Hoad’s Thoughts on a Thursday Series Episode 1: Esoteric Rituals in One’s Homeoffice

Hello Linkedin,

Recently I decided to climb out of my cave a little when it comes to social media and revamp and align my own "Holy Trinity" of platforms (Linkedin, Facebook, and Instagram). Now is a very good time to be a little more active online and revisit old connections whilst making brand new ones. Also, I feel like I have a lot to share these days. Not being surrounded by people in an office means my thoughts and ideas have started to bottle up and I have to get them out somehow. So here is my first Linkedin blog post! To be honest, I really do have the time now for writing (I'm currently planning to cancel Netflix. I'm disappointed in how little they really have available now. Didn't it feel at one point inexhaustible?)

It's been a long while since I wrote something. I had a love affair with the written word many years ago and it pleases me no end to be lighting the old flames back up again. My old boss Harvey Nichols invested a lot of time and money sending me on media courses so it's only fair I practice some of the learnings, even if it's not for their benefit anymore. So, along with my Prison Fitness Routine (20 push-ups x3 and 50 sit-ups x3 every second day) and now some light journalism, I'm making the best out the end of the world (or at least the end of the one we knew).

And to help me slip effortlessly back into my musings, which I'm hoping will be a series if you stick with me, I thought I'd start with something light and hopefully a little fun for my first post.

I've always been told I have slight quirks when it comes to office setups (strange plants, jars of spices, crystals, etc) but now that I've been solely working from home for the last two months, I've mixed my two worlds of office and wizard's laboratory together. Strictly organized Trello boards and spreadsheets meet otherworldly practices and spellcasting.

Allow me to elaborate...

Believing in magic

Ever since I was young I always wanted to believe in magic. Being born in Yorkshire, England, which is not only one of the most haunted places in the world, but also boasts the most UFO sightings in England too, gives one a deep connection to something magical.

However, I'm not sure if I really do, hand on heart, believe in it like I used to. The modern world has a tendency to disenchant childlike fascination in all things mythical. Starting with the big man in red that comes around once a year to deliver presents, then the small fairy that collects children's teeth. Each year we get older, the thoughts of magic and wonder in the world are replaced with thoughts of the letters coming from the Finanzamt.

I may not believe in magic in the same way I once did, but I still buy heavily into Esotericism. Got a story about this crystal's healing powers? This water was purified with thirteen different gemstones? Take My Money!

Innocent Thought Experiments

They say that alien conspiracy theories and ghost stories give us a playful space in our minds to run wild and imagine whether something like this could be true. Like my prison exercises, these ideas are little workouts for the brain. It's what makes us human, the ability to imagine and dream of fantastic possibilities, whether we believe in them or not.

The Pharaoh's slaves more than likely were the ones that built the pyramids. But the idea that an advanced civilization came down from the stars 4000 years ago and made them is so fascinating to so many people and we delight in trying to work out how it could be true. You can't prove it happened, but equally, you can't prove it didn't.

I feel the same way with my little home office magic. I do not know if it works and my practices are certainly not backed by modern science, but they don't hurt and give me something to center my mind on during my office day. I can't be the only one getting into this modern-day mysticism. The popular hashtag, #witchesofinstagram has over 4.5 million posts and counting!

So, since I too want to run with the cool kids of Insta, here are four little practices I've been doing in my witches cove of an office, to help me be more creative, focused, and able to switch off at the end of the day.

Burning Incense

A Russian lady in one of my German courses was once so fascinated by my love of incense burning that she pulled out her phone and demanded I show her what equipment she needed. I informed her about the best herbs to burn and the best coals to use and what each item you burnt would do to the energy in the room. But the teacher stopped me just as I was getting warmed up as I'd switched from German to English, such was my enthusiasm for this ancient practice, started by the Egyptians.

Had I been allowed to finish, or better still had the skills to tell her in German, I'd have strongly suggested she bought a sage smudge stick. Noted for the ability to extinguish rooms of negative energy, much like a power vacuum.

