I have been thinking about discipline a great deal lately. One of the insights that I gleamed from one of my meditations on the effects of a spagyric tincture I am making to work with saturn, told me that disciplined practice without purpose was futile. This all was in reference to the part of my self that craves disciplined practice and usually spurs me with guilt when I am not doing anything. The practices that I was doing diligently were bringing results but not bringing me closer to the goal of this year which was to embrace more of the shamanic craft and obtain a better grasp on spirit work. I had done two different Mantra practices in the last six months both lasting forty days. Though the results from this practice was amazing I didn’t feel it brought me closer to the goal stated above. Something else I realized was all my spiritual practice was happening in my car. Mantra is a simple practice for me to do while driving to work, and when I finished that I would send light or reiki to people who I knew needed it.
So looking at my goal of embracing shamanic witchcraft and obtaining a better grasp on spirit work I thought that my next rite of discipline would be forty days of meditation. You might ask “why forty days?” my answer is that it is an alchemical month. It is also the prescribed amount of time to use a mantra to manifest something. I find it interesting that it also is the same as the forty days of lent in the christian faith where they give something they love up for the forty days to honor christ. I will be adding something to my life for forty just in honor of my self and my spiritual evolution. I think that is a more appropriate practice for a witch. I started on Ostara and will continue until I have done a consecutive forty days. That means if I skip a day I will just start over until it is done. These are the “rules” of the mantra magick I was doing only applied to meditation. The mantra magick had you choose an intention to work for a mantra aligned with that purpose and then do a mala of 108 repetitions every day until you reached forty. Usually on the 38th day something to screw you up will appear but if you work through it and do the practice It works. I think the same applies to the rite of discipline.
To any one who reads this who feels like they need to kick there practice up a couple of notches I suggest revisiting the Rite of discipline for themselves finding something that will bring you to your goal or intention and do it for a cycle of time. You may pick a more witchy number like 28 days of a moon cycle or the time between two Sabbats . It doesn’t have to be long to get you going it could just be a week of practice. Just make sure your not doing the practice without a purpose in mind.