Retrospection

As a new year has begun, it is time to look back over what happened during the last year. Take something to write and go to a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Light a candle and some incense, if you want to. If you have been writing Daily Pages in the last year, or some kind of journal, take that with you, too.

First of all, think about important topics or areas of your life. Restrict yourself to three or four areas if possible. For me, they would be something like family and friends, religion, work and writing.
Mentally go over the last year for each of these areas. Try to answer the following questions:

What happened in that area of my life during this year?
What have I done and achieved in that area of my life during this year?
What were my goals? Did I achieve them or not. If not, why? Especially compared to those goals I have achieved?

Look into your journal while you answer those questions. It will help you to remember achievements, events and failures you already forgot. Repeat this exercise with all of the major areas of your life, maybe tackling one area each day.

When you are done with all of the topics, there is one last question to consider:

What kind of a person have you been over the last year?

Write the results of your retrospection down. It will help you to sort your thoughts, and we will need the notes again at the end of the month. Additionally, if you have done retrospection for some years, your notes can help you to see the broader picture of your life.

Introspection

In some traditions, the New Year starts at Samhain. The year starts with the dark half, with winter, just as the day starts with the evening, at sunset. Therefore, for me the time around Samhain is the time for introspection, for looking back over the last year, and for looking forward into what I want to do and be next year. In terms of the three aspects of the divine, introspection means getting into contact with your divine Self. And that is what we are going to do during this November: introspection. We start this week with retrospection and look back over the last year. Then we will do two different exercises to explore ourselves. Finally, on the basis of these results, we will make plans for the next year.

Samhain

Blessed (belated) Samhain to everyone.

I am sorry, but what happened this Smahain was kind of unexpected and I did not manage to write a meditation this week. I will hopefully resume blogging next weekend.