Magical wishing

 We often say that wish magic is the first magic we do as children, whether it's blowing out the candles on our birthday cake, wishing on a star or blowing a dandelion puff.  And yet, as adults, even witchy adults, we are often told that wishing is less desirable.  

From a magical perspective, wishing is often seen as fanciful and 'not doing the work'.  Wishing is often very spur of the moment, you are taking advantage of some fleeting situation (like finding a loose eyelash), and making a spontaneous wish.  It's not a deeply thought out desire (like what we might use for the focus of our other magical workings), it's often not highly defined (again in comparison to other magical workings), and it rarely involves any actual work (other than some kind of activation, often involving blowing).

And yet, wishing is in some ways more magical than some of our other works, exactly for those same reasons.  We are really calling up our inner child, and their pure and simple belief in the power of wishing, and we are giving them the reigns.  Often the things we wish for, when we aren't given time to think about it, are very basic desires that are dear to our heart.  They may be things that are simple and materialistic (maybe we wish for a piece of pie or a pretty new stone), or they may be more idealistic and dreaming (we might wish for happiness or peace).  They might even be things that we are told not to work on magically (like wishing for a romantic partner or money).

Wishes are somewhat similar to dreams, but wishes are even more ephemeral.  Wishes are often things we don't want to admit we are wishing for.  They may seem trivial or too big, they may seem selfish or controlling, they may be silly or unrealistic.  The power of wishes is that when we wish for something, we not only admit that we want a thing, but there is also an unspoken understanding that it might not happen...or it may happen slightly different than we envisioned.

I feel very strongly that all magic works on our intent, and sometimes when we sit down and plan things out, we get bogged down in the details.  When we wish, we are stripping away most of the mechanics and just keeping the desire.  What is it that we wish for?  

I actually think wishes shine when we use them for huge or tiny things.  I don't find myself wishing for reasonable stuff very often...when I want reasonable things I do other workings towards them.  Wishing is something that I think of as 'magic for stuff I wouldn't do magic for.'

 

Wishing is great for all those 'impossible' things that we dream about in our perfect world.  Wishing for world peace or global awareness, or for people to let other people just be happy.  Wish for those crazy over the top things that make you giggle just a bit for even thinking about it:  a home on a private island, a zillion dollars, to be young forever.

Wishing is also wonderful for trivial things.  I wish that package I ordered will come in today.  I wish there will be snow.  I wish my husband would suggest tacos for dinner.  Just fun little random things that honestly wouldn't bother me if they didn't happen...but would delight me if they did.

I put wishing a bit in the superstition category.  I don't always wish because I think my wishes will come true, but I definitely wish because it makes my heart happy to wish.  I think the simple act of making a wish is delightful and it brightens my day.  It's one of those things (kind of like meditation actually), where the act of doing it is the whole purpose for doing it (to me).  

I really do think that wishing is important though as it's a way to build up our sense of wonder and encourage magic into our lives.  Every time we make a wish, we are inviting magical happenstance to bless us with our wish.  We are affirming that we believe things can happen just because we wished for them.  We are accepting that wishes aren't actions, they don't lead to a particular result all the time, they aren't certain...but they open the door and invite magic in.

If you struggle with wishing, I encourage you to pick one method of wishing that seems the most fun, and challenge yourself to practice it whenever it appears in your life.  Maybe you want to start small and just make a wish once a year on your birthday.  Or maybe you decide to toss a coin into any wishing wells you find.  You can even make up your own lucky trigger for wishing.  Perhaps you will make a wish whenever you see a lady bug.

Most of all, have fun with it.  Wishing is all about joy and wonder, so tap into your inner child and let go of all expectations.  Give yourself permission to wish for anything and everything.  Whatever pops into your mind when your wish trigger happens, embrace it!  Let yourself wish for purple house slippers or a double rainbow.  Let wishing be a way to allow your inner child to play!

