For Christmas my mother gave me these adorable stamps! I love them so much. So when her birthday came around, I wanted to do something with her stamps, of course. I really love the stitched hearts in the background, it was my first time working with them. The soft and pastel pink is a bit different than my normal style, but it was fun to play around with. And, more importantly, my mom loved it!
I loved the colour combo’s so much that I stamped the images on label paper, coloured them, and then used the matching dies to cut them out. So now I have adorable pastel stickers for my bullet journal!
I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions. They never work for me, and I’d rather start working towards a goal when I am well prepared and truly ready, than waiting for a specific date. Something else that I have seen pop up more and more over the years, however, is the Word of the Year.
A tradition which started in the scrapbooking world, coined by Ali Edwards. You choose One Little Word (the name of her project) on which to focus for a year. It will be your guide, something to work on and something to inspire you throughout the year. I was thinking about a word of the year, not even necessarily because I wanted to choose one. But one came up anyway, and in such a clear and strong way that I knew I needed to do something with it.
Trust. I’m probably not the only one whose trust has taken a beating by everything that has happened in 2020. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had moments where I’ve felt betrayed by our governments, by society, family, friends, my own mind, and my body. It was a difficult year. I honestly don’t know if I can find it within myself to trust certain people again. Or even if I should. I even stopped trusting my own instincts and my own body when I got sick with covid. Now I’m nine months into what they are now calling long-covid, and some things might never get better. Times are still very uncertain, in a lot of different ways.
And therefore trust is a word I want to dive deep into in the coming year. What does it mean, what does it mean to me? How can I rebuilt the trust that has been broken? Do I even want to, or is it in some cases better to move on? I want to trust my body again. I want to trust life again.
There are themes that I’ve already started working on earlier, that I of course also will keep working on in the coming year. So, perhaps it is not one word of the year, but more like three. Acceptance, amongst other things because of my health. And self-love is an ongoing journey that I will still set aside my new moons for. So:
Trust Acceptance Self-love
Do you have a word of the year? Or any themes you wish to explore in the coming year? Share them with me in the comments!
For most of my pagan life I’ve struggled with building a consistent spiritual practice. The thing that I struggled with most was that “wanting” would quickly turn to “having to”, and all of the guilt and uneasy feelings that came with it. So last year I decided to do one tiny thing: I would end my day at my altar. That’s it. And if I didn’t have the time or the energy or the spoons, that was okay. What I do at my altar has changed over time, but mostly consists of lighting a few candles and connecting with my deities. Simple, short, but meaningful.
Lately I’ve been feeling called to expand on my daily practice. I was unsure how, but through a series of videos and posts I came up with something that, so far, works for me. First I watched a video by Dawn Michelle of Boho Tarot about her daily tarot practice. Her day is just filled with cards! I knew that was too much for me, but I do have all these lovely decks that I would love to use more often. So something simple and not too deep. One card draw, interpret the card intuitively and reflect on how and if it had an influence on my day.
Secondly, Eris Elizabeth’s video talked about her journey towards a daily practice, and what did and did not work for her. She goes to her altars in the morning, grounds, lights a candle, and then drinks her tea outdoors. A similar small yet effective practice like I had in the evenings. Now, I’m a morning person, but I’m not one to get up super early. Yet like this: grounding, altar and go, it wouldn’t take up a whole lot of precious morning time. So that was something else to think about.
Lastly I came upon a post on Tumblr (and I really need to start saving those things somewhere) which talked about the idea to make a book, inspired by Death Note, but then the complete opposite. Where in Death Note whenever the main character writes a name in his magical book, that person dies, this idea was an opposite, where the person whose name was written down got a blessing for their day. I loved this idea! Now, how to implement this?
I have a confession to make. I love looking at bullet journals, but I hate maintaining one. I tried, I really did, but I hated having to set time apart to work weeks or months ahead, and it added to my pile of “to do” things that I then also had to write down. They gave me anxiety, I wish I was kidding. However, the idea of a small journal or planner for my daily practice like this was perfect. I could write down my daily draw, write down those names to get an extra boost for the day, as well as write down what I am grateful for. The last bit was already part of my evening practice, but usually I simply list in my head the things I did, saw or received that I am grateful for. I thought about buying a planner, and simply using the ready made pages (like Alysa Marie of the Great Lakes Witch shows here beautifully). However, I had this gorgeous A6 bullet journal from the dollar store that I did nothing with. It would be a bit more work, but I would be able to make the pages exactly as I wanted them to.
Now how to make the daily “blessing”. I had the idea of making a sigil, that I could draw in a lighter colour and then write the names on top. So what did I want to give these people for their day? Joy, love and (more or rising) energy. Then I needed a symbol that signified the time allotment: a day. After brainstorming this is the end result!
So now my daily practice consists of both a morning and an evening routine. In the morning I go to my altar, ground and spent a moment just breathing. Then I either set up my daily page in the bujo if I haven’t done that the night before, or fill in my left page. I draw a card and interpret it. I’ve been working with a deck that I’ve had for the longest time (I think it was the second deck I’ve ever bought) but hadn’t touched in years. The Fey Tarot! It is such a nice, colourful and wholesome deck to start my day with, and it’s a “hug deck” as Dawn Michelle would say. I then write the names of those who I wish to give an extra boost today over my sigil. Besides people I know and love personally, I will also write down others, like people hurt in the BLM protests, or people on the forum who’ve asked to be sent energy.
In the evening I still light my candles and pray to my deities. I now reflect on the card I have drawn and make a few notes about it. Next is writing down the things I am grateful for. I have an extra section “notes” to make short extra notes in, like: new moon ritual, mabon, or: received new oracle deck!
So far it really works for me. I have the “luxury” of still being stuck at home due to illness, so I have the time to get used to the new routine. We’ll see how it survives when everything goes back to normal, but I’m confident I will work something out!
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