Next Step Spirituality

I made up a new term “Next Step Spirituality”.  It sounds pompous right? Like I am saying its the Next step in human spirituality or the next step beyond existing traditions. That’s not it at all.

The idea of the “Next Step” is simply an orientation. What is your next step?

See, in Buddhism you are guided by this lofty goal of being a Buddha or an Arhat. Different schools argue over what exactly this means, and place a lot of emphasis on debates about the goal, feeling that if you don’t have a clear view of the goal, you can’t really have a path that gets you there.

Christianity has ideas of Salvation and Christ, but here too we have oodles of debates and arguments about what exactly that means, thinking that unless we know what the final goal or state is, we cannot possibly reach it.

I could probably keep naming traditionsbecause a lot of paths, especially those connected to large religions, are like this. A bunch of people arguing about a goal that is so far off from where they are now that it’s almost comical.

Students in the Sorcery of Hekate are told that the spiritual side of the system is oriented for them to “go beyond”, and that is what she is all about:.going beyond. Of course every cycle wants to know “where exactly are we going?”. People who come from other mystic paths want a very clear explanation of the qualities of the final state. What is it like? How do we recognize it? What are the major and minor marks of attainment?

Hekate’s answer to me is always the same: “Go beyond where you are now. Don’t worry about a final stage, worry about your next step. Maybe there is no final stage, maybe there is just a point that is lofty enough that people mistake it for the final stage. I have not stopped going beyond, so neither should you.” 

That’s the message. That’s Next Step Spirituality. If you are on the East Coast and you know you want to go to the West Coast, you can look at maps and figure out where exactly is the best and most ideal place to arrive. You can read the descriptions of people who have been there, and debate about which destination is correct. You can focus on what the attributes of the pacific ocean are, form theories about how the sun looks setting over it, and debate the major and minor marks of a Kardashian.

Or you could just start heading west… You don’t have to know everything about where you are going to know that its generally that way. 

I mean, you kinda know what would make you more clear/kind/wise/perceptive than you are currently right? Do that.