A Shockingly Simple Journaling Practice to Boost Your Work with Transits

If you listen to a lot of astrology forecasts—and I strongly advise you to choose a forecast and listen to it regularly—you have probably heard something like this:

“This will be the third time Mercury has made a conjunction with Jupiter in Aquarius, due to Mercury’s back and forth movement in its retrograde.”*

This is usually followed by advice to look back at what was happening the last time that transit happened to help you understand how to respond intelligently to the transit that’s coming up.

This is good advice. The more intentional you are about noticing transit patterns, the better you will be at knowing how to respond to transits in advance. I have been consistently following the moon through the signs for several years now, and I’ve gotten so good at predicting what my moods will be, just knowing what sign the moon is in is often enough to help me deal with my feelings.

The problem? Human memory just isn’t that great. Unless the transit is referring to something earthshakingly important, which is rare, it’s doubtful that you’ll remember the expansive conversations—or whatever is signified by the transit—that were happening at the time.

Freewriting Isn’t the Answer (For This)

A commonly proposed solution to the problem of forgetting what happened during past transits is to keep a diary.

I’m a big fan of freewriting, but when it comes to using freewriting to create a record I can refer to later, I’m not a fan. In my experience, the benefits of freewriting come from the process of observing the writing itself. When I’m done freewriting, those pages go in the trash.

I tried keeping a diary to keep track of transits, and it didn’t work out for me.

When I wasn’t writing with the transit in mind, my diary entries usually ended up being more of a reflection of the moon’s movements than any more significant transits that were going on.

When I tried to write with the current transits in mind, I spent so much time trying to figure out what would happen, I ended up paying very little attention to what actually did happen.

After reading about Austin Kleon’s logbook practice, I tried making a list of all the most significant things that had happened that day. Having a logbook did help when I needed to look back to understand past transits, but those types of transits happen so rarely, the practice of listing out everything that happened felt like more trouble than it was worth, and I had a hard time keeping up with it every day.

The solution came to me by accident and was simpler than I could have imagined.

The Solution? Keeping a 5-Year Memory Book

Every night before I go to bed, I pull out my 5-Year Memory Book (not sponsored. It’s just the one I like) and write a few lines about my day. The practice doesn’t have to take more than a minute or two, but I often find myself lingering over it, comparing the way things were today with the way things were a year ago.

Writing in a 5-Year Memory Book is similar to keeping a logbook. Whereas logbooks are freeform and allow you to use the whole page, 5-Year Memory Books limit your entries to a few sentences at most.

If a day was bad and nothing happened, I have no qualms about wasting a few lines writing, “Headache, ugh,” and closing the book.

If a day was busy or particularly good, I have to think and prioritize what to say to make sure there is actually room for the most important things.

Example: Mercury Conjunct Jupiter

From @adapembroke on Instagram

The Mercury/Jupiter conjunction mentioned above was a big transit for me. The transit is exact as I write this, and I’m going through my Jupiter return.

The Mercury/Jupiter conjunction was happening right on top of my Jupiter, so when Kelly Surtees mentioned in her post about the transit that it was happening for a third time, I ran for my 5-Year Memory Book and looked up with happened the last two times the transits happened.

This transit happened on January 15th, February 15th, and March 4th.

The transit was happening in my 7th house, so I knew to look out for things having to do with relationships.

Kelly said, “Thursday’s Mercury conjunct Jupiter aspects represents the completion of a process of growth and planning that first began back in mid January,” so I paid extra attention to seeds that were planted in January and how they might have progressed now.

Back in January, the conjunction was at 5 degrees of Aquarius, conjunct my moon and within 3 degrees of transiting Saturn. Both of my partners were offered jobs within two days of each other. (Jupiter rules my 8th house of shared resources.) My boyfriend and I started talking about moving in with each other. (My Saturn is in the 4th house.) And I started a marketing campaign for Moon Mood Workshop.

In February, the transit happened at 13 degrees Aquarius, within two degrees of a conjunction with my Jupiter. It was after a big snowstorm, and I was happily reunited with my boyfriend after not being able to see him for three days. Mercury was retrograde during this time, and we didn’t discuss our plans for the future, but the experience of being separated (even though it was only for a few days) made me determined to do what I could to see us living in the same place.

By the time of the third transit, I was ready to start getting concrete on what I will need to do to make the move happen. Mercury rules money—not Venus! Venus will happily spend all your money, but she does not rule money—and I spent a lot of time number crunching and working on e-commerce. I also did some marketing.

Since this transit was happening on a Thursday, and I’ve had so much success working with Mars using the Orphic Hymns, I decided to start a 4-week practice of praying the Orphic Hymn to Jupiter at the hour of Jupiter on Thursdays. And since this is a Mercury/Jupiter aspect, I invested (Jupiter) in a nice modern translation (Mercury) of the Orphic Hymns, so I can read the hymn aloud without cringing.

Was this a good response to the transit?

I probably won’t know until I look back on this time next year and reflect on my choices, but I know that this was an informed response. I looked at the patterns, decided how I wanted the future to go, and I made a plan for how to get the future I wanted.

There are always things you can do to work smarter and better, but, as strategies go, I think that’s pretty good.

*This example comes from one of my favorite astrologers Kelly Surtees.