. This is an extremely powerful concept that has helped me (and others, clearly, in the past millennia) immensely. We may be tempted to think that ignorance is solved by acquiring more knowledge about stuff.
But it ain’t quite right.
The ignorance he points to, I think, is in the default interpretation that we hold about who we are and what this world and universe truly are. The mind tends to cling to concepts, ideas and stories that provide a foundational structure to what it perceives to be reality. Even when this gets thick, rusty and shaky, the mind still won’t let go.
In my understanding all spiritual knowledge, theology, philosophy, mysticism and the rest of this whole ‘woo-woo’ stuff has the purpose of training the mind into finally relaxing its hold. Another way of saying it: to help it breathe.
But never confuse the moon for its reflection on the surface of a pond.
The knowledge is not the thing itself. It’s pointing to it, but it’s not it. Likewise, it is said that for example Buddhism too is a boat that helps you cross the river. On the other side you leave the boat to walk. You don’t carry the boat with you.
This, if understood, can help us better contemplate and appreciate a spiritual life, and even Religion itself, which nowadays has left a bitter taste in our collective mouth.
Art Spotlight: Kati Rán
Kati is a Dutch musician, instrumentalist and singer I’ve discovered recently. Her style fits the theme of Norse revival pioneered by the likes of Wardruna, Heilung and many others (in fact she toured with them).
Specifically I recommend her work on ‘SÁLA’ (2024) - this is an album that has deeply moved and inspired me. The name itself is Old Norse for ‘soul’, this entire work recalls the act of ‘soul retrieval’ in a Shamanic sense. The contemporary equivalent to this process is often known as ‘trauma recovery’.
You can find her website Here. Below I’ve listed my favourite tracks:
BLODBYLGJE - this is a 15-minute long journey through the depths. It’s profound, dark and very moving, and to my mind it recalls the discovery of Runes, secrets and spirits within the icy caverns of the frozen north (or of your own soul).
Stone Pillars - I love this one.
I highly recommend her work should you enjoy the Norse pagan revival and deeply spiritual works of Wardruna and Heilung, both of whom now tour the world with their music, which I think is awesome and well earned. There is great power in this kind of music and I feel it’s deeply appealing to many because it’s filled with a dark, more free kind of spirituality we long for.
More to come! Thanks for sticking around.
Blessings,
If you’d like to support what I do, consider checking out my book! Meliade is a unique, illustrated novel blending original art, design and storytelling. Now with a sequel out!
