The Making of the 2025 Astrological Planner

We are all born in a void — where we are everything and nothing all at once. It is here that we can gain clarity, create, and alchemize in the quiet — bringing awareness to the unknown. In total darkness, we come to life. No one understands this better than Kerry, the founder of Magic of I. She is the visionary behind the brand, community, and creations, including The Astrological Planner.

The Magic of I. Astrological Planner is more than a tool, it is in its own right a living organism. It is a teacher, a guide. The process in which it comes to life takes time, commitment, and care. There is a lot of intention and teamwork from start to finish in the creation of this product. Kerry spends months developing the concept of the planner and putting in the work to bring the wisdom of the stars into the hands of our global community.

To honor the birthing of this year’s theme, we are sharing a peek into the world of Kerry’s creativity and the unfolding of the 2025 Astrological Planner, with a very special Q&A.

Q1: What was your inspiration behind the 2025 theme of Astro-Mythology? What does it mean to you and why do you feel this theme is relevant to today?

Ever since I was a child I have loved fables, the threads of wisdom and teachings woven through a story that touches on life's big lessons. Sometimes hidden, sometimes obvious, but it’s the thread of innate wisdom I fell in love with. Original, archetypal wisdom.

I’ve been interested in origin stories and myths for a while, The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell being one of many of my favourite books. I’m curious around what makes ideas and concepts come alive or where life becomes animated within a concept. What is that aliveness? Where does it come from?

Who were those beings that looked up at the stars and created whole, complex, intertwined stories that address the infinite subtleties of being human, relating to each other, to different situations, to life? It’s fascinating to ponder upon. Where did this wisdom come from? Was it built upon over time, passed on from great teachers and mystics or was it delivered and downloaded through select individuals as a guide for future generations.

I love the correspondences across cultures, different stories told in different ways but involving and representing known core archetypes that are the cornerstones of consciousness. I believe keeping these alive and being in and part of the story maintains a purity of origin, it grounds us. It also has a sense of play in the imaginary, which I think is important for creativity and evolution in our current time.

The idea of connecting to these roots and offering it as part of this yearly book that engulfs a lot of my life has been swirling for a while, and so it only made sense to come back to the myths and legends behind each sign and weave it into a new theme for the 2025 planner. And it may just be here to stay for a while.

Q2: What is it like creating the planner? What is your creative process?

Each theme is entirely different and ‘shows up’ in different ways. The creative muse is never the same. Sometimes the vision is so clear it is just a step by step process (and a lot of work) to bring it to life, and is always inspired by my own passions and interests, in combination with a higher guidance where I become more of a channel for something to exist.

I spent the better part of a year specifically researching medicinal mushrooms, in addition to my personal knowledge, and compiling my findings for the inclusions of Astro-Mycology (the 2023-2024 planner theme) after studying Astro-Herbalism for a few years (the 2021-2022 planner theme). So these are not generally ‘light’ inclusions or explorations. And when I do something, I tend to go deep, so I have to be passionate about it. The illustrations for each theme take many months because I really love to deep dive conceptually and experiment with matching them to the feeling of what wants to come to life.

Sometimes the vision is not clear at all and completely random. Over the last year or so my creative vision has been coming to life through sound. As weird as that sounds, I have been hearing soundtracks and melodies that portray a particular energy and feeling, and that becomes the original creation point. I just have to keep following the threads and experimenting until what I am seeing comes close to what that feeling is. This does not make the process very easy to work with a team and deadlines, or that relatable and explainable, so it was an interesting challenge creating the 2025 edition and how it came to fruition!

My role was to follow the sound into the abyss and eventually bring back its gifts. I did this through experimenting with making sounds, collecting visual inspiration that matched the feeling, illustrating each sign and creating mini worlds to get lost within. I had also been seeing variations of what the new illustrations would look like for years and wanted to bring those to life, finally. I knew the kind of information that I wanted to include for the new Astro-Mythology theme (expanded upon seasonally next year, stay tuned!) and worked with Nyssa Grazda (and Anthony Perrotta) to bring that all to life. This particular edition was also initiated in a Mercury retrograde, so being a little backwards in how things came to fruition indeed makes a lot of sense!

Each year as I begin the process of actually bringing it to life, before sitting in front of an empty screen that is full of possibility and sometimes incredibly daunting, I pull three cards which magically – very magically – set the tone for each edition. This is a personal process I don't usually share because it is just for me and my journey, but I can't help sharing these three cards because you can't make this up.

Creating the planner in general is a strange mix of very organised and super specific data entry and design, combined with creative dreaming and following obscure muses that sing and dance themselves into existence. It is a wild process that spans realms! Somehow there is order created from chaos, which I do think is one of my gifts having Mercury and Venus in Capricorn on my MC, and being a Neptunian (sun conjunct Neptune in Sag) for the astro nerds out there. A.k.a I can dissolve into the chaos and come back from my adventure with a plan and some sort of structure to share.

The other thing to note is this planner is a HUGE amount of work, taking up most of the year in collecting and entering data, creating three full versions for three time zones, dreaming, concepting, designing and illustrating, and then creating worlds that bring them to life. Then of course marketing and communication, plus all of the added layers that are designed for email and shared on social media astro-seasonally, weekly, daily and more. This project is a great beast and I honestly don't know how I did this alone in the early editions, because now it is truly a team effort.

