Magic & Bullet Journaling
/On Episode 21 of their podcast, Strange Magic, Sarah Faith Gottesdiener and Amanda Yates Garcia talk about the “best” way to cultivate your magic is to diligently dedicate time to it, every day, consistently.
For me, adding my spiritual/witchy/woowoo practices to the monthly habit tracker in my bullet journal is one of the ways that I commit to my practice. I firmly believe that to do lists are spells and writing down your goals helps make it happen. Working with a bullet journal has been incredibly therapeutic and helpful. The habit tracker has been a critical tool for me.
Here is the set up for my May habit tracker, a classic #bujo spread. What you’re seeing is the result of MUCH trial & error. I eventually found a basic set up that I like, and doesn’t take too long to do, and then I swap out the different habits depending on my needs.
Moon Sign & Phases
This is the first thing folks tell you to do, to live your life your life more magically. The mood changes signs every few days, and has the biggest influence on our mood and energy levels day to do (for example, I’m always exhausted during the dark moon/new moon period, and feel my best in the days after a full moon).
I have the moon sign & 4 lunations at the top (highlighted with grey). The Moon will often change times halfway through the day, so I’ve added > on days where it changes halfway through). I’ve experimented with bringing the signs halfway through the habit tracker, but it’s never quite stuck.
Movement & MOONRx
I have trackers for yoga and MOONRx, the astrology based fitness program created by Claire Gallagher (it is GREAT, btw). I also adapted one of Claire’s free lunar trackers to measure my Motivation, Performance and Work Out level.
Water
Tracking my water intake was the best thing I’ve ever done to increase drinking water, aside from getting a water bottle for my desk. My goal is 1.5L/day, and I almost never, ever reach it.
Spiritual Practices
This section is constantly evolving, but this month I have: tarot, ritual, other and journal. I use a slash to indicate a card of the day, and fill in the box when I’ve done a full reading (either for myself or someone else). Ritual indicates I’ve cast some kind of spell or otherwise done a ritual (mostly I do this on New and Full Moons). Other is a catch-all for other witchy things — these days it’s usually breathwork or reiki, but it could also be a course, reading a book, etc.
Tarot & Card of the Day
Along the side, I track my card of the day pulls. This month, I’m doing the #wildhearttarotchallenge, but most months I’ve include tarot cards, oracle cards, etc. Learn why I track my tarot pulls.
Themes
This is an on-again, off-again thing I track. At some point, I wanted to look back on my month and see if there were any trends about how I spent my time, what the emphasis or theme was that month. I’ve broken it up into things like "Work" "Family" "Friends". This month, I added “Body” and “Spirit” to the list.
Other things you could track
There are so many things! I’ve experimented with a bunch, but the above are some tried and true -- for me. You can also track what you haven’t done or want to quit: “No smoking, no sugar”, etc. Here are some things I’ve either tested or seen on Instagram:
Mood
Sleep
Vitamins
Steps
Chores
Reflection & Synthesis
Ideally, you take time at the end of the month to review and synthesize the information and draw conclusions about how the moon affects your mood, etc. To be honest.... I don't usually have the energy. It’s something I’m working on — more reflection and integrated, instead of just bounding forward into the next month. It’s a process, ok?!
