A Guide to Demystifying Your Spiritual Framework
I will open this guide by saying that quite frankly, I don’t know how to write an introduction to it at all.
Because there is a great collective need for spiritual understanding, but an equally-great level of collective need to be intentional about how that understanding is formed. Yet colonialism, capitalism and globalization at-large have had far-reaching consequences beyond politics and ecology. Even in spiritual matters, those things have changed the way many people in the West relate to all things beyond the material. Enter the New Age Movement, which both simplifies and obfuscates; the world viewed through a New Age lens is mystical enough, but falls short of leading to the kind of mystic vision achieved by the greats it derives many of its tenets from.
Further, the New Age Movement can arguably be considered an emanation of those three afore-named sources because of the fruits that it tends to yield on a collective level. There are also some political concerns, which are worth our consideration despite not being delved into here. However - because of that need for disentanglement - the time it takes to understand the “why” of all that is kind of an investment. As is trying to figure out what in your spiritual practice comes from where, and why, and which of those things will actually get you what your spirit needs.
Luckily, there’s a guide.
This guide is now in its second shape; the first was a post on Threads, which folks have been waiting on and asking about. At the time, I’d been reflecting upon my client and field experience. I’ve encountered folks suffering spiritual maladies that various modes of New Age thought made them vulnerable to: spirit attachments, various forms of coming ungrounded, entity obsession (not the same as possession), and more. From the perspective of a person steeped in African traditional and Diasporic modes of spiritual thought, these conditions were not only treatable, but preventable. The preventability of it all is what prompted me to type furiously into my phone until the multi-thread post was done. Folks have asked (and waited) for an extended version of this, and so here we are.
What follows is definitely not “the” guide to demystifying your spiritual framework, but it is “a” guide - there are so many ways to sojourn towards the spiritual practice that is not only soul-correct for you, but honors the earth and its inhabitants. But to the degree that it should, I hope that this guide works. I hope that it works really well.
The guide can be distilled down to the following 8 steps.
Write down your current cosmological beliefs.
Affirm to yourself that you’re capable of growth, development, and learning.
Identify the sources of your current spiritual beliefs, as well as their impact
Learn about the spiritual systems and beliefs traditional to your bloodline (and ancestors), those indigenous to the land of your birth, and those indigenous to the land that you’re on.
Learn about the concept of the self beyond a Western lens.
Learn how to protect and cleanse yourself using strategies derived from your ancestors, while also working to maintaining right relationship with local economies and ecological systems
Test and apply what you learned in the prior steps for yourself.
Circle back to what you wrote in Step 1 and assess what you’ve learned; take stock of any growth and development that took place along the way.
Let’s get into the finer details of each one.
Step 1: See Your Basket, Know Its Weaving
Write down your current cosmological beliefs. What do you believe about human beings, this earth, this universe, spirits? What do you believe about life forms? Other worlds? Journal it, and then pocket it for later.
We are so used to carrying our beliefs, we sometimes forget what they are. Set them down for a moment, and assess.
Human beings learn so much, in ways known and unknown; we can be like sponges in the collective waters, absorbing as much as we can. We don’t always know where something may come from, and that’s okay. We also don’t always know what we know until we shuttle it out of our minds and into somewhere else. A piece of paper; a Google doc. An audio file. However you choose to record the above questions, do so as thoroughly as you can. You can also expand into the below questions:
What, and who, shaped your first set of cosmological beliefs?
What, and who, has shaped latter beliefs?
What, and who, has been crucial to your spiritual development overall?
What workings, practices, rituals, and insight were integral to your current belief system? What has worked for you? What hasn’t, and why?
What do I believe my place in my family / my community / my country / this world is? How do my spiritual beliefs affirm or challenge this?
If you’ve taken breaks from a spiritual practice or walked away from a path - how come? What did you walk away believing about yourself, spiritual matters, and the world in so doing? Do you still agree with past you? If not, what has changed?
Put the answers to these questions somewhere sacred that you can revisit later.
Step 2: Learning How to Weave
Affirm to yourself the following, or an approximation of the following: “I am able to learn whatever my soul needs me to learn.”
It may be because of my own practice, but I am one to endorse the power of the word, and encourage folks to speak/think/inwardly affirm things to themselves. So much so, I wrote a book of words of power and how to employ them effectively. We don’t always know what we disbelieve until the words come out of our mouths or are formed, intentionally, in our minds. Some may even discover that upon speaking or writing, there comes…resistance. And that resistance can be there for a number of reasons, from ancestral trauma to recent conditioning to projections from other people. Pay attention to what comes up for you as you affirm things to yourself; you might learn quite a lot.
