![\"\"](\"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Journal.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/a>(<\/i><\/span>Leather Bound, <\/i><\/span>Pentacle <\/i><\/span>Journal<\/i><\/span><\/a> <\/i>by Samantha & Jason<\/a> of Earthwork\u2019s Journals<\/a>, Home of the H<\/i><\/span>andmade Journal on Etsy.)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My mum was a music teacher. A strict one at that. She had this way of showing her immense disapproval with a slight tut and a look away. You ask any music teacher, any teacher at all really if they know that their student has been practicing or not, and they can tell a mile away.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy parents…\u201d I don\u2019t teach kids, except my own. So I am supposed to be talking to a grown ass adult? Most of the work I set is not a big witchy ritual with lots of pagan drumming. If you mean you have to clean your whole house because you are about to be \u201cinspected\u201d I can sort of understand. Yet again I say grown ass adult. If you mean, I must remove all pagan, witchy, spiritual stuff from my judgmental folks because I\u2019m afraid, still in the broom-closet, don\u2019t want to deal with that fight, I say \u201cOh boy, you need some good therapy\u201d. Families are difficult and hard work and some are even legitimately dangerous for your wellbeing. If you are feeling fear, shame or any combination thereof I would kindly suggest that while they might share your D.N.A. that isn\u2019t family. Family is safety and support. Family is love and trust. If you have to hide such a fundamental part of who you are from these people, then my home work is the least of your problems. I\u2019ve known pagans come out to deeply religious or difficult parents, it tends to go one of two ways. They range from loving and surprising supportive or amazingly indifferent at one end to violent screaming loathing at the other. The truth is they might surprise you. Good parents are usually that, and crappy ones are well, crappy. None of which is about you.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t understand it.\u201d This comes down to the idea that magick and its practice should enlighten and fix things immediately, well, like magick. They try something once and if it doesn\u2019t fix everything at once it can\u2019t be \u201creal\u201d or \u201cspecial\u201d. It is hard to see the benefit of brushing your teeth if you only do it once. I mean they get dirty again, what\u2019s the point? Spiritual practice is like that. Magickal and mental cleanliness are not just good practice but important foundations. This is a trap more mature or experienced practitioners can fall into. They know the how and the why, and they do other deeper work and neglect the basics. Understanding something doesn\u2019t always happen the first time you try something, or the tenth, or the hundredth. In fact understanding a practice ca be layered and nothing it teaches you is \u201cwrong\u201d or useless. It can\u2019t teach you anything if you don\u2019t do it!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In other startling revelations if you\u2019re going to do your \u201cdaily journal\u201d in the car before you turn up, park further up the street so I can\u2019t see you! Magickal practice is not difficult. It\u2019s not for only one kind of pagan or witch. It doesn\u2019t care if you are bookish or not, or if you are smart or not. Able bodied or not. It doesn\u2019t care how rich you are or what kind of background you have. It is open to everyone. The only factor is this, will you leave your excuses at the door and do the work? Then magick and knowledge will come. Maybe not easily, maybe not quickly but if you work at it you will be rewarded in ways you can not imagine.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Leather Bound, Pentacle Journal by Samantha & Jason of Earthwork\u2019s Journals, Home of the Handmade Journal on Etsy.) My mum was a music teacher. A strict one at that. She had this way of showing her immense disapproval with a slight tut and a look away. You ask any music teacher, any teacher at all really if they know that their student has been practicing or not, and they can tell a mile away. \u201cAnd you practiced every day?\u201d Maybe that\u2019s where I get it from. I\u2019m a pretty good student. I take anything I study seriously (I make Hermione Granger look like a slacker) and I love to learn. Yet even as young as 18 I was already teaching my peers. I was good at encouraging and explaining. I was pretty fearless (but not reckless). It just kept happening really. My last year of 6th form college (high school) I was sitting as a medium with psychic circles between three or four times a week on equal footing as some who had been practicing some 50 years (Glenis was lovely). I was doing card readings every lunch and break every day. I started reading cards at 14 (playing cards) from my friend\u2019s mum who was a real gypsy. It didn\u2019t think of it as \u201cwork\u201d back then. Back then it was like finding out you\u2019re are a prodigy at something and going full tilt. This means I don\u2019t get it. I just don\u2019t understand the excuses. I\u2019ve heard a lot over the years. \u201cI didn\u2019t have time.