I'm reading When: The Art of Perfect Timing. It's an intriguing book that explores the mechanics of temporal design and explores how they can be applied to events. One of the concepts explored is synchronous risk, which examines how present and future use of a given space impact each other and either reduce or raise risk. I found this concept interesting because of how it could be applied to explore multiple possibilities occurring in a given space, as well as how risk could be applied to assess the likelihood of a possibility manifesting into reality. The author also points something out about our awareness of time: "We miss timing issues, or make wrong decisions about them, not simply because our world is complex and uncertain, but because the way we describe the world and the tasks we must accomplish omit the kinds of facts we need. I call these fragmentary descriptions time impoverished because they fail to include all the sequences, rates, shapes, punctuation marks, intervals, leads, lags overlaps, and other time-related characteristics that are part of the temporal structure of everything that happens, every action that is taken, every plan that is implemented." I think he has a point.
Our awareness of time is mainly linear, and it is a limited awareness of time, focused more on experiencing time as a seamless flow of events as opposed to really perceiving and exploring it as distinct units. It is true that we have units of time such as minutes or hours, but the kind of awareness the author is examining has more to do with how events overlap and effect each other and I think this is a subtle distinction that many people miss out on. As the author points out the timing of a given event can be significant because of how people perceive it. Ironically people won't necessarily examine the timing of the event, so much as the event itself. But the timing is significant because of how it influences perception and how it helps to manifest a given possibility into reality. When we pay attention to the timing we recognize that it informs the very actions we take.
In my own magical work, I pay a lot of attention to the timing of when a given possibility should manifest. If it manifests too soon or too late then it hasn't really performed what I needed it to perform. The timing is significant because it plays a role in the effectiveness of the desired result getting me what I want. So when I do a magical working, I factor the timing of the result into the working so that I not only manifest a given result, but also achieve it exactly when I need it and not a moment sooner or later than that. The way that I writing timing into the magical working involves understanding the event I want to manifest and placing it into context within the rest of my life. I ask myself where the event fits into my life and then plan it accordingly and what I find is that the magical working is much more effective because everything is timed and planned for.
The author notes that people are able to think of the distant past or future without having to imagine the path through time that would be needed to get to that moment in the past of future. This is an advantage in one sense because we can conceive of distinct events and probabilities as singular moments in and of themselves, but the disadvantage is that we may not factor in the sequences and other temporal dynamics that would lead up to the distinct moment. When planning the timing of a working, I find it helpful to explore the distinct path that leads up to it. I want to know what would need to occur to make a given event manifest. By being aware of the temporal sequences and spatial changes that could occur, I can plan for variables and enable my magical working to incorporate them into the manifestation of the desired possibility.
The timing in magical work is partially so important because you want to build momentum behind the manifestation of your desired possibility. The more momentum you build through proper timing, the easier it is to manifest the possibility at the right time and space. When I want to manifest a result, part of the timing work I do involves setting up specific moments that build off each other to help manifest the possibility. By factoring in the elements of timing I can get enough ommph behind the working to make it happen when I want it to, but with all the momentum of the universe behind it.