Blessings, beautiful souls —
I learned a new term yesterday: intellectual consumerism. In the day and age of social media, where all hobbies become an opportunity to acquire (buy), perform, and display said hobby, even the consumption of “intellectual” things (such as reading) has become consumable. My thoughts immediately go to individuals who have a list of 150 books read in one year; are we learning to deepen our understanding, or are we simply accumulating more things to say that we know them?
Even the entire identity of being a reader has become a matter of intellectual consumerism. It’s not about reading the books you acquire, but holding them up for the audience and calling yourself ‘bookish.’ Granted, I buy like four books a week — but I read 80% of the books I buy. Do I have a consumerism problem? Sure. I don’t need to buy four books a week. But I’m not performing or displaying these purchases for anyone, and I am reading the books I buy (eventually they will all get read; I’m just a mood reader and once I drift out of a mood, I can’t force it).
We live in a culture that rewards constant acquisition, including intellectual acquisition. Whether it’s with views, affiliate link purchases, free items from collaborations… people gain something through the display of their consumption. Finishing another book, earning another certification, learning another philosophy, discovering another spiritual teaching: these can all create a satisfying sense of progress – and the temptation becomes performing that progress for others. But the sensation of intellectual growth (and the social attention) isn’t necessarily the same as intellectual growth itself.
And the world of intellectual consumerism overlapping with spiritual consumerism is where it gets especially interesting to me. Spirituality has an enormous marketplace of knowledge (and items): tarot, astrology, channeling, energy healing, ancient philosophies, mystical traditions, and countless books about Awakening. Someone can spend years “studying” consciousness without ever sitting quietly with their own. They can continually seek external validation or new teachings rather than developing trust in their own discernment.
The more we accumulate, the more we need to ask ourselves: are we taking devoted time to understand it? Examine it? Practice it? Embody it? I read this incredible quote on YouTube (should have copied the name, whoops) about annotating, in particular, but I feel like it fits here:
Being a perpetual seeker is important. Our learning is never really complete. But the more superficial our learning is, the more that mud traps us – especially if it becomes performative (look at how much I read, look at how many decks I own, look at all the spiritual certificates I’ve accumulated, etc.).
Our information culture refuses to prioritize the most important thing of all: stillness. It is only when we are still with something that we are able to discern what, within it, is important to our journey. When we speed read to have the most impressive ‘Books Read’ count instead of digesting the wisdom within what we are reading, there is no depth – it’s consumerism disguised as wisdom.
But this isn’t about how much someone consumes or even whether they display it or perform around it. It’s about what motivates that consumption and what happens afterward. As with spiritualism, there is a difference between accumulation and exploration. At what point does seeking more spiritual knowledge become a way of avoiding the work of integrating what we’ve already received?
Are we acquiring knowledge to transform ourselves, or are we acquiring knowledge to convince ourselves, and others, that we’ve already transformed?
We can become so attached to the identity of being someone who is awakening, learning, healing, evolving that we never permit ourselves to simply be. And this is where consumerism melds into the commodification of identity — and that’s a whole other topic (and problem) altogether!
This is where I pause – because that’s what is most important; pausing to allow it all to settle. Read, learn, explore, seek… but don’t forget to pause long enough to let it all become part of you (or at least change you).
If you wish to support my work further, have a look at all my books, journals, and decks, available here. If you want to work with me as a spiritual healer or wish to have a tarot reading with me, check out my services through Seeking Celestial Grace and Awakened Little Souls.
xx C