I like to "smudge" the home office every couple of weeks. Just light the end of the stick and wave it around, thinking happy and positive thoughts. Manifest good things. Just as with your Google Drive, it's important to clean out any clutter in the air around your workspace from time to time. I was planning to do this to my desk at idealo, but I was worried about setting off the sprinklers.

Another favorite of mine is burning incense from coal. This can get a little smokey, so make sure you have an open window. I burn dry sage and eucalyptus, both are good for cleaning the air and injecting some positivity and focus. Finally, if you are rightly worried about too much smoke in the house, you can heat oil. I also do this from time to time to take a break from the dusty nature of incense. Lavender and mint are both great oils for calm and concentration, along with obviously smelling divine. Both help you sleep better afterward too, especially if you don't bring your phone to bed.

The Man Who is Full of Tea

The Japanese have a saying about people that are low energy. "He is a man with no tea in him" and they are pretty much right with that musing. I have long since been a fan of tea, in all its many forms. Though I'm sorry to say to all the tea purists reading this: I drink my tea with milk and honey and yes, I call infusions like mint and rooibos, teas too. I worked in the tea industry for years and much like wine, it can get very pretentious with the correct naming. But this is my Linkedin and I'm calling it all tea.

Nothing gets the day started like Verbena, the so-called "Writers Tea" due to its ability to free up the brain and let the ideas flow onto the paper (or mac screen). Enjoyed best with a little honey, which play's off Vibenna's citrus flavor wonderfully, I drink this stuff like soda pop.

And since we are entering into the summer and Berlin can get very hot, chilled Lavender Lemonade is my best tip to cool you down and help you chill out after going from one computer screen to the next. Lavender also increases brain power and is used in classic love potions. I'll leave that thought there.

Flowers

I have to have flowers. This was a London thing. I don't know how it started but I can't work anywhere without cut flowers now. And my home is no exception. Right now we are in peony season, which are perfect for bringing good fortune into the home or office. Strange, because the nymph Paeonia, where the flower takes its name, didn't end up so well. Not many do in Greek Myths.

Outside this very short season, I have blue hydrangeas for protection against evil, tulips to promote happiness and lilies. A little odd maybe to have a flower that is so connected with death, especially right now, but the smell of lilies is just too good and the architectural flower so perfect against my cold stone walls.

In the same Japanese book, The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō, where I learned that lovely phrase about how a man must have tea in him, there was a whole chapter about cut flowers in one's tearoom. It seems like Mr Kakuzō viewed us in the west as barbarians for cutting the heads off innocent flowers. He believed that once finished they must be buried the correct way, much as we would do with anything else we love. In respect to Mr Kakuzō's thinking, I take the finished flowers over to a huge tree in a park in Berlin, where all the trees look human and lay them to rest there. Again, you can take the boy out of Yorkshire, but not Yorkshire out the boy and my mind wonders to just what happened there and who turned these people into trees? I guess you should never stop believing in magic, no matter how old and jaded you get. The particular tree I lay the flowers by even looks to be looking down at me as I do. I swear I've heard a thank you once or twice on the wind.

Obsession with Rain

Maybe it's from living in London for five years but I have to say I'm obsessed with rain. The minute I hear the sounds of raindrops I throw all the windows open. It super powers me. It laser focuses my attention, calms me down, and connects me with a wild nature in a strange and profound way.

Also, it stops my headaches too.

Shakespeare always wrote the weather into his plays, using them as storytelling cues and storms and thunder have long since been connected to higher beings like Gods. If it isn't raining, use this video here. I must have played it a thousand times. I wrote this very post whilst listening to it.

Hopefully, you'll find the same magic in it as I do.

So thank you for letting me share some thoughts on my quirky little home office ways. Any ideas you have too about home office setups, I would love to read about them in the comments below. As I say I am happy to start the connections back up once more after hiding from social media for weeks.

Finally, I look forward to sharing more Hoad's Thoughts on a Thursday very soon.

John xxx

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