This is part 4 of a series of how I do my productivity and planning.
I started my spreadsheet tracking several years ago because several of my chronic health things are prone to slow onset of something flaring, until I suddenly wake up and realise that something is having a much bigger impact than it should.
Continue readingSo, I completely forgot to put up a post in November. Oops! I’ll be playing catch up here. (In other words, longer post, here we come!)
I drove down to see my mother (and brother and his family) on October 24th. It was great to see them. (Mom had some serious but vastly improved non-Covid health issues in early September, so getting to see her was great.)
I took the week of November 2nd off work, and got a bunch of things done, which felt great. There’s a web redesign at work that’s been eating more brain space than I’d like.
I also finished the big chunk of redesign work for Seeking (you’ll see everything should be consistently formatted finally, with an image suitable for linking on Pinterest at the bottom of every post.)
We did a coven Yule virtual exchange, which had a couple of minor bumps, but I think everyone enjoyed it, and it was nice to be able to do something thinking about a particular person’s tastes.
One of this year’s Dedicants decided that they were not interested in continuing this past week, so there’s been a little bit of sorting that.
(I expect that at least half the people who express interest at any particular stage before initiation won’t continue for some reason. Often it’s a good one, like a new job taking a lot more time, or a move for a good reason. So this is mostly sorting this out, and recalibrating some things in my head since we’ve only got one Dedicant now.)
I’ve been doing some house cleaning as part of the run up to Yule. (I might be procrastinating cleaning out the fridge as I write this.)
Last year, I took a bunch of time off over the winter holidays, and I’m doing that again this year. As part of a ‘hearth and home’ devotion, I plan to:
I’m taking the last two weeks of December off work (it’s a total of 7 vacation days, due to the holidays) and looking forward to tackling a couple of big writing related projects, plus my seasonal reorganisation of my closet and pantry.
As I mentioned, while normally we’d have been doing some initiations and moving forward with some things we do after initiation, that hasn’t been an option this year. Instead, we’re doing some fairly low-structure discussions about runes and things they bring up, using Taking Up the Runes by Diana Paxson as a starting point.
(My hope is people at least read the chapter and ponder it some before showing up, but we’re designing it so people can participate even if they don’t manage to do the prep work.)
We’re using those to discuss both stuff about the runes in specific, but also for a wider ranging discussion about magic and ritual and witchy good stuff related to whatever those runes are about. For the most recent discussion, we had some great conversations about joy and gifts and obligations of gifts, and what patterns we’ve tangled ourselves up in sometimes.
I’m pretty sure none of us are sure what 2021 is going to hold. I’m still working remotely, and right now I’m assuming that’s going to continue until at least April or May of next year, quite possibly into the summer.
(I’ve got multiple things that make me high risk for Covid, so I’m a) being super cautious and basically not going out but b) qualify for the vaccine early in phase 2 of Massachusetts’s announced guidelines for getting the vaccine, so right now, guessing I’ll manage that somewhere between March and May. But I also work in a building that has medically fragile students.)
But I am assuming that eventually in there I will be going back to my commute and working in the office. So I’m thinking a lot about what habits I can build now that will make life easier when I have to start doing that again, and thinking through what other things will change in my life.
(Including, I hope, an eventual return to in-person coven work, at least some of the time.)
One of the things I’ve been thinking about is what stuff I don’t want to spend time doing in 2021, and what stuff I want to do more of.
My newsletter is, okay probably not a thing that’s going to happen very often. I’ll probably still do a couple, but not on any kind of regular schedule.
(It takes an irregular amount of time for me to build up enough links to do something that feels like a useful size, and it turns out that kind of irregular thing is super hard for me to plan time for.)
Not complicating the day to day life stuff. One thing that being at home has taught me is that the more I reduce complex decision making about what I do about the routine stuff (exercise plans, cooking, etc.) the happier I am, and the more brain I have for things like writing.
I’d already done this with clothing, but I’m working on doing it with household chores, with exercise, and with meal planning. Basically, thinking about it once and then just doing the thing is working for me well. (I do regular planning time on Saturdays, which helps this.)
