Circles of Power

No news yet about the carpet python. I know that the reptile person at the center was not going to walk her, yet again, today, so my sister was going to end up doing it. I have her under strict orders to take her out, even if it's only for 10 minutes, every day. It's not part of her job, but neither she nor I can allow an animal to go uncared for. I also ordered another live pinkie for Tybalt, which will be delivered on Wednesday.
Yesterday, I fed Barbossa three mice. Since he had eaten the same amount last Monday, he did not seem very excited about eating again. He was quite reluctant to strike, even when I positioned the mice perfectly in his reach. Finally, he took them, mostly as a favor to me, or so it seemed. I want him to get nice and chubby.

I had a voice lesson this morning so I haven't had a chance to take Topkapi out yet, but I will as soon as I'm done writing this. She must be sooooo pissed. Pray for me.

I had a strange but exciting experience a few minutes ago. As a part of the training in ceremonial magick, there is a particular ritual that must be performed as much as possible, pretty much every day. It clears the air and gets rid of any energies, good or bad, lurking around which might disturb the magician. It's called the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. I was taught to do a simple relaxation exercise, mostly visualizing golden light around every tense part of the body, and then to go straight into the ritual. I've been doing it religiously (pun intended) and have gotten comfortable with the words and images that I have to use. It's very relaxing and I always experience a sense of lightness when I'm done. Today, for the first time, I felt something in the room with me. As I was finishing the circle of protection, I felt a very clear presence in the room. As soon as I closed the circle, I heard a soft sigh coming from the North quarter, which at that moment was on my left. Since I was safe in the circle I did not panic, but it was very surprising. I don't know if that's the usual thing with other magicians, or if I just caught some entity's attention, but I'm going to see if I can find out some information about it. Pretty exhilarating experience.