A Habit Formed -- Two, Actually

[qos]

I realized this morning that I've performed two different spiritual practices consistently enough, long enough, to bring them to the point of becoming habits.

Last night, due to my divination evening and subsequent conversation, I didn't get to bed until around 12:45 am. Part of me wanted to just throw myself under the covers -- but the stronger, deeper urge was stop and do a Qabalistic Cross first.

I have a whole series of practices that I should be doing each night after that Qabalistic Cross: the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentragram, the Rising Light Below and/or Triple Soul Alignment, the Middle Pillar, and a second QC. I'm doing better at consistency, but I'm far from where I need to be. But I've been doing at least a Qabalistic Cross every night for the past couple of months. And now it seems to be embedded in my consciousness that I simply must do one before bed.

Which is A Good Thing.

The last time I had any spiritual practice that was at the level of a habit, it was my bedtime prayers when I was growing up. I prayed every night until my existential crisis silenced my prayers. (Although, on reflection, I think I continued to pray in a different way, a way I didn't recognize as prayer at the time. . . . but that's a different post.)

The other spiritual practice that has become a habit is my morning and evening Cup Ritual with LM at the marriage altar. The only time I've failed to do both evening and morning is when I've not been sleeping at home. I need to develop a conscious alternate form for those times, even though they happen so infrequently.

This milestone gives me great satisfaction. One of the challenges with my path is that the goals are often nebulous (to me), and it's never clear how long it's going to take to reach the next point where I can say with satisfaction that I've acheived something concrete. Yesterday my teacher compared it to driving to a known goal but using a map that doesn't have the scale or mileage indicated, so you have no idea how long it will take to get there.

I don't think I ever actually expected to form a habit around these practices, so it was a truly unexpected surprise to realize I had done so.

Comments

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

That's great!