What Death Stranding can teach you about spiritual work

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One of the games I’ve been playing lately is Death Stranding. It’s a fascinating unique game, where you build structures, while trying to deliver packages to different locations, all while trying to avoid ghosts and mules (delivery people gone rogue). But that description really doesn’t begin to do justice to what the game is about. Over on my fiction blog, I’ve written about the connection aspect of the game, but here I thought I would write about the spiritual aspect, because this game has made think about my own spiritual journey quite a bit.

In Death Stranding, you have to figure out the best possible path to deliver your goods, without letting them get damaged and that isn’t necessarily easy, even with the array of tools you have available to help you. You have to figure out how to navigate the inevitable obstacles, both natural and unnatural that you encounter and you need to be patient and take your time. It’s a lot like spiritual work actually.

As you may know, I’m in the process of doing some intensive spiritual work with the Sphere of Art. I’ve now entered into my second year of doing this work daily and it is very much a journey in its own right, which continues to evolve and change in nuanced ways that have required me to adapt and adjust. I welcome it, because it providing me an opportunity to redefine my relationship with magic and with the journey I’m on.

As I’ve been playing Death Stranding, I’ve been reflecting on my journey. One of the biggest lessons of that journey has involved learning to let go and trust the journey, instead of focusing on the end of the journey. There have been times where I’ve thought I’m close to ending this particular segment of the journey, and then new data and experiences have come in that have informed me otherwise. And each time what I learn is to let go, focus on the journey itself and do the work without expectation. And really that’s a lot of what Death Stranding seems to be about. You’re walking along, trying to get to the place you need to go, but what you really need to do is focus on the journey and be present with it.

It seems to me that a lot of people ignore a key dimension of spiritual work, which is that it is long term work that is oriented around a purpose. That purpose dictates what you do and why you do it. And there isn’t necessarily an end in sight. You are on a journey and on that journey you take on what you need to carry to get you where you’re going, but the journey changes and you, by necessity, must change with it. And yeah I’ve been learning that all a long, but playing a video game which is all about the journey can be a great mirror to remind you of the lessons that you’re learning along the way.

Explore related entries in the Library

• Spiritual Ancestors
• Euronymous Death Rebirth Ritual
• Death/Rebirth Working
• Euronymous as Death Rebirth Officiant

Half my life

It's April. Each year, in April, I remember when I first learned about magic, learned that it was real, learned that people practiced it, believed in it, did something with it. I was sixteen at the time. I was a born again Christian who was dissatisfied with the answers I'd gotten to my spiritual questions, as well as the rabid intolerance displayed by the other born agains. And as always I'd turned to my fantasy books, to read about other worlds, other lives, and most importantly the magic. One day, in April, this one kid sat me down in the school library and told me a story about how he'd astral projected and fought a demon. He was trying to freak me out, because he noticed I read fantasy books. So he was really surprised when I calmly told him to bring me books to read about this subject. He blinked, a bit surprised and then told me he'd bring them the next day. And he did. He brought a couple pamphlets about astral projection and magic. I devoured them within a day or so, eager to try out the exercises and begin unlocking the mysteries of the universe and myself. He was surprised at how quickly, how eagerly I took to the material and that weekend took me to the local new age shop, where I bought my first couple of books and started down my long road of magical practice. We became friends, and I kept reading and practicing, desiring both to be the best possible magician I could be, and also wanting to attain a sense of power in my life that I'd never really had before then.

Over time my motivation for practicing magic has changed a lot. Instead of trying to attain power or be the best possible magician I can be, I find myself in a place where I explore the spiritual questions, landscapes, and realities of magic from an experimenter/mystic's perspective...seeking not so much for self-glorification, but rather for increased awareness and appreciation of the connection between myself and reality.

And over time I've experienced a lot of disillusionment about the occult community and the various posturings I see within it, as well as the rather desperate need to be counter cultural and rebellious for the sake of being it, instead of offering any real solutions or efforts toward genuine change. I've become very selective about who I associate with and who I share a lot of my deeper work with. I've also learned that the best magical order you can belong to is the one you create yourself, even as I've also learned that I can be more a team person as it were than I used to be, but I also still prefer a lot of my solitary practices. And I've learned that any measure of success is ultimately subjective, and that the process speaks a lot more to my spirituality than any of my results have ever done. I'm on a journey, and it speaks for itself.

And now...I've practiced magic for half of my life. My practices have changed a lot. They are much more varied and deeper and far more focused on contemporary approaches to practice, as well as other disciplines. But still, each year, in April, I can't help but smile and remember that sixteen year old who discovered magic was real and started out on a journey which has brought him far more spiritual and personal satisfaction than any other prior spiritual exploration had. I've changed a lot, grown in many different directions, but there's still that part of me filled with wonder and excitement about at last discovering that magic was real! And I'm glad, even with some of my disillusionment, I can still find him after all these years.