I’m behind schedule on the New Year, New You Experiment.

The RO household is packed with four birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve between November 21 and January 25. It’s the busiest two months of my year, and it physically, mentally, and especially financially kicks my ass every year.

This year has been as busy and tiring and costly as ever, but I’ve made it through son’s birthday, Thanksgiving, daughter’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s, and now my spouse’s birthday. Only one daughter’s birthday left to go, and that’s already planned and paid for, and I don’t have to do nothin’ else to support that.

Halleluiah!

So, as the bandwidth becomes available, I’m allocating it to my other projects. I’m still in the Clean Up phase in some things, specifically the courses. I’ve got client work backed up that I have to catch up on too. I did a lot of course writing over the Christmas vacation, and one of my students helped with editing support (thanks Alex!), but I keep thinking “there’s still a lot left to do before I’m ready to start focusing on the actual radical transformation through magic.”

And that’s my biggest hurdle. There’s always something else to do before I can get started on something else.

So I’m changing the scope of the project. My new goals for this Experiment are:

• Old Business – Finish it.
• New Business – Start it.

With that in mind, here’s my planned Enchanted Evening:

On a Mercury Day, in a Mercury Hour (tonight around 7:30), perform the Mercury Gate rite with the following statement of intent:

Raphael, Tiriel, Taphthartharath, thou spirits of Mercury ever flowing, encapsulators of Idea into Form, aid me in the accomplishment of the tasks at hand. Empower me, inspire me, bring me the eloquence to express clearly the Mysteries I have seen. Aid me in the completion of the Red Work series of Courses, and the completion of all outstanding Old Business. Let it flow cohesively into being from the Mind of God through me into the finished work projected into the minds of those called to receive the Hermetic revelations I’ve been granted. Let the right word be ever present, let no writer’s block stand in my way. Grant the peace of mind that comes from all things being in their place accomplishing their function, that I may focus clearly on the tasks at hand. Bring the Old Business to conclusion quickly, completely, and to the satisfaction of all who read it.

Or something like that. Definitely along those lines. I’m not going to focus on New Business until the end of the Old Business is in sight. I keep finding more and more Old Business that I never finished, and that’s got to end. If this doesn’t do it, I may have to resort to Saturnine and Martial forces to get the work done.

Man…

I look at the writing prompt for the New Year New You Experiment this week, and I’m all… whoa, WTF, Deb? Do something nice for ME?

I can’t even think of anything that would be nice to do for myself…

[pause to go re-read Deb’s Prompt]

Ok, so I went back and re-read the list of things she suggests for pampering yourself, and I think I maybe might have possibly figured out what the problem is…

I already do all that stuff, whenever I want to. 

* A salted caramel hot cocoa from Starbucks at a bookstore where you look at French Vogue and pretend you’re part of GossipGirl

I got a Caramel Frappuccino last time I went to Target and just sat and drank it there in the store, browsing through the blogs on my phone, enjoying that I’m awesome amongst the awesomest friends and co-Workers.

* A bottle of Prosecco, bread, fruit, cheese and dried meats and your favorite book.

Literally had a plate of jalapeno jack, peperoni, and the fancy crackers (not the Ritz, the ones in the box that only have a single row that they sell above the cheeses) just two nights ago.

* An hour playing a video game you never have time for

Bitch, please! I’ve always got an hour for video games! That’s how I stay sane! Dead Island is my current favorite, I just can’t seem to get into MW3, and Skyrim takes some commitment.

* Going to a yoga class and then feel smug about the sundae you eat afterwards.

Heh, I don’t go to yoga classes, but I DID buy myself a gallon of Rocky Road last time I was at the grocery store, and actually got a couple bowls before the kids murdered it.

* Buying yourself a small luxury item just because (flowers, cashmere socks, a favorite magazine, a new lipstick).

I bought myself a Sonic Screwdriver the week before Christmas, just because sonic screwdrivers are cool.

* A car ride in the countryside with your favorite music playing

I take the back roads home on the way home from work when I want that.

* A long bath

I prefer showers, the kind where you ever so slightly make it warmer a little at a time until you’re standing in almost pure hot water, right where you know if you go a little further you’ll end up all Two-Face:

And I did that Monday, for like an hour.

* A pedicure (it’s good for boys too, I assure you)

For real, I gave myself one last night before reading her list of suggestions. My son had gotten my spouse one of those foot-callous remover things for Christmas, and I totally used it and trimmed my nails and rubbed my feet with balm.

* A mini marathon of your favorite trashy telly show with your favorite indulgence (smoking, drinking, junk food, etc.)

