Andrea

In July 2024, I wrote in my witchcraft journal:

"A Hyperfixation on Witchcraft and Pagan Topics?

A few years ago, I learned about hyperfixations. I do not have any neurodivergent diagnosis, but I am on the neurodivergent spectrum. Hyperfixation gave a name to the phenomenon I have experienced all my life.

I became interested in witchcraft and paganism in the late 1990ies, but later drifted off into other spiritual fields. In 2019, my interest was back and this time, it was meant to stay.

During the pandemic, I read one non-fiction witchcraft or pagan book after the other, also reviewing them.
I created a blog on Facebook, later also on Substack. I tried Instagram, but left after a while again.

During those 5 years, I noticed several periods of what some people call „a spiritual slump“ – when you feel like you no longer have access to your spiri­tual activities or your spirituality in general.
This was especially happening when there was a lot happening in my everyday life, I had stressful days, etc.

And recently, I noticed a change. I no longer feel the urge to read every new witchcraft or pagan book that gets released. Because many of these are directed at beginners and many topics get repeated by different authors, though of course, all of them have their own views and ways to do or explain things. So I shifted to only read such books, if the topic especially inte­rests me.

I also don’t do witchcraft that regularly anymore. I still stick to an easy daily practice and another one which I do monthly. I don’t do offerings for my dei­ties as often as I used to do.

So now I am wondering: Was it all a hyperfixation, which is no longer there? It surely helped me through the pandemic. And I still want to be a pagan witch.

But I guess I have to adapt my activities in that field to how I live these days."
---
Looking back at this now, it still is true.

#pagan #witch #witchcraft #paganism #hyperfixation #neurodivergent

Dec 23 at 8:26amWeb
Show threadMatthias Rex🐯1d ago

@siochanta I have been working pretty steadily on a liturgy writing project that has me asking questions about how "normal" it is to be this fixated on it.

I was also reflecting yesterday that all of my mythology reading days are in the past - it's hard to force myself to do it now.

Show threadAndrea1d ago

@Meowthias

Yes, that's understandable. Good luck for your liturgy writing project.

I was also thinking about how several people say, "Heathenry/Norse paganism is a spiritual path where you need to do a lot of homework", meaning you should read a lot, mythology included.

And while I work with the Norse deity Loki, I cannot bring myself to study Norse mythology thoroughly, which is one reason why I don't call myself a Heathen/ a Norse pagan.

And another thought about hyperfixations. One cannot plan them. At least, I cannot. They are so unpredictable. If I could plan my hyperfixations, I would surely be somewhere else entirely on my spiritual path, I guess. But I have to take care of other things (and fields of interests) as well.

Show threadMatthias Rex🐯1d ago

@siochanta The paradox with Norse heatteney is that the Icelanders did a lot of secular writing and there is a ton of it, but it was written down 300 years after they were christianized and the pre-Christian period wasn't really literate.

There's a lot to read if one wants to, but I haven't opened one of those books in a very long time.

Show threadAndrea1d ago

@Meowthias

Yes, that's another thing about the source material to be considered.

I have to admit, my attention span for reading (books) has seriously decreased over the last couple of years, and I blame myself being online/on social media all the time for that.

Show threadMatthias Rex🐯1d ago
@siochanta I think a lot of people are struggling to get that attention span back - hopefully 2026 will be better for that.
Show threadKatzedecimal1d ago
@siochanta
That's about right. Yes it's normal to dive deep in the beginning & yes, to read every book that comes your way. That's how you develop your bullshit detectors & how you find a wide array of skills. Then a fallow period falls, during which you pull back. Many ppl drop it at that point; others evaluate what's working, what isn't, why/ why not, & what needs change.
Show threadAndrea1d ago

@Katzedecimal

Yes. One thing I learned is that I cannot do all the exercises and writing prompts from all those books.
While I thinks it's great to be provided with those things, personally I rather stick to a few methods and do not want to try out everything in those books.

Because to really benefit from the exercises, of course I would have to do them often, for a long time, and I just don't have the spoons for that all the time.
(Spoonie witch here.)