The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I've been thinking for a while about having part of my seasonal observances be tied to modern-stuff-that's-useful.

For example, my birthday falls at the fall equinox, and that would be a *very* sensible time for me to decide, say, to check all of my online profiles and make sure they're current and saying useful things.

Likewise, at Samhain, it would be a good time for me to review the 'what happens if I die' stuff (will, disposition of intellectual property rights, who to tell online if something happens to me, etc.)

Those are things that fit into the cycle of the year, either fairly generally (the Samhain bit) or in an obvious personal way (the fact my birthday falls on the equinox makes the timing a bit simpler.)

But I'm contemplating spreading things out a bit more, too, and I'm curious if anyone does anything like this, has thought of doing anything like, has ideas for useful things along those lines, etc. (I also note I'm working on an 8 Sabbat model, but I'm more interested in 'stuff and reason for particular association' than where it ends up falling on the calendar, because some of this is going to  be fairly arbitrary.)

Other things I've considered:
- reshelving my books in the right places.
- prepping my closet for seasonal changes (which is hard to do precisely, hello, New England, where we have very clear seasons, but when they feel like they've changed can vary by 6 weeks.)
- reviewing online privacy settings and related things like that (which I do as an ongoing thing, but where stuff can change without my realising it, or there's more nuanced options than there used to be, etc.)
- cleaning out my hardrive/online bookmarks/etc. for better usability.
- cleaning out iTunes and my accumulated music and making it easier to sort.
- ditto on the ebooks.
- reviewing my long-term financial planning (retirement, etc. which is mostly automated, but it's nice to look at it.)

Some of these things are a once a year thing. Some of them are a twice a year thing. Some of them are a 'do more than that' (links!) but looking at them closely at least once a year is probably smart.

My suggestion would be to avoid computer stuff (eg, cleaning out the hard drive) and stick to something that's physically manifested (such as your "rearranging the books" idea). It's just a gut instinct, but something tells me that having to physically perform a task--and having the results physically manifested around you thereafter--somehow "seals the deal" with your unconscious mind, in terms of linking it to the holiday. I guess it's a similar principal to the symbolic acts of ritual and magic.

I thought about the computer part a good bit - but the reality of my life is that an awful lot of my daily experience of the world *does* involve the computer and a) I notice when it is untidy and b) having it be part of my spiritual life - um. It is, so including seasonal stuff there makes as much sense as anything else.

I do think that each point should have something that's also more physical, but there's definitely points where most of it's going to be computer and very little physical. (Will and related stuff, f'ex, is going to be 95% "do stuff on the computer to update" and 5% "print and deal with appropriate legal requirements and stick in known storage.")

Likewise the online bio part is a thing I'm bad at updating, but need to - but my birthday is also clearly a good time to do it, because it's a) age change, in places where that isn't automated plus b) start of the school year/my work year, so a good time to do updates there.

I thought about the computer part a good bit - but the reality of my life is that an awful lot of my daily experience of the world *does* involve the computer and a) I notice when it is untidy and b) having it be part of my spiritual life - um. It is, so including seasonal stuff there makes as much sense as anything else.

Same here. My computer is a large part of my life. Most of my work and much of my "play" (like TC, which counts as "play" as it isn't work) is centered on my computer. So it would make sense to incorporate it into such practices. For people for whom a computer is something they use a few hours a week to check email, Facebook and the like, I could see it not having such a central place in such seasonal rituals.

has ideas for useful things along those lines, etc.

 
Updating contact lists, address books, blogrolls, etc.  Don't have an Wheel of the Year correlation really; are there any holidays where you send people off on trips (to read other blogs), or exchange letters/cards?