Don't stop at the first sign of victory!

 When we look at what is going on in the world today, there is a lot of cause for celebration.  Many people feel as if we have had a big win, and a collective sigh was released.  It's like that moment when you first see progress on the work you've been doing, and you want to celebrate!

And there is nothing wrong with celebrating...as long as you keep perspective of the greater goals.  Often, the first progress we see isn't lasting or permanent.  This isn't to say it can't become lasting or permanent, just that if you stop doing the work, the progress fades away.  It's like when you plant a seed, you spend all that time waiting, you water it every day and make sure it has sun and all it's nutrients...and when you see that first hint of green poking through the earth you know that your efforts haven't been in vain.  But if you stop watering it, if you don't keep giving it access to the light, the tender new growth will wither.

This is something we always need to keep in mind.  We need to be willing to stay the course, to keep working, even when we are seeing things start to change, we need to continue to push until we reach where we want to be.

I think this is especially true when we are working towards some long-term goal.  Maybe we want to be more financially secure, so we do spells and rituals geared at getting us in a better place, money wise.  And then we get a new job (with better pay) or a raise.  The temptation is to think the spells have worked, and to stop.  But it's actually still at the start of the venture!  You need to stay the course until you are actually secure, where you want to be and able to maintain it.

Think of it this way:  it's often easier to keep a fire burning than it is to have to keep relighting it.  Sure, if you stop working, you can always start it up again, but you really have to start over.  You can't just jump back in where you were at (especially if you've tidied up or disposed of your spell working bits).  Even if everything in is in place, think about what must have happened for you to realize that you weren't where you want to be.

Often our path to progress is a very windy road, with lots of ups and downs.  We make a little progress forward, but then we start to backslide.  It's when we are moving backwards that we most often feel called to get back to working, but even when we are moving forward, we can use our work to help create stable momentum.  Then, when we would start to move backwards, we already have energy moving us forward and it is harder to fall prey to those slumps!

Now, I'm making a distinction here between extended, continual workings and regular fire and forget type work.  A lot of spells are one-offs.  We do the spell, we send the energy out into the world, and we trust that it will do what is needed.  In fact, a lot of spells can suffer from continued poking...because every time you go back to them, you need to keep the same intense focus as the first time, and if you let your thoughts become muddied or start wandering down the 'what if' rabbit hole, you start sending energy towards different outcomes and everything just gets messy.

In between one-off spells and continual workings we have set-time work.  This would be stuff like 7 day candles or working on something for a full moon cycle.  You know how long you are going to be working with the thing when you start, it's not dependent on your results.  These give you a little bit of the benefits and drawbacks of both one-off and continual workings.  You need to keep your focus tight for a specific period of time...that is what makes these types of spells more powerful.  But, they are more like one-off spells in the sense that it is like taking a single spell and breaking it into bits, and each time you work, you do one of the bits.  This can make harder things more manageable.

When I think of continual or long-term magic, I tend to think of healing and global issues.  With healing, you don't know exactly how long it will take to finish the healing, because everyone heals at their own rate.  We often keep a healing going until a person is fully recovered, using their base-line health as a measure of what 'well' means to them.  I think of weight issues as being a form of healing...because you are wanting to return to a healthy weight.  But because healing is such a tricky thing, with many issues that can come up, you really want to keep working at it until the final result is achieved, not just the first signs of healing.

With global issues, I think the people like to get caught up in the big causes when they are at their worst.  When things are looking the darkest, we band together and make a magical stand against what we feel can't be tolerated.  But we often then don't follow up.  We try to approach these huge issues with one-off spells, and even if you get thousands of people working together from around the world...one time is often not enough!  

I almost always think of any type of energy work as trying to swim with currents in a river.  With group work, you are all in a boat together....rowing.  But still, the river and it's currents are not only the natural flow of energy in the world...but also every other person who is thinking, acting or working towards a different goal than the people in your boat.  Some of them might not be pushing directly against you, but they may be pushing you to the side.  And some will be crashing right towards you, wanting nothing more than to shove you as far back as they can.

The problem is that no matter how big a push you give...when you stop working, when you stop rowing, the current still pushes back.  Until you have reached your destination, until the world has accepted whatever change you are trying to enact...you have to keep rowing.

While this idea isn't completely centered around what is going on in the world today, I do want to finish with a bit of a thought.  If things have been going on over the past years (or decades...or centuries) that you don't agree with...things you are willing to work against....don't stop when a small victory is gained!  Even though we might be moving in the right direction right now...if we stop, we will be pushed back and we will loose what we have gained.  And in the smaller sphere, if you are doing personal work, and you hit that first big win (but aren't quite where you want to end)...keep working!  

