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Author Topic: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?  (Read 7951 times)

Sefiru

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Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« on: February 22, 2018, 07:54:25 pm »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality? If so, how? Which came first? (Did you look for a job that has to do with your path, or did your path grow out of your job?)

For me, it's kind of a coincidence: for a long time one of my deities has been Sokar, who among other things is the patron of those who make tomb offerings, and I didn't know why he was interested in me ... until I got a job at a life insurance company, which is sort of a modern equivalent. This was not a deliberate choice on my part, but I'm not ruling out some divine meddling, especially since it turned out to be a really good job for me.
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Valentine

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2018, 08:18:31 pm »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality? If so, how? Which came first? (Did you look for a job that has to do with your path, or did your path grow out of your job?)

I'm a big cheater: my day job is as a professional clergywoman, and my night jobs are in community organizing and performance art directed at bolstering my community of care. My job is my spirituality, and I've worked hard to get to this point since I realized I had a vocation at a pretty young age.
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Altair

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2018, 06:26:31 am »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality?

Sadly, no. In fact, utterly no relation between my job and spirituality, except for one fact: I took this soul-sucking job solely in order to be able to pay the mortgage on my home with its garden (a garden being a rare commodity in Manhattan, and now it has become one of the prime ways I engage my nature-based paganism). No job, no garden--and my spiritual experiences would be diminished.

My former job as an editor and writer for Marvel Comics was related, in that I consider superhero comics the last bastion of myth making in Western culture. And a huge part of my spirituality is about writing myths.

My volunteer work, getting public school city kids outdoors looking for birds and appreciating nature, definitely connects to my nature-based paganism.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

Noctua

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2018, 10:16:09 am »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality? If so, how? Which came first? (Did you look for a job that has to do with your path, or did your path grow out of your job?)


Mine came about hand-in-hand. My movement onto my new spiritual path happened nearly at the same time as my movement into a new career path. It all sort of came about naturally, as I had been feeling sort of empty both intellectually and spiritually, and so a change was inevitable. It was only after I'd forged my way a little bit, both learning about Paganism and starting on the track for Nursing school, that I realized that my guide in the spiritual process also had strong ties in the Medical field (One of her epithets is Minerva Medica, and she had a temple in Rome dedicated to that name). So for me this is almost sort of a chicken or the egg question.

I will say that I'm really glad that I found myself on the current path at the current time, though. One of my classes this semester actually ties in a lot with spirituality in general, it's a class called Metaphysical Nursing. The "right time" situation came about because my cohort is the last one with the current curriculum; all cohorts after mine are on a different curriculum and the Metaphysical class is one of the classes that didn't make the cut for the new course load.

ehbowen

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2018, 10:26:01 am »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality? If so, how? Which came first? (Did you look for a job that has to do with your path, or did your path grow out of your job?)

Plunging toilets and changing light bulbs (And maintaining air conditioning chillers and boilers)? I hope not! But it pays the bills.
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Jenett

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2018, 11:34:03 am »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality? If so, how? Which came first? (Did you look for a job that has to do with your path, or did your path grow out of your job?)

Yes - the thing I do that is libraries and helping people find information that matters to them is very much linked to my spiritual life. (On the other hand, I've had three different kinds of library jobs, and I do a bunch of the same kinds of things in my not-day-job life, so.)

The timeline is a little complicated. I moved to Minnesota in the summer of 1999, started library school in September, spent a year or two figuring out what I wanted to do with my religious life, started a job in an actual library in September of 2000, and dedicated as a student in the tradition I work in September 2001. So it's all sort of meshed together.

(I didn't finish grad school until 2007, but did deliberately spread out getting the MLIS and my 3rd degree by about 4 months, because dealing with both at the same time was Too Much Transformation Too Fast.)
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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2018, 03:52:54 pm »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality? If so, how? Which came first? (Did you look for a job that has to do with your path, or did your path grow out of your job?)

Well, (outside my studies) I work in a chocolate shop.

So I'd say yes.

Altair

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2018, 05:09:44 pm »
Well, (outside my studies) I work in a chocolate shop.

So I'd say yes.

Nice answer! Subtle.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

ehbowen

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2018, 05:48:23 pm »
Nice answer! Subtle.