Spent a while last night watching Warehouse 13, Doctor Who (the Tom Baker episodes), and Torchwood on Netflix while eating a whole tub full of reheated roast beast with mashed potatoes and gravy.

So… yeah, I don’t know if this counts or not.

So a friend posted something on FB about how great it is that pacifiers were invented, and I got one of those weird interests in it, and googled the history of pacifiers. I don’t know why it sparked my interest, but I just sort of figured they’ve been around forever because most parents learn on their own in the first couple of weeks that if you put your finger in their mouths, they stop crying and fall asleep. I figured humans have been using them for 10,000 years in one form or another, and I wanted to see what a neolithic pacifier might have looked like.

In England in the 17th–19th centuries, a coral meant a teething toy made of coral, ivory or bone, often mounted in silver as the handle of a rattle.[1] A museum curator has suggested that these substances were used as “sympathetic magic”[2] and that the animal bone could symbolize animal strength to help the child cope with pain.

–Wikipedia

Magic. It’s everywhere. Why the fuck would I give a shit about the history of the human pacifier? I dunno. Seemed interesting at the time. And I found magic in it.

This New Year, New You thing Deb’s doing is important. Radical transformation of your life through applied magic. Magic’s in the cracks and crevices of every aspect of existence because it’s how the universe works.

And we have the privilege, the honor of being called to this, chosen to be magicians. Everyone doesn’t get that calling. Everyone doesn’t get shown the keys to the manifestation process of the universe. We’re a specialized elect group among humanity. Shamans, priests, magicians. We stand as the fulcrum between the worlds Above and the worlds Below, we speak things into being, encapsulating the invisible inspirations and ideas into symbolic form that take on layers of existence as they come down the chain of manifestation into being.

That’s my model, anyway, basically the water vapor cycle. Ascend, condense, fall, evaporate, repeat, but it’s magic and not water.

Whatever model works for you, use it. Create your world.

GTFO the way, RO’s coming!

That’s how I figure the universe feels whenever I start getting organized.

The first prompt of the New Year, New You experiment is about Making Way, clearing out the old crap that stand in the way of whatever we’ve got planned.

I posted three of my major projects I’d like to tackle this year, and when I stilled my mind enough to really think about getting started on it, my mind just sort of shut down. See, I’m a busy guy. A very busy guy. Back in April I started doing major Jupiter rites on a regular basis, and the expansion and flow of blessings came right in. A lot. And brought a lot of work with it.

So I need to clear things out before I even have the space to think about starting anything new. The major things I’ve got to get done are finishing up the Red Work series of courses, and a ton of client work.

I do, however, have a ton of work to do on my car and house…

Actually, I have a ton of work that needs to be done on my car and house. There’s a difference.

See, I’m not a mechanic or a handyman. I’m the unmechanic, the unhandyman. I tried to replace my broken window on my car last night and broke the door. So I have a broken window and a broken door now instead of just a broken window. I have holes in my walls from when I tried to fix the handrail on the steps. I have holes in my ceiling where the plaster fell down when I tried to fix the paint that had bubbled when my air conditioner’s condensation pump blew a hose. I have holes in the plaster on the walls in my living room from trying to hang curtains.

I’m a writer, not Bob Villa. So I’m going to write some money-making stuff and pay someone else to do that shit. Know your strengths, know your weaknesses, and make your strengths support your weaknesses. For me, that’s writing paid copy.

After I finish the Red Work series of courses, and the client work.

Clearing out my headspace is a bit more difficult. I’ve got stress from work, and stress from home. My day job is in a precarious position at the moment because America’s Congress SUCKS MOTHERFUCKING DONKEY BALLS. My contract was cancelled because the automatic cuts that went into effect last time they couldn’t set aside their differences and run the country impacted Medicare, and my job was to come up with a way to save $10.2 billion. We were making progress, but not quickly enough, so they canceled the project and told Obama they’d save the $10.2 billion somewhere else. So I need to do some magic on that, and get something lined up to pay the mortgage next year that’s a little less sporadic than online occult sales.
My home-based stress is just your normal father-of-three crap. November 21 is my son’s birthday, followed by Thanksgiving, my daughter’s birthday December 12th, Christmas, my spouse’s birthday January 14, and my other daughter’s birthday January 25th. I hate November through January. The stress has been known to overwhelm me.

But the solution to this problem is to catch up on the client work. For example, by doing the Hermetic Diagnoses for other people, I travel the seven spheres and spend hours in contemplation and meditation, communing with the spirits. That in and of itself is really good therapy, and it melts the stress. Other client work will further get me done with stuff.

So those are my plans for Making Way for the projects I have planned.