Developing as a medium requires regular effort, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily ascetic. It can be sensual. It can even be fun.
I have a rule in my magical practice: I only do things that set my soul on fire. That doesn’t mean I only do things out of superficial desire—only that there are too many things I care about to waste time on all the rest.
So I’m presenting a few different exercises in the hope that one (or all) will appeal to you enough that you not just read about it but actually do it.
Sensations
Sharpening your physical senses will help you process information received through mediumship. Each day for five days, pick a new sense to pay attention to. Really focus on everything you experience through this sense. You can do this exercise completely freeform, or you can use the prompts below as a jumping off point. But let it lead you.
Day 1: What do you see?
- Watch the trees move in the wind. Each part of the tree moves differently, but the movement of the trunk informs the movement of the branch which informs the movement of the leaf. The result is spectacular in the right mindset.
- Go to an art museum. Find a giant painting that is all black, then one that is all white. Stay with each of them for a moment and look. How does each one make you feel? Which one would you rather stand in front of all day?
- Draw something. You’ve never really loved something until you’ve drawn it. Most people struggle when they start drawing because they look too much at the paper and forget to look at the thing they’re trying to capture. Circumvent that instinct. Do some blind contour drawings: a drawing where you never look down at the paper or pick up your pen. Set a timer and do one for five minutes, then one for ten, then one for twenty minutes. The point isn’t for the drawings to look good when you’re done. It’s to look at something.
- Use your sense of sight as an alarm clock for conscious awareness. Pick a visual cue such as a red car or a butterfly, and every time you see that thing, amp up your awareness. What you use this cue for is up to you: maybe you want to improve your posture, or maybe you want to check to see if you are dreaming. The point is to train yourself to notice things.
Day 2: What do you hear?
- Listen to your favorite song as though you have never heard it before. What happens inside you at each line? Are there things you usually imagine when it’s playing? If your life were a movie, what would this song be the soundtrack to?
- Listen to your favorite song from ten years ago, the one you had on repeat that summer. What do you remember about that period in your life? How did you feel back then? How was it different from how you feel now?
- Listen to silence. You might need to get some earplugs to do this, depending on where you live. How does silence make you feel? Do you keep the TV or radio playing all day to avoid it? Are you afraid of it the way some people are afraid of the dark? Why?
Day 3: What do you smell?
- Make a list of your favorite scents. Why are you fond of them? Do you have any particular memories associated with them? How do they make you feel?
- If you can, make a trip to a botanical garden. Smell as many varieties of rose as you can. Does one in particular speak to you?
- Smell a well-crafted perfume. A good perfume has a plot. Perfumes are made up of three types of notes: top, heart, and base notes. Watch how the scent unfolds over time. Try to record the effect of those changing scents on your emotional state, either as notes or a drawing.
- First, the top notes shape your initial impression of the perfume. Because they come first, they’re important to selling the perfume and thus, they tend to vie for your attention. But they evaporate quickly, fading within ten to fifteen minutes of application. These notes are often derived from citrus fruits, such as bergamot, orange, grapefruit, or lemon.
- Then the heart notes start to bloom. These are the core of the perfume. Because base notes tend to be unpleasant at first, the heart notes are often tasked with making the base notes more palatable. Thus, they tend to be mellow and floral. Lavender and rose are classic examples.
- As the heart notes fade, the base notes become more pleasant. Base notes provide a perfume with depth and solidity. These large, heavy molecules take the longest to evaporate and act as fixatives to boost the strength of the lighter top and middle notes. These are often woods, such as cedarwood and sandalwood, or musks.
- What happens to your emotional state after you can’t smell the perfume anymore? Even when you’re no longer consciously aware of them, those scent molecules are still affecting you subconsciously.
Day 4: What do you taste?
- Pour yourself a drink. Maybe something complex like wine. How many distinct flavors can you taste? How does that change when you slurp a bit of air along with the wine? What about when you taste something that has a plot the same way that perfume does, like whiskey? If you take it with ice, you’ll notice the flavors change as the ice melts and ratio of whiskey to water changes.
- Don’t shy away from bitter things. Americans in particular shun bitter flavors; our palates have tended toward two flavors: sweet and salty. Many medicinal herbs are bitter, and herbalists will tell you the bitter taste is part of the medicine. Bitters stimulate the digestive system before a meal. You can drop digestive bitters directly on your tongue—the taste will take you for a ride.
Day 5: What do you feel?
- Find two pieces of fabric. One should be soft and fuzzy, like a comforting sweater. The other should be rough and scratchy, like a piece of hook and loop fabric. Close your eyes and drag the soft fabric slowly along a sensitive patch of skin, like the inside of your wrist. Note how it makes you feel. Now do the same with the rough fabric. Make sure to do this very slowly, observing how the sensation unfolds.
- Find something warm, like a cup of tea, and something cool, like a glass of ice water. (Make sure these aren’t too hot or too cold!) Close your eyes, and hold the warm thing to your belly. How does it make you feel? Are you relaxing or tensing, expanding or contracting? Now replace it with the cool thing. How has the feeling changed? Try to pay attention to your whole body, not just the parts of you that are in direct contact with the stimulus.
- In addition to touch, you might want to explore your sense of proprioception. Take a moment to stand with your feet together and your hands at your sides. Now, gently lie on your back with your feet together and your hands at your sides. Did you ever notice that these two positions, standing and lying down, are really the same? The only thing that has changed is your orientation toward the earth. Can you feel how gravity is pulling on you differently?
This is a page from Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration by Mallorie Vaudoise. It’s a really nice book with journalling prompts at the end of each chapter. My review for it is here:
I have an ancestor shelf in my work room / bathroom and i work with them as much as i can (mostly during paranormal investigations, they’re a great help there with protection and opening my eyes to things i might not pick up on on my own), but i’m a novice at honoring them for the sake of honoring them. i need to work at that!
Wondering if I can even consider it.
And I love how you’ve opened up to sensuality, there’s a lot of potential for enjoyment, finding and cultivating connection to the body and the present moment, and sharpening intuition 
