This is a deeply passionate topic that not only is something I find extremely valuable but so do a few of my demons. In fact, they are the ones that are stressing that I speak about this topic. I find that so many stress the importance of foundations to those that are starting out on their path. This is a wonderful thing to talk about consistently. Except that I find that one thing is missing when people talk of foundations of spiritual growth. Record Keeping. I cannot express the amount of disappointment that I see that people don’t speak about this topic more often. In fact, I tend to get laughed at a fair few times when I have broached the topic. Now, I get to laugh. You may be asking why.
I have records dating back to when I was first starting out more than a decade ago. Things that I have long forgotten. Things that seemed insignificant then. Yet… I am now the one to laugh because I have over a decade of writings, channelings, astral experiences, and even conjuring. All of it was recorded down in some fashion. There are years where there are gaps but I still have them. Some things I wish would disappear because they were horrible times, but I still have them. The thing is… we all learn from our History, our Path. The Path that we have walked and will walk.
I speak of record keeping because I find that it is one of the top things that are foundational to my own practice but yet find that so many do not. It’s their choice and I respect that! Absolutely do what fits your path best. Yet, I have heard over the years of people complaining and upset that they do not feel like they have grown or changed or that they don’t have experiences anymore. This is where they are wrong. Most people don’t realize that it’s not that it has stopped… it’s changed. A lot of spiritual growth is gradual and not able to be measured as easily as saying ‘Oh yes, I was doing this thing last week and now I have another experience that’s out of this world’. It’s more along the lines of receiving small messages each day or every few days. It’s seeing something or hearing something and then a few days later something else correlates with that.
But most don’t keep track of their experiences, no matter how small. Most do not journal or blog or keep any sort of frequent records. Because of this, they do not see their gradual growth and experiences change. Instead, it’s different and they feel like they don’t have anything to experience anymore.
This is why I stress that one of the most important foundational things is to keep diligent or frequent records. Even if you go into a daily journal on your phone or notebook to write, ‘I think I felt this today’. That right there will show you three months down the line how you’ve grown. Why? because the more you look at your growth, you’ll see that you are actually improving. The more growth you have and you record, the more you’ll see that progress. Going from a ‘maybe something’ to ‘I saw this today and I got a large sense of this companion telling me a message’. That’s huge growth there! A massive one. Yet, this is missed because of not logging those small things.
I have over a decade of journals that have information. Have I skipped years? Yes. That’s normal. We have our Fallow Periods, or Lulls, or Burnouts. This happens to all that work in spiritual practices. I have some journals that skip from 2013 to 2016 because I stopped or because it was in a different journal. I have records of when I was blogging instead of writing physically. I keep two records of those in case one is lost. I moved onto a website of my experiences and information, as well as writing within my personal blog on S&S. These are all different forms of record keeping. I can go back to the formative years of developing my gifts and see the shifts and changes. I can see what mistakes I made and how I fixed them. That’s what is important. I can see the Shadow work I’ve done over the years or I can even read the origin of where a Shadow or Trauma came from. Because I’ve kept detailed records.
This is something that may seem tedious and spoon-eating. I understand that greatly. Find something that works for you. Maybe speech to text on a journal app? Maybe typing out things on the computer or on a blog, even if it’s private. Maybe handwriting is your comfort. The thing is that keeping records allows you to go back years later and see how you’ve changed. How you’ve grown and where your Path has moved through the years. That’s super important to seeing your own patterns of growth or even predicting when a Fallow Period hits if there is a clear pattern.
That’s how I know that the Winter time frame each year is the hardest for me because I shut down to rest. I do my best work during the Spring and Summer seasons because it’s energetically better for me.
Ways to Record Keep
There are so many ways that you can keep records, it’s going to be a lot to list them all. What I will do is make some suggestions of different ways that you can do so, though I will make sure to keep them to options that are either free or low-budget.
–Journaling in Notebooks
–Writing using Grimoires
–Typing on Blog
–Typing in Word/Google Docs
–Type in Word/GDocs and Print out – binder or paste in sketchbooks
–Blog/Journal in Notion (free for personal use)
–Use OneNote- ($ may cost)
–Blog on WordPress (free)
–Write in free journal apps or notes on phone/tablet
–Use Voice Notes or Voice recordings
–Make a private Discord Server (free) – use it as a blog/journal or even BOS or Grimoire
–Make a special email just for experiences and email yourself
–Use Social Media : Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok and talk of your experiences
———(For all that is holy avoid twitter and tumblr, they’re super toxic – unless you make them private)
–Make/Buy (Etsy) PDFs of journals and use on tablet for writing ($ Goodnotes)
I’ve used Scrivener ($) as well but that’s more expensive than most want to pay and to be honest, Notion is 1000x better with recording. You can do so much with that. Make sure to check YouTube videos on how to use it since it doesn’t come with a How-To.
The point is that there are so many options for you to use you can. And the best is that you can go from one to the other and back. You do not have to stick to one thing all the time. You use what works best for you and your practice. I’ve gone months without using one but sticking to another and then switching. Sometimes I take things from one and add them to another when I switch.
It doesn’t have to be anything tedious, it doesn’t have to be this big scary thing. You write what works for you. Some days or weeks or months you won’t. But that’s okay. The thing is that you get yourself into the habit of updating when you can and it’ll make a difference even two or three months down the line, let alone imagine years or decades later.