\u201d \u201cI have a lot on at work.\u201d \u201cMy husband\/boyfriend\/girlfriend was\u2026\u201d \u201cMy parents were around.\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t understand it.\u201d I mean I could go on and on and on. The only excuse I allow is sickness. It\u2019s damn hard to work on a breathing technique if you\u2019ve been throwing your guts up! Let me start with \u201cI didn\u2019t have time\u201d. There is no perfect time to do the work. It\u2019s like doing the dishes or brushing your teeth; it doesn\u2019t care how busy you are and it shows if you do it \u201conly on the weekend\u201d. The magick techniques I give out to students are accumulative and knowing more in the craft means I expect you to do more, not less. Most of my assignments I give take between 10 minutes daily, maybe slightly longer on the weekend or a pilgrimage somewhere. The other thing is the techniques are of for you to use in the world, in your life. They are designed to change how you see, and think and interact with the world. When you give me this excuse I hear one thing: \u201cI couldn\u2019t be bothered\u201d. I don\u2019t care if you do it in the shower, in the car, on the loo, getting your mind in order is important. \u201cI have a lot on at work.\u201d In truth I don\u2019t really know why this is seen as an excuse. If I am trying to give a tool that helps focus your thinking and mind I am actually trying to help you, not hinder. This reads in a couple of ways. \u201cI\u2019m important in my job so you can\u2019t make me feel bad for not doing what I said I would do.\u201d Or \u201cI am so stressed out that I worry if a take a minute to think about it my head might actually explode.\u201d Either way your clear and clever excuse sounds like what it is to me: fear. I hear the fear and the bluster. Either way you have to show a little faith. Set aside your ego for a few minutes and I promise the world won\u2019t fall apart. \u201cMy boyfriend\u2026\u201d I understand that the drama of some relationships impacts a lot. However this relationship is your choice. If it is damaging, violent or difficult don\u2019t bring it to me. You will not want my honest opinion. Relationships are hard work but they shouldn\u2019t consume your whole life. If things are tense or very emotional maybe the work I\u2019ve given you is supposed to help soothe that? Trust me a little? The truth is you can not (and should not) control other people\u2019s behaviour. What you can control is yourself and I\u2019m guessing that\u2019s what I am trying to teach you. \u201cMy parents…\u201d I don\u2019t teach kids, except my own. So I am supposed to be talking to a grown ass adult? Most of the work I set is not a big witchy ritual with lots of pagan drumming. If you mean you have to clean your whole house because you are about to be \u201cinspected\u201d I can sort of understand. Yet again I say grown ass adult. If you mean, I must remove all pagan, witchy, spiritual stuff from my judgmental folks because I\u2019m afraid, still in the broom-closet, don\u2019t want to deal with that fight, I say \u201cOh boy, you need some good therapy\u201d. Families are difficult and hard work and some are even legitimately dangerous for your wellbeing. If you are feeling fear, shame or any combination thereof I would kindly suggest that while they might share your D.N.A. that isn\u2019t family. Family is safety and support. Family is love and trust. If you have to hide such a fundamental part of who you are from these people, then my home work is the least of your problems. I\u2019ve known pagans come out to deeply religious or difficult parents, it tends to go one of two ways. They range from loving and surprising supportive or amazingly indifferent at one end to violent screaming loathing at the other. The truth is they might surprise you. Good parents are usually that, and crappy ones are well, crappy. None of which is about you. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand it.\u201d This comes down to the idea that magick and its practice should enlighten and fix things immediately, well, like magick. They try something once and if it doesn\u2019t fix everything at once it can\u2019t be \u201creal\u201d or \u201cspecial\u201d. It is hard to see the benefit of brushing your teeth if you only do it once. I mean they get dirty again, what\u2019s the point? Spiritual practice is like that. Magickal and mental cleanliness are not just good practice but important foundations. This is a trap more mature or experienced practitioners can fall into. They know the how and the why, and they do other deeper work and neglect the basics. Understanding something doesn\u2019t always happen the first time you try something, or the tenth, or the hundredth. In fact understanding a practice ca be layered and nothing it teaches you is \u201cwrong\u201d or useless. It can\u2019t