Going anywhere: My original plans for 2020 involved four trips, none of which happened, and I’m also expecting not to travel in 2021. (The one convention I was hoping to make it to has rescheduled to January 2022, which was smart of them.)
I am hoping to start seeing other humans socially in person somewhere in the second half of 2021, but we’ll see how that goes.
Lots of new content for Seeking: There will be some! Just, I’m expecting this will be a year when I add things as they come up, or I get a burning desire to write them, but probably not a regular supply of new articles.
(I am very question motivated, so if there’s something you’d like to see me tackle, let me know, and there’s a better chance it will appear after I’ve had time to think about it.)
Coven stuff continues, of course, though I think the current plans are at a nice stable place in terms of time and energy commitment for me. t
Learning Craft:
I’m in the early planning stages of a project about how to go about learning Pagan and witchy stuff in a way that works for your brain, schedule, and available time. (Plus of course your interests.)
My thought is that this will be an online course (at a very reasonable price point: I’m thinking in the $5-10 range for each piece with some bundling options as I produce more material.)
If there are topics you’re interested in around this, drop me a note on the contact form.
Writing:
I have big ambitious writing plans for my romance writing in the form of four books (that’s the pace I’ve done the last couple of years) plus some novellas, which are a new thing to sort out.
I’m pretty clear on most of what this is going to involve, but I need to spend some time planning how to make it all happen and schedule it around coven time and other things I do.
There’ll be a series of posts here coming in the week of the 28th about my planning, (Why here? Because a bunch of it I structure based on planetary days, and I figure you all might have some interest in that.)
Music:
Still working on figuring out getting more music in my life, the ongoing thing of my life, but … this is a good time to do some more, right?
We’re trying something new for a gift exchange for the coven for Yule this year, and since I thought it might be useful to other people, I wanted to share what we’re doing.
We’re a small coven with 2 initiates, 3 people who’ve recently finished their Dedicant year, and 2 brand new Dedicants, so some of this will need adjusting if you have a lot more people.
For our purposes I’m fine doing manual matching and some tech support if needed, as well as helping brainstorm ideas if people need help.
Everyone getting something nice in their email shortly before our Yule ritual (on the 19th) to make their Winter Solstice a bit brighter.
It shouldn’t cost either the person putting it together or the person receiving it any money (or require anyone to sign up for a new account somewhere.)
It should take between 1-3 hours to put together, not more than that. (There are guidelines for scope in the email I sent.)
I created a Google form with multiple sections. You can see a copy of it here, and feel free to snag a copy and make it your own.
Note that because we have two new Dedicants (who have agreed to some limitations on doing ritual or spellwork on their own for the moment as part of our training process), spells and rituals are not default options for things to request, but everyone else can choose to include that if they want.
There’s also a “If you’re not sure about any of their specific requests, a winter solstice theme is just fine!” explicit default.
They will send an email by the end of the 17th, so people have a chance to check out their gift before our ritual, and then we’ll have time to talk about what we got (and what we gave) during ritual.
(There are pros and cons to it being a surprise, but since several of these options include things that someone can’t get a sense of in the moment on the spot, and because people might want to think about what they got, I figure a little advance warning is good.)
Since I can see everyone’s responses, I’m also planning to put together a little something to share in ritual itself based on people’s preferences and current interests.
Welcome to the first ever virtual gift exchange for Phoenix Song! Thanks for giving this a try! Please read the email before filling out the form – it’s got some key info to make the form much easier.
Don’t stress about this! If you are sitting there getting anxious about figuring out the right thing, get in touch with me and we can figure out ideas together. (If you’re assigned to me, talk to each other, perhaps?)
A lot of people enjoy exchanges like this to be a surprise, so if you have a question about something on someone’s form, ask me and I’ll pass the question along to them without saying who’s working on their gift.
Each of us will collect or create something that can be shared in an email with the person we’re gifting to, based on their interests and desires in the form they fill out. You’ll get a copy of your form responses and a link to edit it in case you notice something after you submit it.
Putting this gift together should take 1-3 hours, not dozens. (Check out the scope section for ideas on what that might look like.) Basically, pick one thing on the list, not all of them!
