Pretty much everyone on my blogroll is doing this New Year, New You project, so I may as well join in.  Besides, it’s got me hooked on the Charmed, I’m Sure blog, so looks like I’ve got more reading to do.  And really, I was thinking of doing a New Year’s resolution type of things, much like how I did my recent Mercury Retrograde resolutions, but a little more long-term and higher-level.  Overarching goals, if you will.  We could all do with a bit of those, couldn’t we?

Now, I’m not gonna lie.  My life is pretty awesome, and I can’t complain for much.  I’ve got a loving, healthy, expanding family that cares for me; I have a stable job (as stable as the government will be, at least) that pays extraordinarily well for my standard of living; I have a roof over my head and a car to drive; I have friends across the country in a variety of fields, professions, skills, and interests; and I’ve never had an issue with sex (I don’t do that whole “dry spell” thing), drugs (non-addictive personality plus lack of desire), or money (somehow I’m just lucky).  Plus, having adopted a Stoic mindset for the past few years, I’m still pretty content with the hand life has dealt me, even with all the minor issues aside (because I don’t have any issues besides the minor ones, amazingly).

That said, I’m a goddamn magician.  I have the power to make things as I want to make them, or come into conversation with the forces that make things are how they’re supposed to be.  I don’t need to have even the most minor of issues, and even Stoicism doesn’t say that you can’t work to change things if they can be changed (just don’t get too caught up in it if they’re unchangeable).  My life ain’t perfect, and nothing human can be perfect ‘cept by imagination, but there’s no reason why I can’t make things as perfect and smooth as the universe and cosmos will allow.

With that, here are my most important realistic goals for the coming year.  I have a few others, but I didn’t feel that they were appropriate to list here, such as learning more about myself or my origins (which will come in due time and over time), connection with the Divine (because I’m already in connection with it, I just need to realize it), and a few other things.  Instead, have some real goals, the meat and gravy of what my aims will be over the coming year.  Besides, if I write this all down for the world to see, it’ll basically be a confession and an oath to all my dear readers and the Internet that I’ve got to hold myself to.

Concrete goals:

• Attend Crucible in NJ in October 2012.  I missed it last year, having heard about it just the weekend before and not getting the time off, so I’m going to get there and learn awesome things with awesome people, including a few people I adore and learn from.  It’ll also be my birthday weekend, so if anyone wants to meet up for a drink, let’s.
• Finish paying off my college loans.  My original plan was to pay off my almost $20K in student debt in three separate loans by November 2012.  One of my student loans is already complete.  This will require some discipline and a bit of luck to make sure I don’t go under, since I haven’t been saving anything due to unexpected expenses (bar tabs and repeated car issues).  Like Frater RO, I need to make my car run on magic.  If I can just make it to July when my next pay increase goes into effect, I should be good.  Financial magic to stabilize and fortify things until then might be a good idea.
• Keep my daily practice daily, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.  I see people getting amazing results, doing amazing and intense things, every day on the Twitters, in ancient Tibetan tomes, or texts of Trithemius.  I’m going to commit myself to, every day no matter what, (a) meditate at least thirty minutes (b) do my prayers and offerings and shit.  This includes both morning and nightly practices, the latter of which will involve me spending less time on the computer (such sadness, not).  Over time I may change or add the work I do for daily practices, or increase the amount of time I spend in meditation, but it’s going to be every day, no complaints.  This might be difficult when I’m visiting friends or family, but if I have to meditate in the bathroom at 3 a.m. to get some peace and quiet, so be it.
• Regular conjurations of the planetary and elemental angels, and my genius.  Not hard, kiddo, to do three or four conjurations a week, even if it’s only just to touch base and get a refill of those delightful forces of the spheres into my system.

Vague goals:

• Work practical magic.  I haven’t really been doing much in the way of spells or sending out spirits to achieve specific things for me, beyond general “keep me safe” or “expand my awareness” kinds of things.  I keep a log of divination queries I do for myself and others, and keep up on how they resolve; just so, I need to have a log and practice of specific and concrete magical projects that I can gauge their effectiveness and resolution.  I could always use more money, more opportunities for personal and professional advancement, and prospects for buying land and a future house to get settled in.
• Work with non-angelic non-genial spirits.  Don’t get me wrong, working with the angels is awesome and an incredible experience, even though I’ve been doing it for only so short a time and as lightly as I have.  I’ll keep doing work with them, too, because they’re the big managers and CEOs of the world I work in.  That said, I want experience with more demonic entities, lower beings, and other creatures like that.  Whether this is working with the Solomonic Goetia or Frater MC’s Crossed Keys (hopefully both), I want to start getting my hands dirty with this kind of thing.  Whether it’s for practical purposes or for experience with banishing and exorcising things (with their cooperation, for training purposes), working only with the angels may not cut it.
• Work in the astral and higher realms.  My visualization skills are barely par for my level, and I’ve got no dreamworking skills to speak of.  I want to work on exploring and working in the astral realm, whether by lucid dreaming or scrying in contemplation.  If I can find a suitable location to consecrate my astral vortex ring and crystal (it sounds so fancy and fantastical!), this will be a great boon towards this work.
• Strictness with diet and control of my body.  I like snacking, and I like sleeping in; these are entirely human things to do and are awesome in moderation.  But when it feels uncomfortable to do a vase breath when your belly’s distended from too much food, or if you’re nodding off during meditation because you got home too late the night before, it’s time to change habits.  Besides, fasting’s helpful for some of the bigger rituals, and it might also help clear some channels of communication with the spirits I have a harder time hearing.  Doing some physical exercise, whether it’s yoga, tai chi, or some other act, is also a good idea, and in hippie health-conscious northern Virginia, there’re no shortage of places around here that can help me with that.

I suppose, between now and the end of January, I’ll write more about some of these goals and their importance to me, and for some of the vaguer ones, how to carry them out over the next twelvemonth.