Every new moon I like to set a short term goal for the next 28 days which is one lunar cycle. Instead of picking out one intention out of thin air, I like to use tarot cards to help get my creative juices flowing. I don’t believe that tarot cards can tell us our future, but I do think that they are some pretty beautiful miniature works of art that can inspire us with their stories and help prompt us to look at our lives through a different lens.
I use the Practical Tarot New Moon Journaling Prompt pages in my Lunar Bullet Journal to inspire me to identify my hopes, dreams, challenges and goals for the coming lunar month. Since my purpose is not to tell my future, but to assess my life and ascertain my goals I like to use a more in depth tarot spread that helps me focus.
You might recognize this from my January Plan With Me. I like to use this spiral layout because it gives me multiple prompts for the different areas of my life that I want to focus on. We start here in the middle with a card to represent where you stand, then move over here to what to leave behind and then move up to, what to receive, and then over what to learn, and then a card that will represent things to give, and then back down for a card that represents your hopes and dreams, and then over to the final card a secret skill that will help you get through this new moon cycle.
I’ve gone with “purify your spirit” as the theme for this lunar cycle. On the opposite page I have a section for challenges, goals, and how I’m going to accomplish them. I also have a little tracker down at the bottom of the page that I fill in with a new leaf each day when I say these mantras to myself.
The tarot deck that I felt pulled to today was the Wild Unknown Spirit Animal tarot deck. I start by just shuffling cards, I usually do this about three times or whatever feels good and then I cut the deck.
I think that this is a really great spread for the 1st lunar month. There are mainly fire cards which are a good thing to have at the beginning of any cycle of goal setting, especially new year goal setting because fire gives you, well, lights a fire under you and gets your drive going.
Fill in what each card was starting in the middle and working my way around keeping in mind the theme of “purify your spirit.” Before I even check to see what the cards mean I’m going to think about the challenges that I could be faced with in the coming lunar month. I’m using the guide book that goes with this deck, you can use any type of tarot deck or book that you want you can even just do your own intuitive reading of what these cards mean based on their drawings. I always make sure to write down the main theme of each card listed in the guidebook, then anything from the description that speaks to me. I also take notes of what the card might be prompting me to think about in connection to my current life situation.
The little stars next to some of my notes are things that I want to make sure that I pay attention to when I start this next phase of journaling prompt. The next thing that that I do is take a look back at what the cards and what they have prompted me to think about, and pull out any themes that I see or anything that’s popping out at me. These are going to be the ideas that I need to focus on in this coming lunar cycle. Keeping in mind the theme of the lunar month which is “purify your spirit,” I’m going to be thinking about the challenges that might pop up and then the goals that I want to make sure that I am working toward to be accomplished.
This spread has also prompted me to create stronger foundations in my drive, adaptability, and patience. Which is something that I have been working hard on for the last few months.
The challenges that I’ll be facing in the coming lunar month are my restlessness from my anxiety and pacing myself instead of burning out. And of course the ever present theme of my entire life. Letting go of my need to know the unknown, or as my mom likes to say, playing it by ear, a phrase that has been the bane of my existence since childhood. My goals are to focus on waiting and pausing in times of good or bad stress, focusing on my purpose, passion, drive, and waking up to this beautiful fulfilling existence.
Under the How I’m going to do it section, I turned these ideas straight into mantras for myself. If you want to see the process of determining to write this section check out my 13th Moon Video. I’ll leave a link in the description below and up in the cards.
My three mantras for the 1st lunar cycle are:
I let go of my need to know the unknown.
I wake up to this beautiful fulfilling life.
I slow my pace.
My tracker is the same as always, little sprouts that come up during each week of the lunar month, which you can see at the bottom of my page. Each day I create a little leaf and color it in.
On the next two pages are my lunar month spread. If you would like to see how I came up with this layout, check out my January Lunar Bullet Journal Spiritual BUJO Plan With Me.
First I combine the mantras into one intention for the whole lunar cycle, I purify my spirit by letting go of my need to know the unknown, waking up to this beautiful fulfilling life, and by slowing my pace.
Either by the moon or in the morning of each new lunar phase, I set a positive feeling based intention for each of the eight lunar phases. For this new moon I wrote
I set my intention to purify my spirit, I feel my intention in my body. Then at the beginning of each moon phase for this cycle I will come back to this spread and write a new positive feeling based intention. If you’d like to see a video on filling out each section during each lunar phase, let me know in the comments down below.
This journaling and goal setting practice is something that I do the night before every new moon or the morning of every new moon. This practice of short term, achievable goal setting via the lunar cycle, has grown really dear to my heart. It’s something that I can’t imagine not doing.
Using tarot cards in this way gives me a new lens in which to look at my life. It’s also given me a lot of inspiration and closure by looking at my life through a different perspective. This practice has also helped me hone my focusing skills and has enabled me to quit second guessing myself. With this practical tartor new moon journaling prompt, I look forward to each lunar cycle and the start of a new chance to achieve my goals.
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