How are we already on week 6 of this? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week was a lot less full of unusual scheduling, which makes me feel slightly better about the world, but I am about to head into a) Samhain, b) NaNoWriMo, and I am currently still behind on writing project I was hoping to finish before NaNo. So, um. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know I’m not alone in this – for about 2 weeks before Samhain and a week or so after, I have a lot more disconnected sense of time than usual. I’ll do something and look up and it’s 3 hours later than I thought. (Sometimes it goes the other way.) I normally have a good sense of time flow, so this is always a bit weird for me, but after umpty years of it being a thing at this time of year, I have at least learned how to go with it, and set extra reminders for fixed-time events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strategic Sorcery: <\/strong>I did in fact manage to meditate every day but one so far, for at least a few minutes. I’m still having a hard time figuring out when in my day to put it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before work would be logical, but I really do get better quality sleep if I get up around 6:30am (regardless of when I actually go to bed), and I leave for work at 7 (and can’t really push that back, or I start to hit horrible traffic.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n After work does somewhat better, but I haven’t yet figured out the cascade of things that works best (I get home from work, I may need to do some household stuff, and I need to have a shower, make dinner, and meditate, in some order, and some of these sequences fit together better than others.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal for this week: try ‘quick household chores’ or exercise (usually a walk), followed by shower, meditation, and then dinner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday: <\/strong>Dedicant class 4, which was about ritual theory, so talking through steps of circle casting, and how they build up to a cohesive process. (Something we revisit regularly through the year, this was round 1.) Discovered I need to redo some diagrams when I was sending out the class notes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunday: <\/strong>New moon tarot reading for the month, some thinking about things I’m particularly chewing on (habits around money, specifically) and what I can do magically to support and enhance that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the big one here is Samhain! We are doing ours (due to a variety of schedules) on Saturday the 2nd, but I took the 1st off from work so I can clean and do some other prep, which means I can also do personal work on the 31st without having to worry about getting up in the morning at my usual early. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I view Samhain as the end of the old year, but not yet the beginning of the new year (that’s Yule), where instead there’s a fallow period. I spend that time figuring out what my goals for my new ritual year are going to be (and right around Yule, I pick a word for the year. I’ll talk more about that when we get there.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n My plans for Friday involve Samhain prep, including rearranging my ancestor altar, clearing my current working altars off (both so we have space for a group ancestor altar, and also because now is a good time to clear all the things.) And also the necessary cooking: our group tradition includes sharing dishes that either were things our beloved dead liked, or that have a connection to our ancestors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n(This meant that when I was in Minnesota, lutefisk was a regular \noffering on the table… I actually rather like it in small amounts.) \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I usually do a ground pork pie with apples, for Reasons. (It’s sort of a stand in for steak and kidney pie, which would not hold up well during ritual.) It’s not hard to make, but it does take a couple of hours on and off, and in this case it’s going to mean three different grocery stops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Penzeys for some spices I need, the local farm store for local apples and a few other things, and Trader Joe’s for the usual groceries. Plus I should probably acquire wine and beer for cooking purposes in general and some should probably go in the cooking. See also why I took the day off.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can see where my brain and focus is, I suspect. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe coming week<\/h2>\n\n\n\n