Okay, so a bit ago I was thinking about stuff to write about, and I stumbled across this blog post: 65 Prompts for Pagan Prayer Journaling. Now, this is a fabulous list of things to write about, but what especially caught my eye was the reframe it had on studying, notes, daily practice and journaling!
As someone who is a big fan of taking personal notes (I definitely remember more when I have to write it out by hand, but also information sinks in better if I need to reword it into my own words), I still think of 'notetaking' as a formal process. I have organized Books of Shadows, as well as a whole collection of notebooks that hold other notes and information I've written down. And in my head, the goal is always to keep information tidy, so that when I want to find it again, I can.
But the idea of just writing stuff down everyday, whatever comes up or seems to want to be written down is such an enticing one. I used to keep an 'internet notebook' just for copying over stuff I found online that I wanted to have..but didn't really fit in my BOS or maybe I wasn't sure where I wanted to put it just yet. I sadly fell out of the habit as I got more used to just bookmarking sites (to be read later....my tbr bookmark selection is like my book tbr list....it's longer than I expect my lifetime to be, and I expect to live for quite a long time!)
I also feel this practice of keeping your daily writing in one place would be very helpful if you are one of those people who (like me) struggles with remembering to work in books that are put away (sometimes, the act of pulling out the specific book I want to write in is too much and I don't end up doing anything at all). It would also be great if you spend a lot of time outside your home, as you would only need a single notebook to carry with you!) You could even do this on a journaling app (which makes it even more travel friendly, and you could find one that lets you tag or organize your notes in a way that works for you).
One of the things I really like about this idea is that it lets you vary your daily spiritual writing practice. Especially when you use a prompt list like this, you have lots of ideas of stuff to write about, when you want to do something spiritual but maybe don't have anything specific in mind (please tell me I'm not the only one who wants to do something but then kinda gets hung up on what to do).
It's kind of like a combination of a commonplace book (which is basically your personal journal of helpful tips and information to remember....made popular back in the days before published books were a reasonable price for the average person), a bullet journal (where you note down important stuff from your day) and BOS (specifically the style of BOS that is like a personal magic diary).
I definitely see aspects of this when I look for examples of witchy/Pagan bullet journals or calendar work. And I used to see these pretty (or functional, depending on your style) pages of notes and think "wow, that would never work for me, I wouldn't ever be able to find anything", but I think that's really not the point of this type of practice.
Sure, you may end up with notes on things you are interested in and studying, and of course you could go back through your journals and compile the notes into something more cohesive...but you could also just keep making new notes (especially if you are like me, and your brain remembers best through small bits of repetition over the years...it's okay if this is my millionth time writing about astrology because I still don't remember what all the signs mean!!!)
Looking over the list, I think a lot of it could be distilled down to: "Find a thing that interests you today. Read about it, or do it...then write about it." It's an action and then a reaction, and that's where the beauty lies! It's funny, while I always hated reflections when I had to write them in school (especially reflecting on papers I had written..I hadn't yet figured out that teachers weren't just there to give me grades, but to help me learn, and that honest reflection on what went good, what went bad and how you felt about it is such a major part of learning).
In some ways, I think that is something that can be missing from solitary practice: the feedback. This style of journaling allows you to give your own feedback, both immediately and also later, when you go back and read what you wrote previously. In fact, that would be my own addition to the list: read a previous journal entry and then write your current thoughts on what you wrote before.
I also really like that they include brainstorming and planning as part of it. Brainstorming or just coming up with ideas is such a great task, and it's something that we sometimes forget we can do in an unfocused way. Sure, we can plan out that next ritual or gathering we are attending, but we can also just keep a running list of: things we'd like to research, ideas we read that we want to try (someday), ritual ideas that would be fun, books to read, tools to buy....anything that you may want to do in the future (but have no definite plans for right now). The best thing about playing with brainstorming like this is you end up with things you can turn to later (when you are actually looking for stuff to do).
But the absolute best thing (in my opinion) about informal notes like this is that there are no rules. You don't have to format it in a specific way, you don't have to list your sources (but you can if you want!), you don't have to have all the answers or even know really what you are going to do. Just pick a thing, and let your thoughts flow onto paper.
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