Giving in Spirituality

This post is a response to the Pagan Blog Prompt (http://paganprompts.blogspot.com/2010/01/prompt-giving-of-yourself.html) asking "How do you see giving of yourself as a spiritual act, if at all?"

When people go to third-world countries to "give" their spirituality to people---basically, proselytizing, which is one more problem they don't need---is not giving at all, but an extremely selfish act.

When I think of giving as part of spirituality, I think of freely, and happily, giving your time to not only donate to homeless shelters, but volunteer at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and even joining Peace Corps, and a whole array of other options like that. And not only do I think of helping humans, but helping animals and the environment as well by doing your very best to stop pollution and animal cruelty. But you can give in small ways as well, such as taking time out of your life to help a friend. And I mean really help a friend, without mentioning yourself, without expecting anything in return.

And when you help people, you become more...I don't know how to describe it. I want to say, it raises your light quotient. (I'll explain that in another post. If you're impatient for the info, though, you can check out the book Ascension Magick by Christopher Penczak.) It makes you more spiritually inclined. It opens your mind and expands your heart. And the less selfish you become, the more loving, caring, and compassionate you become. It makes you more self-aware as well. Once you open your mind, you see your own flaws, and by seeing your own flaws and eliminating them, you can go on to do more good. (By flaws I mean, of course, not physical flaws but flaws of personality and spirit. And not the shallow flaws, like "I'm stubborn", such and such. Everyone has the shallow flaws. Go deeper, to what lies at your core.)

So I guess what I'm saying is that giving of yourself, without expectation of reward, makes you a better person, not just mundanely, but spiritually as well. Unfortunately it's very hard for many of us to do this, because humans as a whole are a selfish lot. But just because we're selfish doesn't mean we don't have the capacity for good. If we truly don't want to be selfish anymore, if we truly want to change, then we can do it! Humans are stubborn. Humans are determined. We can do anything we set our minds to, once we actually decide to do it.

Your Alaskan Witchy,

Celeste

The previous image is not owned by me.