Daily Practice

[eelsalad]

Just an update, for archival purposes, on my daily practice.



Every morning I get up, feed the cats, shower, and then go into my den where my altar is. I:

1. Start my Morning Practice playlist on the computer (tweaking it if necessary): bells, 10 minutes of silence, bells, 20 minutes of silence, bells.
   
2. Sit down on my zafu and zabuton in front of my altar.
   
3. Light a purple or blue candle in my silver and blue glass candle holder and say the Holy Mother prayer.
   
4. Light some incense (unless I have a headache)
   
5. If I feel called to do so, light my candles for the Divine Twins and pray to them briefly (usually a variant on "Divine Twins, darkness and light, male and female, serpent and bird, help me to hold my conflicts gently that the Peacock may arise"), then light my candle to the Peacock and pray to him briefly (usually a variant on "Glorious one, grant me the courage to behold my own beauty").
   
6. If I feel called to do so, light a prayer candle for a cousin of mine in the armed forces.
   
7. Light a pink or lavender votive to my inner child and say, "know that you are loved."
   
8. Write in my journal until the bells sound.
   
9. Settle myself down for 20 minutes of God Soul Listening meditation. I don't always make the full 20 minutes -- if I'm particularly groggy, for example. Or if monkeybrain is too fussy sometimes I give up. I'm working on that.
   
10. Ha Prayer
    
11. Kala (about once a week)
    
12. Extinguish deity, prayer, inner child candles with a thank you (as applicable).
    
13. Extinguish the incense (if necessary).
    
14. Say the first verse of the Holy Mother prayer and extinguish that candle.
    
15. Close my altar and put away my cushions.

I haven't been running the pentacles lately. I'd like to do Kala on a daily basis (I've just started therapy with my mother and really need it) and the pentacles as well. Unfortunately, my fibromyalgia makes running the pentacles painful - standing with my arms out for that long is really painful most days. I'm going to experiment with doing them while seated for meditation, maybe as a prelude to my God Soul Listening.

Man, this is getting to be a lot! But it makes such a huge difference to start my day this way. The trick is to do everything I need to without letting it get so time-consuming that it becomes onerous.