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The Checklist: A Most Unexpectedly Powerful Magical Tool, by Durgadas Allen Duriel

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Though magic may appear to be about fancy paraphernalia and items collected from hidden places in distant lands, my experience is that some of the most powerful magical items are highly practical and in plain sight in our everyday lives. For example, one of the most potent magical tools I've encountered is found in the personal productivity section of bookstores: a daily checklist. In this context, it's a checklist with areas for tracking my ritual and meditation practice each day, both in terms of whether I completed them and how well I performed them.

I know that even the notion of this may seem extreme to some of you, and I relate. I began practicing magic in childhood, and by the time I had something resembling a formal practice, I was a rebellious, anti-authority teenager. The idea of having a spiritual practice be anything other than spontaneous and self-directed horrified me. At some point though, through a series of synchronistic events, I began an intensive daily Hatha Yoga practice and experienced the benefits of spiritual discipline. Soon after, I initiated into a Hermetic order, where I was also encouraged to have a daily practice, this time of ritual and meditation, and which presented me with the checklist to aid with that.

I don't remember what I thought of the checklist at first, or whether I attributed any significance to it, but as I began checking off my rituals and meditations each day, I felt momentum building around my actions. Once I reached certain critical points, like six months of daily meditation, I was confident that I could maintain and expand my level of practice. Due in no small part to the checklist, I've meditated every day for over 15 years, and I've kept a daily checklist as long, with the contents changing a bit as what I decide to monitor varies.

In most spiritual traditions (as well as in psychology) there is an awareness that when we attempt to make changes in our lives, part of us resists. On the one hand, we're creatures of habit, and altering our status quo will inevitably provoke resistance because of that. Beyond that though, there's also a part of us that fears change because it doesn't know what it can predict from new conditions, especially grand frontier change like what can accompany a daily spiritual practice. This part of us is often called the ego in spiritual traditions, and its number one priority is making sure that we don't veer far from our status quo and comfort zone, even if that comfort zone is decidedly uncomfortable.

As long as we don't stray much from our routines and patterns, we won't tend to encounter much ego resistance, but when we do, it becomes noticeable. Most of us experience this when setting New Year's resolutions and realizing that even something that seems totally healthy, like exercising regularly or eating better, can provoke significant resistance within us. It's actually quite difficult to make sustainable, healthy changes in our lives, even in honor of realizing our dreams, because the ego resists them.

In my new book, The Little Work: Magic to Transform Your Everyday Life, I explore this topic in-depth and provide a host of strategies for dealing with this issue, but fundamental to that process is maintaining our awareness of our behavior. Have you ever had the experience of setting a goal or intention only to blink your eyes and realize months have gone by and you've barely thought of it? That's how sneaky the ego can be when it resists something, but with the magic of a checklist, we never fully lose our awareness of what we intend because we've held space for it in our lives. We see, day after day, if we're doing what we said we would or not.

Another reason the checklist is powerful is that it's an objective form of measure. Though there can be acceptable reasons not to do what we said we would, a pattern of that is a problem, and it's invaluable, especially over time, to see trends in our behavior. Maybe there are certain times of year when when tend to waver in our practice, for example. This holds for tracking our level of focus, too. For instance, maybe we maintain our daily meditation practice, but our level of concentration within it has been lackluster for months. Without a checklist, we may simply move along oblivious to that, or that it's such a trend. Recognizing that I wasn't showing up to my practices with as much attentiveness as I once did was what inspired me to integrate this evaluation process with my checklist, and since doing that, I've consistently practiced with a higher degree of attentiveness.

While keeping a checklist, it's important to mind being realistic with what we intend to do and track, and to be compassionate with ourselves throughout the process of our inner work. The point of this isn't to stare at a blank checklist day after day and feel guilty or ashamed because we haven't done something we know is good for us or want to do. If that's what we keep finding ourselves doing, it usually means we overestimated our capacity and would benefit from scaling back. For example, if a daily ritual and meditation practice is too much for us now, how about a small ritual daily and meditation once a week? In my experience, it's far easier and more sustainable to start small and build than to strain ourselves and falter only to give up completely (which many of us have experienced with New Year's resolutions).

That said, even though we may feel uncomfortable looking at our performance level, it's important to be able to accept the reality of where we are in our practice. When we admit and accept where we are, we can strategize doing something to help ourselves live more in alignment with our intentions. That's unlikely to happen if we allow ourselves to consistently make excuses for not doing what we said we would, and after a certain point, the excuses become flimsy. This is a moment when it can be helpful to remind ourselves why doing what we said we would (in general and in particular) is important to us, ideally in a documented form we can revisit and add to later if need be.

Without the aid of a checklist, I have little doubt that magic and meditation wouldn't have been part of my daily life for over fifteen years. I imagine at some point, perhaps many, I would've come up with reasons not to prioritize my practice, and it would've faded from my awareness only for me to hit the start of a new year and resolve to practice again. Because of persevering with my practice, I can confidently say that I've experienced vistas of consciousness and flowerings of magic that were unknown to me before, some even beyond the scope of what I had imagined was possible for myself.

