On Ostara, Thinking Back to Imbolc

For Imbolc, I set 12 goals, which I wrote in affirmation language. They were as follow:

1. I care for my body by eating well and regular movement so that I have energy to accomplish my goals.
2. I have a reasonable budget and plan for paying regularly on my student loan.
3. I am at peace with my family and am able to enjoy spending time with them.
4. Our home is a lovely, sacred sanctuary to the Gods.
5. I am enjoying awakened and fulfilled sexuality.
6. I live free of anxiety attacks.
7. I support myself and my partner in having our relationship needs met.
8. I am in touch with the spirits of my daughter and my father.
9. I have finished my first full-length novel, The Crossing.
10. I am a contributing and appreciated member of my professional and physical community.
11. I am a member of a spiritual community, feeling fulfilled and challenged, loved and supported.
12. I have fully reconnected with the Gods and have reintegrated my spiritual practice and my daily life.

Almost as soon as I set them, some of them started to happen; namely #6, #8 and #12. Others are quickly starting to germinate: #1, #2, #10 and #11. And still others are slowly quickening. I'm not sure what the end of the year will bring, but at this point, it seems likely that it will be good things.

Part of my regular practice with WSTS is daily devotionals. These involve both setting intention and gratitude. I am convinced that these two very simple things are a large part of why things are starting to shift. I am also reminded that magick works best when you do it, create some alignment via action and then STOP OBSESSING OVER IT. And I've been able to do that more easily than I remember.

When I first started down this path decades ago, I didn't have a lot of education to back up what I intuitively understood. I got the idea of symbolic and sympathetic magick pretty quickly, and then layered years of talking about ritual laying patterns in the soul with my work at the Grove. Years later I know that many of these principles of magick and ritual are backed up by studies in human behavior, in seeing what allows us to change. Or maybe those in-between years of experience and education have colored how I remember intuiting the basics of why magic works. Whether you believe it's about sending out energy into the world (like literally, in waves, a sort of quantum physics approach) or about reprogramming your mind, the result can be the same. 

So I'll continue to let myself be guided, whether it be by subconscious intent or energy waves, towards making these goals happen without obsessing over them daily. I'll continue the practice of intention and gratitude. And I'll continue to check in. I gotta say, I'm excited about the way things are moving in my life right now. So much to appreciate and take in. So much to love about living.