At the heart of every spiritual journey, is you. Not the meditation space, not the altar, but you. Spirituality encourages peace within yourself and where you are in life; it encourages us to slow down, to look at the world with a kind heart, and to question what truly makes us happy. But for some reason, that seems to come with a lot of stuff.
There are hundreds of crystals, all with different uses. You need at least seven to balance your chakras. There are hundreds of incenses, all to send you to different mindsets, or to set the intention for a room. Altars look best when crowded with tools and herbs and crystals and drawings. The media says to research every method of self-help and every tool, and to decorate our spaces like they are intricate palaces. It’s a lot. It’s overwhelming to learn all the correspondences and meanings and uses for everything – but you must, because they are tools to help further you on the journey to enlightenment.
The quest for self should not be littered with dried herbs or smoke. It should be cleared of anything that does not make you feel powerful. Because at the end of the day, no crystal in the world can work magic if you do not intend for it to.
The tools of witchcraft, meditation, or cleansing only have power if we allow them to. And thus, we get to the core of the spiritual journey: our own intention to grow.
Our brains can conjure visualizations that change our perceptions of reality. Simply sitting and breathing in meditation will clear our heads and make our limbs tingle with the realization all we need is ourselves.
It isn’t about collecting every herb and crystal. It is about finding the gems you feel most connected to, using the foods and teas that make you feel your best. It is about gathering the tools that you find gorgeous, and will admire or use every day.
It’s about investing in yourself, what you will use to better yourself, and the objects or tools that create a stimulating environment to help you discover yourself. You don’t need anything more.