Dreamcasting for the New Year

journal prompts to close out 2024 and make space for 2025

I love the New Year. Any excuse for ritual is one that I will take, and a ritual that encourages large, sweeping reflection and new, bursting excitement is especially appealing to me. I love the New Year even more than my birthday, which trails sixteen days after and is usually overshadowed by the preparations that preceded it.

I moved to Los Angeles at nineteen and learned about the concept of manifesting soon after. At first, it sounded ridiculous. After all, I was a child of divorce and a psychotic parent and bankruptcy who spent her days wishing that things would happen (or not happen) and then the things didn’t happen (or did). I prided myself on a strong constitution — one that did not waver depending on whether or not reality matched up to what I had hoped. But when I moved to Los Angeles as a college dropout with no money, no savings, and a laundry shed to call home, I figured that a little delusional dreaming wouldn’t hurt me.

A few days after my 21st birthday, I wrote down a list of highly specific manifestations and taped them to my refrigerator. I wrote down the amount of money I wanted to make, the kind of career success I wanted to achieve, and the feelings I wanted to cultivate. I dreamed as big as I could. I got ridiculous.

I found the list in my “important documents” drawer (amidst tax paperwork, love letters, and polaroids) the other day. I looked it over. Not everything had come true in that first year, but by this time, the checklist of my 21-year-old dreams looked exactly like my 23-year-old life.

I have an urge here to justify and backtrack and speak about why the ideas behind manifestation are imperfect, even potentially harmful. I understand why many bristle at the thought of believing in this. But if you don’t believe in it, then manifesting is just writing things on a page. At the very worst, you may come away with a useless scrap of paper that chronicles your most humiliating dreams and desires. At the very best, you create the confidence you need to pursue those humiliating dreams and desires.

Towards the end of each year, I like to reflect on what has passed and look forward to what is to come. This has made me no better at predicting the future, but it has made me more amenable to embracing it. There is no moral imperative to snuffing out your dreams or making your life small. I believe that words are spells, and I choose mine very carefully as I complete this ritual.

My end-of-year journal changes as I do, but I thought I’d give you my prompts for this year in case you’re wanting to do some reflection and projection of your own. Additionally, I’ve written out my process for yearly manifesting in case you want to cast some spells of your own.