Thinking about a get together with some magical women coming up in a few weeks where we'll be discussing, inter alia, our daily practice, I think that the story of my daily practice can be summed up in a poem by Rumi:
Wanderers, worshippers, lovers of leaving!
Even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come! Yet again, come, come.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
With my Moon in drifty Pisces, my Ascendent in flighty Gemini, and my Moon in lazy Taurus, it's not as if I am ideally aspected for a practice that requires attention, dedication, focus. And, yet, over and over -- often enough to have almost worn a groove in the pine floors of my ritual room -- I lower my old and creaky body to the floor, sit at my low altar, light the candles, light the incense, shake the seed pod rattle. Over and over, until I imagine that they all laugh, as in the LeGuin story, "Oh, it's that one again," I call the Elements, my allies, the 4 Goddesses with whom I work. Over and over, even when it takes long minutes to bring my monkey mind back, back, back, a thousand times, back to the breathing exercises, I remember: Mine is not a caravan of despair.
Do you have a daily practice? What is it? What is it that keeps you coming back? What would get you to return to it?
Picture found here.
6 comments:
I have an attempted daily practice that involves meditation and connecting with my spirit guides and the goddesses that I converse with. So far it is only attempted. So far I haven't been shunned for my dismal definition of 'daily.'
This is the 2nd "what is your daily practice?" blog post I've seen today. Maybe it has something to do with the post eclipse mood? Daily, I ground, I center, I sit zazen. Although I will admit, sometimes the sitting zazen is a very quick sit!
How weird as I just posted today about wanting to start up a daily ritual myself. I don't have anything special in mind aside from The Druid's Prayer, lighting candles and incense but I'm working on it.
I've found it very important to me to practise daily.
I find that, when I skip a day, I'm more likely to be fractious, touchy and out-of-focus.
It's like a drug habit, I guess.
But my daily practise is sitting - whether in Vipassana or Shamanic meditation. Even 5 minutes will do the trick.
Love,
Terri in Joburg
Just thought it noteworthy that you chose to construe your innate natures in such undervaluing terms. fwiw, I don't think any particular configuration is necessarily prone to be more disciplined about their practice, but rather practice flows forth from what comes most naturally to us, each and all. In the coaching world, the UR doin it rong set would be the first to be called into the middle of the circle, then summarily challenged to work with who and what's in front of them on positive terms, or be Soul-poorer and all the less wise for it. What's more, no human being should have to be ON 24/7. That would be like having to run a marathon, with at least a dozen coattail riders, every day. Kudos to anyone who can pull it off.
Anyhoo, you asked about our practices and I have to say, I've never been more mindful more of the time than Now, and I'm handling more than most people can fathom, one day at a time. I consider my practice to include big picture things like being realistic about my limitations, saying so with firmness, and negotiating my commitments so I can stay in balance, and small, simple things like taking bugs outside to set them free (whether it's a cute firefly or a prickly beetle). Lastly, these past few years, I've become pretty astute at being able to tell the difference between a player piano and a piano player and I totally get what HHDL meant when he said that sometimes sleep is the best meditation. It's a balance: keep your eyes open, then closing them.
peace, uugal
Lovely. and I am a pisces sun, gemini rising and taurus moon too! I had no idea there was another one out there. :)
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