It is tempting to want to take a break, to stop the work for a while, and to coast on the victory, but that can be harder in the long run.  Instead, think of it as rounding that corner to where you can see the finish line.  This is the time to push, the time to keep working and keep moving forward!  There is plenty of time to celebrate and rest when the work is done.

Reboot

Practice is something that implies continual growth, but also returning to familiar things and refining our knowledge.  Going 'back to basics' is something that many people do, returning to things they learned early in their practice, and restudying them.  There is great value in doing this, as you have learned so much since you first experienced the thing, and now you can look on it with all your accrued knowledge and experience.  Revisiting grounding for the tenth time brings layers of understanding that you just couldn't grasp the first time through.

Returning to a subject is a necessary thing, but it is also a building thing.  When we go back to a basic practice, we take with us all that we have learned before.  We aren't coming at it from the same place as a new student.  This is how almost all higher education works, you keep coming back to simple things, and adding to your stores of knowledge.  This is how we build up such elaborate libraries of information.

Rebooting is something else entirely.  Rebooting doesn't draw as much from your experiences...because the point is to completely clear the slate.  It's like working with an AI program that learns your preferences over time...and reverting it to factory settings.  You have to start over, from the very start, and build it all up again.

Now, of course we aren't devices and we can't achieve a full and proper reboot.  There is no way (short of developing amnesia, which I don't recommend lol) to actually separate what we have learned and truly start over.  But we can get close.  And the way to do that is to focus on learning 'as if it were your first time.'

This is a kind of subtle distinction, and it involves a bit of stepping outside yourself.  But the benefits are often worth it.  The downside of just going back to basics is there is always the temptation to keep stuff you know works.  You are already doing daily practice, so why not just keep doing it?  The problem is that if you just keep adding onto what you are already doing, you tend to overlook things that could be even better.  It's like when you have a favorite flavor of ice cream, and you only ever order that one flavor...because you know you love it.  You will still enjoy eating the ice cream, but you may miss a whole world of other choices, and you may never realize that you are slightly bored of only eating the same thing...because you don't know any different.

Now a spiritual reboot is kind of scary.  Clearing your slate and starting over can feel intimidating.  You have to face the demons of "Am I giving up?" and "Have I even made any progress?"  The thing about rebooting is that you often don't see the results until a long time after.

It reminds me a lot of getting a new phone, something I both look forward to and dread.  Every time we've gotten a new phone, I've gone into it with the expectation that I will have to do a full wipe.  I kind of forget that they can often transfer over things like phone numbers and contacts.  But even when it comes to apps and other settings, you have to start from the ground up, and often the things you relied upon just aren't there.

But, being forced to start from nothing means that all those things I rarely used...are just gone.  I don't have to choose to set them aside, they simply aren't there.  When I make a list of the apps I want to load to my new phone, I always notice that some just don't make the list.  I may never have deleted them off my old phone, but they won't be put on the new one.

The struggle is that sometimes the new system just doesn't let you do the things you want to.  I am continually surprised by how un-user friendly a lot of tech is...how many options that I feel are simple and basic, that just aren't offered.  Or how older devices give you more options, and your newer one just doesn't let you customize as much.

When you are faced with not having something you've always done as an option, it forces you to find a new way.  Sometimes this means settling or compromising with something that isn't quite as good...but eventually you get used to it.  It's like when your absolute favorite incense blend stops being produced, and now you have to find another one to use.  Sometimes you will find something better, but sometimes you will be stuck using something that you don't quite like...but eventually you get used to it.

We naturally enter times of reboot when huge changes happen in our life, but they aren't full reboots.  When you move house, you may not be able to keep the same number of altars.  This can mean you have to completely reboot your sacred spaces.  If you take a new job, with new hours, you may have to reboot your observances, especially if your new job isn't flexible in allowing you time off.  These can create havoc in your spiritual life in the short term as you scramble to adjust to a new paradigm.

The more you embrace the reboot, the easier it is to handle.  And the more practice you get with rebooting in general, the easier it will be for you to take that deep breath, to let go of the familiar, to hit the reset button and step into the void.  It will never be easy, it will never feel safe, but it will be less daunting when you truly realize that you can find a way to adapt to whatever you end up facing.

I'm not sure how my year of reboot will go, but I do know that it is necessary.  I need to shake things up, I need to start over, and I need to see where this will take me.  I encourage you to see if there are areas in your life that need a reboot, and to be brave and see what happens when you take that step off the cliff...without knowing what waits for you below!

