Starting is always the hardest part. Finishing can be equally difficult and, of course, hanging in there is always a challenge. But today I’m focused on starting, for obvious reasons.
When I published my book I started by listing all the things I wish I’d known when I was starting. It was like a treatise for my younger self, and for others who were just moving past the novice stage. In order to write that book, I had to know all the information in it, and more. Which meant that, after writing it, I was myself ready to focus forward again.
My path from that point took me in some very different directions, in my practice and my life.
I’m currently focused on three topics:
- Sustainable sorcery — the practice of using magic to create and support sustainable systems. This includes both practical methods as well as philosophical underpinnings to surviving in a fundamentally unsustainable world.
- Black swan divination — using the ideas outlined by Nassim Taleb in his books to create methods that can be used with various types of divination. Barbell investing, avoiding the Ludic fallacy, creating anti-fragility. Remember, Thanksgiving is only a black swan event to the turkey, not the farmer. My research uses tarot, but the ideas should be applicable to any “random placement” type of divination.
- PMPractical magic — project planning, risk mitigation, and agile methodologies for magicians. Let’s put some practical back into our magic.
Unlike with my book, I don’t feel like I know everything about these topics. Perhaps it’s a sign of my own maturity. The more I know and the longer I practice, the less sure I feel. But each area has had a lot of both theory and practice over the years and, at this point, I see them starting to twine together into a system that’s more pragmatic, more realistic, and at the same time more mystical and liminal than what I’ve worked with previously.
Starting is always the hardest part. Sometimes it’s best to just jump in and tread water as best as you can.
