silly Magickal Diary question
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Before I dig too deep I think I'll start out with a simple question that I've been arguing about. This is a pretty trivial question but it's confounding my work and my various friends who have opinions seem to have different perspectives on it:
Should the Magickal Diary always be handwritten?
I realize this is the traditional way of doing things, and I must admit there is a very different quality to handwriting which makes it both more personal and requires more thought/effort.
However, since I've only been alive since the 80s, and am therefore a confirmed child of the computer age--I can hardly bring myself to do it! I don't think I ever handwrite anything in my daily life (not in class, not letters, not literature). In fact I don't think I've written more than a few lines (aside from signatures) since elementary school. Because of this my handwriting is dreaful, the process slow and frustrating, and, perhaps more importantly unnatural.
I hate to admit that I am so totally lacking in a skill which has been the very mark of literacy since civilization began--but the fact is that while I can type nrealy 200words a minute with few mistakes, I can barely handwrite half a page in several minutes.
Should I just consider this a weakness, buckle-down and learn to handwrite (for the sake of any potential benefits this may have)? Or should I say 'tradition be damned', and use the tools of my generation (for the sake of salvaging my thoughts as they come)?
A trivial question as I said, but right now I have two records going--one handwritten, largely neglected, and pretty scrappy-looking but solid, real, hardcopy; and a second, more complete in content, less tangible in form living on a usb drive.
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I think the question is what do you really want to do? Regardless of the effort or pain involved.
The reason I handwrite my Journal is because it's in a spiral notebook which makes it easy to keep together.
I'm sure printing it would work just fine, and be much easier. But you may want to consider how it will effect your magick. For example, if you're doing multiple rituals and meditations and you stop in the middle of the procedure to record your journal, how will the sound of the keys and the bright light of the screen affect you? Will the light strain your eyes at all? Will the crunching keys take you away from your relaxed state?
Just things to consider.
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@SophiaLux said
"Should the magical Diary always be handwritten?"
Not necessarily.
Then, again, there is added value in a hand-written diary. It's a truer record of the state at the time of the writing.
Also, I've had many occassions of students losing diaries or having them incomplete if they were computer-maintained, but not a single instance of the same if they were handwritten. (Oops, correction, one student did physically lose the diary once.)
"I hate to admit that I am so totally lacking in a skill which has been the very mark of literacy since civilization began--but the fact is that while I can type nrealy 200words a minute with few mistakes, I can barely handwrite half a page in several minutes. "
Understood.
Recommendation: At some point you should add careful handwriting to your skills - just to round yourself out a bit.
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I have been away from my teacher for quite some time now and at first I hand wrote my letters, really thinking that'd make it more personal. I asked about this same question. The reply I had was that hand written letters do have an individual character to them but they're not as easy to organize and sort through as they are on a computer. You can have a box stacked full of diaries or you can have a floppy disk.
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Thanks for all the opinions. I think I'm probably "telling myself" that I need to learn to handwrite anyway, and quibbling about it is just making excuses. I think I will continue to type a lot of my thoughts though as it is easier to organize.
(Thanks for the welcome as well).--M