So when I invite you to affirm something like “I am able to learn whatever my soul needs me to learn,” know that this shouldn’t be taken for granted. Nor should the following affirmations:
I am able to receive my soul’s clear guidance.
I am able to learn from my mistakes and experiences.
I am able to synchronize past wisdom into current understanding.
Try each of those, if you like, and see where that takes you. Journal the results, ideally on a separate page from your Step 1 observations. If you’re curious about the power of repetition and would like to employ that as you use these affirmations, check out the repetition guide at the bottom of this essay.
Step 3: Clearing Your Perception, Stripping Down to the Frame
Go read the article about the origins of the “starseeds” and other New Age concepts, linked at the end of this thread.
Shoutout to the folks I spoke to on Threads - it’s with them in mind that I draft this section. I sacrificed depth for brevity in the original iteration of this essay, which I won’t do now.
It is also extremely difficult, without knowing how to research or the persistence to do so, to complete this step. In addition to checking out the links provided below, I therefore invite you to answer the following questions:
Do you know the origins of various components of your belief system? What are your thoughts about those origins?
Does knowledge about the origins of various belief components change your perspective about them, or how you interact with them? Why/why not?
Below you’ll find some written works that help source the origins of New Age Movement beliefs and more. It’s not an exhaustive list; if anything, use the articles and their search terms as springboards into your own research. There are certain terms and concepts that may not be easily sourced, so I’ll try to source a few here from memory:
The term “quantum healing” can be traced back to Deepak Chopra, who coined it in the nineties. Chopra is considered a leader in New Age thought, and is a contemporary of the late Wayne Dyer - another leader within the movement. Click here to read an interview with Deepak Chopra.
The film “What the Bleep Do We Know?” is one of the Western public’s early 2000’s introductions to String Theory and other quantum physics concepts.
Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret also became a film, both of which became cornerstone media in the Law of Attraction subset of New Age thought.
As I write this out, it’s laughably obvious that the resource list below is very Western, very academic. Very male, also. Under most circumstances, I’d find this combination egregiously disadvantageous to the spiritual seeker. I’ll also add that I have some critiques of some of what’s listed - spirituality did not “begin” with St. Paul, Sudhir H. Kale! - but they can increase the depth of your understanding of how spiritual concepts travel, what’s promoted, various sources of very specific concepts in the current zeitgeist, etc. There’s some utility there.
And rather importantly: Step 4 is what kicks open the door to various forms of indigenous understanding; I include some general resources in that section, too. I do hope that balances things out. Without further ado:
The Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry on the New Age Movement (link)
“New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine“ by Jeff Levin (direct PDF link) (current personal favorite)
“Spirituality, Religion and Globalization” by Sudhir H. Kale (link)
“The Dark Historical Roots of ‘Starseeds’” by Jules Evans (link)
“Theosophy, Race, and the Story of Esotericism” by Julian Strube (link)
“The New Age Movement and the Biblical Worldview, Conflict and Dialogue” by John P. Newport (link)
Step 4: Learning the Old Weave Patterns, Seeing What Holds Water
Look into the spiritual and ecological beliefs of the following groups: your ancestors, the people indigenous to the land you grew up on, and the people indigenous to the land you’re currently on. Note any overlaps. Journal, if that’s your thing.
This section is definitely not comprehensive - there are many, many traditions and belief systems that I’m leaving out. This is only meant to whet your appetite for research if you haven’t started it already. I may also expand upon this resource list at a later date. Consider the following:
“Relearning The Star Stories Of Indigenous Peoples” by Christie Taylor (link)
Hindupedia’s introduction to Jyotisha (Vedic astrology) (link)
“Demystifying African Cosmology” by Mukandi Siame (link)
Mythological Africans [Podcast]: “Across African Skies” series (start here), which talks about various African astro-spiritual beliefs
The Medicine Shell [Youtube Channel], which teaches traditional Igbo spirituality
Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Some (link)"
“Water Wisdom: The Indigenous Scientists Walking in Two Worlds” by Jane Palmer (link)
“Curanderismo, the Healing Art of Mexico” by Grace Alvarez Sesma (link)
The Black Toad: West Country Witchcraft and Magic by Gemma Gary, which covers a form of traditional English witchcraft (link)
The Great Commentary (Dazhuan 大傳) and Chinese Natural Cosmology by Roger T. Ames (link)
Step 5: Consulting Your Master Weaver
Look into the concept of the higher self across spiritual systems. There are many - the Congo and Yoruba concepts are two of a handful of complex systems of self. It will also diminish your reliance on New Age conventions to explain phenomena.