If you’re not sure about what to do about their interests, doing something for the Winter Solstice in general is also just fine.
You should not include anything that costs you additional money, or that will require additional money from the person you’re gifting it to to access. (Recipes are an option for this exchange: if they’re open to recipes, you can assume that ordinary grocery ingredients are fine, but keep an eye out for anything hard to get or expensive.)
If your assignee is a current Dedicant, do not include spells or rituals (since they can’t do them on their own yet). If it’s someone who has completed Dedicant year, spells and rituals are fair game.
Everyone should get something they can enjoy immediately or soon with minimal additional effort on their part, basically.
Whatever you do should NOT break copyright or cause problems for the original creator in any way. (That’s not kind, and copyright issues make Jenetts sad and grumpy for professional reasons. Please don’t. Linking to legit sources online is great here. Ask me if you have any questions about this one.)
I’m glad to help with any technical issues (like figuring out how to share what you’ve found, wallpaper sizes for computers or tablets or phones, etc.) but make sure you give me enough time to get back to you before the deadline!)
If you’d rather me send the email for you on the 17th, send your gift to me before that and let me know. (i.e. if you’re afraid you’ll forget.)
If you don’t get something by the end of 18th, let me know.
1) You fill out this form by the end of the day on November 19th 2020 (sooner is better: if you all get it done sooner, I’ll send them out sooner.) I want to give you a month to work on this, or as close to that as we can get.
The form asks:
The form is designed so that there are lots of options. Pick something that suits your interests and skills, and fits the wishes and desires of the person you’re giving something to.
2) I will randomly select who gets which person, and send each of you the email with your assignment and the answers to their form.
3) You will put together something for them (see the guidelines for that below) and send it to them on or before December 17th. (So they have a chance to explore it before our ritual on the 19th.) Close to the 17th would be ideal.
4) We’ll share about what we got and what we gave during our ritual.
Again, aiming for something that takes you 1-3 hours to put together.
As an example of the scope of things you might send, any one of these would be great. You only need to pick one thing to give them, don’t try to do it all! However, do include more than one item (i.e. multiple images or recipes) so that if one thing doesn’t work for someone, something else might.
A playlist on a theme of 8-12 songs
OR
A curated collection of 20-30 images from online sources on a theme or topic they like
OR
3-5 images they can use as a wallpaper image for a computer or device. (Formatted to the useful size).
OR
3-5 recipes on a theme or focus with a few notes about why those recipes
OR
Any one of the items in the “other ideas” list that they’re open to.
(If you do a booklist or list of web links, aim for 5-10 books or 15-20 links, along with notes about why you think they’re interesting/relevant.)
As it says, please don’t make copies of other people’s music or art or other work without their permission. (Copyright violations make me sad: I know a lot of artists and musicians and authors who’ve had their stuff shared online in ways that makes it hard for them to create more or make a living.)
Make sure whatever you share includes info about the creator, as much as possible – that’s part of the fun, since it lets people discover new artists/musicians/sources.
If you’re looking for good sources, check these out
How to share what you put togetherIf you’re not technically inclined, it is totally fine to just share links in an email – a brief description of what your focus was, a list of the links, and your good wishes for the season is great!
If you’re more artistically or technically inclined, it’d be fine to put together a Pinterest board, a collage of images, a Spotify or YouTube playlist that can be shared, etc. Whatever you make should be accessible without additional subscriptions or costs or needing to sign up for an account with a service, even a free one.
Questions? Need help brainstorming? Get in touch with me by email.
Welcome to the new monthly version (for values of ‘month’) of the Witch in Practice series. I’ll be putting these up around time the sun moves into a new sign of the Zodiac.
(Gives me a little more flexibility, and lines up well with my personal year, so let’s see how this goes.)
I managed to get a batch of articles from my draft writing folder onto the site. Enjoy! (Some of these are less applicable in the current pandemic than others, alas.)
My last month has felt like lots of coven stuff (not unreasonably, looking at my calendar) but some of that was in service of sorting out a manageable schedule going forward.
