Practicing Together #2

Published by

Catriona McDonald

11 March 2013

Snow creates wonderful opportunities for silence.

Seed thought taken from Leaning into Mystery: Practicing Together #7.

I noticed that (and I’ve said this before) that I really dig Mercury retrograde periods. I know not everyone does, and some folks are adversely affected, but for me, it’s provided valuable opportunities to really say what I mean, and address deep-seating issues that I had been trying to ignore.

This week, I invite in quality altar time. The household shrine gets a lot of attention, but my woo-woo altar could use some extra lovin’.

Ways this could happen: Just taking 10 minutes in the morning to sit with that altar. There are many modification I want to make to the space, but none of them will happen if I don’t have a clearer vision of where I’m headed first.

What went well: Even though I had a rather frenetic week, I did manage to carve out some quality quiet time, particularly early in the mornings. I’ve found that I really need to get up about a half-hour before the rest of the household so that I can accomplish this. The payoff was noticeable, however, in that I was much more able to cope with the unexpected having taken the time to find my balance.

Updates: Still working through the last of the homework from the Strategic Sorcery course, and still procrastinating writing to my Ovate tutor. If I can’t break the latter block this week, I’ll be inviting in “do dumb stuff fast” next week!

4 responses to “Practicing Together #2”

SpidrGoddess

11 March 2013

I agree with you in that Mercury Retrograde can be a time of growth and not a time for panic. I think folks should learn to shift their perspectives on this one….. Great post.

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1. Catriona McDonald
  
  11 March 2013
  
  Thank you. 🙂 In my view, retrogrades are like rainy days: they have their own sets of challenges, but do help growth in the long run.
  
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Nornoriel

11 March 2013

Yeah, while I tend to get hit by the retrogrades (I have a very heavily aspected Mercury in my bio-chart), I do think a lot of neopagans and occultists think the sky is falling when Mercury retrograde happens and give it way more credit for things going ‘splody than it’s due (including blaming Mercury retrograde for stuff when Mercury isn’t even retrograde :P). I myself am trying to shift my perspective into the time being one for reflection and clarity of communication and so on. It’s hard, but.

And yay for giving your woo-woo altar some extra lovin’. 😉 It’d be interesting to see what the altar looks like once you’ve made the adjustments…

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1. Catriona McDonald
  
  11 March 2013
  
  A lot of what I want to do with the altar is artwork, and I need to make space to get that done (various symbolic sigils and whatnot). Like, I want to do series of small paintings of the SS spirits, the elements, the planets & zodiac, etc. and put those on the wall behind my working space. And I’m currently using a bookshelf that really doesn’t do it for me–too much clutter visually speaking. Arghblargl…yes, more clarity is needed!
  
  And yes, shifting perspectives about retro!Mercury is tough, especially when so much of the pagan/occultist culture is wigging out about it. I know I can be a bit on the pollyanna side at times, but I do thing one can wring growth from these sorts of difficulties. At least it means the exercise wasn’t in vain, right? ;p
  
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