The Spiritual Ego. The spiritual ego develops at a certain point in a spiritual person’s soul journey. They have begun to wake up to their true identity as a soul and a divine being. They become immersed in spiritual activities and worldviews. It is a joyous and exciting time. They may even be called to start helping others and other aspects of working in the light.
And before they even know it, in walks the spiritual version of their ego. Frankly, this happens when they have not been doing appropriate spiritual work on themselves, and usually this has to do with their shadow side. They start to think they are better than other people, see themselves as a powerful authority figure, and attribute their gifts of divination, healing, and other wonders to themselves and not to the Source that gave it to them. They may get greedy, money or power hungry and use their law of attraction knowledge inappropriately. They may sacrifice their integrity and values, distort their experiences and qualifications, or think that they can use magic or any spiritual tool to achieve what their ego wants and to control others. Essentially it is a spiritual power trip. It can be dramatic or it can be subtle. A more subtle form is the savior complex. They may feel they have the right answers and now they must save and educate the world. Or their “help” is pretty much attention seeking, without the genuine desire to truly help others.
And what goes up, must come down. The lesson that must be learned here is that your ego, even a spiritualized ego, is not in control of the world. If there is a lack of moral integrity in your life and work, it will be exposed. The essential quality of a spiritual person who is here to help others and not just themselves is a profound dedication to service, love of humanity and their foibles, and a relentless and humbling self inquiry into their own darkness and shadow side. Many cult leaders are very high on their spiritual ego and take a lot of people down with them. So my advice to you is to be discerning, use your intuition and common sense with any spiritual teacher. And be willing to not go down the same road.
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