I often recommend that my clients start keeping a moon journal as a simple and effective way to engage with astrological transits on a daily basis. This is especially useful for people with a very Moon-dominated natal chart, such as people with an Ascendant in Cancer, Moon on the Ascendant or other angles, or lots of planets in Cancer.
However, the Moon is a critical part of everyone’s chart, so getting to know the Moon’s monthly vibes in each sign is going to be a valuable exercise for anyone and everyone.
The Moon travels through the entire zodiac in a month. It takes about two and a half days for the Moon to move through a sign, so the Moon’s energies change quickly. This is one of the reasons why the Moon is associated with things of a changeable nature or involving movement, like travel, emotions, mortality, fortunes and general instability.
Because of this, Moon-dominated people may feel their moods and energy levels shifting rapidly throughout the month. And even if you’re not Moon-dominated, once you start paying attention to the Moon’s movements, you’ll be able to tap into those subtle changes in your self over the course of the month.
Keeping a Moon journal is extremely simple. Just get a book and start tracking how you feel every day. That’s it.
You can use a journal specifically for this purpose, or make a note in an existing journal or your daily/monthly planner. You can even just open a Word document. I have done this and it works, plus it’s nice to have things all in one spot and digitally accessible. However, my favourite way of tracking my Moon-vibes is in my monthly planner, because I like being able to see all the other stuff that happens that month overlaid with how I was feeling.
I recommend making your notes at the end of the day, so you can reflect on how you felt over the course of the day, if that changed at all from morning to night, and if there were any major events. You don’t need to write anything extensive – even just a couple words is fine, though of course you can write as much as you like.
I suggest noting the sign of the Moon on each entry and whether it changed signs that day, as well as the current Moon phase. This is where using a monthly planner or calendar becomes especially useful, because a lot of those often have the Moon phases already included.
If you’re fairly astro-proficient (or a keener!) you could also add any conjunctions with planets or other major planetary aspects, though you can always look those up afterwards if you were feeling particularly intense emotions and/or if something major happened. Generally, I don’t track the Moon that closely on a daily basis, though I do pay attention to when she’s near Mars or Saturn because that tends to be a bit of a drag.
After a month you’ll have a great record that you can start to analyze for patterns – how did you feel when the Moon was in the earth signs? Fire signs? How about when it was in the fixed signs, or the mutable signs? What happened when it was in your natal Moon sign, or your Mars sign? Did anything happen when it was conjunct one of your natal planets? How about when it was conjunct another transiting planet?
Pay particular attention to how you’re feeling and what happens around all of the major lunations – full moon, new moon and the quarter moons. And if you’re tracking during eclipse season, be especially mindful of those.
The longer you keep this record, the more valuable and accurate it will become. After a few months, you’ll have an excellent baseline reference for how the Moon’s current position will tend to influence you. Of course, this can and will shift depending on where all the rest of the planets are, and how the current transits line up with your natal chart. But by keeping a regular Moon journal, you should be able to get a sense of how those lunar energies tend to show up for you.
Having this baseline can be very grounding and useful for when you are feeling less than grounded, or otherwise frazzled for no apparent reason. Pull out your Moon journal and see how you usually feel when the Moon is in the current sign – and you’ll probably figure out why you feel that way very quickly!