I'm muddling around doing some cleaning and prepwork and just idly thinking things to myself. I think my next phase 3 (P3) will be Friday morning. I think it might be nice to get up in the dark of early morning and walk over to the lake and watch the sunrise. 1) There won't be many people that early. 2) I should be all recovered by 4pmish when I have to drive to fetch spouse (apparently he gets his weekends back). 3) The sun should be just moving into aquarius, perfect.

I was thinking about the first P3 and how it felt like my brain became more suggestible, sort of like driving a very responsive supercar after your daily driver is an old busted volvo. All of a sudden you can end up in a thought-ditch because the brain is way more reactive and sensitive. At one point I had imagined the light patterns on the wall as a looming skull faced guy, but then I thought, that might be scary, but nothing can get me here, I lit my frankincense and myrrh incense. Because I read that frankincense is good for clearing negative influences and banishing (it's used in church, right?). So even if looming skull guy did want to "get me", he couldn't. I had made the room safe.

Once when I was twelve or so I scared the living bejeezus out of myself by imagining velociraptors in the dark garage. I scampered up the stairs to the lit upper floor so fast, because even though I knew it was improbable there were velociraptors hunting me, I did not want to suffer the consequences of being wrong. I think it's kinda like that, where your imagination can get the best of you. If you give your imagination some kind of "armor", you can make things more comfortable and help keep yourself out of the thought-ditch.

To that end, and since I can't burn incense everywhere, I'm going to take this pendant I got way back in Fairbanks, and make it my "safety amulet". It is a round carnelian disc with arabic carving and a silver rim. I asked what the carving meant and much to my embarrassment I do not remember exactly what the guy told me, but it was some flavor of "allah protect me" which seemed pleasant at the time. But I've haven't worn it much because necklaces get caught in my hair and make my neck itch. So I think I'm going to take this pendant and invest some time and intention in it. Cleanse it in sunshine and salt, etc. Maybe carve something on the blank backside. The moon is going to be full on monday in the sign of cancer (ruled by the moon) - it's the wolf moon. Did you know monday stands for "moon's day" (I didn't)? Sunday is the sun's day, monday is the moon's day. So it seems like the perfect time to put some thought into this amulet. Monday, first full moon of the year, in cancer. Plus, I picked my first P3 date based on the placement of the moon. So this seems like a good dedication to build on.

Basically I'm making a magic feather for myself. Which could be silly, but it's all fun and games until Schrodinger's velociraptors are chasing you in the dark.

I was reading up on some basic cleansing rituals and such just to give myself some ideas, and I ran across this person who is using art to create talismans, which seems fascinating and something I hadn't really considered before. But it makes perfect sense. Very interesting discussion, I think I will be mulling it over for a while.

Art and the occult.