Deep Clean

Cleaning is one of those mundane tasks that very few people look forward to.  And I make a distinction between cleaning (physically removing dirt and grime) and cleansing (energetically removing gunk), so today we are really going to talk about cleaning (though of course doing a good cleanse while you clean is always an option).

When it comes to really doing that deep clean, we often associate cleaning with spring (pretty much everyone's heard of spring cleaning).  I think that in spring, when the weather gets nice, we are called to do more stuff outside, and historically opening up the house would help with the cleaning.  Windows could stay open in the day (letting wind help carry dust away), and some tasks were just easier to do outside (banging the built up dirt out of rugs, letting laundry dry on lines).  

But, as we live in a climate controlled world today, we don't have to wait until spring to get our clean on.  In fact, for many of us, it might feel more aligned to do our deep cleaning in the winter, when we are stuck inside.  Not only are we often spending more time in our house (and thus it's getting dirty more), but keeping our space clean can help it feel nicer (whether you like being 'stuck' at home or not).

Deep cleaning is also one of those things that we tend to think of doing all at once.  Like it's a reasonable thing to just clean your entire house from top to bottom in a week (or a few days *shudder).  I've participated in a cleaning challenge that worked through the whole house over the course of a month and I was exhausted after a few weeks.

But I also know that I always feel better when things are clean.  And regular cleaning doesn't always do a good job (or clean everything).  There are lots of bits of our house that just aren't touched by the weekly cleanings, and over time they get pretty scary.

Learning how to do small, deep cleaning is a great skill, as it lets you tackle some of these tasks without being exhausting, overwhelming or encouraging you to give up.  I also feel that, being Pagan and often viewing the world in an animistic way, gives me greater motivation to keep my home space clean.  It can be an act of devotion to my house spirit or any number of domestic deities I might work with.

Being of a witchy inclination can also make cleaning into something more.  Not only can it be an act of devotion (and doing service for someone else makes some tasks easier), but we can mix in things like cleansing sprays or herbs that just make the tasks more pleasant (because herbal workings often smell amazing!)  We can use cleaning chants to help make tedious tasks more enjoyable, or view the cleaning as a form of active meditation.

One thing I've found that helps immensely is to find tools and methods that work for you, and sometimes this starts by identifying what doesn't work.  I still haven't found the best way to deal with dusting, but I know that neither those fancy dusters (or the lovely old feather dusters) work well, and using a rag takes forever (seriously I won't rag dust my desk more than once a month because it takes an hour just to do my desk!)

This includes if you just can't stand certain sensations/smells/whatever.  I know a lot of people who have to wear gloves for many cleaning tasks, while I'm the exact opposite, I hate wearing gloves and would rather touch all the things and just scrub up afterward.  One of my personal things I've found is that baby wipes work so well as cleaning cloths (especially for scrubbing deep dirt).

The biggest trick I've found is to give myself one task for a day, and to really not let myself keep adding more on.  So if my goal is to clean the bathroom floor, I will focus on that and not worry about the doors or the tub (because if I get distracted, then I have like three different things half done or I've spent 5 hours cleaning and just want to collapse).

I also try to sneak in one small extra thing when I do regular cleaning (if I have the energy for it...if it's one of those weeks where I'm barely managing the basic clean then I just focus on doing what I can).  This might be as simple as picking one extra surface in the house and giving it a wipe down, or cleaning the front window (our cats love to press their faces on it, so there are kitty nose and paw prints all over it!).  But it's one thing that I wouldn't do normally that is now clean.

The great thing about doing little deep cleans like this is that, over time, you will end up with more of your house clean.  If you get really good at it, then it is like doing a full clean just over time (and if you cycle it right, you just keep cleaning a different thing and the house stays clean).

We all live somewhere, and keeping our space clean has so many benefits.  It improves our health, it improves our mood, and we can function more efficiently in a clean space.  Using cleaning as a form of devotion adds in a spiritual layer, and can help us create a better relationship with beings who watch over our home.  All in all, it's a worthy practice to work on.