teach you anything if you don\u2019t do it! In other startling revelations if you\u2019re going to do your \u201cdaily journal\u201d in the car before you turn up, park further up the street so I can\u2019t see you! Magickal practice is not difficult. It\u2019s not for only one kind of pagan or witch. It doesn\u2019t care if you are bookish or not, or if you are smart or not. Able bodied or not. It doesn\u2019t care how rich you are or what kind of background you have. It is open to everyone. The only factor is this, will you leave your excuses at the door and do the work? Then magick and knowledge will come. Maybe not easily, maybe not quickly but if you work at it you will be rewarded in ways you can not imagine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13476,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14135\/revisions\/13476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cAnd you practiced every day?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMaybe that\u2019s where I get it from.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m a pretty good student. I take anything I study seriously (I make Hermione Granger look like a slacker) and I love to learn. Yet even as young as 18 I was already teaching my peers. I was good at encouraging and explaining. I was pretty fearless (but not reckless). It just kept happening really.
\nMy last year of 6th form college (high school) I was sitting as a medium with psychic circles between three or four times a week on equal footing as some who had been practicing some 50 years (Glenis was lovely). I was doing card readings every lunch and break every day. I started reading cards at 14 (playing cards) from my friend\u2019s mum who was a real gypsy.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nIt didn\u2019t think of it as \u201cwork\u201d back then.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nBack then it was like finding out you\u2019re are a prodigy at something and going full tilt.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThis means I don\u2019t get it.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nI just don\u2019t understand the excuses. I\u2019ve heard a lot over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t have time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cI have a lot on at work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cMy husband\/boyfriend\/girlfriend was\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cMy parents were around.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\nI mean I could go on and on and on. The only excuse I allow is sickness. It\u2019s damn hard to work on a breathing technique if you\u2019ve been throwing your guts up!<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLet me start with \u201cI didn\u2019t have time\u201d. There is no perfect time to do the work. It\u2019s like doing the dishes or brushing your teeth; it doesn\u2019t care how busy you are and it shows if you do it \u201conly on the weekend\u201d. The magick techniques I give out to students are accumulative and knowing more in the craft means I expect you to do more, not less. Most of my assignments I give take between 10 minutes daily, maybe slightly longer on the weekend or a pilgrimage somewhere. The other thing is the techniques are of for you to use in the world, in your life. They are designed to change how you see, and think and interact with the world. When you give me this excuse I hear one thing: \u201cI couldn\u2019t be bothered\u201d. I don\u2019t care if you do it in the shower, in the car, on the loo, getting your mind in order is important.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cI have a lot on at work.\u201d In truth I don\u2019t really know why this is seen as an excuse. If I am trying to give a tool that helps focus your thinking and mind I am actually trying to help you, not hinder. This reads in a couple of ways. \u201cI\u2019m important in my job so you can\u2019t make me feel bad for not doing what I said I would do.\u201d Or \u201cI am so stressed out that I worry if a take a minute to think about it my head might actually explode.\u201d Either way your clear and clever excuse sounds like what it is to me: fear. I hear the fear and the bluster. Either way you have to show a little faith. Set aside your ego for a few minutes and I promise the world won\u2019t fall apart.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cMy boyfriend\u2026\u201d I understand that the drama of some relationships impacts a lot. However this relationship is your choice. If it is damaging, violent or difficult don\u2019t bring it to me. You will not want my honest opinion. Relationships are hard work but they shouldn\u2019t consume your whole life. If things are tense or very emotional maybe the work I\u2019ve given you is supposed to help soothe that? Trust me a little? The truth is you can not (and should not) control other people\u2019s behaviour. What you can control is yourself and I\u2019m guessing that\u2019s what I am trying to teach you.<\/span><\/p>\n