My House Feels Wonderful This Morning

One of the reasons my house feels wonderful is the simple aftermath of a good, thorough cleaning. Even though I didn't get the stairs vaccuumed, or all the books off the stairway (most are up!) the clutter is out, my main space was vaccuumed, my dining room table was cleared off, the downstairs bathroom scrubbed -- and there's a lightness and expansiveness to the place that had gotten lost over the past few weeks of Christmas packaging, recyling building up, and general clutter.

The other aspect is that last night it was blessed with the wonderful energies of four old friends: a_belletrist and three ladies from the old WIT group, who came over for divination and conversation. There turned out to be rather more conversation and less divination, but all of it turned out to be fun and loving and powerful.

None of them had visited this residence before, so I had the fun of giving them the grand tour.

Instead of doing tarot readings for each other, which is the usual practice for those gatherings, one of my friends did intuitive readings for the rest of us -- and those were very powerful and on-point. The one she gave me didn't give me information that was particularly new, but vividly confirmed and deepened an awareness I already have. The imagery of her "painting" is going to stay with me for a long time.

Towards the end of the evening, I did a tarot reading for her. At first I was sure I was getting a "busy signal from the universe" because the way the cards wanted to be laid out was utterly different from anything I've done before, and I didn't have any idea what the meanings were or how it all fit together until I felt the "enough" impulse after the fifth card and sat back to look at the pattern as a whole. Then the information and insight started flowing -- including a somewhat non-standard reading for the Fool card, but one which really felt right.

A little after 10pm the WIT ladies left and I asked a_belletrist if she could stay for a while. We ended up talking until around 12:30, and it was quite wonderful. She and I haven't been able to get together nearly as often as we'd like.

I feel like both my home and I were beautifully blessed last night.

No Contest

I found this utterly predictable, but still funny. . . .

gothic_coop, you'll especially appreciate this.

A Habit Formed -- Two, Actually

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.

(no subject)

It's snowing.
Again.

*insert your favorite expletive here