Seems I've been after advice a bit too much on here of recent .lol. Busy working in 2=9, mind too scattered to focus much at times... can see why the element needs to be central on the tree of life and not in the realm above as is seen in Practical Alchemy where Air and Water are interchanged. The balance provides stability to its turbulence.

Am facing a bit of a problem in my path working, meandering along from grade to grade at some point I took to practising twice each day, once in the morning and once in the evening which is/was fine until I found the need to break the habit and go out in the evenings, for example on a Saturday night... those days would be ones in which I would take to a new spin on things and practice twice in one sitting, double rituals, two full rituals back to back... this would seem unnecessary, one could well and quite simply invoke once and meditate within its influence for a longer duration than one would normally, banishing at the end to finish but the visualisation work involved makes it beneficial... at least in my opinion and experience... all in all its an idea I got from Kraigs Modern Magick, at least I think it is anyway .lol.

Now... the problem... this double ritual trend became an excuse for me to not practice in the evenings which for a good while now has seen me lounge in front of the tv eating (organic) carrot cake and cookies by the fireplace, for weeks this trend continued, would normally break the habit by practising yet again in the evening, would soon grow tired of it all and settle down to a simple, healthy, morning - evening routine as is normal but this time around it seems I've gone on for too long and the force of habit has me accustomed to a double ritual practice in the morning... practised once today (only because I was late for work) and I felt down in much the way you would if you'd have missed a daily ritual. Regressed. Not a nice feeling. This is irksome as its difficult moving into a new grade with this habit in tow, for example, you can practice one ritual and have a sucessful invocation, but then, due to trend, go to practice again and have a mundane one leaving you wondering whether you've messed up and missed out on a day of next to tangible experience with it all... at times its the other way around, the first ritual has your psychological barriers down enough for the second to be more effective etc but introducing yourself to new energies in this way can be, ''dangerous'' and difficult to handle... all in all it seems as though I'm stuck with a ritual habit thats difficult to break, so I'll pose the question...

Do you have any ritual habits? Have these proved problematic and if so how did you break with them?

There are other situations in which a habit you've developed may seem beneficial to you and your work but isn't part of the work (by grade) you've been given, you could say that you're actually breaking with the current of that particular school you've been practising with or learning from... as arbitrary as it may sound and as alike as each school may seem its not and because of that they're not, each school has a signature, an identity, and the teachings are a part of that, as is the philosophy.. alongside other tid bits of pomp and, ''fantasy'' that most solitary practitioners find difficult to partake of. Sitting within the current of the school means you'll likely find shared experience (even as a solitary) perhaps even advice by way of phenomena as those more adept than yourself may be able to communicate through it and its shared experiences etc etc etc... blah blah blah .lol. Recall a member of a priesthood telling new members after a lesson on planetary hours to not worry and that ChronosXP was available on the net making it easier for them to use... fact is ChronosXP has its own thing going on for it and wouldn't/dosen't match up with the method given by the head priest that day, the times would be off, considerably, they'd all have been meditating under different influences staggering the fluidity of the groups intuition and collective consciousness in the process, in this way personal habits in ritual aren't as effective as their convenience and comforts may make them seem.

Thought I'd post and share my opinion as well as seek a bit of advice... some may see habits as a route to en-deepen their personal practice.

Peace
/M/

This post has been edited by Mchawi: Nov 16 2010, 07:30 AM