Routine reset

 I sort of think of the whole end of the year as 'Holiday Season,' and it typically covers from Samhain through the New Year.  It feels like this whole chunk of time everything is slightly off-kilter, and the routines we are used to are thrown out the window and we have to just figure out how to make everything work.

Holidays are stressful enough, but for those of us who rely upon our routines to help us stay focused and feel balanced, they can be extra crazy making.  Normally, by the time New Year rolls around, I'm well and ready to get back to my normal.  Sometimes I need a bit of extra 'off' time, where I do the barest minimum and just allow myself to have extra space and no expectations.

But eventually I need to get back into it.  And while many people dive right into the new year with big goals and new directions, I often like to get my regular routines back in place first, before starting off on a new venture.

Routine reset can mean different things, depending on what kinds of routines you keep.  I use my planner to help me organize and stick to my routines, and I swap up planners each year, so a new year has some level of new routine for me.  I'm figuring out how to track and plan all the things I need to do alongside the things I want to do, and I'm learning how the new planner format can suit me.

I actually thing this helps me reset my routines, as it's not so much a true going back to what I did before, it's more of a figuring out how to tune my routines to a new structure.  Which really forces me to consider what is most important.  This year especially, I have a completely different core structure in my planner, so less focus on each day and more focus on the week as a whole.  I am hoping this will give me a bit more flexibility while still keeping me on track.

Even if you are adding in new goals straight off the bat, taking some time to ease into them helps you refine your goals to a manageable level.  The impulse is often to dive right in, to take big leaps and jumps while we are inspired and excited, and to push ahead as hard as we can.  And if that works for you, great!  But I find that more often leads to burnout.  I end up being more excited than I have energy to follow through on, and I can't keep up with all these new tasks and goals I've piled on.

Instead, if I start with the idea of resetting my routine, I look for the absolute bare minimum, the core practice or task that will build the foundation for future growth.  I do this for every part of my life.  This 'basic necessities' routine is what I fall back onto when life gets rough.  When I get curve balls or things come up and I can't do all the things I want to do, I return to the basics and I know that I can feel good about maintaining my life without over stressing myself.

So what does this actually mean?  It means being really honest about what things are deeply important to you, and what stuff falls into the 'if I have time/energy' category.  And you might find that some things surprise you.  

When it comes to housework, I absolutely need to vacuum/sweep once a week.  I aim for twice a week, plus dusting and when I'm really ambitious I'll pick one area to deep clean.  But if I don't get that one basic clean in, I just feel horrible.  It effects my energy, and just makes me feel like I'm not doing what I need to do.  So I know my baseline, and I also know what my goal tasks are.

I use this same idea in other areas of my life.  My baseline physical practice is morning stretching.  I have added daily exercise, but on days where I feel particularly low energy I can skip that and just stick to the stretching.  My baseline spiritual practice is daily intention and moon cycle work.  My baseline divination is weekly intention and monthly spreads.  My baseline writing is weekly blog and Patreon posts.  

Making sure I reset my routine at the start of the year gets my feet firmly back on the ground.  It lets me put the foundations in place for all the parts of my life that let me build those areas up more.  If I don't reset my routine, I feel like I'm trying to balance a bunch of new stuff while standing on a tower of sand...like my feet could come out from under me at any moment.

So if you are feeling a bit off balance after all the holiday insanity, try doing a routine reset.  Hone your routines back to their bare minimums, think about what you want to do every day/week/month, and what stuff is more extra stuff you can add in if you have the time/energy.  Start small, and allow yourself a bit of a break before you start building back up.

New year doesn't have to bring newness

 

A lot of people link the New Year with big change.  It's seen by many as some mystical time of setting new goals and dreaming bit.  As a liminal time, there is power in the changing of the year, and it's a natural time to leave behind things we want to be rid of and to envision a better and brighter life for ourselves.

But sometimes, the idea of big change is just too much.  Some years we may not want to do anything big, or even really anything new.  For many people, the last couple of years have been too much, and though I think we all wish for things to be better, the prospect of working that change in our personal lives can feel daunting.  For other people, they have created big changes in their personal lives, and may need a year to regain their footing, a year of rest to really settle into the changes they have already made.

