Hello! Slightly late this month because I was busy on Wednesday celebrating my birthday. (I went on a pleasant walk to the top of a local drumlin – yay glacial geological features – and did a bunch of astrology notes, and roasted a chicken.)
It’s been two years since I started doing this Witch in Practice thing, and I’m going to continue with the monthly roundup. I’ve got an update on what my daily/regular practice looks like at the moment in the Witchy section of this post.
If you missed my announcement, I’m adding a monthly chat about some interrelated topics (how do we learn about this witchy/pagan/magical stuff, and how do we make it part of our life in sustainable accessible ways?) More info over here, and I’ll be sending out the first call details on September 25th.
Coven
Seeker classes (classes 2, 3, and 4). They’re now deciding if they’d like to be considered as Dedicants and working on the ‘please answer some questions so we can make sure this is a good fit/I can make plans for adaptations needed’ part.
Some initiate discussion, and plans for what we’re doing next (working through Thorn Mooney’s new book The Witch’s Path together. I’m excited to have a book where we can talk through things together, but people can pick an exercise to work on for the month that suits where they are. (Thorn has differentiated them based on needs: one for beginners, one for people wanting to go deeper, one for people who are trying to fit practice around other needs in their life, and one for people dealing with burnout.)
Mabon ritual: with some pleasant focus on apples.
We’re still meeting remotely, and will be until the risk level comes down for ‘needs to be extra cautious me’.
Witchy
Last month I started doing a focus on an astrology sign and house in my chart, plus whatever planets I have there. (Starting with Virgo, where my Sun is, in the 9th house). I’m planning to continue that for the year, though I’m currently a little behind on notes.
Daily practice
A year is a good time to update my daily practice and where it is. Rather to my surprise, it is reliably daily (though how much time I spend on it depends a lot on what else is going on: the bare minimum takes about 5-10 minutes in the morning plus reading time.)
Mornings:
- Brief energetic offerings at my shrine
- Checking astrology notes for the day
- Listening to a song from a playlist and pulling a Tarot card
- (Total time about 5-10 minutes, depending on song length)
Day:
- Walk (usually 20-25 minutes: I’m still working from home 4 days a week, so this is usually a walk down to the pond near me and back.)
- Reading for at least 20 minutes (when I’m not crunched for time, it’s longer.)
- Music listening often featuring Sabbat-focused or magical goal playlists. (Also a fair number of relevant podcast episodes, averaged over the month, though neither is the only thing I listen to.)
Weekly:
- Tuesdays: I’m about to add in a Tuesday offering to Mars for honing my ambitions and taking on challenges with grace and skill (I just started a Mars profection year in astrological terms.)
- Wednesday: Brief offerings for assistance with my writing – writing things people enjoy and tell other people about., mostly, as well as for things to go smoothly in the writing and self-publishing aspects. Usually oil in an oil burner with a brief prayer to Mercury and Rosmerta (often associated with Mercury in Romano-British practice.)
- Thursdays: Prosperity work (sometimes as simple as a suitably designed candle while I read, sometimes something more complex.)
- Sunday: Offerings of something food/drink, candle, and incense while I hang out and learn about witchy things. (I aim for two hours, sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less. This isn’t my only witchy learning time in the week, but it’s the most reliable time slot for sitting and focusing on it.)
- I sometimes add things on other days (especially some offering to Saturn on Saturday when I sit down to do my weekly planning) but not always.
Monthly:
- These posts
- Updating astrology notes in my todo app with the next month’s astrological dates of relevance.
- And of course a variety of coven events, prepping, writing up notes afterwards, etc.
Personal
As of the beginning of September, I’m back in the office one day a week, which is currently exhausting. (I’m fine being in my office, I’m less great with shared hallways/bathrooms/other spaces given some unusual aspects of where I work.) We expect this to ramp back up to more on campus time in early November, but it’s going to depend on case counts.
(I also have done some wrangling and documenting with my doctor: I am still high risk for complications from Covid even with vaccination – three underlying conditions! Other than work I go grocery shopping twice a month, to my allergy shots every three weeks, and that’s about it for indoors with other people.)
I also released a new f/f romance novella (featuring a character who’s been one of my favourite secondary characters for a while.)
