The Job Workings, part 1

Back in September 2011, my job at the time hit its first signs of instability.  It was a desktop support job -the first one of that type of IT support work that I'd had, as my previous experience was in helpdesk.  Being the first desktop support job I'd had, and with the economy being the way it was when I was brought in, the companies I worked under used their advantage to pay me way less than this type of position normally makes.

Cut forward one year and two weeks from my start date, and I was broke, tired, and exceedingly frustrated.  Just a month prior, I found out from the company I worked under (a major technology company) that I was going to be forced to take a total of 32 hours off -unpaid, of course- by September 23rd.  I scheduled this with them to have me off each friday up to and including the 23rd, and things chugged along.
Until Friday September 16th, that is.  At 3:00pm that day, I got a call from my company explaining that the client needed me to take the following 2 weeks off -again, unpaid- starting that coming Monday.

I was screwed.  A dozen and one things went through my mind: what about rent, what will happen at the end of that two weeks, will I be let go, I'm already behind enough on the bills, etc.  Due to the previous cuts, I already had to borrow $200 from family just to cover my moving expenses from when I parted ways with the hellish situation I lived with previously.  Total disaster was running through my mind.

One trait that I've been able to successfully overcome has been the tendency to let fear and depression paralyze me from action.  I flew straight into updating my resume, posting it to the major online jobsearch sites (especially Monster and Dice, in my case), and applying my ass off!

Fortunately for me, with the industry I work in, once you post your resume online, calls from recruiters will sometimes just flood in, so to speak.  As expected I began receiving at least 2 calls or emails per day, and by the end of my first week off I had two job interviews scheduled.

In addition to that, I applied for unemployment.  My state has an initial waiting week before benefits kick in.

And right there along with it, I knew it was time to dredge up some magical action.

I've HAD It With This Muthaf***ing Cross On My Muthaf***ing Money!

The aforementioned series of events made something snap inside of me.  Prior to this, I had not done much magical work to pull my finances out of the hole they’d gone into.  In retrospect that was especially stupid (and lazy) of me, but then again stupid and lazy are what many people do when suffering from severe depression.  Nonetheless, at this point I decided enough was enough.  The entire previous year-and-a-half had been one long string of financial disaster after financial disaster.  Everytime I came close to even beginning to set things right, something else would happen to make me backstep too far back.

I didn’t even bother with a divination; I knew what was going on: My finances were crossed.  This added to my consternation even more because of the uncrossing work I did back in April of 2010.

In general, the procedure for this was much like my previous uncrossing, except that I made more materia for it that, ingredient-wise, gave a distinct focus on the uncrossing of one’s finances.  This wasn’t absolutely necessary, but I wanted something special, something powerful, and something especially powerful!  Here’s a summary of what I did each day:

DAY 1

1. Brewed and used the Financial Uncrossing bath, letting it run down the drain afterward and dedicating it and the crossed condition to the Underworld powers.
2. On the day of the Sun and in the hour of Jupiter, I fixed a white vigil candle using my Financial Uncrossing oil and related herbs.  During the fixing process, I called on the powers of Sol and Jupiter -in particular, the Intelligences and Spirits.  Then, I lit the candle and wafted the appropriate incense around me.
3. I added some of the Financial Uncrossing oil, along with my VanVan oil, to some diluted pine-sol in a spraybottle and cleaned house!  I made sure to give special attention to spritzing the carpets and then vacuuming them, going from the rear of my apartment toward the front door.
4. Divined to see if the condition, if any, was broken.  The divination reported that there was still a spiritual affliction upon my finances.  At least this confirmed what I initially didn’t even bother confirming!

DAY 2

1. Bathed using the Financial Uncrossing bath, the same as Day 1.
2. Stood before the still-lit vigil candle and prayed for the condition to break.  Wafted the incense around me.
3. Brief spritzing of the cleaning solution around my apartment, from rear to front.
4. Divined to see of I was still afflicted.  I was.

DAY 3

1. Bathed using the Financial Uncrossing bath again.
2. Prayed before the candle and wafted the incense around me.
3. Spritzed the apartment lightly and then five-spotted doors and windows from rear to front.
4. Divined to check the status of the condition: Broken!

I proceeded to go through the rest of that week with things flowing along nicely.  In fact, I got two job interviews, both of which I got accepted for!  I turned down one in favor of the other due to payrate, but there was a TON of paperwork involving a security clearance I had to get through.

But I’ll cover that on my next post!