Let me start off by saying this is a lifetime journey for most people, me included. I probably don't practice everything the way you practice everything, and that's ok! The point is that we all find the practices that we desire. To that end, I'm sharing the things I've found helpful (and will add to, no doubt, as I find new things).

This isn't meant to cover All Things Occult - as I'm creating this, my goal is to create the material and resources I needed when I started out. In some ways it's a map of where I've been, possibly what I'm working on now, and maybe also a bit of what I would like to work on in the future - and perhaps it will be a helpful guide for you as well. It's also a message to my daughters from my benevolent ancestresses.

The nice thing (and sometimes the discouraging thing) about personal practices is that any results you get are solely and entirely based on your own decisions and work. One of the things I learned from being a solitary practitioner for the last many years is that we gain the benefit of our own discernment and holding our own counsel. What you choose to do is entirely up to you, and also the liability resulting from those actions. This goes for all work. Even if a deity or spirit, or a 'boss' or anyone else with any kind of 'authority' tells you to do something - you are the one in charge of what you are going to choose to do and you are the one that receives the repercussions and results. SO. Be mindful of the work you take on. And remember - you are, ultimately, your own boss.

I've tried to choose a reasonable order, but your interests and needs may lead you to some things before others in the order they exist. Go for it! That said - you need to find and/or create a practice that will stick with you. If you're anything like me, maybe you read through a book and want to apply all the things at once, try to apply all the things at once, and then two days later, you're not doing any of it. I find the hardest things are to start small and layer practices... but I've also found that, consistently, that's the only successful way for me to build and maintain the practices I have developed. Again - it's a lifetime journey, a marathon, not a sprint.

If you need/want to read it all in one sitting, and then let it settle and then come back to the material once you've figured out where you want to start, that's fine. Or pick something to start doing, or any other way you wish to approach this.

What will be covered:

Start Small - Notice
Daily Practice
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall - Ethics & Self Development
Warding and Safety
Lunar Considerations - Working with the Moon
Solar Considerations - The Solar Cycle
The Elements
The Ancestors
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! - Magical Allies
Deities
Rituals
Divination
Meditation
Tools
... And more stuff as it comes to me

This is also my 'general interest' practice reflections (literally, my other > miscellaneous > other bucket), I have some specific practice reflections that may show up here from time to time if it seems relevant, especially as I am in the midst of defining a few new potential paths, and this is only one of them.

First Things First

Susan Presley