I practice a spirituality that holds that your higher self - the part of you that is beyond your physical body, yet is still of you - is the part of you that is able to aid in the alleviation of earthly troubles. Your higher self knows not only where you’ve been, but where you’re headed and why. This is why I call the higher self your Master Weaver - if there’s anyone who knows what the patterns of your life should be and how to weave them, it’s you.
I encourage looking into the higher self for a number of reasons:
To enrich your understanding of how various cultures viewed the self, beyond the confines of recent Western thought
To equip you to support decolonization efforts in the fields of psychology and psychiatry
As part of the process of situating yourself not only in your body, but in the cosmos, as a whole being
As part of a protective strategy against aligning with the wrong spiritual teachers and groups (click here for my guide), as well as opportunities and situations in general.
Granted, the higher self isn’t the source of all information: even working with your higher self on a daily basis may not give you the kind of foresight that protects you against all the things, all the time. But in addition to the above reasons for learning about this self-aspect, working with your higher self may help you develop a better spiritual relationship to your body - not just the beyond.
Step 6: Preparing For What Can Be Woven
Learn how and when to cleanse yourself/home well, and how to add protection after.
I wrote this step because I’d encountered one too many people who were experiencing spirit and other disturbances in their home that New Age-derived strategies failed to treat. Sage and palo santo are not cure-alls for bad vibrations, despite their incredible market popularity at the moment. Nor will singing bowls automatically banish all unwanted energies, even if that’s your intention. Working purely with “light energy” seemed to leave some people the most vulnerable. Truly, intention is not enough; the problem at hand must be responded to with the appropriate solution.
You can lean on what you learned from Steps 4 and 5 to answer the following questions:
Drawing from the spiritual systems local to your bloodline, which protective strategies feel most resonant to you?
Drawing from the spiritual systems local to your bloodline, which cleansing strategies feel most resonant to you?
What plants and other materials grow locally to you? Are they of a protected status? How are they propagated and cared for? What’s their place in the ecosystem, and can they be ethically harvested?
Are there herbalists, farmers and apothecaries run by folks from marginalized communities who stock the herbs and materials relevant to the above three questions?
Are there wisdom-keepers, clergy, and practitioners of good character that I can learn from about these things?
If you can find out safely: do your currently-incarnate family members, or ancestors, know anything about these cleansing and protective strategies? Are there certain beliefs about those strategies that have been cultivated or passed on within the family? If so, what are they? And why are they?
I encourage focus on inherited systems because somewhere along the line, an ancestor of yours used those very strategies to help them. There may have even been more than one ancestor who utilized that system in a way that not only benefited them, but benefited the people around them. Your bloodline may also have certain plant and animal allies/affiliations, spirits, elements and forces of nature that are strongly aligned with it, too. Honoring that could make a huge difference in your spiritual experience. Wake up the ancestral memory and see what follows.
If you’re in a position to ask honorable ancestors for help using their tools, especially through prayer, do so. It will depend greatly on your comfort with calling upon ancestral figures, whether they’re from recent generations or pre-colonial. If you’re brand new to working with your ancestors, don’t worry about calling them just yet: stick to working with the tools that you can access, listening to the music (if available to you), and seeing how that feels.
I will note that this may be difficult for folks who have adoptive families, including on an emotional level. There are three strategies that immediately come to mind in this regard:
Working with the traditions of your adoptive family, since honorable ancestors of your family are generally more inclined to recognize you as a member - even if you didn’t incarnate directly through that bloodline
A combination of calling upon your higher self and ancestors from your adoptive family for support in choosing the right tools
If you have a general sense of where you might be from, looking into those traditions as closely as you can to see what resonates on a spiritual level
Finally, I will add that a lot of people have deep, deep wounds from being in families where maladaptive patterns, trauma, and bypassing are common. You may be very inclined to conclude that the entirety of your bloodline is poisoned, and therefore nothing can be used. Those deep in their ancestral tracing work may even discover that some of the spiritual tools used were used to harm others, not necessarily help. If so, be prepared to process what you discover while completing this step. Situate each tool you learn about in their ancestral context, and you’ll be in a better position to wield them responsibly.
