I’m not much of a believer in hiding my work, or my intention. I realize that when it comes to personal business, there’s some value in hiding one’s work — it’s easier to lose weight, for example, if you’re not making a big deal about your exercise and food regime, and just doing it (it’s also incredibly hard to lose weight without a major change in your exercise and diet, but more on that some other time).

But really, the most important thing to remember is that it’s very hard to get other people involved in your work if you’re not clear about what your work is.  And my work this month, for better or worse, is to showcase some of what I’m learning about Maker Philosophy, and put it into practice through magic; and to use magic to help expound Maker philosophy, and encourage more of my fellow teachers into the practices that will bring Maker philosophy to their classroom and their school.

So for this, the second of the thirty-one days of magic, I’ve written a petition paper.  Now, normally a petition paper is written on a square.  I didn’t have any square paper.  And it’s written in the correct color ink.  I don’t know that I had the correct color ink for anything other than working with Saturn, because Saturn’s color is black.  And today is Saturday (Saturn-Day).  So I guess that’s appropriate that my petition paper is dedicated to him.

As you can see, the petition paper is huge.  Normally, they’re squares, and written and overwritten on top of one another to make a scrawl.  But for me, there’s benefit in making it both readable and beautiful. I want other teachers to be able to read it, and think hey this applies to me. I’m a Maker.  It’s one thing to convince a spirit to make a consciousness shift; it’s quite another to convince another human being.

But, as Gordon has said on other occasions, it’s hard to convince yourself that this is right until it feels right. And the petition to Saturn didn’t feel right.  At various points during the day, I tried making other petition papers. And those felt right.  They felt real, in a way that this more beautiful and calligraphic one doesn’t. Those scribbles were done with heart-power in them, and despite their ugliness they feel far more primal — and far more likely to be effective. So much so that I’m reluctant to photograph them and post them.

Which just goes to show that sometimes the magic is in the beauty, and sometimes it’s in the work.

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