Anti-resolutions

 At the start of the year, everyone is talking about resolutions.  We talk about new habits we want to develop, or things that we want to let go of.  The ultimate goal is to 'be' a better person, we want to improve our life in some way.

Part of figuring out how we should change is doing a bit of reflection.  But when we look at our selves and our lives, we tend to look for what isn't working.  We look for the places where we feel a lacking or where we dislike something that is in our current life.  We look for the broken things and try to fix them.

What we often overlook is the 'good' habits we have.  We skim over the places in our lives where things are doing well.  We think 'this thing is okay, so I don't have to worry about it,' and we move on, searching for something to stand out as feeling wrong or inappropriate.  And we miss a huge opportunity!

Sometimes, we fall into habits that work, but maybe aren't as good as they could be.  You eat pretty well and don't binge on a lot of super sugary or fattening snacks.  Or maybe you just have grown complacent about a practice.  You have a daily routine, but you don't really think about it.  Because we aren't having big issues in these areas, we tend to gloss over them and things that are 'just okay' never become great.

On the other hand, sometimes we dismiss things out of hand because we feel they 'just aren't us'.  We really don't like the idea of logging our food intake, and running never looked fun.  We never give things a chance, a true chance, because we have an initial dislike for them (and no real reason to change the things that are already working okay for us).

But here's the thing.  Trying something, seriously trying it, teaches us SO much.  So does stopping doing something we think is important to us.  Both are forms of what we would traditionally call failure.  I mean, what's the point in trying something that makes us a bit miserable (especially when we have alternatives that are more appealing).

I'm a big fan of seeing things from as many perspectives as possible.  I got the idea of anti-resolutions from a story I was writing, and I think it's an interesting twist on self-improvement.  The idea is not to try something that you think you will like...exactly the opposite.  Try something you think you are going to hate (be reasonable of course, don't try dangerous diets or physical things that are so hard you risk getting hurt).  And treat it as if you were serious about making it a part of your life.

Pretty much every one agrees that it takes about a month to set a new habit.  So a month is a proper trial time for most things.  It's the perfect amount of time for an anti-resolution!  It's long enough to really let you get a taste for something, and even see some improvement in your ability to do it.  But it's short enough to not feel endless.  You can see the end and most people can do almost anything for a month (when they know that they only have to do it for a month).

So what's the point then?  Why bother to do something if you know you are just going to give it up at the end of the month?  Well firstly, sometimes initial impressions are just wrong.  You may have thought you hated something at first try, but once you smoothed out some of the bumps, you might discover that you actually enjoy it.  Most likely you won't, our initial impressions often are pretty spot on.  Even if you don't like a thing and have no plans to continue on with it, trying and failing teaches us stuff.  You may learn some small things that you can then incorporate into other things you do want to do.  At the very least, you will gain an appreciation for the people who do the thing, and an understanding of what they do.  This can be really helpful when you are interacting with people who are into whatever the thing is that you don't like.  It's much easier to connect when you have some common ground!

I also think there is great value in taking a break from things you 'think you can't live without'.  It's sort of a life-cleanse.  Some things are easy to set aside for a bit.  If you have a favorite tarot deck that you always reach for, even though you own a dozen other decks that you also love, then challenging yourself to not use your 'go-to' deck for a month means you will be using other decks more...learning how to work with them.  

Other things are harder to set down.  If you have a daily prayer practice, that is very dear to you and a huge part of your path, it may feel traitorous to not do it.  Instead, try changing it up.  Pick a new way of honoring the same idea, but don't do it in your normal way.  This could be as simple as changing when you do something.  If you normally say your prayers at night, try them in the morning or before each meal (and don't say them at night).  If you have a regular offering you make (one you make without really thinking about what to offer...because it's what you've always offered), spend some time trying other offerings (you might check in with your deities first, and let them know what you are planning and see if they are open to it).  

Of course if you feel huge resistance to stopping a practice, you should listen to your inner voice.  If something is deeply meaningful to you, giving it up can be more harmful then beneficial, even in the short run.  Especially if you have a practice that is helping you cope with an issue or deal with a difficult situation!  But even then it can be helpful to spend some time thinking about if this is the only way you can do that particular thing.  You may decide that it is, but the fact that you considered alternatives can help you accept that this is the actual best path for you (and not just the path you ended up on).

