Review: A Mystic’s Guide to 2023 by Nicole Marie

Offering an in-depth section for personal reflection and goal-setting, as well as a nontraditional day-to-day calendar for emotional management, journaling, and mood tracking, Nicole Marie’s A Mystic’s Guide to 2023 is a well-organized and sensitively executed guide.

Unlike so many other day planners or yearly journals, this book kicks off with a wealth of resources to apply in the year ahead, from “Wheel of Life” tools and large-scale goal listings to an “Ideal Life” essay and a belief examination table. Each page in the ensuing guide is one day, as expected, with empty spaces for accomplishments, thoughts, manifestations, mantras, and daily scheduling. There are also small charts to track your mindfulness and “me time.”

Each of the book’s tools could be revelatory about one’s habits and broader emotional patterns, provided this book is diligently used. While the title may suggest that the planner is centered on astrology, magical beliefs, and moon-based rituals, many of the tools, techniques, and pieces of advice could also be found in psychiatric guides, coursework for therapists, and foundational exercises for life coaches, for a unique and emotionally comprehensive tool.

Granted, there are plenty of elements that lean into the more mystical side of this book, such as the detailed chakra assessments and natal chart preceding the actual daily calendar section, but the text is far from preachy, and feels incredibly flexible. There is nothing inherently mystical about outlining one’s desires for physical and mental well-being for the year ahead, or considering your role in the communities and circles you operate in; even the most “pseudoscientific” elements offer interesting questions and areas of consideration for all who use this guide, regardless of the reader’s broader belief system.

One of the most important things about a daily planner is the aesthetic appeal, since it is something a reader will likely be looking at and engaging with for twelve months on a regular basis. Marie has chosen an efficient design for each daily page, and an easy-to-understand format for many of the tools and activities she presents. The amount of information included in the monthly calendar is phenomenal, including everything from lunar ingresses and eclipses to retrograde trackers and tools for building your own moon rituals.

There are some weaknesses – the font feels slightly too organic at times, particularly on the weekly and monthly pages, or anywhere the font is particularly small. Additionally, since there is so little narrative or explanatory text, the introduction is perhaps the best insight into the author’s personality and history – it could be improved and edited, and perhaps lengthened, to give readers more confidence in her authority. With that said, Marie’s authority comes through given the guide’s intuitive design and comprehensive overview of the year on both a micro and macro level.

Aside from a few minor issues, there are very few critiques to be found in this original guide. The book sets out to accomplish a worthy goal and does so admirably, with the real promise of positive results for those who dutifully follow the guide’s advice, which is both mystical and engagingly pragmatic.