My powers are ordinary. Only my application brings me success.

Isaac Newton

Hello wild friends, this is my second attempt at writing this post. I started late yesterday afternoon which probably wasn’t the best option. I found myself struggling with the very thing this post is about. That is application, this is the bibliomancy word for this week.

I was struggling to apply myself to this post. Trying to think of what to write. What order to put thoughts in so they’re more than just a jumble. I was feeling so tired and other things distracted me like “what shall we have for tea,” “I’ll need to come back to this afterwards” and “I need to get the dogs tea.” It would have been better to start this earlier. Even so, I would still have been tired and had other thoughts distracting me. But perhaps I might not have felt that fogginess that comes from overwhelming tiredness. Sometimes it’s hard to apply ourselves even with the best of intentions. I sometimes find doing something different and coming back to the original task helps. I decided earlier to go for a walk, try and shake the tiredness. This helped a little but it persisted. In the end I put doing this to one side, went and sorted out food and came back to it today. So here I am, still feeling fatigued but not quite so overwhelmed by it.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be critisised anyway.

Eleanor Roosevelt

This leads me to thinking about how we apply ourself in our magical life or practice. I’ve read numerous times there’s no practice without application. This is true, it’s why it’s called a practice. But…when I feel as I did yesterday (there are other things going on physically too) the application bit is really, really difficult. However much I find I want to do something it can feel like wading through mud, physically and mentally. I have to ask myself is that really how I want to go about things. Do I want to be forcing myself when it would be more beneficial to wait and see if it passes or postone to the following day or evening if possible.

The answer I feel comes down to knowing yourself. Knowing when it really would be better to reschedule something you want to do because you really do feel lousy or not right (if you can.) Or if you’re just procrastinating. Something we’re all prone to doing. I don’t think it’s beneficial for anyone to perform magic, ritual or other acts when they’re feeling so fatigued, exhasuted, un-well or even not in the right spirit or frame of mind. If the essence of magical practice consists of manipulating energy how can what you do possibly be effective if you’re below par? It may even be a risky endeavour to do so. I really don’t like the mentality I see often of “just get on with it” Forcing things never usually gets the best results. Normally for any magical work there’s a window of opportunity and even if that passes things can usually still be done. Even if it’s not quite how we wanted it to be. Better that than slogging through something not giving it our best effort for whatever reason.

The grass is greener where you water it.

Neil Barringham

There are other elements to this such as patterns and habits we cultivate wittingly or unwittingly. I realised yesterday evening I’ve fallen into doing certain things of late and I want to change tham. So today I made some small changes. They may only be small but they all add up. I got up at 6:30am, slightly earlier than usual and cleansed the crystals I’ve wanted to do for a while. I also cleansed my new tarot cards and set intentions for all these things. I’ve picked some of the gorgeous roses from the garden to add to my seasonal space. Something else I’ve wanted to do for a while. Plus a few other things I told myself I wanted to do but never got around to. These small things ARE part of my practice and help me start to re-connect to elements I feel have dropped by the wayside. To begin to change the unwanted habits I’ve fallen into. Half the battle is the realisation I’m applying myself to things I don’t want to or I’ve unconciously grown. I hope to build on this and by doing so get out of the rut I’ve gotten myself into. Today is a much better day. I feel the benefit of these small things, it feeds into a greater sense of well being and that application filters into my practice. Sometimes the subtlest things are of the greatest benefit.

I was flattered to have a rose named after me until I read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but perfect up against a wall.

Eleanor Roosevelt