I personally also was never a fan of harsh “lessons” from spirits either.
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Dude honestly I just won’t accept that. If I had a patron spirit or pantheon spirit that was willfully bringing hardship or strife into my life, he or she’d be fucking fired on the spot.
I’d tell the spirit straightly to pack it’s shot and kick rocks down the street… Play if like Michael Jackson and just beat it. 
Seriously I’d have them ejected from my Temple and I might even make a public post about that shit on all my platforms do that the message carried far and wide
Now that’s not to say I won’t listen to them
Of course I listen to what they say, how could we be pacted if I refused to hear them?
Here’s an example of Orobas and Bael having a sit down with me. This was after I blew some big money on something’s that weren’t wise or necessary ( but fun as he) . The money came from a couple big slot wins. I did ask their help and got it for this too. This is an example of a teaching moment. These I can accept, correction j can accept. But to create hardship to engender or foster growth… I never asked any of my spirits to do that and it would be very unwelcome if I could prove it.
Prince Orobas and King Bael are like, hey! We need to talk to you, it’s important wed like to have this talk now… You know it was hard on us to help you get that money and those wins right? So can you please stop throwing money away on dumb shit, it disrespects the effort we put in and it encourages you to avoid having a normal adult level of financial responsibility and hold stewardship of resources.
Ok they don’t exactly use language that precise way. They have their own little verbage or modalities of speech, I’m just paraphrasing here, but I don’t call that teaching he a lesson I already know the lesson “stop blowing your winnings on dumb shit”. My patrons are showing me their side of things and making me aware that my behavior affects them too.
Correction, ok, creating puzzles or challenges that I must solve… Fuck that. That’s what JCI god does to test his flock. I’m not a god damned gerbil that’s going to run mazes or jump through flaming hoops for the gratification of any spirit … for real fuck that
That’s facts!
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Great post on the difference between more gentle teaching versus… well, a much harsher way.
It has me thinking on my own relationship with the beings I interact with, as I haven’t thought about the way change has happened within me. Since I mostly interact with God (Hermetic perspective of God as similar to the Platonist ‘The One’) and the Gods, I notice with them that they do not directly teach most of the time. Rather, we obtain a glimpse of them, or their qualities, and the splendor and perfection of it itself inspires the soul to reach for it and change. It is a “natural” process.
I always had a negative view of power, seeing it as corruptive or destructive, until I interacted with a certain divine being who is a source of power in the world, and simply obtaining a glimpse of them and their perfect power, I realized there is indeed a right use of power, and it’s very hard to describe this experience.
It is very interesting to think on it. So, this is another way that change and growth is inspired as well. It’s like automatic self-growth from seeing perfection (Or something very close to it).
But on the other methods, even though I’m not personally a fan of harsh lessons, I can’t say that it doesn’t work for some people, so I leave it open. It seems a lot of people who worship Demons suffer a great deal as we’ve seen on forums, and some consciously see this as tests sent to them by the spirits they interact with, and many of them quite enjoy this or feel it works well for them. So, perhaps it does work for them. After all, the purpose of pain as a sensory experience is to learn about the world, as I wrote about here:
Otherwise, I personally also much prefer the correction and advice way of learning!
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Thanks for acknowledging my post. I agree, if a spirit was causing chaos to just cause chaos, then I absolutely should’ve had a different reaction. It seems strange, but I’ve come to terms with the process because of the intentions I have for the working and the drastic results it’s produced for me in a short few years. It’s completely changed my life for the better–at least on the inside. haha (Different strokes for different folks, but I appreciate the dialogue.)
Condensing My Response For Page Space
I’ve read this elsewhere, too, but completely forgot about it until I read this. Maybe a few goodwill gestures can sway some favor, should we bump into each other again.
I have never heard of this before, but I love the idea!
Ooh, definitely keeping this one in the journal.
In reading your examples, I had sudden clarity on why I had to have the hard examples. haha. Sometimes, ya girl just doesn’t listen very well.
^Me to me
I love the way you worded that!
It’s also (funny/ironic?) to me what you mentioned @Dankquanicus, it’s kinda where I am at now that I’m near the other side of it. My best lessons came from going through the challenge and facing off with it head-on (though, like I said–different strokes for different folks). For me, personally, that’s likely what made it stick.
I use my example of the late Mr. Charles as probably the most pivotal moment in my adult life. I had this thing that I knew I had to deal with and kept putting it off and putting it off, then eventually this terrible thing happened and probably could’ve been avoided if I took care of this thing I’d been putting off.
The outcome was, in many ways, completely within my control if I’d just done the thing instead of procrastinating, but now I have learned–and while I don’t believe it’s spirit-related in the way we’re talking in this thread, it is likely the best example I have of a “hard lesson” and likely the best example of why this tactic works best for me.
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