A Long Term Plan (Week 1/40)

I recently acquired a copy of The Magician's Workbook by Donald Tyson(ISBN 0738700002). He wrote it as a series of 40 exercises that help to develop the skills, concentration, and awareness necessary to properly practice Ceremonial Magick. These exercises are meant to be practiced immediately, as they are written as simply as possible. Mr. Tyson does a great job of explaining each exercise well, and the reasons behind its inclusion. The exercises are broken into sections starting with techniques that require no specific posture and working through reclining, sitting, standing and moving exercises. They cover the range from basic breath technique and awareness to the basic daily rituals involved in Ceremonial Magick as practiced by groups such as The Golden Dawn. And, he does this all with a bare minimum of tools. To quote the author, "they consist of a knife, the tattwa symbols cut from cardboard, various receptacles to hold common substances such as water and salt, candles, regular coins, a deck of Tarot cards, incense sticks and cones, a dowsing pendulum that can be made from a piece of thread and a ring, and simple objects such as a watch and a kettle." (The Magician's Workbook, Tyson, pg. xv)

At the end of the book, the author gives a suggested 40 week course intended to build up the necessary skills while working through all the exercises, followed by a 4 week rotational course meant to maintain the skill level. This is then followed by a rather well developed suggest reading list. I have read over the entirety of the exercises and started the 40 week course a few days ago. I intend to track my progress here by writing at the end of each week to report my experiences, and any thing else I find pertitnent, as well as give the upcoming week's projected exercise schedule. Out of necessity, this week will have two posts.

I invite anyone who may be interested to join me in this course, or simply post thoughts or questions pertaining to the process I am working through. I will gladly do my best to answer anything that may be posed to me.

Schedule of exercises for Week 1:
-Exercise 1: Self-Awareness I: Ego Denial (pg 3)
-Exercise 4: Inward Perception I: Stepped Relaxation (pg 13)
-Exercise 11: Breathing I: Color Breathing (pg 39)
-Exercise 14: Outward Concentration I: Time Watching (pg 50)
These are each performed every day of the week.

My thoughts and expectations for the week:
As I am already familiar with various relaxation techniques, and have done multiple methods of color breathing, I expect these two to be the easiest of this week's exercise. The Ego Denial involves a higher level of awareness than I usually practice. I expect high numbers of "infractions", but it is all in the process of growth. And as for the Time Watching, I know that my mind will wander, and I am curious to see just how well I can hold the necessary concentration.