The Magic is in the Details

We are now into a week six of the Living a Wealthy Life course. This week we are moving from the energy of Leo and the Sun, where we basked in the light of creative expression, and found the confidence to radiate our own golden light and we are moving back once again 9as we did in week three) into the energy of Mercury, the wily magician, whose skill and cunning knits together the fabric of life into a seamless dance. In week three we met Mercury through the element of air, in his role as messenger, emissary of divine contact. In week six, Mercury really takes on an embodied form and embeds his magic in the details of life, details which we so easily miss each time we attempt to look beyond the everyday for inspiration. Yet, when we ignore the mundane, the embodied every day rituals, we risk losing the magic touch. So this week, we must be mindful of Mercury’s deft touch, his sleight of hand, and we must invoke the ritual magician if we are to glimpse his creative secret. We must become aware of the details of our lives, observe the order and rituals of life, learn to respect and revere each so-called mundane experience. Our task is to glimpse magic in the ordinary. Our role this week is to sweep, to clean, to tidy, to order, to polish, to wax, to sharpen, to become still, accepting, and blissfully content as we perfect the ordinary tasks of life. Through bringing mindfulness to our repetitive actions, we open the possibility of transcending time, entering liminal space, re-enchanting our experience of stepping into the shoes of the magician.

It strikes me that in our thirst for new experience, we in the west are becoming increasingly averse to ritual action. The idea of doing the 'same thing' at the 'same time' every day seems abhorrent when we have the 'freedom' (so-called) to do whatever we like whenever we like. Yet there is something deep within us that seems to call us back to ritual and the benefit that we feel when we develop a daily practice can be life-transforming. This is such a key moment in the course, that we have decided to dedicate two weeks to it. Unlike the fiery energy of last week, this a slow-burn process, where the emphasis is definitely not upon getting anywhere, but upon being somewhere.

There is a wonderful quote which I think is really profound and it goes like this:

"There may be more to learn from climbing the same mountain a hundred times, than by climbing a hundred different mountains." (Richard Nelson)

This really speaks to me and challenges me in all sorts of ways - yet deep down I know that it contains a profound wisdom and it is that same wisdom that we are invited to draw upon this week.

Love John x