In February I’m recommitting myself to magic.
Wait, I hear some of you saying: You write a weekly column on magic, you’ve done a ridiculous number of intentions in the last couple of weeks, and you are active in several restricted membership magical groups. You give magical advice to your clients like you are all fucking that! And you are recommitting yourself to magic?
Of course I am. And, from time to time, so should you.
Why recommit?
Everyone needs a reset and a refresh in their practices from time to time. For me, the end of the year had me needing a break. I’d just done two rounds of the Lunation Rite back to back, I’d committed to several group magical activities / intentions, my other daily practices had fallen off a bit, and my working room was left a mess after the holidays.
In addition, I had several rounds of symbolic but annoying issues to cope with (eclipse flu, yay).
So it was time for a reset and cleanup.
What does recommitment mean?
For me, it’s a change to step back and revisit all aspects of magical work. What you do, how and when you do it, and — above all — what are you doing it for.
I’m thinking about how to reformulate daily practice in light of the lunation rite, how much to rely on various tools and techniques from my ever increasing basket of options, and what larger magical goals will be ahead of me this year. This is in line with the cheater resolutions I’ve talked about in the past. New Year was the WRONG time for this, but now is the right time.
It’s also a time to do the necessary supporting work, tying the magical in with the mundane. This weekend saw me rearranging the working room, cleaning and reconfiguring magical spaces, hand-washing antique lace altar cloths, removing many layers of incense ash, peeling wax off of stuff, collecting magical books from all over the house, and making sure my supplies are in order. There’s always practical stuff like that to do, but sometimes it clumps up.
In addition, I made a few short-term magical goals to set myself up for success. I filled up my backlog of sigil statements to make regular launches easier. This meant stepping back from what had been a lot of magical success last year to prioritize new goals as well as maintenance of existing ones. For example, it’s clear that health work should be ongoing and not just when we’re sick (a real duh! moment).
I also identified a few modalities that I want to revisit or experiment with in the coming year. Ongoing learning makes the work more engaging and keeps it from getting stale. For example, it’s time to really dig into The Game of Saturn and the Sola Busca deck. I want to exercise my PGM muscles some more. And I feel like I’ve been neglecting some members of my posse (sorry!).
When to Recommit
There’s no rule about this. You recommit when your commitment flags, when life intervenes, or when things become rote. It can be several time a year or not for many years. It’s a completely personal thing.
But it’s overall a good thing. Remember what I said about habits eliminating conscious thought? That applies here. When the work we’re regularly doing becomes so automatic that we don’t have to bring any mindfulness to it at all, it came become ineffective. Then there’s the risk of dropping it entirely because it no longer works. The process of recommitment avoids that.