On that front, I’ve had:
There was also a massive 5 hour binge one Saturday where I sat down and figured out scheduling that should work for coven things through May. It feels really good to have that done (and very good that one – and sometimes two – weekends a month, I have the entire weekend free to do other things with.)
I did a satisfactory amount of personal witchy work for my birthday, and I think I’ve found a combination I like that’s reasonably sustainable for the year.
I’ve been slowly continuing to work on putting things in my book of shadows that I want in there, but slower on reading and learning new stuff than I’d like. (Not least because the complexity of library questions at work has picked up a bit, and there’s only so much brain in a day.)
I’m going to drive (2.5 hours each way) to see my mother tomorrow – she had some complicated health stuff in September.
She’s home and doing well, but if I’m going to go chat to her in person (carefully distanced and masked on her patio…) now is the time to do it We’re in New England, so we’re about to hit “too cold to sit around outside for any length of time” season.
(It looks like it should be a gorgeous day tomorrow, at least – 70 and sunny, then it’s dropping into the 50s next week.)
This is the first extended conversation I’ve had in person with anyone in 7 months, and I feel very much out of practice. However, it’s likely good for me, and certainly going to be good to see her.
Samhain is, of course, the next big thing on the calendar. It’s the one ritual our tradition does more or less the same way each year (modified for number of people and number of people who can do some specific pieces of it.)
This year is taking a lot more creativity than usual, to keep enough of that through-line while still being manageable over video chat with everyone at home.
November 14th, we start our new Dedicant class cycle, so I’m also working on reviewing my notes for the first class, updating some links, and otherwise nudging things.
I’m taking some vacation time the week of November 2nd for a combination of reasons, and looking forward to the chance to catch up on some reading, work on some larger personal projects, and do some more things in my book of shadows and some other projects.
This is also the time of year when I start setting up all the things for next year – my one spreadsheet to rule them all for tracking (mostly done except for some astrological info), my planner book, and my working notebook for the year (more or less bullet journal style, but I don’t actually use it for daily planning, just for longer-term notes and plans.)
As I mentioned two weeks ago, I was thinking about whether and how to continue this project. It feels great to have a year of recording what my witchy life looks like (partly so I can point out to people how much it varies….)
But I’m also feeling a big need to simplify the number of things on my regular to-do list, so for the coming year, I’m going to shift to an update every month (probably the day after the new moon proper), and we’ll see how that goes.
Bonus, this will make it easier to actually give a bit more in the way of numbers, because this is now more aligned with how I track the time I spend on things (both to make sure things don’t get imbalanced, and because some of that tracking helps me manage chronic health issues.)
Tuesday: I got to talk to my mother for the first time since her health issues (which also affected her voice for a bit, which made calls hard), and my brother has been able to visit since, and send photos, which is great.
Wednesday, I did my usual new moon ritual work (tarot reading, some setting of intentions, etc.)
Saturday, we had our (still distanced) Mabon ritual, which involved a little divination (for what to focus on in the dark half of the year), a brief meditation, and talking about seasonal food we’d made. Not the same as being in person, but it went well, and I think everyone took something useful away from it.
Sunday, I did an online workshop focusing on crafting petitions – something I know about, but I enjoy the person teaching it, and I’m feeling a big ‘go back and look at the basics’ push right now, to see what is working best for me.
Tomorrow (the 22nd) is my birthday, so I’m planning some ritual work. In particular, I’m looking forward to starting the Black Book work in Aidan Wachter’s new book, Weaving the Fates.
(My birthday seems like a good time to start it: I recommend taking some time to read and digest the book before doing anything in it, as he also recommends.)
By the next new moon, we should have sorted out Dedication for the two current Seekers, and be preparing for Samhain. That means two more rounds of Seeker classes to teach for me, plus the ongoing coven rune discussion, initiate discussion, and the miscellaneous things that come up.
In my personal witchy practice, I’m continuing my daily practice (playing with a few modifications), setting aside time two or three times a week for witchy learning, work in my grimoire, etc.
I’m also thinking a lot about how to better entangle some of my thoughts about how I spend my time, energy, and focus and my witchiness, and I expect there will be some posts about that coming up.
