The Dangers Of Attempting To Get Catharsis Without The Gods

Here is why most secular attempts at "catharsis" fail.

Humans crave catharsis—it is, in fact, one of our deepest and most critical spiritual needs. However, in a materialist secular culture that has long abandoned our pagan roots, catharsis has been taken out of its context. In the modern world, catharsis simply means a feeling of release. However, if you are not reaching this point of release through spiritual connection of the gods, you may be experiencing a cathartic feeling, but you are not reaping the benefits of proper catharsis.

To understand why we need the gods for this, we need to understand what catharsis even is. The term “catharsis” comes from the Ancient Hellenistic world and was used to describe a release, but instead of being a general sense of release, it is a release from the miasma that holds us back. Miasma is a term for spiritual pollution. It is accrued when we go throughout our days and touch dirty things. However, there is a slightly different form of miasma called “greater miasma” that is accrued when we go against the divine law of the gods and against the natural order. As well, this form of miasma is accrued when we interact with death and the dead.

In our modern lives, we still battle against miasma. However, since we do not understand what miasma is, we simply see it as “darkness” or “suffering”. We do not understand that what this is is spiritual pollution—a spiritual disease of the heart. We fall into despair, hopelessness, and agony, because we do not understand that there is a cure—purification.

Purification is not always wearing white and taking cleansing baths. Purification is the process of ridding the self of miasma and impurity. To do this, you often need to go into the darkness, then purge it away. It needs to be ripped off. This inherently relies on destruction and severity to happen. This release happens with force and intensity—it is not soft and comfortable, it is catharsis.

In every aspect of the microcosm and macrocosm, we see variants on the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth. We are constantly undergoing processes that follow this pattern. With catharsis, we are seeing this pattern. We live as we accrue the miasma, we die in the moment of catharsis and pure release, then we are reborn after the catharsis is finished and we are realigned with the path of the gods. It is an explosion, a reset, a rebirth. In moments of spiritual catharsis, an older version of ourselves is dying, all the miasma we are tethered to is dying, and we are being reborn. Moments of catharsis feel like everything is happening at once—they are explosive, destructive yet euphoric, and liberating.

However, since people do not understand the importance of honoring the gods, they are seeking out this process, this feeling, and this experience through material means. When we place the material above the spiritual, defying the natural divine hierarchy, bad things happen. A lot of suffering is born out of this notion, the notion that the material is the most important thing in the world. So, since people are denying the gods, and placing the material above the spiritual, where are they getting catharsis?

Even the staunchest materialist seeks out catharsis, because we all fundamentally need it. Many people seek out secular catharsis through destructive vices, such as drinking to the point of extreme drunkenness, engaging in binge eating followed by some sort of purging behavior, seeking out high-risk sex with a bunch of people, self-harm, etc. There are many ways you can microcode the feeling of release.

This fails due to the material nature of it, but also because these things lack what comes after catharsis. After the release of catharsis, there is a rebirth, a realignment. After you have been purified, you re-unite with the gods, and begin to return to your spiritual baseline. In the secular version of this process, there is no attention given to the after, it is release for the sake of release.

If you are releasing for the sake of release, you will continue to need constant release. If you are engaging with catharsis in a correct polytheistic frame, you will not need to do it all the time. There is reason why we have a dark night of the soul, not a dark eternity of the soul. A spiritual path will always make you grow and move upwards. However, a secular path towards catharsis is a quick speed-run towards addictive behaviors and self-destruction.

-GR