The most common thing that people tell me is that they love the idea of a practice and cannot find the time for one. They picture an hour of candlelit ritual, look at their week, and give up before they begin.
The secret is that almost nobody has an hour. What steady practitioners have is ten minutes, used every day. A small practice that actually happens will change you. A large one that you keep postponing will not.
The ten minutes
This is what I do on most mornings. Change any part of it to suit yourself.
- Minute one: open the window. Or step outside. Feel the air and look at the sky. Notice one thing about the day: the light, the wind, a bird.
- Minutes two to four: ground and center. Stand with your feet flat and do the tree exercise from our guide to grounding and centering. Roots down, breath slow.
- Minute five: greet the day. At your altar, or wherever you are standing, touch something that you keep there. Light a candle only if you will stay beside it until you put it out. On a busy morning, a battery candle is the better choice. Say good morning to the day, to the Goddess and the God, or to the land, in whatever words come.
- Minutes six and seven: set an intention. Make your tea or coffee. As you stir it clockwise, decide on one word for the day: patience, courage, attention. Drink the first mouthful slowly, with the word in mind.
- Minute eight: ask for a hint. Draw one tarot card or one rune, if you use them, and look at it without reaching for a book. If you do not, look out the window again and take the first thing that you notice as your sign.
- Minute nine: write one line. The date, the moon phase, your word, and your card. One line is enough.
- Minute ten: close. Put out the candle if you lit one. Picture your shield settling around you. Go and have your day.
When you have only two minutes
Some mornings fall apart. On those days, do this: stand still, take three slow breaths with your feet on the floor, and say your one word for the day. That is a complete practice. It counts.
Making it fit your life
- If you have small children, include them. A child will happily say good morning to the sun and help to stir the pot clockwise.
- If you work shifts, morning is whenever you wake up. The practice belongs to the start of your day, not to a time on the clock.
- If you share a home and have no privacy, do the whole thing in the bathroom, or silently over the kettle. Nobody can tell that a person who is stirring tea is casting a small spell. See practicing in the broom closet.
- If mornings are impossible, do it at night. Thank the day in place of greeting it, and choose a word for tomorrow.
Why small and daily wins
A ritual four times a year is an event. A practice that is repeated every day becomes part of who you are. After a month of mornings, grounding takes one breath in place of three minutes. After a year, you notice the moon without trying, and you feel the season shift before the calendar tells you.
That steady, ordinary awareness is what the grand rituals are for. You can have it for ten minutes a day, starting tomorrow.