Rejecting the nine-to-five doesn’t necessarily make content creation your passion, just as involving creativity doesn’t turn content into Art.
— POTB
We’re often sold the dream that content creation and personal branding are the passion to solve all our problems. In reality, this applies to far fewer people.
Some dream of being musicians, artists, authors, or pursuing something completely removed from the mainstream. It just so happens that personal branding lets you build a platform for anything.
- But can it replace your true passion if it wasn’t it initially?
- Is your pure passion enough to turn into a real path?
- And do they necessarily have to be the same — a meaningful career and a hobby in one?
In this one, I’ll share reflections based on a decade of creating, two published books, music produced, and more. I’ll dive into hermetic and philosophical principles to help find answers.
Pure Passion
The Qabalistic Tree of Life maps the human psyche. Each Sephirah represents aspects of your being, existing in the context of all others.
The ‘pure passion‘ resides in Netzach, the sphere of love, sex, and emotions. Netzach’s feelings are expressed through the instincts of the animal soul—Nephesh, which resides in Yesod, the personal subconscious. The Nephesh contains:
- The Freudian ID,
- The Jungian Shadow,
- The inner child with its raw childhood passion.
Operating mostly in Netzach might be enough to keep our passion. But, it won’t suffice to build a dream career as that involves all spheres of the conscious mind, Ruach. Besides Netzach, this includes:
- Hod. The intellect and reasoning, governing systems, and organization.
- Netzach, which fuels Hod. Meaning that you have to be somewhat passionate when staying disciplined.
- Chesed to supply creative ideation, vision, and big-picture thinking.
- Geburah to trim those and to make the right choices by eliminating the wrong ones.
- Tiphereth, the reconciler and transformative switch holding the mysteries of sacrifice and crucifixion.
Sometimes, the sacrifice is not engaging the passion so you can take your work to the next level by dedicating more time and/or investing in better tools. Either way, it’s Tiphereth working with Geburah, the sacrificial priestess.
Personal Experience 1
I remember when I paused music production and turntablism, something I lived for, just to focus on writing and getting my first book out.
It felt like killing a part of myself… but looking back, that sacrifice changed everything. It was an initiation, much deeper than any ritual I learned from a Magick book.
A Dream Career
Passion is something we do regardless of rewards. It carries an intrinsic value, enabling us to be who we are.
A dream career, on the other hand, is built on meaningful work we render to get compensated.
Sure, we’re passionate about aspects of it, but at the end of the day, it is hard work and seldom all fun, especially if you wear many hats as a solo creator or solopreneur.
With a dream career, money plays a role. Even if it’s not outright suffering, there are still unpleasant parts. Nevertheless, we bite the bullet and get the job done even when we don’t feel like it.
We meet deadlines, covering all bases consistently. But more than the rewards, it’s the meaning that keeps us going. As Nietzsche said:
“He who has a will to live can bear almost anyhow.”
— Nietzsche
Ikigai
Besides the Tree of Life, meaningful work is reflected in the Ikigai diagram. Translating into ‘reason for being,’ Ikigai finds common ground with the Western True Will.
The Ikigai is often labeled as ‘pure passion,’ but that’s just one aspect of it. It is the intersection of:
- What you love,
- What you are good at,
- What the world needs
- What you can be paid/rewarded for.
By overlapping those, you discover things like:
- Passion,
- Mission,
- Vocation,
- Profession.
By reconciling them, you get your Ikigai, waiting for you to live it. It involves passion, but it vastly transcends it.
Personal Experience 2
That’s how I felt in the early days of YouTube. I adored sharing ideas with the world and developing my writing and filmmaking skills. Now, I do so even more.
Filming A-roll, tweaking SEO, dealing with algorithm randomness, and chasing a ‘niche’? I never enjoyed those things, but they’re essential to doing meaningful work.
Talents
Like the True Will, the Ikigai has a lot to do with your genetic predispositions. They can overlap with your passion, or you can get passionate about developing them.
Conversely, you can be wildly passionate about something completely different. Or, about a particular craft, but find such a career pretty meaningless.
Personal Experience 3
I am deeply passionate about incorporating turntablism into music and the art itself, but I dislike any other aspect of it, let alone going to clubs.
I’m also deeply passionate about aesthetics and bodybuilding, but I can’t really stand the fitness industry. As Simon Sinek says:
“Passion is not an input. Passion is an output. We will feel what we call passion when we are involved in something deeply personal, helping us advance a higher purpose or cause. You find something you believe in, and what you experience is passion.”
— Simon Sinek
The Inertia of The Universe
Passion is part of the True Will, yet it’s far from covering it entirely. Whether practicing Magick, the True Will does involve actual ordeals, difficulties, and sacrifices.
It transcends crafts and career choices and is the meaning behind each if they are aligned with your true nature.
According to Alan Ronald Miller, aka Christopher Hyatt, the True Will is your genetic predisposition(s). According to Crowley himself:
“A man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him.”
— Aleister Crowley
On a surface level, it may seem that entropy, the default state of the Universe, is making everything as effortless as if rolling out the red carpet.
In reality, it is the challenges and resistance that become stepping stones and training facilities to develop your talents and carve meaningful work.
In the end, your passion may light the fire, but your Ikigai is the path. The Universe doesn’t give you ease. It gives you training, helping you find meaning.
The Best of Both Worlds
The good news? They don’t have to be the same, and it doesn’t have to be either-or.
Your pure passion plays its role. It nurtures your inner child, which lets you leverage the forces of your Nephesh and walk through hell when the meaningful work demands it.
Personal Experience 4
That’s why I bought the Rane mixer a few months back—and why I recently pulled the trigger on a pair of Genelecs and some LEGO, I’ve been eyeing for a while.
Christian Mate Grab calls such moments ‘filling the inner emptiness.’ I view them as giving something to my inner child.
Such a balance keeps us from seeking something where it never was and resenting the meaningful work we do.
For some, passion and meaningful work wholly overlap. For others, demanding that one also be the other cancels its unique purposes.
The passion keeps us young and excited. Meaningful work lets us pay our bills, leave a mark, and do our passion.
— POTB
The Three Fs
It’s like the three Fs concept. An optimal lifestyle includes all. Good food and enough finances are critical, but they won’t ever make up for a poor sex life. Having all the sex in the world, on the other hand, can’t help with financial struggles.
But that’s just my opinion. Let me know if you agree. Consider my products and books. And thank you for your time.