We live in an age of sharing and public announcements about...everything. So many people are posting their entire life online, and this has spilled over into our spiritual lives as well. It's quite fashionable to post your altar pics, spells/workings, tarot spreads and everything else online for everyone to read.
And while I'm okay with anyone who wants to and chooses to do this, what I'm not okay with is any kind of pressure to share things that someone isn't comfortable sharing. Whether someone is bugging you for details about a spell you cast or asking you to read their cards or wanting to hear about your interactions with any deities or other beings you work with...your path is private!
This means that you get to decide what and how you share anything regarding your path. If you are out and want to post pictures of everything you do, go for it! I adore seeing pictures or reading about other people's paths and practices. It's super inspiring to see how people do stuff, and I've learned a ton from just being exposed to a million ideas that I might have never known about if people hadn't shared what they did.
But I also fully support everyone who chooses to not share specific things...or anything at all. Some people aren't in a safe place to share stuff (especially in a public forum like social media). Some parts of our practice are intensely personal and not the kind of thing for public sharing (and some things are so private you may never tell anyone about it, and that's fine too!) And sometimes, things are just embarrassing, and maybe we don't want the whole world knowing that we spilled candle wax all over our carpet or how spectacularly wrong our prosperity spell went.
I do want to speak a tiny bit about social perception though. Sometimes, we may want to share something (like an altar picture or some spellwork we've done), but we stop ourselves because we have seen all the gorgeous pictures or perfect descriptions online and we don't feel worthy. If the only thing that is holding you back is a feeling of being 'not good enough', then that is an opportunity to do some inner work and to remember that many people only post the absolutely perfect stuff online (and spend hours to set everything up), and we are all walking our own path, and if yours works for you, then it is perfect and if you want to share you should!
But, if you are only sharing something because other people are demanding that you do, and you don't really feel comfortable putting that part of you online, for any reason (even the above mentioned feelings of self-worth...only you know if sharing something will hurt more than it will help), then don't let other people pressure you into doing it!
I'm a pretty open person. I'm blessed to have supportive family and friends and to be in a position where I'm not overly worried about my personal business effecting my life in a negative way. And there are still things I don't share. There are parts of my practice that I consider secret...they are between me and my gods and it's just something I don't talk about. And honestly, some of the things I don't share are definitely due to self-esteem issues (video is my kryptonite, it has to be very important or the only way to share something for me to put myself on video lol), despite me knowing that no one else will ever judge me as harshly as I judge myself.
One thing to remember is that sharing doesn't have to be complete. It is perfectly fine to draw your lines wherever you need to. It's okay to explain the gist of a practice...while leaving out all the specifics which make it personal or private. It's okay to edit things off your altar (or blur them out of a picture) before you share it. Kind of like the concept of 'no is a complete sentence' comes the idea that 'private is all I have to say about that'. You don't need to justify why it's private or explain why you don't want to talk about something...just say it's private.
A final note: I am talking mostly about private practice. If you are doing group work or working with a coven, you may be expected to share some things within that group...and likewise expected to keep some information secret within that group. Make sure you are aware and comfortable with all levels of sharing and secrecy when you join a group...and if you ever get uncomfortable with what you are required to share (or keep secret), that group might not be the best on for you.
We can feel a lot of pressure to share things, either from specific people who are asking very personal questions or just the general culture of posting everything online that makes you feel like you aren't a 'real' whatever because you aren't posting a log of everything you do in your practice. But setting boundaries on what you share publicly and what you keep private is a very healthy thing to do. It may take some work to get those boundaries in place, but just remember...your path is private, and you don't owe anyone access to it!
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