Q3: What is your personal use of the planner? How do you envision the planner being a part of daily intentional living?

I use the planner as it has been intended to be used. And sometimes not at all. Can you imagine looking at something for most of the year while working on it and then using it every single day? Sometimes I need s-p-a-c-e… BUT I always ALWAYS come back to it.

Having access to something that is solid, that has a structure but that is not too rigid, that has all of the information that I need for my hungry sense-making mind and sensitive energetic self. A physical place where I can write things that are close to my heart, that I can honour the sacredness of the day to day and mundane, and something that is NOT online or digital. This is so important to me to have a physical artefact that can be continuously loved up. It is seriously still so magical and special each time I open it, and it is infused with more and more gratitude for this thing that was brought to life from who knows where. I’m really proud of what I created, and it is a pleasure to use it when I need to, once I have balanced the ‘work’ energy of being the creator.

My general practice at the moment though is to check-in weekly, scan what the week ahead looks like (looking at the moons and major aspects), write out my goals, plans and intentions, add in my cycle days so I know where i’m at cyclically for the week, and go from there. I moon journal and I always set my yearly goals (my wishlist as I call it), and check back in every few months. That is non-negotiable personally, because it really sets a tone for what I want to create, and how I want to live. With a busy business it is especially essential to carve out time for rest and creative projects. And sometimes life just happens, things go sideways, I suck at planning anything, and that is also ok! But I LOVE having a guide that I can always come back to, a wise overview that grounds me, it feels very magical and special and I'm beyond stoked to share it with so many others.

Every individual has their own way of using a planner in general, some weekly plan, some do daily tarot card pulls, some write daily intentions, it's really up to you. But I recommend doing a daily check in for your internal world: look at the moon placement, look at any major transits happening, think about your week and what you want. Like you would do daily movement for your body. And if you are new to astrology, honestly, JUST knowing what the moon is doing, what phase it's in, and what sign it is in each day will change the way you live and view life.

Q4: How do you feel the planner has evolved in the last six years? What’s your vision for the planner in the future?

2025 is the seventh edition which is kind of hard to believe! I feel like the fundamentals of what was originally included from the very beginning will always be a staple. I like change but not in entirety and all of the astrological data included is pretty well rounded for what we can fit in a yearly book, without it getting super messy and overcomplicated. There is always a balance of usability, practicality and beauty. We get requests for other inclusions and layouts, as you can imagine – because everyone has their own preferences and visions, but as the creator I am mostly satisfied with how things are for the moment, and they will likely stay that way until I am not! There will ALWAYS be upgrades and inclusions as they present themselves, I can’t help it. As an artist I have to be happy with what I create, and as a user of the planner I find it super useful as it is, of course taking into consideration all suggestions, but also deeply honouring what wants to be alive.

As for the theme, if you are a long time user of the planner you will know there has been a change of theme every two years as life ebbs and flows and different interests and messages are explored or received. It has been satisfying and a lot of fun to explore some niches and share some really potent information and guidance as the years unfolded. The new theme: Astro-Mythology might be here to stay for a while because it is such a big body of wisdom and knowledge and just, well, goes with living astro-seasonally while deepening our relationship to the OG origins to keep the myths and stories alive and pure. Modern astrology tends to go through its own cycles and currently there is a lot of surface level stuff out there. I want to keep nourishing this space from the roots. It just makes sense right now as we go through waves of change.

I’m not one for making empty promises, and I do listen to the creative muse, so this theme could be here for a few years (two minimum), or not. Who knows! I also have other projects I want to bring to life which require the space to do so. I have dedicated my life to this project for the past seven years, and it’s only going to get better from here. New ‘how to guides’ for first time users are a big request that are on the list! And there are many other visions that I have for the planner’s evolution that I will hold close until it is time to reveal them.

Physically we have improved on quality and materials year on year with quite a journey through manufacturing (pre and post c-vid are very different worlds), including making our own paper because we couldn't find the right one with the right credentials we felt good about using. You can read more about that here if you are interested. There are always things we want to amend and adjust for better results forever-more because we are perfectionists. And there is always something that is happening behind the scenes in the process of bringing printed books to life; problems to solve, materials, logistics, stock levels – not to mention our other products too, it takes a whole team!

Q5: What does Magic of I. mean to you?

Magic of I. is part of me, it represents a deep listening to what really wants to be alive and trusting that with every cell of my being.

It is also not, it is something of its own existing in a space that evolves and grows in its own way.

It contains all of you, and all of the people that focus diligently on bringing it to the world, each person being a thread and in connection to a web of creating and living our lives seasonally, the way we desire and as part of nature.

It’s far more than a business or a brand, which sound like such strange words when I zoom out and reflect on what this container/concept really is. And when explaining to a stranger I’ve just met that I make ‘magical books and journals’... because it is SO much more than that, it's sometimes impossible to put into words.

It’s my everything and it’s nothing. Both at once. I take it very seriously and I also can't take it too seriously, because life requires balance and a sense of humour.

At the end of the day, it's all made up. It’s a creative expression. What’s yours?