Various further fussing about my mother (doing well and improving), one of my coven students had her baby (yay, they are doing well).
Tuesday: Discussion with a Seeker about some things in the Dedicant questionaire.
Thursday: Seeker class 1 and 2 with new Seeker, which went really well. (Though I forgot to warn the friend who usually sees me online around a predictable time in the evening that I’d be on later than usual. Ooops.)
Saturday: First of our rune discussions, which went well, and which I think is a good mode for the coming months, when we can’t meet in person, and when individual people may have stuff come up.
(We’re using Diana Paxson’s Taking Up the Runes as a starting point, with people doing the ritual bits that speak to them (or seem interesting) on their own as they wish.)
Thursday: New moon ritual work (my own personal stuff.)
Friday: Cooking for Mabon ritual (we are doing “something seasonal”). I am making chicken in mead sauce.
Saturday: Mabon ritual, which will have both our current Seekers there, so that is a bit more juggling of things and remembering to explain than usual.
Sunday: Online witchy class (a treat to myself for my upcoming birthday.)
Last week got a lot more complicated than usual because of a call from my sister on Thursday letting me know that my mother had had a major health issue, and was in the hospital.
(Mom is improving, but I’m still waiting to hear more about what the long-term plans are like. Having a long weekend in the middle didn’t help here.)
Thursday: A conversation with one of the people who just finished her Dedicant year about what the next steps might look like.
(The other initiate in the group joined me for this, and was tremendously helpful. Building a group is hard, but having someone to share this with and talk things through with now is amazing and wonderful and delights me.)
Friday: An initial conversation with a Seeker, and figuring out scheduling for doing Seeker classes in a prompt manner so that we could do a Dedication before Samhain (since as a tradition, we try not to do those between Samhain and Imbolc.)
Sunday: I took a day for a proper religious retreat which I haven’t done in ages, mostly with the goal of clearing my head before diving into the new school year. (I work for a school, though not directly with students, but it of course affects the entire rhythm of the year.)
I went for a walk (gorgeous weather, with bonus swans and public artwork), did my weekly offerings, then settled in to catch up on a lot of magical study reading I haven’t had time for.
There was also sewing (I’m now working on an elemental set of housewives – that’s a particular kind of 18th and 19th century tool for holding a sewing kit or other small objects. Here’s the one I made from a kit to see what I thought about the project, which is now my actual sewing kit.)
Monday was a day off, and I caught up on writing things, did some cooking, and some more sewing. Also reading to prepare for coven discussion on Saturday.
Tuesday, I had a longish talk with a prospective Dedicant, and we sorted out next steps there.
Saturday, I have initiate discussion, and then the first of our ongoing Rune discussions (designed to be a thing we can talk about that is flexible rather than going on to what we’d normally work with post-initiation, since initiation isn’t a doable thing just yet.) I’m excited to see how it goes.
Overall I am also sorting out some things about how I want to structure my time, and what’s working and not working for me. (The writing productivity course I did in July continues to be very useful there.)
Part of this is trying to figure out what I continue with next year. I’m thinking I may not do these posts weekly next year, but may see about doing a monthly summary. If you have strong opinions about wanting one or the other, drop me a note via the contact form.
Last Saturday was the first day that the Dedicants could turn in a request for initiation, so I spent a lot of this week dealing with details around that.
(Obviously, any rituals that will be forthcoming are waiting until it’s safe for a high risk person – like me – to be inside with someone outside our ow household, preferably without masks. So this may be a bit.)
Friday, I mailed a blessing oil I made over this summer to a friend, and she has been delighted with it so far. I’ve been familiar with the basics for a long time, but this is the first time I’ve done a full blown start to finish ‘infuse all my own oils’ to ‘blend them all’. I’ve been using it myself, and very much like it.
Saturday had approximately all the coven calls in it.
The latter promptly put in a request to dedicate, which we’re discussing a little more next week. (There’s a piece of it that I want to make sure can be handled well in our context.)
Saturday night also brought an email from another potential Seeker. This means a bit of schedule juggling for me to sort out, but I think there’s a way to do that.
