There is more to the world than just ordinary, physical reality. There is not just body. There is also spirit. All of the material things around us have a vital, spiritual component that our current culture encourages us to be blind to.
However, for some of us, it is impossible to remain blind. Those who we term "Awakened" have their eyes open and are able to see all of those things that make the universe a richer and more profound experience than one of just the material senses.
Awakening comes at various points in people's lives. Some of us are born Awakened, and we have known nothing else. Others come to their Awakening later in life. Most often, we are born with the capacity to Awaken, and latent talents and abilities manifest in early childhood. But as our parents, teachers, and all other authority figures in our lives repeatedly reinforce the notion that our subtle senses are just our imagination, that spirits aren't real and that magick doesn't exist, we start to block off this aspect of our experience.
These self-imposed mental blocks often do not start to come loose until the onset of puberty or later adolescence. Sometimes latent abilities manifest with renewed strength as puberty comes upon us, and then our sensations and perceptions become something which we cannot deny. More often, as we go through that period of individuation in adolescence wherein we question the rules and boundaries set by society and by our parents, we start to also question those boundaries that tell us what we can and cannot believe.
It is very common in this stage of Awakening to re-evaluate the experiences and beliefs of childhood in an attempt to discern what was real and what was truly imagination. At this stage it is also common to experiment with different belief systems in an attempt to understand what is really going on with a reality that does not seem to conform to the accepted rules. A person at this stage has a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of experiences that seem to defy the very rules of possibility.
It is not uncommon to have spontaneous numinous experiences at this stage as well -- episodes of precognition, strong moments of empathy or telepathy, visual perception of auras or spirits, and other feelings which cannot be explained.
The challenge with Awakening is breaking through those barriers imposed by your parents, your society, and your birth religion. This is not an easy thing to do. It takes a strong personality and a profound belief in yourself to be able to reject the accepted paradigm and seek to define one of your own. This is one of the reasons so many Awakened people are such egoists -- it takes a strong ego to survive the process of Awakening without buckling under the pressure to just disbelieve.
Belief is the crux of Awakening. There is usually a critical point at which a person who is Awakening makes a decision to believe or not to believe. If they choose to accept that there is more to reality than they have been told, then the process continues and, with work, they will eventually come to understand and even master the latent abilities that they have. If they choose not to believe, those latent abilities do not just go away. Instead, the Awakened person enters a period of deep repression that can continue their whole lives. Either way, the road before the person is not an easy one. On one hand, they must work their whole lives to believe in something most other people regard as fantasy. On the other, they must work their whole lives to forcibly keep their spiritual eyes shut when seeing and experiencing things on that level are as natural to them as breathing.
We've been there. We've seen people go either way. And we know how hard it is to keep going, even once you've made the decision to believe. That's why this page has articles on Awakening -- what it's like from people who have been there, tips for getting through it, and encouraging words that will hopefully make you realize that you're as not crazy as you think you are.
The world is changing as are the people in it. There are more and more Awakened in every generation now. Together we are pushing the boundaries, so it becomes easier each time someone new gives them a push. This is the time and the place for it, and if you have the courage and the perseverance, there is something wonderful to be achieved.
May the Darkness serve you well,
Lord Seth
