A Week in the Life of a Student Priestess

[qos]

Keeping a practice log is one of the basic disciplines that fledgling magicians are supposed to engage in. I have a notebook in which I've been writing down notable events, and I post a lot of entries to this journal for my teacher's eyes only, but I hadn't realized that that didn't count as a Practice Log. So a few months ago I created a checklist of the ritual magic practices I'm supposed to be doing every day -- plus some additional work that my teacher wants to be sure I do consistently, although not necessarily every week.

It's been a great tool for keeping me honest about how much of the work I'm actually doing. I'm entitled to feel pleased with myself about the one or two high points in a week, but that doesn't mean it's okay that there are a lot of un-checked boxes.

Last week was pretty good overall, but there were still too many blank boxes.

Each week I update the inspirational images and type in whatever entries I've made on the right so they carry through the entire month.





Click for larger, not-cut-off image

Comments

[morgwensraven.livejournal.com]

wow.. how did you make it? I'm working on developing something similar, but I can't get it to look the way I want. What program did you use?

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

It's actually super-easy. It's just a Word doc with a table.

Use the Table --> Insert Table command from the menu bar. Change the default numbers so it will create a table of 3 columns and 4 rows. The table will be short and symmetrical. Click and hold on the bottom horizontal line and drag it down almost to the bottom of the page. Then click and drag the other lines to get the boxes approximately the size you want them to be.

Each table cell can be filled without impacting the contents of the ohters, except that if you go too far down the lower border line will move down to accommodate the text.

Use the formatting command to make your lines have checkboxes in front of them. (You may have to select an "other options" to find them.)

Use the "Borders and Shading" command to find "Page Border" and select from the pulldown menus.

Insert images using the "insert image --> from file" command. If an image is too big it will push to the next page. Click the image and pull the formatting handles in to make the image smaller, or make a copy of the original image and shrink it before inserting.

Hope that helps!

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

Wow, inspiring!

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

I tend to prefer an organic approach, and I resisted these disciplines strenuously -- but I eventually came to accept that I needed to learn these skills, and that doing so required a degree of focused discipline and repetition that I was unlikely to achieve if left to myself.

The abbreviations are:

QC - Qabalistic Cross
LBRP - The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
TRLB - The Rising Light Below (an exercise by RJ Stewart) which I've been replacing first by Orion Foxwood's Triple Soul Alignment and now a more personal variation
MP - The Middle Pillar

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

I have a question. Where would one find the guidelines for the Triple Soul Alignment? I didn't find much googling it.

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

It's in Orion Foxwood's recent book The Tree of Enchantment, and as I go back and look it up, I find that it's actually called "The Threefold Flame". It's effect is to align the triple soul.

My mistake. . .

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

oh, no problem. thank you.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

Nice one! I have been in the process of trying to figure out how to organise everything I feel I need to include in my studies and practices in a week, so your posting this could not have been better timing. I can surely cobble together something similar to work with.
Thankyou!
Hugs

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of assistance!