An Awakened Path: Why Healthy Faith Requires Responsibility

A Path of Belief Can Be a Home

A path of belief can be a home. An inner place that softens when the world is too loud. A light we ignite when everything inside us is searching for guidance. And yes — that is beautiful.

But spiritual paths aren’t just “woo woo.” They touch something deeply human: our need for meaning. Our need for connection. Our need for stability in a chaotic world. Psychologically, this can be healing. Rituals can help regulate. Community can support. Feeling part of something larger can strengthen resilience.

The Mirror of a Belief Path

Yet here comes the part we’re often reluctant to talk about: a path of belief is not only a source of beauty and comfort. It is also a mirror. And sometimes, it shows us things that are uncomfortable.

Perhaps this is exactly the point we should acknowledge more often: belief is not only meant to give support — it also demands responsibility. A path does not become mature because it feels good. A path becomes mature when we are ready to look honestly at ourselves. Because if we start consuming only the beautiful, ignoring everything uncomfortable, spirituality can quickly become a comfort zone. And comfort zones make us blind. Sometimes dangerously blind — to ourselves and to others.

Religious trauma is real. And it doesn’t only exist in large institutions. It can appear where we least expect it: in alternative spaces, in supposedly “free” belief paths, in spiritual communities.

Shadows in My Own Path

Looking at my own path — the currents that shaped me, the spaces that have touched or even unsettled me — I also see shadows. For example, covens or groups that can develop unhealthy structures. Communities that become dogmatic. Spaces where no protected environment exists, only control. Where questions are unwelcome, considered disloyalty. And sometimes, something particularly bitter creeps in: elitism. That feeling of “we know more, we are further, we are more awake.” But belief should never serve to build hierarchies — it should deepen our humanity.

When a Path Is More Than Comfort

And perhaps this is the true test of maturity on a belief path: that we not only ask what it gives us — but also what it demands of us.

Spirituality is not automatically harmless just because it looks alternative. Not everything involving herbs, candles, or moon phases is free from power dynamics. And not everything that calls itself “holy” is automatically healthy.

Because these paths are so intimate — because they touch our longing for meaning, our vulnerability, our need for belonging — they can also become spaces where things go wrong.

Sometimes it starts subtly. So let’s take a closer, conscious look today.

Guru Energy in Witch’s Clothing

A little guru energy here. Someone who suddenly knows more than everyone else. A voice that must no longer be questioned because they are “initiated.” Before you know it, hierarchies arise in spaces that originally considered themselves free and anti-dogmatic.

Spirituality is not immune to ego. On the contrary: sometimes it just gives the ego a fancier costume. But remember, at the end of the day, we are all humans on a path of belief. None of us are infallible, even those with vast knowledge and experience.

Love & Light Is Not Therapy

Then there’s the form of toxic positivity that has become almost standard in many modern scenes: this “Love & Light” mindset that breathes away everything uncomfortable. If you’re sad, you should raise your vibration. If you’re angry, you’re not yet healed. If something hurts, maybe you manifested it. This is not depth. This is emotional bypassing. A topic we have talked about in an earlier post. Healing doesn’t mean only seeing the light. Healing means being able to hold the shadow — without spiritualizing it or explaining it away.

Religious Trauma Doesn’t Stop at Church Doors

And yes: religious trauma isn’t confined to large religions. It can also appear where we least expect it: in small groups, in coven structures, in spiritual communities that promise protection — but deliver control. Where belonging comes with conditions. Where doubt is seen as disloyalty. Where questions are unwelcome, considered disruptive.

More on religious trauma can be found in our article “Let’s Talk About Religious Trauma.”

When Community Turns Elitist

Unhealthy structures can also manifest as elitism — that quiet poison of: we are more real. We are further along. We are more awake. Or even: we are the only true ones. But belief was never meant to build hierarchies. It should make us more human, not more important, and certainly not shielded from our fellow humans.

Power, Sexuality, and Abuse

Then there’s a point we must confront honestly, even when uncomfortable: abuse of power and sexualized violence exist even in spiritual spaces.

And I want to be very clear: this is not about demonizing sexuality — on the contrary. The demonization of sexuality, as happens in many religious contexts, is itself deeply toxic. It produces shame, control, and alienation.

Sexuality can be sacred. When freely chosen, safe, respectful, and fully consensual, it can create deep connection. Some even experience something mystical, transcendent. But that’s why the line is so thin.

Where sexuality is sold as “holy” or “ritualized,” boundaries can blur alarmingly — especially when power structures and hierarchies are involved. When someone possesses spiritual authority. When dependence forms. When “initiation” is suddenly used as justification. When a “no” is no longer simply a “no.”

Some figures in occult history — Aleister Crowley is a well-known example — remain controversial to this day. Crowley openly experimented with sexual magic and often staged spirituality as a deliberate transgression. At the same time, much of what circulates about him over the decades has become legend, projection, or sensationalized storytelling.

And perhaps this is already part of the problem: how quickly provocation is mistaken for depth. How easily “transgressive” becomes equated with “spiritually superior.” And how dangerous it becomes when ethics and responsibility fall by the wayside.

Not everything occult is automatically emancipatory — just as not everything occult is inherently harmful. But patriarchal violence can persist in mystical garb. And we cannot pretend this is a marginal issue. Spirituality becomes dangerous when it replaces ethics, when it silences critique, when it binds rather than frees.

With something as intimate as sexuality, the sacred is not the ritual — the sacred is consent.

When Spirituality Becomes Conspiratorial

Another underestimated aspect: some scenes are surprisingly prone to conspiratorial thinking and anti-science narratives. Not every witch drifts off, obviously. Just as not every Christian does. But alternative spirituality is no shield against radicalization. Sometimes it can even be a gateway, when mistrust of “those above” mixes with myth and suddenly beliefs arise that produce more fear than truth.

Capitalism with Incense Sticks

And finally, there’s something many of us feel but rarely name: modern capitalism wrapped in mysticism. Spirituality as a product. Healing as a subscription. The next course, the next initiation, the next tool that is supposed to make you finally “whole.”

But — and this is important — this is not about judging people who offer spiritual work. Holding space is work. Guidance is work. Knowledge, experience, rituals, creative practice — all of this deserves recognition and yes, compensation.

The problem doesn’t start with money. The problem starts when longing becomes a strategy. When marketing deliberately hooks onto our insecurities. When we’re told we are only “complete,” “healed,” or “awakened” if we buy one more program, earn one more certificate, get one more tool. Spirituality then stops being a path and becomes a commodity. And people are no longer guided — they are bound.

A path does not become deeper just because it’s more expensive. Healing is not a product you finally acquire. Perhaps the most honest question isn’t: Should spirituality cost money? But: Does it serve freedom — or dependency?

Closing: Awake Spirituality

A mature path of belief is not the one that always feels good. It’s the one that doesn’t let you off the hook from looking honestly at yourself. For me, this means: I love this path. I walk it. But I do not romanticize it. I love rituals, I live with nature, and I practice quiet forms of magic in daily life because they give me so much — and allow me to give in return. But I also believe in psychology. In boundaries. In responsibility.

Healthy belief is not recognized by how beautiful it looks, but by how safe it is. By the fact that questions are allowed. That no one stands above you. That consent is non-negotiable. That community does not mean ownership. That ethics matter more than aesthetics. And above all, urban mysticism is not about blind belief. It is about walking awake. With heart. And with backbone.