I thought it would be fun to share my personal journey going through the Book of Readings so that even though you might be undergoing your journey at a different place and time, we can still share the journey and connect in this nonlinear way.

I’ll show you a few snapshots of what my filled-in Book of Readings journal looks like, so you can see ways to diverge from just straightforward writing formal sentence after sentence.

And don’t be precious about the pages of your journal! Get in there and be messy with your handwriting. In fact, the sooner you get messy, the sooner you’ll get comfortable with the process and enjoy it. If you’re exerting painstaking effort to make sure your cursive is just perfect– I mean– ultimately, you do what you know is best for you. I’m just saying, don’t be precious about it. =)

For some of the prompts (none shown in these photos, b/c it gets personal), I do write out sentences, really thoughtful reflections, narratives, yada yada. But not for all of them. Writing out a few keywords, mind-mapping your responses, and leaning in to your creativity is going to be a far better approach.

You’ll figure out what the above photo is about when you get there. So one of the Realms revealed attributes I definitely want to keep strong through the end of this year and into the next, so I took note from the LWB info and selected three stones that correspond with that Realm (snowflake obsidian, sodalite, and I added my own extra, blue tiger eye) to place on my reading table throughout the duration of this journey.

Likewise, when you get a good idea or feel inspired, go for it! You don’t have to just stay limited to whatever the prompts and instructions in the Book says.

I would be super excited about you sharing your own experiences. And if you have any questions or want to share any insights with the collective, be sure to comment below any of the videos in this series.

In case you haven’t noticed (and if you’ve observed my work for a while then you’ll certainly have noticed this), I take your feedback very seriously. And wherever I can, I integrate your constructive criticism and suggestions to make what I create better. Heck, this is kind of how-why the 22 Weeks journal evolved into the Study Journal that evolved into this Book of Readings. =)

So, after having completed Practicum 1, here are a few of my tips.

Pace yourself. Don’t get eager-beaver and try to do too many of the practicums in one sitting. When I opened the book, I was confident I could get through at least the first two practica on the same day.

Nope. It didn’t happen. Halfway through this Practicum 1, I realized oh, I really need to slow down, pace myself, and take my time sitting in every prompt, reflecting sincerely, not rushing, and truly attempt to be open-minded and receptive.

One a day, and then resting a few days in between each practicum, to let the reading and reflections settle in, is probably the best approach. Don’t let too many days in between each session pass or else you’ll fall behind and end up not finishing. But also don’t try to do everything all at once, or you’ll burn out. It’s gotta be Goldlilocks.

Being open and receptive to the messages coming through is harder than it might seem. Looking up the card meaning for The Empress in a little white booklet when you’ve been at the tarot for three decades is… not easy. =) But I think you (or okay, at least I am) getting a lot out of this journey by actively sitting in Beginner’s Mindset.

Oh and this above photo is just to show you something I improvised, ha. For the prompts on regurgitating text from the LWB or Book of Maps, I screen-shotted those sections from the digital PDF files on my computer screen via WINDOWS KEY + SHIFT + S and then went into MS Word and pasted it onto a document file, printed it out, cut it down to size, and scotch-taped it into my Book of Readings. =D