Happy Eclipse Season & Full Moon weekend. Stay safe out there, y’all. If you are looking for guidance, I do have full moon readings available. All revenue from full moon readings this month will be donated to Milk Crate Kitchen.
It’s actually a perfect weekend to journal, to get your head on straight and to really figure out what you’re ready to close the door on in order for a new door to open. Journaling is something that I was always curious about as a kid, but living in an completely undiagnosed ADHD household, routines weren’t easy for me to develop on my own at all, and they were never provided for me. I just let it journaling slip away as a kid even as I loved the journals/diaries my mom would sometimes buy me.
Journaling has been a larger part of my life since 2017, and it hit its crescendo in 2020-2021. I really hit my stride before completely falling off again. It is okay to drop off, come back, change things up. As you grow and evolve, so does your journaling practice.
My journaling practice used to be daily diary-style writing. I forced myself to do a minimum of one page each day, and I wanted it decorated with washis and appropriate stickers. For that chapter of my life, it was exactly what I needed. It was lockdown. I had just left my partner to live on my own (the beginning of a 4 year solo living adventure). I needed and had the time and space to just write and write and write. Once we were expected to leave our homes and re-enter society again, I lost most of that ambition. It has taken me quite a few years to get back into journaling again, but most of it isn’t how you’d imagine based on the above description.
My stack above is (from top to bottom):
Goddess specific prompts/art/work
Daily tarot journaling
Watercolor sketchbook I do with my mom
Bujo
Creativity Journal by
Brain dump/prompts/diary-style/tarot challenge just writing journal
Watercolor sketchbook to just be free in. No rules, no expectations. Just vibes.
My daily tarot journal hold my prayer journal as well. Please excuse my handwriting. My tarot journal is just for me, and I generally don’t care what my handwriting looks like there because I am often more focused on the messages I am getting. More often than not lately, I have been getting very intense message, and my hand is writing before my brain can process. What I get then is chicken scratch, but to me that just shows how in tune I am.
In this travelers notebook, I also have my prayer journal where I write a prayer daily. I mentioned earlier this week that my prayers have been a lot more gratitude focused than wanting/asking focused. I say prayer journal, and I do mean that, but it could also be an aspirations journal. It’s where I write what I want to accomplish, the exact amount of xyz that I need to make lmnop work. I intentionally fill it with gratitude each Sunday, but today (Friday), I also just wrote out gratitude for the life I have. It isn’t what I thought it would be, not in a million years, but I am lucky and grateful.
My bullet journal is above. Here I have of course a cover page (it’s the most fun part), but it is also where I include my super in-depth new moon readings.
If you’ve gotten one from me, this is how I do them analog vs. the digital version you receive. I didn’t include pages of the reflection pages because they are often very personal, but I do reflection pages at the end of the lunar cycle so I can reflect on the cards, how I interacted with them (or not), how the themes showed up (or not). This is my monthly journaling so to speak. It is my diary-style journaling where I sum up my month and the more spiritual aspects of it. The process is usually around 8 hours total, and I am loathe to do it some months, but I always feel better, more grounded when I do. It also means I’m not having to write every single day.
Finally, I put my finance trackers in here. I am making significantly less money (like 30-40k/yr less) than I was, but I am overall healthier and happier. I can only do this thanks to having an amazingly supportive partner. The financial tracker is new as of this year, and I really like how it is going… when I use it. Some months, I just know I have shot myself in the foot, and I completely tune out the fact that I need to be accountable to myself. Money is a huge anxiety trigger for me, and sometimes I just play ostrich.
This third set of photo is from the Creativity Journal by
. It has taken me 3 years to finally use this journal to closer to its full potential. I use the extra spaces at the back for junk journaling for the month or special trips. This one (top left) was for our trip to Olympia. I love how it turned out.The next page is an example of how I use the weeklies. I have always struggled with these, but a few months ago, I started using these as mini junk journaling spreads, and I love it because it reminds me of what I did when without having to write a bunch of things. I know from this page that I painted with my mom 3 times. I threw up from PT. My Mochi Bujo order came in. My mom sent me a new journal, and my partner and I went to the river and got tea that weekend. I also write the books I am listening to vs. what I am reading with my eyes.
Bottom left shows the communing with the muse divination prompts. I use the Mother Mary Oracle, the Mary Magdalene Oracle, and the Sacred Creators Oracle each month. It is a lot of writing, but I like being able to easily flip back to it without needing all 3 books from the decks.
The last picture shows the daily tracker. I use this to pull messages from my ancestors (really, mainly my nana) each day. These are my main pages that I use in the journal.
My other journals/notebooks I don’t use very often. I have been in the brain dump journal since 2023. I don’t feel bad about that. I use that when I am about to explode and just need to get it all out without caring. I use it for tarot spreads and challenges. I don’t always do those. Sometimes I include those in other spots.
My sketchbooks are new as of August and July. They’re not exactly journals, but I do see the smaller one as a more sentimental space because all of the work I do in there is with my mom on FaceTime.
I have learned a lot about myself and journaling over the last 5 years. I have learned that I actually do not have the interest or capacity to do daily, in-depth dairy style journaling. I do best with once per month in-depth. I prefer spiritual journaling to other style. I really, really love scrapbooking/junk journaling about my experiences rather than prattling on for pages. There is a lot more creative and artistic outlet in that for me, rather than writing a bunch.
I have also learned that sometimes when I am so overwhelmed I can barely think, that opening the notes app on my phone and just typing furiously is far more effective than using pen and paper. As I was working through my feelings about my therapist and whether or not to fire them each week (I did end up bowing out), I would just open my notes app and type until my head felt more clear.
If journaling is something you’re curious about or wanting to try with some extra guidance, I will be doing a group coaching session for this from the October new moon to the November new moon. I have a lot of ideas, and I can’t wait to talk more about it.
What is your journaling ecosystem like? Tag me in your posts! I’d love to see. Is there anything you’re curious about with journaling, types of journaling, etc? Let me know below!
Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.
With love,
Aventurine ✨
If you’re looking to support me and my work, I have a few options.
Paid Substack Subscription ($5/mo)
Tarot Readings (new moon, full moon, year ahead, manifestation)
I love seeing how you are using the journal! My Journaling practice has also evolve over the years. I have a much smaller stack of journals now, partly due to using a digital notebook which reduces the number different notebooks I carry around.