(As a tradition, we do not do dedications or initiations between Samhain and Imbolc, generally, though might do 2nd and 3rd degree elevations then – both of mine were.)
Saturday also had a fair bit of follow up emailing and notes. There may be a reason I do not manage to get anything else done on days when there is coven stuff.
Sunday. Because of all of that, I have been light on some of my own personal work – still doing my regular offerings and my morning practice. I did do some preparation for upcoming coven discussions on Sunday, but I need to do more.
We are gearing up at work for teachers to return to campus (which started happening today.) My department is not returning to campus any time soon, so we’ve been spending a lot of time and energy figuring out what we can do to help people who’d like books, and how to manage some other logistical things.
It’s tiring, but I’m very grateful that so much of my job can in fact be done from home, and that I don’t need to navigate going into a building with lots of other people any time soon.
On the kitchen witchy side, I spent today after work processing a dozen ears of corn from my farm share into kernels and some cobs to make stock with. (I’m going to freeze the stock to make this delicious sounding corn and coconut soup with later this fall.) There was also a lot of green bean processing, and I’m working my way through freezing stuff so I can bag it.
(I need to rearrange my freezer in the next day or two, but that’s okay.)
Other plans: I have two coven related calls later this week, but have blocked off the entire long Labor Day weekend without any scheduled commitments, which is a trick I haven’t managed in over six months.
I plan to do a bunch of writing-related things, but I’m also considering taking a day to do a proper religious and magical retreat with minimal online time.
Monday, I ended up doing unexpected (last-minute) ritual work for someone for an urgent need. That took about 90 minutes, and it wiped me out for a fair portion of the week.
I do not regret this one bit, because it seems to have helped.
I also knew when I hit the “I’m going to feel this in the morning, and for a few days” point, and made a deliberate decision to go on. (This is one of those things you learn from experience…)
Needless to say, my ‘everything else I might do’ has been pretty low-key all week, but that’s okay. A bunch of (not-witchy) rereading, and also re-reading Lois McMaster Bujold’s Curse of Chalion (which is one of the books I point to for “how I go at deity work”, though that’s not the reason I’m rereading it at the moment.)
Saturday, one of my current Seekers told me they have had Life Happen, and can’t continue at the moment. (A pity, but I’d be glad to have them come back if and when circumstances change.) I taught Seeker class (intro to ritual and magic), with the help of one of my just-finished Dedicants, which was great.
This was also when my current Dedicants could submit their letter requesting initiation, and so some of my time has been taken up reading and doing some discussion about that (with more scheduled.)
Still taking it easy. And honestly, probably not getting as much as I’d like done, other than writing, but I continue to muddle along. It’s also the last week before my work life kicks into active gear (whatever that means in this pandemic season…)
Saturday, I have a bunch of coven stuff stacked – planning for our Mabon ritual, a chat for everyone, and then the last Seeker class.
I was on vacation from work last week, and spent most of it head down in background organisational stuff (which makes me happy, it was a great vacation. But a lot of “This is a five hour project” stuff that I don’t normally have time to do in a satisfying chunk.)
Wednesday, Seeking turned 10 as a site! I’d hoped to do a bit more with that, but time and energy are finite, so I wrote a post about it, and we’ll see what else I come up with this year.
Saturday, I had a good initiate discussion for the coven, we have plans for up and coming things (or at least plans on what plans we should have.)
Sunday I went (virtually) to a test class (via one of the people I back on Patreon) and a concert in the afternoon.
I also spent some time this week coordinating a present for a dear friend’s 60th birthday, which should arrive tomorrow, and I’m excited to see what she thinks.
I ended up doing some urgent ritual work to support someone Monday night, so that’s why no post last night. And I’ve got a bit of post-ritual hangover today. However, the urgent issue seems to have promisingly resolved, so all good!
(You are going to get two articles on Seeking in the not too distant future about what stuff is handy if you need to pull magical stuff together fast, and on ritual aftercare out of this, though.)
Tuesday is my usual New Moon stuff, probably extra low key (because see the previous paragraphs).
Saturday, I have Seeker class to teach.
