Remember when I promised I was going to update this blog at minimum once a month? Anyone? Aaaaaanyone?
I guess that this series of posts is turning into a fairly consistent throughline for this blog. It probably makes sense that even when I struggle to write about anything new, I can always still somehow manage to cook up more rants and rambles about whatever the hell is going on in my personal life.
Anyways. Like I mentioned back in early August, I already knew that I was going to have my work cut out for me during this winter season. Not only was/am I being faced with the several symbolic deaths I'd mentioned back then, but more recently I was made aware of the fact that I'm currently smack in the middle of a 12th house profection year, which combined with the fact that I can't even see the sun anymore when I'm leaving work for the day, means I've sunk even further into Contemplating It All than I initally expected to.
It all definitely makes sense. During the light half of this year, from May to early this month, I was quite a bit more active than I've managed to be in recent memory. Some of it was indeed prompted by the mild fear I felt towards the impending winter, like I was trying to stave off the affects of seasonal depression for as long as I could manage. But my adventures and sociability and generally trying to force myself out of my comfort zone and more into the external world does serve as a pretty great complement and precursor to what I'm up to now, which is basically the exact opposite. I'm not turning into a full-on recluse or anything (been there, done that, it's not great for me mentally), but instead of exploring outwards I'm exploring inwards.
Thus, with the tiniest bit of divine nudging guidance, I've decided to dub the next six-ish months Hermit Time.
From Biddy Tarot:
The Hermit invites you to retreat into your private world and experience a deep sense of seclusion and introspection. You know that you need to take this journey alone or with a small, intimate group of spiritually minded people. When you allow yourself to tune in to your inner, guiding light, you will hear the answers you need and grow wise beyond your years. Find your light, shine it on your soul and create your unique path. You will see what lies ahead of you – not miles upon miles, but enough to know where to step next. From there, take one step at a time.
You know it's legit because I even changed my phone wallpaper to the Hermit card.
What does this really mean for me and my spiritual practice? Well, I'm still partially figuring that out. Part of it involves promises and agreements with certain gods in my immediate spiritual circle which I probably shouldn't talk openly about without their permission. Part of it involves intensive research and a self-imposed rule to read something spiritually relevant to me every single day. Part of it involves reshaping my devotional routines--including where, when, why, and how I practice worship and devotion--and potentially re-incorporating some previously familiar faces back into the mix. And of course, a lot of it involves turning inwards and providing my introvert soul with the comfort and rest it needs after a completely exhausting year.
Consequently, as some of you may or may not have noticed, my online presence has certainly dwindled as of late. I'm still active on Discord and Mastodon, but I've left several spaces that just weren't doing it for me anymore. With that in mind it should go without saying that I will not be jumping on the bandwagon of any other up and coming social media platforms any time soon, if ever (since most of them are basically just rehashes of platforms that I never really liked or was ever active on anyways). So if you wanna continue seeing me yap about random mundane life shit, please feel free to make an account on the Fediverse (or log back into that one you made forever ago and then forgot about) and follow me. That said, occult.town won't be bridging to BlueSky anytime soon, so you won't be able to follow me from there.
(Friends and Fedi mutuals, y'all are welcome to ask for my Signal as well, as that will probably be the easiest way to contact me. I have app timers on and notifications muted for Discord and Mastodon so I'm not glued to them while I'm at work, but I keep my Signal notifications on. I'm down to chat basically whenever, or even just send memes and whatnot back and forth.)
Part of the "intensive research" thing means that I might manage to write here more often again. It might not all be super long-form essays or anything, but if I feel compelled to (or if I am directed to share what I've learned), I might drop in and post random thoughts on what I'm reading or stream of consciousness ideas that my research inspires. If anything delves too far into Weird Gnosis Territory, though, that will almost certainly be kept to myself or shared extremely sparingly. I'm not going to hold myself to any posting quotas or goals or anything like that, because setting strict standards like that for something I pretty much only do for fun just isn't a sustainable tactic for me right now, for any of my hobbies (I've barely drawn shit since I graduaded from college a year and a half ago, wonder why?).
Anyways, it's time for me to really dig my heels in. If this blog goes quiet between now and the end of the year, I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year (or as happy as we can all manage, given... you know). Hopefully I will see you all on the other side relatively unscathed.
xoxo