Welcome to The Moonlit Journal.

I think every archive needs somewhere to leave the things that don't quite fit neatly on a shelf.

Moonlit Archives began as a place for old stories, folklore, forgotten traditions, herbal lore and all of those little pieces of history that make me stop and think, wait... why have I never heard about this before? There is something about finding an old belief or a strange little piece of folklore and following it down a rabbit hole that I have always loved, and before long I had started collecting far more of these curiosities than I knew what to do with.

The Archives became a place to put them.

But the more I worked on Moonlit Archives, the more I realised that there was another part of it that I wanted to make room for too. Not just the things I have researched and discovered, but the things I am thinking about along the way.

And so, The Moonlit Journal was born.

This is the slightly less organised corner of the Archives. The place where the books might be left open on the desk, there might be a half-finished cup of tea sitting beside the candle, and I've probably wandered off down another rabbit hole before remembering what I was supposed to be writing about in the first place.

The Journal is where I want to talk about the things that catch my attention and stay there for a while. Sometimes that might be something seasonal, like the feeling of autumn arriving before the calendar says it has. Sometimes it might be the moon, astrology, something I've been reading, a strange piece of folklore I've stumbled across, or simply a thought that has been circling around in my head for days and refusing to leave.

There might be a little bit of magic in here, too, although I'm still trying to work out exactly what I mean when I use that word.

Sometimes I'll probably have something quite specific I want to say, and other times I suspect I'll start writing about one thing and somehow end up somewhere completely different. That happens quite a lot in my head anyway, so it seems only fair that the Journal should reflect that.

I don't want this to be a place where I pretend to have all the answers. There are already plenty of places on the internet willing to tell us exactly what everything means, what we should believe, what we should manifest and which five crystals will apparently solve our problems by Thursday.

I'm much more interested in the questions.

Why did people believe this? Where did that story come from? Why have we always looked to the moon? Why do certain places, plants and seasons seem to carry so much meaning? Why do some old traditions survive for hundreds of years while others disappear almost completely?

And sometimes, I don't think there even needs to be a question. Sometimes I might simply want to write about how a particular evening feels, something I've noticed in the garden, a book I can't stop thinking about, or why the first properly chilly evening of the year makes me want to put the kettle on and hibernate under a blanket for approximately six months.

The Archives will hold the stories I discover along the way. The Journal is where I get to sit with them for a while.

Perhaps that's the simplest way to describe the difference.

The Archives are the things I find.

The Journal is what I think about them.

And maybe, every now and then, what you think about them too.

So if you've found your way here, pull up a chair. You don't need to know anything about folklore or witchcraft or astrology, and you certainly don't need to have all the right words for what you believe. You can simply be curious. I think that's probably the best place to start.

I'll be here with a cup of tea, far too many open books and an ever-growing list of things I want to know more about.

The shelves are still full, the candles are still lit, and there are plenty more stories waiting to be found.

Welcome to The Moonlit Journal.

I'm glad you're here.