So What Is A Spiritual Life, Exactly?

...if it's not what we've been spoon-fed by the new age?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a rule-breaker. And I’ve never, ever been religious. I don’t care for people telling me who and what to believe in, what to abstain from, what not to conjure or think about, who is god and who is not, etc. I find the whole thing tedious, though of course I do understand its origins and why it has stuck around so vehemently: that drip, drip, drip of existential dread constantly threatening in the background, causing us anxiety, making us want to find concrete answers about life and death. Religion provides that to millions, if not billions, of people.

I am, however, a full believer that the universe is god, that nature is god, and that everything is god (see this post for another merry-go-round on the subject). Yes, that means I think you are god, too. I believe that we are all made from star-stuff, aka the same stuff, and I believe that for that reason we’re all one. We have different bodies, but that’s about it as far as ‘separation’ goes. I believe that we’re powerful, and that thoughts become things. I believe that the words we say to ourselves about our lives and about others matter - I believe it is possible to ‘cast spells’ on ourselves for this reason. I believe that we tell ourselves a story, and create a reality based on that story. But in terms of ‘manifestation’, this is as far as that power goes.