Just because we are starting a new year doesn't mean we have to seek out newness in our life.  Just because we are leaving behind an old year doesn't mean we have to set ourselves up with tasks to either get rid of or bring in different things.  Sometimes, it's okay to just want to stick with our regular patterns.

The thing about life is that it sometimes brings us change whether we want it or not.  I think part of the reason why we look to change at the New Year is because it is a natural time of transition.  I am a huge fan of reflection, of checking in at certain times (and yes the New Year is one of those), because I'm naturally forgetful, and I know that if I don't link reflection to specific times, I will forget to examine my life.  And if I'm not looking at where I am, then nothing will ever change.

But I also understand being overwhelmed by change.  When we are bombarded by changes, especially changes that are big and scary (and completely out of our control), we feel helpless and tiny.  We feel adrift on a turbulent sea, clinging to anything that feels safe and familiar and just wanting to close our eyes, block everything out and reassure ourselves that we have any sort of agency.

It is at these times we might feel a need to sink into our established rhythms instead of trying to change our course.  When we feel out of control, we turn to the familiar as a way to ground and center.  And whether or not the change was big and external or more personal, sometimes we need to focus on stability instead of looking for something new.

Traditions can be very soothing, and if you have built New Year traditions into your personal practice and life, it may feel scary to try to change that, but the nice thing is that you may not have to.  It may just take a bit of twisty thinking, turning your perspective on it's side and considering the New Year from a different angle.

For quite a few years now, I've picked a theme for my years.  Normally this theme comes with the idea of 'big work'.  Whatever my theme is, I'll think about how that can be applied to my life and what I can do to manifest my theme both in my daily life and over the course of the year.  In previous years, I've picked themes of magic (working all the Sabbats as well as increasing my daily practice), moons (working every phase of every moon), and reboot (which was meant to look at both my daily activities and my larger practice and give it a complete overhaul from the ground up...but ended up being about rebooting my health...it's funny how life works out).

I can still work with this idea of having a theme for the year and also incorporate in embracing stability and not seeking out change.  I just need to broaden my thinking to include more restful themes.  I might pick a theme like self-care (and work on being open to my personal needs and allowing myself space to just be with whatever feelings and experiences I'm going through), or maybe I could pick stability (working on really sinking into my daily rhythms and the other structures that make me feel safe and keep my life running smoothly).

Instead of setting forward thinking goals, I could turn them inward, and work on acceptance or empathy or observance.  The key is to find something that doesn't push you.  It may feel counterintuitive, especially if you are normally very goal oriented or if you are someone who finds big dreams helps them get the daily stuff done (I am very much one of those people...if I don't have some kind of bigger picture, then I feel like nothing gets done).  

And sometimes it means just sitting with the idea of having a rest year.  We might have to remind ourselves that 'not doing stuff' can actually be productive.  That if we are constantly going and doing and looking ahead, we never have time to reset and dream.  And both of those are necessary for a balanced and healthy life!

 

Rest time lets us recover our balance.  When we are constantly on the go, we never get a proper reset, and that means we don't fully integrate what we have learned along the way.  Think of it like trying to only survive on naps, instead of getting a proper night's sleep.  Even if you spend the same amount of time 'sleeping', taking 8 one hour naps isn't nearly as restful as sleeping for 8 hours straight.  

 

Dreaming is a creative output.  Dreaming includes time to wonder, to let thoughts drift around in your head just to see where they will go.  It's a form of rest, and it's often where our big ideas come from.  If you are wanting to focus on resting and dreaming, you can gather up your ideas and thoughts and keep them for later, for when you are ready to get back in there.  If you never stop to dream, you might suffer from burnout, from a lack of ideas for new projects.  

 

As we begin this new year, ask yourself if you need a new goal or if you need to step back from newness.  Both are perfect answers, at different times, the key is knowing which is best for you right now.