Moon Phases
Every month, the sky tells the same story. A thin crescent appears after sunset, grows night by night into a full, bright disc, then wanes back to darkness. Long before clocks and calendars, people timed their lives by it. Astrology still does: the lunar cycle is the most visible rhythm in the sky.
- New Moon0-45°Seed: beginning, instinct
- Crescent45-90°Effort: breaking ground
- First Quarter90-135°Action: crisis and decision
- Gibbous135-180°Refining: perfecting the plan
- Full Moon180-225°Fulfilment: seeing clearly
- Disseminating225-270°Sharing: passing it on
- Last Quarter270-315°Reorienting: letting go
- Balsamic315-360°Release: rest and renewal
The angle is the distance from the Sun to the Moon, measured in the direction of the zodiac. The discs show the Moon as seen from the northern hemisphere.
Where the phases come from
The Moon's phases are about its angle to the Sun. At the new Moon the Moon sits with the Sun, its lit side facing away from us. As it moves away from the Sun it shows more and more of its lit side, until at the full Moon it stands opposite the Sun, fully lit. Then it moves back toward the Sun and wanes. The whole cycle takes about 29 and a half days.
Every full Moon is a Sun-Moon opposition; every new Moon a Sun-Moon conjunction.
Two months in one
Here is a detail most people never meet. The Moon goes round the zodiac in about 27 and a third days, but from new Moon to new Moon takes about 29 and a half. The extra two days are needed because, while the Moon has been circling, the Sun has moved on too, and the Moon has to catch up with it. Astrologers use both: the shorter one for the Moon's return to its own place, the longer one for the phases.
What is moving in your chart now?
Start with your birth chart: every transit and return is read against it.
