Greetings from the Order and Ordinance. Today, we continue our series called Prayer w/ Practice and will talk about actions we, as Xyphoites, should take on our personal lives to remain pure and free of corruption. These actions align a lot with some of the goals of Project Sacred Hill. Let’s get into it.

Care for the vessel itself is the start. While we recognize much of the physical purification of the body was based on ancient understanding of health and hygiene, most customs have nevertheless remained helpful to do. Cleanliness is a key part of those customs, and so keeping the body well-kept and clean is seen as a means to ward off corruption. Applying modern understanding, we can conclude that keeping yourself together physically is a goal-orientated motivator to keeping other parts of your Self together. Xyphoites will clean themselves, bathe or shower, shave their faces, wash or brush hair, and keep themselves in clean and neat order prior to conducting any type of Prayer. Putting yourself in a clean physical state helps to mentally prepare yourself. As they sometimes say “if you look good, you feel good” and Prayer is about feeling secure and well in yourself so you can give your spirituality to the Cosmos and begin helping others.

Linking to that, mental health is tantamount to Xyphoist Action. Maintaining one’s inner Equilibrium is the key means of warding off corruption. A broken mind will lead to broken action. This part is a key goal of the Sacred Hill Project, aiding and giving better mental healthcare to those who would otherwise be without it. We can readily witness a global mental health crisis and can recognize just how many issues could be resolved through better access and care for mental instability.

We, as Xyphoites, MUST care for our Minds. Doing so through the management of Unhinged Grievance and Shackled Misery—the management of raw emotional response versus muted sacrifice—is a tool we can utilize to keep our minds in check. A Xyphoite should not let the fear of their own head consume them. We shall confront our inner demons and our scariest thoughts, accept they are part of us, and seek help if we need it. Do not fear that which is you; Confront it. If such mental state is causing you distress, seek help for it. The lack of action on your own mental state will most-likely end up consuming you. That is the corruption we seek to ward off.

Working off mental health, we directly move to some of its major consequences or poor decisions taken from it—specifically the habitual abuse of substances. Starting off, the Habitual use of Excessive Intoxication by physical or ideological substances is an Immoral Act. To elaborate better: using something that can be or is definitively harmful to the body or mind as a means to “escape” the mental or physical troubles of our world in such excess that it actively harms yourself or others around you is immoral. You not only give into corruption but you often let it hurt the lives of those around you by your corrupted actions.

The most obvious examples are drug addictions, from hard drugs such as methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin,  all the way down to legal substances such as alcohol. We are pragmatic and realistic, and understand that its impossible to fully expect all of humanity to avoid every drug or substance all the time, as some of these are legal already, and we aren’t going to force or stop anyone from using them, but we do privately plead that humanity relies less on these substances—especially the harder ones—and actively plan to aid and one-day open our own secular rehabilitation facilities to help those with addiction issues who have decided they want to change.

It’s important to say that, since we are realistic, we understand substances such as alcohol, marijuana, tobacco etc. are mostly legal in use, are used regularly by people without them being habitual and excessive, and therefore also recognize that, in a lot of cases, that recreational but not abusive use is NOT immoral in itself. Nobody is going to be tossed into divine condemnation for having a drink at a bar or smoking a joint, but the rampant abuse of these substances will mostly lead to unfortunate results and we do not condone the use of those substances in such manners.

Working of this, the use of ideological or otherwise physical substances unrelated to drugs is also included. People will often attach themselves to extreme ideologies and ideas as a means to find that same level of mental security or escape. People will often using physical actions such as over-exercising, eating disorders, or other types of self-harm or bodily strain to cope with mental hang-ups. In many cases, even the use of digital media, such as addictions to sexual imagery, overuse of digital mediums as TV, games, social media etc. can be substances that psychologically intoxicate the mind.

Now, to be clear again, we are not saying if you play games or watch movies or even watch adult content that you are immoral and worthy of divine punishment, but like all addictions, we recognize that addiction is not limited to drug use. Watching how we act and what we use as crutches to escape from inner pain is KEY to maintaining our personal lives, and we should put everything on a moderate use. A Xyphoite will maintain their vices, and not let themselves be consumed by them. There is no shame in human faults, there is no need for guilt to push you, but there is also no happiness or stability in intoxication—only drowning in it.

—ruX, kyX, jzX, whX