Hello hello, Last night I was up 'til almost midnight setting up my journal and reflecting for the month of October. Normally I'd do a journal "setup" right on the 1st of the month, but I think I've found something else that I enjoy doing way more. And the reason why "setup" is in quotes is because there's nothing really being set up other than my intentions for the month. You'll see in the pic further down in the email.
If you don't already know I'm a full blown Astro Gworlie. And after reading the book Astrology for the Soul by Jan Spiller in early 2025, I've since read two of her other books. One is also about the north node but specifically about houses and the second, New Moon Astrology. (yes, those are affiliate links) If you're thinking about getting into astrology and want to keep it super simple and unusually easy to harness space energies, testing out Astrology for the Soul will keep you busy for a while. I've read my portion of it about 5 times, and every. time. I find something else that I want to test out with the Universe. Tangent complete.
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Chances are, you're reading this email because you found some sorta bullet journal YouTube video that shared a setup or practice I was using at the time. But I haven't been using any of those setups for almost a year. A lot of that has to do with Task Alignment handling all of my reflective productivity, but some of it has to do with the fact that setting up my journal no longer felt like a ritual that was serving me. It just felt, meh.
The beginning of a month had no significance to me anymore so I stopped doing monthly setups until I genuinely felt like I wanted to. And after heavily dabbling in astrology and moon magic, I realized... There's power in rhythms. They're more natural than socially congruent schedules but harness vibes while still respecting timing.
And that's when I decided to try basing a rhythmic reflection on the moon. Specifically new moons. I normally wait about 90 days to decide if something is really helping me or if it's shiny object syndrome... so just know that I'm sharing this at around 60 days. Could be immature or it quickly matured. We'll see. But after dubbing myself as The Lazy Alchemist, I can see how this'll fit into my longterm "hacks" for (almost) effortlessly having stuff go my way. New Moon Astrology is a bit more on the woo side than the other books I mentioned which are more practical. But there's a bunch of stuff in there that I could get down with like: 🌚 handwriting your intentions
🌚 limiting your wishes to 10
🌚 calling wishes, "wishes"
🌚 only wishing within 2-3 areas of your life
🌚 tougher wishes require more work on yourself
🌚 not wishing on behalf of others
🌚 dumping wishes you don't really believe in
🌚 trusting yourself and going after what you want
🌚 wishes only count after the new moon occurs, not ahead of time
(If you're a Task Alignment user you can probably see why I especially like this) New moons are about setting intentions and starting fresh. And according to Jan and her experiences working with clients, new moon intentions are supercharged when set within 8 hours of the event, but you have a 48 hour window to squeak 'em in if you miss those peak hours. This weekend's new moon is in Libra which is about finding answers in stillness, being patient, and addressing what's out of balance. It's happening on Saturday, Oct 10 at 5:50am Hawaii time (11:50am ET). Venus (Libra's planetary homegirl) just went into retrograde and it's aggressively hinting at reviewing your relationship with money, what you value and desire, and anything surrounding beauty and romance. It's basically handing us a microscope (or telescope?) along with this new moon. 🌚 🔬 To set this up in my journal I start with stickers I like, write in the new moon day and time, add in other things from my chart that are happening with it, and ask myself questions. That's mostly it.
Wish actions are things I can do to support my goals and intentions.
I can tell every month is going to feel different. Same exercise, but enough change in the nuances that keep it exciting to look forward to. It feels like I'm preparing for a mini, energy-harnessing, moon party.
My wife, Abbey, is a Libra Sun and Moon so I'm gonna invite her to do the intention and wishing jazz with me this weekend. She's not into astrology the way I am but she's seen enough crazy stuff happen for me that it doesn't take any convincing for her to participate. I'm not setting any goals or intentions until this weekend (per Jan's rules) but here are some questions to get you warmed up: - What feels off balance? - Where could patience and quiet bring more balance? - What decisions need less noise? ✌🏾TTYL!✌🏾 Simie | The Lazy Alchemist P.S. The start of my coaching page is up! In the last email I said I'd let you know when it's live. Decided that I'm gonna update it one section at a time instead of trying to launch the whole thing at once like a maniac lol. Very pleased with the design.
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