This blog post is a companion to my video review of the 2018 Moon Sign Datebook, giving my first impressions of it as I prepare to work with it this year. I also plan to do a fuller review at the end of the year, to share any further insight after working with it for the whole year.
I'm writing this blog post in addition to the video for two reasons:
1) So that people can choose to read this text summary rather than listen to/watch the video.
2) I can add updates here, as I've continued looking things up and adding information to my planner since the video was recorded and edited.
A couple disclaimers:
- To begin with, I do not have an overall bias against Llewellyn Publishing. There are many Pagan/Witchy books on my bookshelf that I consider awesome resources, which bear the iconic Waxing Crescent logo. That said, I am aware that many people do not like Llewellyn because they also publish things that are poorly researched and/or rife with misinformation. Unfortunately, the Moon Sign Datebook appears to be one of those things.
- The back cover of the Moon Sign Datebook says that it is a companion to the Moon Sign Book. I have never read completely through a Moon Sign Book, so I don't know if some of the information that is missing from the datebook is in the Book itself. For the purposes of this review and my work with it this year, I am treating the Moon Sign Datebook as its own, self-contained item.
Basic features of the planner:
- Page toward the front listing Eclipses, Solstices & Equinoxes, and Mercury Retrograde/Direct dates and times. This page also has a Symbols key so you know which Zodiac symbol stands for which sign, Moon phase symbols, and that V/C stands for Void of Course.
- Tabs at the start of each month making finding that month easier.
- Full monthly calendar view, followed by weekly views with daily spaces for planning.
- Random Moon info and interesting history, etc. interspersed throughout.
- Monthly "At-A-Glance" sections list brief interpretations of the Full and New Moons, as well as more detailed info for gardening by the Moon.
- Printed in Eastern Time. Already adjusted for Daylight Savings Time.
Now, into the specifics of things I noticed...
- The definitions of terms included are incorrect or incomplete. For example, only the popular misunderstanding (the "new definition" that most people know) of a Blue Moon is included, which is expected, but they don't talk about the original definition or the history of how the new definition came to be. I like to have all the available information and make my own decisions as to what has meaning for my practice. This only gives you the popular definition. And the definition of a Void of Course Moon given is incorrect. (Check out the links at the end of this post to learn more!)
- As mentioned above, the datebook is printed in Eastern Time only. If you are in another time zone, you have to adjust all times for your time zone yourself. There is a World Time Zone map and conversion chart to help with this, but it's still extra work to do on your own.
- Doesn't explain what the notations "1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th" on all the days are. I figured out by looking at the phases that they are breaking the Moon cycle into 4 quarters, so every day from the New Moon to First Quarter says "1st", every day from the First Quarter to Full Moon says "2nd", and so on. But it doesn't explain that anywhere. (Not sure if these things are explained in the Moon Sign Book or not. This was just the first thing I noticed that I was confused about and had to figure out myself.)
- Times are included for when the Moon goes Void of Course (Eastern time, UTC -5).
- Times are NOT included for when the Moon enters the next sign (so I'm looking that up and writing it in myself). As a result of this, some of the signs printed on the days are misleading--not WRONG, per se, but since they don't tell you when the Moon changes signs, it can be confusing. For example, one day might say Cancer, but the Moon moved into Leo at 1am that day. So Cancer is printed on that day, even though it's Leo for most of the day. If you're trying to align your magick with a certain Moon Sign, you might need or want to know when the Moon changed signs, and this doesn't tell you that.
- In the Gardening sections in the Month At-A-Glance, it does list the times the Moon entered and left each sign. But that's the only place it does so. I almost didn't notice, because I'm not going to be using it much for gardening. It seems strange that they'd have the info there, but not do it for every time throughout the year. Maybe two different people were in charge of those sections of the datebook. Who knows?
- Most of the Void of Course times are correct so far. At the time of uploading the video and writing this blog post, I've double checked and added times the Moon entered signs for January through May. So far, I've come across one Void of Course time that was wrong (should be 1:59 AM and the datebook says 10:59 PM--I double checked on multiple other websites to be sure), and one V/C time that wasn't printed at all--it got skipped. Seems like the editors weren't looking closely.
- Also since the signs are sometimes notated in a misleading way, it doesn't say what sign each Full and New/Dark Moon is in. Example: If the Moon is in Pisces in the morning, and it says there's a Full Moon that evening, you may think that Full Moon is in Pisces. But if the Moon moved into Aries in the afternoon, that Full Moon is actually a Full Moon in Aries. Maybe not a huge deal for everyone, but if you're trying to align your magick with specific astrological signs, this makes a difference--Pisces energy and Aries energy are not the same. So again, knowing when the Moon entered each sign makes a difference, and those times aren't listed.
