Journaling can be Magick
In my experience Journaling can be a hard sell for people. It feels too much like work we never wanted to do growing up. To help alleviate some of that I want to offer a quote about the power of words. Magic is real. Language is magic. Journaling brings awareness to your language. Therefore, journaling is how you learn to be a magician. Here’s the quote from Alan Moore:
“There is some confusion as to what magic actually is. I think this can be cleared up if you just look at the very earliest descriptions of magic. Magic in its earliest form is often referred to as “the art”. I believe this is completely literal. I believe that magic is art and that art, whether it be writing, music, sculpture, or any other form is literally magic. Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words, or images, to achieve changes in consciousness. The very language about magic seems to be talking as much about writing or art as it is about supernatural events. A grimoire for example, the book of spells, is simply a fancy way of saying grammar. Indeed, to cast a spell, is simply to spell, to manipulate words, to change people's consciousness. And I believe that this is why an artist or writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world that you are likely to see to a Shaman.
Trippy, I know. But give it a shot and you’ll be shocked.
Journaling is like a secret doorway to our unconscious mind. Because our writing was judged (graded) for so much of our early lives it’s hard to just be authentic - even with yourself! If you notice you’re being mindful of grammar, or quoting Aristotle, you’re probably too much in your head and not simply allowing the words to spill onto the page. It might look like total gibberish and that is perfect!
If you don’t already have a journal you can use whatever you have available, notebook pages will work fine. That said, I have found more success when I have a beautiful journal that calls to my soul. There are lots of options on Amazon here.
The Morning Pages
This exercise comes from a book called ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron. It is what’s called ‘stream of consciousness’ journaling, which is simply writing down whatever pops into your brain. You will never reread this. No one else will ever see it. Because you’re writing in a stream-of-consciousness, you don’t need to pick your pen up off the page. Grammar doesn’t matter. Spelling doesn’t matter. It doesn’t need to be profound or even legible. The only thing it needs to be is honest. Just spill the truth of now onto the page.
Write First Thing In The Morning. For those who are ready, I'd recommend three full pages, for the intermediate, I'd recommend setting a timer for 20 minutes, for those with massive resistance, write for two minutes. We write in the morning because that is when our mind is most open. We haven’t begun to fall into the habitual patterns of our day.
What matters most is you do this every day for at least 7 Days.
This is going to be challenging for most of you, but we don’t change without challenge. I invite you to do it despite the challenge. Your life will change
The reason we write three pages is because the first page is almost always surface platitudes, but by the time you get to the third page, you will have written something that surprised you.
If you have to write “I don’t know what to write. I hate this.” for three pages, do it.