Since beginning my daily practice, more conventional magical tools have come and gone, and when I think about what has contributed the most to my practice, it's the checklist: the most surprising, ordinary-seeming yet super powerful tool in my kit. I can't recommend it highly enough, and your checklist can be composed of whatever you feel it would be beneficial for you to track.

Here are some ideas:

• Ritual practice
• Meditation practice
• Full and New moon observance
• Tarot readings or other divination readings
• Reading goals
• Health goals

To make a checklist like this, create a document that has a table with the days of the month on the top row, and the items to track in one column on the left. Then, as the month progresses, check off the items as you complete them. Remember to be kind to yourself during this process, and that the purpose of this checklist is to sustain your awareness and help you stay motivated, not to cause you to feel badly about yourself. This is about helping us live in alignment with our intentions, which is one of the most magical things we can do.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2020. All rights reserved.

My grandson is almost three years old. My daughter bought a secondhand bed in the shape of a car for him, and ever since, he has not wanted to go to bed because he says the children are in his room. Loud noises upset him and he has now started putting the pillow over his head to go to sleep. Is it possible that the bed is the problem? If so, will getting rid of it help him?

Vicki

Susyn:

Children's instincts are usually more in tune with the spirit world than those of adults. It is important that you acknowledge his fears by addressing the issue right away or it could affect his emotional well-being.

Based on the fact that your grandson's reluctance to go to sleep coincided with the purchase of the secondhand bed, it is probably safe to say that this is where the problem lies. We always have to be careful when bringing used items into our homes, for they can and do often come with unwanted guests or energies.

There are a few things you can try before getting rid of the bed altogether. First, smudge the bed and bedroom with a sage stick. (You can purchase at smudge stick at any metaphysical store.) Light the sage, and when it begins to smolder, use it as a wand to cleanse all areas of the room. As you smudge, say aloud, All children who are not supposed to be here must now return home. All entities attached to this bed must leave the premises at once.

If this bed came into your home with childlike spirits attached, the entire room will need to be cleansed. Be sure to target doorways and windows as well as any lamps, toys or electronic items.

If this does not calm your grandson's fears, the second thing I would recommend is replacing the mattress. Sometimes the place where a person had the most contact while they were alive holds their energy and vibrations strongly. If you try this, you may be able to keep the frame and car theme of the bed while ridding it of any unwanted ghosts.

I do not feel that these spirits are harmful; it sounds more like they simply annoy the boy. Regardless, it is important you address your grandson's fears and make sure that these entities are cleared out. If you don't do this, it would be understandable for his fears to grow deeper.

You may or may not want to include your grandson in these rituals; it all depends on his own desires and understanding. Tell him that you are going to perform a ritual to get rid of the children in his room so that he can sleep more peacefully in his new bed. Ask him if he'd like to perform the ceremony with you. This in and of itself should make him feel more empowered and safe in his room.

Your grandson will be the best test of whether smudging or replacing the mattress works. He should instantly sense a change in the atmosphere of the room. If he still resists going to bed, you may have to get rid of it altogether. Keep in mind that you will still want to smudge the room after the bed has been removed to ensure that any lingering entities are cleared out.

*****

Oceania:

Your grandson sounds like he is stressed as a result of adjusting to change, so I'm wondering if this is his first big boy bed. Moving from a crib to a bed is a milestone of childhood. There are good books written just for toddlers on this subject, including Your Own Big Bed by Rita Bergstein.

He may be missing his old bed and simply need more time to adjust. A helpful transition tool is to place the old familiar crib next to the new bed and allow the child to use the old bed for sleeping and the new bed for playing, resting or napping until it becomes more familiar.

Because your grandson is referring to children in the room, you might closely examine the new bed and linens. Bed frames and linens designed for kids often have faces or figures on them, which could be the source of his comments. You might even look underneath the bed for any drawings or stickers left behind by the former owner.

The fact that the bed looks like a car could be confusing to a toddler because they think so concretely. He might be worried that the car is going to drive away and take him somewhere while he's asleep, and that he'll wake up somewhere else, so you might explain that THIS car isn't going anywhere.

While the new bed seems like the obvious trigger of your grandson's stress, it may not be! Perhaps you and your daughter could examine the bigger picture and see what other changes have been unfolding in his life or the lives of those around him. Toddlers have to deal with the challenge of potty training, learning to socialize with other children, the possible start of preschool or daycare, and sometimes the birth of a new sibling, which can lead to distress about feeling replaced.

Putting the pillow over his head to get to sleep may indicate hypersensitivity to light and sound. People with this trait often need to sleep in rooms that are very dark and quiet, and might even require eye masks, ear plugs or white noise machines to sleep well. If he fits this profile, you can learn more from Dr. Elaine Aron's book, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You.

Sleeping with a lovey (a favorite toy, stuffed animal, blanket or article of clothing) might soothe your grandson and help him feel more comfortable and secure in his new bed. Having a consistent bedtime routine also helps relieve a toddler's anxiety. Soothing bedtime rituals can include a nightly bath, song, story, chat, listening to soothing music or turning on a special night light. With love and patience, I'm sure he'll eventually enjoy sweet dreams!

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.