Cultivating Action

Magickal routines aren’t easy to keep up with. Which is an understatement for anyone that has tried to implement some form of work into their schedule, and that is what Witches end up doing in order to be successful. For example, one of the basic building blocks from which various magickal techniques are built is meditation. Trying to learn to meditate effectively and make it a regular part of one’s practice is no easy feat. Why? For the same reason that a lot of other things that we know are good for us and will make us better are hard to do. They are work.

To be completely honest when it comes to these things; we don’t want to. I would much rather get an extra ten minutes of sleep in the morning than to make myself get up so that I have that little bit of extra time. This is part of being a Witch is about. No, not the laying in bed part, but the other part. To be successful, a Witch has to make it a part of their essence to force themselves, whether they want to or not, to get up and go do what needs to be done.

In fact, being a successful Witch can and will make one more successful in other parts of life. Once a Witch develops the self-discipline needed to follow a pretty regimented schedule, then this same self-discipline can be applied to other parts of life. None of the people I know that exercise regularly, myself included, want to get up and go to the gym or go running, or whatever method is used. Nope, not a one of them. I have to force myself. Every. Single. Time. The same goes for almost anything that is not easy and time consuming.

Sure you’ll think of excuses, sure many, if not all, of them will sound very convincing. Step one is the idea that blank needs to be done. Before that thought is done, an excuse is going to show up. If the excuse is dwelt on for any amount of time, or given the slightest bit of recognition, it has been given power. Maybe you’ll win that battle in the end, but it is just as likely that the Dweller will triumph.

We can, as Witches, take steps that will help to mitigate excuses. There are two approaches that can be used, that in combination will make the likelihood of winning the initial battle easier. It takes a LOT of small battles, which never go away, to be won in order for the larger ones to be won.

The moment an excuse shows up, ignore it and turn the attention somewhere else. That is the first approach, not giving the excuse the time in which to arm itself with our own logic, because if allowed to, we will talk ourselves out of anything. The next thing, which is going to take willpower in-of-itself, is to immediately take some forward moving action towards achieving that goal. Thought occurs—‘I should really start taking a multi-vitamin everyday—Immediately do something—*Grabs phone and puts two alarms in; one to go off when next at the grocery store, reminding me to buy vitamins; the other to go off every day, reminding me to take said vitamins.*—All that is left is following through.

This same thing can be used for other more difficult items, say with our first example of meditation. Lets even say plans are made and the morning alarm clock is moved just a smidge so as to give time to meditate. Now, that battle that has to be won is a tough one, it is over sleep. The trick is forcing oneself when tired, groggy, and still half asleep to do something towards actually getting up and not just hitting the snooze and sleeping until the normal time. Try getting two alarms, and putting one on the other side of the room so that you have to get up to silence it; just don’t get back in bed, at this point no extra sleep is coming, FORCE yourself to go meditate.

With practice this approach will become the norm and when a thought comes, without thinking, action will be taken. Waste no time arguing or convincing yourself otherwise, just do it based on that impulse that has been cultivated.

What methods do you use to make yourself do the work?

Boidh se!

-Spanish Moss

"Lost in a thicket bare-footed upon a thorned path."