Geomancy on the back of a receipt
Geomancy is the most underrated divination method in the Western tradition, and I will die on that hill. You need a pencil and something to write on. That's it.
Sixteen rows of random dots, count each row odd or even, and four Mothers fall out. From those you generate the Daughters, the Nieces, the Witnesses and the Judge. It's elegant enough to make an engineer weep.
Cast a chart on the back of a coffee receipt Thursday about whether to take on a new student. Judge: Fortuna Major. Right Witness: Puer, which tracks, because he is enthusiastic and impatient. Said yes, with a list of conditions.
Diary entry filed. We'll see in six months whether the dots knew what they were doing.
The robe stays in the closet
Year one of ceremonial magic, I spent $240 on a black robe with gold trim, a hand-painted lamen and a wand I'm still embarrassed about. Five years later the robe has been worn exactly four times. The daily work happens in sweatpants at 6:10am, between the alarm and the kettle.
I don't regret the robe. It was a promise to myself that I was taking this seriously. But the promise that actually held was smaller and duller: banish every morning, write it down every night, even when nothing happens. Especially when nothing happens.
If you're new and tempted by the beautiful gear, buy a cheap notebook first. If you're still filling it in a year, you've earned the robe.
Sit still. Write down every twitch.
Working through the asana exercise in Liber E this month. The instruction is simple to the point of insult: choose a posture, hold it, and record in your diary every time you move.
Week one: 3 minutes 40 seconds before my left eyebrow made an independent decision. Week three: 11 minutes, interrupted by the neighbour's leaf blower and my own impatience, in that order.
What nobody tells you is how revealing the diary becomes. Every twitch has a thought attached to it, and most of mine, it turns out, are about whether I'm doing it right. Discipline, not costume. The robe stays in the closet for this one.