I think we could all benefit from shaking things up, from time to time.  So maybe, instead of trying to come up with a new resolution, you may think of an anti-resolution to try.  Instead of trying to fix what is broken...try breaking what works.  You might be surprised at the new ideas that come from turning things on their head and breaking free from old habits!

Year of...

 It's sort of funny, if you think about it.  We put so much emphasis on one day of the year (New Year), as if it will magically turn us into a better person.  We talk about resolutions, and this year many people are also hoping that the world itself will shut the door on the previous year, as if all of the crazy that has been going on will suddenly disappear, just because we changed the number on the year we write down.

I am a big believer in goals and working towards improvement.  But I've never really liked resolutions.  I feel like we treat them like on/off switches.  We set a resolution, and it's push push push trying to 'achieve' it, but the second we hit a snag, it's like "oh well, guess that's not happening," and we give up.  Sure, some people manage to make resolutions work for them, and that's wonderful, but the vast majority of resolutions that seem shiny and worth it in the flash of New Year's celebrations turn dull and dim when we think about all that we have to do to actually get there.

I haven't done resolutions in years, but that doesn't mean I don't make plans and have goals.  I have found that setting particular goals (with specific outcomes I want to achieve) doesn't seem to work well for me.  Instead, what I do is pick a focus for the year.  I name my years.  I have had a Year of Moons, a Year of Divination, a Year of Magic, a Year of Wellness, a Year of Runes, and this year I am working through a Year of Rebooting.

There is a pretty popular practice of picking a word of the year, and picking a focus is sort of similar to that.  It's not really a goal, though often there are goals that hang out under the umbrella of the focus.  And a focus is more...well focused than a word.  I have found that looking for a word of the year normally leads me to a feeling or an emotion.  If I find a word, it is something I want to be, whereas a focus is what I want to do.

I'm someone with a lot of interests, and I always have more that I want to do than I will ever have time for.  Picking a focus for the year helps me narrow the field.  It's not an exclusivity thing, of course I will do things that don't fit in my focus for the year, but it does help me keep moving in one general direction.  Without a focus, I will drift all over the place, and I find that I end up starting a lot of projects but not finishing that many of them.

And it's not even about finishing everything.  Many of my years have had very ephemeral progress.  Take my Year of Runes.  I had lots of plans.  I was going to work through several books I own, I was going to do more castings and other rune related work.  I ended up doing almost none of that.  But I thought a lot about the runes, I read a fair amount, I continued with my daily rune draw, and at the end of the year, I felt strangely more connected than I had at the beginning of the year.

I often think of my Years as being either passive or active.  Even though the Year is a focus, some focuses require more outward work, and others are more in line with reflection or observance.  I tend to flip flop my Years, so if I have been working what I think is a more active year, I'll be drawn to something more passive for the next year.  

Keeping your focus for an entire year takes a bit of work.  I use my planner to help keep me on track, and like most projects, the start of the year involves the most preparation.  For me, the planner works because it is something I work with every day.  I always have my Year written down, and often have a few more pages devoted to it.

But I also use my Year as a lens through which I filter other things that I do regularly.  Take this year, the Year of Rebooting.  A few pages I like to have in my planner revolve around tracking:  keeping track of stuff that I feel might be important.  When I built my trackers for this year, I thought about what it meant to Reboot my personal life, and what things I needed to track to give myself the feedback I needed (on whether the Rebooting was working or needed adjusting).  In fact, all the pages I have done in my planner so far have passed through that question:  how does this fit with my Reboot?

Depending on what focus you pick, that determines how much planning you may want to do.  When I was doing the Year of Moons, I knew I wanted to work each moon phase, so that was a lot of little steps.  For my Year of Magic, I wanted to make sure I was doing Sabbat observances, so that meant taking a bit of a broader view.  This year, I know that regular check-ins are vital, so I'll be doing reflections at the end of each month.  Whatever plans you feel fit your focus, keep them somewhere that you will be reminded of them, whether that means using a planner, programing them into your phone or putting sticky notes on your mirror.

One wonderful side effect is that keeping a Year's focus draws things that fit your focus towards you.  It's like when a friend tells you they love flamingos, and now every time you go to a store, you notice flamingo products....and you swear you never saw them before!  This is why picking your focus for the year is something you should take your time with....make sure it's something you want to be surrounded with (and, of course, make sure it's something you actually want to work on for a whole year).

We all want that feeling of a fresh start, that the New Year heralds shutting one book and starting a brand new one.  We want to feel like we can have a better year, make better choices, be a better person.  If you are finding that resolutions aren't working for you, why not try a focus instead?  Think about what you want to do, in the coming year, and make this your Year of....