Set and Setting

[Quyrm]

So once I was asked "why do you do rituals at night?" and I have been thinking about that and how I prefer certain conditions to perform magick, and I guess I always do it at night because 1: I lived in my parent's house when I started and did it at night to avoid interruptions. 2: Not having sunlight in my room gave me greater control over the lighting so I could use that to create a more engaging environment to work in. 3. By the end of the day, all of my mundane responsibilities for the day are completed and I don't have that distracting me.

Are there any certain quirks to your methods that you've developed from your own experiences? I would love to hear them!

[Rin]

The closest I can think of is the way I schedule my daily practice - when I started spiritual training (and this was a large part of my initial motivation) I had pretty severe chronic back pain (very much reduced, although still slightly present). I'm also generally someone who multitasks by nature and has difficulty focusing on one task - probably a generational thing. These two combined made it really difficult to sit down and meditate for hours on end, the way some other practitioners do (and I'd like to), so while it might be less than ideal, I tend to split my practice up throughout whatever period of spare time I have in the day.

I generally start with stretching about an hour after I get home/wake up (depending on the day), as it takes me that hour or so to loosen up and reach full alertness on waking or unwind on arriving home (I spend the hour reading, as a rule, or checking the internet). Then I'll take up some other activity for half an hour or so, then I'll start with the physical side of my training - chi kung, tai chi and a bit of martial arts. After that I'll take another break, then perform my routine of meditations split up in sessions of 30 - 60 minutes divided by 30 - 120 minutes of other activities. I'm working on slowly condensing the sessions into fewer, longer ones (although I plan to keep the first physical session separate, as the energies are very different) now that my back isn't so bad and I'm more used to sitting down and meditating for extended periods of time, but it's a slow process. The downside is that I probably don't get as much benefit out of my meditations as I could, since the energies don't build up over several hours of constant practice and I don't get the chance to sink into really deep states of consciousness as often, but the upside is that any point in time during my free time of the day, it's never been more than a couple hours since I've engaged in meditation, and so the cycling between spiritual practice and chores/recreational activities keeps my mind on spiritual matters and a constant buzz of moving energy going. I often find myself breaking out into spontaneous sessions of practice while reading or sitting at my desk, which is fun.

[magari]

I like my space clean and organized.

facilitates focus

[Desecrated]

Before dinner is best for me, wife is at work, both dogs are usually sleeping, the mailman has already been by.
Peace and quiet.