The Night Journal: Twenty-Nine Prompts for a Lunation

How to keep the journal

The night journal is the plainest practice the House has, and the one the keepers have kept longest. It is the first movement of shadow-work, naming, done a little at a time.

• Write at night, last thing, by hand, in a notebook no one else reads.
• Write briefly. Three to six sentences. Stop when you notice yourself composing.
• Describe before you explain. What happened, what you felt, what you did. Leave the reasons for later.
• Do not reread until the dark moon. Then read the whole month at once, as part of the observance. The one exception is a single entry that you take to the mirror.
• Skip freely. A missed night is not a debt. Pick up at the current date.
• Close the book. When you have written, shut the notebook, put it away, and do one ordinary thing before you sleep.

Tonight's prompt

The prompts follow the moon. The first belongs to the night of the dark moon, and they run on through the lunation. If JavaScript is available, tonight's prompt is shown here and marked in the list.

The twenty-nine prompts

The prompts move through four phases of the month. In the waxing fortnight they look at what you hold and want. In the waning fortnight they look at what you owe, avoid, and are ready to put down.

Dark moon to first quarter: the garden

1. What am I carrying into this month that I did not choose?
2. Where in my life do I lie beneath, and who placed me there?
3. What did I agree to today that I did not mean?
4. Whose approval was I working for today?
5. What do I know that I pretend not to know?
6. What name do others call me that I have never accepted?
7. What rule do I follow without being able to say who made it?

First quarter to full moon: the claim

8. What do I want that I am ashamed of wanting?
9. When did I last say no without explaining myself?
10. Who irritated me today, and what do they allow themselves that I do not?
11. What would I do with one hour that belonged to no one else?
12. What am I good at that I have been taught to hide?
13. Where did I make myself smaller today?
14. If I were certain of my equal standing, what would I say tomorrow?
15. What is fully lit in my life right now, and do I like what I see?

Full moon to last quarter: the wilderness

16. What has my independence cost me, and what has my obedience cost me?
17. What anger have I been carrying, and how old is it?
18. Whom have I placed beneath me?
19. What am I afraid would happen if I were left alone with myself?
20. What part of me have I sent into the waste, and what is it doing out there?
21. Which of my refusals was really a way of avoiding something?
22. What do I owe, and to whom, that I have not paid?

Last quarter to dark moon: the bargain

23. What grief have I not allowed to be grief?
24. What am I keeping only because I am afraid of the empty space?
25. What story about myself am I tired of telling?
26. What can I forgive without pretending it did not happen?
27. What will I not take with me into the next month?
28. What did I learn this month that no one told me?
29. What is here when nothing is reflected back?

Reading it back

At the dark moon, read the month in one sitting with a pencil in your hand. Underline anything that appears three or more times. Circle any answer that still makes your stomach tighten. These marks are the material for the review in the observance, and the circled answers are candidates for mirror work in the month to come.

After a few lunations you may find that you no longer need the printed prompts. The questions come on their own. When that happens, the list has done what it was for, and you can put it away.