Mad-Day Magic

Probably the best thing about developing the concept of the Sun Path/Moon Path is it gives me a way into spirituality when I'm too wretched to anything.

Proper magic starts with grounding, centering, circling and so forth, and im trying to improve my skills here, but I can't face my self and my body and even a moment of stillness in my mind.

But Sun Path stuff offers other routes to similar things; it's a very worldly way of working, and it celebrates the small things like "why not bake something?" Or even "why not eat something?". Both of these are, I think, forms of centering - you're doing a physical thing, and in a sense, you're asserting your power over the material by the act of baking. But they take forever! But this is ok, a form of...at least I'm doing something...when I'm too discomforted and ragged-worn to do anything else.

Sun Path stuff generally calls for a sense of constant center anyway; its defining practice is Walking (which is scaled down to "having a cup of tea on the front step" as required).

It's also helpful in the sense of "centering acts", something tangible you do, instead of just a breathing and visualisation - which presently brings the shakes on. *doing something*, be it dance or baking or walking or I guess tai chi or yoga etc, means I don't hit that panicky state all at once. I'm pretty so so about having a body, and I think it's easier to be mindful and centered through encountering what your body can *do* rather than trying to do it all in the abstract.

None of these concepts are ones I've been the first to discover/articulate. But the part that helps me is naming it: this is the Sun Path, equal to the path of the Moon, and it makes me feel like I'm doing something genuine and important. Instead of just toying around, or stepping on a journey which requires me to develop Moonish skills at some point. Some people thrive on challenge, but it helps me most to say "what you're doing is enough; you are enough".

My centering practice this morning will be drinking a cup of tea and tidying the kitchen. Just getting my body moving, and feeling a sense of mastery from the task as I see it completed. It's OK. It's perhaps not as "effective" as traditional, Moonish rites, but that's ok because the Sun Path isn't goal oriented - it cultivates quietness, present, and pleasure in the material. Things I sorely lack. What is religion, if not a way to bring us closer to the gifts of the divine, and the days of a better life?

(no subject)

Related to this, I'm experimenting with taboo as an alternative to traditional centering & purifying techniques.

I'm going to write about this properly once I've got a bit more time, but the tl;Dr is:

Taboo is found in a lot of religions. It can be stuff around food or behavior, like kosher or halal, or refraining from sex occasionally/permanently, or keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest, or going to regular confession, etc etc etc. I use the term Fast to describe a temporary adoption of a Taboo (for a week before ritual, on the day of ritual, for a holy month)

I've been thinking about these as alternatives to taking a purifying bath. All of them are small, daily habits which keep body and soul in a fit state to please the divine. A purifying bath gets grot off you ahead of ritual, but perhaps use of taboo could help prevent that grot accumulating in the first place.

I started of thinking of the Three Practices as like, equivalent to beginner/daily meditation, and as goal-oriented routes to discovering the divine. But I think they appeal bevause they're so executive function friendly - developing ongoing habits is so much easier than abruptly taking a bath.

And I'm wondering whether they can function as a taboo. I think they can. Especially Walking/Disconnection: if you're regularly practicing them, then you're cultivating a centered lifestyle, which is equal to and maybe even better than centering in the moment. At rhe least, it's going to absolutely support you to find that centered place far more easily.

Pagan stuff is not as restrictive or cold as mainstream faiths - we welcome pleasure and feasting and will. But for that reason, we don't tend to use or talk about taboos and fasts, even though they're an ancient and widespread religious technology which a lot of the faithful have used. I'm hoping to write more about this soon in a fuller way, because it leads to problems when a taboo is imposed on you by your religious subculture or family - but super valuable IMO as a choice you can make.