M is for Magic and Making-Do – Pagan Blog Project 2014

So here I am, looking down the neck of a two-week contract for-which I’m primarily extremely thankful – income is important, and this is close enough to home to be able to walk at least some of the time – even if the thought of being back on the Temp Agencies’ roster with no clear end in sight is not all that encouraging. (That said, I did just find out that my contract is walking distance from home, which is fanTAStic news, so there’s that!)
 
It’s strange to be “looking for work” in a more permanent sense after spending nearly four years in one job. I catch myself thinking “Damn, I shouldn’t have put all my eggs in one basket like that, I was really relying on those monthly paycheques”… as if accepting a permanent position and believing it to be permanent isn’t what most people in my country are striving for, if not full-out doing. It’s a funny space to be in, mentally, this visceral knowing that (a) lots of diverse income streams are the safe bet, even when it’s important that at least one of them (ideally a mininum of two) be reliable and fairly fixed, while also (b) getting the impression that this is not how Most People approach “career building” (if I can call it that).

 
Maybe I need to think of it as “career gardening” – strength and health and thriving through polyculture, permaculture, and old fashioned companion planting – rather than the more typical concept of structure in a career.
 
But this leads me to questions about things like honey-pots and other small magics that can be used to cultivate and encourage my (various) career aspirations in complementary ways.
 
Some options:
(1) I’m currently sewing myself some new clothes (a box-pleated skirt and a simple shift dress) using fabric that I already had (except, admittedly, for $2.50 worth of bias taping for trimming the dress). I can use make a light tea using basil leaves and orange-blossom water (uh.. got the basil, not so much the flower water) and add that to the blocking bath of my latest home-made shrug, or else toss a little basil essential oil in with the wash-water when I’m pre-shrinking my cotton fabric. These will help attract wealth and prosperity, but also encourage people to think sympathetically towards me and like me on a general level.
 
(2) I can revisit my honey pots – mine and my wife’s – and “reprogram” them to better reflect the kinds of work we’re each looking for (I may actually have to start from scratch with mine… but we’ll see) using the herbs, spices, stones, and essential oils that I have on hand.
 
(3) I can make food – possibly a salad featuring leafy greens, pecans, fresh basil, orange sections, and alfalfa sprouts, with, maybe, a hint of maple syrup in the dressing – enchant it, and eat it to call prosperity, employment, and wealth to me (NOTE: A caprese salad of basil and tomatoes and mozarella will do the trick for this, too, but pecans are one of the only ingestible things that I know of to correspond specifically to employment rather than more generalized “money”, “wealth”, or “prosperity”).
 
Whenever possible, I like to choose components that have “bonus side effects” – so oranges that call prosperity to me, will also bring happiness to me and encourage continued marital bliss in our home. Baking ground flax seeds into my bread lets me enchant for both money and beauty. Likewise, wearing Ylang Ylang as a perfume will get my lovely wife’s attention Like That, and get random strangers to find me atractive – something that, as a model, is not going to hurt my job options – but it’ll also make me more persuasive in a job interview or while writing a cover letter.
 
That’s kitchen magic for you, though. Use what you’ve got, and make it work. Make it work a lot.