Friends,

Hello again! So the hectic pace of my life, and my continuing misadventures trying to discover that fabled work/life balance have continued apace!

I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine recently, left me feeling very tired for a couple of days but no other ill side-effects. My doctor says my bad cholesterol is up and he has upped the dosage on one of my meds. This has led or perhaps intertwined with thoughts about how I am using my time when I am not on the clock at the day job. I find myself thinking about how easy it is to slide back into bad dietary habits, and how often I have had every intention of writing here, and/or going for a relaxing walk after work, or doing other needed work and told myself ‘tomorrow’. The struggle continues but at least I am trying to make small changes… blogging here today is part of that effort.

Some of you will notice that several pages have been removed from the site. Most of them are back into Draft mode until I have time to seriously sit down and review them and rewrite to something resembling my satisfaction.

On the plus side of some column or another, while the hectic pace of life continues I have found time to begin dipping my toes into reading books again! It started in early March with the release of The Witch of Kings Cross, a fascinating and well produced documentary about Rosaleen Norton. I remembered reading something about her, and a piece of Witchcraft liturgical speech written by her, years ago in Doreen Valiente’s Rebirth of Witchcraft, and discovered that a collection of her notes or journals on occultism and Witchcraft had been published posthumously as Thorn in The Flesh.

I ended up ordering both books along with, based on some discussions over on occult Twitter, Protection and Reversal Magick by Jason Miller and The Witches Book of Spirits by Devin Hunter. All have been dutifully added to the now rather heavilly loaded undershelf of the lounge coffee table in my improvised study stacks. I was a bit vexed to find I didn’t have a copy of Rebirth of Witchcraft… but I suppose after moving across continent and also moving house several times since I really shouldn’t entirely surprised some things have been mislaid… still vexing though.

I have browsed through Thorn in the Flesh, re-read Rebirth of Witchcraft, and read Protection and Reversal Magick; it occurs to me that maybe writing up some book reviews for the blog may be useful writing practice to help stretch my mental muscles?

My spiritual practices have continued, although I have dramatically slacked off on the card of the day and journaling efforts. Recent scheduling upheavals at work led to a VERY upset sleep schedule and left me clinging to the most basic forms of my regular practices for the last couple of weeks. I have an extra day off today thanks to using some of my Earned Time Off, and am trying to take advantage of it.

I did do some cleaning of the windowsill altar on one of the nights of the Full Moon. Originally I had ideas about doing a formal Circle, but between the sleep schedule and being off my meds for a few days while I waited on a doctors appointment and some test results to come in before I could renew my prescriptions… I was just not physically or mentally up to the task… this time.

Otherwise I have been doing some research online on a couple of longer pieces for the blog and doing some thinking about my daily routines and how I can adjust them to start doing more of the things that I want to do as opposed to what I have to do.

Peace,

Pax / Geoffrey