Magical Journalling

The magical order that I study with requires that we aspirants keep a ‘magical’ journal to track our learnings, experimentation, and any other noteworthy nudges from intuition that may arise during the course of our studies.

I always assumed that the ‘point’ of this was to keep an accurate record of learnings, maybe even a rough grimoire if you will. A record of useful information that we may need for reference or use in the future.

It has only recently come to my realisation that the real ‘point’ of journalling - magically as well as in general - is to afford us the ability to look back and gasp in amazement when we realise how far we have come, what we have learned, the slow but steady growth of our skill, knowledge and ability.

The more we learn the less we realise we know. This effect - known in academic circles as the Dunning-Kruger effect - is also the crux of ‘impostor syndrome’ and can cause us to lose confidence, second guess ourselves or otherwise stutter with ‘learning fatigue’ for any course of study which is effectively without end, such as the study of magic and spirituality.

Yet, grabbing an old journal off the shelf, we can leaf through and think: ‘shit I knew next to nothing back then.’ Or: ‘wow I remember when all that was new to me.’ And we look back down the road we’ve travelled, and it’s clear to us just how far we have come, just how high we have ascended, when we were stalling and only able to see the peaks of aspiration still so far from our grasp.

So don’t worry about your journal being perfect, or containing all the things you think you may need to reference or remember. Your subconscious will already do the job of cataloguing everything that’s needed, unbidden by you and your ego. Just capture a flavour, a breath, of your experience and understanding.

Future you will thank you for taking the time and trouble, and for extending a hand to continue up the path that you didn’t even realise that you were proffering.