I have kept a moon journal for more than ten years, and it began as an experiment for a single month. Tonight the March full moon is rising, and if you start this evening, you will have a complete cycle on paper by early April.
You can read about the phases of the moon in ten minutes. Knowing them is another matter. That comes from looking up every night for a month and writing down what you see and how you feel.
What you need
You need a notebook and a pen, kept beside the bed. That is the whole list. A page a day is plenty, and three lines will do.
The daily entry
Each evening, write these.
Daily moon entry
- Date
- And the day of the cycle, counting from where you began
- Phase
- Check the panel on our moon page, then draw the shape
- Sighting
- Did you see the moon? Where in the sky, and at what time?
- Weather
- One or two words
- Energy
- A number from one to five
- Mood
- One word
- Sleep
- How you slept last night, and any dream you remember
- One sentence
- Anything at all about the day
Drawing the moon matters more than you would expect. A small circle, shaded by hand, fixes the phase in your memory in a way that reading its name never does.
Four prompts for the quarter phases
At each of the four main phases, write a little more.
- New moon. What do I want to begin, or to give my attention to, during this cycle?
- First quarter. What is getting in the way, and what will I do about it?
- Full moon. What has come to light? What am I grateful for?
- Last quarter. What can I put down, finish, or stop doing?
Finding the moon
Part of the practice is learning where and when to look. The waxing crescent appears low in the west just after sunset. The full moon rises in the east as the sun goes down. The waning moon rises later each night, until the final crescent appears only before dawn. After one cycle, you will know where the moon is without checking.
After one cycle
When you reach the phase that you began with, read the whole month through in one sitting. Look for patterns.
- Were there days when your energy was reliably high or low?
- Did your sleep change at any point?
- Which phase felt most like you?
- Did the intention that you set at the new moon move at all?
Honesty matters here. Scientific studies of the moon's effect on human mood and sleep have produced mixed results, and one month of notes proves nothing. Your journal is not a study. It is a record of your own experience, and it is worth having whatever it shows. I would keep going for three cycles before drawing any conclusions about your own patterns.
If you miss a day
Leave the page blank and carry on. A journal with gaps is still a journal. The only way to fail at this is to stop looking up.
In time, the best of what you record can go into your Book of Shadows. My journal now holds more than a hundred and thirty moons. I still draw every one.