Making myself acknowledge what I’ve gotten done

[flamingsword]

I have been a bit busy I guess.

• The duster that I’m knitting is most of the way done, and I am so ready to be done with it. It’s really the most ambitiously sized garment I’ve ever tried to take on, and I’m going to take roughly a gazillion pictures of it soon. So close.

• read roughly a million articles about professional stuff at work bc a coworker asked me a question that I couldn’t answer. (For those wondering, there really isn’t much a massage therapist can do for your bunions, but we can tell you to lace your shoes starting at the grommet above the bony growth so that the shoes are not irritating it and making it grow faster.)

• I sold $40 worth of lolita gear at way-below-market rates (and gave away a petticoat and an underskirt) bc I want it out of my freaking closet. (I bought one $50 blouse at the going rate, but! it will work with one of my dresses, and it only takes up one hangars worth of space, so shhh! You didn’t see nothin’!)

• I gave away a bunch of booze the weekend before this one (since I don’t want to lug fragile containers of booze across the country), painted a shirt with my pronouns to wear around the house at Mom’s when she is forgetting my pronouns egregiously, and restrung my pagan/meditation necklace with a bunch of labradorite beads that I found on clearance last winter.

• I created a base template for the online coven’s book of shadows so that when someone wants to draw up a ritual to do any kind of a thing, most of the boring bit is already done. (I’m going to be writing our Samhain ritual and have no idea what I want to do with it. HALP!)

And that’s what I’ve been up to.

Comments

[lokifan]

Success!!

[flamingsword]

*Snoopy-Dance.gif*

[silk_dragon_zen]

Stuff accomplished, yaaaay!!!

— Sage

[flamingsword]

Indeed! And if you have any particular lessons or exercises relevant to late Autumn/ancestors/death/the dark of the year, feel free to ping me with a link to the thing? I really have no idea which direction to go in for workings this Samhain.

[silk_dragon_zen]

I don't imagine this is what you, the coven, nor most Pagans have in mind, but the only thing coming to mind at the moment is the book Opening to Darkness by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel. (It's a Zen look at darkness, and I guess if we were a Zen coven [or a Pagan sangha?], it might be relevant.)

— Sage

[flamingsword]

https://www.resources.soundstrue.com/podcast/zenju-earthlyn-manuel-opening-to-darkness/ This one? I’ll listen to it this week and see if it can give me pointers.

[silk_dragon_zen]

Oh cool, didn't know she did an interview. We might give that a listen later, ourselves

— Sage

[flamingsword]

I actually like her better in this interview than the interviewer, whose tone comes across very "baffled white person". I may do something like meditating on the darkness and maybe thanking the darkness for the unknowns and the richness of creativity that comes from those unknowns, depending on how that meditation goes.

[silk_dragon_zen]

may do something like meditating on the darkness and maybe thanking the darkness for the unknowns and the richness of creativity that comes from those unknowns, depending on how that meditation goes.

I love this idea!

— Sage

Samhain Rituals

[nyyki]

There's so much to do with the end of the year ritual that also corresponds with the ritual of the dead/passed on. So many cultures have rituals that are sometimes similar, sometimes divergent to seem unrelated

I've got my Samhain Mass lurking on my to-do list. If you're interested in delving into this subject a lot, we could bounce ideas off of each other and move both our projects forward. Of course I won't include the mass music in our discussions -- I have four of the five parts for the Ordinary of the Mass, only missing the Credo, but getting that libretto written would help me a lot in realizing this, my second pagan mass. That's all I'm missing for the Beltane mass too, though it's farther along in the musicc.

There must be "productive in the air -- I've got almost all of the Zen Room closet sorted out, repacked in boxes that aren't going to blow away from a heavy exhale, and managed to purge four boxes of stuff and get one of my electric guitar cases into it. I'm also putting together my live music effects rack, though that's taking a lot of sighted help right now, and I fixed my CD ripper, found some electronics parts I misplaced, and got some things worked out with my live keyboard rig. And there's more coming, great stuff.

I can't wait to experience that duster.

Re: Samhain Rituals

[flamingsword]

Yay for getting your Zen Room closet back and having more useable space! I will also be taking you up on talking over my inchoate ideas until they sound like a ritual or a working.

Re: Samhain Rituals

[nyyki]

If others are interested in working up rituals, welcome them to our discussion -- maybe we need a mail list or some other form of interaction that isn't rife with accessibility issues. I've got a book idea I'm working on, "Project Lessons in Ritual Design", that would benefit from this too.