When I see the term ‘Cultivation’ I usually see it within a context of martial arts and immortal stories. The idea, as far as I can tell, is that one can develop their soul and ascend to near heights by training their body, mind, and spirit. This can be seen in a lot of Xianxia (Soul Cultivation) genre as wells RPG literature and webtoons these days. 

There was a tiny Nonsense on Tumblr when one user said that only those who practice cultivation seriously, i.e. every day, deliberately, four multiple hours, will ever make any progress. And, honestly, I call bullshit. That reads as a bit of faux elitism that is really just gatekeeping. 

Because let’s be real, very few of us live in a situation where we don’t have to worry about the bills getting paid and can only pursue developing ourselves for the sake of personal development. I have a few thoughts on the idea of cultivation—but I definitely don’t take my opinions to the rather goofball level that only a select few can take part or reap benefits. 

This YouTube video has a great breakdown of the genre.

Your Ideal

The first step to starting on a path to cultivation is to first look at your ideal self. And this is another scenario where you have to practice some real self awareness. What is is that you actually want, and what is it that you think that you want because of what our culture currently celebrates? 

My process went through several changes, due to my progress deprograming myself from the culture of the majority. I don’t feel like I need a job or to be in a social position where I am constantly praised. While I like praise quite a bit, I hate empty praise more than that. I also hate it when people try to take advantage of me, and know that my chronic illness mean a lot of avenues open to normal people are closed to me. 

My ideal self or self-insert might have a stronger association to an animal archetype that others can pick up on—for example. 

The Gap 

Unlike some magicians, I don’t believe that ‘manifestation’ alone can make a big difference in my life. I consider magic to be helpful and useful. But, no ‘manifestation’ spell is going to work as well as a stamp, an envelope, and a cheque when it comes to keeping your electricity on. So let’s work through some gaps.

Let’s make one firm statement here. My ideal self or self-insert character is not someone who would lay down and just think ‘oh if only’ if something was within her grasp with hard work. She would sigh and complain a little. But, she would get off her ass and work hard to get what she wanted—and know well there were no substitutes for hard work and discipline. So, in order to get closer to that ideal, I have to behave like I’m already there.

I feel like I was at my best appearance physically right before the pandemic. But, I definitely put on some excess weight during the shutdown due to stress eating and boredom. And let me tell you, I was not about to throw out all of my clothes—clothes are expensive. At the same time, I noticed that my knees were bothering me more than they did. Aging is a friend to almost no one. So I consulted with some experts and decided to make some changes to my lifestyle to get closer to my ideal. Do I bitch and moan about it? Of course! 

Another example is divination skill. My ideal self would be pretty good at divination, but when I evaluated myself I found this skill very lacking. Luckily, I happened to have some spare time and a need to learn better divination practices and I had a friend who was willing to trade lessons for art that I had time to make. 

This is one immediate application of using a Self Insert Character. How do you in this world compare to your ideal self? Be honest. And what would getting closer your ideal self look like in terms of actions you can take?

Applications to Magic

As boring as this sound, cultivation is very similar to the idea of studying. But, it’s come to my awareness that many of us were not or do not know how to study. For skills, you can ‘grind’ them out like you would in a game by practicing it multiple times. Personal habits are very similar. In order to become a person who does exercise on the regular you have to….begin exercising and then making it more and more often. 

From my background studying psychology, I know that most people can only focus on 3 big projects at once. It’s more or less the limit of extended concentration for the majority of human beings. I made a lot of mistakes in the past and set myself up for failure by not adhering to this concept. I’d try to make huge, sustained changes in anywhere from 5-8 ways at a time—and it just wasn’t something I could personally handle. 

Looking at my own life—that means I have to cut down my list of ‘gaps’ between my current self and ideal self and only work on three at a time. My biggest current ‘gap’ I am concerned about it very Earth based. Inflation is a bitch—and I am working on my education in order to better provide for myself and my family. My ideal self is someone who is hard working and diligent, as well as academic. So I am doing my best to meet that standard. 

My second priority is my physical and mental health. Since hitting my 30s, it’s become very clear that I have not cared for my body as I should be. So I am working on doing strength-based training, eating better, and learning when and how to rest. This is something that has come up in shadow work multiple times over the last decade, so I am trying to treat it very seriously. 

My current third priority is cultivating my magic. This includes developing a more robust meditation practice, and practicing divination more often. 

In other words, cultivation is a practice of slow, long-term invocation. You are bringing the magic and the aspects of something into you, and becoming closer and closer to that mental ideal. But, this is a slow and grinding process, because you are making a long term, or even permanent, change.