Answering the Call
Day 4 of 31
TRANSIT TO TRACK Virgo Moon square Sagittarius Mars & Sun, opposite Pisces Saturn
As we hit the middle of our first week of the working, it’s worth talking a bit more about what exactly we’re after.
Yesterday was meant to be a much longer discussion of the idea but fate and my energy levels had other thoughts. I played games, made some delicious desserts, and chatted with my mother for a few hours instead. Normally, I’d have done that and rushed into a flurry of activity I’d despise no matter what it became. Instead, I shrugged and enjoyed my day. The magic happens whether or not I write the post, your lives continue, and I clearly needed the relaxation. And I woke up this morning energized, ready for work, and eager to crank out a proper article for you all today. How fitting that the theme is “answering the Call” – which sometimes looks like doing nothing at all.
While 31 Days has its own purpose, this started as an exercise to get myself back into the cycle. My body is rusted, my spirit is rusted, and my mind is rusted. Extra physical activity, keeping up on hydration, and doing my best on basic upkeep is the base of the working for me: I need to break some patterns and restore some others. These are difficult – ADHD and autism make any kind of routine nearly impossible to keep up for more than a few weeks. The message I’ve been struggling to incorporate for a few years now has been “stop trying so hard” and “try harder” – the sort of paradoxical advice you think I’d expect by now. Coming into the 31 Days, I’d expected this to be at the center of things. I am quite good at doing Good for others, but can I be good to myself? Can I see the Good in that?
Turns out, that’s the easy part and the Calling is still ahead of me. A “Calling” is when an Authority pushes you into an Event of the Grand Design. Somewhere between being chosen and being the monkey available, a Calling usually only happens when we’re open to it to some degree. The ritual performed to kick this off opened you to a Calling. You will still have to answer when the phone rings. My hopes for an introspective journey of self-love as a Calling have been thoroughly dashed by the Witch King. He assures me my Calling is in the Other, as will yours be. There is work to be done, my friends, and He would have us do it. So, how do you know when the phone is ringing?
RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME
More often than not, magic is pretty obvious. The effects themselves are often subtle but from the perspective of the practitioner, it’s quite profound. A Calling, unlike a ritual working or something along those lines, is not an effect: it’s a cause. A Calling is meant to push you in a particular direction. It isn’t a consequence of you having taken an action. Watching for things like a bunch of crows flocking or a strong gust of wind like you might after casting a spell will leave you disappointed. Instead, you’re looking more for an opportunity that tugs at your insides, a whisper that has no structure yet. A Calling is a whisper that only becomes words once heard, a command that you must choose. The biggest danger isn’t missing a Calling but mistaking an opportunity to do something decent as a Calling to take action!
I took a walk yesterday to muse about Callings and what I might find myself Called to over the next few weeks. On the walk, I noticed some trash blowing around. Further up ahead, a bin had been knocked over and while largely empty, there was mess everywhere. A part of me wondered: is this it? Am I supposed to clean the streets? Is there something grand and meaningful in this? In short: I was making a mountain out of a molehill. The Witch King is shameless in his love of magicians and general disinterest in most people: he’s not likely to Call anyone to trash duty. Moreover, my own soul doesn’t really bend that way and the ritual itself is structured otherwise. There was no real reason to suspect it was all that important aside from my desire to know. I suspect that will be my enemy over the course of the month. I’ve gotten used to knowing things mortals aren’t supposed to know.
The real answer is that you won’t really know it’s a Calling until after you’ve picked up the call and started on your way. You need to be open to the Unknown and embrace the Mystery of this working. We are standing up and saying “make use of me” – this isn’t a draft tour we’ve been forced along nor a singular task that will be done and accomplished. We have become little elves, tools for jolliness and mirth. I’ve gotten used to being closer to the Gods than mortals, getting to see ahead of whatever steps I’d need to take. I worked very hard to get the insight and perspective I’ve attained. It’s funny now to think I have to work to negotiate it with my natural perspective.
All of this to say, putting yourself out there is the important part. My little walks and adventures to the store are the few times I go out and about, especially now that winter is settling in. My Calling won’t be in my apartment. It’s out there, where yours is too. I’ve signed up for a few volunteer activities and am going to continue looking for opportunities to be Called. Looking for the Calling itself will just drive me mad. Besides, the purpose of the ritual isn’t just to do something Good. It’s to get back into the Flow of being Good.
Put yourself out there: the Flow will do the rest. Good luck and I’ll be back tomorrow with some arrow-sharpening with Mars.
