2025: Death Year
My Changing Journaling Habits
2025 is my personal Death Card year. This year has been the hanged one, and let me tell you, I have felt like I’ve been in a holding pattern all year. Every time I feel momentum building, something always stunts it. As scared and resistant as I am to change, I am ready for it. Feeling stagnant is so much worse than change, I have found.
Some changes we have control over, others are unexpected and jarring. For 2025, I want to start off with changes that I can control, and that’s starting with my journals, how I journal, and what I journal.
Firstly, I am not going to be using my nice 160-180 gsm journals for my astrology tarot spreads anymore, or at least, I’m going to take a break from it. I burnt myself out with the washis and matching the markers and all of that. I have been avoiding my journal because I don’t want to see how far behind I am and feel that disappointment in myself for not being able to carry through with what I started.
I am going to be going back to just regular lined journals. I find that I am more apt to write in them rather than just decorate them. I will be keeping my new moon journaling and lunar cycle in review habits the same. You can see how intense those are below. I will continue using my 160-180 gsm notebooks for these as I collage them intensely.
In these lined journals, I have also been joining the one-word prompts by Glitterbyink on IG. This has been helping me reconnect to journaling. I used to journal for hours at a time. I miss that, but I also know that I have burned myself out there as well so 1 page maximum reflections on a single word is what I am doing to get myself back to journaling more.
Rather than use a bullet journal, which I am very touch and go with, I am back to the desk weekly calendars. I feel rather incompetent having to use these instead of a super aesthetic notebook, but for my ADHD brain? I need it! I need something that I won’t lose interest in, that I don’t have to pull out, and that is always accessible.
I am still using my Winnie the Pooh one I got in 2021 from when I was teaching online. Now that I am tutoring online again, I especially love it because I can take notes in real time with what’s already on my desk and accessible.
Accessibility is key, especially if you’re neurodivergent. Don’t get trapped in the “everyone else is doing x, and now I’m a loser if I can’t do xy and z” mindset. Don’t lose yourself to the rigidity of your own expectations. If it isn’t working, change it.
I am looking forward to using next year’s Creativity Journal by
! This will be my third creativity journal, and I have learned some things about myself and journals over the last 2 years. 1) I start and end the year STRONG. 2) Summer? Forget about it. I’m not opening a journal in the summer. Those pages remain empty because I am busy being outside (or fighting heat sickness) and not near my desk. I beat myself up about the inconsistency, but if it works for me in those 6-9 additional months, then that’s what matters. Yes, I’d love to complete a journal 100%, but it’s not who I am, and I am learning to honor the seasons and cycles of myself.Since November, I have been putting my ancestral messages in my creativity journal, and I love the practice because it keeps me opening my journal daily and recording. I am not writing the interpretations at this point, just the cards. I enjoyed looking at the list at the end of November and seeing the repeating patterns. I am excited to keep this practice up into the new year.
Finally, my daily tarot practice will be the same. I use these inserts in this travelers size cover for my 3 cards that I pull daily (1 tarot card, 2 oracles). I have been using this system for a couple years now, and it works perfectly for me. The compact space is helpful for trimming the excess blathering that I tend to do, and it’s an easy notebook to take on the go. I also use a blank, unlined notebook for my daily intentions/wishes. I have had this practice since March or April of 2022, and it has been very grounding for me. There’s a nice rhythm to starting the day with intention and some days (every Sunday for sure) with gratitude.
This upcoming year, I am simplifying. I am going through my Death year. Globally, we are going through our Hermit year. I am bringing more intentionality to my journaling, and I want to follow my journaling style for the day rather than pressuring myself to have everything be cohesive. Why does cohesion matter when it’s for me and not the grid? That is something that I want to actively work on this year.
What changes are coming for you in 2025? What will journaling look like for you? Are you looking to expand, simplify, start, end? Let me know below!
Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.
With love,
Aventurine ✨
2024 was my year of the Hermit which sums up my year. It has been a year of solitude as it has been the first full year since my children have both left home, it has also been a year of spiritual contemplation with some interesting changes.
I used to have a journal for my daily tarot pulls and then one for full and new moon spreads and astrology spreads but at some point this year I stopped all of them. I’m not sure that I’ll start them back up again…
Next year will be my Wheel of Fortune year and to start it turning in the right direction I really need to start breaking some bad habits (more exercise, healthy food and less wine) so hopefully it will be a year of positivity and interesting opportunities.
Can you give some more context on what a death year is?