I managed not to do a writeup in August (August is just a hard month, all.) And tomorrow’s my birthday, so doing this today.
Coven
Two bits of big exciting news since my last post.
First, if all goes well, we will have a new initiate Sunday night. We’ve been trying to figure out the timing for this for a while, and September hit “as good as we’re going to get for being in close proximity in a ritual where we can’t mask.” for timing as we’re likely to get. We did the pre-cursor part for our tradition initiation last week, and it was the first time I’d had anyone in my apartment (other than brief landlord things) since March of 2020.
(A non-trivial part of my initiation prep has been “mop all the floors thoroughly” and decluttering more visible bits of what will be in line of sight for the initiation proper.)
I have been saying that it puts a different spin on “perfect love and perfect trust”, modified by a bit of science. I still need to continue being cautious for health reasons (I am still masking at work and avoiding face to face conversations when there are other options) so this is pretty far into my risk budget, comparatively.
For people contemplating similar things, we are testing beforehand, and being good about communicating possible exposures. We also have a backup date already planned if we need it. I have good air filters, and I’m going to leave my bedroom closed up so that when we’re done I can retreat there for the rest of the night and let the filters do their thing some more. (I also got my booster last week, so it will be close to full effect by the time we do the initiation.)
Second, we have four brand new Dedicants. I’m very excited to get into the classes of Dedicant year with them! I spent August wrapping up the last Seeker classes with them.
Witchy
I got to do a communal Lughnasadh ritual with two college friends and their families in early August. We hadn’t done it for two years for the obvious reasons, and it was really great to see them, see their kids, and have those bits of tradition back. (And it being three households, one of them just me, and outside except for bathroom access made it a lot easier for us to think through risks and concerns.)
I had an astrology reading focused on fixed stars and some remediation in early September with Amaya Rourke of Empress Craft, which was fantastic, and I’m working on building some of what came out of that into my witchy and devotional practice.
Personal
I have been hard at work on the writing. The book launch I’m particularly nervous about is coming November 4th, but I’ve had some other good things to share (and August’s book release did nicely.) I’m currently enmeshed in a book where one of the plots has to do with witchcraft rituals to keep Hitler on the other side of the channel in the summer of 1940, which is an interesting challenge to write.
The rest of my head has been rather busily taken up with one of my roleplaying characters. This is a Deliria game (think the intersection of our world and faerie – and fairy tales.) It’s been one of those glorious times when the character experiences have me thinking about a whole lot of how I want to be in the world, and what that looks like, as well as being a great deal of fun in play. It’s also produced a great playlist.
(Isobel, my character, is currently busily working on embroidering something for Thomas, and building as much magic into it as she can wrangle. As you do when you’ve fallen in love unexpectedly. And had some other complicated initiatory magical events that have completely rewritten your idea of what you want to be doing with yourself.)