Step 7: Weaving the New Basket, Testing the Frame
Call upon your higher self, then build and take a spiritual bath.
I’d actually like to invite you to do something a little different: complete a spiritual cleansing, not necessarily a spiritual bath. Many ancestral practices of healing and cleansing do not require immersion in ritually-prepared herbal waters, or a pour-over of similar composition. Our waterways are also a little different in composition from back then, so you may not be able to safely cleanse yourself in certain local rivers, lakes, and streams. Lean on what you learned in Steps 4 and 5 to identify which cleansing is appropriate for you. If you’re having trouble forming a cleansing strategy, you’re welcome to use my flexible spiritual cleansing guide as a base that you can build up from. Click here to review and use it.
Further, if you’ve decided that you don’t believe in the higher self concept, that’s also fine! You do have the option of praying to your own soul, if that works for you, and seeing what happens.
I encourage completing this step after having taken all the prior ones because you’d be cleansing yourself from a different perspective than before you’d started, most likely with expanded tools and strategies. Further, if you’re brand new to spiritual cleansing? You might be shocked to discover how clear you may become after completing a cleansing for the first time. As I say to my clients, folks suffer in layers; spiritual cleansing can reveal how many layers there are to be peeled, washed, steamed, or rattled away.
Also, if you’re drawing from an inherited tradition to complete your cleansing, you may discover that it resonates more strongly, cleans faster, etc. Ancestral memory may kick in, for example, unlocking a skillset you didn’t know you had. Or, you may discover that working with your inherited tradition didn’t pop like you thought it would. But the reasons for that, from ancestral trauma from colonization to inherited fears, are worthy of a completely different article. And that information is something that you should have.
Step 8: Holding the New Basket, Carrying Joy
Remember the beliefs record from Step 1? Repeat the process again, and compare notes. Reflect on what you learned on your way from Step 1 to Step 8. What you’ve effectively done is given yourself the opportunity to build a stronger, clearer spiritual lens that not only helps you grow, but helps you guard against certain types of unnecessary counters and conditions.
Once you’ve made it to this last step in the guide, you may be amazed to find out how much you’ve learned along the way. Quite frankly, you may have become a slightly different person. Just slightly, in the ways that matter. Stronger, and more sure.
More at ease.
This new basket - this new spiritual framework that you carefully put together - can carry so much more than the answers to your prayers, the emanations of your vision board, the sigils you kept in your pocket. It can carry not only your joy, but that of those who came before you and will come after you. It can carry love letters for the plant and animal allies that you’ve made along the way, as well as wisdom that acts as a shield in troubled times. It will, most likely, be more than capable of carrying various tools for working with others to forge a better world. And even more than that. You’ll know, because now when you peer into the basket of your beliefs, you will know what’s there and why. You’ll be able to add to it, and make changes to it, in a way that empowers you and your loved ones.
Your basket will hold water.
And that water, when you taste it, may be sweeter than you’d thought it could be.
Summary and Conclusion
So - phew, congrats on making it this far. If you’re reading the entire thing in one go, extra congrats - I am thrilled for you.
For the sake of portability, save a link to this article, but copy/paste the following into your notes or journal so that you’re more likely to stick with it:
A Guide to Demystifying Your Spiritual Framework
Write down your current cosmological beliefs.
Affirm to yourself that you’re capable of growth, development, and learning.
Identify the sources of your current spiritual beliefs, as well as their impact
Learn about the spiritual systems and beliefs traditional to your bloodline (and ancestors), those indigenous to the land of your birth, and those indigenous to the land that you’re on.
Learn about the concept of the self beyond a Western lens.
Learn how to protect and cleanse yourself using strategies derived from your ancestors, while also working to maintaining right relationship with local economies and ecological systems
Test and apply what you learned in the prior steps for yourself.
Circle back to what you wrote in Step 1 and assess what you’ve learned; take stock of any growth and development that took place along the way.
Does your journey end once you’ve completed Step 8? Hell no: what you’ve given yourself is a decent Bag Basket of Holding for whatever quest you’re currently on, or may about to be on in the future. My prayer is that no matter how long it takes you to complete each step, each one yields a rewarding, enriching spiritual experience.
I welcome feedback on this guide; if it resonates with you, please share it with others.
In the spirit of flow,
Ashley
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