DISCUSSION: Daily Practices

[loona wynd]

This is a discussion about the little actions or large actions we take everyday as part of being on our religious and spiritual paths. These daily practices help us be connected to our spirituality in our daily lives. It is often these simple daily reminders that can keep us on track when the rest of the world seems to be falling apart around us. These daily practices are what can form the very basis of our spiritual and religious practices.

So what are some of your daily practices that you use every day to keep yourself on your path?

[Xiao Rong]

Great topic, Loona! I'm excited to see what everyone says.

Lately, as I'm learning Tarot, I've been doing a daily reading for myself, and taking notes on each new card that I draw in a notebook that I've dedicated towards the Tarot studies, including keywords, observations, visual imagery, reinforcing and opposing cards, etc. Although I'm also monitoring my own reactions carefully - if I notice I'm getting too dependent on them or the readings start dictating my mood for the whole day, I'll stop (although usually it's not bad because I get around to them in the middle of the day).

[loona wynd]

Great topic, Loona! I'm excited to see what everyone says.

This topic recently came up in my Feri training group. So it made me think about what might be said here. I also thought that by having a thread like this we might be able to encourage people to develop their own daily practices if they don't really have any themselves.

Rather than just asking questions to get a specific answer, I want to ask questions that will spark discussion on the forums. While having questions with specific answers is great, I have found personally that many people get more out of discussion exchanges than they do a simple Q&A. Discussion does provide exchanges of ideas and we can all learn from them.

Lately, as I'm learning Tarot, I've been doing a daily reading for myself, and taking notes on each new card that I draw in a notebook that I've dedicated towards the Tarot studies, including keywords, observations, visual imagery, reinforcing and opposing cards, etc. Although I'm also monitoring my own reactions carefully - if I notice I'm getting too dependent on them or the readings start dictating my mood for the whole day, I'll stop (although usually it's not bad because I get around to them in the middle of the day).

Thats cool. I myself have a tarot journal as well. Though that journal mainly consists of readings I have done. By looking at the cards in the different positions in different readings I can get a deeper understanding of the cards. I'm also working through a book on the Major arcana that relates those cards to characters in Buffy the Vampire slayer. The way this author presents the tarot cards and charterers you can really see why each character embodies the card that she says she does.

Anything else you do?

[Seraphin]

It took a lot of meditative exploration of spiritual reality before I could incorporate the experience of spiritual awareness into my everyday life. I'd set that as a goal early on, believing that awareness on that level was not only possible but desirable. It started with my learning to be "in the moment", mindful of the energy around me and the way my personal energy interacted with it, and it grew from there to the consistent state of spiritual awareness that I experience in my life now. I find that taking myself into a deeper meditative state on a regular basis serves to strengthen and expand my awareness. While I neither sit in the lotus position nor chant, if those things facilitated my personal spiritual growth I'd do them in a heartbeat.

Taking the step toward consistent, ongoing spiritual awareness may not be the best goal for everyone; some folks simply need and want to keep their mundane and spiritual experiences separate, and that's fine too, I believe. Whether one is always aware and connected or one reserves connection for the meditative state is a personal choice based on one's temperament and personal path. One isn't better than the other; they're just different.

Should probably add here that lately, I've been writing a number of meditations, spells, and some magickal and spiritual lessons to use with our Friday Healing Circle; we start every session with a grounding and centering exercise, and often use the first half of class time for guided group meditation. Sometimes I will from a script (something I'd prepared prior to class), but sometimes I will just wing it, leaning on intuition to guide the group through whatever was needed at the moment.

[Xiao Rong]

a book on the Major arcana that relates those cards to characters in Buffy the Vampire slayer.

WHAT. WHAT BOOK IS THIS. I am a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I kind of need that book ASAP!!! (I am doing a dance of geek-out right now!)

It took a lot of meditative exploration of spiritual reality before I could incorporate the experience of spiritual awareness into my everyday life.

That's another thing I'm trying to do - start daily meditations / mindfulness practice. I'm usually really bad at remembering though, and I get sidetracked by other stuff that happens in the day, but I really should!

[Seraphin]

That's another thing I'm trying to do - start daily meditations / mindfulness practice. I'm usually really bad at remembering though, and I get sidetracked by other stuff that happens in the day, but I really should!

I wish I could remember how long it took me to get to the point where I could incorporate the experience of spiritual and magickal awareness into my everyday life -- I can't stress how important it was for me to explore how to do this, how to keep myself on my path.

I know it took me less than six months to get to the point where I could do it, and it probably would have taken a lot less time if I'd have had any lessons whatsoever in the process, but then I didn't want external teachings (just guidance). I started with the conclusion that if spiritual connections are truly available (and I was going on the assumption that they were), then they are available to anyone, not just a special few. From there, it was a matter of finding how to connect and become consciously aware of spiritual reality in my daily life. It really helped that I believed it was possible, that I wasn't just looking to see if it could be done, but looking for how I could do it.

So I experimented with different approaches to meditation, not methods suggested by others but just trying different things that made sense to me. I found that if I started with a question or a concept to explore, the meditation would certainly begin with word-thoughts, but at some point I'd kind of come to the end of those thought processes and just will myself (intend) to listen for more information, and in that part of the meditative process I found my first connections.

[Firebird]

21 days to change
I have read that it take this amount of time for something to become a regular habit.

I go to my apple tree every morning and ask the Goddess to grant me the knowledge of her will for me and the power to carry it out.

BB, Firebird

[loona wynd]

a book on the Major arcana that relates those cards to characters in Buffy the Vampire slayer.

WHAT. WHAT BOOK IS THIS. I am a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I kind of need that book ASAP!!! (I am doing a dance of geek-out right now!)

Mary Caelsto's The Fools journey through Sunnydale

It's one of the books I am reviewing for that publisher.

[YanaKhan]

My daily practice is banishing and grounding. I am considering daily meditations too, ,something I should have started a long time ago.
I also draw a Tarot card every day, just like Xiao, it's a great idea to try and make a diary of it (which I haven't). The predictions have been quite accurate so far.

[Xiao Rong]

Mary Caelsto's The Fools journey through Sunnydale

It's one of the books I am reviewing for that publisher.

Sweet, thanks!

[Alura Noel]

Nice topic! I'm really curious what everyone has to share


I am trying to meditate more. I'm on the hunt for Bell meditation music but have yet to find one I like.

Mindfulness practices.

Every day I write 5 things that I am grateful or feel blessed about. I call it Gratitude practice. Since starting this I consistently feel much happier about life and things in general.

I usually do a daily draw in the morning using my Lenormand cards with the purpose for it to tell me one thing about my day. I also draw one tarot card with the aim towards it giving me Advice that I need most for that day. This combination really seems to work well.

[hecate8]

I do the LBRP daily, and up until recently I did spellwork daily as well. The LBRP helps in so many ways that I'll probably at least want to always do it daily.

[Alura Noel]

What does LBRP stand for?

[Firebird]

Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram...it is generally used by ceremonialist pagans.
FF

[Heartsong]

Every morning, I look out my bathroom window and admire the woods, less than a few yards from my house. It's a wonderful way to center myself before I head out for work, and I find that daily reminder of how close I live to nature really helps me to make a better effort to actively practice my path. I also try and perform a reading at least a couple times a week (although sometimes I'm just too drained from work to get around to it).