Composition Mindset
The headspace for creating magic
So, last night I was meeting with my Arc* and we were talking about how the past week had been very strategic and structural for all of us. We had all spent time doing the good and necessary work of setting up useful systems and formulating our plans.
Great, except I’m also on the hook to whip up some magic! For example, I have a repeating commitment to compose a rite for my membership each month (adding to our Circle Thrice Grimoire) and one for the Arc for our launch rite in April.
Note: I use the term compose really deliberately here. When I come up with a ritual or rite, I feel like it’s an act of composition more than writing or even crafting: both in the sense of it being more like poetry or music than text and in the sense of it being created by blending disparate parts into a unified whole.
In order to compose a rite, I need to be in a particular mindset. Not the same as when I write a substack or blog post, not the same as when I create the content for my courses. Also interesting also not the same mindset as when I’m doing magic, which makes for a fascinating experience of being of one mind when I make the thing and a completely different mind when I perform it.
In any case, I haven’t been in this mindset for a couple of weeks, and time is ticking by (the February rite is being composed for the 27th, which gives me a little grace). The art and discipline is in balancing the external currents with my will to navigate to the place I need to be to get my shit done. This is the way it is with all creative activity (which means the way it is for living, since living is definitionally a creative activity). If you think about this balance consciously, and the mindsets you need to do your best creative work, you can access more space and energy for creativity in your life.
* The Arc refers to my Incubation Arc, which is a nine-month application based collaborative container for bringing something into manifestation. This one is a venture incubation arc, so our group are working on bringing new or expanded business ventures into the world (the Arc itself is my venture, which makes the whole process very meta for me personally).