Align your behavior with your lunar phase, embody your strengths (gifts), beware of your darker, shadow behaviors and work to release them.
8 Phases of the Moon
The Teacher – New Moon
Sweetness. Nurturing. Leadership. Guidance. Charismatic presence. Becoming symbolic to others; making others into symbols. A bringer of gifts to the community.
This is pure potential. You’re going to leave your mark on the world and feel driven to claim your destiny. Because this waxing moon begins in darkness, there is an urge to project your light on the world and nobody can stop you!
You’re forward thinking and a real go-getter! Full of new life and zeal, you are beginning a brand new karmic cycle, and you’re ready to try anything. Go YOU!
Moon 0 °- 45 ° ahead of the Sun
The Extremist – Waxing Crescent Moon
The Moon 45 °-90 ° ahead of the Sun
Drive to accomplish and experience. Hunger. Imbalance. Success – and its costs. Radiant, infectious hope in the face of darkness. Pluck.
You feel the need for security, cling to the past, have drive to accomplish and experience, hunger, imbalance, success – and its costs, radiate infectious hope in the face of darkness, pluck.
Soul’s Lesson for Waxing Crescent Lunar Phase
I am here to learn independence. I am forging a new identity where I let go of habitual behaviors, subconscious programming, and outdated limiting beliefs. As I develop the courage to be myself, my soul will shine!
The Crusader – First Quarter Moon
The Moon 90 °-135 ° ahead of the Sun)
Tension between self and group. Concern with justice. Battles which need to be fought – and battles which do not, but are fought anyway. Group efforts; organizations. Sacrifice for the tribe.
This is a waxing moon where the light is half full. The first quarter moon is an adjustment period often known as a “Crisis in Action”. People born during this phase are quick on their feet, easy to make adjustments and make split second decisions.
You are eager to make changes, tearing down old structures to create new and better ones. The more disruptive the energy is around you, the more comfortable you feel! You are a builder and action taker.
The Helper – Waxing Gibbous Moon
The Moon 135 °-180 ° ahead of the Sun
Service. Identification with group ideals. Sexual energy. Support offered to a person or to a principle. Generosity . Cooperation. Teamwork. Shared creativity; mutual inspiration. Love Learning.
You are a truth-seeker, always delving into the core of the matter, questioning the status quo. You will seek perfection wanting to know as much as you can and become the best at what you do.
The Human Being – Full Moon
The Moon 180 °-225 ° ahead of the Sun
Caregiving. Familial complexities; divorce. Art and creativity made manifest. Nurturing. Outward expression of light and dark. All the karma on the table. Standing naked.
Your emotions will be larger than life! Seeking balance, these souls will always yearn for relationships, which will help them mirror their feelings so they can find inner harmony.
You can be highly impulsive and instinctual. Being an idealist, you can seek religious or spiritual foundations you can relate to. Your feelings are always on display, so you must learn how to find inner balance and believe in yourself.
The Shaman – Waning Gibbous / Disseminating Moon
The Moon 225 °- 270 ° ahead of the Sun, The Moon is Completing a Cycle
Deep inner work. Psychic intervention in other people’s lives and transformations. Offering assistance around death, dying, and crisis. Attunement to “primitive” wisdoms. Death and rebirth. Gratitude. Natural Communicator.
Disseminating. The moon is getting ready to complete it’s cycle. There is a need to disseminate all the lessons cultivated from the previous phases.
People born during the disseminating phase have a deep yearning to share their wisdom with others. A feeling of urgency to fulfill their life’s purpose. You can feel a sense of urgency to fulfill your life’s purpose. You are a natural communicator.
Learn that it is NOT your job for people to receive your message or to change them.
The Pilgrim – Last / Third Quarter Moon
The Moon 270 °-315 ° ahead of the Sun
Searching for home. Sweet sorrow . Romantic tragedy. Solitude . Forgiveness. Karmic debts paid and received. Art as an inner, spiritual search. Service. Theater; Ritual. A poignant sense of the transitoriness of life.
The moon is completing its cycle heading more into darkness. You are in a process of re-orienting who you are and where you belong. These phases are known as “crisis in consciousness”.
You must rely on your inner light to guide you.
Many children born during the last quarter phase can feel isolated, misunderstood, or alone.
You are learning how to rely on your light within. It can be hard for you to relate to others. Yet, as you honor and accept your uniqueness, allow yourself the time and space to process your intuition, and learn to let go of the past, you will find an inner happiness that comes from deep within.
The Mystic Wanderer – Waning / Balsamic Crescent Moon
The Moon 315 °-360 ° ahead of the Sun
Deep psychic sensitivity; possible mental imbalance. Ghosts and spirit visitations. Creative, visionary imagination. Sensitivity to ancestors and to the dead. The veil between the worlds grows thin and transparent.
As the moon retreats into almost total darkness (when the moon is barely a crescent in the sky), there is an urgency to complete unfinished business. If you were born during this phase, you are ending a karmic cycle, learning to let go of the past, so you can begin a whole new manifesting phase.
You have many karmic contracts to complete, so might feel as if many of your relationships feel “fateful”.
You might find it difficult to relate to others, being HIGHLY PSYCHIC and SENSITIVE, as you learn to rely on your inner vision, you will have much wisdom to share with others.
You have a gift of gathering information and making it easy for others to understand. You have much to share in this lifetime. When you learn to affirm yourself instead of seeking it from the outside world, you can become the leader you were born to be.
The darker two weeks of the Moon’s cycle of phases correlates with the inner subjective world, while the brighter two weeks is linked to the realm of manifestation.
We swing out into the realm of light and concrete expression, then we swing back into the realm of darkness, mystery, and interior reflection.
With the Moon in its darker (less than a half-Moon) phases, people tend to be more self-contained, mysterious – and often beguilingly charismatic, as if they “know something.”
With the Moon in its brighter phases – the week before and the week after the Full Moon – there is much emphasis on outward experience, relationship, and collective endeavors. They get things done.
The waxing half of the Moon’s cycle has a natural resonance with the spirit of youth: energy, enthusiasm – and a certain propensity for headstrong idiocy.
The waning half of the Moon’s cycle has a natural resonance with the spirit of the second half of life, from mid-life onward: reflectiveness, more subtle, nuanced judgments – and vulnerability to resignation and despair.
Try as might, I just cannot make a system of twelve phases sing. In the end, I went with Dane Rudhyar’s schema of eight phases, although my take on them varies from his in a few significant areas. Here are the eight phases of the Moon as I understand them, reduced to an evocative image and a few words of explanation. Once again, for a full treatment, please have a look at
Forrest, Steven (2020-10-11). The Book of Water: Healing, Regeneration and Recovery (The Elements Series 4) (Kindle Locations 1034-1058). Kindle Edition.