I have always believed that a professional is one who clearly understands the limitations of his/her profession. We cannot do everything. And when it comes to esotericism, nothing in this matter changes significantly. Yes, from the outside, esotericism seems to be an omnipotent sphere that produces incredible miracles. But is it really so? Perhaps maintaining this image only harms the esoteric community. It’s embarrassing to talk about restrictions. But what if not honest recognition of the limits of our capabilities makes us human?
Esotericism is truly a treasure trove of miracles. It absorbs everything that rational science rejects. It may seem that the restrictions apply to ordinary people, and certainly not magicians, clairvoyants and enlightened mystics. But this feeling persists until a person plunges into esotericism professionally. Constant and daily practice immediately brings us down to earth, reminding us that we are ordinary people too.
Limitations in the esoteric realm can be viewed at three different levels: individual, couple, and collective. Each level presupposes its own difficulties, which the practicing esotericist constantly encounters, and which sooner or later he/she will have to admit.
The individual level of restrictions concerns primarily the characteristics of one’s own character. Yes, of course, we can work with our psyche, but this is an extremely long and painstaking work. And even if esotericism stimulates our personal development and pushes us into change, here and now we are forced to admit that we cannot do everything. Sometimes we lack willpower, sometimes we face our own lack of awareness. The second point, for example, significantly affects our ability to work with mantic systems, since through the muddy layer of our own psychological material, we simply cannot correctly read the symbolic series for our clients.
If you were recently abandoned by your husband, who went to a young lover, and the next day a young girl who is interested in her relationship with a married man came to your appointment, then you can hardly do a good job. When your own psychological material still causes severe pain, then your objectivity and benevolent detachment deteriorates sharply, which will inevitably affect the quality of your work.
Every professional has so-called “forbidden topics” with which he/she prefers not to work. There is some congenital or acquired rejection of a particular field of activity. And you won’t be able to do what the client wants from you if everything inside you is screaming and protesting against the very possibility of doing something like that. Here we can also include issues of personal ethics. That is why one of the indicators of the quality of esoteric work, in my opinion, is the list of prohibited requests. If the esoteric has not yet realized these personal limitations, one can doubt how conscious his/her practice is in general.
Similar things happen on the couple level. There are categories of clients that simply make us forget about professionalism. There are many examples. For example, a flirtatious and constantly seducing girl of hysterical characterology can cause a lot of trouble for both a man and a woman. The first can be sexually involved in her appearance and manner of presenting herself. The second can feel a competitor in such a lady, and then unknowingly harm her.
But that’s not all. Often, we look at the client and see his/her unwillingness to improve one’s life. We say that their situation requires hard work, effort, courage and trust. We try to show the client the way, but we see that the person is simply not ready to use our recommendations. He/she comes only for the practitioner to confirm the picture of the world already established in his/her experience. “She’s cheating on me!!!” shouts a male client who has worn out himself and everyone around him with his paranoia. And no matter how much you tell him that your methods of work do not reveal this, he does not believe you. He will ask the same thing again until you (and in your person all the Higher Powers) confirm that he is right. In such a case, the practitioner is powerless.
At the third collective level, an equally simple recognition takes place. Esotericism or some of its separate areas cannot do everything. It would be nice if you could competently and honestly convey this to your client. He/she does not understand and should not at the first address to you understand what, for example, your school of healing is capable of, and what it cannot. If you do not talk about this with the clients, you are misleading them, from which they lose precious time that they could have spent on turning to where they can really be helped.
The recognition that esotericism is not omnipotent is a turning point in the practice of any esotericist. If my sphere cannot do everything, then I, as a representative of this trend, am also not an omnipotent wizard. Something I can, but something I can’t, and this recognition no longer makes me feel ashamed either in front of colleagues, or in front of clients, or in front of opponents. There is nothing more reliable in your own self-esteem than relying on your real self (with strengths and weaknesses), and not on an artificial image that bursts like a soap bubble when you try to touch it.
Limitations are not a reason to stop developing. Also, restrictions are not at all a reason to experience shame. The correct understanding of what I can today and what I cannot because of my characteristics, because of the specifics of the client or in connection with the level of development of my field of activity today is one of the qualities that distinguishes a professional from an amateur.
Henadzi Bialiauski