- Eclipses are notated in Month At-A-Glance areas, and on the reference page in the front of the planner, but not on the days in the weekly view. Not a huge deal, but if you want to see them all on every day you have to put them there yourself. It says whether it's a Full Moon on the days, of course, but it doesn't say that that Full Moon is also an Eclipse, for example.
- Solstices and Equinoxes are noted in the reference page at the front of the datebook, and in the daily/weekly view. Times for them are not noted anywhere. Maybe because they're Solar events, not Lunar? *shrugs* The Eclipse times and astrological degrees are listed, but Solstice/Equinox times are not. Just thought that was interesting.
- Major Moon Phases (Full, New/Dark, First Quarter, Third/Last Quarter) which are specifically noted in the weekly view on the appropriate day, are not marked in the monthly view at all. Most wall calendars you can get at the store include symbols for these major phases, so I was really surprised that this datebook doesn't put them in the monthly views at all. In fact, nothing is on the monthly views. You have to add the major Moon phases, solstices & equinoxes, etc. yourself.
- Another thing I expected to find in something with "Moon Sign" in the title was for it to tell you what it means when the Moon is in each sign of the Zodiac. The Full/New Moon snippets in the At-A-Glance sections are probably created with the sign in mind, but it doesn't correctly list them all in the weekly view (as I already mentioned) and it doesn't tell you what they mean so that you can come up with your own meanings, or apply it to your work for that Moon. To be fair, the back cover lists some major features of the datebook, and it never claims to tell you what the signs mean. That's just something I expected based on the item's title.
Overall First Impression:
As of right now, I don't recommend this item. I specifically don't recommend it to anyone outside the Eastern US time zone (UTC -5), because you have to redo all the times yourself anyway, and I'm already having to look up and add in all the other things that the datebook doesn't include even for Eastern time. You'd be better off buying whatever planner you want--even a blank, inexpensive one--and adding it all in yourself, since you have to redo everything regardless. I also don't recommend this to beginners. The introduction in the datebook says that they've always intended these books to be suitable for beginners all the way up to experience practitioners, but now that I've had a chance to look at it, see all the things that are left out, the incorrect definitions, and so on, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who wants to use it to begin learning about Moon Magick or how it relates to the Zodiac signs. At the end of this post (and in the description of the video) you'll find links to resources where you can learn more, find Void of Course times and times the Moon enters each sign for multiple time zones, etc.
At the end of the day, this item is a planner, and it can be used as a regular everyday planner. It has monthly and weekly views, tabs for ease of finding months, and space to write it notes and appointments. However, you can find that in any basic planner. You don't necessarily need this one, especially since it's rather misleading more often than not. I will be using this planner all year--with all my corrections, additions, and added charts and tables for the information I feel is necessary--so it will certainly get used, but I wouldn't give it to a student of mine as it stands right now.
Have you used the Moon Sign Book before? What do you think of them?
Links for Further Research:
Blue Moon
Black Moon
Void of Course Times, Tables, & Calendars
https://www.lunarium.co.uk/articles/void-of-course.jsp (Lunarium.com article explaining Void of Course Moon)
https://www.lunarium.co.uk/calendar/universal.jsp (Lunarium calendar--You can adjust for your own time zone and generate a calendar for any month from 1900 to 2020. It uses symbols instead of words, but there's a key at the bottom to tell you what you're looking for.)
https://www.moontracks.com/void_of_course_moon_dates.html (MoonTracks table--You can adjust these for your time zone, but it's only available for the current month and following month, so you'd have to do it every couple months. These also don't adjust for Daylight Savings, just the time zone at Standard Time.)
https://www.astrologybyjudithryan.com/2018-void-of-course-moon (Full tables for Eastern Time for all of 2018. Already adjusted for Daylight Savings, but you have to calculate for other Time Zones yourself.)
https://www.moontracks.com/cgi-bin/astrology-calendar.pl (MoonTracks calendar covers the whole year and lists V/C times, the time the Moon enters each sign, and the times every other planet/the Sun enters a new sign. But... it's in Pacific Standard Time. So you have to adjust. This is the one I've been using mostly, and triple checking with the one above, since it's in my time zone already.)
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If you're interested in learning more about how I work with the Moon in my practice, I'm working on a Moon Phase Magick course to offer this year. My friend gifting me this datebook was, in my book, a message from the Universe to get my butt in gear and get my courses ready! Until then, you can join this Facebook group I created to keep updated on any courses I offer related to the Moon, and I'll be posting articles and other resources there, as well. =)
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Thank you for reading!
Blessings~
-C-
Great review, I loved the links you added, so helpful. Thank you.
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