I did work for a year in a dairy which bottled a lot of chocolate milk. We were permitted, even encouraged, to sample the merchandise (as long as it was consumed right there on the floor). Quality control, you know!
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Where's the KABOOM? There was supposed to have been an Earth-shattering KABOOM!
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Sefiru

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2018, 07:17:01 pm »
Plunging toilets and changing light bulbs (And maintaining air conditioning chillers and boilers)? I hope not! But it pays the bills.

Well, you never know. Mysterious ways and all that.
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Sefiru

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2018, 07:19:31 pm »
I'm a big cheater: my day job is as a professional clergywoman, and my night jobs are in community organizing and performance art directed at bolstering my community of care. My job is my spirituality, and I've worked hard to get to this point since I realized I had a vocation at a pretty young age.

I'm slightly envious, but at the same time I don't think I could handle having work that close to my spirituality. Do you ever worry about burnout?
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ehbowen

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2018, 09:51:21 pm »
Well, you never know. Mysterious ways and all that.

Let's just say that if and when something better shows up...there won't be anything holding me back! "Dead bury their dead" and all that!
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Where's the KABOOM? There was supposed to have been an Earth-shattering KABOOM!
Computers are like air conditioning. They become useless when you open Windows—Linus Torvalds.

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #12 on: February 24, 2018, 04:12:45 pm »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality? If so, how? Which came first? (Did you look for a job that has to do with your path, or did your path grow out of your job?)

Nope. I fell into my career entirely by accident. I like my job - it's fun, it's not retail, it pays well. It's not something I'm passionate about, which I sometimes feel is kinda weird as most of my peers in the industry LOVE what they do. I appreciate that it allows me the time and funds to pursue my occult interests, however. (Easier to focus on ritual when I'm not worried about paying the bills, after all.)

I do sometimes think about switching careers to the funeral industry, which was a path I seriously considered in my twenties. That would be a lot more in line with my spiritual life.

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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2018, 02:27:01 am »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality? If so, how? Which came first? (Did you look for a job that has to do with your path, or did your path grow out of your job?)

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: I have two careers, or I will when I finish my current round of school in a year. The first one has yet to make me a living, hence my pursual of the second one. However, both are related to my path.

Career one is my writing career. I have a few books published and currently I've got a streak of writing every day this year. I would really like this to make me a living, but in the face of reality and the hellscape that is capitalism I am seeking alternate options.

Career two will be in healthcare and office administration, as a Medical Office Assistant. I'm hoping I get to work in a hospital.

Both are distinctly Brighidine, as Brighid is a goddess not only of the forge but healing and poetic inspiration as well. (Also a lot of other things but those are the three main things that come up the most.)

While I didn't choose writing so much as it chose me and Brighid showed up later, she was already in my life when I decided to go into healthcare, and she was definitely a part of that decision. Other parts include: ancestor work as my aunt and Oma were a doctor and nurse, respectively; the fact I'd be darn good at it; the fact that every time I look for jobs online in the town we're moving to, MOA jobs crop up; my desire to help people navigate the horrendous and frustrating roller coaster that is the BC medical establishment.

Though honestly, as far as I know she could have been the one who led me to it. I'm not really sure what caused me to land on MOA as my next career, and looking back at the process I went through...man, I think part of it was her nudging pretty strongly. (Who says she can't be subtle when she wants to be??)

Interestingly, answering this post has also made me notice that while I have many gods in my life, Brighid seems to be the one who most often has a hand in my job/career/vocation-related things. Hm. Something to ponder on, that.
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Re: Does your job relate to your spiritual practice?
« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2018, 11:23:48 am »
Like it says in the thread title: Is your job related to your spirituality?

Sadly, no it's not. I am in IT, which I feel contributes little to the betterment of mankind or to service to God. The only way I can make a tenuous connection is because I am connected with distributing books... I'm a systems administrator for a very large book distributor and chain bookstore company. In a way I help disseminate knowledge, which is the province of Goddess Saraswati. I would prefer to have become a police officer: "To serve and protect". Unfortunately I didn't know back then, at age 22 when I would have entered the police academy, what I know now. There is a saying: nar seva narayan seva: "service to man is service to God".

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