The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

As I have began my path I have found my spiritual gifts that I used to posses rarely manifest. I can see and speak to spirits still. I am having a hard time re igniting my spiritual spark after a long time of suppressing it as an atheist, and because I thought it made me weak. Does anybody have any tools or tips to help re-unlock my spark?

 
Listen to some tunes is a good way follow your feelings on youtube. listen to new stuff that you haven't heard before.

Can you please tell us what you mean by "spiritual spark"? I've never heard the phrase before. If you mean your enthusiasm for spiritual things, I can tell you from experience that it will come and go!

When I mean spiritual spark I mean the ability for me to attune with nature and the cosmos as a whole. I used to be able to feel the movement of an ant I can no longer do that and I feel like I suppressing myself.

As I have began my path I have found my spiritual gifts that I used to posses rarely manifest. I can see and speak to spirits still. I am having a hard time re igniting my spiritual spark after a long time of suppressing it as an atheist, and because I thought it made me weak. Does anybody have any tools or tips to help re-unlock my spark?

 
The two biggest ones both require a bit of consistency:

1) Set aside time in your life to be open to that spark.

Some people do this with meditation, some people do it with listening to music that inspires them spiritually, some people do it by setting time aside for spiritually-relevant reading, or doing magical practices, or ritual, or making art, or all sorts of other things.

(Actually, most people who are successful at this do a variety of things, depending on their mood/the day/things in their life, but if you're looking to build up your abilities, doing something every day or every day you can, for at least 10-15 minutes will help a lot.)

It can be especially helpful to build in a simple routine: starting with doing it in a specific place (like your home with a small shrine or altar or other items relevant to your spirituality) can help, but having a portable trigger you can use in other spaces is a good long-term plan (like a piece of jewelry you put on, or a small item you can hold in your hands while doing the spiritual practices you choose.)

Basically, repetition and consistency tell your conscious brain and your subconscious brain that this is a thing that matters to you, pay attention to it, and you should start seeing your experience broaden over time, even when you're not deliberately doing your spiritual practices. Making deliberate space for it in your life helps when you're starting because it will (again, with a bit of repetition) make it easier to settle into that work when you do it.

2) When stuff happens to you (especially at other times), write it down.

This is the 'had a flash of an image related to a deity' or 'keep hearing a lyric or phrase or concept come up in unrelated places' or 'had a weird but possibly meaningful dream' or 'keep coming across this author' stuff.

Both because it's a good idea to keep track of (so you can see progress and any patterns or changes over time) and because the simple act of writing it down again reinforces to your brain that you care about this stuff and are paying attention to it.

A lot of us train ourselves out of paying attention to spiritual / magical / energetic / empathic data we get (because society at large doesn't encourage it), so paying attention to it deliberately is a way to counter that. Chances are pretty good that if you start doing this, you'll have more experiences of openness.

3) Not a thing to do, but a thing to be aware of.

The one caution I'd give you is that just because you have an experience, or a thing pops into your head or you have a sudden flash of something doesn't mean you should do something about it immediately. It is fine and appropriate and extremely sensible to pause, say "This thing, what do I want to do with that?" and decide. Or to see if related things happen over the next few weeks. You might do divination or more ritual practice to find out more, or ask people with more experience for help or ideas. Jumping in the deep end has a bunch of possible risks that usually don't help.

Sometimes - especially with early experiences of opening ourselves up after having been closed off - the early data we get is unfiltered, raw, and not necessarily great for us. Or we don't yet have enough experience with that kind of information to understand how it fits with what we're doing, other things going on in our lives, etc.

(And sometimes, changes can be because of things that aren't about our spiritual lives. I only have really significant ongoing anxiety/catastrophe dreams if a particular medical thing is off-kilter. If I didn't know that, I might worry they were a sign of imminent catastrophe I was picking up energetically or psychically. Because I keep good notes and don't panic until I can see a pattern, I know how to handle them in a way that's actually useful.)

There are occasional urgent things, but most stuff isn't - most stuff can wait for considered thought and some reflection. Not just an hour or two, but a few days or weeks.

The two biggest ones both require a bit of consistency:

1) Set aside time in your life to be open to that spark.

Some people do this with meditation, some people do it with listening to music that inspires them spiritually, some people do it by setting time aside for spiritually-relevant reading, or doing magical practices, or ritual, or making art, or all sorts of other things.

(Actually, most people who are successful at this do a variety of things, depending on their mood/the day/things in their life, but if you're looking to build up your abilities, doing something every day or every day you can, for at least 10-15 minutes will help a lot.)

It can be especially helpful to build in a simple routine: starting with doing it in a specific place (like your home with a small shrine or altar or other items relevant to your spirituality) can help, but having a portable trigger you can use in other spaces is a good long-term plan (like a piece of jewelry you put on, or a small item you can hold in your hands while doing the spiritual practices you choose.)

Basically, repetition and consistency tell your conscious brain and your subconscious brain that this is a thing that matters to you, pay attention to it, and you should start seeing your experience broaden over time, even when you're not deliberately doing your spiritual practices. Making deliberate space for it in your life helps when you're starting because it will (again, with a bit of repetition) make it easier to settle into that work when you do it.

2) When stuff happens to you (especially at other times), write it down.

This is the 'had a flash of an image related to a deity' or 'keep hearing a lyric or phrase or concept come up in unrelated places' or 'had a weird but possibly meaningful dream' or 'keep coming across this author' stuff.

Both because it's a good idea to keep track of (so you can see progress and any patterns or changes over time) and because the simple act of writing it down again reinforces to your brain that you care about this stuff and are paying attention to it.

A lot of us train ourselves out of paying attention to spiritual / magical / energetic / empathic data we get (because society at large doesn't encourage it), so paying attention to it deliberately is a way to counter that. Chances are pretty good that if you start doing this, you'll have more experiences of openness.

3) Not a thing to do, but a thing to be aware of.

The one caution I'd give you is that just because you have an experience, or a thing pops into your head or you have a sudden flash of something doesn't mean you should do something about it immediately. It is fine and appropriate and extremely sensible to pause, say "This thing, what do I want to do with that?" and decide. Or to see if related things happen over the next few weeks. You might do divination or more ritual practice to find out more, or ask people with more experience for help or ideas. Jumping in the deep end has a bunch of possible risks that usually don't help.

Sometimes - especially with early experiences of opening ourselves up after having been closed off - the early data we get is unfiltered, raw, and not necessarily great for us. Or we don't yet have enough experience with that kind of information to understand how it fits with what we're doing, other things going on in our lives, etc.

(And sometimes, changes can be because of things that aren't about our spiritual lives. I only have really significant ongoing anxiety/catastrophe dreams if a particular medical thing is off-kilter. If I didn't know that, I might worry they were a sign of imminent catastrophe I was picking up energetically or psychically. Because I keep good notes and don't panic until I can see a pattern, I know how to handle them in a way that's actually useful.)
Thank you so very much I'm going to write this entire reply down and read it often.

There are occasional urgent things, but most stuff isn't - most stuff can wait for considered thought and some reflection. Not just an hour or two, but a few days or weeks.

Thank you very much I'm going to save this response for further use!