Magickal Musical Diaries

You’re the main character of your movie of consciousness – and one way I like to play with that is by making my life’s soundtrack, with playlists!

Ever have one of those moments, where the music synced up perfectly with a moment in time?

You were traveling on a road trip. You were having the perfect meal with your friends. It was the best-night-ever and you remember the song that everyone was sitting around, singing aloud.

Every time you listen to it, it takes you right back to that happy place. 🎧

For me? That’s magick.

And one way I love to tap into my past in order to bring up feelings of those moments for future magickal uses? MUSICAL DIARIES. 

I’ve been making musical diaries since 2016 and honestly – my life has tremendously changed since then. But instead of a typical journal with written entries, I’ve got a musical compendium of songs I either just grooved to REAL hard, or that I listened to during significant, emotional times in my life.

It is 2022, and I’ve once again started  my Musical Diary for the year – this year starting off with a BUNCH of songs from Encanto.

Damn, I love me that Lin Manuel Miranda, 2016 started off with a BUNCH of Hamilton.

Want to tap into your own music magick? Start making your own musickal, magickal, playlists!

I use Spotify for the majority my music needs, but you can use your favorite music platform provided you can put your music in list form.

My favorite songs are on Spotify, and the ones that aren’t are just an MP3 splurge away.

Even 6 years later, you’d be surprised at how far and in between that really is. Spotify has like, 99% of the music I listen to, and plenty of new music to discover.😍

What’s even more amazing is Spotify lets you upload your OWN playlist covers. OMG WHAAAAAAT?!

(And honestly, with Canva, I can make the CUTEST covers SO super quick. Not sponsored, I just love what I can quickly make.)

Types of Playlists

I freakin’ love making playlists, because I love the possibilities of what you can do! They are the modern mixtape after all. (And bonus? Casting spells with your playlists. 👀)

Though I’m not as dedicated as this guy. o_O

I love how the mixtape evolved into the mix CD, the iTunes playlist, and now – playlists on streaming services.

For my generation, it was the mix CD. I had so much fun crafting them, and listening to them on repeat (angsty teen, headphones on always.) 🎧

My favorite types of playlists:

1. Diary Playlists -These playlists transport you back to when you made the playlist, just like listening to your old mixtapes or mix CDs.
2. Flow Playlists – These are made with purpose. They can take the listener on a journey through lyrics or through emotions via music. These can be designed around a theme. You DO NOT play these playlists on shuffle.
3. Spell Playlists – Similar to a flow playlist, but the playlist itself is a spell, that you can recast over and over each time you listen. I like to give mine significant titles and tell a story through the lyrics.
4. Compilation playlists -These are just a bunch of songs thrown into one playlist, also around a theme (usually as a background activity with looooots of songs to essentially make your own custom radio.) I use these for “ambiance” for casting other types of spells as well.
5. Oracle playlists – Similar to above, but you play the playlists on shuffle after asking your question, and the answer is either the title, the lyrics, or the “vibe” of the song.
6. World building playlists (for stories) – Storytellers, listen up… I started creating playlists based on my characters, the locations, and factions for a project, and it’s changed my life! These can be compilation based or flow based.

We’ll talk about the other magickal playlists in other blog posts.

Today, we’re all about your soundtrack – a musical diary playlist! 

🎵 The Soundtrack to Your LIFE 🎵

Okay – gonna tangent for a brief second. Today we’re getting ready for your your hero’s journey, because you’ll want music for the ride.

Music drives us, music motivates us, and music can enhance or even change our moods.

Music is so important to me.

When I was in high school, I wanted nothing more than to score music for films.

While I’m a friendly neighborhood witch now, one thing I learned was how valuable music was to the film making process – which is all about putting hero’s journeys on screen.

“The Lost Weekend” is a film about an alcoholic.

The film was purposefully made without music, instead, people laughed at the over-the-top performance of lead Ray Milland. Miklós Rózsa scored music for the film, and suddenly – people understood the tragedy of the movie and the plight of the alcoholic.

And a musical diary is a great way to see where you’ve been, especially if you want to tap into your deep emotional-based magick.

It’ll help you relive your captured moments in time, much like a musical holodeck.

Just like magick, we can use playlists to control our feelings – especially if we’ve got music that corresponds to those moments in our life.

When we’re feeling nostalgic for a certain time in our lives we can use our musical diaries to look back and remember. These are the soundtrack of your life! ️

Here’s how to make your own soundtracks from your past and present.

Soundtrack from the Past

Making your past soundtracks are super easy.

How to make your own:

1. Pull out your old mix tapes and CDs (if you got em!)
2. Listen, & write out a list of all the songs on the mix
3. Create a playlist (give it the same name as the mix tape/cd name.)
4. Annnnnnd…. add your songs to your playlist

Add all your old playlists to a custom playlist folder, and boom.

Instant memories , instant feelings, instant magick, on demand. 

If the song isn’t available on your platform of choice, buy a copy on any of the major places you can buy the song, or rip it from a CD directly and add it to your playlist.

Freakin’ easy, right? Wanna see one of my old playlists? (You know you do. 💃) This mix makes me think of senior year in high school, dancing in my garage to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun for a special show for seniors at my school.

Try this out, see what memories come up for you!

Soundtrack for the Present

I’ve been keeping musical diary playlists since 2016, and it’s 2022, and it’s been REALLY awesome to look back and see my emotional journey through the ears.

This is the first musical diary from 2016 that lets me enjoy some of the musical, emotional, and magickal memories I had. Here’s my 2016 playlist:

How to make your own:

1. Create a new playlist
2. Name it “[Current Year] Musical Diary” (or something similar)
3. Add a song whenever:
   • You listen to a song a BUNCH
   • A song emotionally moves you and touches you deeply to the core – even if you only listened to it just once!
4. That’s it! 😉😁
5. Create a new playlist
6. Name it “[Current Year] Musical Diary” (or something similar)
7. Add a song whenever:
   • You listen to a song a BUNCH
   • A song emotionally moves you and touches you deeply to the core – even if you only listened to it just once!
8. That’s it! 😉😁

If you want to enhance this method, get a Last.fm account and “scrobble*” your music through your platform, that way if you forget to add a song, you can go check out what you previously listened to.

*Scrobble – To “scrobble” a song means that when you listen to it, the name of the song is sent to a Web site (for example, Last.fm) and added to your music profile. 

How to scrobble your music with Last.fm:

1. In Spotify, click “Edit” in the menu bar, from there scroll down and “Preferences”
2.  Scroll down through your preferences and there is an option to connect your Spotify to your Last.FM account.
3. Log in using your Last.FM account

And now all your musical history will be saved! 🙌

Last.fm is a great tool to collect data on your music, especially if you’re a nerd about that stuff… like I am.

It’ll keep track of ALL the songs you listen to throughout the year, and you can go back and check to see which songs you had on repeat and add them chronologically to your 2017 Musical Diary if you’re so inclined.

Wanna tap into your personal magick? Start your musical diaries NOW!

Honestly – time traveling isn’t impossible, it’s very easy! Create your playlist of your musical memories and you’ll relive them each time you listen to a song.

Close your eyes and tap into your deepest emotions when keeping track of your songs via your musical diaries.

And if you want to tap deeper into YOUR personal magick? Keep a musical diary, and see what comes up in your music.