Planning for a Magick 2025.

Now that Sagittarius Season is here, I’m fully in the mode of prepping for the next year. I begin this process in October, beginning to feel into what I want to focus on next year- and it starts with a Word of the Year (WOTY). I’ve had a WOTY for several years now. 2020 was Imagine. 2021 was Fear. 2022 was Surrender. 2023 was a year I struggled, and had no word to work with. 2024 is Enchantment. 2025 will be Magick.

This WOTY is more than just a word- I live and breathe it during the following twelve months. I seek out the word in my home, in nature, in books, in films. October is when the word comes to me- I see it repeated in the book titles I’m looking at, in music I’m listening to. I see it in the poetry I’m writing and the TV programmes I’m watching. I feel it in the dreams I have and the divination I do. I may try several different words- saying them out loud to see how they feel when they’re spoken. Some years, the first word I come across is the WOTY. Other times- like this year- it’s taken a few attempts before I’ve found the one that sits right and calls to my soul. I intuitively know when the word is right- I can feel it in my body, my bones. It feels a part of me. At this point, I don’t know how this word will play out as the seasons come and go. It’s a mystery that the Goddess holds until my story plays out.

Once I have a WOTY, I let it sit for a while. I feel into what this would look like in the next twelve months, but do nothing else until I’m deep into the Samhain season, when I begin to plan and prep for the next year. I start at the beginning of October- sometimes even earlier (one year I knew my WOTY in August!) but then, as the veil begins to thin, I seek insight from my own intuition and from the Goddess. Then, as November comes, I start, with a tarot spread.

Divining the Year with Tarot & Oracle.

I cannot credit the tarot spread I use, as it’s one I found years ago, so if you do recognise it, please let me know!
It works well for me when planning out my year. This spread includes:
1- a card to represent your last year
2- what to leave behind
3- what to take with you
4- a card to represent your new year
5- how/where challenges may arise
6- how/where blessings arrive
7- this year’s guidance for physical wellness
8- this year’s guidance for mental wellness
9- this year’s guidance for emotional wellness
10- this year’s guidance for spiritual wellness
11- a message from your guides & ancestors
12- a message from your inner self.

I usually draw from an oracle deck for extra clarification on these last ones- 12 tarot cards in total, and 6 oracle cards. For this particular spread, I used the Wild Unknown tarot and the Healing Waters oracle (these are not pictured).

Planning the Year with Journaling.

From this, I then begin to plan out goals for the next twelve months. I reflect on the goals I set myself twelve months ago and look at whats worked and what hasn’t worked. I reflect on what I’ve achieved this year, and start planting the seeds of intention for the next year. Using the headings of
– Emotional Wellness
– Social Wellness
– Spiritual Wellness
– Physical Wellness
– Environmental Wellness

I journal around what I want to achieve and what I want to focus on, using these headings and the information gleamed from the tarot spread to start setting myself some SMART goals for the year. I write pages in my journal, exploring the themes and the things that appeared in the tarot spread, and eventually have a page titled “2025 Goals.” I consolidate all of my writings, thoughts, wishes, wants, focuses and anything else I’ve written into one page that begins to draw together my seeds of intention for the next year. I include my WOTY, the qualities I want to embody, and 1-2 goals from each of the wellness headings. These are my SMART goals- the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals that I set myself for the New Year.
Kinda like New Year’s Resolutions. Except I don’t set them just before the end of December (I tried that many years ago. They were always abandoned by the middle of February!) I set them during the energies of Samhain (The Celtic New Year), my birthday (the start of my next turn around the sun) so that they are deeply rooted come January (the start of the calendar new year). When January comes, in the depths of Winter, my actions are already starting to form into habits, not resolutions that I’m going to break in another six weeks.
Once I’ve done my personal goals, I turn my thoughts to Lunar Cove. I look at where I am, again reflecting on the goals I’d set myself over the last twelve months, before looking at where my focus would be for the next twelve months. I don’t do a tarot spread for this (not to say I won’t in the future!) and set myself a few SMART goals. 2025 I have more goals than ever for Lunar Cove, as my vision for this website and its community begins to strengthen. So, this year, I’ve dedicated another page to Lunar Cove Goals, and what I want to achieve this year. You may already be beginning to see some visual changes as these things start to come into my action plan.

By the end of November, the goals are set, and I begin to plan out a new journal that will help me stay on track with my goals, as well as planning out my year. I use a dot grid and fill it out bullet journal style, tracking my personal life, my goals, and Lunar Cove. I’m still in the midst of doing that now, setting out pages to track habits, months, weeks and other things I want to track- like how many books I’ve read, or places I’ve visited with my family. This is a relatively new idea for me- I’ve done bullet journaling for a few years, but never to this kind of depth. This year was the first. I make sure to include space for my WOTY- Magick. Somewhere I can write quick notes of things- for enchantment it was the things I noticed for the seasons. The first flowers. When nettles began to pop up in my neighbourhood. When it first started to feel like Spring. When the colours of Beltane were beginning to appear in my garden. When Autumn began to stir. When I noticed the leaves starting to turn. It rooted me into the seasons and the land around me, and is something I will continue into 2025, with the heading of magick.

Now, it’s just a matter of time. I’ll continue to plan out my bullet journal, reflecting on the goals I set myself and the things I need to do to achieve it. Are you planning for your next spiral? Are you beginning to plan your 2025? I’d love to hear from you!