In the age of spiritual influencers and the rapid sharing of information online, I think it is important that now more than ever we rediscover the art of keeping a secret in our spiritual practices. Keep in mind my opinion is based on my own tradition as a Trolldom and Seidr practitioner, so my perspective is shaped by the idea that when you give away the details of your work, you are indeed “giving away” the power of it to an extent. Now this is different than sharing little life hacks, ideas, a general spell here and there. In fact, an easy way around this is to simply keep a little detail here and there to yourself so your work remains unique to you. On other platforms, for example, I have shared a lot of tips every now and then, but none show my work as it was done in the moment exactly.
Depending on the belief, the reasoning for maintaining some spiritual boundaries regarding what is shared can be from worries of jinxing your own efforts all the way to protecting oneself from negative influences undoing their work. The reasons are countless and personal for many, whether it is a conscious part of a tradition or just the natural urge to protect spiritual privacy. In the modern age however, I think we have even more of a reason to protect some information in our personal practices such as:
1) There are indeed people out there building huge followings while never actually practicing at all. There has long been a market for the aesthetic, and many inexperienced practitioners rose to “fame” quickly. Don’t put your work out for them to steal and distribute to unsuspecting new practitioners.
2) When things are made to seek the next viral moment, spiritual authenticity can be lost. It is hard to resist the urge to participate, so a general practice of “share less” could benefit practitioners seeking a genuine connection to their own path.
3) You are no longer just sharing with a neighbor or people you invited to see your work, it is out to the world and beyond your control. Your work is its own tether. By keeping a detail to yourself, the energetic signature of what you shared is now the “public” version and your private energy is reserved. This is more relevant the more personal and unique your work is (copying a spell from a book vs something you wrote and designed yourself).
4) Protect your peace, there will always be someone who claims they know more about your practice than you do. If you have spent any time on the witchy side of any social media platform you know this to be true. Even the most experienced witches can have their confidence undermined when facing a heavy amount of criticism (stay tuned for my opinion on the lemon situation from Witchtok in a later post).
I love how our modern way of communicating allows for us to share so much. I come from the era of “we have half a shelf at one bookstore with some information on this and that is it,” so I recognize the struggle of finding a teacher, information, and guidance. I think those of us who remember what it was like are often even more inclined to want to help and share more, but it ends up leading to some unhelpful messiness down the road and doesn’t help a lot of new practitioners gain the confidence they need to step into their power. I think we need to keep sharing, but we need to be a little less detailed and keep some aspects of our personal path off the internet at the very least.
In the age of oversharing, keeping some things to yourself is the ultimate power move for you and your community.
